Beatles News
Inspiration for a rock ‘n’ roll song can come from strange places, from newspaper clippings to the advice of a car dealer—for the Beatles’ psychedelic classic “A Day in the Life,” John Lennon used both. The closing track from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is a true testament to the Beatles’ deep dive into strange and unusual musical experimentation.
The song travels through multiple sections, from Lennon’s melancholy melodies to McCartney’s bouncy interlude to an absolute cacophony of noise directed by Ringo Starr’s steady beat buried in the mix. It’s an eccentric Frankenstein of a song, all of its pieces sewn together by musical motifs and the sheer determination of the Fab Four.
…and the newspaper and luxury car dealer, of course.
When John Lennon began writing the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band closer, “A Day in the Life,” he had a copy of Daily Mail propped up on the music stand of his piano. “I noticed two stories,” Lennon recalled in Anthology. “One was about the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash.” (Interestingly, this is the same heir who was with McCartney when he got into the moped crash that scarred his lip and kicked off the Beatles’ mustachioed era.)
“On the next page was a story about 4,000 potholes in the streets of Blackburn, Lancashire,” Lennon continued. “There was still one word missing in that verse when we came to record. I knew the line had to go, Now they know how many holes it takes to — something — the Albert Hall. It was a nonsense verse, really, but for some reason, I couldn’t think of the verb. What did the holes do to the Albert Hall? It was Terry who said ‘fill’ the Albert Hall, and that was it. Perhaps I was looking for that word all the time but couldn’t put my tongue on it. Other people don’t necessarily give you a word or a line. They just throw in the word you’re looking for anyway.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
John Lennon and Yoko Ono separated in 1973. He went to LA without her and seemed happy about it.
She told him that she had begun to feel suffocated by their constant togetherness, and asked him to move out. At first, Lennon appeared thrilled. He was single for the first time in his adult life.
Amid growing tension in their marriage, Ono told Lennon that she wanted a break. She suggested that he move to Los Angeles to give them some much-needed space. Ono asked the couple’s friend, Elliot Mintz, to keep an eye on her estranged husband. At first, however, Lennon seemed perfectly fine to Mintz.
“For the first few months, John appeared entirely content in Los Angeles — one might even say gleeful,” Mintz wrote in his book We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me. “He seemed to consider his expulsion from the Dakota and banishment to the West Coast as something of a bachelor’s holiday.” Mintz believed that Lennon was excited to experience what it was like to be single for the first time in his adult life.
“Remember, he was twenty-one when he married Cynthia; he was twenty-eight when he married Yoko. Now, at the cusp of thirty-three, for the first time in his adult life, he didn’t have a wife (or, for that matter, three other partners) who made up his extended family. He was a free man.” His mood eventually turned darker.
Before long, the fun began to wear off. Lennon wanted to go home but Ono, who was communicating with Mintz, wasn’t ready.
“After three or four months in LA, much of his initial enthusiasm had boiled off and his mood was starting to curdle,” Mintz wrote. “He was missing Yoko: he began asking me when I thought she’d be ready for him to come home, a question I could never answer.”
Lennon began spending more and more time at bars with the Hollywood Vampires, a drinking club with members like Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, and Mickey Dolenz.
Source: cheatsheet.com/Emma McKee
The Beatles were never scared to try something new and experiment with different sounds. The Fab Four revolutionised popular music in the second half of the 1960s, evolving from their early rock and roll stylings to create an innovative, psychedelic and avant-garde new sound.
1965's 'Rubber Soul' is credited with beginning that journey in earnest, as the band looked more closely at what they could achieve with an album and how they could push the boundaries lyrically and musically. The 1966 album 'Revolver' is viewed as the start of The Beatles' psychedelic era, influenced by their time in India and use of LSD.
The following year saw 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' reinvent what could be done with an album - using new studio techniques, capturing the zeitgeist of the so-called 'summer of love' and changing music forever. Though The Beatles' experimental music in this period was adored by critics and fans, it didn't always lead to harmony within the band.
