Beatles News
George Harrison, The Beatles' legendary guitarist and songwriter of Here Comes the Sun and Taxman, had been opposed to playing in the group's final performance at Abbey Road studios
The Beatles' George Harrison had no interest in playing the group's final performance in 1969. Harrison, the often overlooked songwriter behind Here Comes the Sun, Something, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, voiced his concerns about a rooftop performance at the Abbey Road studio just a short while before the Fab Four headed upstairs for what would be their final performance together. Harrison's opposition to the performance was seen in the 'Get Back' documentary from Peter Jackson, but it seems the legendary musician, who went on to form The Traveling Wilbury's with Bob Dylan and Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne, was convinced to take part.
His wavering on playing The Beatles' impromptu, final show, came just a short while after Harrison had briefly quit working with the band. A now infamous diary entry from the All Things Must Pass mastermind saw he had dropped out of the Fab Four. Growing tensions in the studio and frustrations around the making of Abbey Road and Let it Be saw Harrison suggest they put an advert in the New Musical Express to source another set of guitarists who could finish what he had written for the 1969 album. But he returned soon after, and eventually agreed to a rooftop performance.
An unconvinced Harrison can be seen in the clip of 'Get Back' where The Beatles' guitarist said he would "do it" but wanted to make it clear he did not want to be on the roof.
He said: "You know, whatever, I'll do it if we've got to go on the roof. But you know, I mean - but I don't wanna go on the roof. Of course I don't wanna go on the roof."
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
Beatle George Harrison married model Pattie Boyd, with his bandmate Paul McCartney serving as best man.
Harrison and Boyd met on the set of the 1964 movie A Hard Day’s Night.
The couple separated in 1974 and divorced in 1977, with Pattie blaming the split on Harrison’s infidelity.
During her marriage to Harrison, his good friend, Eric Clapton, actively pursued her. He even wrote the song “Layla” about his secret love for Pattie. Boyd and Clapton would eventually marry in 1979, although their tumultuous union ended in 1989.
Harrison would go on to marry Olivia Trinidad Arias in 1978 and they were married until his death in 2001.
Source: everettpost.com/ABC News
The Beatles and Bob Dylan were among the artists inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in a ceremony held in New York.
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger inducted the band into the Rock Hall. George Harrison and Ringo Starr were on hand to accept the honor, along with Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon and Sean Lennon, accepting on behalf of John Lennon.
Paul McCartney did not attend, citing “still-existing business differences among The Beatles.”
Dylan’s induction was handled by Bruce Springsteen, and the night’s other inductees included The Beach Boys, The Drifters, The Supremes and Ben E. King.
The night ended with an all-star jam that featured such songs as “I Saw Her Standing There,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Twist and Shout,” “Stand By Me,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Barbara Ann,” “Blue Bayou,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and more.
Source:
Bob Dylan had a big creative impact on John Lennon, particularly after The Beatles got to hear The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan for the first time in 1963. Lennon and Paul McCartney realized that pop music could be so much more than what was being manufactured at the time. Folk and poetry had their places in pop, and that notion led them to do a bit of creative soul-searching.
The result of that influence was “I’m A Loser” from the 1964 album Beatles For Sale, which was primarily written by Lennon.
“Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself,” said Lennon of the writing process for the song. “I think it was [Bob] Dylan who helped me realize that.”
But was the relationship that one-sided? There’s some (tepid) evidence to support that Dylan was as influenced by The Beatles as Lennon was influenced by him. However, Dylan’s response to Lennon’s admiration of him wasn’t exactly… great. He would go on to write “Fourth Time Around” as a response to Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood”, and it was more or less an attempt to make fun of the Beatle.
Bob Dylan had a big creative impact on John Lennon, particularly after The Beatles got to hear The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan for the first time in 1963. Lennon and Paul McCartney realized that pop music could be so much more than what was being manufactured at the time. Folk and poetry had their places in pop, and that notion led them to do a bit of creative soul-searching.
The result of that influence was “I’m A Loser” from the 1964 album Beatles For Sale, which was primarily written by Lennon.
“Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself,” said Lennon of the writing process for the song. “I think it was [Bob] Dylan who helped me realize that.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Em Casalena
In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Paul McCartney. He became the first of two Beatles to receive a knighthood and has described the experience as an honor. Still, he admitted that he felt a bit embarrassed about it. He shared why he winced at some people’s reaction to the news.
He was already famous — and had been for decades — but people he knew began questioning if they should treat him differently.
“At first, the whole thing was a bit embarrassing, to be honest,” he told the LA Times in 2006. “Even the people on my farm went, ‘Do we have to call you Sir Paul?’”
Ultimately, though, he said most people he knew were happy for him.
Source:Emma McKee/Showbiz Cheat Sheet
More than their guitar playing, bass playing, or drumming, The Beatles were known for their songwriting. Their lyrics, storytelling, and the way they keyed into the collective consciousness with their ideas. It’s how they articulated the world that made the same world fall in love with them over the few short years the band was together.
Here below, we wanted to explore three examples of what made them so good as a group. How lyricism helped an audience get to know the group and their music instantly. Indeed, these are three of the best opening lines from songs by The Beatles.
A melodic song of loneliness. And an especially interesting song coming from perhaps the most famous musician on the planet at the time of its writing. What did Paul McCartney know about loneliness? Well, it turns out a lot. He composed an exquisite song that is both lovely to listen to and deep to think about. And he gets you from the top of the track, as he sings,
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Eleanor Rigby
Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
“Across the Universe” from No One’s Gonna Change Our World (1969)
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jacob Uitti
Performing at the Cavern Club carries extra meaning for Zak Starkey. The 59-year-old drummer, who is Ringo Starr's oldest son, has played some of the world's biggest stages with The Who and Oasis but this weekend he made his debut at the club that was made famous by his dad's band.
