PAUL MCCARTNEY TALK ABOUT BTS AND THE BEATLES

On November 23rd, Paul McCartney made a guest appearance on podcast Smartless, where he talked about a multitude of topics. However, it was his mention of BTS that caught the attention of those tuning in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The host of the podcast asked Paul McCartney if there were any boy bands or groups that he enjoyed listening to and without hesitation, he responded with BTS. He continued on with how believes that the members of BTS are going through similar things that The Beatles went through in their journey.

It seems like they’re going through the same things we (The Beatles) had to go through. BTS, my Korean friends! I love watching you guys... Everyone knows it too but I think they’re absolutely amazing. While I may not be able to sing along to their songs, I like them.

The love is mutual as it was just last year that BTS paid homage to The Beatles on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. They paid homage to one of the most iconic moments in boy band history. Dressed in sharp, black suits and with the famous drum set in the background, the boys of BTS re-created the legendary moment of when The Beatles made their official U.S. debut.

50 YEARS AGO: HOW DEREK& THE DOMINOS GREW OUT OF GEORGE HARRISON’S DEBUT

All Things Must Pass did more than launch George Harrison's post-Beatles solo career. The triple-album set, issued on Nov. 27, 1970, provided a platform for the launch of Derek and the Dominos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George had hit it off with drummer Jim Gordon, bassist Carl Radle and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock while sitting in with Delaney & Bonnie during a 1969 tour. He was already friends with Eric Clapton, who collaborated with Harrison on the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and Cream's "Badge."
All four of them were on hand as sessions for All Things Must Pass got underway in May 1970. They appeared together and apart throughout the studio portion of the project – that's Whitlock, for instance, at the pump organ on "My Sweet Lord" – and served as the house band for the album-closing jam sessions.

"I mean, we used to do that ourselves, you know, the Fabs, back in the early days," Harrison told Billboard in 2000. "So you'd have a break, somebody'd go to the toilet, they have a cigarette, and next minute you'd break into a jam session and the engineer taped it on a two-track. When we were mixing the album and getting toward the end of it, I listened to that stuff, and I thought, 'It's got some fire in it,' particularly Eric. He plays some hot stuff on there!"

The first two Derek and the Dominos studio cuts were taped during these initial dates, though both were re-recorded for official release later.

"We made a deal whereby [Harrison] would get [co-producer Phil] Spector to produce a couple of tracks for us in return for having the use of our band for his album," Clapton later remembered in his memoir, Clapton: The Autobiography. "We recorded two songs with him, 'Roll It Over' and 'Tell the Truth,' at Abbey Road Studios, before turning ourselves over to George as his session musicians."

All Things Must Pass wasn't the first time these studio vets had worked together – but those were in more controlled environments. The open-ended fission on Harrison's album sessions carried directly over into a stand-alone group that became Derek and the Dominos.

"I'd arrived in the U.K. in 1969 with Delaney & Bonnie's band, which included Carl Radle and Jim Gordon," Whitlock told Richard Havers in 2015. "In the year following our arrival, we recorded nonstop. In early December, there was the Delaney & Bonnie & Friends [On Tour With Eric Clapton] album recorded in London. Eric Clapton and George Harrison played on our tour of the U.K. and Europe, which is how we got to know one another so well. We all played on Eric Clapton's first solo album, then there was All Things Must Pass."

Harrison initiated their involvement, cold calling Clapton during a period when he and Whitlock were holed up at the guitarist's Hurtwood Edge estate writing songs that would eventually form the bedrock of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
"Eric picked it up, and he was going, 'Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. Let me ask Bobby and see what he thinks,'" Whitlock told Guitar Player in 2020. "He hung up and he says to me, 'That was George.' And I said, 'Harrison?' He says, 'Yeah. He wants us to put together a group and be the core band for his new record."

Still stung from the twin dissolutions of Cream and Blind Faith, Clapton seemed to have stumbled into a new career direction.
"It was the beginning of one of the most extraordinary periods of my life, the memory of which is dominated by one thing — incredible music," Clapton said in his autobiography. "It began with me just talking to these guys about music and getting to know them, and then we just played and played and played. I was in absolute awe of these people, and yet they made me feel that I was on their level. We were kindred spirits, made in the same mold."

All Things Must Pass became a six-times platinum chart-topping smash, spinning off two Top 10 singles – including the No. 1 hit "My Sweet Lord." By then, however, Derek and the Dominos were already on their way.
They rushed into the studio to complete Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, recorded with a late assist from Duane Allman in August and September 1970. Things came together so quickly that Derek and the Dominos' album actually arrived before All Things Must Pass.

