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Hey Jude

Hey Jude

:For the album of the same name, see Hey Jude (album). "Hey Jude" is a song attributed to Paul McCartney and John Lennon (but largely the work of McCartney). It was originally recorded by The Beatles for the self-titled The Beatles album (also known unofficially as the White Album), but released instead as a single. The song, despite its unusual length of 7 minutes, 11 seconds on the original 45 rpm version, became the Beatles' best-selling single. But they did produce a shortened version for American radio because most stations refused to play a song of such length. The song, originally titled "Hey Jules", was written by McCartney to comfort John Lennon's son Julian when John and his first wife, Cynthia Powell, were getting divorced. John himself appreciated the song greatly too, as he had just begun his relationship with his future second wife, Yoko Ono. McCartney had also just broken up with Jane Asher and was about to start seeing Linda Eastman.

Sympathy of a friend

In 1968, John Lennon was living with Yoko Ono, and made clear his intention to leave Cynthia for her. McCartney was profoundly affected, and decided to cheer up John and Cynthia's son, Julian, by writing a little song for him while he was on his way to see them at their home. McCartney said later, "I started with the idea 'Hey Jules', which was Julian, 'don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing.' I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorce. The adults may be fine but the kids... I had the idea by the time I got there." Later, Cynthia recalled, "I was truly surprised when, one afternoon, Paul arrived on his own. I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare and even more moved when he presented me with a single red rose accompanied by a jokey remark about our future: 'How about it, Cyn. How about you and me getting married?' We both laughed at the thought of the world's reaction to an announcement like that being let loose. On his journey down he composed 'Hey Jude' in the car. I will never forget Paul's gesture of care and concern in coming to see us. It made me feel important and loved, as opposed to feeling discarded and obsolete." Julian Lennon only discovered the song had been written for him almost twenty years later; however, he did remember being closer to McCartney than to his biological father: "I've never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was with me. There was some very negative stuff talked about me — like when he said I'd come out of a whiskey bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. You think, where's the love in that? Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit — more than dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad." McCartney was dissatisfied with his original draft, however, particularly with the line "The movement you need is on your shoulder", thinking it sounded like he was talking to a parrot. However, John Lennon was strongly opposed to the idea of drastically altering the song, especially the aforementioned line, considering it marvellously avant-garde. McCartney recalled in 1974: "I remember I played it to John and Yoko, and I was saying, 'These words won't be on the finished version.' Some of the words were: 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' and John was saying, 'It's great!' I'm saying, 'It's crazy, it doesn't make any sense at all.' He's saying, 'Sure it does, it's great.'" McCartney eventually came to the conclusion that Jude was a much easier name to sing than Jules, and modified the song accordingly. Oddly enough, the elder Lennon originally thought the song was for him. In the year of his death, 1980, he remembered: "He said it was written about Julian. He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian then. He was driving to see Julian to say hello. He had been like an uncle. And he came up with 'Hey Jude.' But I always heard it as a song to me. Now I'm sounding like one of those fans reading things into it... Think about it: Yoko had just come into the picture. He is saying. 'Hey, Jude' — 'Hey, John.' Subconsciously, he was saying, 'Go ahead, leave me.' On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, 'Bless you.' The devil in him didn't like it at all, because he didn't want to lose his partner." Lennon wasn't the only Beatle who could relate to the song — so did McCartney. Not long after the release, John Lennon said, "Well, when Paul first sang 'Hey Jude' to me... or played me the little tape he'd made of it... I took it very personally. 'Ah, it's me,' I said, 'It's me.' He says, 'No, it's me.' I said, 'Check. We're going through the same bit.' So we all are. Whoever is going through a bit with us is going through it, that's the groove." This wasn't particularly surprising, as McCartney had just ended his relationship with Jane Asher, and was about to begin dating his future wife, Linda Eastman. Much as he did with "Yesterday", McCartney proudly went around playing his song to anyone he met, although not in fear of plagiarism this time. A member of Badfinger, the first band to join the Beatles-owned record label Apple Records, recalled that on their first day, "Paul walked over to the grand piano and said, 'Hey lads, have a listen', and he sat down and gave us a full concert rendition of 'Hey Jude'. We were gobsmacked."

Working in the studio

The Beatles were enchanted by the song's beauty, and sought to cultivate the best possible recording environment for "Hey Jude". They tried as many as 25 takes at the Abbey Road Studios on July 29 and July 30 1968, but eventually decided that they needed an orchestra for the recording. Upon hearing of the availability of an eight-track recording machine at Trident Studios, they decamped there on July 31, as the Abbey Road machine was still undergoing testing. They proceeded to try several different versions, but eventually settled on their very first take at Trident. This decision was rather odd, given that the drumming came in much later than expected. It turned out that Ringo Starr, the Beatles' drummer, had left for a toilet break, and not noticing his absence, the other Beatles started to record the take. In 1994, McCartney would recount the tale: "There is an amusing story about recording it... Ringo walked out to go to the toilet and I hadn't noticed. The toilet was only a few yards from his drum booth, but he'd gone past my back and I still thought he was in his drum booth. I started what was the actual take – and 'Hey Jude' goes on for hours before the drums come in – and while I was doing it I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was absolutely impeccable." On August 1, George Martin arranged for the 36-piece orchestral accompaniment that would later be edited into the recording. The Beatles asked the orchestra members if they would mind clapping their hands and singing along to the refrain in the song's coda. Most complied, but one obstinately replied, "I'm not going to clap my hands and sing Paul McCartney's bloody song!" and stormed out of the studio. That was not the only bad blood going around Trident Studios that day. George Harrison wanted to do a guitar riff for the song, but McCartney refused to allow it. McCartney recounted in 1985, "I remember on 'Hey Jude' telling George not to play guitar. He wanted to do echo riffs after the vocal phrases, which I didn't think was appropriate. He didn't see it like that, and it was a bit of a number for me to have to 'dare' to tell George Harrison — who's one of the greats — not to play. It was like an insult. But that's how we did a lot of our stuff." That the Beatles selected their first take as the master became even odder when Ken Scott, the engineer in charge, realised that John Lennon had shouted "fucking 'ell!" 2:58 into the song after messing up the backing vocal. Scott later explained, "I was told about it at the time but could never hear it. But once I had it pointed out I can't miss it now. I have a sneaking suspicion they knew all along, as it was a track that should have been pulled out in the mix. I would imagine it was one of those things that happened — it was a mistake, they listened to it and thought, 'doesn't matter, it's fine'." Another explanation holds that instead of messing up a backing vocal, John Lennon actually shouted TWO things at that point in the song. The first which sounds like an "Ohhh!" is actually John confessing "Got the wrong CHORD", which he then followed by the famous "fucking hell!".

