Postcard kindly supplied by Alan Chrisman.
Acknowledgements to Cavern City Tours who hold an annual International
Beatles Convention in Liverpool. Phone 0151-236-9091
This is a LIFO system - latest
items come at the top
Ethan and Maya Hawke will both star in a film in which
Maya will portray a teen who’s determined to lose her
virginity to George Harrison.
Revolver, which is being helmed by Finding Nemo
co-director Andrew Stanton, will see Ethan and Maya
portray father and daughter in the ’60s-set romantic
comedy.
Variety reports that Maya will play Jane, a teenager
resident of Anchorage, Alaska. The film is set in 1966
when a flight to Japan carrying The Beatles is forced to
make an unexpected stop at the city. Jane then dreams up a
plan to lose her virginity to The Beatles guitarist.
Kate Trefry (Stranger Things, Fear Street film trilogy)
has written the script, and 3311 production’s Ross
Jacobson and Jen Dana are on hand to produce. The film
will be introduced at next month’s American Film Market.
Ethan currently stars in – and has co-written as well as
executive produced – the limited series The Good Lord Bird
for Showtime.
Maya was most recently seen in Gia Coppola’s Mainstream,
which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and the third
season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. She also released her
debut album, ‘Blush’, in August.
In a four-star review of the album, NME‘s Rhian Daly
wrote: “‘Blush’ shows the work of a songwriter who, even
as something of a rookie, can command your attention and
emotions with the most effortless of lines and make you
consider your own life and relationships with the gentle
encouragement of a close friend. Hold ‘Blush’ close – it’s
a special one.”v
"The original handwritten lyrics to the classic 1956 Elvis
Presley hit song Heartbreak Hotel, a copy of Yoko Ono’s
book Grapefruit signed by John Lennon and twice signed by
Yoko, a rare Titanic item with a reference to the American
businessman John Jacob Astor, and a scarce and highly
collectible Pokémon trading card will all come up for bid
in
Weiss Auctions’ major online-only auction planned for
November 19th-20th at 10 am Eastern both days....
"Heartbreak Hotel was written in October 1955 by Mae Boren
Axton, a high school teacher with a background in musical
promotion, and Tommy Durden, a Jacksonville
singer-songwriter. The lyrics were inspired by a newspaper
account of a man who committed suicide by jumping to his
death from a hotel window, leaving a note that said, “I
walk a lonely street.” Axton presented the song to Presley
and he loved it, recording the hit in January 1956 for his
new label, RCA Victor. Axton and Durden’s signed lyrics,
in pencil with corrections, is a rare slice of rock’n’roll
history.
"Grapefruit is an artist’s book written by Yoko Ono and
originally published in 1964. It has become famous as an
early example of conceptual art, containing a series of
“event scores” that replace the physical works of art (the
traditional stock-in-trade of artists) with instructions
that an individual may, or may not, wish to enact. The
book would be rare and valuable by itself, but the fact
that this copy was signed by John Lennon and signed and
inscribed by Yoko ups its value."
October 26, 2020
John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth" proves to be a
very strong contender on the Billboard charts!
From the John Lennon Official Facebook page: "A huge THANK
YOU to everyone who has bought a copy of GIMME SOME TRUTH
in the USA - we really hope you are enjoying the mixes and
all the Box Set contents!
"And big congratulations to BLACKPINK for their #1 album
on the Billboard Album Sales Chart!"
George Harrison added his eloquent slide guitar
signatures on a song called "Punchdrunk" by Rubyhorse
Rubyhorse at Whelan’s, Dublin on the 14th of September
2018.
Rubyhorse is a band originally from Cork, Ireland. The band consists
of singer Dave Farrell, guitarist Joe Philpott, bassist
Decky Lucey, drummer Gordon Ashe, and Owen Fegan on
keyboards. "The original band lineup reconvened during the
Covid 19 lockdown and recorded a "live from home" version
of Punchdrunk featuring George Harrison," states Wikipedia.
It went on to say that: "The YouTube video was released on July 2nd, 2020, and an
extended single version was released on October 16th 2020.
The delay in the official release was due to permission
being required from the Harrison estate to have George's
name associated with a new release of the song. Oliva and
Dahni Harrison gave it their blessing."
William Decky Lucey writes:
George Harrison played slide guitar on a song I wrote
called Punchdrunk. Sometimes it slips my mind and then I
remember and I think, ”Holy shit, I played with a Beatle!”
But let me set the scene. We had arrived in Boston some 18
months previous and had been homeless and penniless for
most of that time. We were surviving on $5 each a day
which we used to spend in a place called Mikes Diner in
Davis square in Somerville. We could get a fried pepper
burger and fries for that and it was pretty good. It was
written in chalk on a huge menu board as fr. pepper burger
and for weeks we were ordering the father pepper burger to
sniggers from the staff until someone clued us in. That
was our life back then. Trying to find places to sleep,
trying to scrounge up some gigs and mostly trying to stay
warm.
18 months later we were lying on the sand in South Beach,
Miami, on the record labels dime, looking liked
undercooked chickens, debating the pros and cons of having
Beatle, George Harrison play guitar on our new record. We
were a bunch of knuckle heads back then but even by our
standards this was a picture.
We had just finished recording a song called Punchdrunk, a
mid tempo ballad and a mutual friend was picking George
and his wife Olivia up from the airport on his stopover
from London to Hawaii. This mutual friend happened to be
playing a rough mix of the song in the car and George
remarked that he liked it. And that was the end of it.
Apparently several days later, he was in his kitchen in
Hawaii whistling a tune and asked his wife what it was
because he couldn’t get it out of his head. “I think
that’s the song by those Irish boys” Olivia remarked. And
so, ever the musician, he called us up and offered to
play some guitar on the track. We said we had to think
about it!
Of course we came to our senses and he played his parts in
London on Christmas Day 1998. I remember getting the tapes
back from him and sitting in A&M studios in Hollywood
listening. What I loved most about it was listening to
the performance by itself and the space between the parts
when you can hear him breathing and you can hear the
ambience of the room. It is a great guitar part and so
George.
He sent a note back with the tapes that said “I don’t know
if it’s suitable and now I’m going back to my Christmas
Pudding”. I suppose all musicians are insecure no matter
how successful. George was always my favourite Beatle and
a hugely underrated guitar player and song writer and I am
humbled that he heard something in my song that moved him.
The funny thing about this particular song was I had
borrowed some chords from a song called “I ME MINE”,
written by guess who? George Harrison. I always wondered
if he gravitated to the song because he heard something of
himself in it. Who knows.
And so twenty years later, George is gone but never
forgotten and a little piece of him lives on in a song
called Punchdrunk.
"Punchdrunk" - words and music by
William Decky Lucey
Everyone is out of it
Everybody here has lost control
Traveled eyes and dirty minds
Take the kids outside and lock the door
I'm like the man on the flying trapeze
I feel so close to the stars
But on the ground is where my feet belong
Inside here is an answer
I'm punchdrunk but I'm free
Inside here is a spirit
Don't you see?
Don't you see?
Have no fear of anything
They'll turn you inside out and front to back
Don't drown your sorrows or hang your head
I'll come for you
I'll hold you 'till you crack
I'm like the man on the flying trapeze
I feel so close to the stars
But on the ground is where my feet belong
Inside here is the answer
I'm punchdrunk but I'm free
Inside here is a spirit
Don't you see?
Don't you see?
You and me
We're worlds apart
And far from home
But in this life
We're on our own
A one man show
Inside here is an answer
I'm punchdrunk but I'm free
Inside here is a spirit
Don't you see?
Don't you see?
October 24, 2020
Paul McCartney Says He Felt Like He Was In A
Laboratory For McCartney III
Shaun Keaveny’s BBC Radio 6 Music programme
Matt Everitt interviewed Sir Paul McCartney about his new
album, McCartney III.
We bring you the full transcript of the interview.
Photography by Mary McCartney, taken at Paul's home studio
in Sussex.
Matt Everitt: It’s really good to speak to you, I mean,
this is all very unexpected. You’re not very good at
sitting on your hands are you?
Paul McCartney: Well no, you know, I get these ideas and
I don’t know, it keeps me busy.
ME: Actually, I should ask, have you spent this time in
lockdown out of the public eye growing like a huge
McCartney I beard? There’s an opportunity to do that
here – lots of people have.
PM: No, what I do is I kind of grow it for a couple of
weeks and then get fed up with it – gets a bit itchy –
so I shave it off and then go for another two or three
weeks.
ME: How have you been? How’s your lockdown been, Paul?
PM: It’s been ok actually because I came back off
holiday at the beginning of the year and got down to my
farm in the countryside and happened to be locked down
with my daughter Mary and her family, so that meant four
of my grandkids. So, I think for a lot of people,
suddenly they’re spending more time with their families
than they thought they would, so that’s been nice. Then
I was able to go to work because the idea was go to work
only if you can’t work at home, and I had to do a little
bit of music in the studio, so that got me started, kind
of thing. So, I did a bit of recording during that time
and then I’d come home in the evening and then there’d
be Mary and the family – all very lovely. So, I mean in
fact it wasn’t that bad. I was a bit sort of loath to
say that because I know a lot of people have had a
terrible time but no, mine wasn’t too bad at all in
fact. Spent a lot of time with the grandkids and that
was nice.
ME: This is McCartney III, so let’s do a bit of context
[…] So, McCartney I in 1970, that was the kind of start
of the kind of lo-fi DIY play and produce everything
yourself – have you always had a sort of soft spot for
that record?
PM: Yeah, it happened just because I was spending a bit
of time at home, because suddenly, I wasn’t in The
Beatles anymore, so you’re at a bit of a loose end to
say the least. But I had all my stuff, I had a drum kit,
I had my bass, I had my guitar, had an amp. So I got
hold of a four-track recorder from EMI, which is the
same machine that we’d used with The Beatles, so I just
went real lo-fi, just plugged the microphone straight
into the back, didn’t have a mixing desk and made some
music – that was it.
ME: Because you’ve said that was an incredibly difficult
time for you but I guess, doing that record – writing
it, producing it, making it really raw, giving yourself
kind of no-where to hide – that must have helped, it
must have been a good process to have gone through for
you.
PM: Yeah, I think, you know, for me, like everyone,
music is a good thing – a great thing – so yeah, it
really did help me through that period.
Photography by Mary McCartney, taken at Paul's home studio
in Sussex.
ME: And it’s now also regarded as a bit of a low-fi
classic, isn’t it? It’s seen as being the start of that
DIY ethos, that DIY sound for bands.
PM: Yeah, it’s funny you know, time brings an edge to
all these things because at the time it was supposed to
be just a load of crap. Just me on my own, just
indulging myself, which it kind of was you know, but I
liked that and I thought “there’s something here” you
know. I got messages from some people saying “I love
that, it’s so sort of laid back and it just, it doesn’t
give a damn” kind of thing – so people tend to think
better of it now.
ME: In keeping with the kind of trilogy idea, what was
your headspace going in to McCartney II then […]
PM: McCartney II was more about – I’d taken delivery of
a synth and I’d never really messed with one before, so
I was taking advantage of all the things you can do with
a synth and then the other thing was a sequencer. Again,
something I’d heard people use but I’d never had a go
at. So that really was the basis of that album and, you
know, it was just me kind of locked away. It felt a bit
crazy sometimes. I used to say that I felt a bit like a
crazy professor, locked away in his laboratory. I mean,
one track in particular […] Secret Friend, it was just
eight minutes long – it just happened to keep going for
eight minutes. If you wanted to put some percussion on
like shakers, you would just do a bit of it and then
your computer can do the eight minutes, if you want it
to just keep going. But in those days, I’m just standing
around in this little empty room going [makes shaker
sound] kind of glancing at my watch and going “woah,
seven minutes to go”.
ME: Do you think you work differently if you’re
recording in a bathroom or recording in Abbey Road. Do
you approach things differently do you think?
PM: Yeah I think so, you know. I think if you’re just on
your own, you can have an idea and very quickly you can
play it. Whereas with a band, you’ve kind of got to
explain it, they’ve got to get it, you’ve got to get it,
how it feels. Sometimes that’s great, don’t get me wrong
you know, obviously live, that’s the best. But yeah,
when you’re just noodling around on your own you just
have a lot of freedom and it’s just something I’ve
always enjoyed doing.
ME: So for McCartney III, I mean I guess as someone
who’s – all your work, everything you play, everything
you say is scrutinised so much. To be doing some
recordings and just thinking “maybe no one will hear
this”, that’s got to be quite a joy I guess?
PM: Well that was the great thing about the album. I
didn’t know I was making an album and that really makes
a difference. I just went in and as I say, I had this
little bit of film music – a guy was making a film for
me – he wanted a little bit of intro music and then a
little bit of credits, instrumental. So I had to go and
do that and I thought “well that’s ok, that’s serious,
now I can mess around”. And so for the next nine weeks I
was just messing around, thinking “ah it would be good
to finish this one up. Oh I could do this one. Yeah
that’d be ok” and just going through them all and never
suspecting for one second that this was going to be an
album.
ME: I mean there’s kind of songs from all over the shop
isn’t there – songs from different points in time.
PM: Most of it’s new stuff. There are one or two that I
hadn’t finished and because I was able to get in the
studio and go “ok wait a minute, what about that one?
Let’s have a look at that” and get it out and think “oh
dear” you’d try and figure out what was wrong with it,
why you didn’t like it and in some cases, it was just
the vocal or the words or something just didn’t cut it.
So you could strip it all down and go “ok well let’s
just make it a completely different song”. And then,
when I’d done them all, I sort of looked at them and I
was going “well what can I do with this? Is this a new
album or something?” and then it suddenly hit me – this
is McCartney III. You’ve done it all yourself like the
others, so this qualifies.
ME: There’s so much that’s texturally so nice in there.
There’s songs that come back in and there’s sort of
different bits and almost false endings and stuff. There
is a real looseness to it. It sounds great, it’s a
beautiful sounding record because it does sound very,
very different.
PM: Thanks Matt, that’s lovely, thank you for saying
that.
ME: Even the vocals, it’s very easy these days to
autotune vocals or comp vocals from different bits but
you know, the vocals sound raw – they sound really,
really raw don’t they?
PM: Thanks – I was trying to get them posh!
ME: I meant that in a good way!
PM: No I know, I know. Because I wasn’t really aiming at
a proper record release, I was just having a go thinking
“that’s ok, that’s good, that’s near enough.” So I think
it has ended up being exactly what it is, which is me
not really trying very hard, except to have fun.
ME: Did the pandemic affect – did what we’re all going
through affect any of the writing do you think?
PM: Yeah I think so, a couple of the newer songs.
There’s one called Seize the Day – that had echoes of
the pandemic kind of thing, when the cold days come,
we’ll wish that we had seized the day, kind of thing. So
that was just reminding myself and anyone listening that
yeah, we better grab the good stuff and you know, try
and get on through the pandemic. But it certainly helped
me, you know.
ME: How have you found the past six months personally.
I’ve found it really difficult to watch the news.
There’s a lot of positivity out there and there’s a lot
of hope but there’s a lot of fear and there’s a lot of
blame – how have you found it?
PM: No I’m like you, I hate it. You know when you turn
on the news, the lead story is going to be how many
people died. That’s depressing, after a while. But in
truth, what kind of saw me through a lot of this was, I
remembered that my parents, my mum and dad, Jim and Mary
were in World War II. They survived – they survived the
bombing and the losing people left, right and centre and
yet they came out of it with incredible spirit and so us
kids in Liverpool, we grew up with this really, you know
“let’s have a good time, let’s roll out the barrel”,
with this great sort of wartime spirit that all the
people had, because they’d had enough. And so I was
brought up in a lot of that, so it’s kind of good to
draw on that and think well, if they could do it, I can
do it.
ME: And there is this thing about as you say music,
making music, heals. Sometimes it’s not about the
destination you know, the destination is the journey.
Writing it and recording it is the thing – that’s the
point of it, not necessarily the end single or whatever.
PM: No that’s true you know, I love it. I always say to
people I’d do it for a hobby if they sacked me. I’ve
always got my guitar kind of handy and it’s a friend.
You talk to a lot of guitar players or instrument
players and that’s what they’ll tell you. You kind of
get a relationship with this inanimate object. It
becomes very important. In the early days of The Beatles
we always used to – me and John – used to sort of say it
was like a psychiatrist. You’d be feeling a bit down and
you’d go off in a cupboard somewhere and start playing
and you’d work your way through it and you’d feel
better. So it is really important.
ME: Obviously the kind of future of live concerts is
really uncertain at the moment. Have you thought about
the possibility that you might not be able to play live
again? Has that entered your mind as a fear?
PM: Yeah, definitely, yeah. I look back at the last gig
I did which was at Dodger Stadium in LA and we did have
a very good night and I must say I’m just sort of
thinking “uh, oh, what if that’s the last gig?” But it
would just be great, wouldn’t it, just to be in a crowd
and not worry and just be able to go crazy and listen to
a live band or be the live band. I was imagining that
the other day you know, instead of doing the songs you’d
be standing there going “this is great isn’t it!” […]
That would be special I must say, so fingers crossed.
ME: How’s the Let It Be film doing, have you had a
look at what Peter Jackson’s been up to? How’s it coming
along?
PM: Yeah, I have – I love it. I said to him when he was
going to trawl through all the footage – like about 56
hours or something – I said “oh God it’s going to be
boring” because my memory of the film was that it was a
very sad time, and it was a little bit down beat, the
film, but he got back to me he said “no – I’m looking at
it” he said “it’s a laugh – you guys, it’s just four
guys working and you can see you making up songs.”
George wondering about the lyrics of Something In The
Way She Moves or me trying to figure out Get Back or you
know and he’s shown me little bits and pieces of it and
it’s great, I love it, I must say because it’s how it
was. It just reminds me of – even though we had
arguments, like any family – we loved each other you
know, and it shows in the film. It’s a very warm
feeling, And it’s amazing just being back stage with
these people, making this music that turned out to be
good.
ME: And the last question, are we going to get a
McCartney IV in 2030? Because I think you’ve set a
precedent now.
PM: I don’t know, I think we’ll just have to wait and
see won’t we.
“There are times when it all feels like a dream,” says
guitarist Joey Molland, recalling the glory days a half
century ago when Badfinger ruled the airwaves with a
series of exquisitely crafted pop-rock hits like Come
and Get It, No Matter What, Day After
Day and Baby Blue.
“Badfinger gave me the opportunity to do everything a
musician could want. I got to make records. I heard my
music on the radio, and I toured all over. I couldn’t
believe the luck we were having. For a time, everything
was great.”
The Liverpool-born guitarist joined the
Welsh/English group, then called the Iveys (which also
featured singer-guitarist Pete Ham, singer-bassist Tom
Evans and drummer Mike Gibbins), at a most fortuitous
time.
It was late 1969, and the band was not only one of the
first signings to the Beatles’ Apple Records, but they
were about to experience their first blast of fame with
the release of Magic Christian Music, the
“pseudo-soundtrack” to the film Magic Christian that
starred Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr.
Dropping the Iveys moniker for Badfinger (a reference
to Bad Finger Boogie, the working title of the
Beatles’ With a Little Help from My Friends), the band saw
the album’s lead single, Come and Get It, a Paul
McCartney-penned ear-candy gem that could have easily
figured on Abbey Road, hit the Top 10 on both sides of the
Atlantic in the spring of 1970.
“The Iveys had put out some records before Come and
Get It that didn’t really take off, Molland says.
“People think that because the band was signed to Apple
that they were just given a straight ride to success, but
that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t until Come and Get It
came out that the perception changed for Badfinger. Then
people started to think, ‘Ahh, they can be a big success
for Apple.’”
After the success of Come and Get It, various
members of the Beatles’ organization – including John
Lennon and George Harrison – became more hands-on with
Badfinger.
Lennon tapped Molland and Evans to play two cuts on his Imagine album,
and Harrison produced half of the band’s 1971 disc, Straight
Up (that same year he also enlisted the group to take
part in his historic Concert for Bangladesh at New York
City’s Madison Square Garden).
For the first half of the '70s, Badfinger were flying
high, racking up hit singles and albums while touring the
world (Ham and Evans also saw their composition Without
You, a Badfinger track from the band’s second album, No
Dice, become a global No.1 when Harry Nilsson and producer
Richard Perry gloriously re-imagined it on the singer’s
1971 album, Nilsson Schmilsson).
Yet despite their success, the group soon discovered they
had little to show for it. American businessman Stan
Polley, who had taken over their affairs from original
manager, Bill Collins, defrauded the band out of millions,
leaving them all but broke.
Desperate and in the throes of depression, Ham hanged
himself in his garage in 1975. Eight years later, in an
eerily similar and no less tragic manner, Evans also
hanged himself following a dispute about unpaid royalties.
“People say things like ‘the saddest story in rock,’
and I guess they always will,” says Molland, who at 72
continues to tour with a band he calls Joey Molland’s
Badfinger.
“I can’t get away from it, but I don’t really dwell on it.
I try to focus on the good things that we did and all the
great songs we recorded. I meet people all the time who
know our music. Sure, I wish things didn’t turn out as
they did.
“We had two people in the band take their own lives
– that’s a tragedy on a human level. Who knows what drives
people to do such a thing? But I can’t think about ‘what
might have been.’ You go crazy if you live your life like
that.”
What kind of guitarist were you back in the '60s
before you finally hooked up with Badfinger?
“I was pretty good. For me, getting into the guitar
started when I heard Elvis Presley’s Blue Suede Shoes.
From that moment on, I wanted to be a guitar player. I got
really good at rhythm guitar quite quickly, and then I
started learning how to play lead. I listened to Chuck
Berry and Buddy Holly. I never thought I was great or
anything – there were so many brilliant guitarists in
England in the '60s. But I enjoyed it. Playing guitar was
just fantastic.“
Did you know the band when they were the Iveys?
What was the buzz on them?
“I didn’t really know any kind of buzz on them. Musicians
didn’t really pay attention to them, I don’t think. I’d
heard of them, but they didn’t mean that much. I wanted to
play Chuck Berry music; I wanted to play beat music. What
I knew of the Iveys was that they were a bit too pop for
me at the time. I wanted to play guitar music with a
harder bite to it.”
How did you come to audition with them?
“To be honest, I almost didn’t go to the audition. I’d
seen them on TV doing a song called Maybe Tomorrow, and it
wasn’t my cup of tea. I’ve got nothing against love songs,
but I want them to come from more of a Tamla/Motown kind
of thing – Martha and the Vandellas.
“But my friends in Liverpool insisted that I go and check
it out. They thought the Iveys had something. So I went
down and met the band. They had a house and we settled
down to play together.
“They were really nice, and they wanted to play some beat
songs. I sang for them a little bit, and they offered me
the job. I think they were happy to find me. They had seen
a few guys before me, but I was the only one who was
writing some songs.”
Was there one Beatle who paid more attention to
Badfinger – Paul McCartney or George Harrison?
“When I first joined the band, it didn’t seem as if
anybody was paying attention to them. There was one guy,
[Apple Records press officer] Derek Taylor, who seemed to
take an interest, and [Beatles roadie] Mal Evans, who had
gotten the band signed, he was involved. The Beatles
weren’t really hanging around or anything. John Lennon
didn’t really notice us. It wasn’t till Come and Get
It happened that people took a real interest.”
Your first album with them, No
Dice, featured No
Matter What, which many consider to
be the definitive Badfinger song. Did that sound like a
hit when you were recording it?
“We knew it was a good song, and we enjoyed playing it. We
went into the studio with Mal Evans and put together the
arrangement. We didn’t record the basics at Abbey Road,
but I went there to put on some slide guitar. I don’t know
if anybody thought it was a hit. It took the label a
little while to get the song on the radio, but once they
did, the record did really well.”
Do you remember what kind of guitar and amp setup
you used on that?
“I used the guitars I was playing at the time: a Firebird
and an SG Standard. The Firebird was a guitar I was
playing for years before I joined Badfinger. The SG was
given to us by George Harrison. I think Pete really liked
it. My amp was an AC30 that belonged to the band. I didn’t
even have my own amp at the time. But I got a good sound
out of the AC30. It was good for rock ‘n’ roll guitar.”
You worked with John Lennon on Imagine, and you
played acoustic guitar on George Harrison’s All Things
Must Pass. What were the differences in working with the
two?
“I did a lot more work with George than with John. George
was very direct. He’d come over, sit with me or the other
guys, and he’d play a song. I remember him doing that
with Beware of Darkness; he had an acoustic, and he played
it for us a few times so that we could get a feel for the
tune.
“He was always very sweet but very direct. He knew exactly
what he wanted as far as rhythm guitar: all straight
up-and-down strokes. No jingle-jangle stuff. He made that
very clear.
“But he was cool, and we became good friends. John was
quite different. We were all quite freaked out about even
seeing him. [Laughs] He was a complete genius as a singer,
writer and just… well, he was John Lennon! It was very
hard to get over that.
“He had an aura about him. I don’t remember if it was John
or Phil Spector who suggested me and Tom for the album; I
just recall John’s driver calling me and saying, “John’s
doing some work in the studio. Can you come down and play
some guitar?” So the car came and we went to John’s place;
we went into the studio, and there was John.
“It was about 10 o’clock at night and John looked like he
just got out of bed. It was a friendly vibe. [Keyboardist]
Nicky Hopkins was there, [drummer] Jim Keltner was there.
Phil Spector was in the control room, and now that I
remember it, so was George Harrison.”
What was Phil Spector like in the studio?
“I don’t really know – he never
really talked to us! He sat in the studio and drank a lot of
brandy. [Laughs] But what was funny was, you’d do a couple of
takes of the tune, and then Phil would play you back a
two-track mix – with echoes on it and everything. I guess he
wanted you to know where he was going with it.”
George Harrison produced half of Straight Up.
What was he like to work with as a producer?
“He was great as a producer. He was great at everything he
did with us. He was very communicative. If he had an idea
to change an arrangement, he would sit down and talk to
you about it. He always had a good reason for doing
something, but he wanted you to feel good about it. He was
a very good producer in every way.”
Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick started that album
as producer. Why were his tracks rejected?
“The American label people didn’t like them. We recorded
15 tracks or so with Geoff, and what happened was, the
album got sent to America. The people in the States
thought it sounded crude and rough. So they said to the
people at Apple in the U.K., “Can you maybe redo the
stuff?” They didn’t like all the songs, and they hated the
sound. That’s when the plan went to George Harrison
producing us.”
George played slide guitar on Day After Day.
I take it you didn’t mind letting a Beatle have a go at
the guitar track.
“Oh, not at all. He even came in and asked us, “Is it OK
if I do a little slide on your record?” He didn’t just do
it or demand it; he wanted to make sure it was
what we wanted. I had a ’63 Strat, and that’s
what he used. He sounded great. He was one of the best
slide players ever. We were thrilled at what he did.”
Todd Rundgren produced half the album, including Baby
Blue. What was he like?
“He didn’t really think about what he was going to say
before he said it – he just said it. He was very rude,
actually, and we didn’t like him. We were quite happy when
it was over. He went away and took the tapes; we never did
overdubs or anything. He took the tracks that George had
done and mixed them. We just heard the record when it came
out.”
What was touring like in the U.S.?
“It was great, man! It was fantastic! We did 50 or 60
dates on our first tour, and then a year later we did
another tour. People seemed to really like us over there,
and we went over like mad. We loved learning about
America. The hippies were all over the place – it was
cool. We played with great bands. American bands played
really well and could sing their asses off. The Rascals
were amazing.”
