It was forty years ago today that Paul McCartney announced he was leaving the Beatles, thereby bringing an end to the most successfull band of all time.The announcement wasn’t a bolt out of the blue as there had been lots of speculation over the fate of the Beatles in the previous 12 months, in light of solo projects that were being undertaken and rumours of increasing disunity within the band.
Lennon had made his wishes to leave the band clear to the other members before McCartney’s announcement, so was annoyed when it appeared that Paul had taken the lead in dissolving the band. Paul’s announcement came via a press release for his first solo album “McCartney.”
At this point, it wasn’t clear whether McCartney was signalling a temporary or lasting split. When asked the reason for the split and whether or not it was permanent, he said:
“Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don’t really know.”
After relations with other members of the band soured further, McCartney made his feelings more clear in a letter to Melody Maker on August 29:
“In order to put out of its misery the limping dog of a news story which has been dragging itself across your pages for the past year, my answer to the question: ‘Will the Beatles get together again?’ is no.”
A new publication remembers that event: The Beatles break-up 40 years on: Rare photographs in new anniversary publication, Hello Goodbye .
A very good article on The Beatles and Ringo Starr especialy can be read here: Beatles Break-Up: Forty Years Later, Ringo Rules
The band that changed the face of contemporary music and culture is the one most appreciated by musicians all over the world, and probably the one that has influenced the most diverse astists from Sonic Youth to Robbie Williams and Oasis.
We all know about the fascination that Bono has had with John Lennon and The Beatles and how U2 was much influenced by the Liverpudlian. Just have a look...
Bono had a cameo appearance in the film Across the Universe, a musical film featuring songs by The Beatles. It was the U2 frontman´s first ever acting role. he sang two Beatles song in the movie: I am the Walrus and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
Bono said to RS in 2005:
"What were the first rock & roll records that you heard?
Age four. The Beatles -- "I Want to Hold Your Hand." I guess that's 1964. I remember watching the Beatles with my brother on St. Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas. The sense of a gang that they had about them, from just what I've been saying, you can tell that connected, as well as the melodic power, the haircuts and the sexuality. Which I was just probably processing."
And....
"Who else had a big impact on you, musically, when you were that age?
Before I got to the Who, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and those kinds of things -- I really remember John Lennon's Imagine. I guess I'm twelve; that's one of my first albums. That really set fire to me. It was like he was whispering in your ear -- his ideas of what's possible. Different ways of seeing the world. When I was fourteen and lost my mother, I went back to Plastic Ono Band."
And even more...
"Imagine" is the first really powerful thing to you?
Imagine and Bob Dylan. "Blowin' in the Wind" -- all that stuff -- and the folksy thing. Which is, I suppose, what set me up for John Lennon.
Dylan set you up for John Lennon?
Because it's folk. If you're interested in folk, in words and whisperings, that quiet thing. I was in my room listening on headphones on a tape recorder. It's very intimate. It's like talking to somebody on the phone, like talking to John Lennon on the phone. I'm not exaggerating to say that. This music changed the shape of the room. It changed the shape of the world outside the room; the way you looked out the window and what you were looking at.
I remember John singing "Oh My Love." It's like a little hymn. It's certainly a prayer of some kind -- even if he was an atheist. "Oh, my love/For the first time in my life/My eyes can see/I see the wind/Oh, I see the trees/Everything is clear in our world." For me it was like he was talking about the veil lifting off, the scales falling from the eyes. Seeing out the window with a new clarity that love brings you. I remember that feeling.
Yoko came up to me when I was in my twenties, and she put her hand on me and she said, "You are John's son." What an amazing compliment!
Surely there are huge connections between The Beatles and U2, but no weird-surprising ones, but the expected connections between bands that have the same musical core and sensitivity. In a way, U2 has taken up The Beatles legacy and has made it their own way.In U2, as in other bands, The Beatles live on...
U2 has made several covers of Beatles´s songs, especially live.The most remembered must be "Helter Skelter" from the "Rattle and Hum" album and film ( recorded it live at McNichols arena in Denver on November 8, 1987). Paul Mc Cartney said that this was the best cover version of their song. In March 2008, Rolling Stone Magazine voted Helter Skelter by U2 to be the best Beatles cover ever.
U2 joined Paul Mc Cartney for the thrilling performance of Sgt Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band at Live Aid.
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