Sean Ono Lennon has defended the reaction that Paul McCartney gave to the media following the death of his father, John Lennon, in 1980. Following the heartbreaking murder of Lennon outside the Dakota Building in New York, McCartney wasn’t given time to take stock of the terrible and tragic event before the world’s media were […]
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It’s hard to really gauge the kind of legacy that Kurt Cobain wanted to leave behind in Nirvana. He may have been proud to have touched a nerve whenever he worked on his records, but no one would have looked at someone that openly resented how his own records sounded and say that he was […]
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Inspiration can come from anywhere, but it’s much more likely to hit when things are looking up, such that the world feels like it might turn forever, and it’s something George Harrison knew better than anyone else. Another truism about inspiration is that it can, eventually, dry up. Not always, of course, for there are […]
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Artistic inspiration often comes from the most unlikely surroundings, and although it is easy to envision every one of Led Zeppelin’s hard rock riffs and expansive long-playing masterpieces being dragged from the endearingly dirty gutters of rock and roll, where all guitar-based abrasion surely resides, Jimmy Page and the gang often took their core inspiration […]
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In the days following the November 17th, 1980, release of his long-awaited comeback album, Double Fantasy, most of the interviews John Lennon conducted focused on the same themes as the songs on the record, particularly the notion of “starting over“. In a Los Angeles Times piece that autumn, in which Lennon was eerily described as […]
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Whenever you’re doubting just how attainable a glittering career in rock and roll really is, it’s worth bearing in mind that everybody has to start somewhere. Even The Beatles, whose place at the top of music history is borderline unbeatable and the reputation of the stardom almost contradicts the idea of DIY musicianship, they too […]
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Both John Lennon and George Harrison belonged to a musical generation that shared a near-universal teen soundtrack, centred on rock ‘n’ roll’s seismic lightning bolt from across the Atlantic. There was wiggle room, sure. Eric Clapton was more tethered to the old blues tradition, while Graham Bond was fundamentally shaped by jazz’s fluid rhythms, but […]
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Everyone knows by now that awards shows don’t match up with true success or true cultural impact. Some of the best artists in history, the best albums ever put to tape, or even the best films ever made, have gone without trophies as award bodies, like the Grammys, shun icons or only realise their worth […]
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By the end of his time with The Beatles, George Harrison had started to grow restless. The official story pins the songwriter as one of the hit-making machine’s most frustrated cogs. While Paul McCartney and John Lennon continued to dominate the Liverpudlian group’s recording sessions, Harrison grew increasingly disillusioned with his place in the band. […]
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Robert Plant joined Led Zeppelin just as they sprang from the ashes of The Yardbirds. The 20-year-old singer had been the frontman of his West Bromwich-based group Band of Joy when he was approached by guitarist Jimmy Page, who was in search of a new vocalist for his new incarnation of The Yardbirds. As Plant […]
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