What are your feelings on the band’s original
recording of Without You versus the version Harry
Nilsson had a giant smash with?
“We were astounded when we heard Harry’s version. It was
great that it was so successful – it was Song of the Year.
Our manager, Bill Collins, wanted us to do a big version
of the song. Maybe he heard what Harry eventually did, but
we just weren’t that kind of band.
“We didn’t do big versions of things; we wanted to be a
rock band. We had guitars in our songs! So we did our
version of it, and that seemed fine. But yeah, the Nilsson
track became huge. Tommy and Pete won the Ivor Novello
Award for it. We were all quite pleased for them.”
Was calling the band’s 1973 album Ass met
with resistance?
[Laughs] I’m sure. I didn’t hear a lot about it, really.
It kind of made sense with the other titles – No
Dice, Straight Up. We had a bit of a lowbrow sense of
humor. I wasn’t involved in those things. I never went
down to Apple to talk about titles. I thought that was a
good album. We were changing our sound a bit more at this
time. We were jamming more. I think we would have gone a
long way with that.”
Were there tensions within the band at this point?
Did you have any inkling that Pete Ham would commit
suicide?
“There were some tensions, but not necessarily from Pete.
The problems really started when this guy, Stan Polley,
got involved. Pete had a lot of faith in him, and I don’t
know why because the guy was a crook. That’s what I call
him – “the crook.” It was just blatant. Pete and Tommy had
been warned when the band left Apple and signed to Warners
to get rid of him.
“Pete actually left the band at one time. He came back
after a few weeks and wanted back in. I asked him what we
were going to do about Stan, and he didn’t want to do
anything. I said, 'Well, what’s the point in this?'
“We didn’t have any money. Think about that: We were
selling millions of records and were on the radio all day,
all over the world. We were broke! We were driving
secondhand cars. We got a salary of $300 a week. And then
I quit – I just couldn’t take what was going on anymore.
“Pete called Stan because he needed
some money to buy something for his girlfriend, and he was
told that he had no money left. Nothing. It was horrible. Did
I have any idea that he would kill himself? No, not at all.”
After Pete killed himself, the band broke up for a
time, but some years later you and Tom got together again.
“Yeah, I moved to Los Angeles and started knocking around,
doing what I could. I had no money. I met some guys who
wanted to put a band together, and I liked them, so we
started something up.
“We needed a bass player, so I called Tommy and asked him
what he was up to. He was working in a hardware store or
something. So he came over and played bass, and we made
some demos. When he and I sang together, it sounded like
Badfinger.”
But you didn’t want to call the band Badfinger.
“No, we didn’t. Elektra/Asylum called it Badfinger. It
wasn’t our idea. We were uncomfortable with the whole
thing, but we went along with it.”
It’s been reported that it was because of an
argument about royalties between you, Tom, Mike Gibbins
and Bill Collins, your former manager, that Tom also
hanged himself.
“It was very complicated. I had an argument the night
before he died; he was talking about getting that money
from the cohorts. I’d been to England and tried to get the
money.
“We had to all sit down at a table and agree how it
was going to be divided, and then we had to get lawyers
involved. Pete’s heirs had to be involved, too. All of us
had to agree to it. Tommy wanted it done a certain way,
but I wanted it to be done the way we had agreed
originally. So did the others.
“Tommy had his reasons for it, but they weren’t our
reasons. He told me that night he was going to kill
himself. It was surreal. It had nothing to do with Pete
dying, as some have suggested. It was eight years later.
You know, it’s a shame.
“I feel as if things could’ve turned out differently. If
we had different management, we could have gone on.
Getting involved with the crook was the worst thing we
ever did. We could always write songs; we could always
play. We just had bad business, and it finished us.”
October 21, 2020
Paul McCartney Teases a ‘McCartney III’ Album on
the Way
Who says you can’t teach a classic-rock superstar
new-media tricks? Paul McCartney seems to be taking some
tips from Taylor Swift, in using visual iconography on
social media to drop clues about an upcoming project, as
she often has. In his case, it would seem, from all
indications, to herald the release of a “McCartney III”
album.
If the hints indeed lead there, “McCartney III” will be
following hot on the heels of “McCartney II,” which came
out in 1980. That album, of course, was the fast followup
to “McCartney,” his first post-Beatles solo project, which
came out in 1970.
All kidding about timing aside, what “McCartney” and
“McCartney II” had in common — which was not a great
deal, since those two albums, spaced 10 years apart,
could hardly have sounded less alike — was that they
were completely solo projects, with no other musicians
involved. If that remains the case for a “III,” expect
nothing in the way of famous collaborators like Greg
Kurstin and Ryan Tedder, who served as producers and
co-writers on McCartney’s last album, 2018’s “Egypt
Station.”
The singer has been posting photos to social media
with triplicates of various items, including flowers in
this most recent tweet, and mushrooms before that. He
also tweeted a photo of a single rose (although that
probably doesn’t point to a “Red Rose Speedway II” on
the way).
The barrage of hints began earlier when Spotify users
began noticing that, if they played tracks from the
previous self-titled albums on the service, a dice
animation bearing three dots would pop up.
Some fans who have ordered from McCartney’s online store
in the past have reported receiving in the mail a package
from Capitol Records that includes a cloth bag with a
McCartney emblem containing dice with only the three dots.
The album has been widely rumored in McCartney fan circles
as a Dec. 11 release.
In a GQ interview in the August issue, McCartney spoke of
working alone in quarantine. “”I feel dreadfully sorry for
all those who are less fortunate and obviously all those
who have lost loved ones, but I’ve been lucky,” he said.
“I’ve been able to write and get into music, starting
songs, finishing songs. I’ve had a few little things to
write and it’s given me the time to finish some songs that
I hadn’t found the time to get around to, you know?”
Over seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses and
other frontline healthcare workers are still working long
hours, and fighting hard to combat the virus and protect
those in need. It’s natural, then, that Careismatic Brands
— a designer and manufacturer of medical apparel owned by
New Mountain Capital — would use its “19 Days of
Gratitude” fundraising campaign to pay tribute to the
nursing community.
To honor nurses and raise money for the DAISY (Diseases
Attacking the Immune System) Foundation’s traditional
programs as well as their new initiative awarding nurses
grants to advance health equity in underserved
communities, Careismatic teamed up with the George
Harrison estate and Grammy Award-winning producer Rob
Cavallo for a reimagined version of Harrison’s classic
“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” featuring children
singing the track from home.
“We kept coming back to Give Me Love’s lyrics, which are
incredibly meaningful and exactly what people need to hear
during these unprecedented times,” Cavallo said in a
statement. “George Harrison found the song to be
profoundly moving and described it as a prayer and
personal statement between him, the Lord and whoever likes
it. If our version of this beautiful classic can brighten
one nurse’s day after the incredible sacrifice they are
making, it is all worth it.”
You can check out the video “In The Year of The Nurse – A
Tribute to Courage” below.
October 18, 2020
Detective who busted John and Yoko lifts the lid
on corrupt 1960s policing
John Lennon and Yoko Ono leave Marylebone magistrates’
court after their hearing on drug possession charges, 19
October 1968.
Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty Images
Norman Pilcher, who made some of the decade’s
biggest arrests and was jailed for perjury, says he is
setting the record straight
He was the detective who busted John Lennon, George
Harrison and Dusty Springfield, the officer who was told
by an Old Bailey judge that he had “poisoned the wells of
British justice”, and the man
Lennon supposedly had in mind when he wrote I Am the
Walrus. Now, at the age of 84, Norman “Nobby” Pilcher has
written his memoir, Bent Coppers.
Pilcher was famous in the 1960s. He felt the velvet
collars of the era’s best-known rock stars and was
responsible for some of its highest-profile arrests. But
the squad he worked for was riddled with corruption and
Pilcher himself ended up behind bars for four years for
perjury. His memoir seeks to “set the record straight” and
in it he claims that he himself, like so many of the drug
squad’s targets at the time, was the victim of a
stitch-up.
Pilcher joined the Met in 1956, after a spell in the
military police, because he wanted to “do something
sincerely useful”. But he soon found that “the squeaky
clean officer was never able to remain dirt-free if he
wanted to investigate crime … London and the Met were
rotten and if you needed to walk through muck you’d need
to be prepared to get your clothes dirty”.
DS Norman Pilcher at the arrests of George Harrison in
Esher in March 1969, and John Lennon at his Marylebone
flat in October 1968.
Photograph: Daily Express/Getty Images
Pilcher suggests that the Home Office
was anxious that there be as many high-profile arrests as
possible to deter young people from drugs. So, after tip-offs
from informers, the homes of composer Lionel Bart and the
singer
Dusty Springfield were raided. He ignored “the foul
language and insults” from Springfield and she eventually
pleaded guilty and was fined.
“The Home Office were breathing down our necks to move on
more of the big names,” he recalls. In 1967 Brian Jones of
the Rolling Stones was a target, and in 1968 Tubby Hayes,
the brilliant saxophonist and an addict, was arrested for
heroin possession. On 18 October 1968, wearing a postman’s
hat as a disguise, Pilcher led the squad as they crashed
into the Marylebone flat of
John Lennon and Yoko Ono and discovered that “they
were stark naked!”
He was impressed by Lennon: “His ideas of peace and
kindness were expressed in his demeanour and attitude,
which was quite humbling indeed.” Later he received
postcards from the Beatle in Japan with the greeting: “You
can’t get me now!”
Prince Stanislas Klossowski De Rola, a.k.a. “Stash” and
Brian Jones, arrive by car at West London Magistrates Court,
where they appeared on drug possession
charges, 11 May 1967. Photograph: Ted West/Getty Images
George Harrison and
Pattie Boyd were next on the list, with small
quantities of cannabis being found in their Esher home.
Nor did Pilcher and his team limit themselves to British
musicians. The late Levi Stubbs of the US band the Four
Tops was arrested at the Mayfair Hotel, amid much media
fanfare.
By now the policeman was known as “Groupie Pilcher”, as he
often appeared in photos of the arrests alongside the
famous suspects – the result of some corrupt colleagues
leaking the arrests to the press for cash, he says.
At this time
Robert Mark, the commissioner of the Met who pledged
to “arrest more criminals than he employed”, became
determined to clean up the Yard. Pilcher blames this drive
– and also the Freemasons to whom he did not belong – for
his subsequent disgrace.
He finally came unstuck because, in the course of a major
drugs trafficking investigation, he fabricated entries in
his police diary – which, he says, was standard practice
and something his bosses had encouraged him to do. In
1973, after a lengthy Old Bailey trial, he was convicted
of perjury and jailed for four years.
Norman Pilcher outside the Old Bailey in 1973 and at home
in 2019. Composite: Daily Mail/Reg Pippet/FTMB Ltd
The hardline judge, Mr Justice Melford Stevenson, said as
he sentenced him: “You poisoned the wells of criminal
justice and set about it deliberately … not the least
grave aspect of what you have done is provide material for
the crooks, cranks and do-gooders who unite to attack the
police whenever the opportunity arises.”
Pilcher seems to have quite enjoyed his time behind bars,
mainly at Ford open prison in West Sussex, where his
sentence included a game of cricket at Arundel Castle and
football in a local league. He emerged to find work
running a driving school and a care home and now lives in
Tonbridge in Kent.
Why write Bent Coppers, published by Clink Street, now?
“To set the record straight and let the public know about
the corruption within the police service,” he said in a
phone interview. “I never felt bitter at the time but now
I’m really very bitter.”
There were many false stories about him, he said, that he
wanted to correct. He did not arrest “a person named
Donovan”, despite legend to the contrary, nor did he try
to nick Eric Clapton in Chelsea, as the latter has
suggested. He denies planting evidence, as was a common
drug squad practice, or allowing dealers to operate freely
if they informed on a sufficient number of their rivals.
“If they were at it, we felt their collars,” he said.
He does accept, however, that when Lennon wrote I Am the
Walrus in August 1967 with a reference to semolina
pilchard he may well have had him in mind, and is now
happy to be known as the Walrus.
The dirty dealings of the Met’s drug squads were a major
factor in the formation in 1967 of the renowned
drugs advice charity
Release by Caroline Coon and the late
Rufus Harris. Pilcher expresses a “high regard” for
Coon in his book. The feeling is far from mutual.
“At first I had a hollow laugh about his disingenuous
‘high regard’ for me,” she said last week. “Then, I
remembered the devastating misery his corruption caused.
He served time in prison, yes, but I won’t forgive him for
all the rest he did that he didn’t serve time for.”
As for those drugs laws, the man who carried out some of
Britain’s most high-profile arrests now believes, like a
growing number of former police officers, that “we should
legalise drugs and bring them above ground … You’ve only
got to look at prohibition and what that led to”.
October 17, 2020
The Beatles Give High Praise to the South
Australia Police Department during their 1964 tour
Chris Wilson from Australia writes to the Ottawa Beatles
Site:
In fact, I’m mentioned at the foot of the page in the
acknowledgements section, under a former now defunct email
address.
But, on the same subject of the Beatles tour to Australia,
and more specifically Adelaide, I’ve attached a poor
quality (but very real) photograph of a document now kept
under glass at the Adelaide Police head office.
The document is a letter sent from The Beatles, on South
Australian Hotel Limited stationery, (the Hotel where they
stayed) to the Commissioner of Police.
The unusual (and possibly unique) thing is the letter is
signed by the four Beatles of the day, and Jimmy Nichol is
one of them! You’ll recall Ringo didn’t make the first few
weeks of the tour (Holland, Australia & N.Z.) as he had
his tonsils removed early June 1964.
Feel free to include this photo on your page. I
cannot get a better image I’m afraid, but thought it’s
rarity would be of value to your readers.
Chris Wilson
October 13, 2020
John Lennon’s ‘Gimme Some Truth’ Challenging for
U.K. Chart Title
Imagine John Lennon returning to No. 1 on the U.K. albums
chart. It could happen.
Just days after what would have been his 80th birthday,
the late Beatles legend is challenging for the crown with
Gimme Some Truth (Apple Corps), a new hits
collection produced by his widow Yoko and son Sean.
Gimme Some Truth is at No. 3 on the midweek
chart, just 364 combined sales adrift from the leader,
Scottish group Travis’s 10 Songs (BMG), which leads the
way on sales (physical and digital) so far.
Lennon has three No. 1s as a solo artist, and a whopping
16 with the Beatles, more than any act in Official Chart
history.
If Travis hold on, it’ll give the four-piece their first
No. 1 in almost two decades. All but one of the indie
band’s eight previous albums have cracked the Top 5 on the
Official U.K. Albums Chart.
At the midweek stage, North London rapper Headie One holds
the No. 2 position with his debut studio album Edna
(Relentless), the market leader on streams.
Further down the list, Queen + Adam Lambert’s Live
Around The World (EMI) slips 1-4, and Brit
Award-nominees D-Block Europe are at No. 5 with their
debut The Blue Print – Us vs Them (D-Block
Europe), while new releases from classic British bands
Tears For Fears, Dire Straits, Iron Maiden and Suede are
set for Top 10 entries.
Several ‘80s albums are set to impact the chart, thanks to
last Saturday’s National Album Day, which cast the
spotlight on a string of LPs from the decade with
colored vinyl reissues and compilation releases.
They include Ultravox’s Vienna (No. 14 via
Chrysalis); The Stone Roses’ self-titled LP (No. 19 via
Silvertone); UB40’s The Essential (No. 26); Duran
Duran’s self-titled debut (No. 27 via Parlophone); and
ABC’s The Essential (No. 39 via Spectrum Music).
The Official U.K. Singles and Albums Charts are published
late Friday, local time.
October 12, 2020
Sean Ono Lennon lit up the Empire State Building
sky blue for John Lennon's 80th Birthday
The Pretty Green Vinyl Guy unboxing of the "Gimme
Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes" (4 LP Boxset) by John
Lennon
October 11, 2020
Two of Us: inside John Lennon’s incredible
songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney
John Lennon was acutely aware of his place in the
musical lineage, and the strengths and weaknesses of his
own songwriting. His tendency to speak in bold strokes –
“Before Elvis there was nothing!” – belied at times both
the variety in his work, and its complicated legacy.
Lennon would have been 80 years old on October 9, and his
son Sean’s recent
interview with Paul McCartney highlights a few aspects
of how their partnership shaped popular musical practice.
McCartney recalls seeing Lennon around locally – on the
bus, in the queue for fish and chips – before their famous
first meeting at the
Woolton Fête, noting with approval at the time
Lennon’s nascent identification with the Teddy Boy
sub-culture.
Importantly, their shared social milieu was an important
foundation for the musical partnership. Sean Lennon also
wonders about his father’s insecurities as a musician and
a feeling that: “Somehow he wasn’t officially a true
musician, and everyone else was.”
McCartney’s response is telling: “I don’t think any of us
were, tell you the truth. And I think that was a very
good, strong thing about us, actually.”
Part of the significance of The Beatles as a phenomenon,
and the Lennon-McCartney partnership within that, was that
its overwhelming industrial and creative success helped to
ingrain the “band” as a modus operandi for making popular
music into common cultural currency.
Joint ventures
Mick Jagger once referred to the Beatles as a “four-headed
monster”. Indeed, The Rolling Stones’ own creation
myth – a youthful Jagger and Keith Richards re-kindling a
childhood friendship at
Dartford train station over a chance encounter and a
package of blues records – occupies a similar place in the
historical narrative to Lennon and McCartney’s first
encounter.
An important underlying aspect of how such partnerships
worked, however, is that as well as springing from
self-taught musicianship, and the rough-and-tumble of
social lives away from the formal demands of school and
adult society, they combined what had hitherto often been
separate functions – that of songwriter and performer.
This wasn’t exclusively the case in rock.
The role of the songwriter as a marker of authenticity in
rock music – singing one’s own compositions – drew from a
Romantic wellspring, harking back to the 18th century, of
artists as a source of inspiration and value beyond being
mere entertainers. It also drew from folk traditions, as
singer-songwriters asserted their individuality – Bob
Dylan is a case in point here.
But there was a
growing sense of authenticity in bands, residing in
the membership as well as the music. It mattered, for
instance, when Ringo Starr contracted tonsillitis and was
replaced for part of a tour of Australia by replacement
drummer Jimmy Nicol. And songwriting partnerships such as
Lennon-McCartney, and Jagger, Richards (as they appeared
in the credits) were at the heart of this.
They were also central to the power dynamic within bands.
There was – and is – a financial advantage to being
credited as a songwriter on top of being a performer in
terms of the rights and royalties that accrue. A band is a
partnership on several levels: social, creative and
financial. Indeed, some acts have deliberately reoriented
their arrangements to account for this.
R.E.M., the
Red Hot Chilli Peppers and U2, for instance, made a
point of co-crediting all band members regardless of who
wrote a particular song or passage. And Queen shifted to
such an arrangement and away from individual composers’
credits, partly as a way of reducing intra-band disputes
about which songs to choose as singles.
Moving apart
In the case of the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney had
ceased to co-write the songs several years before the band
actually split, although as performers and bandmates they
continued to help shape them in the production process.
Tensions across one of these axes might be sustainable.
The Beatles took divergent paths as the 60s wore on, as is
natural enough for school-friends as they move through
adulthood and start families.
But by the end of the decade, simultaneous divergence in
the creative, social and financial pathways made the
partnership unmanageable. “Musical differences” is often
jokingly referred to as a proxy for personal enmity. But
in truth, the various threads are often hard to fully
disentangle.
Ultimately, Lennon and McCartney complemented one another
as personalities and as musicians. McCartney’s melodic
facility smoothed over some of Lennon’s rougher edges.
Lennon’s grit added texture and leavened some of
McCartney’s more saccharine tendencies.
Their legacy, though, was more than just musical. Their
success coincided with, and helped to shape, an explosion
of youth culture as both creative and commercial
enterprise.
We can’t know, of course, what would have happened had
Lennon lived to 80, especially given that – their business
problems receding into the past - his personal
relationship with McCartney had become warmer again by the
onset of the 1980s. With the hurly-burly of the Beatles
behind them, they found common ground over the more
prosaic matters of middle age.
We’d chat about how to make bread. Just ordinary
stuff, you know. He’d had a baby by then – he’d had Sean –
so we could talk babies and family and bread and stuff. So
that made it a little bit easier, the fact that we were
buddies.
But the fact that their evolution as songwriters and as
friends took place in tandem is still felt in the
emergence of popular musical enterprises from schoolyards
and youthful peer groups in rock and beyond.
About Adam Behr: He is a Lecturer in
Contemporary and Popular Music at the International Centre
for Music Studies, Newcastle University. He has PhD from
the University of Stirling that involved
historical and ethnographic research into the evolution
and social dynamics of the rock band as form of creative
practice.
His subsequent research also includes work on the live
music sector, musicians and copyright, cultural policy and
the interactions of music, politics and policy.
October 10, 2020
“Stand By Me,” A Plea And A Proclamation From
John Lennon
The song “Stand By Me” is a declaration. It offers
assurance. The intended recipient of the song’s message
could be a friend or perhaps a lover. That distinction
matters little. What really matters is the sense of
commitment that’s rock-solid. There’s a sense of emotional
peril shared by the comforter and the recipient. Deep dark
loneliness is hovering. But the message of support and
devotion prevails. The words from the last verse “whenever
you’re in trouble, won’t you stand by me” reflect
heartfelt determination, and provide security to the
recipient. The words are an offering and a plea. These
simple words are powerful. They become more so when sung
by the likes of Ben E. King and John Lennon.
Ben E. King came into the world September 23, 1938 as Ben
Edward Nelson in Henderson, North Carolina. By the late
’50s, he had achieved success as a lead singer for The
Drifters. But that success, despite such hit singles as
“This Magic Moment” and “Save The Last Dance For Me,” was
not bringing in the money Ben Edward Nelson counted on. He
was still on a weekly salary and there were disagreements
about royalties he believed were his. A solo career seemed
a viable option.
October 27, 1960 proved a productive day for Ben. Assuming
the name Ben E. King, he recorded his first hit single,
“Spanish Harlem.” Three more songs were eventually
recorded that day, including one King was still working on
as the musicians were leaving the studio. Some time in the
studio remained. King’s producers, Jerry Leiber and Mike
Stoller, quickly helped him finish the song. The musicians
were brought back in, and Ben E. King recorded what would
be his biggest hit ever. “Stand By Me” peaked at number 4
on the pop charts in the Summer of ’61. King’s version
would again hit the charts more than 15 years later, going
all the way to number one on the UK charts. In the ’80s,
artists as diverse as Mickey Gilley and Maurice White had
their own hits with the song. Thankfully, Leiber and
Stoller decided not to let the October 27, 1960 session
end without King getting “Stand By Me” on tape. Perhaps
they saw the extra work as simply getting one more song in
the can. As it turned out, they helped create a standard.
King’s recording of “Stand By Me” is one for the ages.
Rock critic Dave Marsh called it “as timeless as a basic
black dress.” Leiber and Stoller’s production is elegant
but not overstated. King’s rich baritone rises as if on
command by the lyrics of the song. His singing is warm and
powerful. The strings in the instrumental break underscore
the song’s beauty. This is a recording thoroughly
delivered. It has made future renditions challenging for
the most accomplished artists. Gilley and White
experienced chart success with their versions, yet they
were hardly memorable. A live performance of the song by
Bono and Bruce Springsteen was eventful but short of the
standard set by King. The song he might have never
recorded, except for his producers’ insistence, became Ben
E. King’s most outstanding performance in a long and
brilliant career.
John Lennon was not inclined to avoid a challenge,
particularly if it meant covering a beloved song. The
original versions of “Twist And Shout,” “Rock And Roll
Music” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” were one of a kind
recordings but that did not stop Lennon from adding the
songs to The Beatles’ repertoire. It also didn’t keep him
from putting his own special stamp on the songs. Adding
his own flair to favorites was a way of paying the songs
special tribute. So it was when he recorded “Stand By Me”
on his 1975 album of oldies, Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The Lennon version of “Stand By Me” is not as dramatic and
visually compelling as Ben E. King’s. Lennon’s rendition,
however, does convey strength and faithfulness. His
performance is captivating and memorable. One can hear the
joy he felt in singing it. That wasn’t the case on all the
oldies he recorded on Rock ‘n’ Roll. Obviously
there were some he felt more deeply about. That comes
through with the rocking spirit he grants “Stand By Me.”
The song becomes his proclamation as well.
When John Lennon recorded “Stand By Me,” he was
experiencing his own days of trouble. There were
nettlesome lawsuits, a continuing battle over his U.S.
residency, hard living and a separation from his wife,
Yoko Ono. Lennon naturally understood the desires
expressed in the song. Perhaps his own yearning led him to
offer listeners a feeling of comfort for the ages.
John Lennon’s Gravitas . . . Less than
five months before Rock ‘n’ Roll made its way
into shops, Lennon’s Walls and Bridges album was
released. Considering the range in styles and the strength
of his eleven original songs, Walls and Bridges is
Lennon’s most thoroughly-arrived album. Critics approved
as did the buying public. The album went to number one on
the charts as did its first single, “Whatever Gets You
Through The Night.”
The most thoughtful and riveting song from the album is
“Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out).” Lennon
applies a bluesy treatment to the engaging melody. The
song’s pacing is precise, so its lament hits home. The
lyrics recall those of “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love
Away,” a Beatles song written by Lennon during what
he called his “fat Elvis period.” However,the situations
presented are of various degrees. On the earlier song,
Lennon’s words are those of one distraught and shaken by
love’s whimsical nature. With “Nobody Loves You (When
You’re Down And Out),” the sense of betrayal cuts deeper.
There’s disappointment in the actions of lovers, friends
and business associates. In this song, Lennon cannot
depend on a helping soul, like the one in “Stand By Me”
who pleads “Whenever you’re in trouble, won’t you stand by
me……”
A Message to the Chairman of the Board . . .
John Lennon could be his own toughest critic, but
he was pleased with “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down
And Out).” In an interview with David Sheff in Fall ’80,
he said he always imagined Frank Sinatra covering the
song.
“He could do a perfect job with it. Ya listenin’
Frank? You need a song that isn’t a piece of nothing.
Here’s one for you. The horn arrangement –everything’s
made for you. But don’t ask me to produce it!”
Lennon’s points about Sinatra and the song were
well-founded. Earlier that year Sinatra had a big hit with
his rendition of “New York, New York.” It was obvious the
singer referred to as “The Voice” still had the pipes.
Since Frank Sinatra often called himself a “saloon singer,
“Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down And Out)” would have
been perfect for his repertoire. It would have moved his
audiences, whether in the ritzy saloons of Manhattan or
the hardscrabble joints of his birthplace, Hoboken, New
Jersey. Being down and out is a universal condition.
Jeff Cochran worked in advertising at The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution for 27 years before accepting a
buy-out in the Summer of 2008. In the seventies/early
eighties, he handled advertising for Peaches Records and
Tapes’ Southeastern and Midwestern stores. He also wrote
record reviews for The Great Speckled Bird, a
ground-breaking underground newspaper based in Atlanta. He
is currently the Advertising Director for Decaturish.com.
October 9, 2020
Happy Birthday John Lennon!
The Beatles and Apple Records Corporation
official birthday salute to John Lennon
A Late Show is thrilled
to welcome Sean Ono Lennon for this very special
performance in honor of his father John Lennon's 80th
birthday celebration.
