Beatles News
When Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunited The Beatles for their 1995 Anthology 1 in the early ’90s, they revisited a song John Lennon had written but never released. Set as a bonus track on the anthology, the three Beatles started working on “Free As a Bird,” originally written and recorded by Lennon in 1977 but never completed.
A simple piano demo, “Free As A Bird” was recorded by Lennon at his home in the Dakota Building in New York City. Though he never completed it in the studio, it was one of the songs he recorded to cassette during his “Househusband” period between 1975 and 1980.
As Anthology 1 was in the works, the former Beatles used Lennon’s previously recorded vocals from the demo. To complete the song, the three added their vocals to more verses, along with instrumentation. Lennon’s vocals were then weaved throughout the track, something co-producer Jeff Lynne achieved by using analog technology and tricks. To complete the song “entailed doing whatever manipulations [Geoff] Emerick [engineer] and [Jeff] Lynne could achieve to help bring out Lennon’s voice above the piano which was playing along with him,” recounted engineer Marc Mann in 1996, “as well as adding whatever effect onto his voice to give it that ‘Strawberry Fields’-Lennon sound.”
Source: Tina Benitez-Eves/americansongwriter.com
This week’s podcast episode of A Life in Lyrics sees Paul McCartney looking back on the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band track, A Day in the Life.
The Beatles' classic 1967 track is attributed to Lennon-McCartney but was mainly written by John Lennon with Macca contributing to the song’s middle section.
Reflecting on the opening lyrics about a “lucky man who made the grade”, McCartney wondered if the words were inspired by Lennon’s own struggles.
The 81-year-old said: “When John would bring these things in, it's only these days that I would say, ‘Was he talking about himself? Was there some sort of psychological aspect where he's a lucky man who made the grade?’
Mike McCartney, Paul McCartney's brother, was the original Beatles drummer
“And John did, around about this time, get a little bit out in Weybridge doing drugs. And we were a little disillusioned because we'd sort of given up playing live. So him bringing that in, I would just go with the picture that he was painting.”
McCartney also shared how the pressures of Beatles fame inspired Sgt Pepper’s: “Here's the idea. We are these four space cadets. We're just these four people in this slightly weird band. But what it's going to do is. Going to free us up.
“So we're not going to be the Beatles, which we are now getting a little bit sort of inhibited by, having to be those boys. We'll now just chuck all that away and we'd be these guys.”
Macca also spoke of Lennon’s love of history and Churchill when reflecting on the lyrics “I saw a film today, oh boy/The English Army had just won the war”.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Model and photographer Pattie Boyd is selling handwritten lyrics and personal letters that reveal her relationships with late Beatle George Harrison and guitarist and singer Eric Clapton.
Boyd, who turns 80 on Sunday, was married to both musicians, inspiring songs such as Harrison's "Something" and Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight" and "Layla".
More than 100 lots, including jewellery, clothes, photographs, handwritten lyrics and drawings by Harrison, are for sale in the "The Pattie Boyd Collection", which runs for auction online at Christie's until March 22.
"If I had one big treasure chest that explained me and my life, all these items here would be in it ... these are all examples of the wonderful life I have been living," Boyd told Reuters at a press preview on Thursday.
Lots leading the sale include the original artwork chosen by Clapton for the cover of Derek and The Dominos 1970 album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs", with an estimated sale price of 40,000-60,000 pounds ($51,228-$76,842) and original handwritten lyrics for Harrison’s 1982 song "Mystical One" (30,000-50,000 pounds).
Source: Natasha Mulenga/reuters.com
The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover is one of the most iconic in the world - and it features a man who accidentally photobombed the Fab Four as they walked across a zebra crossing
The 'mystery man' on the cover of The Beatles' famous Abbey Road album ended up being part of the world's most epic photobomb. We've all jumped into a photo for fun when we're out and about. But this guy became part of music history without even trying.
On the front of The Beatles' Abbey Road record from 1969, you can see the band crossing a road in a line. But if you look closely, there's a man standing by the road in the background. He's one of the few people caught in the snap, and he didn't mean to be there.
This man, dressed in a brown coat and white shirt, was found years later after numerous people came forward claiming to be him. He's actually an American tourist called Paul Cole, who was waiting for his wife when the picture was taken. He told The Mirror: "[I told her] 'I've seen enough museums. I'll just stay out here and see what's going on outside'."
Source: mirror.co.uk
The Story Behind “Eight Days a Week” by The Beatles, Which Topped the Charts 59 Years Ago. The Beatles’ classic pop hit “Eight Days a Week” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 13, 1965. The song was the Fab Four’s seventh single to top the Hot 100 in just over a year, the first being “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which peaked at No. 1 in February 1964.
“Eight Days a Week,” which spent two weeks at the top of the Hot 100, replaced and was replaced, respectively, by a pair of classic Motown tunes— The Temptations’ “My Girl” and The Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love.”
“Eight Days a Week” wasn’t issued as a single in the U.K., and made its first appearance as a track on the 1964 U.K. album Beatles for Sale. In the U.S., the song was released as a single in February 1965, and later appeared on the 1965 U.S. album Beatles VI.
Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com
The Beatles‘ “Love Me Do” is one of those bubblegum pop songs like The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer” or The Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” that is perfect in its simplicity. Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon had no idea what they were doing when they wrote the song. John said the tune was markedly different from later Beatles tunes like “Penny Lane.”