Zak, who has also been part of Liverpool bands the Lightning Seeds and the Icicle Works, brought his supergroup Mantra of the Cosmos to Liverpool for two gigs at the Cavern on Sunday. Made up of Shaun Ryder (Happy Mondays), Zak, Andy Bell (Oasis, Ride) and Bez (Happy Mondays), the band's new single 'Domino Bones (Gets Dangerous)', which features Noel Gallagher, was released exclusively at the Cavern.
The Beatles played at the Mathew Street venue 292 times between 1961 and 1963. Ringo joined the band in August 1962, replacing Pete Best, and photographs of the Dingle-born drummer adorn many of the Cavern's walls.
Saturday night saw Zak perform there for the first time, playing with the Icicle Works' Chris Sharrock, at its live lounge before his band's gigs yesterday. The weight of the occasion and the club's Beatles history had played on his mind beforehand, but a text message from famed Beatles fan Noel Gallagher put him at ease.
Zak told the ECHO: "It was very surreal. I was s***ting it - proper s***ting it until I got on there and it was amazing. The music is like holy music isn't it.
"Before I was s***ting my pants. I was sitting in my room and I text Noel saying I was s***ting it. He said 'get down there and get on, what are you talking about?'.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
You might think that one half of the songwriting team that rapidly created some of popular music’s most important songs at a rate that has largely been unmatched by any other artist would have something to say about discipline in songwriting. In actual fact, Paul McCartney’s attitude has always been to let intuition guide, as opposed to following a rigid process, when birthing new tracks.
When interviewed about his songwriting workflow with NPR’s All Songs +1 podcast in 2016, Paul opened up about the fact his songs can be triggered by a variety of starting points. “If I was to sit down and write a song, now, I'd use my usual method: I'd either sit down with a guitar or at the piano and just look for melodies, chord shapes, musical phrases, some words, a thought just to get started with,” said Paul. “Then I just sit with it to work it out, like I'm writing an essay or doing a crossword puzzle.”
Later, in the same interview, Paul stated that he had long been a ‘student of the instinctive’, and that once he’s hit on a cool idea, he’ll try a range of approaches to build it into a full song, but it doesn’t always work out; “I just fiddle around with that and try and follow the trail, try and follow where it appears to be leading me. And sometimes it leads me down a blind alley so I have to retrace my steps and start again down another road.”
McCartney, who - at the time of the interview - was guest-teaching a songwriting class at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, said that he always introduced his class by telling the young, aspiring songwriters the same thing; “Nearly always the first thing I go in and say [is], 'I don't know how to do this. You would think I do, but it's not one of these things you ever know how to do. You know I can say to you: Select the key. We will now select a rhythm. Now make a melody. Now think of some great words,' That's not really the answer.”
Source: Andy Price/yahoo.com
The track was described as 'the greatest love song of the last fifty years' by Frank Sinatra
The vast majority of The Beatles' songs were written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, with them jointly credited to Lennon-McCartney. Paul and John's writing partnership was legendary, with their contrasting moods and approaches often meeting in a very happy medium.
About that partnership, Music and Musicians magazine's Wilfred Mellors wrote in 1972: "Opposite poles generate electricity: between John and Paul the sparks flew. John's fiery iconoclasm was tempered by Paul's lyrical grace, while Paul's wide-eyed charm was toughened by John's resilience."
However they were not the only talented songwriters in the group. George Harrison wrote a number of The Beatles' finest songs, including 'Here Comes the Sun', 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' and ‘Within You Without You’.
At times George had to fight to make his voice heard, with Paul and John assuming creative control of the band as the principal songwriters. The Wavertree-born star had written some songs that The Beatles recorded and was given a quota but he grew frustrated with the supporting role he had to play on 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and 'The White Album'.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
Ringo Starr recently approved of a book that imagines John Lennon living a long life before The Beatles reunite. Interestingly, the book was written by a noted country musician.
After The Beatles broke up, fans immediately wanted them to get back together. Ringo Starr recently approved of a book that imagines John Lennon living a long life before The Beatles reunite. Interestingly, a noted country musician wrote the book.
A new book focuses on John Lennon getting to perform at 1 last Beatles concert
Gary Burr is a songwriter known for his work in country music, including penning Patty Loveless’ “I Try to Think About Elvis” (which mentions The Beatles in passing). He also penned songs for Ringo. In a 2024 interview with The Tennessean, Burr said he wrote a book called Reunion that provides an alternate history of the Fab Four.
“[The story] starts with a rainy night in Hawaii and there’s a traffic accident and a young man in the back of the car is killed,” Burr said. “The man is [John’s killer] Mark David Chapman. So that means that in my world, my reality, he never did get to New York, he never did kill John. And 20 years later, for the reason that I lay out in the book, Paul needs to see if he could get the lads back together for one big last concert.”
Burr ran the concept by Ringo first. “We are friends and we’ve got a really good relationship,” he said. “And this is tricky. So when I started writing it, I didn’t want to do it without him knowing about it. So I called him up and I told him what I was doing and he was really sweet. He just said, ‘You know, I would never tell you what you can and can’t do with your art.'”
Source: cheatsheet.com/Matthew Trzcinski