Instant classic

The recording had originally been made for the Beatles' self-titled White Album, which was released in the same year as "Hey Jude". However, the idea of releasing it on the album was abandoned, and "Hey Jude" was never released on an original album by The Beatles. Instead, they decided to pair "Hey Jude" on the A-side with "Revolution" on the B-side of a 7" single. "Revolution" had originally been written by John Lennon as the A-side of a single he had planned to release as a statement about the Vietnam War (manager Brian Epstein had insisted that they avoid mentioning it), but, by the time he had polished the song sufficiently, McCartney had finished "Hey Jude", which the other Beatles felt was more deserving of the single's top billing. Lennon said: "We were getting real tense with each other. I did the slow version and I wanted it out as a single: as a statement of the Beatles' position on Vietnam and the Beatles' position on revolution. For years, on The Beatles' tours, Brian had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war. And he wouldn't allow questions about it. But on one of the last tours, I said, 'I am going to answer about the war. We can't ignore it.' I absolutely wanted The Beatles to say something about the war." The single came out in the US on August 26 1968 on the Apple Records label, entering the charts on September 14, where the song would stay for the next 19 weeks. Two weeks later, "Hey Jude" was propelled to number one in the charts, and held on to that position for the following nine weeks, in the process setting the US record for the longest time spent by a Beatles single at number one, as well as being the longest-playing single to reach number one. As mentioned earlier, however, American radio stations were averse to playing anything longer than the regulation three to three-and-a-half minutes, and Capitol Records pressed a shortened version specially for airplay. Due to the US practice of counting sales and airplay for the A- and B-sides of a single separately, at one point, Record World listed "Hey Jude" at number one, followed by its B-side partner, "Revolution", at number two. "Hey Jude" was also the first Beatles single to be issued in a paper sleeve instead of a picture cover. Five months after its release, 3.75 million copies of "Hey Jude" had already been sold. To date, five million have been sold in the US alone. The record was certified gold just the day before it entered the US charts, but took almost 30 years to be certified platinum, on February 17, 1999. 1999 performed the song on The Frost Programme, with a simulated live audience singing along in the final half of the song.]] Meanwhile, "Hey Jude" came out in the United Kingdom four days after the American release, on August 30. It became the biggest-selling debut release for a record label ever, selling over eight million copies worldwide and topping the charts in 11 different countries. The single began its 16-week chart run on September 7, claiming the top spot a week later. It only lasted two weeks, before being knocked off by another single from Apple, this time Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days". However, to this day, "Hey Jude" remains The Beatles' most commercially successful song, fending off stiff competition from songs such as "Let It Be" and "Yesterday", both of which were also McCartney compositions. The released version clocked in at 7 minutes and 11 seconds. The only other chart-topping song worldwide in the 1960s that ran over 7 minutes was Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park". In the UK, where "MacArthur Park" did not top the chart, "Hey Jude" remained the longest number one hit for nearly a quarter of a century, until surpassed in 1993 by Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", which ran to 7 minutes 58 seconds even as a single (the unedited album version ran to over 12 minutes). The Beatles hired Michael Lindsey-Hogg, who had previously directed their "Paperback Writer" promo, to shoot their promotional film for the song. They settled on the idea of performing in front of a live - albeit controlled - audience. Hogg shot the promotional film for The Frost Programme, with McCartney himself designing the set. Tony Bramwell remembered the design: "It was the piano, there; drums, there; and orchestra in two tiers at the back. Paul's ideas were usually attainable. John's were generally unattainable, and when Yoko turned up it was, 'Let's film John's cock.'" The eventual final film was a combination of two different takes, with David Frost introducing The Beatles as "the greatest tea-room orchestra in the world". It was also shown on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in the US.

Awards and acclaim

"Hey Jude" was nominated for the Grammy Awards of 1968 in the Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal categories, but failed to win any of them. However, it did win the 1968 Ivor Novello Award for "A-Side With the Highest Sales". Regardless of acclaim (or lack thereof) from the critics, "Hey Jude" was evidently close to the hearts of many fans. In the NME 1968 Readers' Poll, "Hey Jude" was named the best single of the year. In 2001, "Hey Jude" was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Hall of Fame. "Hey Jude" was ranked as the eighth best song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, and came in third in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Singles.

Auctioned lyrics

In 1996, Julian Lennon paid £25,000 for the recording notes to "Hey Jude" at an auction, which works out as £641 per word for 39 words (plus some additional scribbles). Lennon spent another £35,000 at the auction buying John Lennon memorabilia, in an attempt to get closer to the father he never knew. John Cousins, Julian Lennon's manager, stated, "He has a few photographs of his father, but not very much else. He is collecting for personal reasons, these are family heirlooms if you like." Julian reportedly later sold the production notes back to Paul. Julian owns the publishing rights to the song, one of the few Beatles songs not controlled by Michael Jackson. In 2002, the original hand written lyrics for the song were nearly auctioned off at Christie's in London. The sheet of notepaper with the scrawled lyrics had been expected to fetch up to £80,000 at the auction, which was scheduled for April 30, 2002. McCartney went to court to stop the auction, claiming the paper had disappeared from his West London home. Richard Morgan, representing Christie's, said McCartney had provided no evidence that he had ever owned the piece of paper on which the lyrics were written. The courts decided in McCartney's favor and prohibited the sale of the lyrics. They were originally sent to Christie's for auction by Frenchman Florrent Tessier, who purchased the piece of paper at a street market stall in London for £10 in the early 1970s. In the original catalogue for the auction, Julian Lennon had written, "It's very strange to think that someone has written a song about you. It still touches me."

Lyrics and melody

The song starts to fade out mid-way through the latter section, the fade lasting over two minutes; "Hey Jude"'s air of unity and harmony is reminiscent of "All You Need Is Love", and it is one of the few songs for which such a lengthy fade-out makes sense, conferring upon it an impression of endlessness. The first half of the song is written in a traditional two-bridge manner. Interestingly, McCartney alternates the bridges, using "Let her into your heart" followed by "Let her under your skin". At one point McCartney sings a duet with himself, something which comes to prominence in the latter half of the song, which consists of a single musical phrase repeated several dozen times. He sings a wordless melody culminating at the end of each cycle with the song's title; furthermore, he accompanies himself with an exuberant display of vocal improvisation, reminiscent at times of James Brown. Midway through the song's finale the orchestra's brass section counterpoints the vocal melody, whilst the string section joins slightly later, almost inaudible, holding a single note until the song fades. The melody elaborated in the verses has several arches, and skilfully incorporates high and low points in a way that conceals the composition's subtlety behind a veneer of singalong simplicity reminiscent of hymns or nursery rhymes. The bridge is based around a characteristically "Beatlesy" descending chord sequence, whilst the melody for the second half's refrain is an unbalanced arch somewhat biased toward the upper end. The first half uses the common chords of I, II, IV, and V, but the latter half instead opts for the double plagal cadence. A sound bite from the song is available.

Trivia

"Hey Jude" was repeatedly referred to in Stephen King's The Dark Tower novels as one of the few signs of civilization that remained after the world "moved on". St. Jude is the patron saint of desperate and difficult circumstances. A cover of "Hey Jude" by The Mutato Muzika Orchestra serves as the score for the opening montage of Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tenenbaums. "Hey Jude" is a song popular at football matches in the English football league system and is used by many teams, for example, as the "official" song of Brentford F.C., played before matches and regularly sung by fans throughout the game. "Hey Jude" (as well as "Yesterday") is referred to in the novel "Vivienne" by Richard Hoyt. The title character uses the lyrics as a message to the male lead character. British actor Jude Law was named after this song. Australian Footballer Jude Bolton of the Sydney Swans is called Hey Jude during radio calls by 3AW Melbourne's footy call team. Wilson Pickett also released a version of "Hey Jude" in 1968, in December, after the Beatles' version had fallen from the charts. In the title track of Boogie Down Productions' debut album "Criminal Minded", rapper KRS-One did a singing intro, done as a take-off of "Hey Jude": "Boogie Down Productions / will always get paid / we'll take the wackest song / and make it better / remember to let us into your skin / cause then you'll begin / to master rhyming".

References

- [http://www.beatles.com/ The Beatles official website]. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
- [http://www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1/dba09white.html The Beatles Ultimate Experience]. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
- [http://www.beatlefans.com/lyrics/hey_jude.htm 'Hey Jude' lyrics]
- [http://www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/hey_jude.asp Hey Jude lyrics - CHORD theory]

External links

- [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/hj.html Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Hey Jude"] Category:The Beatles songs Category:The Beatles singles Category:1968 songs Category:1968 singles Category:Number one singles Category:Grammy Hall of Fame Awards Category:Paul McCartney songs

Hey Jude (album)

Hey Jude (originally titled The Beatles Again) was a 1970 compilation of singles and b-sides from various points in The Beatles' career, as well as the A Hard Day's Night album track "I Should Have Known Better". The common thread running through all the album's tracks was that they were otherwise unavailable on a Capitol LP in the United States; in part this was a consequence of the Beatles' unwillingness to include single releases on their contemporaneous albums, and partially it was a consequence of Capitol's habit of recompiling the Beatles' Parlophone releases for the American market. The front and back cover pictures were taken at the last-ever Beatles photo session, in August 1969, at John Lennon's new home Tittenhurst Park. Allen Klein authorised release of the album, as a sales buffer during post-production of the delayed Let It Be. The compilation was originally only released in the United States, although it was a popular import in the UK. Until the release of The Beatles 1967-1970 in 1973, Hey Jude was the only way to own the extremely popular full-length "Hey Jude" single on LP, or in a stereo mix. The songs "Lady Madonna", "Rain", and "Revolution" also appeared for the first time in stereo on this album. The CD era saw the harmonisation of the Beatles' US and UK discographies, and Hey Jude is no longer available. The entirety of its track listing is available on other albums, including The Beatles 1967-1970 and Past Masters, Volume Two.