"It was a band. It was an equal effort and opportunity band. We all shared equally in everything," Whitlock told Songfacts in 2004. "Eric was a band member. ... He wasn't ready at the time to step out in the forefront without having some fire behind him, something he was real comfortable with. Jim Gordon and Carl Radle and myself made a pretty formidable rhythm section."

All of that began to audibly coalesce during a Harrison-led jam curiously titled "Thanks for the Pepperoni." "Art of Dying" from All Things Must Pass is basically a Derek and the Dominos song. "I Remember Jeep," another free-form musical idea, was named after Clapton's dog.

Harrison also sat in on those early takes of "Tell the Truth" and "Roll It Over," which were released as the group's debut single then retracted. They later appeared on Clapton's career-encompassing 1988 box set Crossroads and 1990's 20th-anniversary reissue of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

Unfortunately, Derek and the Dominos didn't immediately have the same chart success as All Things Must Pass; some say because Clapton's name wasn't featured more prominently. Things were different for the group outside of the friendly confines of a Harrison session. They split during a shambolic try at a follow-up.

Layla, however, remained – and, in time, critical assessment caught up with Derek and the Dominos. Their lone studio LP reentered the U.S. chart in 1972, 1974 and 1977, emerging as an acknowledged classic along the way.

"It became a success on its own, not because of promotion and not because of Eric Clapton," Whitlock told Guitar Player. "I remember when we were doing our tour of the United States. We were riding in a station wagon somewhere up in Minnesota, heading to a gig, and 'My Sweet Lord' comes on the radio. At the time, it was the No. 1 record in the country. And there we were, four guys in a car, heading to some little gig somewhere. I mean, we were the guys on a No. 1 record, and nobody even knew who we were!"

THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH WAS A SUCCESS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1971’s Concert for Bangladesh, an era-defining event and live album that set the template for the large-scale benefit concert as we know it today.
In the spring of 1965, while filming a scene set at an Indian restaurant (Help! film), George began toying around with a sitar belonging to some hired background performers. Fascinated, he purchased his own, and brought it to the studio for Rubber Soul, their next album, to accompany John Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).”

The pair met and discovered they were kindred spirits. Shankar began instructing Harrison on melodic structure and playing technique, as well as the underlying spiritual discipline. As Harrison’s interest grew more sincere, he became so preoccupied with the sitar that he essentially abandoned the guitar for a period. George found new meaning in Indian music and philosophy. Times changed—the ’60s ended, the Beatles broke up, Western mainstream interest in Indian music subsided—but George remained. His friendship with Shankar would prove to be one of music’s richest.

In the summer of 1971, the pair were in Los Angeles finishing the soundtrack of Raga, a documentary about Shankar’s life that Harrison and Apple, the Beatles’ multimedia conglomerate, were helping finance and distribute. But Shankar’s mind was elsewhere.
The Indian subcontinent had been divided into two independent nations in 1947 after decades of British colonialism. Each of them housed a religious majority: Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. The partition triggered a massive, horrifically violent wave of migration; the division of Pakistan into two non-contiguous territories, one on each side of India, was especially precarious. Although East Pakistan had a slightly larger population, the government was based in West Pakistan, over a thousand miles away, resulting in many political, cultural, and economic disparities. In March 1971, East Pakistan declared independence, adopting the name Bangladesh, and West Pakistan responded with a brutal attempt to quell the movement for autonomy. Over the next nine months, between 300,000 and 3 million Bangladeshi people were killed in a military and militia campaign that has since been recognized as a genocide. 

Millions of refugees poured into India, straining an already exhausted system.
As a Bengali himself, Shankar wanted to plan a benefit concert to raise awareness and funds for the refugees. He hoped that one of his famous friends, perhaps George or actor Peter Sellers, might be willing to introduce the show and help bring in a little money—maybe $25,000 if they were lucky. When Shankar told George about the unfolding humanitarian crisis, the guitarist immediately volunteered his services. George suggested that they raise the stakes and release an accompanying film and album. things moved quickly from there. Harrison spent the following weeks planning the concert and enlisting friends to perform,it was decided that the Concert for Bangladesh would take place on August 1 at Madison Square Garden. There would be two shows, an afternoon set and an evening set, both of which were recorded for the album and film. Tickets were all $10 or less and sold out in a few hours.
 

