Beatles News
Paul McCartney is concerned Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could steal from artists if the U.K. government approves changes to its copyright law. A new proposal would permit A.I. developers to use creators’ content on the internet to assist in developing A.I. models unless the holder of the rights “opts out.” For instance, an A.I. developer could not use a songwriter’s song if the songwriter notifies the A.I. service providers that they do not give permission for A.I. companies to use the songwriter’s music.
As some opponents of the proposed bill have claimed, the “opt out” provision is not reasonable since it is not possible for a rights holder to notify thousands of A.I. companies to inform them that they do not give permission to use their creative content.
Another question that arises is, how would individual creators monitor all the A.I. service providers to see if their creative content is being used by A.I. companies without their permission?
Source: musicconnection.com/Glenn Litwak
Paul McCartney recently reissued his band Wings’ album Venus and Mars for its 50th anniversary, and he’s giving fans a way to enjoy the music together.
The rocker just announced a new global Venus and Mars listening party Friday at 1 p.m. ET. Those taking part are asked to share their favorite Venus and Mars songs, lyrics and memories.
Meanwhile, in a Q&A on his website, McCartney answered some questions about what it was like touring with Wings after the release of Venus and Mars, which saw the band going from clubs to stadiums.
“After The Beatles, we had this tiny little band that didn’t have any hits and didn’t even know each other, except for me and (wife) Linda (McCartney) obviously. And Denny Laine, who I knew a little,” McCartney shares. “We were almost an amateur outfit, but we knew we would work at it and we did. We built it brick-by-brick.”
“In 1976 we did the big American tour and it was like, ‘Wow, this is it!’ That was the payoff, after all that work,” he explains. “This crazy idea of just getting a few friends together and doing little clubs and building it and learning how to be a group – it worked.”
Finally he notes, “It was the justification of the way we’d done it, with the world’s craziest idea – that after you’ve been a Beatle, you go down to little clubs or places you don’t even have bookings, like on the university tour. It was very daring.”
Source: wxhc.com/Jill Lances
Eric Clapton thought he'd help out George Harrison by promoting a Beatles album. Harrison was not happy with his friend's actions.
George Harrison and Eric Clapton had a friendship that survived some unbearably rocky periods. Clapton, for example, actively pursued Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, while they were still married. Before this, though, he infuriated Harrison with what he thought was helpful behavior. Here’s why his way of promoting a Beatles album didn’t go over well with the band.
In 1968, Clapton recorded a guitar solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” a song Harrison wrote. Because of this, Harrison gave him an advance copy of The White Album. He took it upon himself to do a bit of promotion for the album.
“When I left the following month to go to America on Cream’s farewell tour, I took these [acetates] with me,” he wrote in Clapton: The Autobiography. “While I was in LA, I had been playing some of the songs on the album to various friends when I got a phone call from George.”
Source: cheatsheet.com/Emma McKee
The piano was the last instrument John Lennon is known to have played before his death in 1980. The last piano ever used by John Lennon before he died is set to be played for the first time in 30 years. The New England Piano Company upright has been at the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool since 2015.
The former Beatle used it at the Record Plant studios in New York for his last album, Double Fantasy, released shortly before his death in 1980. Brad Kella, winner of Channel 4's The Piano, will be at the museum to play his own arrangement of the famous Lennon hit Imagine later.
Kella, 24, told the BBC he had been a Beatles fan since childhood, growing up in the Merseyside town of Bootle and later Fazakerley in north Liverpool. He said: "It's just something that's embedded into anyone that's in the city. It's just an honour to be able to say I've touched the same instrument.
"I think it's the last instrument he touched before he died, as well, so it's just an honour to be able to follow in those footsteps." Brad Kella, in a grey hoodie and baseball cap, plays the piano.
Source: bbc.com/Marc Waddington
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met and fell for each other in the summer of 1957. John was 16, Paul 14. Paul came to see John play with his skiffle group, the Quarry Men, at a village fete. Introduced afterwards, they almost immediately formed a connection that went beyond the bounds of normal male friendship.
Lennon and McCartney were not sexual partners, as far as we know. But in every other sense, their relationship was a romance: intoxicating, tender and bittersweet. Passionate male friendships like this are rare, but not unique, and a remarkable number of them have changed the world, transforming our ideas about music, art, poetry and human nature. John and Paul were, without knowing it, part of an extraordinary lineage.
After impressing John with his guitar-playing and his ability to remember all the words to a song, Paul accepted John’s invitation to join the Quarry Men. The pair began sharing the front of the stage; this was no longer just John’s group. They were fascinated by each other. Paul admired John’s coruscating wit and teddy boy swagger. John admired Paul’s musical abilities and pop star good looks. They made each other laugh more than anyone else they knew.
They made for an odd couple: John spiky, full of bravado, prone to anger; Paul more temperate and socially subtle. But each thought the other the most brilliant person they knew and they shared a fierce ambition. On weekday afternoons, they would bunk off from school (for Paul) and college (for John) and go to one of their houses to play songs.
