Beatles News

Yoko Ono’s family have shared how the artist is spending her final days after the death of her husband John Lennon. Now aged 92, Yoko’s family says she is “in a happy place”, and is “listening to the wind and watching the sky” after losing Beatles star John in 1980 when he was only 40 years old.

Yoko – best known for her activism and for helping Lennon write his hit song Imagine – has been profiled in a new book releasing this week, which paints her as a reclusive figure in her early nineties. She lives alone in upstate New York on a farm, but is thankfully visited by her son Sean and daughter Kyoko. Kyoko wrote of her mother: “She believed she could change the world, and she did… now she is able to be quiet – listen to the wind and watch the sky.” She added: “She is very happy, in a happy place. This is well deserved and genuine peacefulness.”

Source: express.co.uk/Jess Phillips

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Few hits are captured in one take. Perfection isn’t often happenstance, it’s more often the product of painstaking work in the studio. But, if you’re a really great musician, you might just be able to nail it early on in the process. One of John Lennon’s hits, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, was perfected quickly. Learn more about the song Lennon cut in one or two takes, below.

The John Lennon Hit That Was Cut in One Take

Whatever gets you thru the night
It’s all right, it’s all right
It’s your money or your life
It’s all right, it’s all right
Don’t need a sword to cut thru flowers
Oh no, oh no

One of Lennon’s final hits was his collaboration with Elton John, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” Though the final product is relatively polished, it didn’t require many takes to get it there. According to Lennon, the final recording features one of their first takes.

While we might chalk up the quick recording process as evidence of Lennon’s time-honed talent, he more-so admired the energy his backing band was able to get on the first few plays. He didn’t want it to details

Beatles enthusiasts have crowned legendary songwriter Paul McCartney the greatest member of the iconic quartet, attributing the decision to one specific song.

The track, penned by McCartney and a staple in his setlists, has been hailed as one of The Beatles' finest creations.  Fans remain captivated by the masterpiece, and a recently shared recording session clip has left many astonished.

The segment, extracted from Peter Jackson's docuseries Get Back, captures the astonishing moment McCartney begins to assemble the legendary tune.   John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are seen watching on as McCartney brings the piece to life. A social media user pointed out that the other members' reactions during the session serve as proof of McCartney's unparalleled status within the band.

A viral post by @historyrock_ features McCartney strumming Let it Be for his peers, leaving onlookers convinced that his brilliance surpasses that of his fellow Beatles.

One comment reads: "It was Paul's group. The others were the best support musicians he ever had."

A second fan added: "Beautiful song! Love the expressions of Harrison, Lennon and Star. Can you imagine being in a group with details

The Ramones were one of the defining bands of the punk rock era - and they took their name from one of The Beatles, who was forced to use a pseudonym to check into hotels

In the swinging sixties, The Beatles were the heartthrobs of Great Britain, causing a frenzy wherever they went.

To dodge their adoring fans, Paul McCartney and John Lennon had to resort to pseudonyms while lodging at hotels. It was one such alias that inadvertently gave rise to a legendary punk rock group—the Ramones. The Ramones, in homage to Paul, all took on the last name Ramone. Drummer Marky Ramone reminisced about the origin of their iconic band name during an interview. He credited the idea to the band's bassist, Dee Dee Ramone, who was inspired by The Beatles' early days when they were known as The Silver Beatles and chased by legions of fans.

Marky recounted, "So the next thing you know, Paul McCartney would sign into a hotel room as Paul Ramon."

Source: themirror.com/Callum Crumlish

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Recording for some of the songs featured on Abbey Road took “a hell of a lot of time” according to The Beatles‘ George Harrison.

The so-called “quiet one” wrote of each track in a newspaper column ahead of Abbey Road’s release, and says one song written by Paul McCartney took the group longer than any other. Harrison, alongside Ringo Starr, assessed each song from the album and Harrison confirmed Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, the “fun but sick” song about a hammer-wielding murderer, was the toughest part of recording the album. A snippet of the paper was shared to the r/Beatles subreddit, where the music column from Harrison was shown.

It seems Harrison predicted the split opinion of the song too, with fans still on the fence about its inclusion on Abbey Road. In the Rolling Stone Magazine column, he writes: “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is just something of Paul’s. We spent a hell of a lot of time recording this one.