Miley Cyrus featuring Sean Ono Lennon -
"Happy Xmas (War is Over)" Official Performance
John Lennon's
80th birthday to be celebrated worldwide with a free online
festival
Beatles fans from all around the
world prepare for John Lennon's 80th birthday with a virtual
celebration. The programme will take off on the day the 20th
century's most influential rock persona was born October 9 at
8pm GMT (Liverpool, UK time).
On the worldwide celebration
nearly 60 bands and artists pay tribute to John Lennon and his
works with his best songs in a 3 hours long video premiere
from Japan to South America (the long way round of course).
Amongst the careful selection of performers real Beatles
"heavyweights" are involved too such as The Fab Four (USA),
REO Brothers (Philippines), Nube 9 (Argentina), The Apples
(South Korea), The Analogues (The Netherlands) and The Bits
(Hungary).
"We're very glad that so many
of the bands and artists said 'yes' immediately for
participating in this unrepeatable moment on this unique
event. Sadly festival season was cancelled everywhere this
year but Beatles fans still can come together and be in touch
on this event whether to be young or forever young. Everybody
can sit in front of the screens and pick up the festive
atmosphere on October 9 no matter where." - Zsolt Derecskei,
artist liaison.
The virtual festival is endorsed by
Höfner, manufacturers of John Lennon's first electric guitar
aka the Club 40 model not to mention as well as Paul
McCartney's famous violin bass. The free live video premiere
will be aired on 2020.10.09. - 20:00 BST (GMT+1)
Friday marks the 80th anniversary of
John
Lennon’s birth. To celebrate, his family is releasing
Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes, a box set containing
36 songs from the late Beatle’s solo career, newly remixed
from the master tapes. It was executive-produced by
Yoko Ono
Lennon and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, who shares a birthday
with his father.
“It’s been a really tough year for
everybody,” Sean tells Rolling Stone. “It’s been genuinely
therapeutic to have a reason to reinvestigate all the music
and listen to it and really think about it. It’s given me an
opportunity to look back at my life and and look at my dad’s
work in a way that I don’t always have to.”
One of his goals in putting together
the set, he explains, is shoring up John Lennon’s legacy for
future listeners.
"Lennon was one of the most
influential musicians and advocates for peace in the 20th
century. Yoko Ono chose Reykjavik as the home of
Imagine Peace
Tower to celebrate his life and continue their tireless
campaign for peace and human rights. Harpa is proud to have
hosted LennonOno Grant for Peace and other events connected to
Imagine Peace
Tower and and sends LOVE AND PEACE to all."
Don't miss the 40th Annual John Lennon Tribute
charity concert streaming tonight FOR FREE!
The 40th Annual John Lennon Tribute will be streaming
for free from October 9 at 7pm thru October 12 midnight
ET -- exclusively at
LennonTribute40.org!
The Tribute is a benefit for
Theatre Within , a non-profit providing ongoing free
workshops -- in songwriting, art, meditation and more --
for children, teens and adults impacted by cancer.
Ringo Starr's announcement on his official Facebook
page:
"Let’s celebrate John‘s 80th birthday with come together
Friday, 9 October I still miss you man peace and love to
Yoko Sean and Julian." - Ringo Starr
From the official George Harrison Facebook page:
‘It’s Johnny’s Birthday’. Remembering
John Lennon on his 80th Birthday. John was in one
room at
Abbey Road Studios recording new songs for what
would become ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’, while in
another room George was mixing tracks for what was soon
to be ‘All Things Must Pass’. George invited John (and
Ringo Starr ) over to the mix room to present ‘It’s
Johnny’s Birthday’. The song features George, Mal Evans
and engineer Eddie Klein performing a variation of the
Martin and Coulter song ‘Congratulations’. ‘It’s
Johnny’s Birthday’ appears on the ‘Apple Jam’ portion of
the ‘All Things Must Pass’ triple album.
Sean Ono Lennon throws the switch to light up a
Peace sign on the Empire State Building...
Screenshot image captured by John Whelan, October 8, 2020.
October 7, 2020
Yoko Ono talks about the "Strawberry Fields"
memorial in Central Park New York (audio beneath the
photo)
The following is a verbatim text from The Central
Park Conservancy website:
Strawberry Fields is a living memorial to Beatles
legend and peace activist John Lennon.
Featuring an elaborate mosaic bearing the word
“Imagine”—a nod to the songwriter’s anthem of peace—the
memorial is surrounded by benches and shaded by stately
American elms, making it a tranquil spot for reflection.
Named after one of Lennon’s favorite songs, “Strawberry
Fields Forever,” the memorial sits just across the
street from the landmark Dakota apartment building,
Lennon’s former home and the site of his tragic death in
1980. Like many Upper West Siders, Lennon would often
enjoy walks in this very landscape.
Strawberry Fields was officially dedicated on October
9, 1985, the 45th anniversary of Lennon’s birth. His
widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, worked with landscape architect
Bruce Kelly and the Conservancy to create a memorial
that represents Lennon’s legacy as a visionary of world
peace. The Imagine mosaic, made by Italian craftsmen and
gifted by the city of Naples, serves as a testament to
Lennon’s global resonance.
A designated Quiet Zone in the Park, Strawberry
Fields has also been endorsed as a Garden of Peace by
121 countries, whose names appear on a bronze plaque on
the path leading to the memorial.
Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon had “rescued each other” with the partnership that led to
their success with the Beatles and beyond.
Speaking on the BBC radio documentary
John Lennon at 80, he recalled how they had started
out together at a similar level of musical ability, and kept
learning to the point that they “absorbed” each other’s
influence.
“We all had to learn together,” McCartney told host Sean
Ono Lennon, John's son. “He only knew a couple of banjo
chords, but that only lasted a week or two. And I would just
show him chords I knew, which [were] very basic, but it was
great bonding, just learning chords off each other. And I
think the minute he knew those chords, he was as good as
anyone. … He might have had a little bit of a hang-up about
not being sort of musically trained, but none of us were.”
McCartney recalled how both of them had started trying
to write songs around the same time, in an era when it
was common for musicians to perform material written by other
parties.
"No one would pick up on that songwriting thing until I met
John,” he explained. “I said, ‘Well, you know I've written a
couple of songs.’ He said, ‘So have I.’ … Having our guitars,
it had struck us as a good idea to try and do something of our
own. ... When Buddy [Holly] came along, the Everlys came
along, we took a lot of their style and put them into our
style – but we had actually started to flirt with songwriting
independent of one another without major influences.”
He was also asked how both artists managed to continue their
development through the Beatles era and afterward. “Okay,
number one, we were good," McCartney said. "Right there.
Number two, we'd grown up together. From little kids, we’d
taken the first steps together. We kind of learned to walk
together, then we learned to run. And the fact that each of us
was influencing the other was very important … the fact that
we'd come along this journey together meant that, ‘Hey, we're
just gonna continue, and who knows, we might get better.’ And
so we did.
McCartney noted that if he "did something that was a little
bit ahead of the curve, then John would come up with something
that was a bit ahead of my curve. And then so I'd go, ‘Well,
how about this?’ And there was a lot of friendly competition.”
He agreed with Sean’s suggestion that they had “absorbed” each
other as influences: “Really very much so. And as you say, who
knows – I mean I was looking at being a schoolteacher. And I
don't know what John was looking at, maybe an artist or
something, I don't know. And I think we rescued each other.”
October 5, 2020
Music Scholar Finds Forgotten Film That Inspired John
Lennon’s ‘Grow Old With Me’
A music scholar has discovered which baseball film
inspired John Lennon’s “Grow Old With Me,” solving the
decades-old mystery about the origin of one of the
singer’s final songs prior to his 1980 murder.
The opening lyric in “Grow Old With Me” quotes Robert
Browning’s 1864 poem “Rabbi ben Ezra,” “Grow old along with me
/ The best is yet to be.” Lennon had admitted that he was
inspired to write the song after watching a baseball movie on
television during a trip to Bermuda, but the actual film
Lennon watched remained unknown for 40 years.
However, in the upcoming book John Lennon 1980: The
Last Days in the Life, Kenneth Womack writes that the
1978 made-for-TV movie A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou
Gehrig Story — about the New York Yankees legend who died at
the age of 37 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — was the
baseball movie that Lennon viewed.
According to the Guardian, Womack researched television
schedules and baseball movies from the era before discovering
that actress Blythe Danner’s character in A Love Affair quotes
the same Browning poem used in “Grow Old With Me.”
“Thanks very much for sending me that book of poems. I
especially liked the one by Robert Browning that goes, ‘Grow
old along with me! / The best is yet to be,’” Danner’s Eleanor
says.
“I wanted to know what film had inspired him to compose
such a beautiful song,” Womack told the Guardian. “For John,
the use of such ‘found objects’ in life and art was essential
to his composition practices.”
“Grow Old With Me” was recorded in November 1980, a month
before Lennon’s death, and ultimately released on 1984’s Milk
and Honey, his posthumous LP with Yoko Ono; a George
Martin-produced orchestral version of the song also appeared
on the John Lennon Anthology. In 2019, Ringo Starr
covered “Grow Old With Me” alongside Paul McCartney.
Yes have streamed their brand new single, a cover of John
Lennon's 1971 classic Imagine. The song is taken
from the band's upcoming new live album The Royal
Affair Tour – Live From Las Vegas which is released
through BMG Records on October 30. You can listen to Yes'
new version below.
Yes drummer Alan White joined John Lennon's Plastic
Ono Band in 1969 and played on the Imagine album,
as well as 1969's Live Peace In Toronto 1969,
Instant Karma! (1970) and Some Time In New York
City (1972) before joining Yes. Lennon would have
celebrated his 80th birthday on October 9.
“They put a special film together with footage from that
time," says White of the new Yes version. "We played
Imagine on the Yes tour, and they’d run it behind me. The
first time I saw it, I turned around and went, ‘Who the
hell is that guy?!’”
The Royal Affair Tour: Live In Las Vegas was
recorded at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas in July 2019.
“Having the opportunity to bring together the band members
in the development of a well refined set of songs that
captures the bands true potential is simply an honour for
me," says guitarist Steve Howe.
“The Royal Affair tour album, being released in
October, is a welcome new chapter in the wide expanse of
Yes live recordings," adds White. "I hope you enjoy it.”
October 1, 2020
Remember That Time The Police Chased Ringo Starr Around
Indianapolis?
After a 1964 gig, the ISP gave the Beatles drummer
a very special tour of the city.
Early on the morning of September 4, 1964,
11-year-old Karen Marks was helping her mother
get her horses ready to show at the Indiana
State Fair. She and her two brothers were in the
living room of their house in rural Noblesville
when she looked out the window in disbelief. She
turned toward her brothers.
“I think Dad brought home a Beatle.”
Ringo Starr, drummer for the world’s most famous
band, was walking toward their barn with her
dad, Jack, a state trooper, and two of his
colleagues.
The Fab Four, riding high on the first wave
of Beatlemania, had played to 30,000 fans the
night before over two shows at the Indiana State
Fairgrounds. Jack Marks was one of the state
troopers assigned to guard the Beatles at a
Speedway motel that night. (No posh Canterbury
Hotel for the Liverpool lads—they didn’t want
anyone to guess where they were staying.)
After returning from the concerts, they spied
Starr sitting alone by the motel pool. “Let’s
throw him in,” one of them joked before joining
him. They asked if he’d like a tour of the city.
“Well, I can’t sleep,” he answered. “I might as
well.”
The officers drove Starr, still clad in his
Beatle suit, around Monument Circle, the
Governor’s Mansion, and the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway—but not on the actual racetrack. During
a 1989 appearance on Late Night with David
Letterman, Starr said he got behind the wheel at
one point, and they were pursued by another
police car. “We had to drive up an alley and
turn the lights out to hide,” he recalled.
Eventually, Marks suggested they have
breakfast at his house. He told Starr to go to
the barn and ask his wife, Doyne, if she could
make something for them. She was unfazed by a
Beatle, telling him, “You’ll have to hold your
horses until I’m finished working on mine.”
The adults talked at the kitchen table as
Karen stood by the counter still in shock, too
shy to say a word. As he got up to leave, Starr
gave her a peck on the right cheek before
offering his autograph. “I have told everyone
that Ringo Starr was the first boy who ever
kissed me,” she says now.
Karen (Marks) Balach didn’t get to tell her
friends about the visit at the time; her mom
forbade it, worried fans would dig up the ground
he walked on. Years later, in college, no one
believed her story about the day a Beatle
visited her farm.
September 30, 2020
The Daily Mail publishes 'colorized photographs' of the
Beatles
When the Beatles performed to a packed audience in
Cheltenham during their first headline tour of the
UK it led to an international phenomenon.
The concert, which took place on November 1,
1963, was the first in their headline tour.
The weekend before they'd arrived back in
Britain from playing in Sweden, and the Mirror
coined the phrase 'Beatlemania' after this
Cheltenham gig.
Then a couple of days later, on November 4,
they played at The Royal Command Performance for
Princess Margaret and The Queen Mother. This is
when John asked the audience to "rattle your
jewellery" instead of asking them to clap their
hands.
'She Loves You' was still riding high in the
charts, and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was
released on November 29. They'd taken over
Britain on the radio, and were sending fans in
to a frenzy across the country with this tour
which took them to Christmas.
September 26, 2020
New book on John Lennon and Yoko Ono due out on
October 13, 2020
John Lennon was the world's biggest rock star in
the late Sixties. With his new wife Yoko Ono,
the duo were icons of the peace movement
denouncing the Vietnam War. In 1969, at the
height of their popularity, they headed to
Canada. Canada was already a politically charged
place. In 1968, Pierre Elliott Trudeau rode a
wave of popularity dubbed Trudeaumania for its
similarities to the Beatlemania of the era. The
sexual revolution, hippie culture, the New Left
and the peace movement were challenging norms,
frightening the authorities and provoking
backlash. Quebec nationalism was putting the
power of the English-speaking minority running
the province on the defensive, and threatening
the breakup of the country.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a "bed-in for
peace" at an upscale downtown Montreal hotel.
The couple, aided by the CBC, saw a steady
stream of journalists, musicians and activists
arriving for interviews, political discussions,
singing and art-making. The classic "Give Peace
A Chance" was recorded there with the help of
local Quebecois musicians. Three months later
they were back in Canada with Eric Clapton and
other friends to play a concert festival in
Toronto arranged by local promoters. American
acts like Little Richard, The Doors, Bo Diddley
and Alice Cooper, along with many Canadian pop
musicians of the time, played at the festival.
At year's end, the duo met with Prime Minister
Trudeau in Ottawa. By this time Trudeau was
cracking down on dissent, mainly in Quebec, and
falling out of favour with the counterculture
crowd, John and Yoko included. Recounting the
story of these events, historian Greg Marquis
offers a unique portrayal of Canadian society in
the late Sixties, recounting how politicians,
activists, police, artists, musicians and
businesses across Canada reacted to John and
Yoko's presence and message.
John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Year
Canada Was Cool is an illuminating and
entertaining read for anyone interested in this
fascinating moment in Canadian history.
Juliette Greco, a French singer, actress,
cultural icon and muse to existentialist
philosophers of the country’s post-War period,
has died, French media said Wednesday. She was
93.
A fashion icon whose bobbed hair,
Cleopatra-style eye-lines and austere black
clothes became synonymous with the France of May
1968, Greco became a role model to many,
including British Swinging Sixties icon, singer
and feminist Marianne Faithfull, who was quoted
as saying: “If I want to be anybody, I want to
be Juliette Greco.”
Paul McCartney said in a 2007 interview that the
Beatles’ 1965 classic “Michelle” was inspired by
Greco, who epitomized the cool of the era far
beyond France.
"We’d tag along to these parties, and it was at
the time of people like Juliette Greco... So I
used to pretend to be French, and I had this
song that turned out later to be ‘Michelle,’” he
said.
September 22, 2020
Paul McCartney and Jimmy Fallon Surprise
Fans in 30 Rock Elevators
September 21, 2020
MESSAGE FROM YOKO ONO
LENNON ON INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY
Dear Friends,
In 1969, John and I were so
naïve to think that doing the
Bed-In would help change the
world. Well, it might have. But
at the time, we didn't know. It
was good that we filmed it,
though. The film is powerful
now. What we said then could
have been said now. In fact,
there are things that we said
then in the film, which may give
some encouragement and
inspiration to the activists of
today. Good luck to us all.
Let's remember WAR IS OVER - If
WE want it. It's up to us, and
nobody else.
John would have wanted to say
that.
love,
yoko
Yoko Ono Lennon
New York City
International Peace Day
21 September 2020
September 19, 2020
Luca Stricagnoli's new guitar invention
"Reverse Slide Neck" reveals the George
Harrison classic: "While My Guitar Gently
Weeps"
Luca writes:
"This video features my latest
invention, called "Reverse Slide Neck". It´s an add-on neck
which can be fixed and removed in just a few seconds and opens
new possibilities to guitar playing. Like all of my
instruments, it has been built by Davide Serracini. In this
video, I use it to perform "While My Guitar Gently Weeps",
beautiful song by The Beatles, written by guitarist George
Harrison."
September 18, 2020
Preston and Steve of WMMR 93.3 interviews
Paul Saltzman on "Meeting the Beatles in India"
Paul Saltzman was a heartbroken
twenty-something seeking a life refresh. He went to the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram looking for guidance and it
just happened to be the same week The Beatles were there
in 1968. Paul tells of his adventure in the film,
‘Meeting The Beatles In India”:
September 16, 2020
The Beatles announce Get Back, first official book
in 20 years
Hanif Kureishi writes introduction to book edited
from 120 hours of conversations from the Let It Be
sessions, in tandem with Peter Jackson documentary
The first official Beatles book since seminal Anthology in
2000 is to be published in August 2021.
The Beatles: Get Back will tell the story of the
final Beatles album, Let It Be, drawn from over 120 hours
of transcribed conversations from the band’s studio
sessions. It will accompany Peter Jackson’s feature
documentary of the same name, also set for release that
month.
The book documents January 1969, with friction building in
the band as they recorded music for an intended TV special
– George Harrison walked out of the sessions at one point
and John Lennon described them as “hell”. The music they
made, though, would be among the most poignant in their
catalogue, and the sessions built towards the group’s
final live performance, on top of the Apple Corps building
in London on 30 January 1969.
The songs they recorded were later mixed (including with
controversial input from Phil Spector) and eventually
released in May 1970 as Let It Be, instead of the original
title Get Back. It followed the recording and release of
Abbey Road in September 1969, and was released a month
after Paul McCartney’s departure precipitated the band’s
split.
The book’s introduction is written by Hanif Kureishi, who
describes the period as “a productive time for them, when
they created some of their best work. And it is here that
we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts,
the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the
excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that
led to the work we now know and admire.”
Jackson will write a forward, and the book will also
feature hundreds of previously unpublished photos by Ethan
Russell and Linda McCartney. Guardian writer John Harris
edited the transcripts of the conversations.
Those taped conversations also feature in Jackson’s film
alongside selections from 55 hours of unreleased and
restored 16mm footage. This footage was made by director
Michael Lindsay-Hogg, initially for the TV special, and
eventually included in his documentary Let It Be. It was
released alongside the original album, and earned the band
Oscars for best original song score.
The Beatles: Get Back is being published by the Beatles’
company Apple Corps in tandem with Callaway Arts and
Entertainment, whose founder Nicholas Callaway said: “The
creativity and inspiration expressed in this landmark book
and in Peter Jackson’s film are as important and relevant
today as ever.”
The previous official project Anthology was a major
archival project straddling albums, a TV documentary and
book.
September 14, 2020
Iron Butterfly's "In the Godda Da Vida" drum solo
was copied from an episode of "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E."
Staying indoors as much as possible to avoid Covid-19
has given me a good excuse to order some television
series on DVD that I didn't get a chance to see during
the 1960's decade. One of them was "The Girl From
U.N.C.L.E." which aired in 1966. I've always been a very
big fan of espionage shows ranging from Roger Moore as
Simon Templar in "The Saint" to Patrick Macnee and Diana
Rigg who played secret agents John Steed and Emma Peel
in "The Avengers." Both shows are terrific, filled with
action and adventure.
What of "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.?" While the show ran
for only one season, it was the beautiful Stephanie
Powers and Noel Harrison who played secret agents "April
Dancer" and "Mark Slate" whom portrayed their characters
morehumorously
than its counterpart "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
that
featured actors Robert Vaughn and David MacCallum.
While recently watching an episode of "The Girl From
U.N.C.L.E." my musical ears did a double-take: "Did I
just hear drumming patterns that was used in the
middle of 'In
the Godda Da Vida' album [released in 1968] by the
Iron Butterfly?" Let me replay the video and check
again: "Yep! It's in there." The discovery appears in an
episode called "The Jewels of Topango Affair" during Act
III [the original air date was December 20, 1966.] When
you listen to the audio it is too coincidental whether
it be a conscious or subconscious effort by the Iron
Butterfly's drummer Ron Bushy in composing the drum solo
for their album. But somehow Ron Bushy copied it.
Just as the Beatles "Come Together" was akin to Chuck
Berry's "You Can't Catch Me", the Beatles have
acknowledged that their drum solo found on "The End" off
of Abbey Road was a special nod to the Iron Butterfly
for recording "In the Godda Da Vida." What the Beatles
likely didn't know at that point in time was where the
root of Butterfly's drum signature originated from and
that the musical composers are Dave Grusin and Richard
Shores who wrote the music for "The Jewels Topango
Affair."
-- John Whelan, Ottawa Beatles Site
September 9, 2020
'Right Place, Right Time': Inside the Archive of Rock
Photography Legend Bob Gruen
Yoko Ono: The Learning Garden of Freedom
[from 30 May to November 15, 2020]will be the
major exhibition dedicated to the work of the iconic
artist Yoko Ono, bringing together objects, works on
paper, installations, performances, audio recordings, and
films, alongside rarely seen archival materials. The
exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of the
manifold output of this pioneering conceptual and
performance artist that, during the first years of her
extensive career, moved among New York, Tokyo, and London,
serving a pioneering role in the international development
of Conceptual art, experimental film, and performance art.
Ideas, rather than materials, are the main component of
her work. Many of those ideas are poetic, absurd, and
utopian, while others are specific and practical. Some are
transformed into objects, while others remain immaterial.
Her work frequently reflects the artist’s sense of humor
as well as her pronounced socio-critical attitude. The
point of departure for many of Ono’s works is found in
her Instructions: oral or written guidelines for viewers
that offer a host of suggestions and assign a much more
active role to the audience than usually expected in the
art world.
John Lennon - Gimme Some Truth - The Ultimate
Mixes due out on October 9, 2020
LOS ANGELES/span>, Aug. 26, 2020
/PRNewswire/ -- In everything he did, John Lennon
spoke his truth and questioned the truth. An incomparable
and uncompromising artist who strove for honesty and
directness in his music, he laid bare his heart, mind and
soul in his songs, seeing them as snapshots of his current
emotions, thoughts and world view. Believing the one
quality demanded of himself as an artist was to be
completely honest, he did not disguise what he had to say
or conform his messages to be more in line with what he
felt others thought they should be. Love, heartbreak,
peace, politics, truth, lies, the media, racism, feminism,
religion, mental well-being, marriage, fatherhood – he
sang about it all, and one just needs to listen to the
songs of John Lennon to know how he felt,
what he cherished, what he believed in, and what he stood
for.
On October 9th, 2020, Lennon's 80th
birthday, in celebration of his remarkable life, a
collection of some of the most vital and best loved songs
from his solo career will be released via Capitol/UMe as a
suite of beautifully presented collections, titled GIMME
SOME TRUTH. THE ULTIMATE MIXES.
Executive Produced by Yoko Ono Lennon and
Produced by Sean Ono Lennon, these thirty-six
songs, handpicked by Yoko and Sean, have all been
completely remixed from scratch, radically upgrading their
sonic quality and presenting them as a never-before-heard
Ultimate Listening Experience.
Mixed and engineered by multi GRAMMY® Award-winning
engineer Paul Hicks, who also helmed the
mixes for 2018's universally acclaimed Imagine – The
UltimateCollection series, with assistance by engineer
Sam Gannonwho also worked on that release,
the songs were completely remixed from scratch, using
brand new transfers of the original multi-tracks, cleaned
up to the highest possible sonic quality. After weeks of
painstaking preparation, the final mixes and effects were
completed using only vintage analog equipment and effects
at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles,
and then mastered in analog at Abbey Road Studios by
Alex Wharton in order to ensure the most beautiful
and authentic sound quality possible.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing things from uptight,
short-sighted,
narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I've had enough of reading things by neurotic, psychotic,
pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth"
– John Lennon, "Gimme Some Truth"
GIMME SOME TRUTH. – named for Lennon's 1971 excoriating
rebuke of deceptive politicians, hypocrisy and war, a
sentiment as relevant as ever in our post-truth era of
fake news, will be available in a variety of formats
including as a Deluxe Edition Box Set that offers several
different ways to listen to this engrossing 36-track
collection with stunning new mixes across two CDs
alongside a Blu-ray audio disc containing the Ultimate
Mixes in Studio Quality 24 bit/96 kHz HD Stereo, immersive
5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos.
"John was a brilliant man with a
great sense of humour and understanding," writes Yoko
Ono Lennon in the preface of the book included in the
Deluxe Edition. "He believed in being truthful and that the
power of the people will change the world. And it will. All of
us have the responsibility to visualize a better world for
ourselves and our children. The truth is what we create. It's
in our hands."
The 124-page book included in the Deluxe Edition has been
designed and edited by Simon Hilton, the
Compilation Producer and Production Manager of the
Ultimate Collection series. The book tells the story of
all thirty-six songs in John & Yoko's words and the words
of those who worked alongside them, through archival and
brand-new interviews, accompanied by hundreds of
previously unseen photographs, Polaroids, movie still
frames, letters, lyric sheets, tape boxes, artworks and
memorabilia from the Lennon-Ono archives.
GIMME SOME TRUTH. will also be released as a 19-track CD
or 2LP, a 36-track 2CD or 4 LP, and several digital
versions for download and streaming including in 24 bit/96
kHz audio and hi-res Dolby Atmos. The vinyl was cut by
mastering engineer Alex Wharton at Abbey Road
Studios. The Deluxe Edition and 4LP formats will include a
GIMME SOME TRUTH. bumper sticker, a two-sided poster of
Lennon printed in black and white with silver and gold
metallics, and two postcards, one of which is a replica of
Lennon's letter to the Queen of England in
1969 when he returned his MBE in "protest against
Britain's involvement in the Nigerian-Biafra thing,
against our support of America in Vietnam and
Cold Turkey slipping down the charts." The 2LP and 2CD
will also include the poster and all versions will come
with a booklet filled with photos and the MBE letter.
The album cover features a rarely-seen striking black and
white profile portrait of John Lennon, taken
on the day John returned his MBE. The album cover, CD and
LP booklets and typographic artworks were designed by
Jonathan Barnbrook who created the covers for
David Bowie's albums Heathen, Reality and The
Next Day and won a GRAMMY® Award for the packaging of
Bowie's Black Star album.
