Beatles News
John Lennon said that the lyrics of The Beatles' "Revolution" contained some commentary on how people should interact with cops.John Lennon said The Beatles‘ “Revolution” wasn’t attacking the concept of revolution. In addition, he said it contained some commentary on how people should interact with cops. Notably, he regretted writing one lyric from “Revolution.” In The Beatles’ “Revolution,” John famously sings “But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” In a 1971 interview from the book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, the “Imagine” singer criticized the line. “The thing I regret was making a reference to Chairman Mao, which might spoil any chances I have of going to visit China,” he said. “I’d love to go and see what’s happening there. But I wrote the Chairman Mao line in the studio ’cause I didn’t have any words.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney said The Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four" was meant to be a joke. In addition, he explained how The Beatles' producer changed the song to give it some vitality.Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four” was meant to be a joke. In addition, he explained how The Beatles’ producer changed the song to give it some vitality. Notably, the tune was the Fab Four’s best foray into a certain genre.In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul recalled adding “When I’m Sixty-Four” to the tracklist of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. “‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ was a case of me looking for stuff to do for Pepper,” he said.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
A click track helps musicians stay in sync, but Ringo Starr has never felt he needed to use it. The Beatles’ drummer has worked with a number of musicians over the years, and many have noted his impeccable timekeeping. He said that part of this talent comes from his belief that no musician is perfect. This knowledge allows him to better keep time with the other musicians in a band.
Guitarist Steve Lukather has worked with Starr in his All-Starr Band and finds himself endlessly impressed with the former Beatles’ skill.
“Ringo’s brilliant, man, very soulful, and a bad-a** drummer,” Lukather said, per The San Diego Union-Tribune. “Ringo is the chicken that laid the first egg for all the rest of the drummers in the world. There would not be any of these other rock drummers, if not for him … The grooves he plays are such an important thing. And he’s never played to a click track. He said: ‘I am the click track’!”
Starr explained that he saw the click track as a detriment to his playing.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
The beginning of 1969 in London, weather-wise, was a miserable affair. February and March were the coldest they'd been all decade, and spring seemed like it would never come. George Harrison's mental state mirrored the frigid weather, per "All Together Now: The Abc of the Beatles Songs and Albums." He had temporarily quit The Beatles during a recording session for the album "Let It Be," frustrated by Paul McCartney's controlling nature, among other issues, according to Newsweek. Then he got tonsillitis and temporarily lost his singing voice before being busted for marijuana possession, which at the time meant a possible prison sentence.
Source: Andrew Amelinckx/grunge.com
When it comes to sketching out his concert setlists, Paul McCartney must suffer from a veritable embarrassment of riches. In the United States alone, he has authored or co-authored 32 number-one songs — enough to comprise a single live performance all by themselves. And this doesn't even begin to account for perennial Beatles- and Wings-era favorites like the Abbey Road medley or "Live and Let Die," which are showstoppers in and of themselves.
Paul McCartney's "1964: Eyes of the Storm" makes for a truly elegant collection of photographs, a Beatle's-eye-view, if you will, of the fabled group's spectacular rise to international superstardom. Comprised of some 275 never-before-seen images, McCartney's photographs brilliantly capture the onset of Beatlemania both within and beyond the shores of the Beatles' homeland.
"1964: Eyes of the Storm" pointedly begins after the band's national ascendancy during their performance on the October 13th installment of Val Parnell's popular variety show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. With "She Loves You" burning up the charts, the Palladium served as Ground Zero for the fan frenzy that was so peculiar to the Beatles' fame. By beginning his photograph narrative a few months hence, in December 1963, McCartney's book demonstrates the Beatles and their circle in the act of not only consolidating their brand but conquering the global music scene.
Source: Kenneth Womack/salon.com
The Beatles often experimented with recording techniques to improve their sound. However, the band never perfected the new music technologies that were emerging then, leading to some sloppy versions of their songs. One Beatles song, in particular, got “destroyed” by the constant tampering of it, according to John Lennon.
