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Beatles News
In early 1984 the songs and albums written, recorded and released by The Beatles were put up for sale by ATV Music. At the time, the band did not know too much about copyright, so could not do anything to stop their songs from being taken away. At the time, Paul McCartney and John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, decided against purchasing the rights to the band's songs.
In 1985 Michael Jackson bought the rights to these songs for approximately $47.5 million (approximately £36.7 million).
This meant that he took the rights for songs such as Hey Jude, Let It Be and Yesterday.
Speaking about the unexpected turn of events in the 1980s, McCartney recalled what happened while he was on The Graham Norton Show in 2014.
He told the talk show host: "[We lost] the early Beatles stuff. It was a carve-up."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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In a new interview, Alice Cooper described the moment his manager Shep Gordon was asked to take on the Beatles – and why he refused.
In a new episode of Joe Bonamassa’s Live From Nerdville podcast, Cooper said he was in Gordon’s office, presumably during the period when the British band were attempting to rearrange their business concerns, when the potentially life-changing call came through. The episode is available below.
“He was managing Luther Vandross, Blondie, everybody… Gypsy Kings, Groucho Marx, Raquel Welch,” Cooper said. “He calls me into the office one day and he’s like, ‘Look, everybody’s driving me crazy, except you and Groucho… I want you to be here when I call and resign from everybody.’ I went, ‘Okay.’ I’m sitting there as he goes, ‘Yeah, I think I’ve done enough, I think you can move on…’ We open a bottle of champagne. He says, ‘It’s done – it’s me and you!’ I went, ‘Great!’”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
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John Lennon had plenty of time to reunite The Beatles between the Fab Four’s breakup in 1970 and his untimely death in 1980. However, this never happened. During an interview from 1970, John explained why he thought recording with The Beatles again would be pointless — even if it made sense at one time.
In the book Lennon Remembers, which includes the transcript of a 1970 interview, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann S. Wenner and John discussed The Beatles at length. At one point, John revealed he was going to meet the other members of The Beatles soon to discuss financial matters. Subsequently, Wenner asked if John would record with them again.
“Not a chance,” John replied. “I wouldn’t record with anyone again. I record with Yoko, but I’m not going to record with another egomaniac. There’s only room for one on an album nowadays, and so there’s no point.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
A new movie, The Beatles And India, will, aims to shed light on The Beatles' infamous trip to Rishikesh, India, in 1968. Accompanied by Donovan, Beach Boy Mike Love and actress Mia Farrow the band, prompted by George Harrison, sought enlightenment in the meditation classes of famed spiritualist, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Less committed to the cause than Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met clandestinely in each other’s rooms during the break to plot the next Beatles album, which turned into The White Album.
A statement released by the filmmakers says, "The Beatles And India is a unique historical chronicle of the enduring love affair between The Beatles and India that started more than half a century ago.
"Rare archival footage, recordings and photographs, eye-witness accounts and expert comments along with location shoots across India, bring alive the fascinating journey of George, John, Paul and Ringo from their high octane celebrity lives in the West to a remote Himalayan ashram in search of spiritual bliss that inspires an unprecedented burst of creative songwriting.
Source: Fraser Lewry/loudersound.com
Over the decades, former member of The Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney, met a huge amount of pop stars. While he built up relationships with some of them, he has not always been so successful with every artist he came across. One of these artists was Amy Winehouse.
Amy sadly lost her life on 23 July 2011 following a battle with addiction.
While the star had staved off drugs at the time, she died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.
Paul revealed how he met Amy just before she died, but he missed his chance to help her.
Speaking to GQ in 2018, Paul recalled the last interaction he had with her.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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The dusty blacktop road on Tucson's far east side doesn't look like it leads to a British nobleman's house.
But the 151-acre ranch near the foothills of the Rincon Mountains belongs to Sir Paul McCartney, whose wife Linda died there in 1998.
