Beatles News

During the pandemic, Ian Leslie wrote a Substack essay called “64 Reasons to Celebrate Paul McCartney,” arguing that despite his accomplishments, the ex-Beatle was underrated. But he didn’t delve much into McCartney’s relationship with John Lennon, writing, “I’m trying to keep this essay-length and that subject, inexhaustibly fascinating, is a book in itself.”

Inspired by this, Leslie went and wrote that book: “John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs.” Despite a seemingly endless parade of Beatles books, Leslie offers a fresh take, telling the story of the band through the duo’s relationship and the story of their relationship through the songs they were singing.

 In a video interview from London, Leslie said most previous tomes recount the facts of the story without doing the music justice – “which is what this is all about and you can’t understand them without understanding the music” – or failed to explore the pair’s relationship “with depth or emotional intelligence.”

He was initially hesitant to pitch a book, since he wasn’t a music writer. Still, as a journalist, he’d written details

The Beatles are often hailed as geniuses of pop, but John Lennon shrugged off grandiose claims about his talent.

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The Beatles were legends in their own lifetime.

Countless books were written about the band in the decade they were together. Many more have been written in the 55 years since the breakup.

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Arguably the best is Hunter Davies's The Beatles: The Authorised Biography.

The only authorised account of the band written while they were a going concern, Davies published the book in 1968 having spent 18 months with the group, speaking extensively with the band themselves as well as thei friends, family and associates.

While the book is the origin of many of the now-canonical stories about The Beatles, it's written with a rare mix of respect and distance that, together with its contemporaneous nature, sets it apart from most other biographies.

So many Beatles bios focus on the musical genius of the Fab Four, painting the group – and especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney &n details

For the most part, the Beatles had a keen sense of which member should take on lead vocals. Most of their catalog feels right and just–every member playing to their strengths. However, there are a few songs that could’ve done well with a switcharoo. Below, find three Beatles songs that arguably beg for a different frontman.

“When I’m Sixty Four”

While “When I’m Sixty Four” screams “Paul McCartney”, it would have an entirely different tone if Ringo Starr were to have been the lead vocalist. From McCartney’s point-of-view, this Beatles song is a syrupy-sweet mark of devotion. Like many of his best tracks, “When I’m Sixty Four” sees McCartney wear his heart on his sleeve when he sings, Will you still need me, will you still feed me / When I’m sixty-four? If this song had been given to Starr, it would’ve been a light-hearted tune, akin to “Yellow Submarine”. It would’ve been given a shot of humor–one that would’ve likely helped this song in its heyday. Many, like John Lennon, felt this tune was a little too schmaltzy for the Beatles. Starr’s irreverent take would’ve helped to cut details

Everyone knows John, Paul, George, and Ringo — the Beatles who rocked the world. But behind every great band is a squad of secret weapons, the unsung legends who kept the magic alive. Meet the “Fifth Beatles”: the managers, musicians, and mates who played crucial roles in the Fab Four’s rise to superstardom. From early bandmates to behind-the-scenes masterminds, their stories are just as fascinating as the music itself.

Stuart Sutcliffe
The Beatles’ original bassist and close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe was as much a visual architect of the band’s early image as he was a musician. His moptop hairstyle set the style for the band, even if his playing was less than polished. Sadly, he left the band early and passed away young.

Pete Best
Drummer before Ringo, Pete Best toured and played with the Beatles during their crucial Hamburg and Liverpool days. Despite being replaced just before their big break, Best’s role in the band’s development is undeniable, earning him a solid claim to the title.

Chas Newby
A temporary bassist who filled in briefly after the band returned from Germany, Newby played a handful of shows before returning to univers details

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro (MSUCG) announced the opening of the exhibition Yoko Ono called “Unfinished”, scheduled for Thursday, June 19th at 20 p.m., in the exhibition spaces of the Petrović Palace and the Perjanički dom in Kruševac, Podgorica. The exhibition curators are Maša Vlaović, Gunar B. Kvaran and Connor Monahan.

Yoko Ono is one of the key figures of avant-garde and conceptual art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her work knows no boundaries; it moves fluidly between experiment, performance, poetry, music and film, while her tireless social and political activism, especially in the field of women's rights and peace initiatives, forms the core of her work.

Her art breaks down traditional boundaries between artistic disciplines and rejects the passive role of the audience, inviting each individual to become an active participant, co-creator, and agent of change.
A wide spectrum of creativity

From her early “instructional works” from the 1950s, through performances and films that call for collective action, to contemporary installations, Yoko Ono builds an authentic artistic language in which the personal and the universal, the poetic and details

The Beatles' fans were left stunned by the revelation that John Lennon and Paul McCartney almost reunited for an album post Fab Four's split.  The legendary songwriting duo had entertained the notion of collaborating on a fresh record in the 1970s.