At the top of each performance, Harrison emerged to address the audience. With Shankar, he implored them to listen to the performance of Indian music that opened the show with concentration and respect. “Through our music, we would like you to feel the agony and also the pain and lot of sad happenings in Bangladesh and also the refugees who have come to India,” Shankar explained. Their instructions were prescient: After the musicians—Shankar on sitar, Ali Akbar Khan on sarod, Kamala Chakravarty on tambura, and Alla Rakha on tabla—tuned their instruments, the audience burst into applause.

“Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more,” Shankar remarked.

With that, Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan launch into “Bangla Dhun,” an emotional instrumental piece that draws on Bengali folk melodies. The duo’s rapport is instinctive and familial, having played together since they were young adults; Khan was both Shankar’s brother-in-law and the son of his guru. The two maestros begin the piece with a brief alap, an improvisational, contemplative exploration of the raga’s melodic possibilities. Chakravarty’s tambura drone and Rakha’s tabla join as the players transition into a medium-tempo gat, the more structured portion of the composition. About halfway through, as the pace increases to a breakneck drut laya, Shankar and Khan’s playing is so heated it seems to erupt into fireworks.

Up next was Harrison, who was admittedly nervous to lead the show. “Personally, I prefer to be a part of a band, but...it was just something that we had to do in order to get the money and we had to do it quick so I had to put myself out there and hope I’d get a few friends to come and support me,” he said at a July 27 press conference. When the lights came back on, it was clear how modest he was being: He had recruited a 24-piece band that included Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, the Apple band Badfinger, a horn section, a seven-piece soul choir, and more. All agreed to perform without a fee. 

In a white two-piece suit with the Om symbol embroidered on the lapel, Harrison exudes a radiant maturity; it’s staggering to remember that he was only 28 years old.
The Concert for Bangladesh also marked the first time that Harrison performed songs from All Things Must Pass, his triple-album opus from the year prior. During “My Sweet Lord” and “Awaiting on You All,” two of All Things Must Pass’ most overtly religious songs, you can hear his yearning for connection with a higher power reach the rafters of MSG. Both songs espouse the belief of Harrison’s beloved Hare Krishnas, that through “chanting the names of the lord...you’ll be free,” and the gospel choir and Preston’s high-voltage organ playing heighten their joyousness. The acoustic “Here Comes the Sun”, the amazing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Something”...

 

Following Harrison’s desire to avoid the center of attention, the concert was arranged with performances from the star intermixed with showcases from the backing players. Preston’s rendition of his gospel-rock song “That’s the Way God Planned It” is particularly electrifying, and culminates with the keyboardist leaping to his feet and running to the front of the stage to boogie in exaltation.

Bob Dylan played long-dormant folk classics like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.”
The concert closed with a performance of Harrison’s recent charity single “Bangla Desh,” often regarded as the first of its kind. Harrison begins by offering some narrative context: “My friend came to me with sadness in his eye/He told me that he wanted help before his country dies...Now I’m asking all of you to help us save some lives.” Then, George starts sing "Bangla Desh”.
 

The Concert for Bangladesh was a clear and immediate success. Ticket sales raised around $243,000 for UNICEF, nearly ten times Shankar’s initial expectation. Overnight, the name Bangladesh and its people’s plight became known to the world, which was the sitarist and organizer’s priority. But the celebratory bubble burst quickly. The album was beset by delays and issues with taxes and performance rights; proceeds from its sale were held by the IRS for years. “It was uncharted territory, the scale of it,” Apple employee Jonathan Clyde told The Guardian years later. “The money did eventually reach Bangladesh, although perhaps not in time to help the refugees at that point.” The Concert for Bangladesh topped the charts and won a Grammy for Album of the Year.

The Concert for Bangladesh’s successes—its camaraderie, humility, and triumphant money-raising—established the framework for large-scale benefit concerts as we know them today. Fundraising magnate Bob Geldof reportedly reached out to Harrison for advice when planning 1985’s multi-continental Live Aid event. (Harrison’s advice: “Do your homework.”) 

 

With star-studded lineups that ensure broad news coverage, benefit concerts continue to be an effective (and popular) way for celebrities to raise money and awareness for a cause. The Concert for Bangladesh was a musical triumph and a momentous collaborative effort. In 1972, alongside Allen Klein—the late-era Beatles manager who was partially responsible for the concert’s financial disarray—Shankar and Harrison were awarded UNICEF’s “Child Is the Father of Man” award for their fundraising efforts. Shankar, had come to view his collaborator as family. He later said, was “my student, my brother, my son, all combined.” If Harrison’s earliest interest in Indian music had involved some trendy, The Concert for Bangladesh demonstrated that his commitment—to the music and the people themselves—had blossomed into something deep and profound.

