By the time John Lennon left The Beatles, he was completely burned out on being a rock and roll star. The allure of being the next Elvis Presley or Little Richard looked great back when he started, but when you listen to the kind of records that he was making on Plastic Ono Band, he […]
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The Beatles achieved what most would have thought impossible, again and again. Decades later, their accomplishments still inspire, setting a standard that countless bands continue to chase. It would take too long to recount all their victories from number one singles, global domination and a fan base so obsessed with it was dubbed mania. One […]
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I think I can say with some conviction that we are all fans of The Beatles. I vehemently refuse to believe that anybody on this earth hates every single one of their songs, for there is simply so much to choose from that the reality of that is something of an impossibility. But within the […]
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Is it worse to start on a pedantic note or to let an idiom as misused as “the coolest piece of music since sliced bread” go unpunished? While I gather Paul McCartney is heaping praise on the song, what his language literally says is that the song is as bland as a piece of slice […]
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In 1968, George Harrison began flexing his muscles as a songwriter worthy of comparison to the main axis of original Beatles music at the time, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He contributed four songs to the band’s self-titled White Album, each of a markedly different character. The most famous and celebrated of these compositions is […]
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By the time The Beatles broke up, no one would have been happier than George Harrison. It did sting knowing that the band of brothers was going to be going their separate ways and working on their own music, but having been kept down for so long, Harrison finally wanted the chance to have his […]
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Celebrities are strange people. Not only are they afforded a lifestyle completely removed from the reality of ordinary folk, but they often have such an untouchable, unquestionable reputation that somebody like Ringo Starr could go on American television to talk about the size of cow molecules, and nobody thinks to question it. Whereas, in times […]
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“Father, you left me/ But I never left you/ I needed you, you didn’t need me,” John Lennon sings on ‘Mother’, his devastating take on his childhood. It was a rough one. Lennon’s father abandoned the family, came home randomly one day expecting it all to be fine, and then even attempted to kidnap his […]
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February 1963 carried confidence into a London press room. Success had arrived early and loudly for Roy Orbison, and his words reflected the certainty of a star who believed the ground beneath him was solid. When asked about a rising group from Liverpool, he smiled, laughed lightly, and dismissed them as temporary. Youth, he implied, […]
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Liverpool in February 1963 felt compressed by sound. The Cavern Club pulsed low and close, a room built for sweat and proximity rather than polish. In the crowd stood Dusty Springfield, twenty-four, already successful and quietly dissatisfied, watching The Beatles step onto the stage and turn performance into something alive. The harmonies were raw. The […]
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