Beatles News
One morning early in 1971 John Lennon sat down at a Steinway piano at his home in Ascot outside London and composed one of the greatest songs of all time.
“Imagine” flowed out as he later said, he almost finished the song in one sitting.
It went on to be an anthem for the ages, an inspiring song for generations to come.
For young people tired of war and conflict it resonated very deeply, for older folks the simplicity of the lyrics yet the complexity of the thought made it the most played Beatles song of all.
Source:James O'Shea/irishcentral.com
Vinyl Rewind tells the story of how Ringo Starr and the other three dudes got their iconic logo and, oh boy, it’s a doozy.
Basically, for the band’s first few years, there was no Beatles logo. It was never featured in any of the band’s original albums recorded in the U.K.
The logo started its life on the bass drum of Starr’s Ludwig drum kit in April 1963, three years after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Starr got together in Liverpool and formed the most influential music group of all time.
Starr got this Ludwig set from a shop, Drum City, on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. Founded by a guy called Ivor Arbiter in 1929, the shop was a popular destination for jazz drummers. Arbiter later recalled the encounter with a certain “Ringo, Schmingo, whatever his name was, at that time I certainly hadn’t heard of The Beatles.”
Source: Jesus Diaz/fastcompany.com
Yoko Ono unveiled a delicate rendition of the John Lennon classic “Imagine” on what would’ve been the late musician’s 78th birthday. The track will appear on Ono’s upcoming album Warzone, which arrives October 19th via Chimera Music.
Ono’s version of “Imagine” boasts a sparse yet intricate arrangement, starting with a simple synth drone that swells steadily beneath the 85-year-old artist’s candid vocals. Halfway through the track, the drone slips away for a piano that twinkles beneath Ono’s voice, letting the song breathe in potent new way in its final moments.
Source: John Blistein/Rollingstone
The images were taken in 1965 on the set of the legendary band’s comedy-adventure musical, which was released that year. Help!‘s plot saw the band being chased around the world after Ringo Starr acquired a sacrificial ring.
Taken by German photographer Bernd Kappelmeyer on location in Obertraun, Austria, the 124 negatives show The Beatles filming scenes in snowy mountains. John Lennon is seen sporting a black winter coat, hat, and shades in the images.
The collection will go up for auction in Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside on October 16.Other items up for grabs at Omega Auctions include an original sign from Abbey Road and costume patterns for the suits worn by the band on the iconic ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album cover.In 2013, Help! was digitally restored and released on Blu-ray.
Source: Tom Skinner/nme.com
Sure, those Liverpudlian lads knew how to knock out a tune or two, jingle-jangle guitars, "oooh!"s and all. But the modern male didn’t just dream of picking up a Rickenbacker and sounding like a Beatle; he wanted – perhaps even more – to look like one too. He wore out his Beatle boots as he did his coveted copy of Help!, strutted about in paisley caftans and filched his granny’s glasses, even if they made his world more topsy-turvy than it already was.
While Sergeant Pepper and his band occasionally fell out of style, the Fab Four have yet to lose an iota of their appeal, both musically and sartorially. Ahead of Paul McCartney’s Egypt Station 2019 world tour, as well as the release of the remastered and expanded White Album on 19 November (ever so slightly ahead of its 50th anniversary), we bring you 12 images of John, Paul, George and Ringo at their nattiest to show you what we mean.
Source: Joobin Bekhrad/gq-magazine.co.uk
To the world, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were icons. But to Elliot Mintz, who met them in 1972 while a radio DJ in Los Angeles, they were close personal friends with whom he’d get together and talk about whatever came to mind. Usually, it wasn’t music.
“I first did an interview with Yoko on the radio station in Los Angeles and we became phone pals for a number of weeks and then I interviewed John on the air and we began a telephone relationship as well,” he told Variety in a recent phone interview. They later met in Ojai, California, while the couple was driving to Los Angeles as ordinary travelers mingling with those they encountered on the way. Mintz says their personal relationship was the same way. “The majority of our conversations were not about either me or them but the state of the world. Most of their time was spent talking about either current events or literature or history.”
Source: By Steve Marinucci/Variety
John Winston Ono Lennon (MBE), the co-founder of The Beatles, singer, songwriter and peace activist was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England.
When John was 11 years old, he discovered his love for his music through Elvis Presley’s records and learnt Banjo. John’s mother’s death had a very deep impact on him which reflected in his behaviour, education and life.
Lennon formed the skiffle group, the Quarrymen. Skiffle is a music genre with blues, jazz, American folk influences, folk musical instruments which were a combination of manufactured and home-made instruments.
The Quarrymen evolved into the Beatles, with members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, a group which was widely regarded as the foremost and most influential music band in history.
Source: AuthorT Ivan Nischal/telanganatoday.com
For many, John Lennon’s post-Beatles solo career never got better than it did when he released his iconic, Phil Spector-produced album Imagine in 1971. Now, just in time for what would have been Lennon’s 78th birthday on October 9, you can dive deeper into the sessions that produced that rich work than ever before, thanks to a massive, six-disc, 140 track box set that was overseen by his widow Yoko Ono.
Comprehensive doesn’t even begin to describe how much material has been packed into this new collection. It seems like they’ve gathered every conceivable piece of material that was available, including outtakes, isolated track arrangements, and demos, and arranged them in such a way to get the clearest sense possible for how this record came together. They’ve also gone back and cleaned up the finished tracks on the album for the most pristine sound yet.
Source: Corbin Reiff /uproxx.com
The hit Netflix animated series “Beat Bugs” is being turned into a stage show and Connecticut audiences will be the first to see it.
Bert Bernardi, the artistic director of Pantochino Productions at the Milford Center for the Arts, snagged the rights to the developmental production before “Beat Bugs: A Musical Adventure” gets produced in theaters around the country next year.
“I really wanted to open the company up to more than one voice,” Bernardi says of trying to get away from writing and directing all of the original shows produced by Pantochino.
When he heard a stage version of “Beat Bugs” was in the works, he thought, “Oh my gosh, it’s perfect for families and kids, how can I get this?”
Bernardi looked into who owned the stage property, emailed them, and was surprised and delighted to learn that the writers of the show, David Abbinanti and Sean Cercone, were well aware of Pantochino’s success in recent years.
Source: Joe Meyers/ctpost.com
Beatle stomp
Picture a 76-year-old man, looking 20 years younger on the Jumbotron, leading a sea of humanity in singing, “Na na na nana na na nana na na, hey Jude.” You can't help but wonder if Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE ever asks himself, “Damn! Did I write that?!”
If he does, he must do that with virtually every song in his set-list. The sheer amount of hits Paul McCartney lobs at you live – “From Me to You,” “Love Me Do,” “Lady Madonna,” “Hey Jude,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Live & Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da,” “Maybe I'm Amazed,” etc. – is dizzying. You start to wonder if the man's ever written a bad song.
He has, but he’s not playing them!
Source: Tim Stegall/austinchronicle.com