Track listing

- All tracks written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

#"Can't Buy Me Love" (1964) 2:19 #"I Should Have Known Better" (1964) 2:39 #"Paperback Writer" (1966) 2:14 #"Rain" (1966) 2:58 #"Lady Madonna" (1968) 2:14 #"Revolution" (1968) 3:21

Side two

#"Hey Jude" (1968) 7:06 #"Old Brown Shoe" (1969) (Harrison) 3:16 #"Don't Let Me Down" (1969) 3:30 #"The Ballad of John and Yoko" (1969) 2:55 Category:1970 albums Category:The Beatles albums Category:Greatest hits albums Category:Capitol Records albums Category:Parlophone albums ja:ヘイ・ジュード (アルバム)

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born June 18, 1942) is a British singer, musician and songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles. Recognised as a top musical icon of the twentieth century, McCartney is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful composer in popular music history. He has a record twenty-nine US number one singles, twenty of them from the Beatles, the rest taken from Wings and his output as a solo artist. Combining his work with and without The Beatles, McCartney has written or co-written over 50 top ten hits, more than any other songwriter. McCartney has been an influential bassist as well as an accomplished singer, guitarist, pianist, and drummer. McCartney and John Lennon were the main songwriters in The Beatles, and many of McCartney’s compositions of this period, including "Hey Jude", "Eleanor Rigby," "Yesterday" and "Let It Be", are frequently ranked among the best songs in popular music history. Another Beatles song written by McCartney was "Helter Skelter", often called the first heavy metal song. McCartney’s post-Beatles career has also been successful. As a solo artist and with his 1970s-era band Wings, McCartney has scored 30 top ten singles in the United Kingdom and United States, including such songs as "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Live and Let Die", "Band on the Run", "Silly Love Songs", "Pipes of Peace" and a duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory". In the British press especially, McCartney sometimes faces the perception that he is outdated. Still, he has maintained significant popular appeal and chart presence during the last thirty-five years and has also been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is a painter (although until recently he kept his artwork private) and a strong advocate for animal rights and vegetarianism.

Early years

James Paul McCartney was born at Walton Hospital, located in northern Liverpool, where his mother had worked as a nurse, and where his brother, Michael McCartney (also a musician, whose stage name is Mike McGear), was born a year later. He (and presumably his brother) were baptized Roman Catholic, but otherwise raised non-denominationally; his parents were a mixed-religion couple. His father, Jim McCartney, was a self-taught pianist, and dance-band leader who encouraged Paul to be musical. His father gave him a trumpet, which he largely abandoned when he learned it would put a callus on his upper lip. Later, when skiffle music became popular, and both boys were interested, Jim bought a guitar for Paul and a banjo for Mike. (Paul still occasionally returned to trumpet, but apparently never mastered it.) On October 31, 1956 the early death of his mother Mary Mohin McCartney from breast cancer when he was 14 was a formative influence on his life; and it created an additional bond between him and John Lennon, whose mother died on July 15, 1958 when John was 17. Both Paul and John found some refuge in music. Paul McCartney claims Irish heritage on both sides of his family. Paul's great-grandfather, James McCartney, was born in Ireland (some sources suggest his grandfather, James McCartney II, was as well). His mother's father, Owen Mohin, was born in 1880 in Tullynamalrow, County Monaghan in Ulster, and his mother's mother, Mary Theresa Danher, was a Glaswegian of Irish descent. Accordingly, Paul McCartney is five-eighths of Irish heritage.

Role in The Beatles

McCartney first rose to fame as a bassist, pianist, guitarist, singer and songwriter for the Beatles. He met John Lennon at a church picnic in 1957 and was invited to join Lennon's band The Quarrymen as a guitarist. McCartney's schoolmate, George Harrison joined soon after as a third guitarist, followed by the addition of Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. Pete Best joined on drums, rounding out the original lineup of the band. McCartney took over bass guitar duties in the early 1960s, when Lennon and Harrison declined following the departure of Sutcliffe. McCartney formed a close working relationship with Lennon and they collaborated on many songs, although mainly worked "eyeball to eyeball" (as McCartney has called it) only in the early years of the band. Out of all the Beatles compositions, it is claimed only 27 were composed by both of them equally. Typically, one of them would write most or part of a song and the other would finish it, incorporate it into another song or suggest useful changes. Due to an early agreement between the two, all Beatles songs written by either of them are credited to both - this came about because John Lennon liked the idea of "Lennon & McCartney" echoing the songwriting credit of "Leiber & Stoller", the songwriters whose names appeared on many of the records they owned from the 1950's. Very early copies of the Beatles first official single Love Me Do are credited to McCartney - Lennon. One of McCartney's greatest songs, covered by a record number of artists, is "Yesterday". McCartney claims the melody came to him in a dream, and was not sure for some time that the melody was original. Paul says that the original, provisional lyrics were "Scrambled eggs / Oh my baby how I love your legs". During the early years of the Beatles' recording career, McCartney developed rapidly as a musician, singer and songwriter. He was heavily influenced by Buddy Holly and Little Richard and Little Richard's trademark high-pitched 'wooo', which he used prominently as a musical punctuation on early songs like "From Me To You". The left-handed McCartney also became probably one of the most creative and influential rock bassists of his time, elevating the electric bass from back-row obscurity to prominence, inspiring many to take up the instrument. By 1965 McCartney was pressuring the engineers at EMI to get a better bass sound on Beatles recordings, frustrated by the relatively weak sound on their earlier records. His bass playing and writing during the Beatles' most creative phase in 1965-67 was heavily influenced by the work of American producer-composer Brian Wilson, leader of The Beach Boys, whose classic album Pet Sounds set new standards for recording and featured bass parts unprecedented in pop music. As a result of hearing Wilson's work, McCartney began to pay increasing attention to both the sound and arrangement of his bass lines, often taking advantage of Abbey Road's new multi-track tape decks to re-record more complex parts after the basic tracks had been laid down. In fact, Pet Sounds was a direct response to Rubber Soul and Revolver (or at least McCartney's contributions) was a direct response to Pet Sounds. Today the two have worked together both at a live concert and in the studio. During the years of the Beatles' greatest popularity, Paul was generally regarded as the best-looking and aroused most interest in female audiences. Ironically, he was the last to marry and the only one never to divorce. Toward the end of his relationship with actress Jane Asher, McCartney met Linda Eastman, an American photographer. They first met at the June 1, 1967 launch party for Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the relationship blossomed over the next two years. He and Linda married at a small civil ceremony at Marylebone Registry Office in 1969, while he was still a member of the Beatles. He adopted Linda's daughter from her first marriage, Heather (born 1962), and they went on to have three other children together: Mary (born 1969, and named after Paul's late mother), Stella (born 1971), and James (born 1977, and named after Paul's late father, who died in 1976). Paul and Linda would remain married and devoted to each other until Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998; the couple reportedly spent less than a week apart during their entire marriage. In the latter part of the Beatles' reign over pop culture, Lennon's interest in the band waned whilst McCartney's pop ear was never more finely tuned. He wrote such pop classics as "Hey Jude", "Let It Be", and "The Long and Winding Road". It is now generally accepted that McCartney was the motivator for much of The Beatles' later work. After they retired from touring in mid-1966, Lennon and Harrison retreated to secure country estates in the so-called 'stockbroker belt', well outside London. But McCartney continued to live in the city, first in a house in the centre of town, then at a larger property in St John's Wood, a short distance from Abbey Road Studios. He was often seen at major cultural events such as the International Times launch party at The Roundhouse (he attended in disguise). He also avidly delved into the visual arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealer and gallery owners; explored experimental film; and regularly attended movie, theatrical and classical music performances. He has also released albums under the name The Fireman, and other experimental music albums under his own name, such as Liverpool Sound Collage. Although he was not the first in the group to take LSD, McCartney was the first British pop star to openly admit to using it, and his frank revelation during a newspaper interview in early summer 1967 made headlines around the world. In a famous BBC TV interview broadcast nationally on June 19, 1967, McCartney was again asked about his LSD use and his answer was impressive for its clarity: "I was asked a question by a newspaper, and the decision was whether to tell a lie or tell him the truth. I decided to tell him the truth ... but I really didn't want to say anything, you know, because if I had my way I wouldn't have told anyone. I'm not trying to spread the word about this. But the man from the newspaper is the man from the mass medium. I'll keep it a personal thing if he does too you know ... if he keeps it quiet. But he wanted to spread it so it's his responsibility, you know, for spreading it, not mine." In spite of his statements then, and later admissions that he also used cocaine regularly at that time, McCartney was fortunate to be one of the few leading British pop stars who did not fall foul of the (later found to be corrupt) Drug Squad, as did Lennon, Harrison and many other friends including The Rolling Stones and Donovan. On the musical side, McCartney was the first Beatle to record an outside project, composing (with George Martin) a fine score for the 1966 feature film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060395/ The Family Way], for which he won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Instrumental Theme. He also wrote and produced several successful recordings for other artists and on some of these outside productions he worked under a pseudonym, reflecting his enduring fascination with disguises and aliases. McCartney devised many of the Beatles' late 1960s projects including the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, the Magical Mystery Tour film and record, and the suite of songs that closes the Abbey Road album. Abbey Road In 1969, despite obvious signs that the band was falling apart, he attempted to convince The Beatles to return to the stage, suggesting the Get Back project, which evolved into their valedictory film and album Let It Be. Although McCartney hoped it might revive them, the film made it obvious that the band was done as a creative force and that bickering, jealousy and the pressures of being The Beatles had driven the four musicians apart. Regardless of the internal strife, the band retained their popularity, and the public's interest in them was only intensified in late 1969 when an urban legend was started that McCartney died and was secretly replaced in 1966 by one Billy Shears. It was believed Brian Epstein was replaced too, but the whole conspiracy turned out to be false. This hoax is still a popular topic throughout cyberspace, and has been the subject of no less than five books, the best and most definitive tome being Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles and the "Paul-Is-Dead" Hoax by Andru J. Reeve http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1418482943/qid=1134192798/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5080674-5050532?n=507846&s=books&v=glance Although Starr had briefly quit in 1968, and Harrison had done likewise in 1969, it was Lennon who was the first to leave and not return in August/September 1969. McCartney publicly announced the break-up on April 10, 1970, a week before releasing his first solo album. The album McCartney featured a press release inside with a fake interview with himself explaining the end of the Beatles. The band was legally dissolved after he filed a lawsuit on December 31, 1970. By this time Lennon and McCartney's friendship had been eroded by years of friction and rivalry; they were reconciled to some extent before Lennon's death on December 8, 1980.