“It’s one of those instant, whistle-along tunes which some people will hate and others will love. It’s like Honey Pie, a fun sort of thing, but probably sick as well because the guy keeps killing everybody. We u details

In March 1964, when Yoko Ono was 31, she performed Cut Piece, a piece that she would go on to stage five more times in her life—four times in the 1960s, and once more in 2003, at age 70. In Cut Piece, Ono sits on a stage in her best clothes with a placid expression as she instructs audience members to, one by one, take the pair of scissors she’s placed beside her and cut off a small piece of her clothing. In the ’60s, these performances took menacing turns: male participants, products of the era’s fraught understanding of sexual freedom, felt emboldened to strip Ono bare. Spectators were turned into passive witnesses. 

Cut Piece—perhaps Ono’s greatest work—was lauded as a feminist statement about the subordination of women at a time when feminism had yet to meaningfully pervade the avant-garde. Although the performance testifies to the ease with which women are objectified, it communicates multitudes through the prism of Ono’s body: it also tells the story of her native Japan’s devastation during and after World War II, which she lived through as a child. And, it’s about her relationship with John Lennon, which transformed her private life into a public s details

It is to Paul McCartney‘s credit that he has never based his songwriting or recording tendencies on what people expect from him. He follows his muse wherever it takes him, and that’s why his albums tend to be packed with variety.

For example, the 1975 Wings album Venus and Mars is a mostly rocking affair, as McCartney reestablished the band as a full unit. But he also included on that album “You Gave Me the Answer,” which hearkens back to a much earlier era of music.
“Answer” the Call

After a few years of false starts and disappointments, Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings hit its stride in a major way with the 1973 album Band on the Run. Ironically, that album was delivered by a piecemeal unit, as the group had been decimated by defections to just three members.

Coming off that triumph, McCartney looked to once again beef up the Wings roster so they could tour effectively. The band added two new members for the 1975 album Venus and Mars, which leaned into a hard-rocking sound so listeners knew what the reconfigured Wings lineup could deliver.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia

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The recording of 1968's 'The White Album' was a tumultuous time for The Beatles. The avant-garde album was the band's follow up to their incredibly successful 1967 work 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' captured the zeitgeist of the so-called summer of love and spent 27 weeks at the top of the Record Retailer chart in the United Kingdom.

'The White Album' sessions were notoriously feisty. Ringo Starr left the band for a period as they recorded 'Back in the USSR'. The drummer was fed up with the mood, as The Beatles clashed.

About that period of recording, Paul McCartney said: "There was a lot of friction during that album. We were just about to break up, and that was tense in itself". John Lennon later added: "The break-up of The Beatles can be heard on that album."

Another song on the album which divided the band was 'Revolution 9'. The track is a sound collage and began as the extended ending to John's song 'Revolution', a song warning against violent revolutionary tactics that was released in several versions by the band in 1968.

Yoko Ono and George Harrison worked with John on 'Revolution 9', which John wanted to be a sonic representation of an uprising. About it, he said: "'Revolution 9 details

The tape is said to be a demo for the Fab Four to sign to Decca back in 1962.  A rare Beatles recording has been unearthed in a record store in Canada.  The tape is thought to be a rare recording of a session they had to sign with Decca. History though would detail how Decca passed on the band, leading to their legacy with George Martin and Parlophone.

While Sir Paul McCartney continues to clean up previous songs by The Beatles through the use of artificial intelligence, will it be enough for a recent discovery found in Canada?  Billboard reported that a rare, 15 track demo of The Beatles was unearthed in a record store in Vancouver, with the record store’s owner thinking he had just found a bootleg of the band - a bootleg being an unofficial record of either a band’s demos or live recordings.

A tape long thought lost recorded by The Beatles before their debut album through Parlophone has been unearthed in Canada.A tape long thought lost recorded by The Beatles before their debut album through Parlophone has been unearthed in Canada.

“I just figured it was a tape off a bootleg record,” Rob Frith, the owner of Neptoon Records posted on social media, &ldqu details

Musical genres often weave in and out of themselves. There is a little pop to be found in rock, hip-hop to be found in pop, and country to be found pretty much everywhere these days…While that melting pot of sound is celebrated by most musicians, there is one genre in particular than John Lennon could never get on board with incorporating. Find out which genre Lennon hated, below.
The Genre John Lennon Hated: “Even More Stupid Than Rock and Roll”

Jazz isn’t a genre for everyone. In fact, it’s likely one of the most hated genres of music. That’s likely due to its unique musical language. In many ways, it’s a genre made for musicians–almost as if you need a whole new vocabulary to be able to understand it. While many rock stars of Lennon’s age infused jazz elements into their music, the former Beatle couldn’t stomach it.

