Tag Archives: Beatles

Beatles, Great albums, Great Bands

July 10: The Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night in 1964


A_Hard_Day's_Nigth

July 10: The Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night in 1964

“We were different. We were older. We knew each other on all kinds of levels that we didn’t when we were teenagers. The early stuff – the Hard Day’s Night period, I call it – was the sexual equivalent of the beginning hysteria of a relationship. And the Sgt Pepper-Abbey Road period was the mature part of the relationship.”
– John Lennon (1980)

A Hard Day’s Night is the third album by The Beatles; it was released on July 10, 1964. The album is a soundtrack to the A Hard Day’s Night film, starring the Beatles. The American version of the album was released two weeks earlier, on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records, with a different track listing. This is the first Beatles album to be recorded entirely on four-track tape, allowing for good stereo mixes.

HDN

In 2000, Q placed A Hard Day’s Night at number 5 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 388 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The soundtrack songs were recorded in late February, and the non-soundtrack songs were recorded in June. The title song itself was recorded on April 16.

“…but A Hard Day’s Night is perhaps the band’s most straightforward album: You notice the catchiness first, and you can wonder how they got it later.

The best example of this is the title track– the clang of that opening chord to put everyone on notice, two burning minutes thick with percussion (including a hammering cowbell!) thanks to the new four-track machines George Martin was using, and then the song spiraling out with a guitar figure as abstractedly lovely as anything the group had recorded.”

– Tom Ewing, Pitchfork

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Beatles, Ringo Starr

July 7: Ringo Starr was born in 1940 Happy 75th Birthday!

Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band

July 7: Ringo Starr was born in 1940

Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed and was in one of the top groups in Britain, but especially in Liverpool. So Ringo’s talent would have come out one way or the other … whatever that spark is in Ringo, we all know it but can’t put our finger on it. Whether it’s acting, drumming, or singing, I don’t know. There’s something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced as an individual … Ringo is a damn good drummer.
~John Lennon (Sept 1980)

Beatles accept award Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 1988:

Nice tribute video from youtube:

From Wikipedia:

Richard Starkey, MBE (born 7 July 1940), better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He joined the Beatles in August 1962, taking the place of Pete Best. In addition to his drumming, Starr is featured on lead vocals on a number of successful Beatles songs (in particular, “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Yellow Submarine”, and the Beatles version of “Act Naturally”). He is credited as a co-writer of the songs “What Goes On” and “Flying”, and as the writer of “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Octopus’s Garden”.

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Beatles, John lennon

21 John Lennon songs that would have been great Beatles songs

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john_lennon_new_york_city

Definition of BEATLESQUE:
of, relating to, or suggestive of the musical style or technique of the Beatles
– Websters Dictionary

There are songs by the members of the Beatles that were not used by them but that re-appeared on their solo albums. Songs that was written in the last days of The Beatles and discarded for some reason or another. A lot of songs suffered that faith, not just Lennon songs, but some of the best songs from George Harrison and Paul McCartney’s first albums as well. Some of John Lennon’s stuff from that area would not be out-of-place on a Beatle record (nor some of George or Paul’s songs for that matter).

Today we are looking at John Lennon’s solo output. I will pick his most Beatle-sounding songs, songs that would fit in on an album by the Fab-Four. Some from the last days of The Beatles, some from later albums. This isn’t supposed to be a best of John Lennon list (but maybe it is…), but his most “Beatles sounding” songs , as I said, songs that would have been good enough for a Beatles album.

Please send in your suggestions in the comments.

Here is the post about Paul McCartney’s “solo Beatles songs”

Here are my choices for John Lennon:

Jealous Guy first appeared on John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine.The song’s genesis came in India, after The Beatles attended a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi about a “son of the mother nature”. This inspired both Paul McCartney and John Lennon to write songs about the same subject. McCartney’s composition “Mother Nature’s Son” was selected for The Beatles (The White Album), while Lennon’s song “Child of Nature” was not. However, both were demoed at George Harrison’s Esher home in May 1968. The demo featured Lennon’s double-tracked vocal and playing an acoustic guitar. After that, Lennon continued to play it into the Get Back sessions. Eventually, the lyrics were scrapped and replaced by the now well known “Jealous Guy” lyrics for Imagine.

Three recordings of “Child of Nature” are currently known. The first is a demo of the song recorded at the home of George Harrison in May 1968. The second, on which George sings backing vocals, was recorded at Twickenham Film Studios on 2 January 1969. A third recording was made at Apple Studios on 24 January.

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Beatles, Paul McCartney

21 Paul McCartney songs that would have been great Beatles songs

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nature-paul-paul-mccartney

Definition of BEATLESQUE:
of, relating to, or suggestive of the musical style or technique of the Beatles
– Websters Dictionary

There are songs by the members of the Beatles that were not used by them but that re-appeared on their solo albums. Songs that was written in the last days of The Beatles and discarded for some reason or another. A lot of songs suffered that faith, not just McCartney songs, but some of the best songs from George Harrison and John Lennon’s first albums as well. Some of Paul McCartney’s stuff from that area would not be out-of-place on a Beatle record (nor some of George or John’s songs for that matter).

Today we are looking at Paul McCartney (just because I’m seeing him in concert for the first time on Tuesday). I will pick his most Beatle-sounding songs, songs that would fit in on an album by the Fab-Four. Some from the last days of The Beatles, some from later albums. This isn’t supposed to be a best of Paul McCartney list (but maybe it is…), but his most “Beatles sounding” songs , as I said, songs that would have been good enough for a Beatles album.

Please send in your suggestions in the comments.

If this is a popular post, I’ll do another one with Lennon and Harrison songs that would not be out-of-place on a Beatles record.

It was really popular, so here is my Lennon list!

Junk, the song was originally under consideration for The Beatles (also known as the White Album). It was passed over for that LP, as it was for Abbey Road. It was eventually released on McCartney’s debut solo album McCartney in 1970:

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Beatles, Flaming Lips, video of the day

Video of the day: I am the walrus – The Beatles

 

Video of the day: I am the walrus – The Beatles

One of Lennons best songs and an early “music video”.

From Wikipedia:
The genesis of the lyrics is found in three song ideas that Lennon was working on, the first of which was inspired by hearing a police siren at his home in Weybridge; Lennon wrote the lines “Mis-ter cit-y police-man” to the rhythm of the siren. The second idea was a short rhyme about Lennon sitting in his garden, while the third was a nonsense lyric about sitting on a corn flake. Unable to finish the ideas as three different songs, he combined them into one.
Lennon received a letter from a pupil at Quarry Bank High School, which he had attended. The writer mentioned that the English master was making his class analyse Beatles’ lyrics. (Lennon wrote an answer, dated 1 September 1967, which was auctioned by Christie’s of London in 1992). Lennon, amused that a teacher was putting so much effort into understanding the Beatles’ lyrics, wrote the most confusing lyrics he could.

Funny guy, that Lennon bloke!

Bonus video, Flaming Lips version:

– Hallgeir