Paul McCartney wrote his iconic Bond song, “Live and Let Die,” without having seen the script.

In his book The Lyrics, McCartney spoke about writing the iconic rock song on instinct, with very little knowledge about the plot.

“Writing a Bond song is a bit of an accolade, and I always had a sneaking ambition to do it,” he shared. “Ron told me the film was called Live and Let Die. The screenplay wasn’t finished at that point, so I got the Ian Fleming book, and it’s a real page-turner.”

The music icon was originally approached to make music for the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever. While McCartney had no idea what the Roger Moore film was about, he had an idea for the Bond theme.

“I didn’t want the song to be, ‘You’ve got a gun. Now go kill people. Live and let die.’ That’s just not me,” he shared. “I wanted it to be, ‘Let it go. Don’t worry about it. When you’ve got problems, just live and let die.’ Once I had that thought in my head, the song almost wrote itself,” the Beatle explained.

McCartney and Wings recorded “Live and Let Die! at the end of the sessions fo details

It’s no secret that The Beatles weren’t seeing eye to eye by the end of their tenure. That tension was especially a shame in the collaborative partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Though they still shared ideas even as they fell out, it wasn’t like their early years, when the Lennon-McCartney credit more accurately reflected the writing process.

One example of how their working relationship changed came when Lennon was working out “Come Together.” This classic hit features all four Beatles, but it wasn’t without pushback. Lennon reportedly dismissed McCartney from his typical duties on this track.

“Come Together” is one of the most beloved songs on Abbey Road. By the time this album came out, the band was all but done. Despite breaking at the seams, this album proved a stellar body of work. It wasn’t thrown together, even though the band wasn’t in the best headspace while working on it.

“Here come old flat-top, he come grooving up slowly / He got ju-ju eyeball, he one holy roller / He got hair down to his knee / Got to be a joker, he just do what he please,” the off-kilter lyrics to “Come Together” read. Fo details

Just like the Beatles influenced countless musical contemporaries, the Fab Four drew inspiration from many of the other talented artists of the era. One of those legendary peers was Bob Dylan, particularly in the case of George Harrison's songwriting (which makes sense, considering the pair would later become bandmates in the Traveling Wilburys).

In fact, a song Dylan stayed up all night writing during the recording of his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde inspired Harrison to write a classic track which appeared on the so-called White Album.

The Dylan song in question? "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands."

Sean Wilentz (author of Bob Dylan in America) shared firsthand accounts of the night "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" was written in a 2007 essay for the Oxford American.

"I saw Dylan sitting out in the studio at the piano, writing all night long by himself. Dark glasses on," recalled Kris Kristofferson (who was working as a studio janitor at the time). With the aid of Coca-Cola and chocolate bars, Dylan stayed up until four o'clock in the morning working on the lyrics, which have been said to be about his first wife, Sara Lownds.

It wasn't the lyrics of "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" that H details

Ringo Starr is often ignored or underappreciated, but his influence on The Beatles' sound is larger than a lot of people realize. Much like George Harrison, when the band first started, he stayed away from songwriting, since John Lennon and Paul McCartney had a monopoly over it. Harrison quickly started writing his own songs, but Starr was a late bloomer, but eventually, he also decided to try.

As all Beatles fans know, it was almost a rule to have Ringo Starr take the lead vocal on a song. There were very few albums that don't include a cover of a Beatles original sung by the drummer. And today, we're ranking all of them, from the early covers, to Starr-penned hits.
11 "Good Night" (1968)
10 "I Wanna Be Your Man" (1963)
9 "Matchbox" (1964)
8 "Honey Don’t" (1964)

Clearly, Ringo Starr's voice was great for Carl Perkins' covers. Another iconic track that Starr sang lead on for the band was "Honey Don't," a short and upbeat rockabilly track that Lennon used to sing before Starr joined, but that the drummer was clearly a better fit for. In addition to the album version included on Beatles for Sale, Starr also sang it for the On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2 compilation, and he sounds details

No one can blame Paul McCartney for being a bit trepidatious about starting another band venture after breaking up with the world’s biggest outfit. That kind of heartbreak must have stung every time he got on stage, at least for a little while. Nevertheless, McCartney built a second life as frontman of another band, Wings. They may not have earned the recognizability or the cultural cachet of The Beatles, but they were successful in their own right; even if McCartney couldn’t always see that.