Source: theguardian.com/Ian Leslie
Yoko Ono’s family have shared how the artist is spending her final days after the death of her husband John Lennon. Now aged 92, Yoko’s family says she is “in a happy place”, and is “listening to the wind and watching the sky” after losing Beatles star John in 1980 when he was only 40 years old.
Yoko – best known for her activism and for helping Lennon write his hit song Imagine – has been profiled in a new book releasing this week, which paints her as a reclusive figure in her early nineties. She lives alone in upstate New York on a farm, but is thankfully visited by her son Sean and daughter Kyoko. Kyoko wrote of her mother: “She believed she could change the world, and she did… now she is able to be quiet – listen to the wind and watch the sky.” She added: “She is very happy, in a happy place. This is well deserved and genuine peacefulness.”
Source: express.co.uk/Jess Phillips
Few hits are captured in one take. Perfection isn’t often happenstance, it’s more often the product of painstaking work in the studio. But, if you’re a really great musician, you might just be able to nail it early on in the process. One of John Lennon’s hits, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, was perfected quickly. Learn more about the song Lennon cut in one or two takes, below.
The John Lennon Hit That Was Cut in One Take
Whatever gets you thru the night
It’s all right, it’s all right
It’s your money or your life
It’s all right, it’s all right
Don’t need a sword to cut thru flowers
Oh no, oh no
One of Lennon’s final hits was his collaboration with Elton John, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” Though the final product is relatively polished, it didn’t require many takes to get it there. According to Lennon, the final recording features one of their first takes.
While we might chalk up the quick recording process as evidence of Lennon’s time-honed talent, he more-so admired the energy his backing band was able to get on the first few plays. He didn’t want it to become stale, so he decided to quit while they were ahead.
“It’s almost the first or second take, and the musicians are ragged but swinging,” Lennon once said. “We tried to cut it a few times again but it never got that feel…We put that on and it was over and done within five minutes.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
Beatles enthusiasts have crowned legendary songwriter Paul McCartney the greatest member of the iconic quartet, attributing the decision to one specific song.
The track, penned by McCartney and a staple in his setlists, has been hailed as one of The Beatles' finest creations. Fans remain captivated by the masterpiece, and a recently shared recording session clip has left many astonished.
The segment, extracted from Peter Jackson's docuseries Get Back, captures the astonishing moment McCartney begins to assemble the legendary tune. John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are seen watching on as McCartney brings the piece to life. A social media user pointed out that the other members' reactions during the session serve as proof of McCartney's unparalleled status within the band.
A viral post by @historyrock_ features McCartney strumming Let it Be for his peers, leaving onlookers convinced that his brilliance surpasses that of his fellow Beatles.
One comment reads: "It was Paul's group. The others were the best support musicians he ever had."
A second fan added: "Beautiful song! Love the expressions of Harrison, Lennon and Star. Can you imagine being in a group with all that immense talent and one says oh, listen to this I just thought of, and it's all magical."
Source: express.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
The Ramones were one of the defining bands of the punk rock era - and they took their name from one of The Beatles, who was forced to use a pseudonym to check into hotels
In the swinging sixties, The Beatles were the heartthrobs of Great Britain, causing a frenzy wherever they went.
To dodge their adoring fans, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had to resort to pseudonyms while lodging at hotels. It was one such alias that inadvertently gave rise to a legendary punk rock group—the Ramones. The Ramones, in homage to Paul, all took on the last name Ramone. Drummer Marky Ramone reminisced about the origin of their iconic band name during an interview. He credited the idea to the band's bassist, Dee Dee Ramone, who was inspired by The Beatles' early days when they were known as The Silver Beatles and chased by legions of fans.
Marky recounted, "So the next thing you know, Paul McCartney would sign into a hotel room as Paul Ramon."
Source: themirror.com/Callum Crumlish
Recording for some of the songs featured on Abbey Road took “a hell of a lot of time” according to The Beatles‘ George Harrison.
The so-called “quiet one” wrote of each track in a newspaper column ahead of Abbey Road’s release, and says one song written by Paul McCartney took the group longer than any other. Harrison, alongside Ringo Starr, assessed each song from the album and Harrison confirmed Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, the “fun but sick” song about a hammer-wielding murderer, was the toughest part of recording the album. A snippet of the paper was shared to the r/Beatles subreddit, where the music column from Harrison was shown.
It seems Harrison predicted the split opinion of the song too, with fans still on the fence about its inclusion on Abbey Road. In the Rolling Stone Magazine column, he writes: “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is just something of Paul’s. We spent a hell of a lot of time recording this one.
“It’s one of those instant, whistle-along tunes which some people will hate and others will love. It’s like Honey Pie, a fun sort of thing, but probably sick as well because the guy keeps killing everybody. We used my Moog Synthesizer on this track, and I think it came out effectively.”
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
