Beatles News
One To One – the new film about John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s radical 1971-73 – is full of fear, intimacy and great music. “I was completely floored,” says Sean Lennon.
It’s 1972 and John Lennon is talking to drummer Jim Keltner on the phone, about a tour he’s planning that will end in Miami Beach to coincide with a protest at August’s Republican National Convention. The ex-Beatle’s ongoing challenge to President Nixon and the US political establishment has him buzzing, but Keltner sounds a note of concern. Does Lennon realise he’s playing with fire? Has he considered the risks?
Lifted from a recently discovered box of tapes, the audio is one of the stars of One To One: John & Yoko, Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards’ vivid and visceral new film about Lennon and Yoko Ono’s period of controversial activism, 1971-73. The pair’s recorded phone conversations with Keltner, Allen Klein, MC5 manager John Sinclair and more provide some of the film’s most surprising insights. One viewer was particularly struck.
Source: mojo4music.com/Danny Eccleston
The Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr was inspired to write one of his most famous tracks, Octopus's Garden, after briefly leaving the band.
The 84-year-old rock star left the Fab Four during the recording of The White Album, after he got the sense that his bandmates, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison were getting along better without him.
Speaking on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, Starr confirmed he wrote one of his best-known songs during his break.
He said: "It came because on the White Album, I left the band. And I left the band because I didn’t think I was really part of it or playing great and I went and knocked on John [Lennon]’s door and said ‘I feel you three are so close, and I’m out of it,’ and he said ‘I thought it was you three.’
“And then I went to Paul [McCartney]’s and I said ‘I gotta tell you I feel like I’m not part of the band and I’m not playing good and you three are really close’ and he replied ‘I thought it was you three’.
Source: themirror.com/Hannah Furnell
This February 23, George Harrison would’ve turned 82. But, as is often the case, the universe had a different plan in mind, and – instead – the former Beatle left us at age 58 way back in 2001.
But despite his early exit, Harrison left behind a staggering amount of “stuff to listen to,” much of which is – inarguably at this point – historically important, if not the fodder of legend. In this feature, we’ve attempted to pinpoint – album by album – his greatest songs, solos, guest appearances and production credits.
We’ve started the timeline at 1963, excluding anything “unofficial” (sorry, Star Club, BBC and Decca!) but including his most impactful cameos. No, it’s not complete (not gonna happen!), but all the biggies (and a few smallies) are here. Dig in!
Enter, Beatlemania....
The Beatles – Please Please Me (1963)
Source: guitarworld.com/Damian Fanelli, Neville Marten, Bill DeMain, Ian Fortnam
People like to debate about the identity of the fifth Beatle, but there’s really only one answer that makes sense. George Martin was the guy in the room with the four members of the group for the vast majority of their recordings, and his input into their music was often essential to its overall effect.
We could have made this list much longer if we chose. But here are five instances where George Martin’s expertise and taste as a producer made a massive difference in The Beatles‘ catalog.
“Please Please Me” from Please Please Me (1963)
When The Beatles signed with the Parlophone branch of EMI, Martin, who served as the in-house producer for the label, wasn’t quite sure what he’d been handed. They came in with what he felt was an inferior drummer (which led to the hiring of Ringo Starr to replace Pete Best), and he didn’t think their original songs were all that great. In fact, he forced them to raise their game by refusing to allow them to record “Please Please Me” in its original, Roy Orbison-influenced arrangement. The Beatles listened to his advice, sped up the tempo, and came away with their first No. 1 single in the UK.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
Have we underestimated Yoko Ono all along? (And did she keep the Beatles together?) Nonfiction: David Sheff’s “Yoko” dives into the musician/artist/activist’s work and life.
In September 1966, John Lennon, who had just finished what would be the Beatles’ last world tour, visited an exhibition, “Unfinished Paintings and Objects.” Featuring the work of Japanese-born American artist Yoko Ono, it was scheduled to open in London the next day.
Spying a stand with a note saying “Apple,” Lennon took a bite. When he realized he had wrecked Ono’s sculpture and hoping to atone, Lennon asked if he could participate in “Painting to Hammer a Nail (No.9).”
“It’s so symbolic, you see — the virginal board,” Yoko explained, before agreeing to let him bang it for five shillings. “Well, I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings and hammer an imaginary nail in,” Lennon replied. “And that’s when we really met,” he subsequently said. “That’s when we locked eyes and she got it and I got it.”
In “Yoko,” David Sheff — author, among other books, of “Beautiful Boy,” which borrows its title from a Lennon song and is about Sheff’s son’s struggle with addiction — examines the life and work of a multifaceted woman. Her name is recognized around the world, but little is known about her life, outside of her connection to Lennon.
Sheff interviewed the couple for an article in Playboy in 1980, shortly before Lennon was murdered, and remained friends with Ono. Taking full advantage of his access to her, his biography manages to be celebratory without losing sight of her idiosyncrasies, flaws and failures.
Sheff quotes extensively from scathing reviews of Ono’s singing and her avant-garde art installations. He explains how her reliance on tarot cards, psychics and astrologers, along with bouts of loneliness, depression and fear, made her ripe for exploitation.
Source: startribune.com/Glenn C. Altschuler
Although Beatle Mania may be a thing of the past for Paul McCartney, he clearly still enjoys a spot of beach mania.
Sir Paul, 82, enjoyed a day in the surf with his wife, Nancy Shevell, 65, in the Caribbean.
Wearing a cream hat, sunglasses and a fruit-patterned swimsuit, Ms Shevell could hardly contain her smiles as she was carried by her husband in the sea off St Barts.
