"Don't Bother Me" Written by George Harrison Produced by George Martin Recorded September 11th and 12th, 1963, EMI Studios, London Released by the Beatles on With the Beatles in Britain on November 22nd, 1963, and on Meet the Beatles in America on January 20th, 1964
The first George Harrison song to appear on a Beatles album, "Don't Bother Me" was written in mid-August 1963 while the guitarist was holed up, sick, in a hotel in Bournemouth, England, during a week-long series of Beatles shows there. Harrison was ostensibly writing about romantic desertion and the paralysis of loss, but the haunting modal melody and direct language -- "So go away/Leave me alone/Don't bother me" -- spoke volumes about Harrison's mounting distrust of stardom and desperate need for privacy amid the madness of his Beatle life. At the same time that the world was falling at his feet, Harrison was already writing and singing of his unease with success and with the band that had made it possible.
"I used to have a hang-up about telling John, Paul and Ringo I had a song for an album," Harrison admitted in 1969, "because I felt mentally, at that time, as if I was trying to compete. And in a way, the standard of the songs had to be good, because [John and Paul's] were very good. I don't want the Beatles to be recording rubbish for my sake . . . just because I wrote it."
But with its despondent words charged by a hectic Latin-rock cadence and dramatic stop-start effect in front of the chorus, "Don't Bother Me" was more sophisticated than Harrison, as a first-time composer and lyricist, got credit for at the time. In fact, the Beatles took two days and seventeen takes to get it right, practically a lifetime in the song-a-minute sessions of the time. The other Beatles all played additional percussion -- tambourine, claves, bongos -- and Harrison sealed the bleak power of the song with a short, snarling guitar solo.
As a Beatle and late-blooming songwriter, Harrison would never fully share in the respect and spotlight accorded John Lennon and Paul McCartney. But he never doubted himself as a contender. "Sometimes it's a matter of whoever pushes hardest gets the most tunes on the album -- it's down to personalities," Harrison said in that '69 interview. "I believe that if I'm going to sing songs on record, they might as well be on my own."
"A Hard Day's Night" Written by John Lennon-Paul McCartney Produced by George Martin Recorded April 16th, 1964, EMI Studios, London Released by the Beatles on A Hard Day's Night in America on June 26th, 1964, and in Britain on July 20th, 1964
It's not often that you get to hear the Beatles screw up in the studio, but outtakes of this immaculate raver, the title song of the Beatles' first feature film, are a fascinating study in George Harrison's devotion to perfection. John Lennon had just finished writing the song the day before this session, and the group recorded it in a breakneck three hours. In Take One, included on the 1995 Beatles release Anthology 1, one can hear Harrison searching for structure in his solo break, hesitantly pecking at a shred of a riff on his twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar. Another take, which first surfaced on a CD bootleg in the 1980s, features Harrison literally fumbling over his strings, losing his timing and missing notes.
But by the time the Beatles wrapped up the session, and the song, at ten o'clock that night, Harrison had become the decisive instrumental voice in one of the Beatles' biggest hits and defining records. That's his Rickenbacker spraying harmonics all over Lennon's opening chord, and that's Harrison picking the clean ringing arpeggio in the fade-out. And in the middle, he sculpted one of his most memorable solos -- a sterling upward run of notes played twice and capped each time with a striking circular flourish, with the church-bell chime of Harrison's guitar echoed on piano by George Martin.
"George, in the studio, would spend a lot of time working out solos -- nothing was done really fast," says Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked on this session. "Everything was a little bit harder for him -- nothing quite came easily." But Harrison's studiousness was a vital component in the Beatles' working methods, an important balancing factor between Lennon's impetuosity and Paul McCartney's melodic ease. "Seeing him striving in the studio with his guitar," Emerick says of Harrison, "it was clear that in his mind he was trying to further himself as a musician."
Paul McCartney has announced a European tour with Russia once again included in the itinerary.
McCartney played Moscow in Russia on his tour of 2002 with the Russian President Pultin bopping away in the audience.
