Beatles News
How is it that we enter the 51st season of 60 Minutes and are only now profiling the most successful musician and composer in popular music history? Maybe it's because it's nearly impossible to try and find something new or surprising to talk to Sir Paul McCartney about. How do you jostle a new memory from a Beatle who, over the decades, may be the most written about person on the planet?
Well, as the Beatles' "White Album" is about to turn 50 years old, we decided to go for it. Mr. McCartney was funny and reflective as we used rare photos and film to walk him through some very personal Beatles stories, and wondered who, at the age of 76, he is still trying to impress. But let's start with a bit of a revelation, the man who has sold an estimated billion records and may be rock and roll's best bass player can't write or read music.
Source: cbsnews.com
There are few musicians who can claim the kind of rollercoaster career that Paul McCartney has had.
He’s been lauded as a genius for his work with The Beatles, dismissed as a lightweight during portions of his Wings phase and solo career, and in a 60-odd year career has released some of the most durable and tuneful pop music ever recorded. McCartney has turned his hand to experimental music, electronica, and classical, and continues to influence other musicians well into his mid-70s, including a large number of Edmonton musicians spanning age and genres.
Source: edmontonjournal.com
In the aftermath of The Beatles’ break-up, and still in the first bloom of his love affair with Yoko Ono, John Lennon threw himself into a new life. The couple moved to Tittenhurst Park, a 26-room Georgian mansion in Berkshire, and in the summer of 1971 Lennon started his second solo album, Imagine, having installed a state-of-the-art recording studio in the grounds.
The couple’s everyday existence quickly came to resemble a never-ending art project, as Lennon recorded with producer Phil Spector and Beatles colleagues George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and the couple embarked on an accompanying film.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
The Beatles have announced they will release a suite of lavishly presented The White Album packages to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Released November 22nd 1968, The Beatles (soon to be better known as The White Album) was that year's most anticipated music event with millions of double LPs shipped to record stores worldwide.
Entering the British chart at number one and remaining there for eight of the 22 weeks it was listed, The White Album also debuted at number one on the U.S. chart, holding the top spot for nine weeks of its initial 65 week chart run.
Source: Will Lavin/joe.co.uk
When three teenage girls decided they wanted to see the Beatles at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in August 1966, few understood what their true intentions were.
Much of the miracle remains indelibly etched in her mind: the friends; the scheme; the date; the venue; the room; the band. A dream come true that seems like yesterday. Other memories are not so vivid. The passing of more than a half-century can often cast a translucence over details once assumed unforgettable.
Christine Nesteruk Gerber says the four greatest events in her 69 years of life were getting married, having children, getting grandchildren, and meeting the Beatles.
She’s not certain of the order.
Source: Phil Gianficaro/burlingtoncountytimes.com
In times of trouble and grief, there is one song that millions of people turn to for inspiration and solace: John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Imagine’.
Leading musicians often reach for the song in moments of need. When Stevie Wonder was told of the death of Senator John McCain in August 2018, during a concert in Atlanta, he broke into a beautiful version of Lennon’s masterpiece, released as a single on 11 October 1971. Though the song was banned from radio in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Neil Young recognised its potency, singing it at a memorial concert, America: Tribute To Heroes. Coldplay performed a version after the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015. Following discord around North Korea in 2018, ‘Imagine’ was the natural choice for a group of Korean musicians to perform at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
Source: Martin Chilton/udiscovermusic.com
It wasn’t until 1965 when John Lennon of The Beatles was dosed with LSD without his knowledge at a dinner party. A year later, Revolver was released.
There were less love songs. Acoustic guitars were strangely absent. The piano and trumpets gave the album an electric cerebral feel when accompanied by the rifts of electric power coming from amps and pedals. It was revolutionary both in regard to the new sound of The Beatles in general. Any healthy minded individual who has taken LSD before knows that it’s not about how you feel while dosed, but how you feel in the days to months after coming down. The influence it leaves is not short-lived, and any masterful musician will find their own artistic limits and capabilities greatly altered for better or for worse. It’s nearly impossible to be exposed to such an agent and to not be powerfully affected by it.
Source: milesdavidoconnor21/ultimate-guitar.com
Just about the whole world wanted the Beatles to stay together; we adored them too much to want the love affair to end. But Ray Connolly’s brisk and eminently readable biography of John Lennon reminds us of the irresistible forces driving the Fab Four apart. Yoko Ono was painted as the villain at the time, and in this book too, she comes across as an unwelcome guest at the party. Yet when you consider the unremitting psychological pressure, the constant media intrusion and, most importantly, exactly how much creativity John, George, Paul and Ringo crammed into less than a decade, we should perhaps give thanks for the fact that they lasted as long as they did.
Source: Clive Davis/thetimes.co.uk
Riding high with his first No. 1 solo album since 1982, rocker Paul McCartney was spotted celebrating his daughter Mary McCartney’s new book “The White Horse” at a VIP dinner at the Mark. We hear that the former Beatle was meant to be on the road this week — but when his plans changed, he attended a dinner for Mary thrown by Izak and Sarah Senbahar, and Macca even insisted on picking up the tab for the swanky affair.
Guests included McCartney’s wife Nancy Shevell as well as many members of the Eastman clan from Linda McCartney’s side of the family.
Source: Ian Mohr/pagesix.com
Barbash’s novel The Dakota Winters (Ecco, Dec.) is about a family living in the storied Dakota building in the days leading up to the assassination of John Lennon.
Why a novel about a talk show host living in the Dakota in 1980?
I grew up five blocks from the Dakota at a time when the Upper West Side was still pretty dicey. We had a welfare hotel on my block where a serial killer murdered seven women. We also had Philip Roth living a few buildings away. I wanted also to explore the year leading up to the assassination—1980—when so much happened. A talk show host like the novel’s protagonist, Buddy Winter, seemed like the right lens through which to do that.
Source: By Ken Salikof /publishersweekly.com
Beatles Adult T-Shirt: Sgt Peppers Drum Seal Logo Black 