GIMME SOME TRUTH. traces the arc of
Lennon's post-Beatles life and career, bringing together songs
from all of his revered solo albums including John
Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Imagine (1971), Some
Time In New York City (1972), Mind Games (1973), Walls and
Bridges (1974), Rock 'n' Roll (1975), Double Fantasy (1980)
and 1984's posthumous Milk and Honey. The collection is
bookended with his early non-album singles, kicking off with
the one-two punch of "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On),"
Lennon's exuberant exhortation about the karmic forces of
action/reaction and equality ("we all shine on like the moon
and the stars and the sun"), and the electrifying
addiction-themed "Cold Turkey," and culminating
with the holiday classic "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and the
anti-war protest anthem "Give Peace A Chance," with its
ubiquitous, titular call to action: "All we are saying is Give
Peace A Chance."
Sequenced in chronological order by
album they were released on, songs on the 36-track version
include all of Lennon's biggest hits and showcase his
thoughts, beliefs and convictions about everything from peace
("Imagine," "Give Peace A Chance," "Happy Xmas (War Is
Over)"), religion ("God"), politics ("Power To The People,"
"Working Class Hero"), lying politicians ("Gimme Some Truth"),
racism ("Angela"), equality ("Woman"), love and marriage
("Love," "Oh Yoko!," "Dear Yoko," "Mind Games," "Out The
Blue," "Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him," "Grow Old With
Me"), fatherhood ("Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"), loneliness
("Isolation") and much more. Some of the many other highlights
include the sonically sumptuous "Jealous Guy" and "#9 Dream,"
the acerbic "How Do You Sleep?," the breezy, carefree
"Watching The Wheels," a rollicking live recording of "Come
Together" that he had originally recorded with The Beatles,
the rapturous Elton John collaboration "Whatever
Gets You Thru The Night," and the jubilant, bittersweet "I'm
Stepping Out."
Like all Lennon projects, intense
thought and care went into the making of GIMME SOME TRUTH and
the remixing of these treasured songs. As Paul Hicks
details in the Deluxe Edition book: "Yoko is very keen that in
making The Ultimate Mixes series we achieve three things:
remain faithful and respectful to the originals, ensure that
the sound is generally sonically clearer overall, and increase
the clarity of John's vocals. 'It's about John,' she says. And
she is right. His voice brings the biggest emotional impact to
the songs." Hicks continues, "The combination of remixing from
all the original first-generation multitrack sources and
finishing in analogue has brought a whole new level of magic,
warmth and clarity to the sound, along with a more detailed
dynamic range and sound stage, and we really hope you enjoy
the results."
The results speak for themselves and
allow Lennon's voice and words to shine on, clearer and
brighter, at a time when they are needed now, more than ever.
When listened to in sequence, GIMME SOME TRUTH. THE ULTIMATE
MIXES. plays both like one of the greatest-ever live Lennon
concerts and an emotional telling of his life story, from just
after the breakup of The Beatles, to falling in love and
marrying Yoko, his peace activism, personal soul-searching,
inspiration, celebration, confusion, reunion, fatherhood, his
five-year break from music while raising Sean, and his
triumphant return into the '80s with two new albums.
ABOUT
JOHN LENNON John Lennon is arguably the greatest songwriter
of his generation. Lennon has won seven GRAMMY® Awards,
including two Lifetime Achievement Awards, and two special
BRIT Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music. He has been
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Walk of Fame.
In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon in the Top 5 of the
magazine's "100 Greatest Singers Of All Time" list.
JOHN LENNON. GIMME
SOME TRUTH. THE ULTIMATE MIXES.
DELUXE BOX SET.
124 PAGE BOOK,
1 FOLD OUT POSTER, 2 POSTCARDS, 1 BUMPER STICKER.
1 BLU-RAY AUDIO DISC: 36 TRACKS IN HIGH DEFINITION 24-96
STEREO, 5.1 SURROUND SOUND, DOLBY ATMOS.
2 CDS: 36 TRACKS IN STEREO.
CD1
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Working Class Hero
4. Isolation
5. Love
6. God
7. Power To The People
8. Imagine
9. Jealous Guy
10. Gimme Some Truth
11. Oh My Love
12. How Do You Sleep?
13. Oh Yoko!
14. Angela
15. Come Together (live)
16. Mind Games
17. Out The Blue
18. I Know (I Know)
CD2
1. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
2. Bless You
3. #9 Dream
4. Steel and Glass
5. Stand By Me
6. Angel Baby
7. (Just Like) Starting Over
8. I'm Losing You
9. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
10. Watching The Wheels
11. Woman
12. Dear Yoko
13. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
14. Nobody Told Me
15. I'm Stepping Out
16. Grow Old With Me
17. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
18. Give Peace A Chance
BLU-RAY AUDIO DISC
All of the above thirty-six tracks, available in High
Definition audio as:
1. HD Stereo Audio Mixes (24 bit/96 kHz)
2. HD 5.1 Surround Sound Mixes (24 bit/96 kHz)
3. HD Dolby Atmos Mixes
4 LP BOX SET.
8 PAGE BOOKLET, 1 FOLD OUT POSTER, 2 POSTCARDS, 1 BUMPER
STICKER.
36 TRACKS IN STEREO.
LP 1 SIDE A
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Working Class Hero
4. Isolation
5. Love
LP 1 SIDE B
6. God
7. Power To The People
8. Imagine
9. Jealous Guy
LP 2 SIDE A
10. Gimme Some Truth
11. Oh My Love
12. How Do You Sleep?
13. Oh Yoko!
14. Angela
LP 2 SIDE B
15. Come Together (live)
16. Mind Games
17. Out The Blue
18. I Know (I Know)
LP 3 SIDE A
19. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
20. Bless You
21. #9 Dream
22. Steel And Glass
23. Stand By Me
LP 3 SIDE B
24. Angel Baby
25. (Just Like) Starting Over
26. I'm Losing You
27. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
28. Watching the Wheels
LP 4 SIDE A
29. Woman
30. Dear Yoko
31. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
32. Nobody Told Me
LP 4 SIDE B
33. I'm Stepping Out
34. Grow Old with Me
35. Give Peace a Chance
36. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
2 CD GATEFOLD IN SLEEVE
20 PAGE BOOKLET, 1 FOLD OUT POSTER.
36 TRACKS IN STEREO.
TRACKS ALSO AVAILABLE ON STREAMING.
CD1
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Working Class Hero
4. Isolation
5. Love
6. God
7. Power To The People
8. Imagine
9. Jealous Guy
10. Gimme Some Truth
11. Oh My Love
12. How Do You Sleep?
13. Oh Yoko!
14. Angela
15. Come Together (live)
16. Mind Games
17. Out The Blue
18. I Know (I Know)
CD2
1. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
2. Bless You
3. #9 Dream
4. Steel And Glass
5. Stand By Me
6. Angel Baby
7. (Just Like) Starting Over
8. I'm Losing You
9. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
10. Watching the Wheels
11. Woman
12. Dear Yoko
13. Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
14. Nobody Told Me
15. I'm Stepping Out
16. Grow Old with Me
17. Give Peace a Chance
18. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
2 LP GATEFOLD.
8 PAGE BOOKLET, 1 FOLD OUT POSTER, 1 BUMPER STICKER.
19 TRACKS IN STEREO.
LP 1 SIDE A
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Isolation
4. Power To The People
LP 1 SIDE B
5. Imagine
6. Jealous Guy
7. Gimme Some Truth
8. Come Together (live)
9. #9 Dream
LP 2 SIDE A
10. Mind Games
11. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
12. Stand By Me
13. (Just Like) Starting Over
14. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
LP 2 SIDE B
15. Watching The Wheels
16. Woman
17. Grow Old With Me
18. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
19. Give Peace A Chance
1 CD GATEFOLD
20 PAGE BOOKLET.
19 TRACKS IN STEREO.
ALSO AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL (DOWNLOAD ONLY).
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
2. Cold Turkey
3. Isolation
4. Power To The People
5. Imagine
6. Jealous Guy
7. Gimme Some Truth
8. Come Together (live)
9. #9 Dream
10. Mind Games
11. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
12. Stand By Me
13. (Just Like) Starting Over
14. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
15. Watching the Wheels
16. Woman
17. Grow Old with Me
18. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
19. Give Peace a Chance
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - “It’s
hot, it’s sweaty, it’s packed - that’s its reputation from
back in the day with The Beatles, and it’s still a proper rock
and roll venue,” said Jon Keats, Director of the Liverpool
cellar bar where Britain’s best-known musical export found
fame.
That bittersweet sentence explains both why visitors from
around the world flocked to the Cavern Club to pay homage
to the 1960s musical phenomenon, and why now the airborne,
highly contagious coronavirus pandemic threatens its
future.
Keats shut his doors in March as the European wave of
COVID-19 was hitting Spain and Italy hard and Britain was
sliding towards its own crisis.
He expected to be closed for about a month.
Five months later, the club is still shut, the firm has
lost more than 600,000 pounds ($788,000) and 20 of its 120
employees have been laid off.
The once-thriving business, which also runs Beatles-themed
tours of Liverpool and two other venues, is seeking help
from government crisis funds and has calculated it can
survive until March in a worst-case scenario.
But as the country adapts to a new life dominated by
facemasks and social distancing, Keats is due to reopen
next week for International Beatleweek - a six day
festival.
“I hate the phrase ‘new normal’, but you’ve got to look at
your business differently,” Keats said ahead of the
reopening that he hopes will prove the club can adapt and
keep its loyal fanbase happy.
“It’s a good way of us looking at how we can do that with
a mixture of live music and pre-recorded sets from bands
from all over the world.”
To comply with government guidelines, only 150 people will
be allowed into the venue, which normally holds 500.
That is a far cry from the screaming
Beatles-era crushes, or its more recent incarnation as a
tourist attraction-cum-music venue.
It will be a different vibe, said Keats, but it’s a start.
“We are closed, we are going to open, and the Cavern,
ultimately, fingers crossed, won’t be going anywhere.”
August 20, 2020
Toto’s Steve Lukather Releases New
Collaboration With Ringo Starr
“Run to Me” also features Toto’s David Paich and
Joseph Williams along with Huey Lewis and the News bassist
John Pierce.
Toto guitarist Steve Lukather has released a new song,
“Run to Me,” with Ringo Starr on drums. It also features
Toto’s David Paich and Joseph Williams along with Huey
Lewis and the News bassist John Pierce. “Run to Me” will
appear on Lukather’s upcoming solo album, due at some
point in 2021.
“I wanted to release this now because it fits the moment —
a time where we all need a happy song for an unhappy
time,” Lukather said in a press release. “When I got
together with Joseph Williams and David Paich to
collaborate on the songwriting, there was pure collective
inspiration among the three of us to articulate this
message of hope directed toward our daughters. Musically,
the song is absolutely influenced by my growing up in the
Sixties, inspired by some of my favorite elements of the
repertoire that defined that indelible era.”
Lukather has toured with Ringo Starr and his All Starr
Band for the past eight years where he sings Toto hits
like “Hold the Line” and “Rosanna” in addition to joining
in on Beatles/Ringo classics like “Yellow Submarine” and
“Photograph.” During that time, he’s forged a tight bond
with Ringo.
“We’ve become dear friends traveling the world with one
another, and much like Paich and Williams, I am certainly
blessed to have these talented, amazing human beings in my
life as both bandmates and friends,” Lukather said. “As we
all look toward the unknown of this crazy world we are
living in, my hope is this tune brings a little peace,
love and pleasant distraction to these uncertain times.”
Toto experienced a major career resurgence in recent years
when their 1982 hit “Africa” was embraced by a new
generation. Weezer recorded a hit cover and the original
appeared everywhere from Stranger Things to South Park. It
helped the group play to larger crowds in America than
they’d faced in years, even after “Africa” singer/writer
David Paich left the road due to health problems.
The group went on indefinite hiatus following a show at
Philadelphia’s Metropolitan Opera House on October 20th,
2019. Paich made a surprise appearance that night to
perform “Home of the Brave” and, of course, “Africa.”
Lukather planned on touring with Ringo this year, but
these plans were bumped to 2021 due to the pandemic.
August 19, 2020
What the Beatles’ ‘Revolution’ Means 50 Years Later
A week before the Democratic National Convention in 1968,
the Beatles released “Revolution,” blindsiding the
generation that trusted them. The hippest pop critics
resented “Revolution” because it went against the student
tantrum movement. Some felt betrayed, others inferred
their own anxious need to dissent anyway. Time has proven
the Beatles right in refusing to go along with violence,
destruction, and self-aggrandizement. It was a moment of
pop-culture wisdom, but the song’s title really should
have had a question mark.
By contrast, this week’s virtual DNC convention has met no
cultural opposition. “WAP,”
Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s whore’s anthem,
shows the degrading values that liberal pop musicians
contribute to the DNC’s convention week. The DNC pop
line-up, from John Legend to Billie Eilish, is banal.
(Stephen Stills and Billy Porter’s drag-queen rendition of
“For What It’s Worth” was worse than banal; it was
ludicrous.) Stoking the ambiguous relation of rock music
and pop culture to rebellion — minus the Beatles’ warning
— makes celebrity support of protests, violence, and
anarchy absolutely, well, revolting.
Broadway’s Phillipa Soo, the token
Asian playing one of the Schuyler sisters trio in Hamilton,
recently advocated revolution, just like the clueless hippies
who misunderstood John Lennon’s reservations as a rallying
cry. While promoting her latest commercial project, Soo
boasted that she was first inspired by Hamilton’s “We’re in
the greatest city in the world” lyric but recently favors a
different trope: “Revolution is messy, but now is the time to
stand up.” This misconstrued sense of American history is
absolutely in synch with Hamilton. Even worse, Soo’s
comment on revolution paralleled that of congressional “Squad”
member Ayanna Pressley, who vowed to MSNBC, “We need unrest in
the streets. There needs to be unrest in the streets as long
as there’s unrest in our lives.”
Neither Soo nor Pressley seems to appreciate what
“revolution” means. Indifferent to the destruction
occurring in Democrat-led cities, they don’t appreciate
the danger that the Beatles sang about: “But when you talk
about destruction / Don’t you know that you can count me
out.”
The Beatles’ “Revolution” complicates the received history
of 1968 by standing in opposition to Sixties violent
unrest as proposed by vain activists. “But if you go
carrying pictures of Chairman Mao / You ain’t gonna make
it with anyone anyhow” could well have been inspired by
Jean-Luc Godard’s anti-Maoist La Chinoise, which
was released in the U.S. that same year. (Many film
critics still refuse to acknowledge Godard’s skepticism.)
John Lennon reiterated the point in 1980: “The lyrics
stand today. . . . I want to see the plan. That is what I
used to say to [activists] Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
Count me out if it’s for violence. Don’t expect me on the
barricades unless it’s with flowers.”
No doubt Lennon, Hoffman, Rubin knew more about the
consequences of revolution than the superficial Soo and
the seditious Pressley are willing to admit. Think about
the specifics of the Hamilton lyrics that Soo
(and every D.C. liberal) abides by: That “greatest city in
the world” lyric expressed Lin-Manuel Miranda’s exalted
view of Obama-era America, recently reduced to rubble.
Now, Soo’s admiration for the “revolution is messy” lyric
expresses post-Obama regret and Kalorama lust for power.
Soo’s attitude belongs to the elite class of resisters —
from Hollywood to Broadway to TV’s robotic newscasters —
who support Antifa violence and excuse every riot as a
“peaceful protest.”
Millennial showbiz, mostly in lockstep with the Democratic
Party, twists the meaning of traditional showbiz humanism.
Partisanship prevents artists from taking the Beatles’
principled stance when addressing the romance of
revolution. There’s even a public-service TV commercial
that misappropriates Chaplin’s The Great Dictator
speech — “fight” meant something entirely different when
there were actual Nazis (and Russian allies).
This delusion is neither personal nor a result of
education. Despite being spoon-fed radicalism through
media or at universities, most folks don’t know enough
about communism or socialism to distinguish between Marx
and Lenin. It’s just part of following media trends. One
frequent concern of this column is the persistent
unimaginative unoriginality of the culture world,
particularly today’s one-track, simple-minded
politicization and division.
The Beatles’ “Revolution” resounds for its challenge and
enrichment of cultural consciousness, as opposed to
today’s media-sponsored pro-violence consensus opinion.
Millennial pop influencers such as Lin-Manuel Miranda lack
moral commitment and no longer understand how to
articulate feeling into art as the Beatles’ “Revolution”
did.
Whining Taylor Swift, smug John
Legend, ridiculous Billy Porter, and silly Philippa Soo
represent the petulance of this cultural and political moment.
When the Rolling Stones made “Street Fighting Man” to
capitalize on the Sixties populism, they expressed their
comfortable distance as well as their ambivalence; that’s why
the Beatles quickly answered back with a definitive negation
of street violence. Michael Jackson pulled together both
political positions in his great 1991 “Black or White” (which
begins with a “Street Fighting Man” riff and ends with a
closing guitar note quoting “Revolution”).
This week’s pseudo (virtual)
Democratic convention exploits the same social tensions that
Jackson addressed in his personal manifesto, but anarchy is at
play. In ’68, the Beatles’ “Revolution” anticipated turmoil,
and the song remains a beacon to the conscientiousness that
today’s liberal pop stars disgrace.
Sixty years ago this Monday, on August 17, 1960, a certain
band from Liverpool played their first gig under their new
name, the Beatles. The band was far from home — at the
Indra Club in Hamburg, Germany — and had five members:
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart
Sutcliffe and Pete Best.
To celebrate the anniversary, you
can Stream
& Shout with a free two-hour show live from the very
same Indra Club, this Monday at 3 pm ET (9 pm Hamburg
time). Just visit stream-shout.hamburg,Facebook or YouTube.
The organizers promise stories
and talks with experts and “former companions,” plus a
recreated Beatles set from August 1960, and other Fab Four…er,
Fab Five songs from a host of bands.
August 11, 2020
Paul Saltzman Premieres "Meeting The Beatles"
Documentary
With new and vivid first-hand details and over 40 personal
photos never-before-seen in any other movie about The
Beatles, Emmy Award-winning Canadian filmmaker Paul
Saltzman shares an extraordinary life experience in a new
feature documentary, Meeting the Beatles in India.
Saltzman learned transcendental meditation while
spending a week in 1968 at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s
ashram in Rishikesh on the banks of the Ganges River along
with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and
Ringo Starr. Photos and recollections not revisited for
50 years are brought to life.
Narrated by Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman with
executive producers including Pen Densham and David
Lynch, Meeting the Beatles in India adds
vital details and context to one of the seminal cultural
events of the 20th Century.
In 1968 Paul Saltzman, then 23-years-old, traveled
to India to heal his broken heart. There he discovered
his own soul, learned Transcendental Meditation ™ (which
changed his life) and hung out with John, Paul, George and
Ringo. Among the other seekers at the ashram were actress
Mia Farrow, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, folksinger
Donovan and the Beatles’ wives and girlfriends.
Gathr Films has set Wednesday, September 9th for the
virtual World Premiere with a Live Filmmaker Q&A directly
following on its Gathr At Home™ platform.
Paul Saltzman is a two-time Canadian Emmy
Award-winning film and television producer/director with
more than 300 films, both dramas and documentaries, to his
credit. The 2008 documentary feature Prom
Night in Mississippi, featuring actor Morgan
Freeman, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film
Festival. The Last White Knight—Is Reconciliation
Possible? premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in
2012 and stars Morgan Freeman, Harry Belafonte and Delay
de la Beckwith (son of Byron De La Beckwith).
August 8, 2020
Ottawa's CFRA Swing Set Survey of July 28, 1967,
reveals The Beatles doing a quantum leap up in the charts
with "All You Need Is Love" single at #2 position.
The previous week CFRA had it listed at #24 position.
AND IN THE END: THE LAST DAYS OF THE BEATLES (OBS
commentary: The book is available for the first time
in the United States and Canada.)
BY KEN MCNAB
320 PP
$28.99
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS
By the summer of 1969, the
finely-tuned motorcar that was the Beatles was nearing “E” on
its collective gas tank. There was a grimness that had fallen
over their company (Apple), the recording studio (Abbey Road),
and in their own interpersonal relations.
But on the afternoon of August
22, they still had one more job to do as a group. Two days
earlier, they had completed recording on what would be their
final chronologically-recorded album, named after the studio
in which they had put down most of their music. But new
product also required new publicity photos, so the four (along
with two of their wives) came together at John and Yoko’s
Tittenhurst Park estate, as photographers Ethan Russell and
Monte Fresco began snapping away.
The photos of the four hirsute,
darkly-dressed musicians could not telegraph more discomfort
and resignation. And the Fabsannus
horribilisof 1969 wouldn’t stop when the
last shutter clicked. In this valuable addition to the Beatles
Bookshelf, author Ken McNab takes a detailed and deep dive
into the last year of the band’s existence, and manages to
uncover some choice new info about the likely most
written-about band in the history of music.
One thing is for certain, known
for a long time by Beatle fanatics but somehow still not
permeating much of the general public: Yoko Ono did not break
up the Beatles. Sure, she was a contributing factor. And
irksome for the other three members to have her presence there
constantly in the studio and business meetings, with she and
Lennon seemingly joined at the hip.
And it was beyond the pale when
during the first days of recording for Abbey Road,
Paul, George, and Ringo watched with mouths open as a
fully-equipped hospital bed from Harrod’s carrying Ono –
recovering from a family car wreck which also delayed Lennon’s
arrival – into the studio. The couple also had a microphone installed
over the prone Ono so she could offer commentary and advice on
the music. Oh, and she was pregnant at the time, when both
Lennons were also addicted to heroin.
But by those sessions, the end
was near. Business problems and arguments over money and
contracts and who would represent them – Allen Klein (per
George, John, and Ringo) or Lee Eastman (per Paul) drained any
sense of camaraderie. And each Beatle was already well on
their ways to new paths: Lennon to Ono-fueled avant-garde
projects, Harrison chafing to have his own songs be heard as a
solo artist, and Starr venturing into film. Even McCartney –
always the group’s biggest cheerleader and motivator, even
when he became a bit overbearing – was ready to throw in the
towel.
As McNab notes, it was Lennon who first said he was
quitting for good (earlier departures by Starr and
Harrison were quickly smoothed over), but the band agreed
not to say anything during continuing contract
negotiations about publishing and recording and royalties.
Still, it was bizarre that almost no one picked up
on McCartney’s quote from a November 1969 Life magazine:
“The Beatle thing is over,” and moreso when he released a
“self-interview” as part of his first solo record
amplifying the band wouldn’t be working together again.
Furious, Lennon wanted to be the first to break the news,
since he saw the Beatles as his band.
McNab covers some familiar ground and stories, but
putting them all in chronological order is a boon for
fans. He also wonderfully locates some people who had
encounters with band members during that year, many of
which have either never or rarely been interviewed in
other Beatles books.
They include Lennon’s cousin, who saw John, Yoko,
and their respective children Julian and Kyoko during that
fateful Scotland motoring trip to visit relatives (the
same one they’d be injured in). There’s also
painter/decorator Derek Seagrove, who inadvertently
appears on the cover of Abbey Road in the
background with a couple of other workers. And engineer
Andre Perry, who had to hustle recording equipment into
the Lennon’s Montreal hotel bedroom to record “Give Peace
a Chance.” Even the studio employee who had to run out and
purchase three pairs of ladies pantyhose to put over the
microphones for the famous Let It Be rooftop
concert - because the high wind would ruin recording!
There’s even one tantalizing musical fact: At one
point, as McCartney was running from the “Paul is Dead”
mania, Jimi Hendrix sent a telegram to the Apple offices
inviting McCartney to play bass on a weekend jam session
with jazz legends Miles Davis and drummer Tony Williams
that might have led to something more. McCartney never saw
the last-minute invite, and who knows what could have
resulted from that?
And In the End is one of a number of
Beatles media which focus on the timeframe where the band
ended. Most anticipated is Director Peter Jackson’s new “recut”
of the Let it Be documentary. While the
original film (the only Beatles movie that has never
re-released or issued on home video) was a dismal
chronicle of a band in crisis with their music and each
other, Jackson’s version shows a more positive take (and
with 200+ hours of footage filmed, it could have also made
several other docs).
Still, reading And In the End is
somewhat akin to a book about the maiden voyage of the
Titanic or the theater-going habits of Abraham Lincoln:
You know the end is coming, you know what the result is,
and there’s not a damn thing the reader can do to stop it.
Like a lot of bands, the end for the Beatles wasn’t
pretty. But unlike a lot of other bands, a lot of people
still care – and obsess – over the events.
Bob Ruggiero has been writing about
music, books, and entertainment for the Houston
Press since 1997, with an emphasis on
classic rock. He used to have an incredible and luxurious
mullet in college as well. He is the author of the band
biography Slippin’ Out of Darkness: The
Story of WAR.
A hard day’s night: how celebrated producer Giles
Martin listens to music at home
Post work, the erudite Englishman settles into the night
at his farmhouse with his family. Here’s how he has wired
his own home for great sound – and how you can too.
“I suppose that when The Beatles
broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort
of hated each other,” McCartney, 78,
told British GQ in a new interview.
At the time, the other three members
— John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — all wanted to
make Allan Klein their manager, which McCartney disapproved
of, calling Klein “a f–king idiot.”
“The only way for me to save The
Beatles and Apple – and to release ‘Get Back’ by Peter Jackson
and which allowed us to release ‘Anthology’ and all these
great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue
the band,” he explained. “If I hadn’t done that, it would have
all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get
us out of that was to do what I did.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll sue Allen
Klein,’ and I was told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to
it. ‘You’ve got to sue The Beatles.'”
OBS footnote: The above article has been edited down for
brevity sake. Please consult the active link for the Page Six
article.
August 3, 2020
A group of local guys in Ottawa wear their hearts
on their sleeves all for the love of Beatles music
Documentary on a concert series marking the 50th
anniversary of Beatles album releases from 2013 to 2019
held in various venues in Ottawa, Canada, performed by Paul Johanis
and his Greytones.
August 2, 2020
Sheila E: The "Wow Factor" on Ringo Starr's 80th
Birthday Bash!
Rare archival film footage of John and & Yoko in
Toronto from CTV news
On May 26, 1969: John Lennon and
Yoko Ono arrived in Toronto after being refused admission
to the U.S. The couple was in Canada promoting their “War
is Over” peace campaign. They later staged a famous bed-in
at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
New George Harrison book: "Be Here Now" due out
on September 29, 2020
Promo info culled
directly from Amazon.ca:
Never-before-seen candids and ephemera
of "the quiet Beatle" during his meteoric solo
career, as captured by his friend and famed
photographer Barry Feinstein.
On hand from 1970 to 1972 for
Harrison's blockbuster "Triple Crown"--the
release of All Things Must Pass; The Concert for
Bangladesh; and Living in the Material World,
which helped make Harrison the best-selling
post-breakup Beatle, Barry became good friends
with George during the three-plus years they
worked together. Feinstein captured George
Harrison at home, in his garden, onstage, and in
the studio. Nearly all the images are previously
unpublished.
The book contains never-before-seen
ephemera related to these seminal releases
during George's most richly creative time
post-Beatles, including handwritten letters
talking about album ideas, album-cover thoughts,
and putting together the Concert for Bangladesh.
This collection also features beloved performers
that George convened for that Concert for
Bangladesh--where Barry was the only sanctioned
photographer onstage--including George's friends
Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, Ringo
Starr, Leon Russell, and Billy Preston.
The book coincides with the fiftieth
anniversary of All Things Must Pass. George
Harrison: Be Here Now is a deeper visual dive
that the significantly large and passionate
Beatles/George Harrison fandom will want to add
to their collection.