According to the rock legend, one of his peers, David Bowie, helped put things into perspective for him. The avant-garde star made 

Wings always had a big burden to overcome. The Beatles’ success was unprecedented. Fans expected a lot from McCartney’s follow-up, and that pressure certainly weighed on him. ”Anything Wings did had to be viewed in the light of The Beatles,” McCartney once said.

Under that constant lens, McCartney struggled to block out the noise. Even though Wings did well for themselves, they didn’t go toe-to-toe with The Beatles, and that sullied any hope of reveling in that success.

“The interesting thing is that, looking back on some of t details

There has never been a band with more influence over popular music than The Beatles. It is an inarguable fact. They incorporated countless genres into their work, pushing the boundaries and exponentially expanding what was possible for music. Over their decade-long career as a group (can you believe it was only ten years?) they produced a vast variety of music that literally changed the world.

5 “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (1967)

Starting off on a wonderfully strange note: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” As iconic as it is perplexing, the otherworldly track is the third on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – hands down the most psychedelic album in The Beatles' catalog. The song was inspired by a drawing Lennon’s nursery-aged son, Julian, brought home from school one day. It is also often posited that the first letter of each noun in the title, which spell out “LSD” when put together, is an obvious drug reference. Lennon refuted this theory emphatically. That being said, it was no secret that The Beatles’ music was influenced by hallucinogens during this time.

4 “In My Life” (1965)

John Lennon called “ details

An eight-year legal battle with Universal Music over a long-lost demo tape held by a famed Abbey Road sound engineer is finally set for a showdown in court.   A Los Angeles judge says Universal Music Group (UMG) can keep pursuing a legal battle demanding the return of what the label has called the “first known Beatles recording” from the estate of a famed Abbey Road sound engineer.

In a decision this month, Judge David Cowan ruled that Calderstone Productions — a UMG unit that administers the Beatles catalog — had legal standing to seek to recover the rare tape from the estate of Geoff Emerick, who the label claims stole it decades ago.
The Beatles records

Emerick’s estate, which says he rescued a piece of history from destruction, had argued UMG couldn’t show a “chain of title” to prove it was the rightful legal successor to Abbey Road, meaning it lacked ownership rights in the first place.

But in an Oct. 16 ruling, Judge Cowan rejected that argument: “Calderstone shows how the chain of title gives it the right to pursue its underlying conversion claim,” the judge said, using the legal term for the civil law equivalent of theft.< details

From pre-fame Matt Damon to Danny DeVito in Jordan Marsh and Yoko Ono in Boston, this Newton native has seen it all. We asked him about his decades-long career as a Boston culture photog.

I called Jamaica Plain photographer Roger Farrington ostensibly to talk about his photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

It speaks volumes about his decades-long career as a Boston-area photographer that those photos — the last ever taken of Lennon in a studio— were the tip of the iceberg.

Soon the Newton native is telling me about the time he’d photographed Matt Damon before “Good Will Hunting.” Danny DeVito riding the escalator in Jordan Marsh. Now-King Charles talking to shoppers on Newbury Street.

“It was ridiculous! It was a circus! I mean — oh, I had Elizabeth Taylor!” he says, jumping into a tale of Liz’s Hasty Pudding parade that ends with locals chasing her entourage “all the way through Harvard Square to the Lampoon Building, shouting ‘Liz, Liz, Liz!’”

Oh! And that time Andy Warhol was on Newbury Street. Farrington photographed the Queen of Thailand’s royal visit to Boston. Vanna White. Richard Pryor. Oh, and Alec details

When Dick Rowe infamously passed on four young Liverpudlians on New Year’s Day 1962, he didn’t just make a historic blunder—he also kicked off the greatest vinyl detective story in rock history.

