The Beatles

Alternate versions, studio banter, and even previously unreleased recordings were featured on the discs, along with new tracks recorded by the surviving members ...

That was more satisfying than just taking a John song, which was what we did for the second, ‘Real Love’. It worked out great but it wasn’t as much fun.” But it’s the end of the line, really. “[‘Free As A Bird’] was really like working on a record with John, as Lennon/McCartney/Harrison, because we all chipped in a bit on this one,” McCartney shared. “It felt very natural and it was a lot of fun, but emotional too, at times. Another reason might have been that recording ‘Real Love’ wasn’t as satisfying to the band as ‘Free as a Bird’. The arrangement also required quite a bit of fixing up in order to fully fleshed out the song, something that would have required more extensive input than the other tracks.

Bowie was the postmodern spirit personified, and nothing could stop him in his quest to achieve his ultimate goal, total artistic enlightenment. He led by ...

During the track, Bowie sings “I heard the news today, oh boy”, which is quite famously the chorus for ‘A Day in the Life’, and it just seems too specific to be a coincidence, particularly when you consider the impact The Beatles had on Bowie. On this version of ‘Across the Universe’, Lennon recalled: “I thought, great, because I’d never done a good version of that song myself. Notably, he worked with a host of legends across his career, from Tony Visconti to Mick Ronson and even disco master Nile Rodgers. However, the most prominent is the former Beatles frontman John Lennon, whom he collaborated with for two tracks on 1975’s Young Americans.

Too often has The Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr, been the butt of some unkind jokes. Falsely reportedly that a gag purported by his bandmate John Lennon, ...

That’s perhaps Ringo’s crowning achievement in life: he inspired literally millions of people to pick up the sticks and have a go themselves. It remains one of the Beatles’ ultimate fan favourite songs and we’re given even more room to appreciate the track through Ringo’s unique playing style. He then went on to detail what exactly he loved about it: “I was into the snare and hi-hat. The isolated drums will leave you in total awe of Ringo’s mastery but, more importantly, it dispels the myth that he’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles. The difference is that Ringo was not only capable of achieving what was required but doing it with an effortlessness that seemingly annoyed his contemporaries. Paul’s contribution was the way Ringo played the drums.” This comment provides perhaps the biggest bugbear people have when it comes to Ringo — he was always under heavy direction. A sequence of interesting fills that he attributes to his unique style of drumming. The striking opening lines, “She said, she said, I know what it’s like to be dead,” were attributed by Lennon after a particular night with acid took place with members of The Beatles and The Byrds. The song ‘She Said She Said’, a track penned by Lennon for the 1966 album Revolver, was once described as “an ‘acidy’ song” by Lennon. It was the beginning of the band’s rejection of their pop star tagline. However, below, we have just the thing as we’re bringing you five isolated drum tracks to prove that Ringo Starr was one of rock music’s understated geniuses. In fact, his refusal to embellish his playing style is what endeared him to the rest of The Beatles. The truth is that Ringo may not have been a studious percussionist, or particularly gifted with what was deemed as precision playing, but he had that one unteachable thing that every musician craves — he had style.