Book Review: John and Paul

The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960’s and, to this day, new generations continue to fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense and complicated personal relationship.

John and Paul’s relationship was defined by its complexity: compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. Like the band, their relationship was always in motion, never in equilibrium for long. John & Paul traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Milk and Honey

Yesterday (January 27th) marked the thirtieth anniversary of Milk and Honey, the final album release of John Lennon and Yoko Ono from the 80's. It was culled from the final record sessions after 1980's Double Fantasy release; it took Ono three years to be able to complete their final work together. This posthumous 1984 record went to number 34 in New Zealand, number 20 in Germany, number 16 in Italy, number 15 in Canada and Switzerland, number 12 in Austria, number 11 on the US Billboard Album chart, number 10 in France, number 7 in Norway, number 4 in Australia and the Netherlands, and number 3 in Japan and the UK.

The Beatles - Let It Be

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Saturday.

As the 1970’s were just beginning, the Beatles were on the verge of breaking-up. Shortly after the release of their twelfth and final studio album Let It Be, the Fab Four was no more. The record went through a lot of iterations of content between when it was recorded in January of 1969 and its release in May of the following year. With the help of producer Phil Spector, the final content was nailed down.

The album reached number 1 on the charts in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, Germany and Norway. It has gone multi-platinum many times over.

The Beatles - Meet the Beatles

I was at my parents' house last weekend, thumbing through my older brother's vinyl collection, and ran across our old copy of Meet the Beatles. This was the 1964 US release (the second US album) by the Fab Four and took a lot from their UK release With the Beatles, right down to a slighly different version of front covers. Meet... ranked number 59 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list while With... came in at 420. With... does appear on the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" list though.