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The Rolling Stones, Wild Horses
There is something about “Wild Horses,” something quite emotional. I remember driving home one snowy night when I was a 19 year old, thinking how perfect the song was against the lightly falling snow. Every time I hear it, time just seems to slow down, and it feels like the whole world is listening, all…
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Paul McCartney's John Lennon Tribute, Here Today, Most Emotional Performance Ever
I’m nearly done with Peter Doggett’s excellent biography, You Never Give Me Your Money, a book that chronicles in precise detail the breakup of the Beatles. The book is one of the best Beatle books I’ve ever read, mainly because it delves into the Beatles’s complex interpersonal relationships and not so much their broader history…
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The Beatles, If I Needed Someone
“If I Needed Someone” written by George Harrison in 1965, is one of my all time favorite songs. George was listening to the Byrds, especially Roger McGuinn’s “The Bells of Rhymeny,” which George based his guitar riff on. Like all great artists, the Beatles stole from other great artists, but what was special about them…
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James Taylor, Something in the Way She Moves
I don’t know too much about James Taylor, but perhaps its time I start. I’m just gonna rattle off what I know off the top of my head. He was a recovering heroin addict, suffering from severe depression, when at some point he finally put his life together and allowed his incredible talent to flourish. …
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Yellow Submarine Week, Eleanor Rigby
When the Yellow Submarine movie came out in 1968, the Beatles were already edging away from the psychedelic movement they helped flower across the world. In 68, the Beatles were recording the “White Album,” a record more psychedelic in the abstract than the literal. All and all they were inching back towards their rock and…
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Yellow Submarine Week, Part 1!
Ahh, Yellow Submarine, the movie responsible for injecting coolness in every child that comes across it at just the right age. I personally believe that any age is the right age for Yellow Submarine, and that is why, naturally, Yellow Submarine Week is commencing today on this very website. Yellow Submarine is infamous for not…
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Battle of the Bands, Part 5, Stones Surrender to the Beatles in Cleveland, perform "I Saw Her Standing There," as Pennance
As the battle raged for decades, with both bands suffering unspeakable tragedy (Brian Jones, John Lennon), the bloodshed just HAD to end. And end it did with Mick Jagger’s historic concession in Cleveland, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Mick, clearly disgusted at being forced to admit bitter defeat, inducted the Beatles, minus…
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Paul McCartney Performs Blackbird in Abbey Road
Paul McCartney had so many wonderful moments in his time with the Beatles, some big, some small, but all beautiful. I have an ultra rare clip of the man playing “Blackbird,” his gorgeous ballad from the White Album. This is footage of Paul playing the song for Beatles producer George Martin in the Abbey Road…