While rock music is certainly not the most austere genre, Lennon once called jazz “even more stupid than rock and roll.” He found that jazz lacked direction and sounded more like a jumbled mess of chords and melodies. While many would likely agree with him, his opinion seemed to be informed by the Beatles’ early da details

If you’d been taking bets in 1970 on which former Beatle would be the most successful in the new decade, George Harrison was definitely – to borrow the name of one of his future hits – the dark horse. But as he’d sing in that tune, “Baby, it looks like I’ve been breaking out.”

In November, he turned the page on the Fabs with All Things Must Pass, a triple album brimming with artistic confidence and gorgeous, melancholy songs, not to mention the world’s first-ever God-conscious Number 1 single.

The album topped the charts around the globe, earned two Grammy nominations and had critics spouting superlatives about the formerly quiet one. As Melody Maker put it, “Garbo talks! – Harrison is free!”

Free maybe, but as 1971 unfolded, he was caught up in all kinds of trouble and strife. There was the prolonged legal drama of the Beatles’ split, the newly filed copyright infringement case over My Sweet Lord (in the context of its similarity to the Chiffons’ He’s So Fine), a marriage on the rocks and a drug-addled producer who was losing his mind.

Source: guitarworld.com

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“Rain” remains one of the Beatles’ most beloved tracks. It’s a fan-favorite for its experimental production. How did John Lennon come up with “Rain?” According to him, this masterpiece was a gift from a higher power. Learn more about why Lennon thought he got a bout of divine intervention, below.

If the rain comes
They run and hide their heads
They might as well be dead
If the rain comes
If the rain comes

When the sun shines
They slip into the shade
And sip their lemonade
When the sun shines
When the sun shines

While trying to compose “Rain,” Lennon ran into some road blocks. He had the bones of the song fleshed out, but it wasn’t worthy of release in its current state, according to Lennon. He decided to take a smoke break–a marijuana smoke break that is. Despite it being a way to kick back, it ultimately became just the ticket for Lennon to finish this track.

“I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana,” Lennon once explained. “As I usually do, I listened to what I’d recorded that day. Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, details

There's no denying the vast impact both groups had on the evolution of popular music.

After The Beatles kickstarted the British Invasion, the entire world took notice of the Liverpudlian whippersnappers and their generational songwriting.

Opening the gateway for a number of British bands to succeed across the Atlantic and around the world, their cultural fingerprints are still felt today.  Though The Beatles may have become the biggest band in popular music history, America already had their own music idols at the same time bands like The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Small Faces, The Who, The Zombies, and many others began flooding the airwaves across the Atlantic.

The Beach Boys were a cultural behemoth in their own right, and epitomised youth values in the US - particularly on the West Coast - more than the Fab Four ever could in the beginning.

The Beach Boys reveal how Pet Sounds influenced one of The Beatles' biggest albums. Barbie's Margot Robbie refused to listen to The

In 1963, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, and Carl Wilson rode the wave to number three in the US Billboard charts with 'Surfin' U.S.A.'

A year later, many groups of the details

The Beatles fans were left split after a fan suggested there is a better album in their discography than Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, with an album released before it tipped as their 'best'.

Fans of the legendary Liverpudlian rock group The Beatles are split on which of their albums sounds better than Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The record catapulted the Fab Four into the history books, with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison's album still considered one of the greatest of all time. Fans are now suggesting there may be one album released before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that is actually better.

A post to the r/Beatles subreddit had users discuss whether there was an album which could better the achievement of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Many were split on one suggestion, with some saying the album should be discredited as it is just "four number one singles" on the second half.

The original post suggests Magical Mystery Tour, an album The Beatles made to tie in with a movie of the same name, is far superior to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Source: themirror.com/Ewan Gleadow

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George Harrison is as foundational to electronic music as Black Sabbath is to metal. Welcome to No Skips, the weekly column where we take an album track by track to see if any tracks are skippable or not! The verdict is pretty simple this week, given the Beatles member released his 1969 album “Electronic Sound” as a two-track composition.

I admire Harrison’s confidence to drop this dookie of an album in this era of the Beatles’ commercial height, as “Abbey Road” would use the Moog synthesizer that defines “Electronic Sound” in clever and less annoying ways. However, having listened to abrasive noise music acts in the past, part of me enjoys “Electronic Sound,” a sentiment that most listeners from the 1960s and today couldn’t fathom to share.

Album covers got riskier in the ‘60s, but Harrison’s may take the cake. The only comparisons I can make are to the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and drawings that kids in therapy are forced to create to portray problems happening in the home. The atmosphere in the Beatles’ recording studios during this time was tumultuous and this may have been Harrison’s way of showing that all was not details