Beatles News
The Beatles’ landmark 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has been lauded more than just about any album in rock history. People talk about the concept, about the cover, about the way the album represented a new start for the Fab Four as a studio band who no longer played live. That’s all good stuff, for sure. But without the brilliance of individual songs like “She’s Leaving Home,” it’s impossible to imagine Pepper’s creating the impact that it did.“She’s Leaving Home” stands out as one of the loveliest and saddest songs on that or any other Beatles album, a piercing short story set against a beautiful, classical music-inspired backdrop. Because it wasn’t a hit single (there were no singles released from that record), many fans might not know the story behind it. How did Paul McCartney’s innocent perusal of the morning paper set the song in motion? What counterintuitive role did John Lennon play on the song? And why did it cause some hard feelings with George Martin, the band’s longtime producer? All the answers and more can be found below as we look back to this incredible musical accomplishment.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney and John Lennon did not have a perfect relationship, but they reportedly harmonized in songwriting.
The Beatles lasted for a decade, and the band's career had also been plagued by controversies especially because of the beef between McCartney and Lennon. They eventually split due to different reasons, including Brian Epstein's death, Lennon's heroin use and his relationship with Yoko Ono, the issue of the Beatlemania phenomenon and McCartney's domineering.
McCartney-Lennon's partnership was not made to last that even other musicians knew it would come to an end one day despite the pairing's success.
However, McCartney recently opened up about their connection while promoting the paperback edition of his book "The Lyrics 1956 to the Present."
He spoke about his and Lennon's conflict, saying they worked hard not to fight during their songwriting processes.
"There was never much battling because if someone said, 'I like this better', it was generally a better idea. So you'd give into each other as long as it was a better idea," he shared. "There weren't many disputes because we were writing like this [facing each other] with acoustic guitars. And y'know I'm coming up with a bit of a line and then he's following it up; just ping-ponging ideas."
Source: Angeline Sicily/musictimes.com
On the latest episode of the McCartney: A Life in Lyrics podcast series, Paul McCartney looks back at The Beatles’ hard-rocking 1968 song “Helter Skelter,” which some people cite as an inspiration for the heavy metal genre. McCartney revealed that he was inspired to write the tune by a quote he’d read from a key member of another famous British Invasion band, The Who.“[I]t was [Who guitarist and songwriter] Pete Townshend talking about, ‘We have just recorded the loudest, dirtiest, rockiest thing ever,’” McCartney recalled. “And I loved that description. I just thought, ‘Wow, what a great idea. So what we’ve got to do is something loud and raucous and dirty [too].’”
McCartney remembered that he then went to the studio and told his Beatles bandmates, “I just read about Pete saying this, and I think it’s really a great idea. Let’s just see how loud you can get and how raucous and … let’s just try and really make the meters peak.”
As the podcast explained, The Beatles spent a lot of time working on “Helter Skelter,” recording several takes, including one that ran more than 27 minutes long. At the end of the tune, drummer Ringo Starr can famously be heard yelling, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!”
Source: Matt Friedlander/americansongwriter.com
After the Beatles broke up, the fab four all went their separate ways with their careers. Paul McCartney went solo and formed the band Wings, George Harrison produced multiple outstanding solo albums, and Ringo Starr did… whatever Ringo Starr did.
John Lennon also went off to make his own music. He didn’t do it alone though. Alongside his wife Yoko Ono, Lennon formed the Plastic Ono Band. Ono has erroneously been blamed as the reason the Beatles originally broke up, but by the time they did disband, it was clear that Lennon’s priorities were in artistic projects with his new wife.
The band was first conceived of as a “Fluxus” band that emphasised the means of producing art over the finished product. Breaking out of many of the trademarks that the Beatles first curated on the music scene, the Plastic Ono Band was formed in 1968 as a multi-media art project more than a typical rock band.
Ono and Lennon had worked together extensively on music, collaborating on songs that Lennon would record with the Beatles, and performing live with the Scouse singer-songwriter throughout the end of the 60s.
Some of the first major acts of the Plastic Ono Band – really just the pair – were their “Bed-in for Peace” events. They used these awareness raising events to record music, including ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Remember Love’, the first singles the band released and that Lennon had released outside of the Beatles.
Source: euronews.com
Teenage girls scaled fire escapes and hid in garbage cans outside a downtown Minneapolis motel in hopes of getting a peek at the Beatles when the band came to town in 1965.
The chaotic scene — Minneapolis' first and only taste of true Beatlemania — took place hours after the band's concert at Bloomington's Metropolitan Stadium. It drew a stern response from the Minneapolis Police Department, whose attempts to enforce a curfew gave the Fab Four the impression that this was a "very narrowminded town."
Reader Carol Becker heard from a friend that police were taken aback by the disorderly crowds that August night. Becker contacted Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune's reader-driven community reporting project to find out just how wild it was — as teen girls once again descend upon Minneapolis this weekend to see Taylor Swift at U.S. Bank Stadium.
