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Lennon’s Best Album: If Double Fantasy & Milk and Honey Were One
In 1980 Lennon returned to the studio for the first time in almost 6 years and recorded enough material for a complete solo album. But eventually he and Yoko Ono decided to release an album comprised...
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“End of the Line”— Homages to Orbison & Eras Gone By
Beatlemania ignited in March 1963 during the group’s second British package tour. The headliners were Chris Montez and Tommy Roe from the U.S., enjoying hits with “Let’s Dance” and “Sheila,”...
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Ringo realizes a dream by recording a country album with Nashville legends.
Today “Beaucoups of Blues” (1970) stands as one of his finest moments. Click the link below to check out the story:...
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McCartney’s Coolest B-Side? “Oh Woman, Oh Why”
The rock snobs of 1971 were underwhelmed by the cute and seemingly non-tortured “Another Day,” but had they listened to the flipside they would have realized that the son of Little Richard was still...
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COME DOWN TO THE BEATLES TRIBUTE FESTIVAL IN WHITTIER, CALIFORNIA ON...
I’ll be selling books with fellow Beatle authors. It’s free from 2 pm to 7 pm. Then there’s a $50-100 fundraising concert at 7 pm hosted by KLOS “Breakfast with the Beatles” DJ Chris Carter. MORE INFO...
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46 YEARS LATER, JOHN’S DARK CLASSIC AS RELEVANT AS EVER
An acoustic demo of this song was recorded during the Get Back sessions in January 1969. McCartney chimes in on the chorus, and as can be heard on YouTube, the song is almost cheerful, miles away from...
View Article“Best of the Solo Beatles” Boxed Set
People have asked what an anthology of the Fabs’ greatest hits since 1970 would include so below is my proposed track listing. I tried to emulate the chart-topping 1973 Beatles collection 1962-1966 and...
View ArticleMy Favorite of Paul’s Classical Pieces: “Cell Growth”
McCartney’s symphony Standing Stone (1997) was the natural progression from “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and 1966’s The Family Way soundtrack (the first Beatle solo album). Recounting the rise of...
View ArticleRingo Rocks Out With Elton In “Snookeroo”
One of the 1970s stars who came closest to reaching Beatles heights was Elton John, and he worked with both Lennon and Starr in 1974. For Starr’s album Goodnight Vienna, Elton John and his lyricist...
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Macca, Michael, and The Man
“The Man” is the second of McCartney’s three collaborations with Michael Jackson, recorded in 1981 and released on Pipes of Peace (1983). Jackson wrote the lyrics, about some wise dancing man who...
View ArticleLennon’s Most Underrated Love Song? Mind Games’“Out the Blue”
In June 1973 Yoko Ono told Lennon she wanted a separation right before the sessions for the Mind Games album began began. Lennon didn’t want to believe they were through, and many Mind Games songs...
View ArticleJOHN SONGS VS. PAUL SONGS IN 1964
It’s time for the next installment of our year-by-year comparison. While they were in the Beatles, John and Paul attributed all the songs they wrote to “Lennon-McCartney.” But after 1963, most tunes...
View ArticleTHE SONGS THE BEATLES GAVE AWAY
Hosts Ryan and Chris of the excellent McCartney podcast TAKE IT AWAY and I recently discussed THE SONGS THE BEATLES GAVE AWAY TO OTHER ARTISTS. We play Paul and John’s unreleased demos and compare them...
View ArticleLennon Picks “Bony Moronie” to Kick Off 1973’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Sessions
A 1957 hit for Larry Williams, Lennon sang “Bony Moronie” in the only show his mother saw him play before her death, hence the song’s special place in his heart. It was the first song Lennon laid down...
View ArticleMcCartney Celebrates His Groups Old and New With “Band on the Run”
Bored with recording in England in 1973, McCartney checked out a list of EMI’s international recording studios and discovered one in Lagos, Nigeria. Dreaming of new African rhythms to be discovered,...
View ArticleLennon Produces Jagger’s “Too Many Cooks” During “The Lost Weekend”
In 1973 or 1974 (accounts vary) while Lennon was in L.A. during his infamous “Lost Weekend,” he produced a song for Mick Jagger — a cover of bluesman Willie Dixon’s “Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup).”...
View ArticleThe 1973 Album Living in the Material World
The long-awaited follow up to the one-two punch of All Things Must Pass and The Concert for Bangladesh, Harrison’s second solo album Living in the Material World held the number #1 in the U.S. for...
View ArticleMcCartney Gets Cubist for “Picasso’s Last Words”
When McCartney and his wife Linda were on vacation in Jamaica in 1973, they visited the set of the feature film Papillon starring Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen. Hoffman invited the couple over to...
View ArticleA review from NPR for my new book 1973: ROCK AT THE CROSSROADS
The solo Beatles appear quite a bit in the book — as it was the year of Band on the Run, Mind Games, Living in the Material World, and Ringo. Here’s a link to a review of the book from NPR:...
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