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Beatles News
JOHN LENNON brought his wife Yoko Ono further into the spotlight when they began making music together - but how many songs did they compose?
Yoko Ono misses John Lennon
John Lennon, like his former bandmate Sir Paul McCartney, wanted his partner to be involved in much of his work. The pair made music together, as well as art and other creative endeavours. John died in December 1980 after he was shot outside their home in Manhattan - but what work did he and Yoko produce together?
Their song Just Like Starting Over, which was about their reconciliation, started a five-week stay at the top of the singles chart at the same time.
Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk
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Perhaps inspired by all the albums his good friend Taylor Swift had been releasing in 2020, Sir Paul McCartney let fans know back in October he’d be releasing a quarantine album of his own, McCartney III, just a few days before Christmas. The December 18th release helped McCartney usher in a Billboard record that spans over six decades. As numbers of the album’s first week sales come in after the holiday weekend, the former Beatle has reportedly become the first and only musical act to have a new record reach at least the top two slots for Billboard 200 chart’s album sales in each of the last six decades.
Source: Caitlin White/uproxx.com
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A rare guitar that was owned by Beatles legend George Harrison sold for a huge price, following an appearance on the Antiques Roadshow.
The fretless guitar made by Bartells of California was a prototype and is believed to be the only one that was ever made.
Owner Ray spoke about how he came to own the guitar, he said: "During the 70s and 80s I was doing a lot of recording sessions and I worked with George Harrison.
"George was playing the guitar and he said 'I'm not sure what to do with this, here you go, have a go'"
Ray said he then played a few notes and then George said: "You're getting more out of it than me, why don't you keep it."
There was also a photograph of George with the same guitar in his home, proving that he had owned it.
Source: Sophie McCoid/liverpoolecho.co.uk
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The Beatles are best known for their seemingly endless slew of hits. Over the course of the 1960s, and into the 1970s, the Fab Four created some truly iconic songs, including Let It Be, I Am the Walrus, and Hey Jude, to name just a few. Although George Harrison and Ringo Starr were excellent musicians and songwriters in their own right, John Lennon and Paul McCartney brought the band into the limelight by creating astounding music together, in what has been dubbed the Lennon-McCartney partnership.
Towards the end of the road for The Beatles in 1970, a lot of stress and conflict was reported between Lennon and McCartney.
Shortly after the release of album 12, Let It Be, the group disbanded, bringing the legendary era of The Beatles to an end.
A lot of rumours were spread at the time over who “split up The Beatles” with no real definitive answer at the ready.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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Over 50 years on, Paul McCartney’s original dream for The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ album and film project might just be in the process of being realised by Peter Jackson in a New Zealand editing suite.
The director has revealed a first montage from the documentary he began working on in 2018, ahead of a delayed cinematic release now planned for the late summer of next year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As he’s made tradition during the past few years, Barack Obama has shared a playlist of his favourite songs of the year, aided by his daughter Sasha whom he describes as the ‘family music guru’.
“Here are some of my favorite songs of the year,” Obama’s written on social media. “As usual, I had some valuable consultation from our family music guru, Sasha, to put this together. I hope you find a new song or two to listen to.”
Source: live4ever.uk.com
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Even though The Beatles disbanded over 50 years ago, their influence over popular music remains as powerful as ever. Having the luxury of three very different guitarists with very different playing approaches and writing styles, it’s impossible to pin them down to just five songs. But while their back catalogue is as well known as that of Elvis Presley or Jimi Hendrix, there are plenty of hidden nuggets that guitarists who are not Beatles cognoscenti, would do well to seek out.
In many respects Paul McCartney was the group’s most rounded musician, and possibly even its best guitarist. It was he that devised many of the riffs and even played some of the most memorable solos, such as on Taxman (Revolver), Ticket To Ride and his killer Epiphone Casino riff on Paperback Writer.
Source: Neville Marten/musicradar.com
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Calexico has released a cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Christmas classic, “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” The Tuscon, Arizona-based indie rock band featured the song on their latest holiday album, Seasonal Shift.
“I love this song and I love the universality of the lyrics and the call and response sea of voices,” vocalist and guitarist Joey Burns said in a press release. “I decided to start as quiet as possible and find out how loud and massive we could make this song build.”
The band gave a slight southwestern-twist to the original tune, which was released along with an animated lyric video. The video shows pieces of paper drifting across the screen with animated drawings of the band performing the song along with scenes of the desert. In their version, they draw out the chorus, singing the line “War is over if you want it,” several more times than the original.
“We decided to not stop as the original had and see what would happen if we kept the trance and mantra going. This is something that we would do live onstage a lot and felt really good to try it at home in our makeshift studios scattered around the globe,” Burns said.
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On this episode of Everything Fab Four: The Hall of Famer talks his Beatles journey, from revelation to revolution
British singer-songwriter Jon Anderson recently joined host Kenneth Womack to discuss "being spurred on to do better music" by the Beatles on "Everything Fab Four," a new podcast co-produced by me and Womack, a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon, and distributed by Salon.
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Anderson, co-founder and former lead singer of the legendary prog rock group Yes, has enjoyed a prolific career spanning over six decades, most recently with his 2019 album "1000 Hands." Though he had a band with his brother as a teen in 1962, they were largely focused on being the Everly Brothers or Elvis Presley — that is, until they heard "Love Me Do."
