Beatles News
The Beatles’ first tour of America, in February 1964, was a musical sensation, recalling the rock ’n’ roll energy that Elvis had given the world a decade earlier. It was a cultural watershed, announcing the coming of a new generation. And Beatlemania was a media phenomenon, erupting at exactly the moment the Canadian critic Marshall McLuhan had coined the term “global village.” Telstar had been launched in July 1962, providing instantaneous communications across the Atlantic. As the world shrank, opportunity knocked—precisely when everyone wanted younger heroes. The Beatles happily obliged.
Source: Ted Widmer/wsj.com
Always heavily influenced by Motown and the American blues and rock of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Ray Charles, as they made their big jump from the smaller stages in Liverpool to defining their sound in Hamburg, Germany, The Beatles’ repertoire extended into earlier influences of rockabilly, folk, and country-western with covers by Carl Perkins and Buck Owens among others.
All four members had their particular brushes with country. A big Chet Atkins fan, George Harrison started playing Atkins’ 1962 black Country Gentleman and Tennessean Rose model Gretsch guitars while in The Beatles. Atkins also admired the band and released an album of their covers, Chet Atkins Picks on the Beatles, in 1966, with liner notes written by Harrison.
“I have appreciated Chet Atkins as a musician since long before the tracks on this album were written, in fact, since I was the ripe young age of 17,” wrote Harrison in the liner notes to Atkins’ album. “Since then I have lost count of the number of Chet’s albums I have acquired, but I have not been disappointed with any of them. For me, the great thing about Mr. Atkins is not the fact that he is capable of playing almost every type of music but the conviction in the way he does it.”
Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com
Months after the release of ‘The Lost Weekend: A Love Story,’ the documentary about her, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono, May Pang recalled how her relationship with the late Beatle started in a recent interview with Fox 2 Detroit.During the chat, Pang said she met the band members in the summer of 1970 when they were about to break up. Upon that, the interviewer referred to Ono’s offer for her to have an ‘affair’ with Lennon, to which she said:“That was in ’73. That’s fifty years ago. I know it sounds wild, but it’s fifty years ago. You know, I’m sitting in the office, thinking – I hadn’t had my first cup of coffee – ‘What is she saying to me?’ So, this whole thing happened, and I’m sitting there going, ‘But I don’t want him.’ She goes, ‘Oh, I know, but he’s gonna start seeing other people, but I think you’ll be good ’cause you don’t have a boyfriend.’ And I’m going, ‘But I don’t want him.'”
Source: Zehra Kabak/rockcelebrities.net
His idol was only a few doors down, but Billy Joel never took advantage of meeting John Lennon when he was his neighborMeeting John Lennon was a rare privilege and honor for many artists in the music industry. Many idolized The Beatles, and Lennon was a hero for many musicians who rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s. Billy Joel was a massive fan of The Beatles before becoming a famous singer himself, but he never got the chance to meet John Lennon, despite living near him. Billy Joel grew up in Long Island, just outside New York City, in the 1950s and 1960s. New York was the epicenter of the music industry, but the biggest artist during the 1960s came from Liverpool. The Beatles took over the industry, and Beatlemania reached a feverish peak during the 60s, making them the world’s most prominent musical act. In an interview with BBC Radio 2, Joel recalled what it was like to be a Beatles fan at the height of Beatlemania.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
After John Lennon and Paul McCartney reignited their friendship, they toyed with the idea of reuniting The Beatles for a one-off performance.
When The Beatles broke up it broke hearts around the world. The impact of The Beatles' music on popular culture cannot be overstated, as they became the most successful and significant act in music history.
The songwriting partnership of Lennon/McCartney (or McCartney/Lennon depending on your disposition) revolutionised pop music and the way people listened to it. But with unimaginable highs, there will always be inevitable lows, and the Fab Four weren't impervious to the pitfalls of fame, fortune, inflated egos and creative tensions.
Though they were only together for ten years, The Beatles transformed popular music in that time, so called it a day in 1970 having released thirteen studio albums.
