Beatles News
Tracked at Abbey Road Studios in February 1968 during a promotional video shoot for Lady Madonna, which was the A-side of the upcoming single, Hey Bulldog tends to fly under the radar of most casual fans, but it actually represents a critical point in the history of The Beatles: it was one of the last sessions tracked as a band before internal tensions drove the team apart.
“Hey Bulldog turned out so well there was some campaigning from John Lennon for it to serve as the A-side of the single instead of Lady Madonna,” said producer Geoff Emerick in Mark Lewisohn’s 1998 book, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.
Source: Brian Fox/guitarworld.com
For nearly 10 years, John Lennon and Yoko Ono spoke almost every evening, sometimes for hours at a time, with their close friend Elliot Mintz.
Mintz, a Los Angeles radio and TV host, had grown close to the couple after first interviewing Yoko for her 1971 album, Fly, which led to a series of late-night conversations with Yoko — or John — and eventually, both. Over time, Mintz became one of their closest confidantes. So trusted that it was he whom Ono asked to go through John’s belongings after he was murdered on Dec. 8, 1980.
Nearly 44 years after the rock legend’s death, Mintz, 79, has written a book about their intimate friendship, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me.
It was a decision Mintz, who remains very close to Ono, 91, and her son, Sean Lennon, 49, made carefully. “We all know where it’s going to end,” he says. ”I was drawing from a lifetime of experience, most of it happy and joyous but I also knew we would be treading on some very sensitive waters.”
In the exclusive excerpt below, Mintz recalls a visit to their apartment in the fabled Dakota building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side after the murder of Mintz’s close friend, actor Sal Mineo, best known for his roles in such classics as Rebel Without A Cause, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and Giant.
After Mineo was stabbed by a mugger outside of his West Hollywood apartment on Feb. 12, 1976, Mintz accompanied his body on a flight to New York and attended his funeral.
Source: Liz McNeil/people.com
Paul McCartney gave John Lennon a “step by step” plan to help his fellow Beatles star get back together with his wife, Yoko Ono. The revelation is part of a memoir by Elliot Mintz, a radio host, that describes his close personal relationship with the couple.
In We All Shine On, Mintz describes how in 1974, while Lennon was producing an album for singer Harry Nilsson entitled the Pussy Cats, McCartney turned up at the recording studio.
Lennon was in the midst of his famous “lost weekend”, in which he had separated from Ono and spent 18 months partying in Los Angeles with other stars, including Nilsson. During this time, Lennon also began his infamous affair with 23-year-old May Pang, who flew to Los Angeles as his personal assistant.
After Lennon expressed his desire to reunite with his wife, Mintz says McCartney reportedly offered to speak to Lennon for Ono and visited his fellow Beatles star at the recording studio. The two had not performed together since the Beatles had split.
“They were all just looking at us, thinking that something big was going to happen. To me, it was just playing with Paul”, Mintz recalls Lennon saying about the encounter. Sometime afterwards, McCartney sat down with Lennon and “laid out, step by step, what he would need to do to win Yoko back”, the excerpt from The Times reads.
Source: Frankie Vetch/telegraph.co.uk
A couple weeks ago, I wore a t-shirt that said “Love is all you need.” “Beatles?” confirmed a guy I know, to which I nodded. Later that day, I was talking to this guy about Test Spins, wondering which album I should review next. His suggestion was The Beatles. My initial reaction? “That’s so basic.” He then pointed out that I was in fact wearing a Beatles shirt (a fair point). This interaction got me thinking — why was my first instinct to call The Beatles basic? I definitely like their music — although I do consider myself more of a Stones fan — and there’s a reason they are so popular. To investigate further, I decided to listen to Magical Mystery Tour, the album from which “All You Need Is Love” hails.
The record starts out with a fun title track, a cheesy yet endearing invitation to listen in: “Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour / Step right this way” Paul McCartney beckons. It feels very ’60s — appropriately, I might add, since the album was released in 1967 — and very welcoming. This was necessary since Magical Mystery Tour also served as the soundtrack for The Beatles’ film of the same name; the album had double the work to do and therefore needed to be twice as enticing. McCartney elucidates the title further, saying “John [Lennon] and I remembered mystery tours, and we always thought this was a fascinating idea: getting on a bus and not knowing where you were going. Rather romantic and slightly surreal!”
