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Beatles News
It's no surprise that Wings' synthy hit single "With a Little Luck" has a yacht-rock vibe or that Paul McCartney's group feels suddenly airy and wide open.
After all, Wings was recording on a boat – and guitarist Jimmy McCulloch was exiting the lineup. Drummer Joe English would soon follow him out, leaving Wings to complete 1978's London Town with the same core trio that fashioned their signature Band on the Run album.
This time, however, Wings had a far different, more stripped-down musical approach. "It just comes in phases," McCartney said in a 1978 promo interview with Capitol Records. "At one moment, you're listening to some records that are really produced and you think, 'Yeah, I want to do that kind of thing.' At another moment, you're listening to something that's very simple and you think, 'I really like very simple music.'"
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
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Ringo Starr took over The Beatles’ drum seat in 1962, but that wasn’t the only elite group he joined in his career. The English royal family knighted Ringo on March 20, 2018, after he had earned several artistic honors in his career. The drummer who complained about being ignored while making Rubber Soul couldn’t be overlooked when Prince William bestowed the title Sir Richard Starkey on him. Still, the royal family was a little slow to honor Ringo for his life’s work.
The Beatles received MBE honors from Queen Elizabeth II during the height of Beatlemania in 1965. John Lennon later returned his, and George Harrison rejected the royal family’s offer to be knighted.
Paul McCartney was one of few musicians to be knighted by the queen, in 1997. More than 20 years later, Prince William made Ringo a knight in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on March 20, 2018.
Like his bandmate, the royal family honored Ringo for his contributions to music and the arts. Receiving the honor delighted the drummer. George and John didn’t care about knighthood, but Ringo was ecstatic.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
Ringo Starr rarely hesitates to call it like he sees it, even if he’s the target. Yusuf / Cat Stevens cut his drumming from an album, and his reaction to the slight was pure class. So when Ringo complimented Brian Wilson’s work ethic, it was massive praise from The Beatles drummer to the Beach Boys frontman.
Ringo’s excessive drinking was such a problem in the mid-1980s that he played a concert with the Beach Boys and has no memory of it. Thankfully for him and music fans, he committed to a healthier lifestyle and continued making music. The drummer also inspired another legendary musician to get sober.
He was in a much better place in the early 1990s. In 1992, Ringo released his first solo album since 1981, Time Takes Time, with the help of several collaborators. Brian Wilson was one of them.
The Beach Boys’ star played on the song “Weight of the World” from that album, and he teamed up with Ringo again in 1998 on the Vertical Man album. In his book Postcards From the Boys, the drummer said watching Wilson work was an incredible experience:
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
On Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was assassinated outside his apartment building in New York City. The news shocked the world, and many musicians paid tribute to the former Beatle shortly after his death. For the remaining Beatles members, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, it took some time for them to process John Lennon’s death fully. However, they each mourned their former bandmate and friend in the way they knew best: music.
George Harrison released “All Those Years Ago” as a single in 1981 for his album Somewhere in England. Initially, he wrote the song for Ringo Starr. However, Starr didn’t like the lyrics and felt the track was out of his range. Harrison took the song back and decided to change the lyrics after Lennon’s death.
The song is one of the few times the three remaining Beatles played a song together. Starr played the drums, while Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, provided backing vocals. The song was a hit, peaking at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In a 1987 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Harrison recalled changing the lyrics after Lennon’s death and how singing it was tough.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney said he couldn’t quite suppress his “weakness for naughtiness” when he wrote the ending of The Beatles‘ “Lovely Rita.” There was always an erotic aspect behind Paul’s lyrics.
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that nobody liked parking attendants or meter maids, as they were known in the 1960s. So, Paul thought it would be amusing to write a song about someone in love with one.
Paul based The Beatles’ “Lovely Rita” on a particular meter maid he saw in Portland Place. He recalls her looking slightly military-looking. It’s terrible, but Paul thinks those meter maids were never good-looking. “You never heard anybody say, ‘God, that’s one stunning parking attendant,'” he wrote.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
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Paul McCartney said he often does a “disappearing trick” when writing songs. He likes to pretend to be other artists when he doesn’t want to write a Paul McCartney song. Suddenly, there’s no pressure.
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that he often does a “bit of a disappearing trick” when writing a song. For example, he imagines it having been recorded by another artist. In the case of The Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road,” Paul thought of Ray Charles.
Sometimes, Paul doesn’t feel like writing songs as Paul McCartney. He doesn’t want it to be a Paul McCartney song. So he imagines he’s another person writing a tune. “This is a strategy for keeping things fresh,” Paul wrote.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
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There are many things to watch if you love The Beatles, but what if you miss Beatlemania? The phenomenon started in 1963 when the band’s success started to mount in the U.K. and Europe. Then, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” became The Beatles’ first No. 1 single in the U.S., and their popularity worldwide skyrocketed.
Suddenly, they couldn’t go anywhere without having crowds of girls storm after them trying to pull locks of hair from their heads. Here’s what to watch if you miss the days when massive crowds showed their often rambunctious love and support for the band—even if that meant trying to climb the walls of Buckingham Palace.
The Beatles Anthology is always a great place to start for all Beatles-related things, including Beatlemania. The eight-part documentary was made by The Beatles and told by The Beatles. They created the massive project, including three double disc CDs and a book, because they wanted to tell their story in their own words.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
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George Harrison’s contributions to The Beatles were limited to his guitar playing, but when he could shine, he created many of the band’s most unique sounds and experimental tracks. One of Harrison’s most famous Beatles songs was based on a “30 or 40 minutes” piece by Ravi Shankar and had to be condensed dramatically.