The McCartney 04 Summer Tour will start May 25 in Gijon, Spain and conclude with Macca's headline spot on the 2004 Glastonbury Festival.
"Touring really has been a lot of fun for us and the audiences have been great," said McCartney in a statement. "So why stop now? I'm looking forward to playing and to visiting some new places."
Dates for the tour are: Tuesday, May 25th - Gijon -Estadio El Molinon Friday, May 28th - Lisbon - Parque Bela Vista Sunday, May 30th - Madrid - Estadio de Madrid Wednesday, June 2nd - Zurich - Letzigrund Stadium Friday, June 4th - Leipzig -Leipzig Zentralstadion Sunday, June 6th - Prague - T-Mobile Park Tuesday, June 8th - Horsens Forum - Horsens Stadium Saturday, June 12th - Gothenburg - Ullevi Stadium Monday, June 14th - Oslo - Valle Hovin Stadion Thurday, June 17th - Helsinki - Olympiastadion Sunday, June 20th - St. Petersburg - Palace Square Thursday, June 24th - Paris - Stade de France Saturday, June 26th - Glastonbury - Worthy Farm Pilton
Punk rockers, actors lend their voices to stop-motion movie
Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong will provide the voice of Charles Manson in a bizarre new film called Live Freaky, Die Freaky. The movie, written and directed by John Roecker, will also feature fellow musicians Lars Fredrickson (Rancid), Benji and Joel Madden (Good Charlotte), Travis Barker (Blink-182), Davey Havok (A.F.I.) and Kelly Osbourne, as well as actors Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings) and Asia Argento (XXX). Due out in spring, Live Freaky will be the first production from the new film division of Rancid leader Tim Armstrong's imprint, Hellcat. A soundtrack featuring original material from many of the rockers in the film is also in the works.
The fiendish fantasy uses stop-motion effects and puppetry similar to Seventies Christmas specials like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. The story is set in the future with nods to the past, weaving the twisted tale of a young man who discovers an old copy of HELTER SKELTER (former Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi's account of Charles Manson's killing spree) and decides to interpret it as a biblical tome. Mayhem ensues as the only humans left on earth (Osbourne plays "Sharon Hate") become the faithful followers of their own mad messiah, Charles Manson.
"Billie's Manson is astounding," Roecker says.
"I don't know where that voice came from," Armstrong adds. "It was like I was possessed by the character."
Despite the movie's outlandish premise, Roecker admits it has a deeper meaning. "It's really about how man misinterprets everything for his own needs, whether it be the Bible or the Constitution," he says. "I believe in the art of being absurd."
"If things don't go right," quips Armstrong, referencing another biblical movie, "pretty soon Mel Gibson and I might both be working at the Rite-Aid."
Re: Завтра Джорджу был бы 61 год... Автор:Primal ScreamДата: 26.02.04 13:02:59
Во время эфира поступил вопрос от слушателя, правда ли, что Джордж якобы приезжал в Москву в 1975 г. читать лекцию о детских музыкальных школах в Англии. Кто-нибудь может что-то сказать на этот счет?
Re: Майкл Маккартни или Макгиэр,нужны подробности о нём Автор:Primal ScreamДата: 26.02.04 12:25:15
According to a few Samantha Fox resources, including one of those quicky-published, mostly pictures biography paperback books from the 80's, these first few Sam Fox recordings featured her 'high school band' that was to have included "Ringo's son". The info has always been here with a disclaimer about the info needing to be confirmed.
Well ... According to Zak (Jan '03), he DOES NOT appear on these SFX tracks. He says that he "may" have played on a few demos for the producer, that Sam may or may not have recorded later, but he is not on the SFX releases.
40 years ago this week The Beatles visited the United States for the first time.
To mark the occasion, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the wives of the late George Harrison and John Lennon appeared at The Grammy Awards.
Looking back to the trip of 1964 "Paul McCartney said "We didn't know what to expect on that first visit. We didn't expect the craziness that was there and when we did the 'Ed Sullivan Show' it got even crazier. We were just kids at the time and it was just fantastic. Seeing all the footage of it now is still a great buzz. It's a great memory for me, it was one of the highest points of my life.