McCartney's company still pays taxes on the property; someone obviously maintains the place. But that's the backstory. What we have here is a yarn about a larger-than-life love affair.
Source: Jerry Wilkerson Special to the Arizona Daily Star
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“Blackbird” — one of the more famous folk songs Paul McCartney wrote for The Beatles — seems to be about a bird. However, someone in Paul’s family claimed it was about another family member. Here’s how her words compare to Paul’s.
According to the book The Beatles: A Hard Day’s Write, Paul’s stepmother, Angie McCartney, said Paul wrote the song for her mother, Edie Stopforth. “My mother was staying with Jim and I after a long illness,” she said. “During that time Paul visited us and spent some time sitting on mum’s bed. She told him that she would often listen to a bird singing at night. Paul eventually took a little tape recorder up to her room and recorded the sound of this bird.”
Angie said she had a copy of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” where Paul said “This one’s for Edie.” However, Paul doesn’t appear to have commented on Stopforth in relation to “Blackbird.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Warning: The below list of the Top 10 Ringo Starr Songs Written by the Other Beatles does not include his two most widely known anthems.
Put simply, 1966's "Yellow Submarine" and 1967's "With a Little Help From My Friends," nostalgic through they may be, aren't the best examples of how his bandmates helped animate Starr's quirky personality. There was – and, of course, still is – something sweetly romantic about Starr but also something a little sad.
No one talks about peace and love, then or now, with as much consistency and upbeat charm. And no one can be more sing-songy fun. But John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison knew there was more to their bandmate, who endured a string of hardships throughout his early life – some because of the fates (childhood illness, being overlooked because he was surrounded by such dizzying talent), some made worse by his lifestyle (lingering bouts with addiction).
Their best joint efforts, both in the band's heyday and later on various solo projects, played off that complexity. Starr's interpretations ended up sounding like ideas of his own.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
In case you didn’t know, The Beatles released their eighth studio album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, on this day way back in 1967. At the time, the album was like nothing anyone had heard before.
The album spent 15 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. The combination of innovative songwriting, fabulous production and an iconic cover that marked a real step-change in the music world and was a springboard for so many of the great albums that followed in the 1970s.
Sgt Pepper was defining moment in the pop culture of the 1960s and was the overture for the Summer of Love that followed and all that came after. It seems only right that someone should celebrate the release of such an iconic album that’s now 54 years old!
Pro-Ject is an Austrian company that’s been making some great turntables for vinyl records since 1991. It decided that its latest model should celebrate Sgt Pepper with the launch of a limited edition commemorative turntables – the Essential III – Sgt. Pepper and the 2Xperience SB.
This special edition collaboration between Pro-Ject Audio Systems and The Beatles was inspired by Sgt Pepper, offering fans the opportunity to show details
In its over 32 years, "The Simpsons" has remained a renowned show known for addressing current events and hot button issues, its pop culture prowess and celebrity guest stars.
One of its standout episodes features Sir Paul and Linda McCartney as guest stars, and recently, a cast member revealed a unique stipulation to the famed couple’s appearance.
Appearing on a recent episode of the Allrecipes podcast to discuss her cooking series, actress Yeardley Smith, who has voiced Lisa Simpson since 1989, discussed the McCartneys’ cameos.
In “Lisa the Vegetarian,” Season 7 Episode 5, Lisa decides to stop eating meat after visiting a petting zoo, resulting in most of the other locals mocking her. Questioning her own decision after the ridicule, Lisa finds she can remain a vegetarian without being critical of those who aren’t after learning that the owner of Kwik-E-Mart, Apu, and his close friends Paul and Linda McCartney are also vegetarians.
Source: Jenna Romaine/thehill.com
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The Beatles’ songwriters were John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the Lennon-McCartney partnership. This is well known, yet George Harrison and Ringo Starr also wanted some of the action as the band’s popularity grew. Sadly, it did not come, especially in the case of Sir Ringo, who barely had any tunes on The Beatles’ records.