Source: Nicole Michael/salon.com
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, most of us are likely planning a laid-back Christmas celebration. And Paul McCartney is no different.
"I'm going to stay at home," the Beatles legend declared during a Reddit AMA session fan Q&A earlier this week, adding "and yes I'll be eating far too much with my family!"
Regarding his brand-new album, McCartney III, Paul reveals what his and his wife Nancy's favorite songs are on the record. He says of his favorite, "Always difficult to say as they change, but at the moment it's 'Deep Deep Feeling.'" As for Nancy's, it's "The Kiss of Venus."
McCartney also reports that "The Kiss of Venus," "Slidin'" and "Find My Way" are the songs from the new album he thinks would be fun to play live.
Reflecting on the making of "The Kiss of Venus," Paul notes that it "was interesting because that was a song I had to play straight on acoustic guitar. It was fun to do and I was happy with how it turned out."
Source: ABC Radio News
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With 2020 just days away from coming to an end — finally — it’s time to look ahead to 2021. In a recent end-of-the-year recap video shared by Ringo Starr summing up what he’s been up to the past eleven-plus months, the famed Beatles icon urges us all to have a “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year … Or, a different New Year,” no doubt a statement about the tough times that 2020 forced upon us all.
The clip also features in-studio footage of Ringo and pals Paul McCartney, Steve Lukather, Joe Walsh and others recording their parts for “Here’s to the Nights,” Ringo’s new song written by Diane Warren that was shared recently.
The wistful song, part of an EP Ringo will release in early 2021, has a theme of unity and togetherness, folks coming together for a mutual cause:
Source: Rock Cellar Magazine Staff/rockcellarmagazine.com
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My father, Alan Smyth, was a viola player. When I was young, in the 1980s, he mentioned a couple of times that he’d played with the Beatles. He wasn’t very interested in them; growing up, I wasn’t either. Years later, now that I’ve become very interested in them, I think often about his casual aside.
My dad died in 2002. In early 2020 I made contact with his musician friends to ask if they had any memories of his playing with the Beatles. John Underwood, the viola player in the Delmé String Quartet, played on ‘Eleanor Rigby’ in April 1966, on ‘A Day in the Life’ in February 1967, and on ‘She’s Leaving Home’ in March 1967. John said my father didn’t play on these songs, and he couldn’t remember if he played on others.
Source: Adam Smyth/lrb.co.uk
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Beatles musician Ringo Starr has spoken out about not being able to join his family in the UK for Christmas due to the pandemic, saying he feels "miserable" but will "get on" with it.
The 80-year-old is based in Los Angeles with wife Barbara Bach and, like millions of others, will be unable to physically see his children and grandchildren over the festive period.
The father-of-three said: "I'm not in England, I should be in England. I go for Christmas with the kids and my grandkids and that’s not happening.
"So I had a few days of being miserable about that. And then you’ve got to get on.
You just got to get up again and say, 'well, let’s see what we can do today’. It’s no good sitting there being miserable for a long time, just odd moments."
Source: rte.ie
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Paul McCartney, like most people, has a favorite Beatles song, and it’s a surprising one.
In a new appearance on The Zane Lowe Show, Sir Paul says the Beatles song he’s listened to the most is “Let It Be,” but his favorite is “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number),” which is the b-side to “Let It Be.”
RELATED: Paul McCartney Teases Documentary Series with Rick Rubin
Macca calls the song “a zany, zany little B-side that nobody knows, but we had such fun making it.”
“It’s like a little comedy record. And I just remember the joy of making it,” said McCartney. “…But there’s a lot of songs that I love of the Beatles. I think ‘Strawberry Fields’ is a great song; I think ‘Hey Jude’ worked out great. I’ve got a lot of favorite songs. ‘Blackbird’ I love. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ I love.”
Source: Erica Banas/wror.com
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In the 50 years since the Beatles split, seemingly every known scrap of their history has been scrutinized and curated for public consumption — every minute of studio tape, every radio broadcast, home and concert recording; every photo and interview and document and snippet of film footage — with one huge exception: the “Let It Be” film.
There are several reasons for this, but only one matters: “Let It Be” is a downer. We see our beloved Beatles breaking up before our eyes.
Originally intended as a spontaneous, “as live as live can be, in this electronic age” documentary of rock as it happens, instead we see the group, who had finished recording the 30-song “White Album” just six weeks earlier, miserably trying to have a jolly ol’ time working up even more tunes for the cameras — in the morning, in a dark and cavernous film studio, during a typically gloomy English winter. We see Paul and George arguing, John and Yoko wafting in from a heroin haze, and Paul trying to liven the tepid sessions by taking the helm — instead he comes off dictatorial — while Ringo looks on dejectedly.
Source: Jem Aswad/variety.com
The Beatles broke up 50 years ago and since then we’ve lost both John Lennon and George Harrison. Nevertheless, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr remain good friends and occasionally feature in each other’s music or live shows for Beatles reunions. Most recently Sir Paul sang in the video for Sir Ringo’s new single Here’s To The Nights.
While last year, Sir Ringo joined Sir Paul on stage of the Dodger Stadium for the last night of his solo tour.
The two surviving Beatles performed Helter Skelter for the Los Angeles crowd.
And as Sir Ringo releases a new single, Sir Paul has put out his McCartney III solo album.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, The Beatles drummer said: “He does [have a new record out], yeah — he’s playing everything."
Source:George Simpson/express.co.uk
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