Ringo Starr said "We had no idea what the 'Ed Sullivan Show' meant, we didn't know how huge it was. I don't think we were nervous because we were doing songs that we knew how to play, we'd done them before and we'd done plenty of TV. But the idea of just coming to America was the mind-blower -- no one can imagine these days what an incredible feat it was to conquer America. No British act had done it before. We were just coming over to do our stuff, hopefully get recognized and to sell some records. But it turned into something huge."
McCartney suggested that many of today's stars haven't paid their dues in the way The Beatles did before their success. "The great thing about The Beatles and a lot of the other acts then was that we'd done a lot of work before the big break" he said. "Some of the kids these days haven't been around as much as we'd been. We'd done Hamburg and England and a few places in Europe and we were cocky, we kind of knew we were a good little band. So even when we got to go to America, playing in New York on 'Ed Sullivan,' we knew we were a serious little unit."
This week, Apple Records has released the DVD 'The Beatles, The First US Visit' documenting the event. Their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show was so popular that even crime stopped for a moment. "As George (Harrison) always reminded us, less crime that day than any day in America" Ringo recalls.
The Beatles were awarded The President's Award at the Grammy ceremony. In accepting the award McCartney said "It's a fantastic award and a great honor for us."
The wife of a cancer doctor accused of forcing dying Beatle George Harrison to autograph a guitar is being sued for allegedly trying to get an autograph from the star on his deathbed.
Dermatologist Josiane Lederman is also accused in legal papers of breaking patient confidentiality by discussing the treatment of an unidentified "famous musician", the New York Post reports.
Her husband Gilbert Lederman settled a different lawsuit last month by destroying a guitar which Harrison's family alleged he forced the dying musician to sign.
The £22 million suit against his wife was filed by a former employee, Dr Lisa Coppa.
She alleges in court papers, lodged in Brooklyn federal court, that Josiane Lederman told "third parties" about a musician's medical treatment.
She also claims she was forced to stop working for Josiane Lederman because of unbearable work conditions.
Josiane Lederman's lawyer, Wayne Roth, said: "She's extremely upset about these numerous baseless allegations that are being made against her."
Gilbert Lederman, a cancer doctor on New York's Staten Island, was previously fined more than £2,500 for making unauthorised statements to the press about Harrison's medical condition.
Sullivan, however, had been a prime-time institution since 1948. A former sports reporter and Broadway gossip columnist, he combined a catholic booking policy -- opera singers, ventriloquists, stand-up comics, acrobats, rock & roll pioneers such as Bo Diddley and LaVern Baker -- with a golden gut for ratings. He was in London, at the airport with his wife, Sylvia, on October 31st, 1963, when the Beatles returned from a Swedish tour to a tumultuous reception. At first, Sullivan thought everyone had turned out to greet the queen mother. But by November 11th, he was back in New York, negotiating with Epstein.
Technically, Sullivan refused the Beatles top billing. He reserved that honor for himself every week. But he granted the Beatles an extraordinary amount of airtime: opening and closing segments on February 9th and 16th -- the latter on location from the Deauville Hotel in Miami -- plus an appearance to be taped early on the 9th for broadcast on February 23rd. It was headlining status in all but name for a group without a U.S. hit. (Previous Beatles singles on Vee-Jay, Swan and Tollie had stiffed; Capitol would not issue "I Want to Hold Your Hand" until late December.) In return, Epstein accepted a total fee of $10,000, far less than the $7,500 Sullivan often paid big acts for a single show.
"I remember the reaction in the audience," says Calandra, "when Ed started promoting the Beatles on the show, telling people they were coming. The first two weeks in January -- nothing much. The third week, that's when you heard the reaction from the kids."
By the weekend of February 9th, he says, "We were told not to drive our cars into the city: 'We're going to barricade the streets.' And normally Sullivan never came to rehearsals on Saturday. He would show up on Sunday for the rundown. But he came to rehearsal that Saturday for the Beatles. That was a sign: This was special."