During the 1960s, Harrison developed a passion for Indian classical music. He learned how to play the sitar and first incorporated it in a Beatles song on “Norwegian Wood” from 1965’s Rubber Soul.
In a 1992 interview with Billboard, Harrison said he was first exposed to the sitar while filming a scene for the movie Help!. There were Indian musicians in the background of a scene, and the singer-songwriter was captivated by the sound. Later, he heard the name Ravi Shankar and wanted to learn more about the famous sitarist.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
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The Beatles were excellent at deciding when a single should be released as an A-side vs. a B-side. Sometimes it was hard to tell if a song was an A-side before it was played. John Lennon wrote one song for The Beatles that he felt was “lousy,” but the band’s version of it was good enough to make it an A-side single. “I Feel Fine” was written by John Lennon and released in 1964 by The Beatles. The track was considered revolutionary as it’s one of the earliest rock songs to include amplifier feedback in the recording. While The Beatles were innovators in discovering new recording techniques, this happened accidentally. In Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney admitted that the feedback happened after Lennon leaned his guitar against an amp.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
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Paul McCartney is considered one of the greatest musicians of all time due to his immense contribution to the music industry and his influence on popular culture. He came to world prominence as a member of The Beatles throughout the band’s active career from 1960 to 1970. Along with John Lennon, he co-wrote many of the band’s most celebrated songs for the band, such as Hey Jude, Yesterday, and Let It Be.
After The Beatles disbanded, Paul McCartney continued his successful music career as a solo artist. He released his first solo album, McCartney, in 1970, which featured him playing all the instruments himself. The album was a commercial success and included the hit single Maybe I’m Amazed. Throughout his solo career, McCartney continued to explore a wide range of genres, from rock and pop to classical and electronic music. He has released over twenty solo albums, including the critically acclaimed Flaming Pie and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.
Source: Irfan Senturk/metalcastle.net
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By 1966, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr had grown tired of touring. The Beatles had dealt with several brushes with disaster, and noise from the crowd made it practically impossible to hear the music they were playing. Starr said that going on tour was wrecking the band’s ability to play music. Considering the music they put out after they stopped touring, he was right.
After several years of touring, it became too much for The Beatles. They had faced natural disasters, political unrest, and unruly fans. It was a relief for them when they decided to stop touring in 1966.
“There was a certain amount of relief after that Candlestick Park concert,” Harrison told Rolling Stone in 1987. “Before one of the last numbers, we actually set up this camera — I think it had a fisheye, a very wide-angle lens. We set it up on the amplifier, and Ringo came off the drums, and we stood with our backs to the audience and posed for a photograph, because we knew that was the last show.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
There are many things to watch if you love singer-songwriter and musician George Harrison. Here’s a list of things to put in your queue—everything from the former Beatle’s favorite films to documentaries about his life. If you’re a George Harrison fan, bets are you’re also a Beatles fan. So, if you haven’t seen all of The Beatles’ films, put those at the top of your queue. There’s A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be. In A Hard Day’s Night, George has his “grotty” scene, which he didn’t want to do. Later, in Let It Be, we see his very-real tense fights with Paul McCartney. The Beatles Anthology was a massive project the remaining Beatles undertook in the mid-1990s. It comprises an eight-part television documentary, a three-volume set of double albums, and a book. Although it was The Beatles’ first chance at telling their story, George initially wanted no part in it. He claimed the documentary makers were trying to sensationalize some rougher bits of the band’s history. If they discussed rumors or certain stories, fans would believe them. Regardless, George partook in the project and performed wit details
It’s symbolic that The Beatles‘ final No. 1 single is “The Long and Winding Road.” The Fab Four had certainly traveled down a long and winding road to get to where they were when they recorded the tune.
Paul McCartney based ‘The Long and Winding Road’ on the road leading to town from his Scottish farm
In his book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul McCartney wrote that from the bedroom window of his farmhouse in Kintyre, Scotland, he could see a road that twisted away into the distance toward the main road. It was the road to town, Campbeltown.
Paul bought High Park Farm in 1966. It was a very remote retreat, and it was almost in ruin when he bought it. That is until his first wife, Linda, fixed it up and turned it into a private haven for them and their growing family in the late 1960s.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
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The Beatles remain a popular band decades after they broke up. A few musicians hated the band, but millions of people loved them. They sent several singles and albums to the top of the Billboard charts throughout the 1960s, but three Beatles records peaked at No. 2 in the United States because other Beatles albums kept them from getting to No. 1.
The Fab Four released a steady stream of albums from 1963 to 1970. They existed for a short time but achieved incredible success as 14 of their studio albums raced to the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. Still, the first Beatles album to debut at No. 1 was the first anthology compilation released in 1995.
Let’s look more closely at The Beatles albums that peaked at No. 2 because other Beatles albums held the top spot.
Note: We included studio albums only, not greatest hits packages, compilations, or reissues.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
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Whether you were a fan or not, it is difficult to deny the impact the Beatles made on the last 60 years of music, and there would be no Fab Four without the group's founder, John Lennon. His name has been lifted among the lauded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time; his music has sold millions of copies well before streams ever existed. His legend loomed so large that there were portions of his life when John couldn't walk the street without being swarmed by a mob of screaming fans.
In less than 40 years of life, he claimed to be "more popular than Jesus" and added the term "bed-in" into the cultural zeitgeist—all before being murdered under the archway of his apartment building in New York City; his wife, Yoko Ono, by his side.
On the surface, his life story appeared to be a meteoric rise to the top of stardom worthy of envy or emulation. Underneath it all, however, John was a far more complex character than the sleek suits and mop-topped hairstyles of the early '60s portrayed. Many know who John Lennon is, but who was John Lennon, really?
Source: Olivia Monahan/tylerpaper.com