New Year’s Day 1962.

Most of London was sleeping off a hangover. But The Beatles arrived at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London.

They arrived after a grueling 10-hour overnight drive from Liverpool through a severe snowstorm. They were in London to perform a high-stakes audition that their manager, Brian Epstein, hoped would secure their first major recording contract.

Over the course of the session, the group dashed through 15 tracks chosen specifically by Epstein to showcase their range.

Rather than unleashing the raw, sweaty rock-and-roll energy that was currently tearing the roof off the Cavern Club, the setlist leaned heavily into polite pop covers and stage standards.

This is the 15-song track list from the audition session.

Lennon-McCartney originals:

“Like Dreamers Do”
“Hello Little Girl”
“Love of the Loved”

Covers and standards:

“Money (That’s What I Want)” details

Much has been said and written about the break-up of The Beatles - and what might have been the catalyst that drove the final nail in the coffin. It was a combination of things - band members feeling neglected, resentment (“We’re the grooves, so just watch it, okay?”), pressure to deliver new music, the aftermath of Brian Epstein’s premature death, the drudgery of living in each others pockets day-to-day for years... and according to the narrative at the time, Yoko’s presence while the group was at work.

The Fabs fall apart

It’s not even entirely clear who split the group. John Lennon claimed he wanted out but didn’t know how to break it to the other three so rather than confront them, he let it simmer - perhaps hoping it would all run its natural course and peter out. Then, in April 1970, Paul McCartney let slip that it was all over in a press release interview for his new solo album that there would be no more Beatles - no new music, no tours or shows, no more writing collaborations with John.

To the question, “Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?” Paul bluntly replied, “No”. He elaborated, citing “personal diff details

The argument about who the “Fifth Beatle” might have been is a bit of a pointless one. No one was on a par with the contributions made by the four members themselves. But it’s intriguing to look back at the group’s history and note some of the fascinating characters who were a part, however tangential, of their story.

For instance, there was Alexis Mardas, aka Magic Alex, who briefly popped up in the group’s orbit in the late 60s. Alas, when the group needed Mardas to step up with his supposed technical expertise in 1969, things didn’t go as planned.
The Magic Man

A native of Greece, Alexis Mardas first started making the rounds of British pop stars when he became acquainted with Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. In 1966, he met John Lennon when both men were frequenting the Indica book shop in London. Soon, Mardas joined Lennon’s entourage.

Mardas often boasted of his undiscovered technological innovations, many of which drew the wonder of Lennon. Some of his promised (but never quite realized) innovations included a house that hovered above the ground and music speakers embedded in wallpaper.

Unfortunately, Mardas also seemed to be a magnet for co details

There are lots of opinions swirling on the internet about The Beatles’ final years as a band, with some Fab Four fans posthumously judging the musicians for what they did (and didn’t do) in the tumultuous last few years of the 1960s. However, I would argue that Paul McCartney showed tremendous foresight when he—along with Ringo Starr and George Harrison—rejected a song John Lennon proposed the band release as their next single in the fall of 1969.

For some context, The Beatles had just released their penultimate album, Abbey Road, on September 26 of that year. The album’s lead single, “Something”, with “Come Together”, was set to come out on October 6. On September 30, fresh from the album release, John Lennon went into the studio to record “Cold Turkey” with the Plastic Ono Band, having been turned down by his other bandmates.

The Plastic Ono Band version came out on October 20. The songwriting credit was solely John Lennon. This marked a first for the musician who previously released all of his other compositions, even the personal ones, under the Lennon-McCartney partnership.
“Cold Turkey” Never Would Have Worked as a Beatles S details

There's quite a lot of ground to cover in the upcoming Beatles biopics, but a source tells Closer that one of the four-part films' heartbreaking plotlines will center around the death of Paul McCartney's beloved first wife, Linda.

"Linda is a big character in the world of the Beatles," reveals the source, and director Sam Mendes "has opted to make her a huge part of these movies by hiring Saoirse Ronan, who is a four-time Oscar nominee, to play her."

