Beatles News

Reasonable visionary that he was, George Martin strongly encouraged the boys to drop the filler, the frivolity and the self indulgence and pare the double album down to a tight single record.

“I really didn’t think a lot of the songs were worthy of release,” Martin famously said. “I said, ‘I don’t want a double album. I think you ought to cut out some of these, concentrate on the really good ones and have yourself a really super album.’”

The boys, or more appropriately The Boys, would hear none of it.

For an album cohesively entitled “The Beatles,” 1968′s “White Album” is by far the most self-centered and disjointed of all the band’s releases.

The majority of the songs were written, individually, while John, Paul, George and Ringo were on meditation retreat in India. And when it came time to commit the creations to tape, rarely were all four Fabs in the studio at the same time.

Source: Jon Pompia/chieftain.com

The Beatles were not one for using real names in their material and, instead, opted to use fantastical sounding names that listeners didn’t need telling were fictional—take, for example, ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’. But even with that said, was ‘Eleanor Rigby’ the exemption to the rule?

The song famously sees Paul McCartney curate the story of a lonely woman named Eleanor Rigby and an inept pastor named Father McKenzie who, as part of the tale, delivers the sermon at Rigby’s funeral after she dies alone to an empty service.

McCartney originally believed that he made up the surnames in the track and decided to use the name ‘Eleanor’ because of Eleanor Bron, an actress who appeared in The Beatles’ film Help!. The surname of the Eleanor Rigby character was originally Bygraves before Macca changed it to Rigby after seeing a Bristol wine merchant called ‘Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers’.

The priest in the song originally labelled ‘Father McCartney‘ because the name found a perfect fit with the beat. However, the Beatle didn’t want to freak his Dad out so decided to have a look through the phone book and landed o details

Did the Let It Be documentary (1970) portray The Beatles as more unhappy than they actually were? Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr think so, and that’s why the two surviving members of the Fab Four can’t wait for the upcoming The Beatles: Get Back doc by Peter Jackson.

Indeed, if we see the band joyously at work in January ’69, the doc will represent a revelation. After all, George Harrison recalled the Get Back/Let It Be sessions as a “terrible,” “stressful, difficult time.” And he described the film shoot as “very unhealthy and unhappy” for him.

Instead of comparing documentaries to see who’s right (or who has the more sympathetic film editor) you might just look at the music The Beatles recorded in January ’69. In George’s corner, you won’t find much.

If you add up the songs that made it onto Let It Be, you’d only get a total of 4 minutes 6 seconds of music prior to Phil Spector’s enhancements. And you’ll hear John Lennon taking two guitar solos on the record as well.

Source: cheatsheet.com

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We are certainly not lacking for expert opinions about how to cope with this coronavirus pandemic. Some colleagues even feel they are overdosing on them (and mine), and won’t read them anymore. Maybe, then, we need a change of pace, to hear from our popular entertainers from the past. Did they have anything useful to tell us in a different way?

Let’s take the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Why them? They were the most popular in an era when we were going through another period of social upheaval, the 1960s. If you weren’t there, Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” is a musical theater piece of the times, first shown in 1971, the year I graduated from medical school at Yale. It is being shown on the PBS television series “Great Performances” on May 15.  

Secondly, the Beatles and Stones seemed like competitive opposites, almost like we have in partisan politics, another kind of culture wars, today. The Beatles tended to be viewed as the “good boys” of rock and roll, with the Stones as the “bad boys.” Yet, both groups played early shows with Little Richard, who died this past weekend.

Source: H. Steven Moffic, MD/ details

For Beatles fans, 1970 was a particularly heavy year - one in which we watched one of our most beloved bands fall apart, and witnessed the rebirth of each Beatle as a solo artist.

The chronology itself is crazy. A slew of Beatles-related albums were released in the space of that single year, starting with Ringo Starr’s solo debut, Sentimental Journey, in March. Then came Paul McCartney’s self-titled debut LP in April, along with a press release making it more or less clear that the Beatles were finished.

The stage was set for the May release of the Beatles’ final album, though penultimate rerecording, Let It Be: a troubled and uneven set of tracks culled from sessions in 1969 that hadn’t gone well.

It was the soundtrack album for a film of the same title, which chronicled the tragedy of a great band falling apart, while also giving us a last look at that Beatles magic, resplendent even in dysfunction.

Source: guitarworld.com

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The beloved anthropomorphic steam engine, a favourite of generations of children, first appeared in the Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s The Railway Series books, originally published in 1945.

The TV adaption arrived in 1984 and proved a hit with viewers, with the colourful cast of characters – including engines Thomas and Percy, as well as railway overseer the Fat Controller – captivating young audiences.

Thomas & Friends celebrates its 75th anniversary on Tuesday and to mark the occasion here are some of the show’s best celebrity guests: RINGO STARR

Source: irishnews.com

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By the time the public heard "The Long and Winding Road," the Beatles were broken up.

The song first showed up on the Let It Be album, which came out on May 8, 1970, in the U.K.; ten days later, it was released in the U.S. Between those dates, a 45 of "The Long and Winding Road" arrived on May 11. It marked the final single released by the band, which had split up on April 10.
To distraught fans the song sounded like a requiem, a last gasp and a summation of the past seven years. Five decades later, it still sounds like a fitting close of the Beatles' career, a mournful and meditative song about looking back while looking forward. And, true to its title, "The Long and Winding Road" had a complicated history before finally making it on record.

