Who produced Let It Be?
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Which was the 'worst ever' Beatles recording session?
Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash ‘I hate it!’ John Lennon. ‘The worst session ever’ Ringo Starr “If any single recording shows why The Beatles broke up, it’s ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’.” Ian MacDonald The Revolution in the Head “They got annoyed because Maxwell’s Silver Hammer took three days to record. Big deal.” Paul McCartney. Read More What inspired Maxwell's Silver Hammer?
Why was The Beatles last public performance on a rooftop?
For what was intended to be their final studio album, The Beatles decided to break with George Martin and the EMI/Abbey Road to approach to making records. They were open to new ideas - and with the characteristic abandon of the era went with one of the maddest proposed to them- a making-of-the-album documentary culminating in a live concert from Roman ruins in Tunisia. “The Beatles were to start playing as the sun came up,” explained director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, “and you’d see crowds flocking towards them through the day.” Within weeks, however, this Spinal Tap style project had to be abandoned. Not only were they not flying out to Tunisia, they were even refusing to go to Twickenham to rehearse. This left the film without big finish or indeed any finish at all. And the one thing everyone agreed upon was that filming needed to end quickly. Then someone suggested "Why don't we do the concert right here?" So on the 30th of January 1969 th...
How did Billy Preston nearly join The Beatles?
The Beatles first met Billy Preston before they were famous. In 1962 Brian Epstein had organised a special 'All-Star' tour, where The Beatles opened for some of their American idols. Preston played keyboards for Little Richard and the band got to know him . An invitation After occasionally crossing paths during the Beatlemania years, The Beatles and Billy Preston lost contact. Then in 1969, George Harrison escaped an acrimonious recording session by attending a Ray Charles concert. He was surprised to see Preston playing keyboards and went backstage to meet him. Harrison invited Preston to come to meet the other band members at Abbey Road. It proved an inspired move - The Beatles no longer liked each other but they were all fond of Billy Preston. His presence was not only musically beneficial but also discouraged inter-Beatle squabbling in the studio. John even suggested that he be invited to join the group, but Paul pointed out that thi...
What was the inspiration for Across the Universe?
'Words are pouring out like endless rain into a paper cup' In 1970 John Lennon gave a series of confessional interviews to Rolling Stone Magazine. Rather ungallantly, he revealed the source of the opening line of Across the Universe as a scolding from his then wife Cynthia in 1967. I was lying next to my first wife in bed ... and I was irritated. and I was thinking. She must have been going on and on about something and she'd gone to sleep and I kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream. I went downstairs and it turned into a sort of cosmic song rather than an irritated song, rather than a "Why are you always mouthing off at me?"... [The words] were purely inspirational and were given to me as boom! The tune also appears to arrived in an unusual way. Hunter Davies recalls that he was walking (in silence) with John around the garden of his Weybridge mansion. Suddenly they heard the sound of a siren from passing police c...