ALL THINGS MUST PASS 2020 MIX

The George Harrison Estate has released a 2020 stereo mix of solo album All Things Must Pass in celebration of its 50th anniversary. The Estate called it “a prelude of what’s to come.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new mix “is just a taste of more things to come in 2021 as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of my father’s legendary album,” says Dhani Harrison. “We’ve been digging through mountains of tapes, and they just kept coming – boxes and boxes of them. Making this album sound clearer was always one of my dad’s greatest wishes and it was something we were working on together right up until he passed. But with the help of new technology and the work of (audio engineer) Paul Hicks on this project, we are now able to make that happen. We can’t wait for you all to hear everything we’ve been working on and your patience will be rewarded next year.”

The new stereo mix of “All Things Must Pass” was overseen by multi- GRAMMY® Award winner, Paul Hicks, known for his work with the Harrison Estate, The Beatles and this year’s expanded editions of The Rolling Stones’ Goat’s Head Soup and John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth.

All Things Must Pass, the triple album produced by Phil Spector, critically acclaimed album topped both the U.K. and U.S. album charts, upon its release.

The release of “All Things Must Pass (2020 Mix)” marks the beginning of celebrations for this historic album. The announcement promises more All Things Must Pass 50th anniversary release details beginning in 2021.


 “My Sweet Lord” was originally released in November 1970 as a single, Harrison’s first as a solo artist. It topped charts worldwide and was the biggest-selling single of 1971 in the U.K. The song became the first #1 single by an ex-Beatle in the U.S and U.K.

YOU GAVE ME THE ANSWER - BECOMING A MUSICIAN

Paul’s introduction to playing music came early in life. There had always been music in the McCartney family home and they often got together to sing songs around the piano. Then, for his 14^th birthday, Paul’s dad Jim gifted him a trumpet ...which Paul swapped for a guitar shortly afterwards when he realised he wanted to play and sing at the same time – not something you can easily do with a trumpet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was once a time before Paul was the confident multi-instrumentalist we know, and a time before he was recognised as one of the most well-known musicians in the world!

With Paul’s third self-titled solo album McCartney III coming on December 18^th, his musicianship is once again in the spotlight. Paul has written, performed and produced every track on the new album, just as he did with McCartney and McCartney II, so we thought this question from Alexander on Twitter was rather apt: at what moment did you realise that you had truly made it as a musician?

Paul: Well, in the early days, my idea of what a real musician was came from radio or TV shows. As a band, we’d normally be playing in clubs and doing our own thing, not taking ourselves too seriously. Then if we arrived at something like the BBC for a radio show - or more often a TV show - there would be an orchestra that would do the theme tune, and these were the real musicians. These guys could even read music!

I think once we were working with those kind of people, and they were liking what we were doing and I felt like we were playing well, that’s when I started to feel like a real musician myself.

PaulMcCartney.com: At what point did you realise your music had changed the world? Or had, at least, helped change attitudes in the world?

P: I suppose it was our first big success in America. I started to realise that the attention was not just local, and it was around the time of Sgt Pepper when we started seeing our clothes and the music we were making getting copied on an international level. Although this had happened before at home, with people getting the Beatle haircut and all dressing in a similar fashion, it was around about Sgt Pepper that you could feel the worldwide movement. You could feel that people in California were thinking about what you were thinking about. And that’s when people started saying to us, ‘Wow man, you know your music changed my life!’ So, I think around about that time I started to think it was changing the world.

PMc.com: Did you feel an added responsibility about what you were doing, or did you try not to think about it?

P: No. We’d have to give up if we felt responsible! People did say we should take some responsibility, because we were writing songs that were sneakily about drugs or sneakily about sex and stuff, which we knew young people were listening to. But we just had to put it to one side and think, ‘No, this is what it's like for us’. And of course, the other thing to bear in mind is that a lot of our music had a good message too. A lot of peace and love, a lot of sympathy for each other, but even then we didn't feel the responsibility of passing on these themes to other people. You just had to get on and do what felt right.

NEW RELEASE IN JANUARY 2021 : JOHN LENNON AUDIO BOX SET WITH 159 NEW MIXES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to a new post on PlasticOnoBand.com: Next release in January 2021 : John Lennon Audio Box Set with 159 new mixes.