Paul McCartney need help from ‘grown-ups’ during The Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’ era
During a 2012 interview with The Independent, Paul recalled what it was like writing songs with John during the “Love Me Do” era. “Writing songs we’d never done, except that when John and I first met, one of our conversations was: ‘What do you do?’ ‘Oh, you’ve written a couple of songs.’ ‘Oh, I’ve written a couple too,'” he recalled. “So we showed our songs to each other and agreed they weren’t...
Source: imdb.com
They came together.
Paul McCartney during his headlining set at England’s Glastonbury Festival Saturday — also the last night of his “Got Back” tour — made sure to get back with a bang.
The former Beatle, who celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this month, teased “a little surprise” for the crowd at the famed Pyramid Stage roughly 30 minutes ahead of his set’s scheduled end time just before midnight.
“My friend, your hero, from the West Coast of America… Dave Grohl!” McCartney said as he introduced the Foo Fighters frontman, 53.
The pair promptly started playing “I Saw Her Standing There.”
McCartney then asked Grohl to explain the long and winding journey he’d had to take to get to the U.K., which included two canceled flights on Wednesday and Thursday.
“But I swear, I would never miss being right here with you, right now,” said Grohl.
“Well, thanks, Dave. That’s so much appreciated,” said McCartney.
The pair went on to play “Band on the Run,” before McCartney let slip another surprise, this one hailing from the East Coast.
“From New Jersey… Mr. Bruce Springsteen!” said McCartney to an excited crowd.
Source: Jami Ganz, New York Daily News
Ringo Starr's bandmates grew accustomed to his "Ringoisms." They used them to inspire the titles of two classic Beatles songs.
Of all The Beatles, Ringo Starr wrote the fewest songs for the band. He was more interested in supporting his bandmates’ writing with his drumming. Still, Starr played an important role in the inception of a couple of classic Beatles songs. His “Ringoisms” inspired the titles of two songs.
Practically as soon as Starr joined The Beatles, his bandmates grew accustomed to his unique way of speaking. He often coined phrases that they’d never heard before.
“Ringo would always say grammatically incorrect phrases and we’d all laugh,” George Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology. “I remember when we were driving back to Liverpool from Luton up the M1 motorway in Ringo’s Zephyr, and the car’s bonnet hadn’t been latched properly. The wind got under it and blew it up in front of the windscreen. We were all shouting, ‘Aaaargh!’ and Ringo calmly said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll soon have you back in your safely-beds.’”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
The singer is the latest in a long line of brilliant artists who've tapped the experimental spirit of the Fab Four's 1965 masterpiece Rubber Soul
Ariana Grande has a whole new era—or should we say, it has her? Her excellent new Eternal Sunshine is a bold personal statement, with her most inventive, pained, reflective songs. “It’s kind of a concept album,” the pop queen said in February. “‘Cause it’s all different heightened pieces of the same story, of the same experience.” So no wonder she’s taking inspiration from the crazy boys who invented the concept album: The Beatles. In a NYC playback session for Eternal Sunshine, the pop queen revealed that she made this amazing album while listening obsessively to the Fab Four’s 1965 classic Rubber Soul. Some of you might not be ready to hear this, but make no mistake: Ariana is the ultimate Beatles geek.
You can hear that secret Rubber Soul connection all over the album, in her combination of sonic experimentation and raw emotion. She fills each track with trippy secret details you might miss the first few listens. Her Number One single “Yes And” has Beatles-inspired flutes in the break—but she felt people didn’t notice them enough on the single. So for the album, she mixed them way the hell up, so they ring out loud and clear. She’s passionate about details like this. At the playback, she actually wrote “Enter Flutes” on a napkin and held it up to make sure nobody would miss them. (A very Paul thing to do.) That’s the hardcore Beatlemaniac nerd behavior we all need and deserve.
Two of Ariana’s favorite Rubber Soul moments in the music: the psychedelic murk of “Intro (End of the World)” and the head-spinning guitar swirl of “Imperfect for You.” But the connection goes deeper than that—you can hear it in the honesty of her songs. Like Rubber Soul, Eternal Sunshine is an album of painful romances with no happy endings. Ariana sings about looking back at lovers and friends she still can recall, in her life. These are love songs, but they take place in a world where love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight.
Source: Rob Sheffield/rollingstone.com
We have so much for which we should thank The Beatles that it’s impossible to narrow it down to one thing. How about we start with the notion that popular music might be a much duller construct without them? Because they restlessly pushed ahead instead of settling for what they’d previously done, they shattered all the boundaries of what listeners could expect.
Songs You Didn't Know Were Digs At Other Musicians—John Lennon, Bob Dylan & More
Let’s focus on five times when The Beatles discovered and/or created innovations they then added to their tracks, and marvel at just how fearless they were. The Fade-Up in “Eight Days a Week”
This track was originally considered as a song for The Beatles’ second film (originally titled Eight Arms to Hold You before being changed to Help!). On the surface, it’s a pretty straightforward up-tempo rocker which utilized one of Ringo Starr‘s unorthodox idioms for a title. But the band decided that they’d do something a little different to start the song. Instead of just kicking into the music at full volume like most songs did, they instead faded up the intro, reversing the process of a fade-out at song’s end. It made the moment when John Lennon tears into the lyrics that much more exciting.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