Macca, protecting himself from the sun in a dark, long-sleeved top, was in good spirits, too, as he took a break from a busy start of the year.
Although he's in his eighties, the former Beatle is still performing, selling out two shows in minutes in New York last month.
The audience at one of the gigs at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan, which only has a capacity of 575, included stars such as Tom Hanks, 68, Anne Hathaway, 42, Cara Delevingne, 32, and Woody Harrelson, 63.
Sir Paul McCartney, 82, enjoyed a day in the surf with his wife, Nancy Shevell, 65, in the Caribbean
Wearing a cream hat, sunglasses and a fruit-patterned swimsuit, Ms Shevell could hardly contain her smiles as she was carried by her husband in the sea off St Barts. The concert was a follow-up to a surprise 90-minute show the day before, which he only announced on the day.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
One of the favourite songs of The Beatles‘ Paul McCartney was written by fellow Fab Four member George Harrison.
McCartney, 82, confirmed Here Comes the Sun from Abbey Road was one of his all-time favourite recordings from Harrison. The Wings frontman also confirmed Brainwashed, Harrison’s posthumous release, which dropped in 2002, was among his favourite albums. In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) to promote his 2020 album, McCartney II, McCartney confirmed Here Comes the Sun was one of his favourite songs from Harrison. He wrote: “It is a brilliant song and the kind of song that’s really good in times like these.”
The “times like these” McCartney refers to in his comment is the lockdown the United Kingdom, and other countries across the world, experienced due to the Coronavirus pandemic. A previous compilation release from McCartney saw the legendary songwriter name a Brainwashed track as another favourite from Harrison’s discography.
The album Paul McCartney’s Glastonbury Groove compiled some of McCartney’s favourite songs. Compiled by McCartney himself, the album featured classics like God Only Knows by The Beach Boys, Cheek to Cheek by Fred Astaire, and George Harrison’s Marwa Blues.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
The Beatles’ best of the best:
1. “Twist and Shout” (1963): This represented the Beatles before they had become so musically condescending. John Lennon’s vocals were simply magnificent. I once read “the way (Lennon’s, Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s) harmonies came together at the song’s climax … was perhaps the most iconic moment of their career”. It’s hard to argue that. (Also, remember this song from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?”)
2. “Yesterday” (1965): In 1997, this masterpiece was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. There are more than 2,200 cover versions out there.
3. “Day Tripper” (1965): Lennon described “Day Tripper” as a “drug song” in 1970,[and in a 2004 interview McCartney said it was “about (LSD)”.
4. “Revolution” (1968): The song opens with arguably the best guitar riff of the modern pop era via Lennon, followed by the famed scream from McCartney.
5. “The Long And Winding Road” (1970): The quintessential soft rock ballad?
6. “In My Life” (1965): Rolling Stone magazine ranked this No. 21 among its 500 greatest songs of all time in 2021.
7. “Something” (1969): Critics have long said this particular song, coupled with his work on “Here Comes The Sun,” vaulted George Harrison to the same level of songwriter as band mates Lennon and McCartney.
8. “Lady Madonna” (1968): Surprisingly, it’s McCartney’s keyboard work — not his guitar abilities — that punctuate this song.
9. “Back in the U.S.S.R.” (1968): For the past 57 years, every time I hear the line “Come and keep your comrade warm” I have to smile.
10. “Hello, Goodbye” (1967): “You say yes, I say no … “
Source: Muddy Rivers News
John Lennon described what Bowie did in his glam rock days as “just rock ’n’ roll with lipstick on”. I was in the lipstick camp. But if Ziggy was from Mars (magical realism with a dash of science fiction) and the Beatles were from Liverpool (trippy social realism) then of the Fab Four, my heart-throb was Ringo. Screeeeam! His wit, deadpan expression and how unbothered he always seemed at the height of the Beatles’ fame made him all the more alluring. When I discovered he joined the band after a summer job drumming at Butlin’s, I loved him even more.
As it happens, George Harrison might be my favourite songwriter out of these four blazing talents – “Something” is a truly uncanny love song. It’s hard to convey a mood that is onside with ambivalence and certainty at the same time. And when I cook spaghetti to “My Sweet Lord”, I appreciate its yearning to see and know something unknowable. Harrison was a Hare Krishna devotee. An older friend once told me that in the Sixties, after chowing down lots of psychedelic drugs, there was a split between those who delivered themselves to spirituality and those who dragged themselves to psychoanalysis.
But Ringo and George are not the subjects of Ian Leslie’s empathetic and enjoyable literary equivalent of a biopic, or perhaps psycho-pic, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs. Leslie has devoted his considerable writing talent to focus on Lennon and McCartney. As the blurb tells us in somewhat overfamiliar language:
Source: newstatesman.com/Deborah Levy
The Beatles had their first number one in America when I Want to Hold Your Hand topped the Cashbox chart in 1964 and they were then sent into a studio to record a German version
The Beatles skyrocketed to international fame in 1964, but that didn't mean they were always happy to get in the studio and record.
During a 19-date residency in Paris, the band's manager Brian Epstein broke the news to them that I Want to Hold Your Hand had rocketed to number one on the US' Cashbox charts — their very first American chart-topper.
By February 1, the track clinched the top spot on America's main chart, the Billboard Hot 100, holding the title for an impressive seven weeks. Convinced of their global potential, Epstein marked that moment as the beginning of their push into international markets.
Given their early stardom in Hamburg, Odeon Records in Berlin persuaded Epstein and producer George Martin that recording German versions of their hits like She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand could enhance sales in West Germany.
The Beatles then found themselves in Paris' PatheĢ Marconi studio. However,......
Source: themirror.com/Dan Haygarth