 

 

 

 

 

NEIL INNES: A NEW BBC RADIO DOCUMENTARY SERIES

Diane Morgan celebrates the life and work of Neil Innes, the music and comedy legend of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band & The Rutles. A towering talent, occasionally known as the 7th Python & regularly found with a duck on his head. His legacy of music and comedy is rich, inspiring and inspired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neil said of his work, “Shakespeare wrote comedies as well as dramas. I’m just like Shakespeare, except with better songs.” His influence permeates modern comedy and his back catalogue is diverse and prolific. Neil wrote and performed anarchic rock with The Bonzos, he penned and performed pitch-perfect pastiches of the Beatles for The Rutles, he appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Life of Brian and he is one of only two non-Pythons with a writing credit on Monty Python’s Flying Circus – the other being Douglas Adams. He released over 20 albums including How Sweet To Be An Idiot, Innes Book of Records, and Recycled Vinyl Blues. And on top of being comedically and musically gifted, he was also a really nice man. A beautiful, kind, gentle soul. Considered, absurd, and delightful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: George Harrison with Neil Innes during "Crackerbox Palace" promo clip, 1976.

 

We’re going to celebrate his life, work and absurdist tendencies in this three hour collage of scraps and archive. There are old interviews, performances and programmes, conversations with family, friends and fans including his wife of over fifty years Yvonne, bandmates Phil Jackson, Ken Thornton, John Halsey (better known to Rutles fans as Barry Wom), producer Ian Keill, and engineer Steve James, musical arranger for the Rutles John Altman and Pythons Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin. In Part Three, Ouch!, we take a look at Neil's work with the Monty Python team on television, film and record, his work with Eric Idle on Rutland Weekend Television and The Rutles, and how the fictional outfit with a "legend that would last a lifetime" became a living, breathing, and touring band with adoring fans.

Neil died on Sunday 29th December 2019. He was 75. At the time of his death, he was working on a new album, and a project called Radio Noir, part-audio memoir, part-experimental work of art, part- exploration of the human brain and you will hear some extracts and some unreleased songs throughout the programme – that have never been broadcast.

The radio episodes will premiere HERE

Part 1: 2nd December 2020 - 11:00am GMT.

Part 2: 9th December 2020 - 11:00am GMT.

Part 3: 16th December 2020 - 11:00am GMT.

Produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Laura Grimshaw.

PAUL MCCARTNEY ADMITS HE OCCASIONALLY FORGETS HIS OWN BEATLES LYRICS

"I'll be doing a song, let's say 'Eleanor Rigby' or something, and I'm on autopilot," the Beatles star tells the Smartless podcast.

 

Paul has revealed that even music icons can experience a bad day at the office!
"I'll be doing a song, let's say 'Eleanor Rigby' or something, and I'm on autopilot," the Beatles legend, 78, said on the latest episode of the Smartless podcast, released Monday.
"I'm starting to think 'Oh, what am I going to have for dinner later? Maybe you won't have the soup but maybe you'll just go for the main course…' And I go 'STOP!' Because I'm singing 'Eleanor Rigby.'"
"A couple of bits of my head are going in different places," he continues. "So sometimes that breaks down and I forget the song but remember the soup!"

To rectify the problem, Paul uses a teleprompter for his live performances. He also hasn't had to worry about zoning out on stage for the majority of 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic which, among other things, has prevented him from headlining the 50th anniversary of the Glastonbury Festival.
Instead, Paul has used his self-isolation to record a new solo album called McCartney III, which is due for release on Dec. 18.

It represents the third part of a musical trilogy that started with his 1970 solo album McCartney and was later followed by McCartney II in 1980.
"It's like a hobby. I'm very lucky," McCartney tells Smartless hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes about his continued love of music.
"I'll go home and just pick up a guitar while I'm watching TV and tinker around with something, you know," he adds. "It [music] really is something that still entrances me."

 

One thing the music legend isn't quite so enamored with is the fame that comes with his day job:
"I think it's a safety measure," adds Paul.
"I know I'm very famous, but I don't want to walk around like I'm very famous. I like that bit that I had when I grew up of just going on a bus and just being, you know…"
"But I do separate 'him' from 'me,'" he adds. "So, me, I don't like to take pictures when people say, 'Can I have a picture?’ because everyone has got a camera in the world. And so I say 'I'm sorry, I don't do pictures.'"
Paul continues, "I sometimes feel like I have to say, 'Look, I’m happy to talk to you. Sit down. We can talk.' Because I like that. Because I'm still me. The minute I put my arm around you, or you put your arm around me, I feel like the monkey in St. Tropez. 'Come and have your picture taken with the monkey.' I don't like that. It puts me off."