The ECHO has recently looked at John Lennon's dislike of 'Sgt Pepper', his worry that Paul McCartney was trying to sabotage his work on 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and his disdain for the song 'Let it Be'. We've also looked into how the recording of 'Back in the USSR' on 1968's 'The White Album' led Ringo Starr to leave The Beatles temporarily.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com/Dan Haygarth
Snoop Dogg and Paul McCartney might not be the first musical duo one thinks of when considering kindred creative spirits, but stranger things have certainly happened. After a fortuitous meeting of the two musical icons backstage at a charity concert, it seems likelier than ever. (Okay, well, maybe it’s just in our heads at this point. But what’s the harm in dreaming?)
The touching moment between the California rapper and former Beatle showed not only the mutual admiration and respect each musician had for the other. But it also highlights the diverse musical interests each artist has outside of the genre for which they became famous.
Snoop Dogg Meets Paul McCartney
During a January 2025 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Snoop Dogg recalled meeting the legendary Sir Paul McCartney for the first time. The California rapper was backstage at a fundraiser concert when someone from McCartney’s team reached out to him. “They was like, ‘Sir Paul would like to meet you,’” Snoop said, putting on a fake British accent. “I’m like, ‘For real?’” The rapper told McCartney’s team to bring him over, and the two hit it off instantly. “[The conversation] was just about respect and love,” Snoop said.
“He really knew who I was musically. That blew my mind,” he continued. “It’s like, I’m telling him about all the records I like from him, but then he telling me about who I am and how he liked me. It’s just appreciation. I call that, you know, mutual love. Fan appreciation.” Despite the swagger that Snoop Dogg has come to be known for over his decades-long career, he couldn’t help but feel humbled in McCartney’s presence. When show host Kimmel mentioned how exciting it must have been to realize Macca was aware of his work, the rapper modestly joked back, “What did I do?”
Then, of course, Kimmel had to ask the all-important question: did Snoop Dogg and McCartney light a doobie together? Unfortunately for all the hopeful stoners out there, that smoke sesh never came to be. “I smoked around him,” Snoop Dogg added with a sly smile. He added that although he wanted to keep talking to McCartney, actor Woody Harrelson joined the conversation and “just bogarted the whole situation. Then, Paul was like, ‘I’ll catch up with you later! I’m like, ‘Damn, Woody, I was over here having a conversation.’”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
As years pass and time goes by taste and talent change immensely. There are hoards of different factors that redefine somebody’s artistic palette and these very factors do not discriminate whatsoever. Hence, they even touch the most incredible minds, including the ever so great, Paul McCartney.
Paul McCartney has been very candid about the songs he likes, dislikes, and absolutely detests. That being so, he’s not one to bite his tongue for the sake of pride, and he proved that to be more than true when discussing The Beatles classic, “When I’m Sixty-Four.”
Paul McCartney Made an Ageist Mistake
“When I’m Sixty-Four” was released on The Beatles’ 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In a holistic sense, both the album and the song marked a major transition in The Beatles’ career. Prior to the release of the album, McCartney and The Beatles had been more than busy, but for McCartney, there was still ground to be broken. Thus, their psychedelic masterpiece was born and so was “When I’m Sixty-Four.”
However, when Paul McCartney spoke with the Los Angeles Times he divulged his grievance with the song. He told the publication, “It was really an arbitrary number when I wrote [‘When I’m Sixty-Four’]. I probably should have called it ‘When I’m 65,’ which is the retirement age in England.” “And the rhyme would have been easy, ‘something, something alive when I’m 65.’ But it felt too predictable. It sounded better to say 64,” he added.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Peter Burditt
On This Day, Jan. 16, 1988 …
George Harrison hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Got My Mind Set On You,” a cover of a 1962 track originally recorded by James Ray.
The recording was produced by ELO’s Jeff Lynne, who also played bass and keyboards on the song. It appeared on Harrison’s 11th studio album, Cloud Nine, which was the final solo album to be released during Harrison’s lifetime.
“Got My Mind Set On You” would be Harrison’s third and final #1 solo single. It also marked the last time a member of The Beatles hit #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K.
The song hit #1 just one week before The Beatles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Source: Everett Post
John Lennon and Phil Spector had a series of drunken recording sessions together. Lennon's friend said it was a wonder nobody was hurt.
In 1973, John Lennon threw fuel on his already-chaotic Lost Weekend when he started recording with producer Phil Spector. While some of their recording sessions were productive, many others devolved into drunken arguments and violence. Lennon’s friend, Elliot Mintz, expressed shock that no one wound up seriously hurt.