Early solo career

As the Beatles broke up in 1970, Paul launched a solo career with his album McCartney, which featured him playing all the instruments and singing all vocals except for some backing vocals from his wife Linda. While some found this record underwhelming (including Lennon in an interview), it did contain "Maybe I'm Amazed", which has remained a centerpiece of McCartney's concerts ever since. Another successful track was "Every Night", which was later a hit for singer Phoebe Snow. Other songs from the LP include Junk and Teddy Boy, written during the Beatles visit to India earlier. The simplicity of McCartney later became a touchstone for the lo-fi movement of the 1990s. Unfortunately, the LP was released at the same time as The Beatles' Let It Be, causing further discord among the group members. McCartney followed this in 1971 with the stand-alone single "Another Day/Oh Woman, Oh Why", the former of which to some recalled the observational style of his mid-period Beatles work. The album Ram, later in 1971, was credited to both Paul and Linda, and featured back-up from, for the most part, studio musicians. While both single and album were commercially popular, detractors viewed them as largely insubstantial. The album's artwork included a picture of two beetles copulating - a possible hint at McCartney's feelings toward his previous group. The album also contained some apparent references towards Lennon, notably in the song "Too Many People" ("Too many people preaching practices, don't let 'em tell you what you wanna be"); later that year, Lennon responded with the famously scathing "How Do You Sleep?"; then followed the McCartneys' song "Dear Friend", on Wild Life, the first album released by Wings. McCartney famously insisted that his wife should be involved with his music — and later tour in his bands so they did not have to be apart while he travelled — in spite of her protests that she was not talented enough. After hearing Linda sing, many seconded her opinion, but Paul's move was clearly a deliberate act, intended to help dispel some of the lingering Beatles mystique and prove his assertion that "anyone can do it". Despite persistent attacks on her ability (including one notorious 1990s bootleg concert tape in which her out-of-tune vocals were deliberately mixed to the fore), Linda became a valuable member of McCartney's bands and an inspiring musician throughout the remainder of her life. (In many ways this paralleled the role that Yoko Ono played in Lennon's post-Beatles musical life, just as there would be organisational similarities between Wings and Lennon's Plastic Ono Band).

Wings

Main article: Wings Wings Briefly, after an uneven start and despite many personnel changes, Wings became one of the most successful 1970s rock bands, hitting its artistic apex in late 1973 with the Band on the Run album and its commercial apex in 1976 with a wildly popular world tour.

Solo again: 1980s

In 1980, as Wings came to an end, McCartney made international headlines when he was arrested for possession of marijuana in Japan and he spent nine days in prison there before being deported. Since that time, he has reportedly stopped using all drugs, although it is generally believed that he used marijuana consistently throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. He was quoted in the 2000s as saying that he had recently given up marijuana at the behest of his second wife. Despite the devastating blow of the murder of Lennon later in 1980, McCartney enjoyed continued success in the early 1980s. A live version of his song "Coming Up" hit Number One in the US, while the UK sent his album McCartney II to the top of the charts. McCartney II was an intriguing update of the recording approach he used ten years earlier for his eponymous debut, playing every instrument himself, with an emphasis on synthesizers this time instead of acoustic guitars. His 1982 album Tug of War was a major success and in the same year he scored two huge hits with duet singles: "Ebony and Ivory", recorded with soul legend Stevie Wonder; and "The Girl Is Mine", recorded with emerging pop megastar Michael Jackson. Tug of War also included his moving elegy to Lennon, "Here Today". Another successful McCartney-Jackson duet, "Say Say Say" was released in 1983 from the Pipes of Peace album. The title song made the top of the charts in Britain. He then wrote and starred in the 1984 film Give My Regards To Broad Street, which included a role for a young actress named Tracey Ullman. The film and soundtrack featured the US and UK top ten hit "No More Lonely Nights". McCartney's friendship with Jackson was short-lived. Not long afterward, Jackson paid a huge sum to acquire the Northern Songs catalogue, which included the publishing rights to most of the Beatles' songs. McCartney has made it clear that he does not wish to have the catalogue back. According to Contact Music [http://contactmusic.com], McCartney said "I do get some cash from the publishing already. And in a few years more of the rights will automatically be reverting to me. The only annoying thing is when I tour America I have to pay to play some of my own songs." In the mid-1980s, while making a home movie reminiscing about his days as a schoolboy, McCartney discovered the 1837 building which had once been his old school was derelict. He purchased it, and pursued a dream he had always had of helping his home town of Liverpool in some way. January 1996 saw the dedication of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, of which Paul is the lead patron. On June 7 1996, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the building. In the late 1980s McCartney began a songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello, with the resulting songs appearing on several albums by both artists. The best known of these are the 1989 hit "Veronica", from Costello's album Spike, and "My Brave Face", a modest hit from McCartney's album Flowers in the Dirt. During 1989-1990 McCartney staged a major, year-long world tour, in which for the first time he included a substantial number of Beatles songs in the set list. The Paul McCartney World Tour was a huge success, filling arenas and stadiums at each stop, and was documented by the album Tripping the Live Fantastic. Costello had also gotten McCartney to unearth his iconic Höfner violin-shaped bass guitar from Beatles days; besides being used on records again, it became a familiar sight on stage, a visual link to the past.