Source: Thomas Curtis-Horsfall/goldradiouk.com
Paul McCartney is set to divulge the stories behind some of his most beloved songs in a new podcast titled, McCartney: A Life in Lyrics. The series is set to air on September 20 and features 12 episodes.
The podcast will cover the breadths of McCartney’s longevity in the music industry – from his time with the Beatles, Wings, and his solo career. The episodes will see McCartney digging deep into one song with the help of poet Paul Muldoon.
“I’m a poet – a lover of the lyric poem – and over the past several years I’ve been fortunate to spend time with one of the greatest songwriters of our era, Sir Paul McCartney,” Muldoon said in the teaser trailer for the project.
McCartney and Muldoon previously worked on the book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which also covered McCartney’s songwriting efforts.
“When we listened back to the tapes [of creating that book], we realized something very special was happening here,” Muldoon continued. “It became very clear how much of McCartney’s biography is indeed embedded in the lyrics.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Ringo Starr has shared his thoughts on the upcoming “Last” Beatles song, which has been created by Paul McCartney using help from artificial intelligence.
The track was first teased by McCartney last month during an interview with Radio 4’s Today Programme when he revealed that he’d used AI to help him finish a “final” Beatles song.
According to the legendary songwriter and bassist, the new technology allowed him to “extricate” John Lennon’s vocals from an old demo track, and complete the song over four decades since the Beatles musician’s death.
Now, following a mixed reaction from fans at the idea of the song, which is suspected to be the unreleased 1978 track ‘Now And Then’, the band’s former drummer Starr has shared his thoughts on the project, saying that the final result sounds “beautiful”.
Speaking in an interview with Variety, the musician clarified that the song is made using authentic recordings from the time and that fans needn’t worry about the whole thing being reliant on artificial intelligence.
Source: Liberty Dunworth/nme.com
John Lennon once had to address some controversial comments he made, and Paul McCartney said this was the one time he was ever nervousJohn Lennon was considered the leader of The Beatles, even though he and Paul McCartney shared an equal amount of the spotlight. McCartney said he had plenty of confidence and admired how uncompromising Lennon was with his music and public persona. However, McCartney recalled one time when he could see that Lennon was visibly nervous.
During the 1960s, Beatlemania turned The Beatles into the most prominent musical act in the world. Millions of screaming fans would show up to see the fab four, and the four members were treated like royalty. However, their popularity might have gotten to Lennon’s head as he shared a statement that caused a massive controversy in the U.S.
In 1966, an interview was published with Lennon in London’s Evening Standard where the “In My Life” singer said the band was “more popular than Jesus.”
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon were an incredibly successful songwriting duo. While the Lennon-McCartney name is attached to hundreds of Beatles songs, many were primarily written by either Lennon or McCartney. Lennon wrote plenty of iconic tracks for the band, and McCartney revealed which of his friend’s songs from The Beatles is his favorite.
Lennon had a tragic childhood while growing up in Liverpool. His father abandoned him at a very young age, and his mother was deemed unfit to take care of him. He did have contact with his mother, Julia, but he lived with his Aunt Mimi. In 1958, his mother was struck by a car and killed. Lennon’s complicated emotions toward his parents, especially his mother, often manifested in his music.
Source: msn.com
In 1962, The Beatles fired their first drummer, Pete Best, in order to bring Ringo Starr into the band. While this decision worked out well for The Beatles, it made Best’s life difficult. He explained that people were cruel to him after he left the group, and he eventually retired from music altogether. It didn’t help that his former bandmates spoke poorly of him in public. After a comment made by Starr in an interview, Best sued the band. He ultimately won the defamation lawsuit.While Starr didn’t officially join The Beatles until 1962, he played with them several times before this. The Beatles once joined Starr in backing Hurricanes’ bass player Walter Eymond on a record. When Best was sick, Starr also filled in for him during Beatles performances. The band once discussed this in an interview with Playboy.
Source: msn.com