McCartney, 84, wed Linda in 1969 and the pair, who shared daughters Mary, 57, and Stella, 55, and son James, 49, were married for nearly 30 years. He also adopted the photographer's daughter Heather, 63, from a previous marriage.

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, "it was Linda who saved" McCartney from his "deep, deep anger," the "Maybe I'm Amazed" singer told biographer Tom Doyle, per The Times U.K., and the pair went on to play together in the band Wings.

Then in 1998, Linda tragically lost her battle with breast cancer at the age of 56.

"When it comes to Linda's illness, the movies will go there, and they're doing it in a tasteful way that is fully aligned with Sir Paul's own wishes for the project," insists the source, adding that McCar details

There are lots of opinions swirling on the internet about The Beatles’ final years as a band, with some Fab Four fans posthumously judging the musicians for what they did (and didn’t do) in the tumultuous last few years of the 1960s. However, I would argue that Paul McCartney showed tremendous foresight when he—along with Ringo Starr and George Harrison—rejected a song John Lennon proposed the band release as their next single in the fall of 1969.

For some context, The Beatles had just released their penultimate album, Abbey Road, on September 26 of that year. The album’s lead single, “Something”, with “Come Together”, was set to come out on October 6. On September 30, fresh from the album release, John Lennon went into the studio to record “Cold Turkey” with the Plastic Ono Band, having been turned down by his other bandmates.

The Plastic Ono Band version came out on October 20. The songwriting credit was solely John Lennon. This marked a first for the musician who previously released all of his other compositions, even the personal ones, under the Lennon-McCartney partnership.
“Cold Turkey” Never Would Have Worked as a Beatles S details

On October 24th, John Lennon filed a lawsuit against the US government, accusing it of tapping his phone.

After Lennon and Yoko Ono held their famed "bed-ins" in Montreal and Amsterdam, the FBI began keeping elaborate records on the muscian, including taking notes on his media appearances and wiretapping his phone.

During the tumult of the Vietnam War, the famous couple were self-proclaimed "peaceniks," frequently criticizing Nixon and the conflicts. The couple was vocal about their anti-war opinions, creating a huge anti-war movement in the USA and making friends with several members of the "New Left." Their political movement advocated for civil rights, gay rights, drug reforms, and feminism.

The FBI took note of their political opinions and affiliations. They became concerned that Lennon and Ono were planning a "large rock concert" in front of the convention hall in Miami Beach, where the Republican National Convention was being held. They were concerned this would interfere with the presidential election.

So, the FBI, tapped Lennon's phone and sent their agents to follow the former Beatles. He was very aware of this, admitting these practices made him "scared" and "paranoid."

"When it details

Brian May believes George Harrison deserves more recognition for his contributions to the electric guitar’s legacy. In his view, guitarists who dazzle with speed and fireworks have overshadowed the quieter virtues of the instrument — qualities Harrison possessed in abundance.

May knows a thing or two about making an electric guitar speak. He was crowned the world’s greatest guitarist in Total Guitar’s 2020 rankings, narrowly beating Jimi Hendrix to the top spot.

His work with his fabled Red Special is testament to his own formidable talent, though May’s playing often falls on the flashier end of the spectrum. Consider his solo on “Don’t Stop Me Now,” which he fought to include after Freddie Mercury argued that the song was better suited to piano. Yet, speaking to the Express in 2022, May explained why Harrison’s less showy approach deserves equal respect.

George Harrison plays his 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar on stage during rehearsals for the TV show 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' Summer Spin at Teddington Studios in London on 11th July 1964. 

“At every stage in their career and their music development, they were models,” he sai details

Though it would showcase the strengths of George Harrison as a songwriter better than The Beatles ever did, All Things Must Pass was not a smooth time for the so-called quiet one.

