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Beatles News
Today we’re taking a look back at an iconic moment in pop music history, the time that Ravi Shankar, iconic Indian musician, taught The Beatles’ George Harrison how to play the traditional Indian instrument, the sitar.
What transpired was a rich and fruitful partnership between the pair which would not only see Harrison promote both Shankar and Indian music through his various channels with The Beatles. But it would also see Shankar become a deeply respected musician in the Western world on his own merit.
Shankar, the father of folk singer Norah Jones, became widely known for his collaborations with The Beatles, among other western musicians, and brought the intricacy and beauty of classical Indian music to the masses.
Source: faroutmagazine.co.uk
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When The Beatles went their separate ways in 1970, fans couldn’t wait to see how their solo projects would turn out. In the case of Paul McCartney’s debut effort, they didn’t have to wait long. That’s because Paul released his record while simultaneously announcing he’d quit the Fab Four.
But McCartney didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Critics were underwhelmed, and Paul’s bandmates were, too. John Lennon described it as “rubbish,” while George Harrison simply called it “disappointing.”
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band got almost the opposite reception. While it didn’t sell as well as Paul’s effort, critics raved about John’s songwriting and stunning vocal performance. But neither Paul nor John had come up with one of those trademark No. 1 singles.
George did the honors on that front when he released “My Sweet Lord” from his late ’70 All Things Must Pass album. (Both the single and record topped the charts.) But George had been very hesitant about releasing what became his most recognizable — and best-selling — song he’d ever record.
Source: cheatsheet.com
In a new q interview, Starr also talks about his photography, his All-Starr band, and how an illness inspired him to drum.
He was the drummer of what is arguably the most influential rock band of all time — and at 79, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is still recording albums, touring and performing.
But Starr's story is anything but a fairytale: as a child he suffered from tuberculosis; he worked on boats and in factories before hitting the bigtime; and he suffered from alcoholism that was so severe, he ended up in rehab.
Still, his love of drums never wavered, and in a new q feature interview, he talked with host Tom Power about everything from his knighthood to how he first got introduced to drumming.
Source: cbc.ca
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The Beatles‘ 1968 track ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ has been declared the most perfect pop song ever written by researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
The scientists analysed 80,000 different chord progressions from 700 songs recorded between 1958 and 1991, using machine learning to give a score to each chord based on how “surprising” it was compared to the chord preceding it.
Chord sequences from 30 of the songs were then played to 39 volunteers, stripped of lyrics and melody to make the source track unrecognisable. The volunteers were asked to rate how enjoyable they felt each chord to be.
Source: nme.com
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Paul McCartney remembered Robert Freeman as “imaginative and a true original thinker” in a tribute to the late photographer who shot some of the Beatles’ most memorable album covers.
Freeman’s photos of the Beatles ended up the covers of albums like With the Beatles, Rubber Soul, Help! and Beatles for Sale. In his tribute, McCartney recalled the shoot for With the Beatles, which he noted always had the aesthetic of “a carefully arranged studio shot” considering the way the band is so meticulously lit.
“In fact it was taken quite quickly by Robert in the corridor of a hotel we were staying in where natural light came from the windows at the end of the corridor,” McCartney remembered. “I think it took no more than half an hour to accomplish.”
McCartney also recalled how Freeman accidentally created the stretched effect on the Rubber Soul cover. To give the band a sense of what their covers would look like, Freeman regularly projected photos onto a piece of cardboard cut into the size of an LP sleeve. During the viewing session for the Rubber Soul photos, the picture fell backwards a bit in the slide projector, altering its dimensions.
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When Eric Clapton heard John Lennon suggested bringing him into The Beatles, Clapton weighed the pros and cons of such an unlikely gig. On the one hand, Clapton thought, it would be amazing to be part of such a close-knit family — one with unbounded artistic potential.
But on the other hand, he saw how familiarity had bred contempt among members of the Fab Four. “The cruelty and the viciousness were unparalleled,” Clapton said in Living in the Material World.
If you’ve ever heard any stories of the White Album sessions, you know what Clapton meant. Whether you know about Ringo’s walkout or Paul McCartney lashing out at producer George Martin, it’s not difficult to see why Paul called it “the tension album.”
Indeed, one of the wildest scenes of all came while the band was working through the umpteenth take of Paul’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” After leaving the studio in disgust, John returned a few hours talking about how wasted he’d gotten in the interim.
Source: cheatsheet.com
When Joe Pesci dropped out of the acting game in the late ’90s, word was he’d be playing more golf and might get back to his first career, music. Before making his name as an actor in Martin Scorsese movies, Pesci played guitar and sang in bands around New Jersey and New York.
In fact, Pesci played in a band called Joey Dee and the Starliters that later featured a guy named Jimi Hendrix on guitar. But Pesci had already made his mark on music history when he introduced Frankie Valli to Bob Gaudio, basically launching the Four Seasons in 1959.
Now, decades after Pesci released the absurd Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You (1998), he has a new record coming out in time for the arrival of The Irishman on Netflix. And it includes not one but two duets with Adam Levine of Maroon 5.
Pesci’s latest features mostly jazz standards, which is a slight departure from his first record, 1968’s Little Joe Sure Can Sing! That obscure album went out with three covers of Beatles songs.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Most Beatles fans have heard stories about the band’s problems by the time they were recording The White Album (1968). By then, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had gotten in each other’s faces; Yoko Ono had become a fixture in the studio; and George Harrison had become disenchanted.
As for Ringo Starr, the Beatles’ drummer was the first to walk out on the band, so it’s clear the vibe wasn’t working for him, either. After they finished The White Album, the Fab Four decided they would try to get back to basics with a live feel in their music and plans to perform again.