"Is it true there was a riot of 15-year-olds here when the Beatles came?" Becker asked.
To answer the question, we turned to our archives and some local Beatlemaniacs, who painted a picture of a wild, unforgettable night — but not quite a riot.
Source: Zoë Jackson, Star Tribune
The Beatles dominated Christmas during the 1960s. A colossal, record-shattering success, the Fab Four helped completely reinvent pop culture, and were rewarded with an unprecedented four Christmas No. 1 singles.
‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Hello, Goodbye’ all stormed their way to the top of the charts, despite never actually mentioning snow, ice, mistletoe, or the big day itself.
Indeed, The Beatles kept their Christmas missives to their fan club members. Aware that the sheer volume of letters being received meant that replies couldn’t always be sent out in a timely manner, the band decided to record limited edition Flexi-discs, which were sent out as festive treats.
Usually it was knockabout stuff – the odd recording, a few messages here and there, maybe a Christmas joke or two – but in 1967 the band decided to go all out. The disc had a coherent theme, while a raucous poem from John Lennon – in a Scottish accent, no less – illustrated his bizarre, Joycean grasp of the English language; indeed, the poem is a kind of mirror to the joyous nonsense that fuelled ‘I Am The Walrus’ earlier that year.
Source: clashmusic.com
Together Sir Paul McCartney and the late John Lennon are the most successful songwriting partnership in music history.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that when Macca speaks out on that intimate creative relationship, fans of The Beatles are all ears.
The 81-year-old recently posted a clip on the subject, promoting the paperback edition of his book The Lyrics 1956 to the Present, which has seven new song commentaries.
Asked about conflict during songwriting with Lennon, he said: “There was never that much battling, because if someone said, ‘I like this better’, it was generally a better idea. So you’d give into each other as long as it was a better idea.”
McCartney continued: “There weren’t many disputes because we were writing like this [facing each other] with acoustic guitars. And y’know I’m coming up with a bit of a line and then he’s following it up; just ping-ponging ideas. I look back on it and think, ‘Yeah you were a good collaborator’. At the time, it just felt good and we respected each other.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
The Beatles dominated Christmas during the 1960s. A colossal, record-shattering success, the Fab Four helped completely reinvent pop culture, and were rewarded with an unprecedented four Christmas No. 1 singles.
‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘I Feel Fine’, ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Hello, Goodbye’ all stormed their way to the top of the charts, despite never actually mentioning snow, ice, mistletoe, or the big day itself.
Indeed, The Beatles kept their Christmas missives to their fan club members. Aware that the sheer volume of letters being received meant that replies couldn’t always be sent out in a timely manner, the band decided to record limited edition Flexi-discs, which were sent out as festive treats.
Usually it was knockabout stuff – the odd recording, a few messages here and there, maybe a Christmas joke or two – but in 1967 the band decided to go all out. The disc had a coherent theme, while a raucous poem from John Lennon – in a Scottish accent, no less – illustrated his bizarre, Joycean grasp of the English language; indeed, the poem is a kind of mirror to the joyous....
Source: clashmusic.com
Right from the first play of Strawberry Fields, the reverse instrumentation sounds as though it is leaving the speakers and floating into the air.
On With a Little Help From My Friends, the backing vocals are more distinctive and brighter. The backward top line and melody on I Am The Walrus soars.
During Hello Goodbye every glorious nuance shines through the spinning blue vinyl record. Paul McCartney’s melancholic masterpiece The Fool On The Hill sounds particularly evocative with those enhanced wistful flutes. Magical Mystery Tour is one of those Beatles tracks that suggest a blue-print for Oasis with that brilliantly raspy vocal and up-tempo rock melody.
The track list has been expanded which might take a bit of getting used to for some. New life is breathed into the work which has been mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos by Giles Martin at Abbey Road studios. The most significant addition is the recent single Now And Then which was originally a John Lennon demo recorded in 1977 at the Dakota building in New York. Yoko Ono gifted the track to the remaining Beatles back in 1994 along with Free As A Bird and Real Love.
Source: Richard Purden/theedinburghreporter.co.uk
Fans of The Beatles only have a couple more weeks to make it to Cleveland to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s The Beatles: Get Back to Let It Be exhibit.
The exhibit was created as a compliment to Peter Jackson’s Emmy Award-winning docuseries Get Back. After a nearly two-year run it’s set to close on January 10.
As part of The Beatles celebration, the Rock Hall has been hosting “Beatles Friday” events — the last one is scheduled for December 29 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It includes a screening of The Beatles Rooftop Concert, which was their last live performance, and “From The Vault,” featuring memorable clips of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison from the Rock Hall’s induction stage.
There’s also a Beatles trivia game show, with prizes awarded to winners; a Beatles set performed by the Rock Hall’s house band, The Mechanics; and fan meetups.
Source: kshe95.com