Source: ultimateclassicrock.com

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The Shining is Stephen King's masterwork of horror, which makes peace-loving John Lennon's influence on the novel all the more shocking. Not only is The Shining one of King's most respected and well-known works, but it's also one of his scariest, and it's hard to imagine how a John Lennon song had such a profound impact on it.

The Shining is one of Stephen King's most respected and well-known works, and it's no secret King is inspired by music. In fact, he often quotes song lyrics as epigraphs at the beginnings of his books. In interviews, King has shared how he listens to music while he writes his books. Although he does this mostly for his own entertainment, sometimes a particular song or lyric will find its way into his work, and in this case, it was a John Lennon song.

Source: Keith Deininger/screenrant.com

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Paul McCartney said he learned “everything he knows” from Little Richard in a tribute to the late rock legend posted on social media early morning. Richard, who shared stages with the Beatles early in their career and whose songs the group covered extensively, died of cancer Saturday at the age of 87.

“From ‘Tutti Frutti’ to ‘Long Tall Sally’ to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’ to ‘Lucille’, Little Richard came screaming into my life when I was a teenager,” McCartney wrote. “I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard and his style; and he knew it. He would say, ‘I taught Paul everything he knows.’ I had to admit he was right.”

The young Beatles performed with Richard at a show during one of their long residencies at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany, which is where the group truly learned their craft.

Source: Jem Aswad /msn.com

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Through the past decades, there have been countless incidents of unlikely cameo appearances on records, some of which were secret, some were not, but most of which remain unknown to the listening public, even on songs they’ve heard for years. But it’s time for all the secrets to be out. As we began compiling this, it became apparent that there are more of these than we had expected, and some are famous songs.

Some are not famous at all. Not even close.

But all share that ingredient of having someone unexpected on the record. It’s something that happened sometimes purposely, when an artist or a band invites a musician to contribute.

But it also happened, sometimes, simply because the artist’s inclusion had more to do with proximity than purpose, simply the serendipity of unlikely pathways crossing.

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Yesterday, rock and roll lost an original star in Little Richard. And now Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr have shared fond memories of times with one of their biggest influencers. Both surviving members of the Fab Four shared a snap of The Beatles with Little Richard back in the early sixties on their Instagram accounts.

Sir Paul wrote: “From Tutti Frutti to Long Tall Sally to Good Golly, Miss Molly to Lucille, Little Richard came screaming into my life when I was a teenager.

“I owe a lot of what I do to Little Richard and his style, and he knew it.

“He would say, ‘I taught Paul everything he knows’. I had to admit he was right.

“In the early days of The Beatles, we played with Richard in Hamburg and got to know him.”

Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk

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Given the tragic news that the great Little Richard has passed away, we’re digging the Far Out Magazine archives to find some of our greatest memories.

After already reliving Richard’s masterful 1957 rendition of ‘Lucille’, we’re stepping back to 1975 to remember when The Beatles co-founder John Lennon recorded his very own tribute to the great man himself.

Richard, the iconic and famed American singer, songwriter, and rock musician, has died at the age of 87. The musician’s son, Danny Penniman, confirmed Richard’s death in a statement issued to Rolling Stone. The cause of his death, however, remains unknown at this time. 

Richard, a major influential figure in the development of popular music and a figure who pioneered the culture of rock music for seven decades, started life in the music industry in the mid-1950s and didn’t look back. Forging a career like no other, Richard became as well known for his charismatic, flamboyant showmanship while performing his dynamic and often frenetic music. Heavily credited as being a major player in setting the solid foundations for the genre of rock music, Richard is regarded as o details

The Beatles final movie, Let It Be, premiered in Britain 50 years ago, and the Fab Four attended neither of the two screenings. The absence of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr at their own movie confirmed rock’s most legendary breakup.

A documentary timed for the anniversary year leaves the split alone, and recalls only the Beatles’ happy years. Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back is described as showcasing the warmth, camaraderie and humor during the making of the band’s Let It Be album and their final live concert as a group, the iconic rooftop performance on London’s Savile Row. It is due for release in September.

The four were reported to be soulmates in the early years of the band. Fault lines began appearing after the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in Aug 1967. Infighting, which led to feuding in the press, signaled the possibility of a breakup. It began looking probably with McCartney’s announcement in Apr 10, 1970,

Source: newsahead.com

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A LOT OF PEOPLE CALL ME THE ARCHITECT OF ROCK & ROLL. I don’t call myself that, but I believe it’s true. You’ve got to remember, I was already known back in 1951. I was recording for RCA-Victor — if you were black, it was called Camden Records — before Elvis. Then I recorded for Peacock in Houston. Then Specialty Records bought me from Peacock — I think they paid $500 for me — and my first Specialty record, in 1956, was a hit: “Tutti Frutti.” It was a hit worldwide. I felt I had arrived, you know? We started touring everywhere immediately. We traveled in cars. Back in that time, the racism was so heavy, you couldn’t go in the hotels, so most times you slept in your car. You ate in your car. You got to the date, and you dressed in your car. I had a Cadillac. That’s what the star rode in.

Source: Little Richard/rollingstone.com

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Lennon gave it to publisher Tom Maschler, who worked with him on his books of stories and sketches in the Sixties.

Mr Maschler kept the unsigned 10ins by 8ins artwork for five decades.

He wrote: “I very much enjoyed working closely with John while he produced the drawings and writings for the critically acclaimed books I published for him In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.

“John acknowledged the affection and esteem I had for his work by giving me the raw materials for his books when the projects came to a close.

“I think that ‘Lady Flying on a Wire’ is an exceptionally fine example of John’s work.

Source: The Washington Times

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