Beatles News
John Lennon once explained how Salvador Dalí and boredom inspired The Beatles' butcher cover. He contrasted it with the cover of his album 'Some Time in New York City'.
Even today, The Beatles‘ butcher cover is one of the most controversial album covers in classic rock history. John Lennon once explained how Salvador Dalí inspired the Fab Four’s disturbing album art. He also contrasted the reception of that album cover with another one created by Yoko Ono that features a nude Richard Nixon.
The Beatles’ butcher cover shows the Fab Four dressed like butchers, smiling, and covered in raw meat and dismembered baby doll parts. It’s pretty unsettling, especially for a band once known for cute hits like “Eight Days a Week!” During a 1980 interview from the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John gave fans insight into the image.
“That was a repackage for the Americans called Yesterday and Today,” he recalled. “The original cover was The Beatles in white coats with figs ‘n’ dead bits o’ meat and dolls cut up. It was inspired by our boredom and resentment at having to do another photo session and another Beatles thing. We were sick to death of it. Also, the photographer was into Dalí and making surreal pictures. That combination produced that cover.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr reveals his favorite albums that he can’t live without. The Beatles’s drummer Ringo Starr shares his 5 albums of all time.
Ringo Starr, the legendary drummer of the iconic band The Beatles, is a memorable part of music history, his rhythmic beats and characteristic style leaving an eternal mark on the fabric of popular culture. Starr’s musical career began long before the global phenomenon of The Beatles took the world by storm in the 1960s, when he was born Richard Starkey in Liverpool, England.
Starr was famous for his unique drumming style, which his constant precision and attractive groove could identify. He was instrumental in shaping the sound and popularity of the Fab Four, contributing to their unequaled musical legacy.
Ringo Starr also earned several awards and honors over his long career, including entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Beatles and for his solo work. His influence as a musician, songwriter, and peace advocate has established his place as a beloved and respected figure in the international music community.
Source: Yunus Emre/metalshout.com
George Harrison was the lead guitar player in perhaps the most well-known band of all time. That’s The Beatles, of course. But many music fans may not know that Harrison was also the big-name principal co-founder of another formidable supergroup. That’s the Traveling Wilburys.
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That band featured the likes of Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Together, the all-star collection of artists wrote songs, sang together, and recorded two LPs, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 and Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
From the Traveling Wilburys’ second album, the strangely named 1990 LP, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (indeed, where is Vol. 2?), this song, like all when it comes to the supergroup, features writing credits from each and every member. And while Petty sings the lead vocals for the track, it’s easy to hear the former Beatle’s influence on the track, both in the chorus and the verse and the acoustic guitar underneath it all.
You took my breath away
I want it back again
Look at the mess I’m in
I don’t know what to say
I don’t know how to feel
You don’t care anyway
All I can do is wait
You took my breath away
Source:Jacob Uitti/americansongwriter.com
Nearly six decades have passed since The Beatles first stepped foot in America, but one of their own enjoyed a sneak peek of the states months before his close comrades. That included a brief, yet monumental trip to southern Illinois.
In 1963, The Beatles released their first two studio albums and several chart-topping singles to critical acclaim, and it was only a matter of time until they ventured full force to the United States. The Beatles agreed to a small break in September in which all four band members planned to travel, recharge, and learn more about life away from their England roots.
Lead guitarist George Harrison ended up in southern Illinois for several days. Archives from BeatlesBible.com note that he flew into New York and caught a connecting flight to St. Louis before a roughly hour-and-a-half car ride to southern Illinois.
At the time, Harrison’s sister, Louise, had recently moved to Benton, Illinois, with her husband, Gordon Caldwell. He was a passionate engineer and found opportunities within Illinois’ coal mining industry.
Source: Joey Schneider/fox2now.com
Now and Then may be the band’s final song, but the appetite for books, exhibitions, films and TV series about the Fab Four seems never to wane Perhaps the real surprise behind this week’s release of the “final” Beatles song, Now and Then, is not that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr wanted to resurrect the band one last time – uniting them with the “crystal clear” voice of John Lennon from a 1970s home tape, a feat enabled by technology Peter Jackson developed for his 2021 Get Back documentary – but that there remains a seemingly insatiable thirst for all things Fab Four. It is now 60 years since Beatlemania engulfed first Britain and then, via America, the world. No one then imagined that in 2023 we would still be entranced by the group. The shelf life of pop acts was measured in months, or at best years – the Beatles themselves didn’t make it past their 1970 break-up. Yet this month sees a fresh surge of interest. Accompanying Now and Then are expanded versions of the Red and Blue compilations first issued in 1973, Philip Norman’s biography of George Harrison (to go alongside his tomes on Lennon and McCartney), and an Apple TV series, Murder Without A Trial, examining the 1980 killing of Lennon outside his New York home. Continue reading... ..