Harrison’s breakout solo album would come just a year after The Beatles had formally dissolved. His fellow bandmates had released projects of their own, but it was All Things Must Pass and songs like My Sweet Lord that gave Harrison a head start in his post-Beatles career. Despite the triple album featuring some of Harrison’s all-time great songs, including the Bob Dylan-inspired I’d Have You Anytime, the Something songwriter found himself feeling musically “paranoid” as a result of working with Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The songwriting duo would hardly let Harrison’s songs feature on The Beatles’ albums, leaving Harrison with a backlog of quality material that he placed on All Things Must Pass.

Speaking back in 1977 to Crawdaddy Magazine, Harrison confirmed that having Derek and the Dominos play on most of the songs, as well as finding a love for the Dylan-inspired I’d Have You Anytime, helped with the pains of recording his massive studio album.

He said: “I liked dif details

Kev McManus, Head of Liverpool UNESCO City of Music, reflects on this week’s announcement about a new home for The Beatles Story and how it will help support future talent…

Apple Corps will be opening a huge, new state of the art Beatles attraction in Liverpool in 2028. It is great news for the city in so many ways but for me what really struck home were the quotes from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Both acknowledged that The Beatles and Liverpool are inseparable. The city made them, and their ongoing love for the place shone through in their words.

The other really exciting element for me was the announcement that every ticket sold to The Beatles Story will contribute to the Apple Corps Liverpool Trust, a charitable initiative established to provide financial support and opportunities for emerging Liverpool artists. This type of support is absolutely vital at the moment – a time when it is increasingly difficult for emerging artists to breakthrough into a music industry that has changed beyond all recognition since the days that The Beatles did so.

This gift back to the city and its musicians is a brilliant gesture and it is why during the local press launch we had some musicians wh details

I like the Beatles, and I'm almost definitely sure that you do too. But I'm afraid their 21st-century omnipresence – impressive for a band that split up 56 years ago – is starting to bring me slightly down.

It has been revealed that there is to be a ginormous new Beatles museum in Liverpool, opening in 2028. Its 9,290 sq m will be packed with props and costumes from the four – yes, four – biopics of the band to be released the same year under the auspices of Sam Mendes. All this will come on top of the opening to the public of the band's former Apple Records headquarters in Savile Row, repurposed as another sanctum. This one promises seven floors of memorabilia.

Oh, and the dodgy Richard Curtis film Yesterday is being transformed into a stage musical, featuring the songs of Showaddywaddy – no, not really, it's The Beatles again.

One can't help feeling a little bit over-Beatled. Growing up in the Seventies, I naturally found the Sixties a bit naff, and the lingering overhang of The Beatles a bit tedious. Were people ever going to stop boring on about them?

After all, when you grow up after a big sensation has flared and died, you take it for granted. It will never be details

John Lennon was one of the first writers whose lyrics were studied by fans for their insight and depth. But Lennon became a little bit wary of those who’d try to find meanings that he didn’t think were there.

As a result, he adjusted late in The Beatles years and early in his solo career. He started keeping the lyrics simple. And he still found ways to captivate with his words and music.
“Don’t Let Me Down”

Lennon’s first response to those who went diving deep into his lyrics was to make them deliberately obtuse and nonsensical. The Beatles’ tracks “I Am The Walrus” and “Glass Onion” offer excellent examples of this approach. He eventually decided that he’d try to keep things as simple and direct as possible. “Don’t Let Me Down”, released as a B-side in 1969, offered the first evidence of this approach. Still relatively new to his relationship with Yoko Ono, Lennon used the song to plead for reliability from her. He doesn’t do anything fancy with the lyrics. Instead, he relies on his impassioned vocals, recorded during The Beatles’ rooftop concert at the start of 1969, to communicate.
“I Want You details

George Harrison may not have been part of The Beatles’ legendary songwriting partnership of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but he had a talent early on for songwriting that deserved to be nurtured. He really stepped into his own in 1969 with a few self-penned Beatles tunes that would go on to change songwriting forever. These tunes were just a preview of what Harrison would do with his solo career.
“Something” from ‘Abbey Road’

Let’s start with the obvious. “Something” is one of The Beatles’ most enduring hit songs. And it’s easily one of the biggest releases from the Fab Four in 1969. Harrison penned “Something” as a love song with a beautifully constructed melody. The way those harmonics shift throughout the song is gorgeous. Many listeners at the time couldn’t believe how little Harrison had contributed to the band as a songwriter up until that point. “Something” would be Harrison’s first composition to get the A-side single treatment.