One of the reasons, as Sir Paul McCartney has admitted to, is that the group did not take Sir Ringo’s songs very ‘seriously.’
Sir Paul and George Harrison grew up together, then joined up with John Lennon as teenagers, so there was a tight bond with them.
Sir Ringo joined the band later and has spoken of how he felt like an ‘outsider’ in the group.
He even left the band temporarily because of this feeling, later recalling in Anthology: “I left because I felt two things: I felt I wasn’t playing great, and I also felt that the other three were really happy and I was an outsider.
Source: Jenny Desborough/Jenny Desborough
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The new issue of Uncut includes a candid interview with Klaus Voormann about his encounter with a 17-year-old George Harrison, during The Beatles’ formative residencies in Hamburg. The German artist and Plastic Ono Band member tells Graeme Thomson tales involving fish finger diets, late-night phone calls from “Herr Schnitzel”, and the making of George’s very own masterpiece…The thing to remember about George Harrison is that he was a Gemini. The twin sign. Yin and yang. On Revolver you have “Love You To” and “Taxman”. Two sides. He could be really living this spiritual life – into meditation and getting up at 5am to see the sun come up – and doing it very extensively. Then suddenly he would go crazy! He could swap from the one extreme to the other, and he could find ways to make himself believe that it was the good thing to do. He would talk himself into it. This is why he was always searching for something – because he knew himself well enough to know that he needed something to hold onto.
Source: Graeme Thomson/uncut.co.uk
On January 30, 1969, the iconic rock and roll outfit The Beatles took to the roof of Apple Records headquarters in London, England, and gave passersby a one-of-a-kind experience when they performed what would be their final live performance. What is now known as The Beatles’ Rooftop Concert has gone down as one of the most iconic moments of 20th Century pop culture more than 50 years later. This concert, however, is just a small part of the Peter Jackson documentary The Beatles: Get Back, a soon-to-be-released intimate look at the final days of the seminal rock and roll band.
But while there are countless diehard Beatles fans who have spent the past few years diving through everything related to to Get Back, others might not be entirely caught up to speed on what sounds like one of the most important rock and roll documentaries since release of The Last Waltz or Gimme Shelter. Here are quick things to know about The Beatles: Get Back.
Source: Philip Sledge/cinemablend.com
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Noel Gallaher has revealed what happens when two of the biggest names in rock and roll history meet back stage at a gig – they end up talking about flowers.
The 53-year-old Brit Pop star has peeled back the curtains on the first time he ever met rock royalty, Sir Ringo Starr, of the Beatles fame.
Noel and his brother Liam were gobsmacked when the 80-year-old world famous drummer dropped backstage following a performance in their Oasis heyday.
Noel has explained that he was taken by surprise when Sir Ringo started to discuss the power of flowers when they engaged in a conversation.
The Sun quote Noel stating: “He was the only man to ever walk into an Oasis dressing room and get a standing ovation. We said, ‘What are you doing in London?’.
“And he said, ‘I’ve come to the Chelsea Flower Show’.”
Source: Seamus Duff/mirror.co.uk
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Multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Sananda Maitreya joined host Kenneth Womack to talk about his new album "Pandora's PlayHouse," how the Beatles were "ordained by God" and much more on "Everything Fab Four," a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon.
Maitreya (formerly known by the stage name Terence Trent D'Arby) had a string of hits in the late '80s from his album "Introducing the Hardline," including "Sign Your Name" and "Wishing Well." But as he tells Ken Womack, his musical journey actually began much earlier. As the son of singer Frances Howard, he was initially only allowed to listen to gospel music — that is, until the Beatles arrived in the U.S. in 1964.
"Songs like 'She Loves You' and 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' were so ubiquitous," he says. "I was spiritually awakened. I wanted to be a Beatle." He also explains to Womack that one of the reasons he wanted to guest on "Everything Fab Four" was to "unburden my great debt to them. I'm very, very grateful they showed up."
Source: salon.com