“The Fool On The Hill” is next — a rather simple song made interesting by the inclusion of McCartney’s flute-playing skills and pristine vocals. “Flying” is an instrumental track that also includes McCartney’s interesting flute. In the film, “Flying” is paired with aerial shots of Iceland … and just by listening to the song, one can understand why. “Blue Jay Way” begins eerily and picks up a bit at the chorus. It features an artificial double backing and George Harrison on the organ. He explained, “There was a little Hammond organ in the corner of this house which I hadn’t noticed until then … so I messed around on it and the song came.” The song is a bit sleepy for my liking, but makes a case for both The Beatles’ and the album’s range.
“Blue Jay Way” is followed by “Your Mother Should Know.” Although it could be read as redundant, I’d argue that its repetition makes it effective and catchy, and The Beatles avoid that particular pitfall here. “I’ve always hated generation gaps … I was advocating peace between the generations. In ‘Your Mother Should Know’ I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does. Give her credit,” McCarney says.
Source: cornellsun.com
After John Lennon released Rock ‘N’ Roll in 1975, he took a five-year break from recording. His son Sean was born in October of that year, and Lennon chose to stay home to enjoy the role of father in a way he was unable to experience with his first son Julian, who was born at the height of Beatlemania. When it came time to make new music, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were without a record deal. Almost every major label expressed interest in the former Beatle. The British independent label Stiff Records sent Lennon a telegram saying, “Heard you are recording. We’re prepared to offer five thousand dollars to sign with us.” Lennon found the offer funny but was interested in more than money when it came to signing a record deal.
As offers came in, they were directed to Lennon. Yoko Ono would respond, only to find they only wanted to speak with Lennon. Those offers were declined. Record executive David Geffen sent a telegram directly to Ono asking to talk about the record. She showed it to Lennon, and he informed her to get in touch with him. Geffen flew to New York City the next day, where an agreement was reached. The record would be credited to both Lennon and Ono. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Dear Yoko” by John Lennon.
Source: Jay McDowell/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney dusted off a classic Beatles tune for his fourth and final Got Back show in São Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday.
According to setlist.fm, McCartney added the 1963 track “All My Loving” to the set about four songs in, marking the first time he’s played the tune on this tour and the first time he’s played it in concert since 2019.
Although “All My Loving” wasn’t officially released as a single in either the U.S. or the U.K., it got enough radio play to become a hit for The Beatles. It was actually the first song they performed during their debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.
As for the rest of McCartney’s São Paulo concert, he played a total of 37 songs, including Beatles tracks like “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Love Me Do,” “Blackbird,” “Get Back,” “Hey Jude” and the most recent track, “Here and Now,” as well as Wings tunes “Live and Let Die,” “Let Em In” and “Jet.”
It also included McCartney solo songs like “Maybe I’m Amazed”; “My Valentine,” which was dedicated to Paul’s wife, Nancy Shevell; and “Here Today,” which was dedicated to John Lennon.
McCartney has one more show in Brazil on Saturday in Florianópolis, with upcoming shows in Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. A complete list of dates can be found at paulmccartney.com.
Source: ABC News
George Harrison loved the ukulele, and really, what’s not to love? For its dainty size, the uke can make a powerfully cheerful sound, and it’s an instrument both beginners and expert players can learn and easily carry around. As Harrison’s old friend Joe Brown remarked, “You can pick up a ukulele and anybody can learn to play a couple of tunes in a day or even a few hours. And if you want to get good at it, there’s no end to what you can do.” Brown, once a star in his own right, met Harrison and the Beatles in 1962 and remembers being impressed with the fellow uke-lover Harrison’s range of musical tastes: “He loved music, not just rock and roll…. He’d go crackers, he’d phone me up and say ‘I’ve got this great record!’ and it would be Hoagy Carmichael and all this Hawaiian stuff he used to like. George was not a musical snob.”