John Lennon’s friend said the recording sessions with Phil Spector were dangerous
Lennon and Spector began working on the album Rock ‘n’ Roll together. Their studio sessions often collapsed into utter chaos.
“The Spector Sessions, as they came to be known, were among the most notorious jams in rock ‘n’ roll history,” Mintz wrote in his book We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me. “I ended up spending about half a dozen all-nighters at these riotous, drug- and alcohol-fueled bacchanals, occasionally finding myself in the unenviable position of having to tidy up some of the messes afterward.”
Source: cheatsheet.com/Emma McKee
Paul McCartney wouldn’t describe himself as a risk taker. In fact, the musician feels his career has been pretty tame–despite the oodles of success he has amassed. However, there is one massive risk McCartney is glad he took. Find out what that is, below.
The Beatles were a tough act to follow. The fervor around the band was unprecedented. They became emblematic of a new age where musicians didn’t have passive listeners, but active, life-centering fans. When they decided to hang up their hats, there was a few million fans out there who’s dreams were dashed.
But, life must go on. A musician must play music. But, the question of how to go about that could’ve proved disastrous. Truthfully, it did for a moment in McCartney’s career. His follow up band to the Beatles, Wings, wasn’t popular upon their debut. Listeners still had the golden age of the Beatles to compare everything to. Wings didn’t seem to measure up.
Eventually, McCartney’s second leg proved profitable. Wings earned a fanbase in their own right, producing a host of beloved hits. According to McCartney, the decision to start Wings was his riskiest professional move–one that ultimately paid off.
“The main question I had was whether to keep going after The Beatles, because it was a hard act – some might say, an impossible act – to follow,” McCartney once said. “The ingredients in the Beatles were so unique. You had John right there, who could have made any group brilliant. Then you had George’s talent, and Ringo’s, and then me.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
On the heels of his new country album Look Up, the former Beatles drummer will play the Nashville institution in February.
Nashville is reaching peak Ringo. On the heels of his new country album, Look Up, Ringo Starr will make his Grand Ole Opry debut next month. The former Beatles drummer was invited to perform on the long-running country-music radio show by Emmylou Harris, herself an Opry member.
Harris popped the question to Starr onstage at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the onetime home of the Opry, during the first of Starr’s two-night stand at the hallowed theater. “I’d love to,” Starr replied. “It’s an honor and a pleasure. Thank you.” Starr’s Opry appearance is slated for Feb. 21, part of the Opry’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Harris is one of many guests performing with Starr at the Ryman for the recording of a CBS special to air on a later date. Jack White, Rodney Crowell, Sheryl Crow, Mickey Guyton, Jamey Johnson, and the War and Treaty are among the other artists collaborating with Starr or singing their own versions of his songs. Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, and Larkin Poe, who all perform on Look Up, are on the bill too. (The second concert is set for Wednesday night.)
Source: rollingstone.com/Joseph Hudak
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of George Harrison’s fourth solo album, 1973 album, Living in the Material World made available in two configurations, a 2-CD collection and a Super Deluxe Edition box set, each culling new mixes and previously unreleased material numbering outtakes and alternative versions.
Leading the charge on the sonic front is renowned Grammy-Award-winning engineer and long-time family friend Paul Hicks, who had previously worked on archival projects by The Beatles, Harrison and John Lennon. With Living In The Material World, Paul was responsible for remixing the original album and uncovering a flurry of revelatory outtakes. We spoke with Paul, who served as our guide behind this seminal release.
Rock Cellar: Paul, you worked on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and then you moved onto this record, Living in the Material World. They’re two entirely different records. Sonically, Living in the Material World is a much more stripped-down and intimate record.
Paul Hicks: Yes, absolutely, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Obviously, every project is different and this album was a totally different beast to All Things Must Pass. The way we do it is I get the multi-tracks, listen and then I do a mix match as close as possible to the old mix and then I take a step back. I ask myself, “OK, what do we think we can improve here? What’s good about it?”
Obviously, with All Things Must Pass, from knowing George, Dhani and Olivia, George wanted less reverb on things. That was the mission with that album.
Source: rockcellarmagazine.com/Ken Sharp