About the want to grill McCartney on his time with the Beatles:
"I'm the world's worst rememberer of Beatles' history," he adds. "I just think, 'Well there's always going to be someone who knows. So, I'll just ask someone!'"

WHY JOHN LENNON RETURNED HIS MBE TO THE QUEEN

In the late sixties, John chose to use his unquestionable platform to make a series of statements about the current state of society, most of them championing a desire and need for world peace, and there was one iconic moment which would shake British culture. 

Being awarded an honour by the Queen is about as high as praise can get in Britain. When John Lennon returned his in protest, the very foundations of the country were rumbled.

On October 26th, 1965, The Beatles, dressed in their usual suits, took to Buckingham Palace along with the rest of the award winners from that year’s Birthday Honours. “We thought being offered the MBE was as funny as everyone else thought it was,”  John once recalled. “We all met and agreed it was daft…then it all just seemed part of the game we’d agreed to play.” Meeting the Queen is always nerve-wracking but, perhaps because of their newfound confidence, it seemed to matter little to the group. “She said to me, ‘Have you been working hard lately?’ And I couldn’t think what we had been doing so I said, ‘No, we’ve been having a holiday,'” John later recalled. “We’d been recording, but I couldn’t remember.” 

 
After years of struggling to align his values with that of the British government and larger ruling bodies, John decided enough was enough. On November 25th, 1969, John called a press conference to announce that he would be returning his MBE as a deliberate act of protest and promotion.

 

 

 
When asked during the press conference why he was returning his honour, the singer replied:

“As a protest against violence and war, especially Britain’s involvement in Biafra, which most of the British public aren’t aware of.” “All the press, TV and radios, slant all the news on Biafra,” John continued, “All the stuff I learned on Biafra from journalists, off the cuff, folks, is a different story and I began to be ashamed to be British. I’m a patriotic nationalist, Yoko can vouch for that — I’m always talking about Britain invented radar and all the things we’ve done. But, every day, I began to worry a bit more about it. I was gonna send the MBE back anyway, I could’ve done it privately but the press would have found out anyway, you would’ve been here a week later, instead. Less impact.” 

 

John  Lennon sent back his medal, the one which the band are wearing on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, with a note, a transcription of which you can read below. It was sent directly to both the Prime Minister and her majesty the Queen. He was always determined to ensure that his very public protest was given maximum exposure.

“Your Majesty,

“I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts.

“With love.

“John Lennon of Bag.” 

 

Watch a short clip from the press conference of John returning his MBE,November 1969: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ0uoTyNu6Y

 

 

 

DOUBLE FANTASY ALBUM SIGNED BY JOHN LENNON IN DECEMBER 1980 MAY FETCH $2 MILLION IN AUCTION

Just hours before his murder, John Lennon signed the Double Fantasy album. The album cover shows John kissing his wife Yoko Ono on the cover, and it’s expected to sell for as much as $2 million at Goldin Auctions. 

 

Back in October, Sotheby’s hosted an auction celebrating the world’s greatest pop group Beatles, by offering a compelling selection like personal items of John Lennon’s; a pair of round glasses, and his detention sheet from when the late Beatle was in school.

 

It’s the rare john Lennon signed album that is creating a buzz seeking $850,000. Bob Zafian, a spokesman for the seller, says, “I have never come across a piece with such provenance. Police reports, fingerprint documentation, letters from the [district attorney], it goes on and on.”

 
The original owner, a lifelong Beatles fan, sold the item for an alleged $150,000 (£94,000) in 1999. It is now up for sale via Moments in Time.

ALL THINGS MUST PASS AT 50 - TOMORROW ON BBC RADIO 4

Composer Nitin Sawhney tells the story of George Harrison’s most successful album and shows how its themes, lyrics and musical style put it ahead of its time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In November 1970 a triple album was released by the Beatle previously known as ‘the Quiet One’. George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass was unique, not because it was number one around the world, but because of its fascination with Eastern religion.

Growing up in the 1970s, musician and composer Nitin Sawhney was aware of George Harrison and his interest in Indian classical music, particularly his close connection with Ravi Shankar. He knew Harrison’s hit singles, but his most famous album, All Things Must Pass, remained unexplored. Was this LP, written in the latter years of the 1960s already out of date in 1970, or was it in fact ahead of its time, with its heart-felt lyrics and religious themes? This month sees the 50th anniversary of the its release and so is a good time to reappraise George Harrison’s most successful album.