“Crackers” may be the perfect word for Harrison’s uke-philia; he used it himself in the adorable note above from 1999. “Everyone I know who is into the ukulele is ‘crackers,’” writes George, “you can’t play it and not laugh!” Harrison remained upbeat, even during his first cancer scare in 1997, the knife attack at his home in 1999, and the cancer relapse that eventually took his life in 2001. The ukulele seemed a sweetly genuine expression of his hopeful attitude. And after Harrison’s death, it seemed to his friends the perfect way to memorialize him. Joe Brown closed the Harrison tribute concert at Royal Albert Hall with a uke version of “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” and Paul McCartney remembered his friend in 2009 by strumming “Something” on a ukulele at New York’s Citi Field.
Source: openculture.com
The estate of former Beatles star John Lennon has appointed a UK music licensing company to collect royalties on all sound recordings where the late singer or his widowed wife Yoko Ono are listed as a performer.
Music licensing company Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) will collect neighbouring rights royalties for the estate when music from the pair is played in public venues including shops, bars, or aired on commercial radio or TV.
Lennon died in 1980 in New York after he was shot by Mark David Chapman. The John Lennon estate said in a statement: “PPL has shown they are the leaders in advocating for neighbouring rights globally.
“We have the utmost respect for the team and look forward to working with them.”
PPL analysed radio and TV airplay data from the 21st century to compile a list of most played Lennon recordings – which saw Woman take the top spot.
The 1980 track makes up 24% of Lennon’s total airplay, while his earlier 1971 song titled Imagine took the second spot with a total of 23% of his total airplay.
Source: Ellie Iorizzo/standard.co.uk
Paul McCartney isn’t a songwriter that deals in direct statements. Like many great poets, McCartney prefers to write in metaphors, letting the listener ascertain their own meaning. However, there is one song of McCartney’s that is straight to the point. And, for that reason, McCartney isn’t the proudest of it. Find out which song that is, below.
Give Ireland back to the Irish
Don’t make them have to take it away
Give Ireland back to the Irish
Make Ireland Irish today
“Give Ireland Back to the Irish” is one of McCartney’s most staunch protest songs. Though Macca is an Englishman, he makes a case for his Irish neighbors to have a unified country. It’s a situation that has been on the hearts and minds of those in the U.K. for decades. McCartney speaks plainly about his stance on the subject.
Great Britain, you are tremendous
And nobody knows like me
But really, what are you doin’
In the land across the sea?
Though this song is successful in its goal of advocating for Ireland, McCartney wasn’t extremely proud of the end result. According to Macca, his best writing comes when he “veils” his meaning a bit.
“I’m not often specific, because it’s just not my way,” McCartney once said. “I’m much more comfortable talking about it but veiling it somehow. I think that’s stronger. I mean, my biggest protest song was ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish.’ There’s no metaphors there, that’s just dead straight. But I didn’t think it was a very successful song. I wouldn’t say it was one of my best. So to write overtly about a situation is a little more difficult for me.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm is an unprecedented exhibition, revealing extraordinary photographs taken by the beloved musical icon. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London, the exhibition will open at the Portland Art Museum on September 14, 2024, and run through January 19, 2025.
Comprising recently rediscovered photographs from Paul McCartney’s personal archive, more than 250 pictures invite visitors to intimately experience The Beatles’ meteoric rise from British sensation to international stardom. At a time when so many camera lenses were turned toward them, McCartney’s perspective from the inside out brings fresh insight into the band, their experiences, the fans, and the Beatlemania phenomenon. Through these photographs, along with video clips and archival material, visitors can witness the dawn of the “British Invasion” that fundamentally transformed rock and roll music and American society.
Captured by McCartney during a pivotal three-month period for The Beatles in late 1963 and early 1964, the photographs evoke an affectionate family album, picturing his fellow band members, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, at a time when their lives were changing irrevocably. The exhibition gives visitors a highly personal glimpse into an extraordinary time with one of music’s enduring legends.
Source: Portland Art Museum/hereisoregon.com
