Beatles News
“I’m Only Sleeping” stands as one of The Beatles’ songs that was a wee bit too weird for release as a single. But as an album cut on Revolver, it’s a perfect blend of instrumental experimentation and lyrical drollery.
What is the song about? How did it reflect the way that John Lennon liked to spend his free time? And what new recording technique gave the song a boost? Read on to find out all there is to know about “I’m Only Sleeping.”
By the time The Beatles settled in to make Revolver in 1966, their process in the studio had drastically changed. They were taking more and more time to make each record and were fearlessly trying new things. That evolution would really speed up once they quit touring after ’66, but they still tried a ton of new things on Revolver nonetheless.
On “I’m Only Sleeping,” The Beatles added backwards guitar by George Harrison as the key part of the instrumental break. In the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney explained how the group came up with the idea to utilize what was a new technique at the time after a tape was accidentally threaded onto a player backward:
“It played backwards, and, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Those effects! Nobody knew how those sounded then. We said, ‘My God, that is fantastic! Can we do that for real?’… So that was what we did and that was where we discovered backwards guitar. It was a beautiful solo actually. It sounds like something you couldn’t play.”
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in 1969 and, four years later, decided they needed a break from one another. They argued with a rising level of intensity and spent all of their time together. As Lennon spoke about how miserable he felt, Ono pitched a temporary separation. She shared how she brought this up to him.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon decided they needed some time apart. In 1973, Lennon and Ono’s situation became unbearable. They fought constantly and spent all of their time together. While they loved each other, they both reached breaking points. Ono said there wasn’t one big, blowout fight before they decided on a separation, though. She quietly suggested a separation when Lennon complained about feeling unhappy.
“One night John and I were lying in bed in the Dakota, and John kept saying how miserable he was, how he needed to get away,” Ono recalled...
Source: imdb.com
To promote his eighth album Stop And Smell The Roses, Ringo Starr released an 11-minute promotional film, The Cooler, featuring Paul McCartney and a small cast of characters. The film was created to showcase three of the tracks on the album, including two written by McCartney, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 24, 1982.
Conceived by McCartney and produced by his company, MPL Communications, The Cooler was filmed in southwest London in mid-January 1981, and directed by ex-10cc and Godley & Creme bandmates Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The short, set in a dystopian prison policed entirely by women, stars Starr, his wife Barbara Bach, and Paul and Linda McCartney.
Before The Cooler, Starr had already tested his acting skills in the 1968 film Candy, the 1969 comedy The Magic Christian, the surreal Frank Zappa-helmed 200 Motels in 1971, and Lisztomania about the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.
Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com
While the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” evokes a nirvana-esque image of weightlessly floating through the cosmos, the song’s creation and final production was rife with conflict. As the song’s main composer, John Lennon, would later explain, he first had the idea for the iconic track after a lengthy argument with his first wife, Cynthia Lennon.
The Beatles originally released “Across the Universe” in 1969 as part of a charity compilation titled ‘No One’s Gonna Change Our World.’ One year later, producer Phil Spector encouraged the band to revisit the track for their final studio album, ‘Let It Be.’ Lennon, who likened the process of writing “Across the Universe” to a possession, never felt like the band allowed the song to live up to its full potential.
The Surprising Origins Of The Song’s First Verse
“Across the Universe” emphasizes a feeling of tumbling through zero gravity from the first line, both in lyrical content and meter. Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, the song begins. They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe. While it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume Lennon was talking about something more transcendental, like meditation, he was actually referring to his wife.
According to Lennon, the idea came after Cynthia Lennon irritated John right before bed. “She must have been going on and on about something, and she’d gone to sleep, and I’d kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream,” he explained to David Sheff in All We Are Saying (via Beatles Bible). “I went downstairs, and it turned into sort of a cosmic song rather than an irritated song; rather than a ‘Why are you always mouthing off at me?’ or whatever, right?”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
George Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove on 25 February 1943. A blue plaque commemorating the life of Beatles legend George Harrison has been unveiled at his childhood home.
His widow Olivia Harrison, who revealed the tribute at the house in Arnold Grove, Liverpool, said it was "a source of family pride".
Harrison lived at the terraced house in the Wavertree district of the city until he was seven. The plaque is one of the first official English Heritage blue plaques to be put on a property outside London.
In his memoirs, Harrison, who was born in 1943, said: “To look at, it is just like Coronation Street: no garden, door straight on to the street. It was OK that house, very pleasant being little and it was always sunny in summer.”
Olivia said Harrison had fond memories of "very tight knit secure family life". "There was something about these small family places and how you learn to respect other people's space," she said. "He had a freedom where he could go run down the alley and visit his nan and then back home. That was a big deal for a little five-year-old kid.
"This was his cocoon, and out of that came such an incredible man with such vision and compassion and sensibility."
Often called “the quiet Beatle”, Harrison's song-writing credits include While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes the Sun. He was the first of the Fab Four to top the charts after their split with the single My Sweet Lord in 1970.
Deeply influenced by eastern traditions, the guitarist learned to play the sitar with legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar and pioneered fundraising concerts with his 1971 Concert For Bangladesh.
Source: Rumeana Jahangir/bbc.com
Ringo Starr’s solo career hit heights in the ’70s that even his ex-Beatle bandmates could envy. After that career staggered through the ’80s, Starr tried to bounce back with the 1992 single “Weight of the World,” a song that was a musical throwback, even as its lyrics warned about the dangers of living in the past.