1990s

Following the release of the album Off the Ground, the similarly-scaled New World Tour took place in 1993. The live album capturing this tour, Paul Is Live, parodied the famous Paul Is Dead conspiracy of the late '60s - in both the title, and in the cover art which showed McCartney walking across the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing on his own - once again showing his willingness to acknowledge his Beatles past. (The dog with him is a descendant of Martha, his pet sheepdog from the Beatles years.) McCartney and his wife became outspoken vegetarians and animal-rights activists. McCartney tells the story of how their vegetarian instincts were realised when they happened to see lambs frolicking in a field as they ate a meal of lamb. In 1991, Linda introduced her own line of vegetarian meals to the general market. After Linda's death in 1998, Paul pledged to continue her line of food and keep it free from genetically modified organisms. In 1991 McCartney made his first complete foray into classical music, collaborating with Carl Davis to compose the quasi-autobiographical Liverpool Oratorio. This was received well in general, although many commented that the music lacked the complexity normally associated with the genre. Liverpool Oratorio had its North American premiere in Carnegie Hall in New York on 18 November 1991 with Davis conducting and both McCartneys in attendance. In 1994, McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunited to release the first of the Beatles' Anthology albums, consisting of alternative takes and live recordings of Beatles songs; volumes two and three were released the next year. They also created two new Beatles songs by layering new music on unfinished tracks Lennon had made before his death fourteen years earlier. Anthology In the late 1990s McCartney was involved in a feud with John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Their dispute centered on the writing credits for a number of Beatles songs. He had wanted to change the credits from the traditional 'Lennon-McCartney' to 'Paul McCartney and John Lennon' for songs McCartney had primarily composed. Ono was offended by this move, which she felt broke an agreement that the two had made while Lennon was still alive to credit songs as a team. However, McCartney has stated, to the contrary, that he and Lennon agreed the credits could be inverted, if so desired, in future endeavours. The two other Beatles agreed that the credits should remain as they always had been and McCartney withdrew his request. On March 11, 1997, McCartney was knighted (Knight Bachelor) by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1998, McCartney's wife Linda died after a prolonged bout with breast cancer, the same illness that, decades before, had claimed McCartney's mother. Run Devil Run was released in 1999 to positive reviews. In the same year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (he was inducted with the rest of the Beatles in 1988). In 1997 he had made his second venture into classical music with Standing Stone, a work that received a mixed response. In 1999 he released Working Classical, a collection of shorter pieces and pop songs redone for string quartet or orchestra. McCartney is also a visual artist. For more than 17 years he has been a committed painter, finding in his work on canvas both a respite from the world and another outlet for his drive to create. His painting has generally been a private endeavour. In April 1999, however, he exhibited his work for the first time in Siegen, Germany, where it met with acclaim. That led to his decision to share the work in galleries across the UK. He is also a fan of animation, having released Tropic Island Hum, a CD compilation of various animation music that he has done over the years.

2000s

Tropic Island Hum)]] In 2001, McCartney released Wingspan: Hits and History, an updated best-hits collection of music from his band Wings, accompanied by a DVD Wingspan:An Intimate Portrait, a visual history of the band released later in the year. In 2001 McCartney published Blackbird Singing, a volume of poetry, some of which were lyrics to his songs, giving readings at Liverpool and New York; the selections being serious (Here Today, about John Lennon) and humorous (Maxwell's Silver Hammer). In the same year he contributed to an album titled "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy Of Sun Records" that included a version of the Elvis Presley hit That's All Right Mama recorded with Presley musicians Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana. On 20 October 2001 McCartney took a lead role in organising the Concert for New York City, a celebration of the resilience, and pride of New York and America in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The concert was held at Madison Square Garden and featured performances by The Who, the Backstreet Boys, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Destiny's Child, Eric Clapton, Adam Sandler, Bon Jovi, Elton John, James Taylor and many more. McCartney was the final performer and debuted his song "Freedom." McCartney continues to release pop albums (Run Devil Run, Wingspan: Hits and History, Flaming Pie, Driving Rain), as well as campaign for the groups Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, among others. In June 2002 McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmines campaigner, in a highly elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland. He has joined with her to campaign against landmines, and he has donated substantial sums to the cause. In early 2003, for example, he held a personal concert for the wife of banker Ralph Whitworth and donated one million dollars to Adopt-a-Landmine. Paul and Heather's first child, Beatrice Milly, was born on October 28, 2003. Of Paul and Linda's children, James can be heard playing guitar in McCartney's latest albums; Mary is the baby inside McCartney's jacket in the back cover photograph of his first solo album, and was one of the producers of the Wingspan:An Intimate Portrait documentary; Heather is a potter, and can be seen as a young girl in the Let It Be film; and Stella is a famous, award-winning fashion designer and animal rights activist. Paul's nephew, Josh McCartney, is the drummer of the Wirral band The Famous Last Words. fashion designer, 2004]] In 2002 McCartney launched another major American tour, garnering strong notices for an energetic and tight supporting band and an evocative and varied show that appealed to fans of all generations. This leg became the top-grossing U.S. tour of the year, taking in over $126 million. The tour has subsequently continued around the rest of the world in 2003 and 2004. McCartney performed during the pre-game ceremonies at the NFL's Super Bowl XXXVI on 3 February 2002 and was the halftime performer at Super Bowl XXXIX on 6 February 2005. Unlike in many previous years, he was the only performer in the entire halftime show. His set consisted of "Drive My Car", "Get Back", "Live and Let Die" and "Hey Jude." It featured an interesting stage design, fireworks, and fan-held placards. McCartney performed at the main Live 8 concert on 2 July 2005, playing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 to open the Hyde Park event (the song choice reflecting the 20 years after Live Aid), then returning almost ten hours later to close the show with "Get Back", "Drive My Car" (sharing the vocals with George Michael), "Helter Skelter", "The Long and Winding Road", and an ensemble rendition of the refrain from "Hey Jude". McCartney's album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was released in September 2005, coinciding with the start of another successful U.S. tour. Longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich, suggested to McCartney by George Martin, produced the album, recorded in London and Los Angeles over the prior two years. McCartney was to use his concert backing band in the studio but later decided to play almost all the instruments himself, including drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, block flute, harmonium, and flugelhorn. The album included both up-tempo and introspective numbers, and included "Follow Me", which McCartney had debuted at the Glastonbury Festival in 2004. "Fine Line" was released as the first single on August 29, 2005, with "Jenny Wren" selected as the follow-up single. The album reached #10 and #6 at UK and US charts, respectively, and also achieved success in other countries' pop charts, such as France (#2) and Italy (#3). He released a children's book in October 2005. The book is called High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail and tells the story of a frog and a squirrel who save the lives of other animals. McCartney teamed up with veteran children's book author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar. The picture book is to be released with a first print of 500,000 copies. McCartney, currently 63, says he hopes to keep playing even after he is 64, a reference to the Beatles song, "When I'm Sixty-Four". His voice remains fresh live and on record, compared with other, still-active artists from the 1960s. On Chaos and Creation in the Backyard we hear vocals similar to those found on the Beatles albums.

Pseudonyms

Over the years McCartney has released work under a number of alter egos. This has generally been for more experimental and less commercial material. In 1967 he produced the song "I'm the Urban Spaceman" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but McCartney was credited as "Apollo C. Vermouth". In 1977 he released an orchestral version of the Ram album under the name Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington. In the 1990s he collaborated with Youth of Killing Joke under the name The Fireman and released two ambient albums, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest in 1994 and Rushes in 1998. In 2000 he released an album, Liverpool Sound Collage, with Super Furry Animals and Youth utilising the collage and musique concrete techniques which fascinated him in the mid 1960s. Most recently in 2005 he has worked on a project with bootleg producer and remixer Freelance Hellraiser, under the name Twin Freaks. Prior to the success of the Beatles, McCartney would sometimes use the stage name Paul Ramon(e), a name that inspired the Ramones to name their band. "Paul Ramone" was his credited name as guest performer (drums and backing vocals) on the Steve Miller Band song "My Dark Hour".