July 29, 2020
National Museums Liverpool: "Linda McCartney
Retrospective"
Ottawa's CFRA Swing Set June 23, 1967 lists "A Day
In The Life" at #19 Position Based on Local Popular
Airplay Even Though No Single Records Were Ever Released
from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Album
during 1967
George’s “I Me Mine” became the final song recorded by the
band before its split.
In his autobiography, George recalled
his own self-centered focus, seeing everything “relative to my
ego, like ‘that’s my piece of paper’ and ‘that’s my flannel’
or ‘give it to me’ or ‘I am.’ It drove me crackers, I hated
everything about my ego. It was a flash of everything false
and impermanent, which I disliked. But later, I learned from
it, to realize that there is somebody else in here apart from
old blabbermouth. Who am ‘I’ became the order of the day.
Anyway, that’s what came out of it, ‘I Me Mine.’”
Perhaps subconsciously,
the song also reflects the clash of egos in the studio as the
Beatles moved toward their split.
“‘I Me Mine’ is the ego problem,”
George explained. “There are two ‘I’s: the little ‘i’ when
people say ‘I am this’; and the big ‘I’ – is duality and ego.
There is nothing that isn’t part of the complete whole. When
the little ‘i’ merges into the big ‘I’ then you are really
smiling!”
George’s epiphany offers insight for
us as a New Year dawns.
“The truth within us has to be
realized,” George said. “When you realize that, everything
else that you see and do and touch and smell isn’t real, then
you may know what reality is, and can answer the question ‘Who
am I?’”
July 23, 2020
The Beatles: guitar by guitar - a guide to the
models that made music history
by Tony Bacon for Guitarist
The Beatles revolutionised music and made the guitar the
world's most popular instrument. On the 50th anniversary
of their final album, we trace the models that made the
magic…
Paul McCartney has shared his new Beautiful Night EP, a
four-track digital release that extracts the various
versions of the 1997 single from
the upcoming Flaming Pie reissue.
The EP includes the Flaming Pie finished version of
“Beautiful Night,” McCartney’s 1995 demo for the track,
a “run-through” take and the 10-minute in-studio medley
focused on the recording of “Beautiful Night” that
featured within the single’s B-side “Oobu Joobu Part 5.”
McCartney also re-uploaded his newly remastered video
for “Beautiful Night.” The song itself features
contributions from Linda McCartney, Jeff Lynne, producer
George Martin and McCartney’s former bandmate Ringo
Starr, marking one of their first post-Beatles
collaborations.
“I’d been saying to Ringo for years that it’d be great
to do something, because we’d never really done that
much work together outside the Beatles. One night Jeff
Lynne suggested, ‘Why don’t you get Ringo in?’ and I
said, ‘OK!’ It just sort of happened,” McCartney
recalled in a statement. “I had this song ‘Beautiful
Night’ which I’d written quite a few years ago. I’d
always liked it but I felt I didn’t quite have the right
version of it. So I got this song out for when Ringo was
coming in, and right away it was just like the old
days.”
The massive Flaming Pie reissue, due out July 31st,
features McCartney’s intimate home recordings, studio
jams, rough mixes, outtakes, audio from his radio show
at the time, Oobu Joobu, a documentary about making the
record and bonus films.
Beautiful Night EP Tracklist
1. Beautiful Night (Main Album – Remastered)
2. Beautiful Night (1995 Demo)
3. Beautiful Night (Run Through)
4. Oobu Joobu Part 5:
1. And Now (Jingle)
2. Oobu Joobu Main Theme
3. Beautiful Night Chat
4. Paul McCartney and
Ringo Starr Chat About ‘Beautiful Night’
The Beatles, 50 years after their final studio LP,
are rock's only million-selling act through the first half
of 2020.
Factoring in the modern metric of album sales plus album
equivalent units (via song downloads and streaming), the
group moved 1.094 million units from January through June,
according to Nielsen's
Mid-Year Report. The top five rock list also
includes Queen (with 768,000 units), Imagine
Dragons (593,000), Fleetwood Mac (565,000)
and Metallica (551,000).
The top five rock albums are
Queen's Greatest Hits (1) (448,000), Elton
John's Diamonds (372,000), Creedence
Clearwater Revival's Chronicle, Vol. 1 (299,000), Journey's Greatest
Hits (273,000) and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (265,000).
The top rock songs are Imagine Dragon's "Believer," Journey's
"Don't Stop Believin'," Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," Panic! at
the Disco's "High Hopes" and Eagles' "Hotel California."
Queen's Greatest Hits (1) ranked fourth in the top
10 vinyl albums category (56,000 sales), followed by the
Beatles' Abbey Road at fifth (54,000 sales) and Pink
Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon at eighth (44,000).
Comparing music consumption trends from the same
period of 2019, the Nielsen report found that streaming
has increased, vinyl LP sales are up and both CD and
digital album sales continue to plummet.
Despite the music industry's shakiness, the Beatles
remain relevant. The same goes for film: Grammy-winning
director Jonas Akerlund will helm an upcoming movie, Midas
Man, chronicling the life of the band's longtime manager,
Brian Epstein. And Peter Jackson is still prepping The
Beatles: Get Back, a documentary about the band's
infamously tense Let It Be sessions. Both projects are now
scheduled for 2021.
July 12, 2020
John Lennon statue tour proposed to mark Beatle's
80th birthday
Sculptor Laura Lian wants statue of musician to
tour boroughs around Merseyside
A sculpture of John Lennon is being proposed for a
homecoming tour commemorating the former Beatle in the
year he would have turned 80.
The sculptor who made the six-foot bronze statue of Lennon
says she would like it to go on public display in the
singer’s native Merseyside by 21 September – International
Day of Peace.
Laura Lian started sculpting the Lennon statue two years
ago. Since its completion, the sculpture has spent most of
the time inside the Hard Rock Cafe in London. She wants it
to tour all of the boroughs around Merseyside over the
next two years. It is currently at the Castle Foundry in
Liverpool.
Lian, who has made statues for the former Formula One
chief Bernie Ecclestone and Bill Wyman of the Rolling
Stones, said: “With all the trouble in the world about
statues … the pandemic and the strife, it’s so right that
Lennon can go back to where he belongs. For my generation
growing up amid protests against the Vietnam war and the
threat of nuclear war, Lennon was an inspiration in the
way he inspired us to dream of peace.
“I had always intended for the statue to have a permanent
home up on Merseyside and at one stage it looked like the
Lennon statue was going to be erected in the Strawberry
Fields area of Liverpool. That project fell through but
when the metropolitan mayor of Merseyside, Steve Rotheram,
suggested it should go up in the borough of Sefton, I
thought that was a great idea. Every year a borough on
Merseyside is nominated as the borough of culture and this
year it’s Sefton’s turn.”
She added that, given that 2020 marks 80 years since
Lennon was born and is also the 40th anniversary of his
murder, it “was also apposite that his statue comes home
to Liverpool”.
Stephen Watson, the executive director at Sefton council,
said: “Sefton has always been proud to support artists,
and indeed the borough is already home to a number of
acclaimed pieces of art …
“If this statue was to go on tour of Merseyside, we would
be willing to maintain an open dialogue with Laura Lian,
and other artists, about any future opportunities for
artwork to be displayed in our beautiful borough.”
Photographer Fiona Adams, best known for her pictures
of classic rock icons including the
Beatles, has died at the age of 84.
Adams’ death was
confirmed by her son, Karl. The photographer
reportedly passed on June 26 following a battle with
pancreatic cancer.
Born in Guernsey, a small island in the English
Channel, Adams left her hometown to study photography at
the Ealing of School of Art. Her early work included
architectural pictures, travel photographs and
contributions to the Sunday Times newspaper.
Photographer Fiona Adams, best known for her pictures
of classic rock icons including the
Beatles, has died at the age of 84.
Adams’ death was
confirmed by her son, Karl. The photographer
reportedly passed on June 26 following a battle with
pancreatic cancer.
Born in Guernsey, a small island in the English
Channel, Adams left her hometown to study photography at
the Ealing of School of Art. Her early work included
architectural pictures, travel photographs and
contributions to the Sunday Times newspaper.
Adams’ death was confirmed by
her son, Karl. The photographer reportedly passed on June 26
following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Born in Guernsey, a small island in the English Channel, Adams
left her hometown to study photography at the Ealing of School
of Art. Her early work included architectural pictures, travel
photographs and contributions to the Sunday
Timesnewspaper.
While working for the
London-based magazine Boyfriend in the early
‘60s, Adams career would reach a major turning point. The
shutterbug was given the assignment of photographing an
up-and-coming pop group called the Beatles.
Rather than doing a traditional studio shoot, Adams
elected to capture the Fab Four among the ruins of a
London bomb site. “Music was changing,” she later explained,
“and I wanted to reflect this with a more dynamic, natural
background.”
At the photographer’s direction, the young rockers
jumped in the air. Doing so created one of the band’s most
timeless images.
“I struggled down into the crater with my heavy
camera case,” Adams recalled. “There was a pile of fallen
bricks and detritus at the bottom. The boys did their bit
and stood patiently – beautifully silhouetted against the
sky and the buildings. I set up my camera and shouted:
‘One, two, three – jump!’ And they jumped – twice. Cuban
heels and all.”
“I didn’t even think to check whether it was safe or
not,” Adams would later admit to friend Lynne Ashton.
The band liked the pictures so much, they elected to
use one for the cover of their Twist and Shout EP.
Adams would photograph the Beatles on many more
occasions as the band elevated to worldwide superstardom.
Though the group’s jumping image would remain the most
iconic of her career, it was far from Adams’ only work
with legendary artists.
The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Jimi
Hendrix are among the vaunted rockers to appear in
Adams’ material. Arguably the photographer’s most popular
non-Beatles image was a 1965 picture of Bob Dylan,
capturing the singer as he lounged with a cigarette at
London’s Savoy Hotel.
Adams would later marry and have two children,
focussing her time on family more than art.
In 2009, the National Portrait Gallery in England
featured her work as part of an exhibition called Beatles
to Bowie: The 60s Exposed. The exhibit referred to her
Beatles picture as “one of the defining images of
20th-century culture,” while Adams was described as “an
unsung heroine of the decade.”
July 7, 2020
As Ringo Starr turns 80, he talks about his life,
Beatles journey
“If I’d have gone and lived in
Houston because of Lightnin’ Hopkins, who knows where I
would have been?” he asked aloud, referring to what
would have happened if, at 19, he immigrated to the
United States just to be where his country blues
musician idol lived.
“And if I’d have stayed with
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, what would have happened
there?” Ringo was with the band until he decided to join
the Beatles to replace drummer Pete Best.
There was also the matter of
Ringo being sickly as a child. He suffered from
appendicitis, then a ruptured appendix, pleurisy, food
allergies and tuberculosis. Lying in a hospital bed, the
13-year-old was given a little drum by a music teacher.
In that instant, Ringo decided that it was the only
thing he wanted to do in life—to be a drummer.
He ended up playing drums for
the greatest band in rock history, alongside Paul
McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. In this
recent video call, the man who was considered the
Beatles’ heart and soul suddenly showed up on my laptop
screen, half an hour early. He thought the interview was
at 11:30 in the morning. It was set at noon.
In the few minutes that he
stayed and then promised to return at noon, the Beatle,
who is known for his happy-go-lucky personality, was
easygoing and charismatic as we engaged in small talk.
Wearing a short-sleeved black
polo shirt with white palm prints, the bearded man who
was born as Richard Henry Parkin Starkey Jr. wore tinted
glasses. His dark short hair gave him a youthful look.
Behind him in a corner of his
Los Angeles home were walls decorated with a black
guitar with white stars, a flag emblazoned with Trojan
Jamaica, the reggae label, and further behind, a wall
with prints of faces, including what looked like George
Harrison’s.
A few minutes before noon, Ringo
appeared again on my screen, with the most disarming
smile and giving us the peace sign. “Peace and love” is
his mantra. He also wore a necklace with a peace sign
pendant.
I asked right away a question to
finally clear the matter about the Beatles’ unfortunate
experience in Manila. In early July 1966, the band’s two
concerts in one day were enthusiastically received by
thousands of screaming fans.
The concert promoter apparently
did not tell the Beatles that he promised then First
Lady Imelda Marcos that they would show up in a
reception at the Malacañang Palace. The group refused to
go to Imelda’s event.
In a piece dated Nov. 3, 2018, a
PDI editorial looked back at that incident: “Claiming to
be incensed at the way the Fab Four had ‘offended’ the
sensibilities of the First Family, particularly Imelda
Marcos and her children, when they allegedly snubbed an
invitation to join the Marcoses and their friends at a
get-together in Malacañang, ‘concerned citizens’ lined
up all along the exit route of the world-famous band and
inflicted physical punishment on them. The Beatles were
kicked, pummeled, pushed, abused and cursed, chased to
their plane seats and given indelible memories of
Filipino hospitality.”
“Yeah, it was hell,” Ringo
recalled. “We didn’t understand it. We came with 25
outriders getting us to the hotel. I was sharing a room
with John (Lennon). We put the TV on in the morning and
it was like, what the hell’s going on? They didn’t like
us. They showed pictures of all the children. Someone
with the TV camera going past these kids being miserable
because we didn’t turn up.
“And we’ve told them. We are not
turning up. Anyway, we left back to the airport with one
motorbike and we did get pushed around. But we got on
the plane and were off to the next round. We were young
lads. We came, we played. That’s all we’re there for.
There was a hassle. Though it didn’t mean we didn’t
still love the people in the Philippines. It was just a
couple of them we didn’t love (laughs). So that’s my
story.”
Cutting to the present, Ringo
was asked about the escalation of racial issues since
the death of George Floyd. The Beatles were noted for
refusing to play to segregated audiences.
“It is crazy again,” he agreed.
“And we did refuse to play in Mississippi. All our
heroes are from Ray Charles to Lightnin’ Hopkins. Stevie
Wonder was one of them. The acts we loved were
African-American. We said no, we play to people, people
are people. That was a first for us and a first for
them.
“This year has been such an
eye-opener because of George Floyd. They killed him but
the weeks after, all the parades in LA, all over
America, and it went to England, France. It’s so huge
now… We want change.”
Ringo smiled when the chat
turned to meeting Yoko Ono for the first time. “I
remember it well because I walked into the studio and
Yoko was in bed,” Ringo began with a laugh. “We never
had our wives (in the studio). My wife Maureen (Cox)—God
rest her soul—in the eight years and all the studio time
we did … she was there more than 45 minutes over all
that time. They (wives) would come in, say hi and leave.
Because we were working.
“I went and asked
him (John), ‘What’s going on here? We’re in the studio
and Yoko is here.’
“John said, ‘What we’re planning
is to know exactly—what I’m doing, she’ll know and I’ll
know what she’s doing. We will know each other.’ So I
was fine after that … she’s a lot of fun.”
Ringo added about the woman who was controversial in
the band’s lore. “I’ve never felt uncomfortable with
her. I played on the Plastic Ono’s first records, John’s
and hers. That’s what it’s about. We’re supporting each
other. I saw her the summer before in New York. If I’m
there, we say hi.”
As he clearly showed in his affable demeanor on our
computer screen, Ringo is comfortable in being part of a
band so popular and well-loved that it has sold a
whopping 600 million worldwide. But even as early as the
’60s, as the Liverpudlian band began to rise, Ringo had
to adjust to the new reality.
“In the beginning, we wanted to make good music and
play to audiences, which we did,” said the man who also
tried being a railway messenger, barman and engineering
firm apprentice. “But we got so big that the price to
pay was that you couldn’t go into a restaurant. It
actually happened to me. I was eating a meal in a
restaurant. I’ve got the fork into my mouth and some
woman pushed it out and said, ‘Sign this.’ I said, ‘No,
I’m having dinner.’ And she told me—this was like in
’67—‘You ruined your whole career (laughs).’”
And what was the strangest request he got from a
female fan? With a laugh, he obliged with, “The weirdest
ever was, ‘Have you got a light (laughs)?’ Like I’m
going to get into that. Get off (laughs).”
In the never-ending journey of the legendary band,
Peter Jackson came up with a new documentary, The
Beatles: Get Back, which he created from footage
captured by Michael Lindsay-Hoggs for a 1970 documentary
on the group.
“We made the documentary (Let It Be) a long time
ago,” Ringo explained. “We did the last live show on the
roof of the Apple (Corps Limited, a London corporation,
not the company cofounded by Steve Jobs) building. We
found 56 or 57 hours of unused footage. We asked Peter
Jackson, could he help us here? It’s now 46 minutes long
(in The Beatles: Get Back) and it’s incredible.
“So it’s a shame because it should have been out this
year. We’re all in limbo, in a way.”
On how he is going to mark his big 80th milestone,
Ringo shared, “I’m going to celebrate it a little
differently than I have for the last 12 years, when we
have the peace and love moment. Last year, we celebrated
it in Nice. But we started in 2008 in Chicago.
“I’ve asked several of my friends to send me footage
from a show they’ve done. I’m using some of mine from
the All-Starr’s last year. I’ll be there introducing.”
He added, “Oh yeah, we have friends in the videos.
One of them you might know well. Have a guess.”
Paul McCartney? “Ah, you got that one,” he quipped
with a grin. The virtual charity concert will hit
YouTube on July 7 to benefit Black Lives Matter Global
Network and other worthy causes.
As for his plans beyond the big birthday, Ringo
answered, “With the All-Starr, we do one tour a year.
Now, I’m doing two tours a year.
“I have many blessings. My children are blessings.
I’ve got eight grandkids now and a great grandson. I’m
an only child and I look around the table and I go,
what? All these people are related to me—that’s far out.
And Barbara (actress Bach, his second wife) is in my
life—that’s another blessing.
“I’m here, the road I’ve taken was made up of good
choices and there were some other choices… And we’re in
a great business because we don’t have to retire. And I
plan to go on longer than 80.
“On July 7th is my birthday. I hope you’ll spread the
word. Everybody goes, ‘Peace and love,’ wherever you
are.”
Flashing the peace sign with his fingers, Ringo ended
our chat with, “I love you, peace and love, remember on
the 7th of July at noon.”
This article appeared on the Philippine Daily
Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia
News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
Cher’s First Single Was a Love Song About
Ringo Starr That Got Banned
Cher is one of the biggest icons to come out of the
1960s. Thanks to his time with the Beatles and his solo
work, Ringo Starr is an icon of a similar caliber. Both
are known for taking on more film roles than most famous
singers and for having great senses of humor.
Despite this, people don’t associate Cher with Ringo.
Perhaps they should. One of Cher’s first songs was about
Ringo — and it became very controversial.
Cher’s love song about Ringo Starr
Cher first became a superstar as a member of the duo
Sonny & Cher. She also has an incredibly successful and
long-lasting career as a solo artist. Rolling Stone
reports her solo career began when she released a song
called “Ringo, I Love You” under the stage name Bonnie
Jo Mason. Cher would later use the pseudonym Bonnie Jo
Mason when she recorded vocals for the Wu-Tang Clan’s
album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
Cher released “Ringo, I Love You” in 1964. According to
AllMusic, Sonny & Cher released their debut album in
1965, which means that Cher was trying to be a solo
artist before she found success as part of a duo. This
is interesting, as some fans believe she began her solo
career only after Sonny & Cher disbanded.
“Ringo, I Love You” isn’t exactly considered a classic.
It’s not even very well-remembered. However, it had some
tremendous talent behind it. According to the book Cher:
Strong Enough, Sonny Bono got legendary producer Phil
Spector to produce the song. Cher was merely
18-years-old when she recorded the track. In keeping
with the song’s Fab Four theme, it was released
alongside the B-side “Beatles Blues.”
“Ringo, I Love You” includes some obvious references to
the Beatles. The lyric “Ringo, I love you, yeah, yeah,
yeah” appears to be a reference to a similar lyric in
the chorus of “She Loves You.” In another line of the
song, Cher sings “Please let me hold your hand,” a line
which recalls the Beatles’ early hit “I Want to Hold
Your Hand.” “Ringo, I Love You” is certainly a relic of
Beatlemania.
Why the song was banned and then flopped
The song is completely innocuous. However, Cher’s vocals
on the song made many people assume she was a man.
Because of this, people interpreted “Ringo, I Love You”
as a gay love song. Subsequently, “Ringo, I Love You”
was banned from the majority of radio stations. The song
was a commercial flop.
Very few copies of “Ringo, I Love You” were produced.
After all, there wasn’t much of a demand for it.
Subsequently, the book Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to
Know About the Beatles … and More! says copies of the
track will sell for hundreds of dollars. “Ringo, I Love
You” remains a bizarre curiosity item for fans of the
Beatles and Cher.
July 6, 2020
Ringo Starr reveals his favourite drumming
hero!
On the eve of Ringo Starr's 80th birthday, Financial Times
journalist Emanual Levy reveals who Ringo Starr's
favourite drummer is.
“It’s always the same question, 'what drummers did
you like?' and I would say, I was listening to records as
records, I wasn’t listening for the drummers.” But he does
name one. “My hero is [American jazz drummer] Cozy Cole; I
just love what he did because he did tom-tom stuff.”
Brian Epstein, the hugely
celebrated music manager who was given the title as
the “fifth Beatle”, will be the subject of a new
biopic film.
The film, entitled Midas Man:
The Brian Epstein Story, is being directed by Jonas
Åkerlund who recently directed the black metal
film Lords of Chaos. Åkerlund is a filmmaker with
close affiliation to the world of music and previously
directed music videos for the likes of Beyoncé,
Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, the Rolling Stones, Lady
Gaga and more.
“Brian Epstein’s story has
everything I’m looking for in a story … it’s all about
Brian’s singularity for me,” Åkerlund said in a
statement to Variety.
Adding: “I love that Brian
seemed to know every step of the way what no one else
knew, he saw things that no one else saw. His vision
was astonishing, he created a culture that didn’t
exist. The film is more like touring Brian’s mind and
what it was like to be him than how one thing led to
another chronologically. I want to bring him back to
life.”
The film, which aims to
chronicle Epstein’s life, is being described as “the
definitive telling of a life story,” by production
staff. “The first, last and most respectful filmic
portrait ever painted of Brian Epstein. And one which
helps him achieve something he dreamed of in life, but
never achieved: to become a star of the silver
screen.”
“It is simply a fantastic
human story, worth telling, of a remarkable man whose
life’s work was to make others more remarkable. He is
not a footnote of the cultural revolution of the
sixties,” a synopsis adds. “His story adds depth and
dimension to the explosion of rock and roll and many
artists other than The Beatles, deepening and
enriching the cultural heft of this shared inheritance
by creating a new way of seeing the sixties and the
impact that Liverpool had on the world, through his
bands, artists and their music.”
The film, which is being shot
in London, Liverpool and in the US, is being pencilled
in for a 2021 release.
A tree on 79th between Broadway and Amsterdam has been
“yarn-bombed” by visual artist Carmen Paulino, who
collaborated with Knitty City for the project. It was
designed as a tribute to John Lennon on
Monday.
The tree can be found on the south side of the street –
right outside the Knitty City location at 208 West
79th Street.
Carmen Paulino is a visual artist who works on providing
community art programming in hospitals, community
centers, and senior centers around New York City.
Raised in the El Barrio section of New York City, her
love for the arts was inspired by the murals in her
diverse neighborhood, and her father performed as a
musician in several traditional salsa bands. As a
young child, she watched her mother and grandmother
knit, crochet, and sew unique traditional quilts and
patterns. These experiences inspired her to develop
her own techniques and produce her own mixed media
works that incorporate her own life experiences,
visuals from her immediate surroundings, and the
inspiration that comes from living in a diverse
melting pot of cultures.
OBS footnote: the above article was originally posted
on June 25, 2020.
Cirque du Soleil Bankruptcy Also Involves the
Beatles, Michael Jackson, Blue Man Group, and Quebec– Not
Just Flying Acrobats -
by Roger Friedman for Showbiz 411
When anyone says Cirque du Soleil you think of flying
acrobats, nameless, faceless bodies from shows with
strange names.
But the recent bankruptcy filing from
Cirque du Soleil also affects the Beatles, Michael Jackson,
Blue Man Group. and the french province of Quebec. They are
all screwed.
Cirque du Soleil has at least $1 billion in debt, and
that’s from long before the coronavirus. Bad management
made them vulnerable to COVID-19, certainly. The ceasing
of all live performances everywhere did them in.
But it’s not just those awesome shows we’ve seen with the
lights, tumbling, water, and so on. When Cirque laid off
almost 4,000 people last week, they were certainly at the
top of the list.
But Cirque du Soleil puts on the amazing Beatles show,
“Love,” at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas; the Michael
Jackson show called “One” at Mandalay Bay in Vegas, and
Blue Man Group everywhere including its home, New York, on
Lafayette Street. They have all been closed since March
15th and may never return.
Also on hook are the good people of Quebec, the French
province of Canada. Their publicly invested funds bailed
out Cirque du Soleil because that’s where it came from.
Creator Guy Laliberté started Cirque there. But those
funds are gone, maybe $400 million.
In February, perhaps sensing the end was near, Laliberte
sold his 10-percent minority interest to the Canadian
investment company Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
(CDPQ). They are now left holding the bag with TPG, the
San Francisco-based investment firm that bought 60-percent
stake in 2015. The ownership group also includes China’s
Fosun Capital Group, headquartered in Shanghai. Laliberte
earned a possible $1.5 billion in the TPG deal, and is
said to be worth $2 billion.
But Cirque du Soleil is left high and dry. And so are the
“Love” and “One” shows. They have no performances set
until August 1st, when their reservations start working
again for ticket sales. But if everyone’s been laid off,
who’s going to be Eleanor Rigby or dance to “Billie Jean”?
A Jackson insider told me: “Right now they can’t reopen
the shows because of the virus. Once they are able to
reopen the shows they will. They’re waiting for input from
bankruptcy counsel to make sure they will get paid when
the show reopens. TPG — as private equity companies will
do — hampered the company up by putting $1.2 billion of
debt on the company and taking the money out.”
I’ve never seen “One,” but I feel like I have a PhD in
“Love.” When it opened on June 30, 2006 I went out to the
Mirage and was given an extensive education by George
Martin, et al into the whole background. Paul, Ringo,
Yoko, and Olivia Harrison were all there. And everyone
returned for the 1 year anniversary. It’s been a money
maker for the Beatles and very good for their brand. (I
went back a third time, years later, with Lou Ferrigno and
his wife, and we had a ball.)
So we’ll keep an eye on this. If you know anything, or you
were part of these shows, drop me a line at
showbiz411@gmail.com.
Ringo Starr On Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ Documentary:
“There’s A Lot More Joy”
“We’re having fun, we’re playing, you know,” said
Ringo of his reaction when he saw some of the footage.
Ringo Starr has been
sharing his thoughts and early impressions of
the much-anticipated The Beatles: Get Back
documentary. The film, directed by Peter
Jackson, had been due for release this summer
by Apple Corps Ltd and WingNut Films,
distributed by Disney. Due to the coronavirus
pandemic,
it’s now scheduled for 21 August 2021.
Starr was speaking at a virtual press
conference earlier this week to publicise
plans for his
80th birthday celebrations on 7 July. He
revealed that he had seen some portions of
Jackson’s new interpretation of the many hours
of footage filmed around the making of The
Beatles’
Let It Be album. Notably, he added, of the
group’s famous rooftop performance that will
be central to the upcoming documentary.