“Revolution” was released in 1968 as the B-side to “Hey Jude.” While the song got Lennon’s political views out there, it wasn’t the version he liked. The track has been released multiple times with different variations. “Revolution 1” was recorded before the official release and is noticeably slower. Paul McCartney and George Harrison believed “Revolution 1” was too slow to be a single, so they released a faster version.
In a 1974 interview for New York’s WNEW-FM, Lennon acknowledged many differences between stereo and mono mixes and pointed to “Revolution” as an example of why remixing-in-mono can sometimes make songs worse.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison’s son, Dhani, grew up surrounded by legendary musicians. Harrison had many friends in the industry who would visit often, and Dhani got to know many stars that the average person could only dream of meeting. Reflecting on his childhood, Dhani said it was “mindbending” to see so many rock stars just casually hanging out in his house. George Harrison was friends with many classic rock stars. In addition to the other members of The Beatles, Harrison was also close with the members of The Traveling Wilburys, which included Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne. He was also close friends with guitarist Eric Clapton.Since he worked closely with these excellent musicians, they often recorded and rehearsed at his home studio. Harrison’s son, Dhani, grew accustomed to coming home from school and seeing some legendary rock star. While many would consider him lucky, it did give him an interesting perspective on his situation.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
On November 4, 1963, the Beatles played at the Prince of Wales Theatre, in London, exuberant, exhausted, and defiant. “For our last number, I’d like to ask your help,” John Lennon cried out to the crowd. “Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry.” Two weeks later, the band made their first appearance on American television, on NBC’s “Huntley-Brinkley Report.” “The hottest musical group in Great Britain today is the Beatles,” the reporter Edwin Newman said. “That’s not a collection of insects but a quartet of young men with pudding-bowl haircuts.” And, four days after that, “CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace” broadcast a four-minute report from “Beatleland,” by the London correspondent Alexander Kendrick. “The Beatles are said by sociologists to have a deeper meaning,” Kendrick reported. “Some say they are the authentic voice of the proletariat.” Everyone searched for that deeper meaning. The Beatles found it hard to take the search seriously.
Source: Jill Lepore/newyorker.com
A majority of The Beatles’ songs were relatively short because that’s what fits better for radio play. Besides ‘Hey Jude’, most of their hits were three or four minutes. In one of his more experimental modes, Paul McCartney developed a 15-minute song that he got The Beatles to play with him. It’s still never been released, but the former Beatle said it could see the light someday.
There are many rumored, unreleased songs from The Beatles that fans have been scouring for. One of these mythical tracks is “Carnival of Light”, an “avant-garde” 15-minute instrumental track created by McCartney. The song emerged when David Vaughan, a friend of McCartney’s, asked him to record music for an event called The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave or the Carnival of Light Rave.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Listen, do you want to know a secret? It's probably not a great sign when you need three directors to finish one movie, but alas, the upcoming Beatles manager movie, Midas Man, has finally reached post-production after a very turbulent production.
Deadline reports that Joe Stephenson “quietly” took over the reins of the film sometime this year and finished the filming aspect of the production. The film is now in post-production and he took over for Sara Sugarman after “creative differences” and “scheduling issues.”
But even Sugarman wasn't the first director in place for this Beatles film. Jonas åkerlund was originally set to direct the film but left during the shoot due to disagreements with the producers.
This particular Beatles film revolves around Brian Epstein (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), the famous manager of the Fab Four. Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan, Lukas Gage, and Bill Milner also star in the film. Rosie Day will play Cilla Black and Jey Leno will play legendary talk show host Ed Sullivan.
All four of the Beatles will also be in the film. Jonah Lees plays John Lennon, Blake Richardson plays Paul McCartney, Leo Harvey Elledge plays George Harrison, and Campbell Wallace plays Ringo Starr.
Source: Andrew Korpan/clutchpoints.com