Wings, spearheaded by McCartney following his departure from the Beatles, was busy crafting a new album at the same time Lennon mulled over an impromptu studio reunion with his former writing partner partner.  Had he attended the studio with McCartney it would have been an occasion which would have marked their first joint effort since The Beatles disbanded.

However, the stars never aligned, and Lennon and McCartney never shared the recording studio again. Fans have only recently discovered how close the pair came to working together once more.

If Lennon had joined McCartney at the recording sessions, his involvement would have likely been some of the tracks of 'Venus and Mars', Wings' milestone album now celebrating 50 years since its release.  A fan shared on the r/PaulMcCartney subreddit: "On this day in 1975, Wings released 'Venus and Mars'. As the follow-up to 'Band on the Run', the album continued Wings' run of commercial success.

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Kiss have firmly left their stamp on the world of glam rock, but they carved out their sound thanks to the music legends that came before them. In fact, Gene Simmons insists that rock and roll wouldn’t be the same today without The Beatles.

Speaking on The School Of Greatness, the Kiss bassist named The Beatles as some of the greatest musicians and songwriters in musical history. “The Beatles are above and beyond anything that anybody’s seen in music over, oh, 200 years?” he says. “Easily. Not since the Renaissance.”

As proof of the band’s genius, he points to how unlikely it was for a group of lads from Liverpool to succeed in the industry. “You have to understand, they only existed for seven years and they came from a place that was a pool filled with liver – Liverpool – where nothing ever happened,” he explains. “High unemployment rate, no experience, no resume, no nothing!”

Despite the circumstances, The Beatles were able to toy with music in a way few had before them. “‘I wanna hold your hand’, ‘She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,’” he sings as evidence. “That last chord, that minor n details

The sheer magnitude of the Beatles’ fame makes it easy to forget that when they first reached the peak of their stardom in the mid-1960s, they were just a group of ragtag, young 20-somethings who happened to land a big break. When the future Fab Four first met, they were even younger teens. For most of us, the idea of forging an entire career (and, more generally, a life) with the people we hung out with in high school. Yet, that’s how the Beatles, one of the biggest rock bands of all time, got their start.

Indeed, before they were topping the charts and touring the world, the band’s primary songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, were busy trying to see what kind of trouble they could get into at their childhood homes.

And like the resourceful lads they were, they certainly found it. Paul McCartney Describes “Teenage Fool Antics” With John Lennon

The Beatles saw and did more exciting and wilder things during their short tenure as a band than most people will experience in their whole lifetimes. But before they got their big break in the early 1960s, they weren’t that different from any other aspiring young male musician. They taught each other chords, made up sil details

How George Harrison (subconsciously) borrowed a love song from The Chiffons to make something spiritual.

While he always had his fans, it's fair to say that as a singer and songwriter, George Harrison was somewhat overshadowed in The Beatles by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.  Despite writing some of the best songs of the decade, poor George only squeezed 22 songs into the Beatles back catalogue, compared to over 160 by the Lennon-McCartney partnership.

How George Harrison saved Monty Python's Life of Brian film from being axed. How The Beatles' George Harrison coined "grotty" and deconstructed influencer culture in 1964.  He made up for that in the immediate aftermath of the split, releasing the TRIPLE album All Things Must Pass in late 1970.

That album was trailed by the single 'My Sweet Lord', which has remained one of the biggest post-Beatles song by any of the band, 55 years after the break-up. But do you know what track George "subconsciously" borrowed from for the song, or where it got in the charts? Read on for everything you need to know about 'My Sweet Lord'. Who wrote and played on 'My Sweet Lord'?

He started writing the song in December 1969 in wonderful, wonderful Copenhage details

Many uncertainties marked The Beatles‘ career. Though, there was one thing that was rarely, if ever, uncertain, and that was where they were going to record. For a devout music fan, it is common knowledge that The Beatles’ home base was EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London. The Beatles did, in fact, record some of their music elsewhere. However, the majority of it was recorded and produced at the iconic studio. Well, on this day, June 6, 1962, The Beatles found their home as they recorded at Abbey Road for the very first time.

Abbey Road is a renowned studio and has been used by musicians such as Sturgill Simpson, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and many more. However, its acclaim and majesty would not be known if it weren’t for The Beatles. The studio is synonymous with the Fab Four’s illustrious career. And consequently, it is both a monument and a sacred space. However, that would not be the case if it weren’t for Brian Epstein’s tenacity and George Martin’s willingness to give The Beatles a shot at success.
The Day The Beatles Found Their Home

In 1962, The Beatles were on the cusp of success. That being said, their manager, Brian Epstein, had pitched the band to every maj details

Micky Dolenz and Paul McCartney came together in the ’60s.