“I was disappointed [when the film’s release was delayed]
because, I mean, I’d only seen the on-the-roof stuff that
Peter edited together,” said Ringo. He observed that the
new treatment vastly expands on Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s
1970 film Let It Be and casts the album sessions in a new
and much more positive light.
“It was, I’m guessing ten minutes
long,” said Ringo of the rooftop edit in the earlier film.
“It’s now 36 minutes long and it is incredible…you know, he
was still putting the rest of the documentary together his
way.
“You know how it started,” Ringo
continued. “We found 56 hours of unused footage. So we have
plenty to play with. And I always believed that the one that
came out was a bit dull and it stuck to one second of what
happened between the boys.
“When he comes into L.A.,” explained
Ringo of his meetings with Jackson. “I’ll bring up his iPad
Theater [app, to view the footage] and he’ll show me ‘Look,
we’re all laughing or telling jokes. We’re having fun, we’re
playing, you know, we’re always playing and there’s a lot more
joy.” Starr concluded by explaining that Jackson has not been
able to return to the studio since February.
Rush's Geddy Lee Recalls What He Thought of Led
Zeppelin 1st Time He Heard Them, Shares Honest Opinion on
Paul McCartney's Bass Playing - by
Ultimate-Guitar.com staff
During a conversation with
Rolling Stone, Rush bassist Geddy Lee looked back on
the first time he saw Led Zeppelin when they were
promoting their debut, self-titled album, "Led Zeppelin I"
was released in early 1969. Geddy commented:
"Zeppelin were a huge influence on my band. And our
original drummer, John Rutsey [who was in the band between
1968 and 1974] - he happened to be at the very first gig
in Toronto, at a place called the Rock Pile.
"He came home raving about that band, and so the day that
first album dropped, we were lined up the store to get it.
And I remember running home to my house and putting it on.
"And the three of us just sat around my record in the
room, listening to the first Zeppelin record, and just
blown away by the tone of the band, first of all. They
were really, for us, the first heavy band.
"And we could hear all those blues riffs and all the sound
that they had, and how they sort of had grown out of the
blues-rock movement of England, and yet they brought,
through Jimmy Page's guitar, all these more ethereal
moments.
"But the thing that held the whole thing down was John
Paul Jones' bass playing. If you listen to 'How Many More
Times,' I mean, no matter how wild that song gets at
times, there's John Paul Jones just holding it all down in
such a fluid way.
"And he's one of those guys that did not have a twangy
sound, but nonetheless, his bass was always loud and
proud, and such an integral part and such interesting
melodies.
"As they progressed as a band, his musical impact was
clear, that it was such a huge musical impact in the final
result of what Led Zeppelin sounded like.
"I mean, if you listen to what's going on - a song like
'What Is and What Should Never Be,' where would that song
be without the bass part? It is unbelievable. It's such a
well-written and fluid and dextrous bass part, that it
just finishes it off.
"Not only do I have so much respect for him as a player,
but he's such a lovely man. Such a generous guy. [When we
met for an interview for my book,] he was so generous with
his time.
"We had such a great time visiting together and hanging
out for an afternoon, talking about his past and basses.
Really considerate dude. Really, I just can't say enough
good things about him."
Geddy also talked about The Beatles and Paul McCartney,
saying:
"[McCartney] gets overlooked as a bassist, but as a pop
bassist goes, he's such a melodic player. And you're
talking about a guy who wasn't originally the bass player
for the band... He adapted, of course, and he picked it
up.
"I just find his story really interesting, as a bass
player. So he comes at the instrument from a much more
melodic place, and you really hear that in a lot of Beatle
music.
"And if you listen to 'Taxman,' or if you listen to 'Come
Together,' and a range of music in between, that bass part
is always so round. It's always so bouncy and melodic, and
I think that's really no small part of the infectious
nature of Beatles songs. It really added a great element
to those songs.
"I think he was sort of subconsciously working his way
into my psyche as a bass player. Although the style of
music that I played wasn't The Beatles style of music, I
did have great respect for them.
"We used to play a version of a song called 'Bad Boy' that
was fashioned sort of after a song that the Beatles did.
The Beatles did a cover of that as well. So we all
listened to the Beatles...
"I was always respectful of what Paul McCartney brought to
the Beatles, not only as a singer - but as a bass player."
July 3, 2020
Ringo to celebrate 80th birthday with Starr
studded charity broadcast, "Ringo's Big Birthday Show"
Ringo also continues his peace and love initiative and
invites everyone everywhere to think, say or post
#peaceandlove
at noon on July 7th and fans are organizing online
celebrations around the world.
June 30, 2020
‘RS Interview: Special Edition’ With Ringo
Starr
Starr celebrates his 80th birthday with an
in-depth video interview, along with a July 7th virtual
charity show
by Brian Hiatt for Rollling Stone Magazine
Ringo Starr’s 80th birthday is coming up on July 7th, and
we’re celebrating with an in-depth conversation on the
latest episode of the
Rolling Stone Interview: Special Edition video
series. “Man, I’m only 24 in here,” Starr says, pointing
to his head. “And I’m still doing what I love to do. I’m
still in the music business.”
In the interview, Starr talks about his longevity (one
secret: “broccoli with everything and blueberries in the
morning”); life in isolation (“I haven’t left the house in
11 weeks now”); hanging out with Keith Moon and John
Bonham (“that’s two handfuls”); the early years of his
solo career; Peter Jackson’s upcoming Let It Be-era
Beatles documentary; missing George Harrison and John
Lennon; and playing “Helter Skelter” on stage with Paul
McCartney last year for the first time since he recorded
it.
George Harrison wrote some of The Beatles finest
songs and undoubtedly came into his own as their career
advanced, forcing himself in between the principle
songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
As Abbey Road acted as his coming-of-age
party, Harrison stole the show with a glorious pair of
songs that he brought to the table which was, of course,
the majestic ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
Writing Beatles songs didn’t come easy for George,
a conflict which meant that his output was few and far
between. While the personal power struggles continued to
manifest, Harrison was being restricted and was not being
anywhere near as prolific as Lennon or McCartney—but when
he did write something, it was usually utterly
magnificent.
Considering that only 22 songs written by Harrison
would find their way onto records by The Fab Four, it’s
not all that controversial to state that his success rate
was arguably higher than Lennon or McCartney—even if he
doesn’t get the deserved credit.
Harrison was never one who to chase stardom, nor did
he want to make himself the centre of attention. The
musician dubbed the ‘Quiet Beatle’ tended to go about his
business in a nonchalant manner, a factor which meant that
if he didn’t think a song was good enough then he was
never going to force his bandmates to record
it.
By 1969, Harrison had confirmed himself as a gifted
songwriter and candidly revealed about why he sometimes
struggled writing for The Beatles:
“The most difficult thing for me is following Paul’s and
John’s songs. Their earlier songs weren’t as good as they
are now, and they obviously got better and better, and
that’s what I have to do. I’ve got about 40 tunes which I
haven’t recorded, and some of them I think are quite good.
I wrote one called ‘The Art Of Dying’ three years ago, and
at that time I thought it was too far out, but I’m still
going to record it. I used to have a hang-up about telling
John and Paul and Ringo I had a song for the albums,
because I felt at that time as if I was trying to compete.
I don’t want the Beatles to be recording rubbish for my
sake just because I wrote it — and on the other hand, I
don’t want to record rubbish just because they wrote it.
The group comes first.”
It’s safe to say that Harrison’s high
standards meant that when he did have an idea that he
deemed worth sharing, his bandmates tended to agree and
his unselfishness attitude played a pivotal role in The
Beatles lasting as long at the top as they did.
Editorial: The above article has been edited by the Ottawa
Beatles Site for brevity sake.
June 23, 2020
Paul McCartney plays trumpet on "When The Saints
Go Marching In" with Elvis Costello and Dave Grohl
Paul McCartney
returned to his roots when he appeared on a fundraising
broadcast and played trumpet on “When the Saints Go
Marching In.”
He was joined
by Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews, Jim James,
Irma Thomas and Nathaniel Rateliff during the benefit
performance for the New Orleans Preservation Hall
Foundation, with funds directed to helping musicians
during the coronavirus pandemic.
You can watch
McCartney’s rusty performance, as well as the full show,
below.
As The Daily
Beatle points out, “When the Saints Go Marching In” was
the first single the Beatles ever appeared on; they were
credited as the Beat Brothers along with headlining
singer Tony Sheridan in 1961. The song was re-released
three years later, along with A-side “My Bonnie,” by
which time it was credited to the Beatles with Sheridan.
McCartney began learning to play the trumpet
after he was given one for his 14th birthday, but he
soon gave up on it. In the book The Words and Music of
Paul McCartney: The Solo Years, Perez Benitez notes,
“Although he could eventually play a C-major scale, ‘The
Saints Go Marching In’ and a few other things on the
trumpet, McCartney quickly realized that it was going to
be difficult for him to both sing and play a trumpet at
the same time. Accordingly, with his father’s
permission, he traded in the first instrument he ever
owned for that Zenith acoustic guitar.”
“The members of
our Musical Collective serve in vital community roles:
as mentors, teaching artists and tradition bearers,” the
Preservation Hall Foundation said in a statement.
“Providing for their well-being during this crisis will
ensure a solid future for the generations of New Orleans
musicians still to come. Spotify is matching all
donations to help us provide support and resources to
the members of our collective. Through its COVID-19
Music Relief initiative, Spotify has pledged to match up
to $10 million in donations to its nonprofit partners
around the world.”
Some early photographs of John Lennon taken on
November 6, 1963 at the Northampton ABC Cinema in the U.K.
June 22, 2020
Inside John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s $47.5 Million
Former Palm Beach Estate - It's guaranteed to give any
buyer Instant Karma
When John Lennon spent a few days in
Palm Beach, Fla. back in 1974, he told a local newspaper
reporter: “I really like it here. I really don’t want to leave
Palm Beach. I’d like to own a piece of it.”
Strange as it may sound, that’s
exactly what the former Beatle did. In January 1980, he and
wife Yoko Ono paid $725,000 for the landmark oceanfront
compound known as El Solano on Palm Beach’s billionaire row,
South Ocean Boulevard.
The plan had been for the couple to use the massive
Spanish-style mansion, designed by famed 1920s architect
Addison Mizner, as a retreat from grueling New York
winters. They had big plans to renovate the iconic
property.
Tragically, just 11 months later, Lennon was murdered
outside his apartment at the Dakota building in
Manhattan’s Upper West Side. While Ono went on to complete
the restoration, she sold the mansion in 1986 for $3.15
million.
Now, for the first time since 2016, El Solano is back on
the market with a $47.5 million asking price.
It’s currently owned by John and Cindy Sites, who bought
the seven-bedroom, 14,000-square-foot estate four years ago
for just over $23 million. John Sites, 68, is a former EVP at
failed investment giant Bear Stearns and currently a partner
at Wexford Capital. His wife founded the Go Figure barre
fitness chain.
Set on a lush 1.3-acre lot with 180
feet of prime Atlantic oceanfront, the estate has no shortage
of high-profile neighbors. Next door, author James Patterson
owns a 20,000-square-foot compound, crooner Rod Stewart has a
17,000-square-foot spread close by and less than a mile away
is President Trump’s 62,500-square-foot Mar-a-Lago club.
Built in 1925, the estate was
originally owned by Mizner himself, whose Mediterranean-style
designs defined the “look” of Palm Beach. The architect
quickly sold El Solano—named for Solano County, in California
where he grew up—to yacht-racer Harold S. Vanderbilt who lived
there a number of years.
Gates open on to the no-parking-allowed South Ocean
Boulevard from the property’s narrow driveway and the main
home’s side entrance. Set on three levels, the home has
seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a huge 40-foot-by-25-foot
grand salon, a library and spectacular oceanfront dining
room.
On the expansive grounds, hidden behind towering hedgerows
are two swimming pools—one for sunrise, the main one for
sunsets—a tennis court, beachfront cabana, a two-story
pool house with guest suite, and a three-car garage, where
Lennon parked his much-loved red Cadillac.
“El Solano is a true oceanfront palace with all the
grandeur you would expect of the 1920s,” says Christian
Angle, of Christian Angle Real Estate who holds the
listing.
That grandeur includes many of the home’s original ornate
architectural details, like the exquisite hand-stenciled
wooden ceilings, the elaborate crystal and wrought-iron
chandeliers, its grand stone and wrought iron staircase,
and carved stone fireplaces.
The huge, oceanfront master wing
covers most of the upper level and features a
30-foot-by-18-foot bedroom and an adjoining study that leads
to a sitting room. Here there are separate bathrooms, an
office and huge walk-in closet, with everything decorated in
soft pastels.
With an uninterrupted view of the
ocean from the master suite, it’s easy to imagine Lennon
opening up the curtains every morning and singing to himself a
few verses of that Beatles classic “Here Comes the Sun.”
Photo credit: Andy Frame
Photo credit: Andy Frame
Photo credit: Andy Frame
June 19, 2020
Penny Lane: Museum finds 'no evidence' of slavery
link
There is "no historical evidence" to link Penny
Lane to Liverpool slave merchant James Penny, the city's
slavery museum has said.
The International Slavery Museum (ISM) included the
street in a display when it opened in 2007, as the link
to Penny "was in the wider public domain".
The truth of the link has been debated ever since and
recently, belief in it led to street signs being
defaced.
The ISM said "comprehensive research" had now shown
there was no connection.
Janet Dugdale, National Museums Liverpool's executive
director of museums and participation, said that after
reviewing the display with historians and local
schoolchildren, "we anticipate that our first action
will be to replace the Penny Lane street sign with
another".
Much of Liverpool's 18th Century wealth came from the
slave trade and, by the 1740s, the city was Europe's
most-used slave port.
Many of the city's streets have
names linked to slavery, including Sir Thomas
Street, named after the co-owner of one of the first
slave ships to sail from Liverpool, and The Goree, which
shares its name with an island off Senegal that was used
as a base to trade for slaves.
Liverpool's Penny Lane, made famous by The Beatles, is "in
danger of being renamed" if links to slavery are found,
the city's regional mayor has said.
Steve Rotherham, the mayor of the Liverpool city region,
says he "doesn't believe" the road is named after 18th
century slave merchant James Penny.
Walls and road signs on Penny Lane were defaced last week
after claims of the name's origin circulated on social
media.
However, there is currently no
evidence to support the suggestion that the road was named
after James.
Steve said: "If it is as a direct
consequence of that road being called Penny Lane because of
James Penny, then that needs to be investigated.
"Something needs to happen and I
would say that sign and that road may well be in danger of
being renamed.
"But, of course, there is no evidence
that is the fact. Just imagine not having a Penny Lane and the
Beatles' song not being about somewhere.
He added to Sky News: "I don't
believe it is associated with James Penny," noting he himself
is a "massive Beatles fan who has done a bit of reading on
this", suggesting that Penny Lane was instead associated with
a toll that was once paid in that area - in pennies - to cross
the road.
The song 'Penny Lane'
was released by The Beatles in February 1967 and the road
draws thousands of tourists to the area each year.
Steve continued: "It needs to be investigated and then, if
it's found as a direct link then action can be taken.
"Of course, the song wasn't written about James Penny, it
was written about an area that The Beatles, when they were
off elsewhere, were reminiscing about.
"It's a lovely song and hopefully we'll come to an
amicable solution on this one."
Liverpool's International Slavery Museum has said evidence
linking Penny Lane to James Penny is "not conclusive".
A spokesperson said the museum is "actively carrying out
research on this particular question".
This is a great folk-rock song from George Harrison
released as a single in
1973. George, in his book "I Me Mine" wrote the following
about his number 1 hit song: "GIVE ME LOVE. Sometimes you
open your mouth and you don't know what you are going to
say, and whatever comes out is the starting point. If that
happens you are lucky ─ it can usually be turned into a
song. This song is prayer and personal statement between
me, the Lord, and whoever likes it."
June 13, 2020
Beatles Surprise Disappointment as Peter Jackson's
"Let It Be" Documentary Delayed by a Year
Disney has announced that Peter Jackson’s “Let it Be”
documentary about the Beatles has been delayed by a year.
It was supposed to be released on September 4th. Now it’s
set for August 2021. If it ever comes out.
What is now also up in the air is a 50th anniversary
edition of the “Let it Be” album or any kind of re-release
of the original “Let it Be” film. Internet detectives can
find the film floating around on the web, but officially
it’s out of print.
The Jackson doc was supposed to take Michael
Lindsay-Hogg’s original footage and rearrange it to make
the Beatles look happier and less at each other’s throats
during the making of their penultimate album. As it turned
out, after making the album and the film they went on to
make their masterpiece, “Abbey Road.” “Let it Be” was
issued after “Abbey Road” as the Beatles broke up.
The “Let it Be” film does show the group in a tense
moment. Paul McCartney is calling the shots. John Lennon
is using Yoko Ono as an ally and shield. George Harrison
is trying to be zen, although his facade cracks at one
point and he gets a bit put out with Paul. Ringo is just
doing his thing, although a highlight moment is the
drummer playing a newly written “Octopus’s Garden” for
George on the piano.
The Beatles legacy is so Rushmore-ish now that I’m sure
there’s internal squabbling among the principals about the
tone of the documentary. Frankly, they should just
re-release the old movie and be done with it. The reality
is that they made “Abbey Road,” broke up, fought in
public, made amends, and were friends before Lennon, and
then Harrison, died. Everyone loves them, and no opinions
will be changed by fans now seeing “Let it Be” in its
original form.
The Beatles: UNEARTHED first Abbey Road
performance demo sparks £5 million court battle
Back in June 1962, The Beatles
performed at Abbey Road Studios for the first time. A demo of
their performance was recorded by EMI, but the label told
their employee – sound engineer Geoff Emerick – to destroy it
since it was of poor quality. The footage includes the song
Love Me Do and was shot before Ringo Starr joined The Beatles
as drummer.
However, Emerick secretly kept a hold
of the demo in its original box in his safe at home in Los
Angeles.
The sound engineer died aged 72 in 2018 and the piece of
Beatles history was unearthed by his estate.
Now a court battle worth millions is
set to take place in California on Tuesday between Universal
Music Group – who acquired EMI in 2012 – and Emerick’s estate.
The insider continued: “It’s been
estimated at £5million but could be worth much more.
“Despite wanting it destroyed,
Universal all these years later want it back. They know how
huge this find is.”
In the dispute, Emerick’s family
believe they are entitled to keep the demo due to finder’s
law.
However, Universal argues that law
doesn’t apply in this instance since Emerick was told to
destroy the recording.
June 12, 2020
The highly acclaimed "Flaming Pie" album from Paul
McCartney set for special Archive Collection release
On 31st July, Paul’s critically acclaimed and universally
beloved tenth solo album Flaming Pie will be the latest to
receive the Archive Collection treatment, being released
on formats including a 5CD/2DVD/4LP Collector’s Edition, a
5CD/2DVD Deluxe Edition, plus 3LP, 2LP and 2CD editions.
All digital pre-orders for the Archive Collection release
of Flaming Pie will include ‘Young Boy’ EP. Also available
as a stand alone purchase, the EP recreates the 1997
‘Young Boy’ maxi single and features the remastered
Flaming Pie single ‘Young Boy,’ a home recorded version of
the song, the original B-side ‘Looking For You,’ and
excerpts of ‘Oobu Joobu Part 1’ also from the original
single. The two music videos for the track have been
restored and will also be published on the same day.
Two additional EPs will be available for pre-order with
'The World Tonight' arriving on June 26 and 'Beautiful
Night' on July 17.
Originally released May 5, 1997, Flaming Pie ended a
four-year gap between McCartney studio albums. Recorded
largely in the wake of Paul’s involvement in the curation
and release of The Beatles Anthology series, Flaming Pie
was shaped and inspired by that experience, with Paul
remarking at the time “(The Beatles Anthology) reminded me
of The Beatles' standards and the standards that we
reached with the songs. So in a way it was a refresher
course that set the framework for this album.” Produced by
Paul, Jeff Lynne and George Martin and featuring a
supporting cast of family and friends including Ringo
Starr, Steve Miller, Linda McCartney and son James,
Flaming Pie is equal parts a masterclass in songcraft and
a sustained burst of joyful spontaneity. With highlights
ranging from the uplifting and inspirational opener 'The
Song We Were Singing' to the raucous title track (named
for a quote from an early John Lennon interview on the
origin of The Beatles’ name: "It came in a vision – a man
appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'from this
day on you are Beatles with an A.’”) to the pensive
'Calico Skies,' and featuring singles 'Young Boy,' 'The
World Tonight' and 'Beautiful Night,' Flaming Pie would
represent yet another pinnacle in Paul’s solo catalogue:
Released to rapturous reviews, the album would be Paul’s
most commercially successful release of the ‘90s,
achieving his highest chart positions since the ‘80s and
would receive gold certifications in the US, UK, Japan and
more.
As the thirteenth release in the Paul McCartney Archive
Collection, Flaming Pie will be available in formats
including a numbered, limited seven-disc (5CD/2DVD) Deluxe
Edition Box Set comprised of the original album remastered
at Abbey Road Studios, 32 bonus audio tracks including
unheard home recordings and demos, alternative studio
recordings, rough mixes and B-sides including selections
from Oobu Joobu parts 1-6, Flaming Pie At The Mill CD
(Paul’s hour-long tour of his studio), video content
including the In The World Tonight documentary, original
music videos, EPKs, interviews, performances and
behind-the-scenes material, a 128-page book containing
previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney, expanded
album artwork from the archives and the story behind the
album written by Chris Heath – including track-by-track
information, recipes and new interviews with Paul, Ringo
Starr, Jeff Lynne, Steve Miller and key album personnel,
studio notes, handwritten lyrics, the 1997 Flaming Pie
issue of Club Sandwich, the official newspaper of the Paul
McCartney Fanclub, downloadable 24bit 96kHz HD audio, and
more.
A 4LP/5CD/2DVD Collector’s Edition — strictly limited to
3,000 numbered copies issued in a cloth wrapped two-piece
collector’s box — will feature everything in the Deluxe
Edition plus a marbled art print portfolio of six
silkscreened Linda McCartney art prints, exclusive vinyl
versions of the remastered album cut at half speed across
2LPs in an exclusive gatefold sleeve, an LP of
home recordings in a hand-stamped white label sleeve, and
“The Ballad of the Skeletons” – Paul’s 1996 collaboration
with Allen Ginsberg, also featuring Philip Glass and Lenny
Kaye – released for the first time on vinyl and cut at 45
RPM with vinyl etching and poster.
Additional Flaming Pie Archive Collection formats will
include 2CD (remastered album + 21 tracks of bonus audio),
2LP (remastered album cut at half speed across two 180g
LPs in gatefold sleeve with booklet), and 3LP (remastered
album cut at half speed across two 180g LPs in gatefold
sleeve with booklet, plus single 180g LP of unreleased
home recordings in hand-stamped white label sleeve both
housed in a slipcase). The release will also be available
on streaming platforms.
Retro Flashback! The Canadian Brass does an
extraordinary cover version of "Penny Lane"
Max Tetsoshvili does an excellent Ukulele cover of
Paul McCartney's "Ram On"
May 27, 2020
Retro Flashback! The Beatles release "Please
Please Me" single and makes its debut at #16 in "Pop
Weekly"
by John Whelan
Ottawa Beatles Site owner Tony Copple once told me how he
got hooked on the Beatles. He was at a dance and he heard
"Please Please Me" for the very first time. They played
"Please Please Me" over and over and over again. He was
hooked on the band and their unique rock and roll sound.
So, Tony, how did the song do when it was released in your
country? If you
look at the "Pop Weekly" chart entry, you will discover
that the new Beatles single made an impressive entry at
#16 in the pop charts on February 9, 1963. "Please Please
Me" would eventually go to #1 spot on "Britain's Top
Thirty" category in the "Pop Weekly" edition dated March
2, 1963.
Of particular interest in the write-up below under
"Classified Advertisements" is the address for the
Official
Beatles Fan Club that was runned by
Fredia Kelly, the clubs President. She was also
secretary to Brian Epstein.
The Beatles would not have been the band they were if not
for the creative touch of photographer and “funky pixie”
Astrid Kirchherr. The German artist helped shape the Fab
Four’s distinctive image in their early years and even
inspired their signature “mop top” haircuts. Now,
following her death at the age of 81, Paul McCartney had
led tributes to the “lovely lady” with a “cheeky grin”.
He said: “Very sad news this week about Astrid Kirchherr.
Astrid was a dear friend from my Hamburg days with The
Beatles.
“Astrid looked unique. She had a
short blond haircut and wore a slim black, leather outfit
which made her look like a funky pixie.
“Astrid took beautiful photographs of
us. She used black and white film and achieved a stunning mood
in her pictures that we all loved.
“I have so many fond memories of our
time together in the club or her home or a trip to the nearby
seaside resort, Lübeck.
“So sad for all of us who were her
friends to lose such a lovely lady from our lives. I will miss
her but will always remember her and her cheeky grin with
great fondness.”
She first photographed the unknown
Beatles in 1960 as a 22-year-old, shooting them in leather
jackets in her hometown of Hamburg to help form their
distinctive image at that time.
The band were a five-piece then and
Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe, the group’s original bass
guitarist, began a relationship soon after.
Her 1962 portraits of John Lennon and
George Harrison influenced the cover of the 1963 album With
the Beatles.
And it was Kirchherr who styled the
hair-do sported by her then Beatle boyfriend Sutcliffe, which
led to the rest of the band adopting it as they set out on
world domination.
In 1967 she married Liverpool drummer
Gibson Kemp, who worked in the group Paddy, Klaus and Gibson.
They divorced in 1974 and Kirchherr
had a short marriage to a German businessman. She stopped
taking photographs professionally, for a time working as an
interior designer, and later worked for Kemp in his English
restaurant in Hamburg.
Kirchherr’s photography of The Beatles was collated into a
2018 book, Astrid Kirchherr with the Beatles.
The upcoming book release by Kenneth Womack will be
available through Amazon.ca
John Lennon’s final year, one initially of hope and
renewal, yet ultimately of tragedy, is the subject of
an upcoming book, John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in
the Life. The new title, from noted Beatles historian
Kenneth Womack, arrives October 29, via Omnibus Press.
The book’s publication date falls a few weeks after
what would have been Lennon’s 80th birthday, and
roughly six weeks before the 40th anniversary of his
death.
From the book’s announcement: “Lennon’s final
pivotal year would climax in unforgettable moments of
creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self
in dramatic fashion. With the bravura release of the
Double Fantasy album with wife Yoko Ono, Lennon was
poised and ready for an even brighter future, only to
be wrenched from the world by an assassin’s bullets.
“Drawing on new interviews, the book is an
informative, engaging and often deeply moving
portrayal of the final chapter in Lennon’s remarkable
life.”
Womack did a
Q&A with Best Classic Bands, in advance of the title’s
release.
Is there a lighthearted moment you can
share about John in NYC that year? Perhaps a humorous
encounter with someone in Central Park?
There are so many wonderful moments to recount
about John’s life in New York City during the last few
years of his life. He loved walking the streets of his
neighborhood and around the park, of course, but he
also wanted to preserve his privacy and sense of
anonymity. These stories would often take on the same
parameters: a smiling Lennon enjoying a stroll in the
city, only to be spotted by a particular fan or
passerby. John would catch their eye, their glint of
recognition at having seen an actual Beatle in the
wild. In such tales, John would invariably lift his
index finger up to his lips, as if to say, “This is
our little secret.” In such moments, the storyteller
was happy to see John happily go on his way,
unmolested in his adopted hometown.