Source: titrespresse.com
Beatles legend Paul McCartney got the inspiration for one of his most iconic compositions from a deeply personal dream.
"Let It Be" is one of the Beatles' most beloved songs.
The song was inspired by a dream in which Paul McCartney's late mother appeared.
The legacy of "Let It Be" includes its success as a chart-topping hit.
Music legend Paul McCartney wrote one of his most commercially and critically acclaimed compositions in a turbulent time for his iconic band, the Beatles. In fact, "Let It Be" would be one of the last songs McCartney ever wrote as a Beatle.
"Let It Be" has become one of the Beatles' most recognized and beloved songs. People around the world of all ages know the chorus and melody to it. More so, the song is perhaps McCartney's most personal work. McCartney, whose artistry and songwriting ability is unquestioned, looked to a heartbreaking dream for inspiration as he penned the 1970 track.
What Inspired Paul McCartney To Write "Let It Be"?
During the height of the Beatles' popularity, the band was at their creative peak. They emphasized more time in the studio experimenting with musicality, rather than touring. Unfortunately, relationship issues began to emerge for Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison in the mid to late 1960s, which ultimately led to the Beatles' disbandment.
Source: Michael Connor/thethings.com
Some of us were always Team George.
In early 1964, the Beatles rolled out of JFK Airport, onto the stage of “The Ed Sullivan Show” and into the frenzied hearts of millions of teenagers. What were four identical musicians to parents were quickly individuated by their children. My two older sisters fought over the “Meet the Beatles” LP and locked horns in the eternal teleological debate: John vs. Paul. I was 6, and most of my grammar school peers favored Ringo: He was funny and funny-looking, a natural clown. But whether it was because of his cartoon monobrow, his terse self-possession or the simple fact that the other three seemed taken, I was drawn to George Harrison as my personal Beatle. That was part of the revolution: For the first time in popular culture, every member of a pop group was indispensable to the whole, and yet you had to choose just one favorite.
Source: Ty Burr/washingtonpost.com
A new three-part docuseries is set to take a deep dive into the murder of The Beatles legend John Lennon.
John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, narrated by actor Kiefer Sutherland, will air on Apple TV +, promising the “most thoroughly researched examination” of Lennon’s 1980 murder.
According to a press release, the series will feature “exclusive eyewitness interviews and previously unseen crime scene photos, shedding new light on the life and murder of music and cultural icon John Lennon and the investigation and conviction of Mark David Chapman, his confessed killer.”
The series includes interviews with eyewitnesses to the murder, Lennon’s friends, detectives and prosecutors, and Chapman’s defense lawyers and psychiatrists.
So far, an airdate for the docuseries has not been announced.
Source: digital.abcaudio.com
Sir Paul McCartney took Sydney by storm on Friday night.
The music legend, playing the first of two night's at the massive Allianz stadium, sent fans into a frenzy with an epic length show featuring his greatest hits.
Wearing a sleek black double-breasted suit of the kind he made famous during his Beatles hey day 60 years ago, the 81-year-old rocker amazed the sell-out crowd with his non-stop energy.
He completed his 60s-inspired look with a white shirt, and snug-fitting black stove-pipe trousers.
Wearing his shoulder length grey hair in a side part, Sir Paul appeared to be sporting a three-day growth.
Source: A. James/dailymail.co.uk
'Now And Then' was written and sung by John Lennon and later developed by the other band members including George Harrison. It has now been finished by McCartney and Starr decades after the original recording.
The track was sourced from a Lennon demo, technology used to extricate and isolate his voice.
It will be released on November 2 by Apple Corps, Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).
A 12-minute documentary, written and directed by Oliver Murray, known for My Life As A Rolling Stone, and with commentary from Sir Ringo and Sir Paul, will be released with the new song.
The demo was recorded by Lennon in the late 1970s at his home in New York's Dakota Building, and also features piano music.
After his death in 1980 aged 40, Lennon's wife Yoko Ono gave the recording to the remaining Beatles in 1994 along with 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love', which were released by the band in the same decade.
During this period, Harrison, McCartney and Starr recorded new parts and completed a rough mix for Now And Then with producer and musician Jeff Lynne.
However, the band did not release the song, citing issues extracting Lennon's vocals and piano in a clear mix due to limited technology at the time.
Source: 10play.com.au