The Monkees drummer, 80, is looking back at the first time he met the Beatle, 82, decades ago.

“The first Beatle I met was Paul [McCartney], the night before at dinner at his house,” Dolenz told People in an interview published Wednesday. “I’d gone over to England to do a press junket, just myself. As it turned out, a publicist got involved and made it a ‘Monkee Meets Beatle’ thing at Paul’s house for dinner. Just me, him and Martha the sheepdog.”

From what transpired next, it seems like the fellow musicians quickly formed a friendship.

“He invited me to Abbey Road [studios] the next day,” recalled Dolenz. “I don’t even know if he told me the name at the time, but they were working on ‘Sgt. Pepper.’ I just about peed in my pants, but I’m trying to be cool. I got all dressed up thinking … I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“I guess I thought it was gonna be some sort of Beatlemania fun-fest freakout psycho-jello happening thing,” the singer confessed. “So I got dressed up in paisley bell bottoms and t details

The Beatles Song That Reunited John, Paul, George, and Ringo

Then, John Lennon brought in a song that changed the game. Happiness Is a Warm Gun forced the members to work together and rekindle the magic that made them great in the first place. The complexity of the song made it difficult to get through, but the Fab Four came out of it with their enthusiasm renewed. It was one of Paul McCartney's favorite songs, and every fan has a soft spot for it.

When they got back from India, the Beatles set to work on their eponymous double album, commonly known as the White Album, but despite their productivity, their relationship only got progressively worse as the sessions went on. On his return from India, John Lennon officially left his first wife, Cynthia, and got into a relationship with Yoko Ono. As fans know, the couple became inseparable, with Lennon bringing her over to the recording sessions with him, which no other member of the band did with their partners. Ono's presence in the studio was uncomfortable for all the other Beatles, and they frequently got into arguments about it.
The Beatles_ Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years - 2016

Paul McCartney believes this one John Lennon song he details

Ringo Starr has insisted he got by with help from his friends when it comes to drumming. The Beatle says he didn’t become a top drummer through practice, but simply by constant performing with pals. The Fab Four beat man described prepping moves at his home alone as “boring" and never took lessons.‌

Ringo, 84, admitted that his work behind the kit improved because he just went out and played shows. And at that started as a teenager working in a school equipment factory playing with pals to workers during lunch breaks. Asked whether he spent hours in his bedroom or having lessons to become so good behind the kit, Ringo confessed: “I didn't. I hate practicing.

‌“I hated sitting there. I tried it when I first got the kit upstairs in the back room like in all those movies that were made. And it was the most boring thing ever.  "I did all my learning with other musicians, other bands. I was lucky because there were a lot of us around and we weren't all great players. We were all learning.

 “So I learned everything with everyone else at that time in Liverpool."   Ringo got lucky by having pals who loved to do jam sessions during lunchtimes at their lo details

The origin of a song doesn’t matter quite as much as the finished product. John Lennon proved that in “Come Together”. It’s a song that veered off from its initial intent into a wildly different location.

The Beatles ended up with a No. 1 single in the US with the track, Lennon’s most significant contribution to Abbey Road. “Come Together” proved that his way with words was often too elusive and potent to be cooped up once it got started.
Lennon and Leary

John Lennon missed a good chunk of the Abbey Road sessions due to injuries he suffered in a car accident. Who knows if he would have even been able to contribute something as substantial as “Come Together” if the song hadn’t already been in the works for another purpose?

During his bed-ins for peace that he held in 1969 with his wife Yoko Ono, Lennon crossed paths with noted LSD enthusiast Timothy Leary. Leary was considering the possibility of running for governor in California. Who better to write a theme song than John Lennon?

Lennon agreed to do it, but, as he explained to David Sheff, things got away from him a bit:

“It’s gobbledygook,” Lennon said. & details

John Lennon insulted Paul McCartney on a number of occasions, calling his songwriting “granny music”. Despite the juvenile connotation of that insult, it likely cut McCartney deeply. Many of McCartney’s most famous songs fall into this Lennon-defined category. He made his name off of wearing his heart on his sleeve and never shying away from the fanciful.

His fans love him for this, but there are times when he took it too far. No one’s track record is perfect–not even a Beatle’s. Below, find three McCartney songs that are confusing listens, even for Macca superfans.

McCartney has many songs about domestic bliss, but few are as odd and on-the-nose as “Cook Of The House.” In this off-kilter rock anthem, Linda McCartney sings about her household duties. Ground rice, sugar, vinegar, Seco salt / Macaroni too, she sings, with some heavy vocal editing. This song feels like the kind of thing you’d hear in a dream or a children’s show you’d shut off quickly. We can never knock McCartney for trying new things. That’s a large part of his charm. But songs like “Cook Of The House” make it hard to deem all his experiments success stories.