“Something” was a smash hit across the board back in 1969. It peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 4 on the UK Singles chart. “Here C details

Apple Corps will take over management of the award-winning attraction The Beatles Story in 2028, moving it to a new location in St Johns Shopping Centre. The new experience will transport fans from The Beatles' post-war Liverpool childhoods through Hamburg, The Cavern, Beatlemania, Abbey Road, Shea Stadium, Savile Row and beyond, using immersive technology, original artefacts and spectacular reconstructed sets to bring the Beatles’ extraordinary story to life.

Fans will also be able to visit a brand new Yellow Submarine experience at Liverpool's iconic St Johns Beacon tower, also arriving in 2028.

Add your details below to confirm your interest in The Beatles: Liverpool 2028, be the first to receive all updates and to be notified when tickets go on sale.

The Beatles Story will be open as usual in 2026 and 2027. Please visit beatlesstory.com for more information

Nearly 59 years after the Beatles’ historic 1968 visit to the iconic Chaurasi Kutia in Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, the popular Beatles Ashram is all set to feature in an ambitious four-film project on the legendary band, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sam Mendes.

An international film production delegation on Sunday met Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to discuss the proposed February 2027 shoot for The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, being made by Neal Street Productions for Sony Pictures Entertainment in collaboration with Apple Corps.

The production is expected to bring more than 100 international crew members and around 150 Indian professionals to the state. Local arrangements are being coordinated by On The Road India, with opportunities expected for local technicians and service providers.

The four films will tell the individual stories of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The cast includes Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Paul Mescal as McCartney, Joseph Quinn as Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Starr. A simultaneous global theatrical release is planned for April 2028.

The Beatles visited Rishikesh in February 1968 to study transcendental meditat details

Some biographies give you a glimpse into music history. Others make you feel like you’ve stumbled into a private family album belonging to the greatest band that ever lived.

There are Beatles fans, and then there are Beatles obsessives. You know the type. The ones who can tell you which version of a song appeared on which release, who played what on a particular recording, and why a seemingly insignificant moment in a documentary deserves an entire afternoon of discussion. The ones who have spent years devouring every photograph, interview, bootleg and scrap of Beatles history they can get their hands on, convinced there must still be something out there they haven’t seen.

Enter THE THIRD EYE: Early Photographs, a remarkable collection of George Harrison’s personal photography, published by Penguin Random House, and quite possibly one of the most exciting things to land in the hands of a Beatles tragic in some time.

We’ve seen the Beatles from just about every conceivable angle. We’ve watched the documentaries, read the biographies, studied the album sleeves and pored over countless photographs of four lads from Liverpool who somehow changed the world. But there’s some details

How should you listen to the Beatles? However you like, and as often you can. But faced with all that material, how – to coin a phrase – do you do it? In the aim of offering something like a benign, George Martin-style guiding hand, we’ve put together this series to put Beatles songs in your weekly calendar – hopefully bringing some fresh takes on their music, and on the hectic nature of their lives and creative development along the way.

The week of October 19th contains many of the different colours in the Beatle spectrum. In 1966, this is the week that George Harrison returns from India, where he has been taking a sitar course with Ravi Shankar. Today in 1968 is the day that John and Yoko are in court after a drugs bust. At the start of the career, however, the autumn is a time for harder work: a date at the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton (October 19th, 1963), and in 1964, where they enter the Scottish phase of their UK tour, with dates in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow.

In Dundee they are interviewed for Scottish TV. “Where are we now?” someone asks. In the face of weariness, John Lennon enters the mildly surreal by way of reply.

“Cake,” he says.

Even details