Discography

For a detailed discography, see: Paul McCartney discography

Achievements, World Records, and Misc. Trivia

- Appears in the Guinness Book of Records several times.
- "Yesterday" listed as the most covered song in history with over 3000 existing versions
- The most successful popular-music composer and recording artist ever with sales of 100 million singles and 60 gold discs
- Honoured by Guinness in 1979 with a unique rhodium disc, recognising this achievement
- The largest stadium audience in history when 184,000 paid to see him perform at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in April 1990
- The fastest ticket sales in history, which took place in 1993 when 20,000 tickets for 2 shows in Sydney, Australia sold out in eight minutes
- Was involved with the fastest-released single in history; on July 2, 2005 his performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 at Live 8 was released 45 minutes after the performance took place. (The single reached #6 on the Billboard charts just hours after the single release, and hit #1 on numerous online download charts across the world.)
- The only artist to have UK number one singles as a soloist ("Pipes of Peace"), and part of a duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder), trio ("Mull of Kintyre" with Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", among many others, with The Beatles), quintet ("Get Back" The Beatles with Billy Preston) and sextet ("Let It Be" with Ferry Aid). He was also a member of charity ensemble Band Aid which had a UK number one with Do They Know It's Christmas?
- "Yesterday" was confirmed as world's most popular song with over 6,000,000 airplays in the USA alone.
- Received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Sussex.
- The first rock musician ever to receive the Order of Merit of Chile for "services to music, peace, and human understanding."
- First recipient of the Swedish Polar Music Prize ("Nobel Prize for music").
- 1998 Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award. From People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), according to another website.
- Between his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist and leader of Wings, McCartney has written or co-written more than 50 Top Ten singles. When combined with the Beatles' 49 Top 40 U.S. singles, Paul McCartney is the most successful pop-music composer ever and the second greatest hitmaker, behind Elvis Presley.
- Is the richest rock star in the world, with an estimated personal fortune of £762 million in 2004.
- Was the only Beatle to achieve any qualifications at secondary school, doing particularly well in Art.
- Made an honorary detective by the NYPD.
- The only Beatle to ever have been nominated for an Academy Award in his own right.
- In 1997 he was knighted (Knight Bachelor) for his services to music. He dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and the people of Liverpool. Aides commented that he won't be calling himself "Sir Paul"; "He's always been a modest chap and he won't be getting us all bowing and scraping," one aide said. (Harrison joked at the time that he and Starr were "already calling him 'His Lordship'".)
- Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (as a solo artist).
- Along with many other famous artists, for instance Ringo Starr and Mozart, Paul McCartney is left-handed.

External links

- [http://www.paulmccartney.com/ Official site]
- [http://www.PaulMcCartney.Name/ Paul McCartney News]
- [http://www.paulmccartney.fm/ The Paul Mccartney International Fanclub]
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- [http://www.fixingahole.com Read a review of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard]
- [http://www.booksmusicfilmstv.com/Music/PaulMcCartneyLive8.htm Paul McCartney Live 8 Review]
- [http://www.getartist.com/Paul-Mccartney/ Paul McCartney Albums]
- [http://www.quipo.it/mccartney/ Paul McCartney Fan Site]
- [http://www.macca-central.com/ Macca Central]
- [http://www.lipa.ac.uk The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts] — Paul's Old School
- [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/mccartney/home.asp The Art of Paul McCartney - Exhibition 2002]
- [http://www.mplcommunications.com/mccartney/paul_discography.htm Official UK/US Discography]
- [http://www.lyricsdir.com/paul-mccartney-lyrics.html Paul McCartney lyrics]
- [http://www.thebeatles.com.hk/paul/ The Beatles Studio: Paul McCartney] A Hong Kong based fansite with lyrics, discography and many Paul McCartney information.
- [http://www.macca-central.com/macca-news/morenews.cfm?ID=1821 Paul McCartney's publishing catalog a pop treasury.] Recent news.
- [http://www.rupertandthefrogsong.co.uk Rupert And The Frog Song] - Paul McCartney's Animation
- [http://musiclives.org/ Music Lives] Paul McCartney's charity to music education in schools
- [http://www.alstrand.com/evolution/evolution.html The Evolution of Rock Bass Playing: McCartney Style]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4470000/newsid_4472300/bb_wm_4472332.stm BBC video - McCartneys call for boycott of China over trade in dog and cat fur]
- [http://www.tflw.com The Famous Last Words] - Paul McCartney's nephew Josh is the band's drummer McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul
- McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney, Paul Category:Guinness World Record holder ko:폴 매카트니 ja:ポール・マッカートニー simple:Paul McCartney

John Lennon

] John Winston Ono Lennon (October 9 1940 – December 8 1980) was best known as a singer, songwriter, poet and guitarist for the British rock band The Beatles. His creative career also included the roles of solo musician, political activist, artist, actor and author. As half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, he heavily influenced the development of rock music, leading it towards more serious and political messages. He is recognized as one of the greatest musical icons of the 20th century and many of his songs, such as "Imagine" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", are often ranked among the best songs in popular music history. In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time, and the British public voted Lennon into 8th place.

Youth

Lennon was born in Liverpool on the evening of 9 October 1940 during a period of much turmoil as the UK was heavily engaged in World War II. Both of his parents had musical backgrounds and experience, though neither pursued them seriously. Lennon lived with his parents in Liverpool until his father Alfred (nicknamed Alf, and later "Freddy"), a merchant seaman, walked out on the family when John was five years old. His mother Julia then decided that she was unable to care for her son, and so gave him to her sister Mimi. Lennon lived with Aunt Mimi and her husband George at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence. Like much of the population of Liverpool, Lennon had some Irish heritage. His grandfather, James Lennon, was born in Dublin in 1858, and his grandmother Mary (née Maguire), was Irish-born as well. John Lennon's mother Julia (née Stanley) was of Welsh descent. Although he had little exposure to his Irish heritage growing up, he came to identify with it later in life. Lennon developed severe myopia as he grew up, and was obliged to wear glasses in order to see clearly. During his early Beatle career, Lennon wore contacts or prescription sunglasses (or simply "toughed it out" without them). In 1966, on the set of How I Won The War, Lennon was issued a pair of National Health spectacles. He continued to wear these round, wire-rimmed glasses which became part of his iconic public image. Although John lived apart from his mother, he still kept in contact with her through regular visits, and during his younger years Julia cultivated his lifelong interest in music by teaching him how to play the banjo. On 15 July 1958, when John Lennon was 17, his mother was killed after she was struck by a car driven by a drunken off-duty police officer. John had to go to the morgue to identify her body. Julia's death was one of the factors that cemented his friendship with Paul McCartney, who had lost his own mother to breast cancer in 1956, when Paul was 14. Years later, Lennon wrote the songs "Julia", "Mother" and "My Mummy's Dead" regarding his mother, as well as naming his firstborn son, Julian, after her. Though failing in grammar school, Lennon was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art with help from his school's headmaster and his Aunt Mimi. It was there that he met his future wife, Cynthia Powell. Lennon would steadily grow to hate the conformity of art school, which proved to be little different from his earlier school experience, and ultimately dropped out. He instead devoted himself to music, inspired by American Rock 'n' Roll and singers like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. He had started a skiffle band in grammar school called the Quarry Men (after his alma mater, Quarry Bank). With the addition of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, the band changed to playing rock 'n' roll, taking the name "Johnny and the Moondogs", followed by "The Silver Beetles" (a tribute to Buddy Holly's Crickets), which was later shortened to The Beatles. He married Powell in 1962, after she became pregnant with Julian.

Role in the Beatles

Lennon had a profound influence on rock and roll and in expanding the genre's boundaries during the 1960s. He is widely considered, along with songwriting partner Paul McCartney, as one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians of the 20th century. Many of the songs written exclusively or primarily by Lennon, however, are more introspective — often in the first person — and more personal than McCartney's. His most surreal pieces of songwriting, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus", are fine examples of his unique style. Lennon's partnership in songwriting with McCartney many times involved him in complementing and counterbalancing McCartney's upbeat positive outlook with the other side of the coin, as one of their songs, "Getting Better" demonstrates: : McCartney: I have to admit it's getting better, a little better all the time. : Lennon: It can't get no worse!