Interviewees include Olivia Harrison, Michael Palin, Jools Holland, biographers Graeme Thomson and Joshua M. Greene, keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, drummer Alan White, and guitarist Dave Mason.

Presenter: Nitin Sawhney
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4

Tomorrow on BBC Radio 4 - 57 minutes.

 

RINGO STARR WEARS ODD-COLOURED SOCKS AGAINST BULLYING

Ringo Starr has marked anti-bullying week by sharing a photo of himself on Instagram in which he wears odd-coloured socks. 

 

 

In the picture, Ringo, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, is seated on a chair in his backyard, giving one of his characteristically generous smiles for the camera.
He is wearing a blue tracksuit and - wait for it - two different-colored socks, a metaphorical image for individuality and diversity.
Ringo was doing his bit for the anti-bullying week, which runs from November 16 to 20.
Ringo asked his fans to unite against the many instances of bullying that happen every day.
"Peace, Love and Odd Socks – I’m wearing these in support of Odd Socks Day to celebrate individuality and Unite Against Bullying," wrote the iconic drummer. "Peace and love."
Other celebs who have weighed in against bullying include Chris Bisson from Coronation Street, Craig David and Briony May Williams, a Great British Bake Off finalist.

WAS THERE EVER ACTUALLY A FEUD BETWEEN JOHN LENNON AND ROD STEWART?

An apparent feud between John Lennon and Rod Stewart allegedly began with the fact that one of Stewart’s songs posed similarities to that of the Beatles. Before he died, John spoke out about these similarities between the two songs, suggesting Stewart’s song “The Killing of Georgie” sounds very similar to John’s “Don’t Let Me Down.”

 

 

“By the way, Rod Stewart turned that [Don’t Let Me Down] into ‘[Georgie] don’t go-o-o.’ That’s one the publishers never noticed. Why didn’t he just sing ‘Don’t Let Me Down’? The same reason I don’t sing other people’s stuff: because you don’t get paid.”

Stewart opened up about this in 2016 to The Guardian, acknowledging the similarities between the two songs. “It does sound like it. Nothing wrong with a good steal! I’m sure if you look back to the 60s, you’d find other songs with those three chords and that melody line.”
In reference to the song itself, Stewart says, “I used to camp it up something terrible when we played the songs. We used to have a lamp post come down onto the stage. I’d lean on it and sing.”

In regards to Beatles songs being stolen or ripped off, Paul McCartney seemed to not mind too much. He actually spoke about how the Beatles used a similar bassline to Chuck Berry’s “I’m talking about you” in their 1963 song “I Saw Her Standing There.” “I played exactly the same notes as he did and it fit our number perfectly,” McCartney says of the tune.

“When I tell people about it, I find few of them believe me. It’s OK to steal a bass line,” he continues. However, Chuck’s publisher actually went on to sue John over a line used in “Come Together.” John says of the song at the time, “It’s one of my favourite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favourite Lennon tracks, let’s say that. It’s funky, it’s bluesy, and I’m singing it pretty well. I like the sound of the record. You can dance to it. I’ll buy it!”
So, aside from alleged plagiarism and stealing melodies, there actually hasn’t been much of a ‘feud’ between them, ever. Given John’s experience with Chuck (and other instances of musicians ‘borrowing’ lines or melodies from other songs) it seems like this is actually common in the music industry.

RINGO STARR: "I MADE MY FIRST KIT WHEN I CAME OUT OF HOSPITAL OUT OF BISCUIT TINS AND FIREWOOD"

Why Ringo Starr was hospitalized for a year when he was a kid?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As he relayed to NPR's Terry Gross during a 1995 interview, he was first hospitalized at the age of 6 when his appendix burst. This led to peritonitis, which the Mayo Clinic defines as "inflammation of the peritoneum," the membrane that lines the abdominal wall, covering the internal organs. In Ringo's own words, peritonitis is still dangerous, but "in 1947, it was very dangerous." To top it all off, after six months he was finally on the mend, and got so excited one day that he fell out of bed "and ripped open all these stitches in my stomach," requiring doctors to "dive in again and sew me up." All told, young Ringo ended up staying in the hospital for a year.

This wasn't the last experience young Ringo had with long-term hospitalization. In his NPR interview, he went on to discuss a second long term bout with illness at the age of 13, when he came down with tuberculosis, an infectious disease mainly affecting the lungs, spread through droplets released into the air. 