What is “Weight of the World” about? Why was Starr looking for a comeback? And did the single achieve what it set out to do? Find out all the information about a song that’s one of the finest in Starr’s post-Beatles career, even though not a lot of casual fans know much about it.
The late ’80s and early ’90s were prime time for artists who had made their bones in the ’60s and ’70s to deliver comeback albums, often with star-studded casts attached. Ringo Starr was hoping to catch that wave in 1992 with the album Time Takes Time. It was his first album release in nine years.
The previous few in his catalog had failed to light any kind of spark with the listening public. In fact, Starr’s star had fallen so far that his 1983 LP Old Wave failed to earn a release in either the U.S. or UK. Even with Time Takes Time, he had to scramble before finding a label.
The good news is Starr had cleaned himself up in the long interim between albums after years of drug and alcohol abuse. That put him in the right mind to record again. And, as was the case back in the ’70s when he was at his peak, he could count on a lot of industry friends to step up and help him out.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
The childhood home of George Harrison is available for people to stay in as an Airbnb.
The Beatles guitarist moved into the terraced house at 25 Upton Green in Speke in 1949 when he was six years old, and remained there until the 1960s. It was during his time at the house George met Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and the three held some of their first rehearsals there.
Wanting to share his passion with other music fans, Ken Lambert, from New Hampshire, bought the house when it went under the hammer with Omega Auctions in 2022. Since then, he has added a mural on the outside of the rear garden and added props throughout the rooms.
Ken told the ECHO: "I’m a massive fan of The Beatles - especially George, so that’s why I decided to buy the place. I spent a few months getting it ready in 2022 before opening it to fans, fixing the decor and making it more interesting for fans. We have added some great photo opportunities as well.
“It’s been great to share my passion with others and I love seeing people being able to enjoy it. Reading the reviews from fans, of people who have stayed overnight, is great. It’s nice to see so many people appreciate and love it as much as I do.”
Source: Charlotte Hadfield/liverpoolecho.co.uk
Relive the music of iconic songwriter, musician and founding member of the Beatles in Crystal Lake this summer.
SoundTracks of a Generation presents “The Lennon Project,” a 100-minute retrospective of the songs and life of John Lennon, at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 15 at Raue Center for the Arts.
According to a news release from the Raue Center, the show will feature Jay Goeppner assuming the role of Lennon. Together with his SoundTracks band, Goeppner will take the audience on a chronological soundscape of Lennon’s career, from his time with the Beatles to his solo work.
The first half of the show will cover the Beatles’ decision to stop touring and focus on music composed in the studio, leading to iconic albums like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Rubber Soul,” “Revolver,” “The Beatles,” “Abbey Road” and the rooftop concert for “Let It Be.”
The second half of the show will delve into Lennon’s solo career, featuring songs from The Plastic Ono Band to his signature albums “Imagine,” “Sometime In New York City,” “Mind Games,” “Walls & Bridges” and “Rock & Roll.” The show will conclude with selections from Lennon and Yoko Ono’s final recording, “Double Fantasy,” released just before his death on Dec. 8, 1980.
The show will also include multimedia images to create a monumental musical and emotional impact that Lennon brought to the world.
Source: shawlocal.com
Of all the things one might see on a shift as an Indiana state trooper, a lone Ringo Starr asking for a joy ride in your cop car isn’t likely top of mind. But such was the case for three lucky policemen who chose to remain nameless when the Indianapolis Star first reported on the strange encounter in September 1964. (After all, there were probably rules about giving celebrities tours of the city while on duty.)
The Beatles had made their way to the Hoosier State to perform at the State Fair Coliseum in the capital city on September 3, where they played to nearly 30,000 people. With Beatlemania on the rise, the quartet opted to stay in unsuspectingly humble accommodations at the Speedway Motel. That’s where the state troopers first encountered Starr, sitting by himself outside of the motel.
The Beatle Asked The Cops For A Tour Of The City
Per the Indianapolis Star, the Liverpudlian drummer approached the group of policemen and said, “Can’t sleep, chums. Suppose we could go for a bit of a ride in the country?” While Beatlemania was still on the rise, Starr and the rest of his bandmates were certainly well-recognized celebrities by this point, and the Indiana state troopers happily obliged.
The cops let Starr ride along in their car while they drove the Beatle past Monument Circle, the Governor’s Mansion, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Years later, during a 1989 visit to Late Night with David Letterman, Starr admitted to getting behind the wheel of the cop car at one point. When another LEO vehicle began pursuing their cruiser, the drummer said, “We had to drive up an alley and turn the lights out to hide” (via Indianapolis Monthly).
The troopers’ initial 1964 recollection didn’t include the Brit getting into the driver’s seat of a cop car, but it did include several quips the musician made to the police officers throughout his joy ride. “When he saw the Governor’s Mansion, he asked if the fence was to keep the governor in or the people out,” one policeman recalled.
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
The John Lennon Estate and Universal Music have announced a reissue of John Lennon's 1973 album Mind Games in expanded Ultimate Collection editions on July 12.
The Lennon Estate and Universal Music note that the upcoming six-CD and two Blu-ray collection deluxe box set offers "an immersive, deep listening experience and in-depth exploration of this classic, yet underappreciated record."
The deluxe edition, which is authorized by Yoko Ono Lennon and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, is from the same audio team that worked on the critically acclaimed Imagine and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Ultimate Collections. This team includes triple Grammy-Award winning engineer Paul Hicks and mixers/engineers Sam Gannon and Rob Stevens.
Source: RTTNews
