Beatles News
Did Lennon really make this famous joke at the expense of his Beatle pal? Let’s find out…
It’s one of the standing jokes in the music industry. And it reportedly came from the mouth of John Lennon himself:
“Ringo wasn’t the best drummer in the world… Let’s face it, he wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles”
Now Lennon was known for his caustic wit, and this is a prime example of how biting he could be - even having a pop at his former Beatle colleague.
But did John Lennon actually make that joke?
Source: radiox.co.uk
Most hardcore fans know that the Beatles broke up before the album Let It Be was actually released. And, most rock historians would agree that the accompanying documentary film (also called Let It Be) pretty much showed a band populated by people who couldn’t stand each other, regardless of how good the music was. The film itself hasn’t been publicly available since the 1980s, though that may suddenly change. And, if a rebooted Let It Be movie is released, it might change people’s perceptions of the break-up of the most famous rock group of all time.
“I think there may be a new version of it,” Paul McCartney said in a recent interview on Radio X.
Source: Ryan Britt/fatherly.com
John Lennon’s sister Julia Baird is warning music fans to ‘get ready to dance’ when The Mersey Beatles hit the stage at Whitchurch Civic Centre in November.
After sold out shows in the USA, Asia and Europe, the world renowned Liverpool-born tribute band are retracing The Beatles’ footsteps on their ‘Get Back UK Tour’ which visits the same towns, cities and original venues the Fab Four rocked in the 1960s.
The Beatles famously played Whitchurch’s former Town Hall Ballroom – located on the site of the Civic Centre – on January 19, 1963.
This was the same day as the band’s important appearance on TV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars, playing their new single Please Please Me.
Source: whitchurchherald.co.uk
No one could have been surprised that, to paraphrase one of Paul McCartney’s earliest lyrics, hearts went boom — again.
From the moment Sir Paul took the stage Thursday night to face a sold-out Bell Centre and launched into A Hard Day’s Night — as perfect a musical representation of Beatlemania as he and John Lennon ever wrote — the belief in yesterday was evangelical in its fervour.
And yet one surprising thing about a McCartney show is that the glorious past is approached faithfully, but not reverently — at least in terms of sequencing. Immortals like Lady Madonna and Eleanor Rigby are placed side by side in the set list with more debatable efforts like the recent Fuh You and his 2015 collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West, FourFive Seconds.
Source: Allen McInnis/montrealgazette.com
Today we have some incredible, never-before-seen footage of John Lennon recording his seemingly cutthroat song, "How Do You Sleep?" It's a song he released in 1971 and directed at his former Beatle bandmate Paul McCartney. Here's just a sample of the lyrics:
A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they'll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years
This previously unseen video, which includes the raw studio mix of the audio, completely unadorned, comes ahead of the Oct. 5 release of a 6-CD box set, Imagine - The Ultimate Collection. John Lennon's second solo album, Imagine, was released in Sep. 1971, just about two years after The Beatles went their separate ways. John Lennon said that this song was a response to lyrics on Paul McCartney's own solo album, Ram, that Lennon felt were directed at him. (Give a listen to "Too Many People" and "Back Seat of My Car" and you'll hear what Lennon was referring to.) Yoko Ono, who sat in on and co-produced these recording sessions, wrote to us to say that "John wrote many great songs, some tender and some mean... ... people thought this was about Paul, and Paul seems to have thought that too, so too bad it wasn't played too much."
Source: Bob Boilen
Join The Dark Horses for a tribute to George Harrison this Saturday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. on the Railroad Green.
This is the final concert in the Village of Warwick Summer Concert Series for 2018.
“A Concert for George” is a celebration of Harrison’s 75th birthday. The Dark Horses is a band comprised of Glenn Arnowitz, Michael O’Brien, Paul Binotto, Mike Hickey and Gerard “Gee” Mancini with Gloria Esch, Christy Hickey and the Warwick Valley Chorale.
The band came together for this purpose – to pay tribute to Harrison and the music he wrote at the Warwick Summer Concert Series. The original concert date was rained out back in July.
The band will perform all of the songs Harrison wrote for the Beatles, including “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and “Here Comes the Sun.”
Source: WARWICK/chroniclenewspaper.com
The legendary musician has embarked on a short series of dates across Canada in support of his latest album ‘Egypt Station‘. In a four-star review, NME said: “McCartney’s always been about inclusivity and openness, but this latest glimpse into his life feels like a particularly enlightening one.”
Last night’s show at Quebec City’s Centre Vidéotron was the first proper tour date McCartney has played on this record, following a series of secret shows at London’s Abbey Road, Liverpool’s Cavern Club, and New York’s Grand Central Station. During the 39-song setlist, he dug from all corners of his back catalogue, treating fans to cuts from The Beatles, Wings and his own solo career.
Source: Rhian Daly/nme.com
Paul McCartney has said he can now “rationalise” The Beatles’ decision to split in 1970.
The now-solo artist, who just released his 17th solo album Egypt Station, was 28-years-old when The Beatles parted ways.
Speaking to NME, he said he had “mixed feelings” at the time but “I can look back on it and go, do you know what, even though it was really sad, and really crazy times, we made bloody good albums’.”
“You work out your problems through music,” he continued. “And the thing about The Beatles is we were always a great little band. I don’t even notice it now, I just listen to the songs and think, ‘That was a good one.’”
Asked what advice he would have given to his younger self he said: “What I first thought of was: listen to people’s opinions more, particularly within the group. But I did listen to people’s opinions and what would happen was I would feel like I had to give my opinion and not get too nervous, because you’ve got to be strong in those situations.
Source: Roisin O'Connor Music Correspondent/independent.co.uk
The 1968 track’s title was appropriated by the American cult leader
Paul McCartney has revealed that Charles Manson put him off playing 1968 track ‘Helter Skelter’ live for a long time.
American cult leader Manson, whose followers were responsible for the Tate/LaBianca murders in 1969, appropriated the song title for his prophecy of an apocalyptic race war between whites and blacks.
“He was quite certain that The Beatles had tapped in to his spirit, the truth – that everything was gonna come down and the black man was going to rise,” said Catherine Share, one of Manson’s followers, in 2009.
Source: Anna Matheson/nme.com
Paul McCartney is the talk of the town this month, and his new album is getting a lot of buzz, too. McCartney’s recently released Egypt Station — described as “loose, randy, and a little political” by Craig Jenkins in his Vulture review — premiered at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, making it the former Beatle’s first chart-topping project since April 1982’s Tug of War. Tug of War, his first post-Wings album, featured “Ebony and Ivory,” his hit duet with Stevie Wonder.
Source: Halle Kiefer/vulture.com