It’s known that John was recording in
secret with Jack Douglas but without a record deal.
Can you talk about the reaction from the major labels
once word got out that the album was available? (David
Geffen was making a big splash with his new label,
having just signed Donna Summer and Elton John as
well.)
There was definitely a sense of industry buzz
around Double Fantasy and the Lennons’ contract
status. As Yoko has documented, there was clearly a
sense of animosity, with some labels, around the fact
that the LP was planned to be a true collaboration, as
opposed to a John-only project. Geffen quickly
outpaced the herd by cementing his understanding that
the record would be a collaboration. Indeed, it was a
masterstroke on his part. In retrospect, of course, it
was a strange time in the record industry, which was
catering to a host of competing genres, including
disco, new wave, punk, rock (soon to be known as
classic rock), pop, and country crossover. In short
order, there was a sort of identity crisis at play
during that era, which may explain why they weren’t
receiving lucrative, multimillion dollar offers in
spite of the public curiosity about John’s bravura
return to public life.
We didn’t recall this, but we understand
John and Yoko were planning an extensive tour. Do you
have any info on that?
John had begun to come around to the notion of a
tour during the latter weeks of his life. At one point
he remarked, “Sure, I’d like to get up on stage with
Yoko and a good band and play these songs and really
do ’em, because the band’s hot as shit. They’ve just
come off the album and they were all good – we’ve got
the good feeling among ourselves. So it would be
great. I’m just a little nervous about all that goes
on around it. But I think we can probably handle it a
bit better this time.” The tour was to be called “One
World, One People,” and was slated to include an
elaborate stage show, along with performances of early
Beatles tunes like “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
Where were you when you heard that Lennon
had been shot and what impact did that have on you?
Like so many folks, I have vivid memories of that
time. I was 14 years old when it happened. I remember
my father coming upstairs, presumably to tell me the
news after having heard it on Monday Night
Football. I had gone to bed early that night. My
father pushed the door open, but I feigned sleep, as
teenagers become well-practiced at doing, because I
must not have wanted to be bothered at the time. The
next morning, I woke up to see the Houston Post
and the awful news splayed out across the front page.
In 2019, Womack published the best-selling Solid
State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the
Beatles to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the
Beatles’ album. He is the author or editor of more
than 35 books including a two-part series on the life
and work of Beatles producer George Martin.
May 19, 2020
Understanding "Hey Bulldog"
May 15, 2020
Astrid Kirchherr, photographer of the Beatles, dead
at 81
NEW YORK (AP) — Astrid Kirchherr, the German photographer
who shot some of the earliest and most striking images of the
Beatles and helped shape their trend-setting visual style, has
died at age 81.
She died Tuesday in her native Hamburg, days before her
82nd birthday, her friend Kai-Uwe Franz told The Associated
Press. Her death was first announced by Beatles historian Mark
Lewisohn, who tweeted Friday that Kirchherr made an
“immeasurable” contribution to the group and was “intelligent,
inspirational, innovative, daring, artistic, awake, aware,
beautiful, smart, loving and uplifting.” According to the
German publication Die Zeit, she died of a “short, serious
illness.”
“God bless Astrid a beautiful human being,” Ringo Starr
tweeted. George Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, tweeted
that Kirchherr was “so thoughtful and kind and talented, with
an eye to capture the soul.”
Kirchherr was a photographer's assistant in Hamburg and
part of the local art scene in 1960 when her
then-boyfriend Klaus Voormann dropped in at a seedy club,
the Kaiserkeller, and found himself mesmerized by a young
British rock group: The five raw musicians from Liverpool
had recently named themselves the Beatles. As she later
recalled, Voormann then spent the next few days convincing
Kirchherr to join him, a decision which profoundly changed
her.
“It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked
absolutely astonishing," Kirchherr later told Beatles
biographer Bob Spitz. "My whole life changed in a couple of
minutes. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them.”
Kirchherr had dreamed of photographing “charismatic” men
and found her ideal subjects in the Beatles, especially
their bassist at the time, Stuart Sutcliffe, a gifted
painter. They quickly fell in love, even though she spoke
little English and he knew little German.
“Stuart was a very special person and he was miles ahead
of everybody,” she told NPR in 2010. “You know as far as
intelligent and artistic feelings are concerned, he was
miles ahead. So I learned a lot from him and because in
the ’60s we had a very strange attitude towards being
young, towards sex, towards everything.”
The Beatles in the early 1960s were nothing like the
smiling superstars the world would soon know, and they
seemed to have little in common with Kirchherr and her
friends, young existentialists dubbed “Exies” by John
Lennon. The rock group favored black leather and greased
back hair and gave wild, marathon performances. The James
Dean lookalike Pete Best was the Beatles’ drummer, and
Paul McCartney was playing guitar, along with Lennon and
George Harrison. (Best was replaced in 1962 by Ringo
Starr, and McCartney moved over to bass when Sutcliffe
left and became engaged to Kirchherr).
Kirchherr was liked and trusted by all of them, and her
photographs captured a group still more interested in
looking cool and “tough” than in being lovable. She took
indelible black and white portraits, including John, Paul
and George in leather and cowboy boots on a rooftop; all
five with their instruments on an abandoned truck; and a
moody closeup of John in an open fairground with Sutcliffe
looming like a ghost in back. Self-portraits captured
Kirchherr's own distinctive looks — her high cheekbones
and closely cut blonde hair.
“Absolutely stunned to hear the news of Astrid passing,”
Best tweeted Friday. “God bless you love. We shared some
wonderful memories and the most amazing fun times.”
Kirchherr had an indirect influence on the Beatles'
transformation. The collarless jackets the Beatles favored
in the early days of Beatlemania were inspired by
Kirchherr's wardrobe; Sutcliffe, who was around the same
height as she, had begun wearing her collarless tops.
Meanwhile, Voormann had been so self-conscious about his
large ears that he grew his hair longer to cover them.
Kirchherr loved his new style, what became the Beatles
“mop top” — hair brushed forward, without gel, a look
favored by other young German artists — and Sutcliffe soon
wore his hair that way. The others, after some resistance,
followed along.
Her love affair with Sutcliffe was tragically brief.
Sutcliffe collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage in
April 1962, at age 21. Kirchherr later married twice,
including to the British drummer Gibson Kemp. Both
marriages ended in divorce, and she would long say that
she never got over Sutcliffe's death.
“He was, and still is, the love of my life," she told NPR
in 2010. "I never, ever — and I was married a couple of
times — met another man who was so fascinating, so
beautiful, and so soft and well-mannered. You name it and
that he was, and such a gifted artist.”
Over the decades following Sutcliffe's death, Kirchherr
worked as a freelance photographer and an interior
designer among other jobs, and in recent years helped run
a photography shop in Hamburg. She and Voormann remained
close to the other Beatles. Voormann designed the cover of
their “Revolver” album and played bass on many of their
solo projects. Kirchherr's Beatles photographs have been
exhibited around the world, including at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in Cleveland. In the 1994 movie “Backbeat,”
for which she served as a consultant, Kirchherr was played
by Sheryl Lee and Sutcliffe by Stephen Dorff.
“Stephen is so much like Stuart it’s spooky,” she told The
Washington Post in 1994. “Stephen has the same intensity when
he talks to people. And he’s a very, very intelligent, very
charming, very sexy boy. All the things I remembered Stuart
had, Stephen has as well.”
May 9, 10, 12, 2020
Little Richard, Flamboyant Wild Man of Rock ’n’
Roll, Dies at 87
Richard Penniman, better known as Little Richard, who
combined the sacred shouts of the black church and the profane
sounds of the blues to create some of the world’s first and
most influential rock ’n’ roll records, died on Saturday in
Tullahoma, Tenn. He was 87.
His lawyer, Bill Sobel, said the cause was bone cancer.
Little Richard did not invent rock ’n’ roll. Other
musicians had already been mining a similar vein by the time
he recorded his first hit, “Tutti Frutti” — a raucous song
about sex, its lyrics cleaned up but its meaning hard to miss
— in a New Orleans recording studio in September 1955. Chuck
Berry and Fats Domino had reached the pop Top 10, Bo Diddley
had topped the rhythm-and-blues charts, and Elvis Presley had
been making records for a year.
But Little Richard, delving deeply into the wellsprings of
gospel music and the blues, pounding the piano furiously and
screaming as if for his very life, raised the energy level
several notches and created something not quite like any music
that had been heard before — something new, thrilling and more
than a little dangerous. As the rock historian Richie
Unterberger put it, “He was crucial in upping the voltage from
high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of
rock ’n’ roll.”
Art Rupe of Specialty Records, the label for which he
recorded his biggest hits, called Little Richard “dynamic,
completely uninhibited, unpredictable, wild.”
“Tutti Frutti” rocketed up the charts and was quickly
followed by “Long Tall Sally” and other records now
acknowledged as classics. His live performances were
electrifying.
“He’d just burst onto the stage from anywhere, and you
wouldn’t be able to hear anything but the roar of the
audience,” the record producer and arranger H.B. Barnum, who
played saxophone with Little Richard early in his career,
recalled in
“The Life and Times of Little Richard” (1984), an
authorized biography by Charles White. “He’d be on the stage,
he’d be off the stage, he’d be jumping and yelling, screaming,
whipping the audience on.”
Official reaction from Paul and Ringo on their
Facebook pages:
'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. He would let us hang out in his
dressing room and we were witness to his pre-show rituals,
with his head under a towel over a bowl of steaming hot water
he would suddenly lift his head up to the mirror and say, "I
can’t help it cos I’m so beautiful". And he was.
'A great man with a lovely sense of humour and someone
who will be missed by the rock and roll community and many
more. I thank him for all he taught me and the kindness he
showed by letting me be his friend. Goodbye Richard and
a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop.'
- Paul McCartney
'God
bless little Richard one of my all-time musical heroes.
Peace and love to all his family.'
- Ringo Starr
Some recollections from John Lennon and Little
Richard:
John: Little Richard was one of the all-time greats.
The first time I heard him a friend of mine had been to
Holland and brought back a 78 with ‘Long Tall Sally’ on
one side, and ‘Slippin’ And Slidin’’ on the other. It blew
our heads – we’d never heard anybody sing like that in our
lives, and all those saxes playing like crazy. The most
exciting thing about early Little Richard was when he
screamed just before the solo. It used to make your hair
stand on end when he did that
long, long scream into the
solo.
We used to stand backstage at Hamburg’s Star Club
and watch Little Richard play. He used to read from
the Bible backstage and just to hear him talk, we’d
sit round and listen. It was Brian Epstein that
brought him to Hamburg. I still love him and he’s one
of the greatest.
Little Richard: They'd come to my dressing room and
eat there every night. They hadn't any money so I paid
for their food. I used to buy steaks for John. Paul
would come in, sit down and just look at me. He
wouldn't move his eyes. And he'd say 'Oh Richard!
You're my idol. Just let me touch you.' He wanted to
learn my little holler, so we sat at the piano going,
'Oooh!' until he got it.
John: When we arrived in the U.S. in 1964, we had a
total of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard as
musical idols. There is not one white group on earth
that hasn't got their music in them. And that's all I
ever listened to. The only white I ever listened to
was Presley on his early music records and he was
doing black music.
People have been trying to stamp out rock’n’roll since
it started. It was mainly parents who were against
rock’n’roll. The words had a lot of double entendre in
the early days. They cleaned it up for the white
audience, a lot of it. That black stuff was very
sexual. They made Little Richard re-record ‘Tutti
Frutti’. Whatever was going on, they had to clean up a
lot of words.
May 7, 2020
Let It Be 50th Anniversary
A 50-year look back with Ken Mansfield
Elmorewriter Bob Girouard had a chat with music
executive, producer and author Ken Mansfield about the
legendary “rooftop concert,” the Beatles’ unannounced
and final performance, held a half century ago. Here’s his
report:
During the 1960s, no town swung harder than London,
England. The City of Light and The Big Apple don’t sound
exciting, but the UK’s capital earned the nickname
“Swinging London” for good reason, and became the
epicenter of everything cultural, political, artistic and
fashionable. From a musical standpoint, four mavericks
from Liverpool calling themselves The Beatles were at the
core of it all.
No pop phenomenon has ever captured the hearts and minds
of the public to such a degree, before or since. Whether
it be “Love Me Do,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” Nehru jackets,
Beatle boots, Beatle haircuts, Transcendental Meditation,
or “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely-Hearts Club Band,” every song
they sang, everything they said, and every move they made
was considered a trend, and the world surrounding them was
deliriously happy to follow. In music, they spearheaded a
pivotal movement dubbed “the British invasion.”
Toward the end of the decade, at the height of their
popularity, the band grew restless and endeavored to
pursue individual interests. Enter Apple Corps. An
umbrella experiment long on free-form philosophy but short
on operating capital, it ended up a dismal failure. With
John, Paul, George and Ringo’s differences now aired
publicly, a young 27-year old American executive named Ken
Mansfield was brought over to the UK (by the parent
company, Capitol Records) from Los Angeles as Apple’s U.S.
Manager of Operations. Unfortunately, the band’s wounds
were too deep to mend, and after a final performance on
the rooftop of the Apple Building on January 30, 1969, a
decision was made to say “So long” with a project
encompassing both a recording and feature film called Let
it Be. The following is Mansfield’s recollection of the
projects between May 8th and 13th, 1970.
“If there was a catalyst to the Let It Be project it was
Paul McCartney. It seemed to me, at the time no matter
what I was involved with it was something that Paul had
instigated or communicated. In a way, some people
considered John Lennon the leader because of the way he
contributed, but Paul was the hands-on guy; like someone
who comes to the office every day and rolls his sleeves
up, ready to work. It was a really confusing time.
Beginning with the White Album, George Harrison had told
me that the band had taken on way more than they could
handle. I remember that very shortly after re-mixing the
White Album they started Let It Be, which was part of a
trilogy (first the White Album, Let It Be, then followed
by Abbey Road). The Let it Be album kept having different
versions before it became officially released. Engineer
Glen Johns’ initial mix didn’t fly, then he did another
version which led to some bootlegs coming out, followed by
Phil Spector’s (in my estimation) over-produced version.
There was so much going on it was just crazy.
“In my opinion, Yoko Ono didn’t break up the Beatles. She
may have complicated things, but at that time and after so
much success they were all going in different directions.
It was time, and was the natural evolution of what a band
does. The film was released just a few days after. When
they started filming, they were at Twickenham Studios, and
while they were recording at Abbey Road, film cameras were
running the whole time. With the advent of re-releasing
Let It Be, the movie, I feel that producer/director Peter
Jackson is the right guy to capture the band’s full scope.
Michael-Lindsay Hogg’s original was creative but also very
dark. Jackson’s approach is supposedly lighter, and given
new technology I think the public will get a fresh view of
the Fab Four and see them in a whole new light.
“In hindsight, when I was at Apple, I never saw the bad
times, the supposed fights and bickering, etc. Some thirty
years later, I was having dinner with Ringo and said to
him: “I always felt like you guys were trying impress me
because of my position.” To which he replied (tongue ‘n
cheek): “Yeah Ken, in ’68 we didn’t have anything to do…we
would just sit around and think of ways to impress you!”
—Bob Girouard
The LP was released May 8, 1970, the motion
picture on May 13, 1970
Ken Mansfield is the former U.S. Manager of Apple
Records, a ranking executive for several record labels,
the author of seven books, including The Roof (The Beatles
final concert), songwriter and a Grammy- and Dove
Award-winning album producer.
May 4, 2020
Macca and Ringo: Unheard demo by former Beatles up
for auction
By Paul Glynn for the BBC News
An unheard track by former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and
Sir Ringo Starr is to be sold at auction.
Angel In Disguise is one of only a couple of songs
co-written exclusively by the remaining members of the Fab
Four.
The pair recorded the demo for Sir Ringo's 1992 solo album
Time Takes Time, but it did not make the LP.
The cassette is now being sold by former Radio Luxembourg
DJ Tony Prince and is expected to fetch up to £20,000.
A quarter of the profits will be donated to the NHS
Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, while the rest will
go to Prince's United DJs radio station project.
Two versions of the track appear on the tape; a rough demo
with Sir Paul singing, and a more fleshed out take with
the drummer on lead vocals, with additional instruments
and backing vocals.
The sheet music, which appears to only credit McCartney as
the writer, shows the lyrics include: "My name is Ritchie
/ Let me look into your eyes / Don't be afraid I'm just an
angel in disguise".
A demo of another Sir Ringo track, called Everyone Wins,
also appears on the cassette, which will go under the
hammer at Omega Auctions' online sale on 19 May, alongside
other memorabilia.
When Paul McCartney weighed in on the
eternal debate over whether the Beatles or the Rolling
Stones are the superior band, you knew it was only a matter of
time before Mick Jagger or Keith Richards fielded the exact
same question. And now, in an interview with Zane Lowe, Jagger
weighed in on the classic rock debate.
Jagger called McCartney a "sweetheart," and declared that
"there's there’s obviously no competition" between the bands.
Still, he was
willing to share his thoughts on the differences between
the two acts.
"The big difference, though, is, and sort of slightly
seriously, is that the Rolling Stones is a big concert band in
other decades and other areas, when the Beatles never even did
an arena tour, or Madison Square Garden with a decent sound
system," said Jagger. "They broke up before that business
started, the touring business for real."
McCartney sparked the friendly and just slightly shady beef
during an interview with Howard Stern last week, during which
he gave a pretty unsurprising answer when asked whether the
Beatles or the Stones were the better band. "They are rooted
in the blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with
the blues," said McCartney. "We had a little more influences…
There’s a lot of differences and I love the Stones, but I’m
with you. The Beatles were better."
"We started to notice that whatever we did, the Stones sort
of did it shortly thereafter," he added.
But to Jagger, the Stones' legacy as an arena act is what
separates the two groups. "That business started in 1969, and
the Beatles never experienced that," he told Lowe. "That's the
real big difference between these two bands. One band is,
unbelievably luckily, still playing in stadiums, and then the
other band doesn't exist."
April 25, 2020
The Beatles streamed 'Yellow Submarine' and hosted
a sing-a-long watch party, and people loved it
Even during a global pandemic, the Beatles found a way for
people to come together.
The legendary British band streamed their animated 1968
movie "The Beatles: Yellow Submarine" on Saturday and
hosted a sing-along watch party on their official YouTube
channel.
More than 70,000 people from all over the world tuned in
for the "celebration of love and music," a one-time-only
special event that couldn't have come at a better time.
Fans from all walks of life joined in the fun, including
some health care workers.
"Watching from work! Definitely singing under this," a
nurse tweeted along with a photo of her in a face
mask.
One lucky child got the "Yellow Submarine" birthday party
of his dreams.
"He's requested a Yellow Submarine themed birthday this
weekend, so today's #YellowSubLive couldn't have come at a
better time," Jordan Beck said on Twitter.
The event was a sing-a-long in the truest sense, with fans
belting out the tunes.
"We didn't get lost with my children," a family in Chile
tweeted with a
video of them singing. "#YellowSubLive it was great."
Fans were encouraged to dress for the occasion and many
obliged.
"Dressed as Paul for the #YellowSubLive," Twitter user
Thais
tweeted, including a photo of her best Paul McCartney
attire.
"Wearing these socks and nothing else...," another person
said on Twitter, along with "Yellow Submarine" socks.
April 24, 2020
Did litigation kill the Beatles?
"As the most successful band in history, the Beatles
generated not only a record number of music hits but probably
more legal disputes than any other music group before or
since. As the first international rock band brand in a still
nascent music business – and guided by a neophyte personal
manager – the Beatles became entangled in a distracting series
of legal problems nearly from the start of their career,"
writes entertainment lawyer Stan Soocher for ABAJournal.
Click on the above collage photo to read Stan Soocher's
excellent in-depth report.
April 22, 2020
‘Stay one Beatles apart’: Tips to measure proper
social distance
"Pandaid, a website that provides information and tips on
surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, has made several illustrative
PDFs available for download on how to measure the safe
distance.
"One of them is titled, “Let’s stay one Beatles apart,”
featuring the front cover of the British band’s Abbey Road.
"The cover shows John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney
and George Harrison walking on a London zebra crossing. The
Pandaid graphic notes that the distance from Lennon to
Harrison is about 2 meters."
Paul McCartney performs "Lady Madonna" during One
World: Together At Home on April 18
"A lineup of stars participated in Saturday’s One World:
Together at Home, a live, global televised and streamed
special in support of the heroic efforts of health workers in
the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic," writes the
Best Classic Bands website. "The list was led by such
legends as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Elton John and
Stevie Wonder, as well as pop stars Taylor Swift, Lizzo and
Jennifer Lopez. Television networks in the U.S. and around the
world aired the special on Saturday, April 18 (8-10 p.m.,
ET)."
April 21, 2020
Ringo Starr Promises ‘A Big Surprise’ of Some Sort
on the Beatles’ YouTube Page This Weekend 4/25
If you find yourself on the internet this coming Saturday
morning (April 25), you might want to tune in to the official
Beatles channel
on YouTube. We’re not sure why, exactly, but Ringo Starr
said something intriguing (and about a billion colorful
emojis) in an Instagram post on Tuesday:
"Peace and love I am just giving you all a heads up
if you tune in to the Beatles YouTube channel on Saturday the
25th at 9 AM Pacific 12 noon Eastern you are in for a big
surprise and fun and peace and love."
April 16, 2020
Groovy flashback: John Lennon sings and performs
his beautiful "Hold On"
From Wikipedia:
"Hold On" is a song from the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono
Band by John Lennon. It features only vocals, tremolo guitar,
drums, and bass guitar, typical of the sparse arrangements
Lennon favoured at the time. On the 2000 reissue of John
Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, "Hold On" features a slightly longer
introduction. The original version was restored on the 2010
reissue.
Described as "the most upbeat song on [Plastic Ono Band]",
the song's theme is emotional fragility, as the lyrics state
that when you're alone in the world you just have to "hold
on." Lennon tries to assure himself that he and wife Yoko Ono
have the strength to overcome their challenges, and if he
holds on, "it's gonna be all right" and "we're gonna win the
fight." Lennon explicitly namechecks himself and Yoko Ono, but
author Andrew Jackson does not believe that this detracts from
the universality of the message. Indeed, towards the end of
the song Lennon expands the subject to encompass the whole
world, singing that peace will be achievable when everyone
will "see the light" and realize that we are all "one."
Musically, Lennon plays his guitar gently, applying
tremolo, in an effect that Jackson states matches "the
soothing reassurance of the lyrics." Recorded at EMI Studios
on 30 September 1970, Lennon took 32 takes experimenting with
different approaches before hitting on this one. However,
music critics Wilfrid Mellers and Johnny Rogan state that
other elements of the music create some tension with the
reassuring message. These elements include Ringo Starr's
"jittery" drumming, with many silences, and the fragmented
vocal melody, which break up the sentences of the lyrics. In
the middle of the song, Lennon mutters the word "cookie",
imitating the Cookie Monster from the US children's television
show Sesame Street.
Lennon has explained the song as follows:
I'm saying 'hold on John' because I don't want to die ... I
don't want to be hurt and please don't hit me ... Hold on now,
we might have a cup of tea, we might get a moment's happiness
any minute now. So that's what it's about, just moment by
moment. That's how we're living now, but really living like
that and cherishing each day, and dreading it too. It might be
your last.
Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp Release Cover of John
Lennon Track “Isolation”
Legendary guitarist and two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
inductee Jeff Beck, one of the great collaborators in
music history, has once-again found an unexpected
co-conspirator in Johnny Depp. The musical soulmates have
been working behind-the-scenes for the past few several
years on new music and have released their first single as
a duo today, a re-imagining of John Lennon’s classic track
“Isolation,” which is available now on all streaming and
digital download services from Atco/Rhino Records.
“Isolation” finds Beck in classic form on guitar with Depp
on vocals, joined by long-time Beck collaborators Vinnie
Colaiuta on drums and Rhonda Smith on bass. The band first
performed the track live at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar
Festival last September in Texas.
“Johnny and I have been working on music together for a
while now and we recorded this track during our time in the
studio last year. We weren’t expecting to release it so soon
but given all the hard days and true ‘isolation’ that people
are going through in these challenging times, we decided now
might be the right time to let you all hear it,” says Beck.
“You’ll be hearing more from Johnny and me in a little while
but until then we hope you find some comfort and solidarity in
our take on this Lennon classic.”
Johnny Depp adds, “Jeff Beck and I recorded this song
Isolation last year, as our take on a beautiful John Lennon
tune. Lennon’s poetry – ‘We’re afraid of everyone. Afraid of
the Sun!’ – seemed to Jeff and me especially profound right
now, this song about isolation, fear, and existential risks to
our world. So we wanted to give it to you, and hope it helps
you make sense of the moment or just helps you pass the time
as we endure isolation together.”
Beck is universally acknowledged as one of the most
talented and significant guitarists in the world and has
played alongside some of the greatest artists of rock, blues,
and jazz. Over the course of his distinguished 50+ music
career, he has earned an incredible eight Grammy Awards, been
ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists
of All Time,” and been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame twice – once as a member of the Yardbirds and again as a
solo artist. In the summer of 2016, the guitar virtuoso
celebrated his five decades of music with an extraordinary
concert at the famous Hollywood Bowl.
Depp has amassed quite the musical resume of his own,
playing in the Hollywood Vampires supergroup with Alice Cooper
and Joe Perry for the last five years. He’s also collaborated
with a wide variety of musical artists over the last several
decades from Oasis to Marilyn Manson to Stone Temple Pilots,
just to name a few.
Paul McCartney's "Hey Jude" manuscript sold at
auction for £731,000 ($910,000)
The handwritten lyrics of "Hey Jude" by Paul McCartney
sold at Julien's Auctions for £731,000 ($910,000). "The
anonymous buyer purchased the item for almost six times
more than the £128,000 estimate," writes
BBC news.
"McCartney used the lyrics during the recording at Trident
Studios, London, in July 1968 and later gifted them to a
studio engineer," writes
Julien's Auctions. It went on to say that: "The
non-album single was The Beatles’ first release on their
Apple record label and a highly successful debut. It went
on to be nominated for the GRAMMY Awards of 1969 in the
categories of Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Accompanied by the sheet music for the song."
April 4, 2020
George Harrison's "The Material World Foundation"
donates $500,000 to the MusicCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, Save
the Children, and
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) charities
Performer: Mick Fleetwood
The Material World Foundation, created by George
Harrison in 1973, is donating $500,000 to the MusiCares
COVID-19 Relief Fund, Save the Children, and Medecins
Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) charities,
which are providing much needed aid and care during this
COVID-19 pandemic.
“Without going out of my door, I can know
all things on earth.
Without looking out of my window, I can
know the ways of heaven.”
Olivia Harrison said, "These lyrics sung by George are a
positive reminder to all of us who are isolating, in
quarantine or respecting the request to shelter in
place. Let’s get and stay connected at this difficult
time. There are things we can do to help and we
invite you to share your Inner Light.”
THE INNER LIGHT CHALLANGE
Material World Foundation will donate another $1 (up to
$100,000) for every one of you who shares their
own "Inner Light" moment on social media using the
hashtag #innerlight2020
This can be a verse, a chorus or a line from the song.
Sing it, play it, hum it, strum it, paint it, knit it,
chant it, plant it, pray or meditate and post it to
social media.
