Rolling Stone is about to release a special issue counting down the magazine’s choices for the 100 best Beatles songs of all time, and previewed the list by posting the Top 10 onrollingstone.com. Maybe it’s just that Rocks Off doesn’t have quite the encyclopedic knowledge of the Fab Four as the RS staff, but 100 songs seems excessive to us.
Although we would hardly be the first to shout John, Paul, George and Ringo’s praises from the mountaintop, most of the people here at Rocks Off - although not quite everyone - count themselves about as big of a Beatles fan as they come. Short of blowing rent money on a bunch of live bootlegs from the Cavern Club or Reeperbahn or trolling eBay for a matching set of Yellow Submarine coffee mugs, that is.
Still, the Beatles weren’t perfect. Any band has its share of bum notes and filler tracks, and like so many other things, the Fabs were first among equals here as well. We suspect Paul McCartney or Ringo would agree, and we’d be glad to pick their brains for their lists of songs they wish they could take back if they’d care to ring us up.
That George Harrison kept recording until just two months before his death at age 58 in November of 2001 was its own blessing. After all, he hadn’t put out a new album of solo material since 1987.But you wondered what would become of Harrison’s final works, since producer Jeff Lynnehad decided to finish the project in George’s absence. After all, this former frontman of 1970s hitmakers the Electric Light Orchestra—perhaps even more so than Harrison—was prone to unsuccessfully ornate albums.What happened was one of the best two or three records Harrison issued. For me, it ranks right alongside George’s debut and his 1979 self-titled album.READ MORE читать далее…
FULL TRACKLISTS AND COVER ART UNVEILED FOR EIGHT ALBUMS REMASTERED FROM LENNON’S ORIGINAL MIXES AND SEVERAL NEW COLLECTIONS TO BE RELEASED ON 4TH OCTOBERSweeping Catalogue Initiative Overseen by Yoko Ono and EMI Music Commemorates Lennon’s 70th Birthday
LONDON, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ — EMI Music unveils today the complete tracklists and cover art for a broad selection of remastered John Lennon albums and new collections to be released on CD and digitally on 4 October (5 October in North America). Announced last month, EMI Music’s global John Lennon ‘Gimme Some Truth’ catalogue campaign is being overseen by Yoko Ono and commemorates the music legend’s 70th birthday on 9 October, 2010. Featured in the sweeping initiative are eight remastered John Lennon solo albums and new titles including Double Fantasy Stripped Down, Power To The People: The Hits,Gimme Some Truth, and the John Lennon Signature Box.
When The Beatles stepped onto Sullivan’s New York stage on Sunday, February 9, 1964, to make their American TV debut, 86 percent of all TVs on at that hour–73 million Americans–tuned in. It was the most-watched program in history to that point and remains one of the most-watched programs of all time. Nearly 50 years after the four landmark live performances of The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” those legendary appearances with newly remastered audio and carefully restored video will finally be made available worldwide on home video through a major distributor. It was announced today by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) and SOFA Entertainment thatThe 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles will be released September 7, 2010, by UMe , a division of Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company. The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles was produced by SOFA Entertainment.
“I met The Beatles while we were playing in Germany. We’d seen them in Liverpool, but they were a nothing little band then, just putting it together. In fact, they weren’t really a band at all.”
“So we went in and we did the album in twelve hours… because we did everything we’d been doing on the road for the last year or so, you know.”
About recording the Beatles’ first album
“I’ve never really done anything to create what has happened. It creates itself. I’m here because it happened. But I didn’t do anything to make it happen apart from saying ‘Yes’”
Yoko Ono describes Iceland ceremony, show with Sean; producer Jack Douglas on a new box set that includes previously unheard home recordings
The celebrations for what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday, on October 9th of this year, have begun to take shape. On October 5th, EMI will reissue freshened versions of Lennon’s solo albums, along with some previously unreleased home recordings. And on the actual anniversary, Yoko Ono will hold her annual lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower on an island off ReykjavÌk, Iceland. “The fact that this year is John’s 70th birthday year is very special for us all,” Ono tells Rolling Stone. “We are all together celebrating John for having given us so much good energy in his lifetime and now.”
READ MORE Photos: John & Yoko: A New York Love Story читать далее…
Beatles last concert, Candlestick Park (VIDEO) The Beatles last concert was held in Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California on August 29, 1966, a whopping 44 years ago today!
Overseas buyer splashes out for toilet Lennon told builder to use as ‘a plant pot’
The porcelain toilet from Tittenhurst Park, Lennon’s Berkshire home between 1969 and 1972, was sold for £9,500 at auction. Photograph: Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts/PA
A porcelain lavatory which John Lennon told a builder to use as a “plant pot” has fetched £9,500 – nearly 10 times its guide price – at an auction today.
The loo was used by the music legend when he lived at Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire between 1969 and 1972.
Lennon told builder John Hancock to keep it and “use it as a plant pot”, after he installed a new one.
The toilet was stored in a shed at Mr Hancock’s home for 40 years until he died recently.
It was expected to fetch only £1,000 at the auction at the 33rd annual Beatles Convention in Liverpool today. But an overseas investor forked out £9,500 for it.
Auction organiser and Beatles expert Stephen Bailey said: “It is unbelievable. We had bids coming in from all over the place but it went to a private overseas buyer.”
The loo was among the highlights of the auction of Beatles memorabilia.
Also up for grabs was a rare mono-sound copy of Two Virgins, which Lennon recorded with wife Yoko Ono. It was expected to fetch at least £2,500.
When the LP was released in November 1968, it was sold in brown paper bags as the sleeve controversially featured a naked picture of the famous couple.
A limited release of 5,000 stereo versions of the album were available in shops, but fans had to write to the record label to purchase a mono copy of the record.
The exact number of mono copies sold is unknown. However, organisers say it is likely to be as few as a “couple of hundred”.
JULIAN LENNON HONOR: Julian Lennon, Peggy Conlon,
president and chief executive offficer of the Advertising Council,
and the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation will be honored at a
special Sept. 14 Butterfly Gala by the Lupus Foundation in New York City.
Lennon will be honored “for his efforts to bring lupus to the forefront of
popular culture, raise critically important dollars for research,
and inspire those living with lupus and their loved ones around the world to
band together and advocate for safer, more effective treatments and a cure.”
read more читать далее…
The cover for “Double Fantasy Stripped Down.”
Photo: EMI/Capitol Records
The cover photo for “Double Fantasy Stripped Down,” to be released Oct. 5, is now on Amazon.com. The new release will pair new versions of the album songs with Lennon’s original remastered mix of the album.
“‘Double Fantasy Stripped Down’ really allows us to focus our attention on John’s amazing vocals. Technology has advanced so much that, conversely, I wanted to use new techniques to really frame these amazing songs and John’s voice as simply as possible,” Yoko Ono said in a statement announcing the Lennon remasters. “By stripping down some of the instrumentation the power of the songs shines through with an enhanced clarity. ‘Double Fantasy Stripped Down’ will be complemented by the original album in the 2CD format. It was whilst working on the new version of this album that I was hit hardest emotionally, as this was the last album John released before his passing.”
The Ten Worst Beatles Songs Of All Time 