But that plan didn’t work, either. George described those early Let It Be sessions (January ’69) as more miserable than the White Album days. Though the mood improved when George invited Billy Preston to play on the record, nothing could keep The Beatles going at that point.
All was not lost, however. Right after the band announced its break up (in April ’70), George spoke as if he saw the group making music together in the future. However, he said he couldn’t keep dealing with the big problems he had while being a Beatle.
Source: cheatsheet.com
How versatile was Paul McCartney as a songwriter? Just check his late Beatles songs. After shooting for his “nastiest, sweatiest” work with 1968’s “Helter Skelter,” Paul was tinkling the ivories playing “The Long and Winding Road” while filming Let It Be in January ’69.
But that wouldn’t surprise anyone who knew what Paul listened to in the ’60s. When he wrote “Good Day Sunshine” (’66), he wanted to match the energy The Lovin’ Spoonful brought to “Daydream.” On Sgt. Pepper’s (’67), he wanted to top what The Beach Boys had achieved with Pet Sounds.
By “Helter Skelter,” he was looking to outdo The Who, one of the heaviest early rock acts. With “The Long and Winding Road,” which became the Fab Four’s last No. 1 hit in America, Paul had one of the greatest soul singers in mind.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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It's easy to imagine that Ringo Starr's closet is full of shoe boxes containing old mementos, like the photographs that populate Another Day In The Life, his newest book. The reality is a bit different though.
"If I'm in them, I just lift them off the internet," he says. "Others are what I do on tour when I'm hanging out."
In addition to playing drums, Ringo likes taking photos and making art. He puts out these books — a mix of coffee table decor and memoir — for charity, and they all have a scrapbook feeling, with funny notes in the margins. Another Day In The Life holds over 500 photographs, a combination of images shot by Ringo and bits pulled from The Beatles' archives.
Ringo spoke to NPR's Rachel Martin about his new book, including returning to The Plaza Hotel 50 years after The Beatles' first visit, smoking cigars with George Harrison at the film premiere of A Hard Day's Night and the story behind the Abbey Road album cover. Hear their conversation at the audio link.
Source: Rachel Martin
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In 1969 when Abbey Road by The Beatles was released I was dating Ann Burgess. She was my first serious girlfriend in London. It had taken me two years to get over the girl I’d been seeing back home in Ireland.
I mean the reality was, if I’m being absolutely truthful, the girl in Ireland was a girl who was a friend, rather than a girlfriend. She might even have been one of the reasons I left my home in Ireland when I’d just turned 17 in 1967. The other main reason would definitely have been my love for The Beatles, but that’s another story altogether. At the same time it brings us back nicely to the Abbey Road album. Abbey Road was released on Friday, September 26th, 1969 and I (quite literally) rushed out on release day to buy it. I was living in Wimbledon in south London at the time and bought it in Goodness Records up on Wimbledon Bridge and it would have cost me £1, 12 shillings and 6 pence. This would have been about a sixth of my weekly wage.
Source: irishtimes.com
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The Beatles are often cited as the greatest band of all time. As such, the members of the group took lots of inspiration from other artists ranging from Victorian novelist Lewis Carroll to Nigerian congo player Jimmy Scott. Among the band’s many influences were the films of Walt Disney. Here’s how Disney classics inspired the Beatles.
Walt Disney inspired a Beatles hit
Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gave the world many iconic songs including “Heigh-Ho” and “Sunday My Prince Will Come.” It was one of the lesser-known songs on the soundtrack, however, that inspired a Beatles hit. The Beatles’ debut studio album Please Please Me includes a smooth ballad called “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” that was inspired by the first song in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: “I’m Wishing.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
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With Ringo Starr’s announcement of a 2020 All Starr Band tour — which includes three Florida dates — the former Beatle is almost as busy as he was in the early 1970s.
Starr, 79, has tour dates on June 26 at St. Augustine Amphitheatre, June 27 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood and June 28 at Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.
The tour opens May 29 in Ontario, Canada, and includes dates in New York, New Hampshire, Boston and Atlanta.
Presale tickets for the Florida dates and several others go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday through Ticketmaster.
Why should you consider seeing Starr in 2020? He’s turning 80 on July 7. Even with a little help from his friends, the road can’t go on forever. He’s not Tony Bennett, after all.
Source: miamiherald.com
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Kenneth Womack, an established historian, author and professor of English at Monmouth University, gave a presentation displaying his specialized knowledge in literature, creative writing and the fab four.
Within his hour-long presentation on Oct. 29, the author delved into the band’s creation of the album.
On Oct. 15, Womack saw the release of his latest book, “Solid State: The Story of ‘Abbey Road’ and the End of the Beatles,” which comes during the 50th anniversary of the album’s release. Throughout his presentation, Womack focused on the “Abbey Road” medley, the eight-song collection found on side B of the record.
“The medley is essentially a selection of songs in a suite that concludes their career, so it has a very powerful place in their story,” Womack said.
Source: tcnjsignal.net
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When Eric Clapton headed into Abbey Road studios to play guitar on a Beatles song in 1968, he didn’t take it lightly. In fact, he tried to convince George Harrison it was a bad idea. “What will they say?” Clapton wondered.
Prior to Clapton’s solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” no rocker had gone into a Beatles session and played lead on a record. So you can see why even a pro like Clapton would be nervous about it. Nonetheless, he recorded the solo and it turned out great.
Later that year, Clapton played with John Lennon again when the two (along with Keith Richards, Yoko Ono, and Mitch Mitchell) played a few tracks for the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus. At that point, Lennon knew how Clapton played and liked his guitar style.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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