Remember to hashtag #innerlight2020
Performer: Anoushka Shankar
The Inner Light - by George Harrison
Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth
Without looking out of my window
I can know the ways of heaven
The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows
Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth
Without looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven
The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows
Arrive without traveling
See all without looking
Do all without doing
The Beatles legend has postponed his spring shows until May
and June 2021, citing health and safety concerns due to the
ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Confirming the news, he said in a statement: "This is very
difficult for me, in 30 years I think I've only missed two or
three gigs never mind a whole tour. But this is how things are
for all of us now, I have to stay in just like you have to
stay in, and we all know it’s the peace and loving thing we do
for each other.
"So we have moved the spring tour to 2021. My fans know I
love them, and I love to play for them and I can’t wait to see
you all as soon as possible. In the meantime stay safe. Peace
and Love to you all."
The line up for Starr's accompanying All Starr Band remains
intact for the rearranged dates, with Steve Lukather, Colin
Hay, Gregg Rolie, Warren Ham, Gregg Bissonette and Hamish
Stuart all set to back the drummer. Tickets purchased for the
original shows will be honored at the 2021 gigs.
TBA – Rama, ON @ Casino Rama
TBA – Rama, ON @ Casino Rama
June 1, 2021 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Paramount Theatre
June 3, 2021 – Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre
June 5, 2021 – Gilford, NH @ Bank of NH Pavilion
June 7, 2021 – Easton, PA @ State Theatre
June 8, 2021 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater
June 9, 2021 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater
June 11, 2021 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theater
June 12, 2021 – Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie Theatre
June 13, 2021 – Providence, RI @ Providence
Performing Arts Center
June 15, 2021 – Baltimore, MD @ Modell Lyric Theatre
June 16, 2021 – Baltimore, MD @ Modell Lyric Theatre
June 18, 2021 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
June 19, 2021 – Lenox, MA @ Tanglewood
June 20, 2021 – Philadelphia, PA @ Metropolitan Opera
House
June 22, 2021 – Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Centre
June 23, 2021 – Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Centre
June 25, 2021 – St. Augustine, FL @ St Augustine
Amphitheatre
June 26, 2021 – Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Casino
June 27, 2021 – Clearwater, FL @ Ruth Eckerd Hall
OBS footnote: Ringo's new tour dates were culled directly
from
RollingStone.com
March 26, 2020
Flashback: Levon Helm Sings ‘Up on Cripple Creek’
With Ringo’s All Starr Band
In 1989, Ringo Starr toured with two members of
the Band, two members of the E Street Band, Joe Walsh, and
several other icons
A
2019 video of Robbie Robertson playing “The Weight”
with
Ringo Starr and musicians from all over the world went
viral again this week for reasons that aren’t quite clear,
but maybe people isolated in their homes just needed
something uplifting to watch. “This started circulating on
Twitter again a couple days ago,”
Robertson wrote on Facebook on Monday. “Hopefully it
can bring the FB community a bit of joy in these difficult
times. Blessings to all.”
It wasn’t the first time that Ringo had performed a Band
classic with a surviving member of the group. That
happened in the summer of 1989 when he hit the road with
the first edition of his All Starr Band. It was an amazing
lineup of musicians that included
Levon Helm, Rick Danko,
Clarence Clemons,
Dr. John, Billy Preston, Joe Walsh, and
Nils Lofgren.
They had a huge arsenal of hits between them all, and one
of the nightly highlights came midway through show when
Levon Helm led them all through “Up on Cripple Creek.”
Here’s video from one of the shows that summer where they
were joined by the Band’s Garth Hudson on accordion. If
you’re keeping track, that’s three-fifths of the Band
playing with two-sixths of the E Street Band, and
individual members of the Beatles and the Eagles along
with two of the great piano players in rock history.
Sadly, the vast majority of that All Starr Band is no
longer among the living. That became quite clear last
summer when Ringo invited all of the All Starr alumni to a
30th-anniversary show and Lofgren and Walsh were the only
ones left.
Presuming the tour isn’t postponed by the coronavirus,
Ringo and his current iteration of the All Starr Band are
hitting the road in June. There are no Eagles or E Streeters
or members of the Band this time, but they do have Toto’s
Steve Lukather, Santana’s Gregg Rolie, Men at Work’s Colin
Hay, and Hamish Stewart of the Average White Band. That means
you get to hear “Africa” and “Down Under” in the same show
along with “Black Magic Woman,” “Pick Up the Pieces,” and
“Yellow Submarine.” That may not be quite as impressive a show
as it was back in 1989, but it’s still a ton of fun.
March 25, 2020
A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM JOHN & YOKO
Stay in bed! Grow your hair!
BED PEACE. HAIR PEACE.
Thankyou.
The Beatles sound is so intrinsically linked with pop music
it can be easy to forget that they were capable of turning it
up to eleven if they needed to. While songs like ‘Helter
Skelter’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ are full of guts, nothing
rang the rock and roll bell just like ‘Revolution’.
The B-side to Paul McCartney’s ‘Hey Jude’, it was a John
Lennon number that put the band at the fulcrum of rock once
more and tore through the airwaves at parties all over the
country. Here, we’re taking a look at the guitar that turns
the song into a fuzz-filled spike of rock and roll steel.
The song remains a notable fuzzy mark on an
otherwise glistening CV of expertly crafted studio songs.
It sees The Beatles take on a brand new sound and kick the
distortion up a few notches for the Lennon-penned track.
At the time of the recording, distortion was being
heartedly used across studios to provide a blistering edge to
rock and roll records—but when The Beatles grab a hold of the
idea for this song, they add a few spices to the heady
concoction.
Geoff Emerick told
Guitar World that Lennon had been attempting to create
distortion by cranking up his amp during sessions for the
slower version of the song known as ‘Revolution 1.’ That cut
was recorded in May and June with Emerick achieving the sound
by overloading the preamp on Lennon’s guitar mic. It was not
enough, “No, no, I want that guitar to sound dirtier!” Lennon
told the engineer.
Emerick was keen to get it right and by July he had set up
a way of moving Harrison and Lennon’s guitar directly into the
mixing console. Using direct boxes to do meant overloading the
input preamp causing the sound to distort even further. “I
remember walking into the control room when they were cutting
that,” recalls Abbey Road engineer Ken Scott to GW “and there
was
John, Paul and George, all in the control room,
all plugged in—just playing straight through the board. All of
the guitar distortion was gotten just by overloading the mic
amps in the desk.”
As Emerick says in his 2006 memoir Here, There and
Everywhere, it was a move that put studio equipment in
jeopardy: “I couldn’t help but think: If I was the studio
manager and saw this going on, I’d fire myself.” It was also a
move that would again mark The Beatles as one of the most
progressive bands in the business.
While George Harrison’s lead guitar duties have always been
well received by those in the know, John Lennon’s rhythm
guitar takes centre stage on this track. Fuzzed up and ready
to roll, the powerful riff is untethered and let loose upon
the audience.
Below you can listen to the barbed distortion of Lennon and
Harrison’s guitar on The Beatles ‘Revolution’ as they
deliver one of their standout guitar sounds.
Photography: Linda McCartney via the Paul McCartney
archives.
Today, during The Walt Disney Company’s annual meeting of
shareholders, Executive Chairman Bob Iger announced that
The Walt Disney Studios has acquired the worldwide
distribution rights to acclaimed filmmaker Peter Jackson’s
previously announced Beatles documentary, The Beatles: Get
Back. The film will showcase the warmth, camaraderie and
humor of the making of the legendary band’s studio album,
Let It Be, and their final live concert as a group, the
iconic rooftop performance on London’s Savile Row. The
Beatles: Get Back will be released by The Walt Disney
Studios in the United States and Canada on September 4,
2020, with additional details and dates for the film’s
global release to follow.
“No band has had the kind of impact on the world that The
Beatles have had, and The Beatles: Get Back is a front-row
seat to the inner workings of these genius creators at a
seminal moment in music history, with spectacularly
restored footage that looks like it was shot yesterday,”
says Iger of the announcement. “I’m a huge fan myself, so
I could not be happier that Disney is able to share Peter
Jackson’s stunning documentary with global audiences in
September.”
The footage has been brilliantly restored by Park Road
Post Production of Wellington, New Zealand, and is being
edited by Jabez Olssen, who collaborated with Jackson on
2018’s They Shall Not Grow Old, the groundbreaking film
which featured restored and colorized World War I archival
footage. The music in the film will be mixed by Giles
Martin and Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios in London. With
this pristine restoration behind it, The Beatles: Get Back
will create a vivid, joyful and immersive experience for
audiences.
Peter Jackson says, “Working on this project has been a
joyous discovery. I’ve been privileged to be a fly on the
wall while the greatest band of all time works, plays and
creates masterpieces. I’m thrilled that Disney have
stepped up as our distributor. There’s no one better to
have our movie seen by the greatest number of people.”
Paul McCartney says, “I am really happy that Peter has
delved into our archives to make a film that shows the
truth about The Beatles recording together. The friendship
and love between us comes over and reminds me of what a
crazily beautiful time we had.”
Ringo Starr says, “I’m really looking forward to this
film. Peter is great and it was so cool looking at all
this footage. There was hours and hours of us just
laughing and playing music, not at all like the version
that came out. There was a lot of joy and I think Peter
will show that. I think this version will be a lot more
peace and loving, like we really were.”
The Beatles: Get Back is also being made with the
enthusiastic support of Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia
Harrison.
Although the original Let It Be film, directed by Michael
Lindsay-Hogg, and the accompanying album were filmed and
recorded in January 1969, they were not released until May
1970, three weeks after The Beatles had officially broken
up. The response to the film at the time by audiences and
critics alike was strongly associated with that
announcement. During the 15-month gap between the filming
of Let It Be and its launch, The Beatles recorded and
released their final studio album, Abbey Road, which came
out in September 1969.
Shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm, the 80-minute Let It Be
movie was built around the three weeks of filming,
including an edited version of the rooftop concert. The
GRAMMY®-winning Let It Be album topped the charts in the
U.S. and the U.K.
The new documentary brings to light much more of the
band’s intimate recording sessions for Let It Be and their
entire 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple’s
Savile Row London office. While there is no shortage of
material of The Beatles’ extensive touring earlier in
their careers, The Beatles: Get Back features the only
notable footage of the band at work in the studio,
capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and
Ringo Starr as they create their now-classic songs from
scratch, laughing, bantering and playing to the camera.
Shot on January 30, 1969, The Beatles’ surprise rooftop
concert marked the band’s first live performance in over
two years and their final live set together. The footage
captures interactions between the band members, reactions
from fans and employees from nearby businesses, and
comical attempts to stop the concert by two young London
policemen responding to noise complaints.
A fully restored version of the original Let It Be
film will be made available at a later date.
Related news links:
A quote from Variety: "Variety viewed a top-secret trailer
of “Get Back” earlier this year, and it’s practically a
different world: It’s brighter both visually and spiritually,
with many, many shots of the Beatles joking around, making fun
of each other, singing in silly accents and generally
indulging in vintage Moptop hijinks. It also includes
additional footage from the group’s legendary 42-minute
“rooftop performance” that caps the “Let It Be” film, which
was their last live performance."
Video From Sirius XM:
March 6, 2020
50 Years Ago: Beatles Release One of Many
Versions of "Let It Be"
The Beatles didn't seem capable of letting one of their
final singles be.
They recorded multiple versions of "Let It Be" in late
January 1969 at Twickenham Studios for use in a
documentary film also called Let It Be. They then
re-recorded Paul McCartney's song on Jan. 31 at Apple
Studios in an attempt to get a final take.
George Harrison added a guitar solo, recorded through a
rotating Leslie speaker, on April 30, 1969, and that
version ended up pressed for release as a George
Martin-produced single on March 6 – of the following year.
By 1970, McCartney had returned to add still more elements
to the song (while also recording over an original turn on
bass by John Lennon), and Harrison added an entirely
different solo.
Really, the whole project took a long and winding road.
Engineer Glyn Johns produced a pair of Let It Be album
acetates with different sequencing for the Beatles to
decide upon. Both were rejected. By early 1970, Lennon had
given the tapes to second producer Phil Spector, who'd
recently produced Lennon's "Instant Karma" single. That
was just weeks before the accompanying Let It Be film was
set to premiere.
The title track included on the Let It Be album ended up
with still more contributions from Spector. "About 18
months later, after the band had split up, John decided he
was going to take the tapes and give them to Phil Spector
and make an album for the tapes that I had recorded –
which was basically all rehearsal tapes," Johns later told
Yahoo! "Phil Spector turned it into this sugary, syrupy
piece of shit with strings and choirs all over it."
Johns admitted to Rolling Stone that he preferred his own
more bare-bones mix of the song, before "Spector puked all
over it." In the end, Spector seemed to know what he was
up against: "If it's shitty, I'm going to get blamed for
it," he noted. "If it's a success, it's the Beatles."
Appropriately enough, "Let It Be" was the last track
recorded for the project. Inspired by Aretha Franklin,
McCartney began writing the song at the end of the album
sessions. Late into January 1969, he still lacked a
third verse. The full-group version of "Let It Be" taped
on Jan. 31 was the last take on the last day of sessions
at Apple. By then, the Beatles had ran through more than
300 different songs – not including unformed jams.
"Let It Be" was also the final song released by the
Beatles before their dissolution was made official. The
next single from their final-released album, "The Long
and Winding Road," arrived two months later.
From the first, "Let It Be" was misunderstood as a
religious statement, given McCartney's early reference
to "Mother Mary." But he was alluding to his own mom
rather than the virgin mother of Christian tradition.
Mary McCartney died when Paul was just a teen, and he
would often sense her comforting presence during moments
of crisis.
These painful childhood memories led McCartney to focus
more intently on music; they also provided a foundation
for his friendship with Lennon, who lost his own mother
in a traffic accident. "That became a very big bond
between John and me," McCartney said in the Beatles'
Anthology documentary. "We both had this emotional
turmoil which we had to deal with, and, being teenagers,
we had to deal with it very quickly."
With everything else that was going on, McCartney
admitted to leaning on drugs as an emotional crutch.
"I was going through a really difficult time around the
autumn of 1968," McCartney recalled in Marlo Thomas'
book The Right Words at the Right Time. "It was late in
the Beatles' career and we had begun making a new album,
a follow-up to the White Album. As a group, we were
starting to have problems. I think I was sensing the
Beatles were breaking up, so I was staying up late at
night, drinking, doing drugs, clubbing, the way a lot of
people were at the time. I was really living and playing
hard."
At this point, McCartney's mother, a victim of breast
cancer, had been dead for 10 years.
"It was so great to see her because that's a wonderful
thing about dreams: You actually are reunited with that
person for a second," McCartney told Barry Miles in Many
Years From Now. "There they are and you appear to both
be physically together again. It was so wonderful for
me, and she was very reassuring. In the dream she said,
'It'll be all right.' I’m not sure if she used the words
'let it be,' but that was the gist of her advice. It
was, 'Don’t worry too much, it will turn out okay.' ...
So, that got me writing the song 'Let It Be.' I
literally started off 'Mother Mary,' which was her name,
'when I find myself in times of trouble,' which I
certainly found myself in."
This was undoubtedly one of those moments, with
McCartney's band falling apart.
"I think people were overdoing the use of substances -
we certainly were," McCartney told the Salt Lake Tribune
in 2011. "It was kind of common. It was the fashion –
and anyone who remembers that time will know that. And I
think I was getting, like, a little bit over the top
with the whole thing – getting pretty tired and pretty
wasted. And I went to bed one night and had a kind of
restless night."
"Let It Be" became a double-platinum selling U.S. chart
topper, helping its parent album to the No. 1 spot both
in the U.S. and the U.K. McCartney eventually came to
terms with the song's pious interpretations, despite its
deeply personal meaning.
"Mother Mary makes it a quasi-religious thing, so you
can take it that way, I don’t mind," McCartney told
Miles. "I'm quite happy if people want to use it to
shore up their faith. I have no problem with that. I
think it's a great thing to have faith of any sort,
particularly in the world we live in."
The single version of "Let It Be" also included the only
known contributions by Linda McCartney in a Beatles
song; she sang backing vocals. McCartney later formed
Wings, his post-Beatles band, with Linda and Denny Laine
from the Moody Blues.
February 26, 2020
Al Di Meola on The Beatles: "It's surprising that
they had the guts to play those kind of chords"
The jazz-fusion great talks Across the Universe, his
latest tribute to the Fab Four
When it comes to The Beatles, melody reigns supreme. Al Di
Meola credits The Beatles for inspiring him to become a
guitarist and admires the group’s penchant for melodies.
It’s why he decided to record a second tribute album
titled Across The Universe.
Di Meola feels too many of his jazz-fusion peers have
gotten further away from melody and are too focused on
elaborate solos than the actual composition. He feels
melody-driven songs, such as those by The Beatles, have a
greater impact and are more universally relatable. It’s
why he feels he’s become more of a composer.
“I feel they've just forgotten how you get to the heart of
people,” he says. “It's just something that gets you. It's
something in the simplicity. It holds more power.”
The songs on Across the Universe have more oomph compared
to 2013’s All Your Life thanks to increased production.
Over the course of 14 Beatles tunes, the album offers a
mix of electric guitar orchestrations, acoustic
arrangements as well as exotic compositions featuring jazz
fusion and world music stylings.
“I wanted to make one with a lot of production and just
basically pick a lot of the other songs that I wish I had
done on the first one and then do them with the more
elaborate kind of presentation,” Di Meola says.
Compared with All Your Life, Across the
Universe’s melodies are less abstract. “On the first one I
think the chord melody factor was kind of adventurous,” he
says.
One of the most challenging songs for him to play was
Mother Nature's Son. “It was one of the more difficult
pieces because it's sort of a chord melody and it's not
meant to sound hard; it just is hard,” he says.
In creating his own versions of the songs, such as Till
There Was You, Di Meola grew even more fond of the
originals.
“When you're looking at it and listening to it, it's one
thing. But then when you're playing it you realize, ‘Oh,
this song, it's got a lot of meat. It has a lot of
harmonic ingenious, genius movements to it,’” he says.
“It's surprising at their age, playing in front of 50
million people, that they had the guts to play those kind of
chords. But you don't think about that until you analyze the
piece.”
Al Di Meola new album "Across The Universe"
will be released on March 13, 2020.
February 16, 2020
The Ottawa Beatles Site and Sandy Gardiner of the
Ottawa Journal are quoted in Cosmic Observation
Just How Important was George Martin to The
Beatles?
Six Legendary Producers, Mark Ronson, Jimmy Jam, Joe
Henry, Alan Parsons, Peter Asher & Judith Sherman, Discuss
The Impact of "the Fifth Beatle." -
article by Paul Zollo for American Songwriter.
January 20, 2020
Surprise appearance on The View by Billy Porter
gives spectacular performance of John Lennon's "Imagine"
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, choirs from the
Cardinal Shehan School Community and Krieger Schechter Day
School pay tribute to the civil rights leader by singing
"Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand" and "Imagine."
"Prior to the performance, host Whoopie Goldberg spoke
with Harrison Fribush, a seventh-grader at Krieger Schechter
Day School, a Jewish school in Baltimore," writes Christian
Long for
Popculture.com. He added that: "Fribush initially
reached out to the private catholic school, Cardinal Shehan
School, to collaborate on a project together, with
The View being their national TV debut."
Kenyatta Hardison, Cardinal Shehan's choir director,
commended the project. "It's amazing how we're different and
so much alike, in so many ways. We're different in our culture
or the way we do things. ... [But] we all love music, sing the
same words, move with the same music. The world would be such
a better place if we could all do this. Start with two schools
at a time to work together. The evil things going on in this
world would diminish."
Saxophonist Howie Casey performs "Maybe I'm
Amazed" and recalls his days working with Paul McCartney
and Wings at recordings, live concerts and his early
associations with the Beatles
January 11, 2020
CNN reports George and Ringo's handwritten lyrics
to The Beatles' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' is for sale
First Beatles single ever played on the radio to
sell at Omega Auctions
by Simon Lindley for "Just Collecting News"
The first Beatles single ever played on the radio could sell
for more than $25,000 when it goes up for auction in the U.K
this month.
The ‘demonstration’ copy of the band’s debut single Love Me Do
was played first on Radio Luxembourg on October 5, 1962, the
same day it was released.
Now, 58 years after it first hit the airwaves, the 7″ record
will now be offered for sale at Omega Auctions with an
estimated value of £15,000 – £20,000 ($19,700 – $26,250).
Just 250 demonstration copies of the single were pressed up
and sent out to promoters, the music press, DJs and radio
stations by manager Brian Epstein.
This copy remained part of the Radio Luxembourg record archive
for three decades, before being inherited by DJ Tony Prince
when the station closed down in 1992.
The 7″ record is also signed by Paul McCartney on the A-side,
and comes with a message from him to Prince confirming its
authenticity as a significant piece of Beatles history.
The fax dating from 1994 reads “Dear Tony, I’m happy to
confirm that I first heard ‘Love Me Do’ (our first release) on
Radio Luxembourg. Did I ever thank you for playing it? If not,
I do now. Cheers, All the very best”.
Three days after their debut record was played for the first
time, The Beatles were interviewed on the station as part of
The Friday Spectacular, a show recorded by EMI to promote
their own artists.
Radio Luxembourg was one of the earliest commercial radio
stations which broadcasted to the U.K, using (at the time) the
world’s most powerful
privately-owned radio transmitter.
British laws prevented radio stations from advertising
products until 1973, but Radio Luxembourg circumvented these
restrictions by transmitting from mainland Europe.
Throughout the 1950s and 60s it offered many British teenagers
the chance to hear rock and roll records on the radio for the
first time.
Copies of the rare Love Me Do demonstration single are rare
and highly collectible in their own right, and can be
identified by the misspelling of “McArtney” in the song’s
credits.
This particular copy of the record last sold at Bonhams back
in 2003 for £13,500 – and could now fetch a considerably
higher sum, due to the significant role it played in the
Beatles’ story.
January 4, 2020
Paul McCartney with Nihal Arthanayake - The
Penguin Podcast
Paul talks about John Lennon, Bob Dylan, the holiday
season and of course his new book "Hey Grandude."
50th Anniversary: Giving Peace A Chance
The BBC World Service published "Giving Peace A Chance"
podcast on December 3, 2019. The interview features
Francine Jones who in 1969 was the Assistant Public
Relations Officer for the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in
Montreal; Gilles Gougeon who back then interviewed John
and Yoko for Radio-Quebec. Also Allan Rock who was then
a student at the University of Ottawa who invited John
and Yoko for a Seminar on World Peace which they
attended at the campus on June 3, 1969; songstress
Petula Clark; André Perry who recorded the song. A few
other people who connect up with the story appear on
this broadcast.
Click on the above image to listen to the interview to
gain historical perspectives of John and Yoko's
important peace message from 1969.
Rutles' leader Neil Innes, dead at 75, goes deep
in one of his final interviews: 'Mortality is real'
On December 29, 2019, British comedian singer-songwriter
Neil Innes passed away of a heart-attack. "Innes was a
regular musical contributor to the English comedy troupe
Monty Python and he teamed with Python mainstay Eric
Idle to create The Rutles and their classic film
rockumentary, "All You Need is Cash," writes the
George Varga for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The article went on to say that: "In 1967, as a member
of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Innes appeared in the
Beatles's movie "Magical Mystery Tour." (In 1997, the
song he and the Bonzos performed in "Magical Mystery
Tour," a jaunty, Elvis Presley-ish ditty entitled "Death
Cab for Cutie," inspired the name of the still-active
alternative-rock band.)"
Is a new Beatles film on its way for an October
release?
"Beatles fan blog
The Daily Beatle found a listing on Amazon for
a book titled
Get Back: The Beatles, ant it's slated for
release on October 15, 2020," writes
KKLZ Music. It added: "The site also reports that
the book will act as companion material with Jackson's
film, which will draw from 55 hours of never-released
footage of The Beatles in the studio, shot between
January 2-31, 1969. This footage came from the original
filming of Michael Lindsay-Hogg's documentary Let It Be,
which ended with the famous rooftop concert."
December 16, 2019
Ottawa's Fairmont Chateau Laurier "Give Peace A
Chance" Christmas Tree with John and Yoko
Each year the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa showcases a
Christmas tree presentations in their main lobby. The
theme for this year was music and so each tree in the main
lobby is dressed up with musical instruments and such.
They are the "Trees of Hope for Children's Hospital of
Eastern Ontario." And so Sezlik.com and Royal LePage (one
of several corporate tree sponsors) thought it would be a
fun idea to do a tribute to John Lennon and Yoko Ono's
"Give Peace A Chance" bed-in the couple did at the
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth in Montreal in 1969.
Photo taken December 2019 by a Chateau Laurier clerk with
sincere thanks.
"On behalf of The Ottawa Beatles Site and Santa Claus,
wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year." - John Whelan
P.S. On a more serious note, here is John Lennon and Yoko
Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" hit song (now age
restricted by Youtube.)
December 11, 2019
The late Tony Sheridan's fascinating story about
his days in Hamburg and The Beatles
December 10, 2019
Tony Sheridan, Roy Young and Howie Casey rock out
with "Money" and "Johnny B. Goode"
The following tracks "Money" and "Johnny B. Goode" were
culled from my own personal music library. They are a
united musical performance from Howie Casey, the late Tony
Sheridan and the late Roy Young. I have remastered the
digital recordings to bring out the best in audio quality.
It is a process that requires patience and time on average
5 to 6 hours work using filters, echo, adding more bass
and more thump to make it sound better than the original.
In the end, this was achieved and now these two songs by
these performers been added to the Youtube archive.
While doing a little research for this project, I came
across what likely was Roy Young's last interview with the
media, that of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
So many years had passed on since the
Ottawa Beatles
Site's interview with Roy and what is evident in the
BBC interview is that Roy is still passionate about his
contribution to the music industry and his association
with the Beatles, David Bowie and other rock stars. You
can listen to his 17 minute interview with BBC Radio
Oxford Special by clicking:
PHOP
-boogie woogie pianist Roy Young.
Netflix, Gaumont team on animation adaptation of
Paul of Paul McCartney's "High In The Clouds"
Paul
McCartney's first children's book "High In The
Clouds" (co-written by Philip Ardagh and
illustrated by Geoff Dunbar) is being produced
as a animation movie.
Paul has written and produced original music
for the movie that allows him to be involved
in the creative process. "I've always loved
animated films and this is a hugely important
passion project for me. I can't wait for the
world to see it."
Screendaily writes that the storyline
"will revolve around an imaginative teenage
squirrel who finds himself pulled into a
ramshackle gang of teenage rebels who live in
the clouds after he accidentally antagonises
Gretsch, a tyrannical owl and wonderful singer
who steals the voice of anyone who upstages
her."
The producers of the animation are: "Bob Shaye,
the late Michael Lynne, McCartney and Sidonie
Dumas, Christophe Raindee, Nicolas Atlan and
Terry Kalagian at Gaumont" writes Screendaily.
1. "Gotta Get Up to Get Down"
2. "Its Not Love That You Want"
3. "Grow Old With Me"
4. "Magic"
5. "Money (That’s What I Want)"
6. "Better Days"
7. "Life Is Good"
8. "Thank God for Music"
9. "Send Love Spread Peace"
10. "What’s My Name"
Paul
McCartney's first children's book "High In The
Clouds" (co-written by Philip Ardagh and
illustrated by Geoff Dunbar) is being produced
as a animation movie. 