"More popular than Jesus" controversy

Lennon often spoke his mind freely and the press was used to querying him on a wide range of subjects. On 4 March 1966 in an interview for the London Evening Standard with Maureen Cleave, who was a friend of his, Lennon made an off the cuff remark regarding religion. "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. … I don't know what will go first—Rock and Roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." The article was printed and nothing came of it, until five months later when a teen magazine called Datebook reprinted part of the quote on the front cover.[http://www.newsoftheodd.com/article1012.html] A firestorm of protest swelled from the southern US Bible Belt area, as conservative groups publicly burned Beatles records and memorabilia. Radio stations banned Beatles music and concert venues cancelled performances. Even The Vatican got involved with a public denouncement of Lennon's comments. On 11 August 1966, the Beatles held a press conference in Chicago, Illinois, in order to address the growing furore. :Lennon: "I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it, but I just happened to be talking to a friend and I used the words "Beatles" as a remote thing, not as what I think - as Beatles, as those other Beatles like other people see us. I just said "they" are having more influence on kids and things than anything else, including Jesus. But I said it in that way which is the wrong way." :Reporter: "Some teenagers have repeated your statements - "I like the Beatles more than Jesus Christ." What do you think about that?" :Lennon: "Well, originally I pointed out that fact in reference to England. That we meant more to kids than Jesus did, or religion at that time. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this." :Reporter: "But are you prepared to apologize?" :Lennon: "I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry." The governing members of the Vatican accepted his apology and the furore eventually died down, but constant Beatlemania, mobs, crazed teenagers, and now a press ready to tear them to pieces over any quote was too much to handle. The Beatles soon decided to stop touring, and indeed, never performed a scheduled concert again. From this point onward the Beatles were a studio band (perhaps the first ever). Freed from the problem of having to compose music they could recreate live on stage, they could explore the technological limits of music and create unique and original sounds. On 9 November 1966, after their final tour ended and right after he had wrapped up filming a minor role in the film How I Won the War, Lennon visited an art exhibit of Yoko Ono's at the Indica art gallery in London. Lennon began his love affair with Ono in 1968 after returning from India and leaving his estranged wife Cynthia, who filed for divorce later that year. Lennon and Ono were from then on inseparable in public and private, as well as during Beatles recording sessions. The press was extremely unkind to Ono, posting a series of unflattering articles about her, one even going so far as to call her "ugly." This infuriated Lennon, who rallied around his new partner and said publicly that there was no John and Yoko, but that they were one person, JohnAndYoko. Lennon adopted a vegetarian lifestyle in 1966 and would do so on and off until his death. These developments led to friction with the other members of the group, and heightened the tension during the 1968 White Album sessions. At the end of 1968, Lennon and Ono performed as Dirty Mac on The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus. During his last two years as a member of The Beatles, Lennon spent much of his time with Ono on public displays protesting the Vietnam War. He sent back the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) he received from Queen Elizabeth II during the height of Beatlemania "in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing and support of America in Vietnam," adding as a joke, "as well as "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts." On 20 March 1969, Lennon and Ono were married in Gibraltar, and spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam in a "Bed-In" for peace. They followed up their honeymoon with another "Bed-In" for peace this time held in Montreal at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. During the second "Bed-In" the couple recorded "Give Peace a Chance" which would go on to become an international anthem for the peace movement. They were mainly patronized as a couple of eccentrics by the media, yet they did a great deal for the peace movement, as well as for other pet causes, such as feminism and racial harmony. As with the "Bed-In" campaign, Lennon and Ono usually advocated their causes with whimsical demonstrations, such as Bagism, first introduced during a Vienna press conference. Shortly after, Lennon changed his middle name from Winston to Ono to show his "oneness" with his new wife. Lennon wrote "The Ballad of John and Yoko" about his marriage and the subsequent press it generated. The failed Get Back/Let It Be recording/filming sessions did nothing to improve relations within the band. After both Lennon and Ono were injured in the summer of 1969 in a car accident in Scotland, Lennon arranged for Ono to be constantly with him in the studio (including having a full-sized bed rolled in) as he worked on The Beatles' last album, Abbey Road. While the group managed to hang together to produce one last superior musical work, soon thereafter business issues related to Apple Corps came between them. Lennon decided to quit the Beatles but was talked out of saying anything publicly. Phil Spector's involvement in trying to revive the Let It Be material then drove a further wedge between Lennon (who supported Spector) and McCartney (who opposed him). Though the split would only become legal some time later, Lennon and McCartney's partnership had come to a bitter end. McCartney soon made a press announcement, declaring he had quit the Beatles, and promoting his new solo record.

Solo career

Let It Be Of the four former Beatles, Lennon had perhaps the most varied recording career. While he was still a Beatle, Lennon and Ono recorded three albums of experimental and difficult electronic music, Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, and Wedding Album. His first 'solo' album of popular music was Live Peace in Toronto 1969, recorded in 1969 (prior to the breakup of the Beatles) at the Rock 'n' Roll Festival in Toronto with The Plastic Ono Band, which included Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. He also recorded three singles in his initial solo phase, the anti-war anthem "Give Peace a Chance", "Cold Turkey" (about his struggles with heroin addiction) and "Instant Karma!" Following the Beatles' split in 1970, he released the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album, a raw, brutally personal record, heavily influenced by Arthur Janov's Primal therapy, which Lennon had undergone previously. The influence of the therapy, which consists literally of screaming out one's emotional pain, is most obvious on the songs "Mother" ("Mama don't go!/Daddy come home!") and "Well Well Well." The centrepiece is "God," in which he lists all the things he does not believe in, ending with "Beatles". Many consider "Plastic Ono Band" to be a major influence on later hard rock and punk music. Lennon continued this effort to demythologize his old band with a long, confrontational interview published in Rolling Stone magazine. This was followed in 1971 by Imagine, his most successful solo album, which alternates in tone between dreaminess and anger. The title track has become an anthem for anti-war movements, and was matched in image by Lennon's "white period" (white clothes, white piano, white room …) title track Perhaps in reaction, his next album, Some Time in New York City, was loud, raucous, and explicitly political, with songs about prison riots, racial and sexual relations, the British role in the sectarian troubles in Northern Ireland, and his own problems in obtaining a United States Green Card. This record is generally seen as the nadir of Lennon's career, full of heavy-handed and simplistic messaging unredeemed by much artistic value. Lennon had been interested in left-wing politics since the late 1960s, and was alleged to have given donations to the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/mar2000/lenn-m02.shtml]. It was during the period of the recording of this album that his links to this group were perhaps at their strongest. On 30 August 1972 Lennon and his backing band Elephant's Memory staged two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York; it was to be his last full-length concert appearance. Lennon and Ono also did a week-long guest co-host stint on the Mike Douglas Show, in an appearance that showed Lennon's wit and humour still intact. In 1972, Lennon released an anti-sexism song, "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", implying that as black people were discriminated against in some countries so were women globally. Radio refused to broadcast the song, and it was banned nearly everywhere, although he managed to play it to television viewers during his second appearance in the The Dick Cavett Show. Lennon rebounded in 1973 with Mind Games, which featured a strong title tune and some vague mumblings about a "conceptual country" called "Nutopia", which satirized his ongoing immigration case. His most striking song of that year was the wry "I'm the Greatest," which he wrote for Ringo Starr's very successful Ringo album. In 1973, Lennon's personal life fell into disrepair when Yoko kicked John out of the house. Yoko approached May Pang, their personal assistant at the time, with a unique proposal. Yoko, who thought May Pang to be an "ideal companion" for John, asked her to "be with John and to help him out and see to it that he gets whatever he wanted." John and May soon moved to Los Angeles which had been dubbed the "lost weekend" though it lasted until the beginning of 1975. During their time together, May encouraged John to spend time with his son, Julian Lennon, and became friends with Cynthia Lennon. Though John's public drunkenness had been the subject of gossip during 1974, Pang wrote that John was usually sober in his private life and created a large body of work. Despite alleged episodes of drunkenness, Lennon put together the well-received album, Walls and Bridges, which featured a collaboration with Elton John on the up-tempo number one hit "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night". Another top ten hit from the album was the Beatlesque reverie "#9 Dream". Lennon capped the year by making a surprise guest appearance at an Elton John concert in Madison Square Garden where they performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" and "I Saw Her Standing There" together. It was to be his last-ever concert appearance. In 1975, Lennon released the Rock 'n' Roll album of cover versions of old rock and roll songs of his youth. This project was complicated by Phil Spector's involvement as producer and by several legal battles; the result received generally negative reviews, though it yielded a powerful, lauded cover of "Stand by Me". At this point Yoko was pregnant with what would be their first child, and Lennon — saddened by the fact that due to Beatlemania he had never gotten to experience fatherhood with his first son Julian — retired from music and dedicated himself to family life. This was made easier in 1976 when his US immigration status was finally resolved favourably, after a years-long battle with the Nixon administration that included an FBI investigation involving surveillance, wiretaps, and agents literally following Lennon around as he travelled. Lennon claimed the investigation was politically motivated. Also in 1975, David Bowie achieved his first US number one hit with "Fame", co-written by Bowie, Lennon (who also contributed backing vocals) and Carlos Alomar. Carlos Alomar]] Lennon's retirement, which he began following the birth of his second son, Sean in 1975, lasted until 1980 when Lennon, for the first time in five years, picked up his guitar again. At first only curious to see if he could still write music, he felt refreshed and full of ideas, completely reinvigorated by the experiences of fatherhood and the long break from the business. He wrote an impressive amount of material during a Caribbean vacation and began thinking about a new album. For this comeback, he and Ono produced Double Fantasy, a concept album dealing with their relationship. The name came from a flower Lennon saw at an exposition; he liked the name, and thought it was a perfect description of his marriage to Yoko. "(Just Like) Starting Over" began climbing the singles charts, and Lennon started thinking about a brand new world tour. Lennon also commenced work on Milk and Honey which he would, unfortunately, leave unfinished. It was some time before Ono could bring herself to complete it. Towards the end of his life, Lennon expressed his displeasure with the scant credit he was given as an influence on George Harrison in the latter's autobiography I Me Mine. According to Yoko, he was also unhappy that Paul McCartney's Beatles songs, such as "Yesterday", "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be" were more popular than his own contributions.