Ringo noted that TB was very common in his industrial neighborhood in Liverpool, England, where there were often "six or seven cases in every street where people were just in the living room dying of TB." Starr was saved from this fate by the discovery of the antibiotic streptomycin and was consequently "shipped off to a greenhouse in the country" where "they put all us kids ... and let us breathe some decent air for a change."

This led to another year of recovery for Ringo, but his stay in the country may have ultimately been responsible for his future career. Starr reminisced that in addition to keeping the patients busy by letting them knit dishcloths, a teacher "would come in with musical instruments, being drums, tambourines, maracas, triangles — all percussive stuff." Ringo got a drum and took to it right away, refusing to give it up for a different instrument during subsequent music classes. Ringo said: "I made my first kit when I came out of hospital out of biscuit tins and firewood." The rest is rock and roll history.

WHEN PRINCE FIRST HEARD THE BEATLES

Some believe Prince based his album Around the World in a Day on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band after listening to the Fab Four for the first time. Is this rumor true? Here’s a look at what a member of the Revolution and Prince himself had to say.

In an interview with Diffuser.fm, Bobby Z. of the Revolution discussed the time he played Sgt. Pepper on Prince’s tour bus and the Purple one heard the Fab Four for the first time. Prince heard the song “Good Morning, Good Morning.” The avant-garde song features animal sounds and snorts.

“He said, ‘What’s that?’” Z. recalled. “We said, ‘That’s Sgt. Pepper.’ He went, ‘The Beatles. Ehhh? Really?’ You know, it was just like that. He walked in [and we were like] ‘No, no, no, no, not this song. Start it over.” And, of course, he didn’t have the patience, but I know he went back and listened to that song and realized that it was much better. Not better, but ‘Good Morning Good Morning,’ that’s just a novelty track on an amazing album.” Z. felt this moment had significant impact on the Purple One.

“But that moment, I think he realized that The Beatles were more than he thought,” Z. recalled. “He just kind of swallowed them up.” Z. believed Prince listened to the Fab Four’s psychedelic output without bothering to listen to their earlier albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver. He added “I’m assuming that by swallowing up Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt. Pepper that Around the World in a Day is definitely influenced by it.” However, acknowledged Prince wouldn’t like him assuming so much.

What did Prince himself have to say about The Beatles’ influence on Around the World in a Day — or the lack thereof? He told Rolling Stone the Fab Four did not inspire the album. “What they say is that The Beatles are the influence. The influence wasn’t The Beatles. They were great for what they did, but I don’t know how that would hang today.”

Around the World in a Day isn’t just a psychedelic on a musical level — it had busy, colorful cover art which recalls the Sgt. Pepper cover. Despite this, Prince said the Sgt. Pepper cover did not inspire the cover of his album. Instead, he said Around the World in a Day had oddball cover art because he didn’t want the album’s cover to be another picture of him. After all, some of his previous albums like Purple Rain and Dirty Mind featured images of the Purple One.

Sgt. Pepper reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. That’s a fitting position for an album often considered the best album ever. Around the World in a Day reached the peak of the Billboard 200 as well. Although Sgt. Pepper did not inspire Around the World in a Day, the public embraced both albums.

CAMILLA DUCHESS OF CORNWALL CONFESSES SHE´S A BEATLES FAN

Camilla Duchess of Cornwall made a surprising confession during her latest virtual engagement. The Duchess told an elderly fan she was "a great fan of the Beatles."

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, 73, has not let England's new lockdown keep her from royal duty and on Friday carried out an important engagement. The Duchess joined a video call with a community project in Brighton to mark the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) Meals on Wheels Week.
Clarence House tweeted a clip of the virtual engagement in which Camilla opened up about her younger years.

The tweet read: "To celebrate @NACCCaterCare #MealsOnWheelsWeek, The Duchess of Cornwall has made a video call to @thebevy community-owned pub in Brighton to speak to their Chatterboxes support group for elderly people isolated by the pandemic."

During the call, Camilla spoke to one of the elderly people who benefits from The Bevy's Chatterboxes support group.

The Duchess asked him: "You enjoy dressing up do you? And singing along?"
He replied: "Oh yes, we wear top hats and all that sort of thing."

Camilla asked: "What music do you like?"

The man replied: "The Beatles."

Camilla responded with a surprising confession of her own.

The Duchess said: "Oh good, so did I.

"I was a great fan of the Beatles. I used to go to their concerts."