Murder

In the late afternoon of 8 December 1980, in New York City, fan Mark David Chapman met Lennon as he left his home in the Dakota building for a recording session and got his copy of Double Fantasy autographed; the event of Lennon signing one of his last autographs was caught by a photographer who witnessed this goodwill gesture. Chapman remained in the vicinity of the Dakota building for most of the day as a fireworks demonstration in nearby Central Park distracted the doorman and passers-by. Later that evening, Lennon and Ono returned to their apartment from recording Ono's single "Walking on Thin Ice" for their next album. At 10.50pm, their limousine pulled up to the entrance of the Dakota. Ono got out of the car first, followed by Lennon. As Ono went in, Lennon glanced at Chapman, then proceeded on through the entrance to the building. As Lennon walked past him, Chapman called out "Mr Lennon!" As Lennon turned, Chapman crouched into what witnesses called a "combat" stance and fired five hollowpoint bullets. One bullet missed, but four bullets entered John's back and shoulder. One of the four bullets fatally pierced his aorta. Still, Lennon managed to stagger up six steps into the concierge booth where he collapsed, gasping "I'm shot, I'm shot." Chapman stood there, holding his .38 Charter Arms revolver, which was pulled out of his hands and kicked away by Jose Perdomo who then asked "What have you done, what have you done?", to which Chapman replied "I just shot John Lennon." Chapman then calmly took his coat off, placed it at his feet, took out a copy of J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and started reading. Police arrived within minutes, to find Chapman still waiting quietly outside, still reading the book. The two officers transported Lennon to Roosevelt Hospital in the back of their squad car as they thought John was too badly hurt to take the risk of waiting for an ambulance. One of the officers asked Lennon if he knew who he was. Lennon's reply is reported to have been "Yeah," or simply a nod of the head before he passed out. Despite extensive resuscitative efforts in the Emergency Department, Lennon had lost over 80% of his blood volume and died of shock at the age of 40. Dr. Stephan G. Lynn, was running the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital that night. He was the one who grasped Lennon's heart, massaging it to try to force it to pump again. It never did. "There was just nothing left to pump," said Lynn, 58, still an emergency physician at the hospital. "There was so much damage" that his blood just leaked out. Lennon's vital signs showed he was already dead when he arrived at the emergency room, and after a 20-minute battle to resuscitate him, Lynn and two other doctors officially declared him dead. (Corey Kilgannon, New York Times, 2005) A stunned world was informed of his death by Dr Stephen Lynn who shortly before had broken the devastating news privately to an anxiously waiting Yoko. However, most Americans learned of the murder via an unusual source. When Lennon was shot, ABC Television was in the midst of airing their ratings bonanza, Monday Night Football. Instead of breaking to a news bulletin and against the wishes of his producers, legendary football announcer Howard Cosell (who had interviewed Lennon on MNF years earlier) went ahead and stunned the nation by announcing news of the murder with one of the most memorable and chilling calls in TV history: : Cosell: This, we have to say it, remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all the Beatles, shot 5 times in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead…on…arrival. When asked once in the 1960s how he expected to die, Lennon's offhand answer was "I'll probably be popped off by some loony." In retrospect, although he might have meant it as a joke and did not expect it to happen, the comment turned out to be chillingly accurate. Another chillingly accurate comment was made in his last interview, where he mentioned that he often felt that somebody was stalking him: first it was federal agents in the 1970s trying to deport him and later the obsessed fan in 1980.

Memorials and tributes

A crowd gathered outside the Dakota the night of Lennon's death. Ono sent word that their singing kept her awake and asked that they re-convene in Central Park the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer ([http://www.johnlennon.it/english.htm see also the 1980 Central Park Vigil - Tribute to John Lennon]). Her request for a silent gathering was honoured all over the world. Howard Cosell On 9 December 1980, Bruce Springsteen, at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, noted after hearing of Lennon's death: "It's a hard night to come out and play but there's nothing else you can do." He ended the show with a spirited performance of "Twist and Shout". A special commemorative issue of Rolling Stone magazine released shortly after the murder featured as its cover a photo taken the morning of the shooting by Annie Leibovitz showing a nude Lennon in an embryonic pose kissing a fully clothed Ono. In 2005, this cover was voted as the #1 magazine cover of all time by The American Society of Magazine Editors. In 1981, George Harrison released his album Somewhere In England which included the song "All Those Years Ago", a subtle tribute to Lennon. Additionally, Elton John's Jump Up! featured a hit single, "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)," also a tribute to Lennon. The Kinks recorded another tribute that year, the Ray Davies-written "Killer's Eyes", on the album Give The People What They Want. In 1982, Paul McCartney's tribute to Lennon, the sentimental "Here Today", appeared on his acclaimed album, Tug of War. The same year, Queen's album Hot Space contained a song entitled "Life Is Real," also a tribute to Lennon. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel remembered Lennon in their 1981 reunion concert in Central Park, performing a song titled "The Late Great Johnny Ace". (Johnny Ace had been a promising singer-songwriter, who had also died tragically, in the 1950s.) Simon and Garfunkel had tried recording in the 1970s with Lennon and Harry Nilsson; their one session together had unfortunately yielded no results. The Strawberry Fields Memorial was constructed in Central Park across the street from the Dakota, in memory of Lennon. (When George Harrison died in 2001, people congregated on the "Imagine" mosaic circle in Strawberry Fields.) In the 1980's, Lennon fans in Prague created the "Lennon

Hey Jude

Sympathy of a friend

Working in the studio

Instant classic

Awards and acclaim

Auctioned lyrics

Lyrics and melody

Trivia

References

External links

Hey Jude (album)

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Paul McCartney

Early years

Role in The Beatles

Early solo career

Wings

Solo again: 1980s

1990s

2000s

Pseudonyms

Discography

Achievements, World Records, and Misc. Trivia

See also

External links

John Lennon

Youth

Role in the Beatles

"More popular than Jesus" controversy

Solo career

Murder

Memorials and tributes