I've not been able to post here for a while as I've been working on a book about Lennon and McCartney. Reviewing the first draft I've had to cull a number of parts that don't really belong in the book and I'll be posting some of them here in the weeks to come. Here's one that that seems very timely. John and I would sit down and by then it might be one or two o'clock, and by four or five o'clock we'd be done. Three hours is about right, you start to fray at the edges after that. But that's good too because you think, "We've got to get this done!" … We always wrote a song a day ..read more

I like the Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney. Rolling Stone I loved Paul McCartney … He meant more to me than my own parents. Sandford: McCartney* The Beatles were a early and formative influence on Cobain. A video survives of him singing Hey Jude at the age of two and he remembers walking around the neighbourhood singing Beatles songs while playing a toy bass drum. He wrote he was "forever grateful" to his Aunt Mari for giving him three Beatles albums and heartbroken when he learned in 1976 that the band had split up years before. In high-school Kurt wrote a 2000 word essay on Giv ..read more

King of Sleep Good Night was written by John for Julian Lennon, probably during May/June 1968*. You could call it part of John's sleep trilogy with I'm Only Sleeping and I'm So Tired, or a bookend with Good Morning, Good Morning. Either way sleep was a reoccurring theme in Lennon's work – appropriate for some one once dubbed “the laziest man in England”. The rehearsal tracks on 50th Anniversary reveal Lennon wrote the song using the fingerpicking pattern Donovan taught him in Rishikesh (ticket 59) – making this a brother-song to Julia and Prudence (and Warm Gun).This guitar version with Joh ..read more

Every artist needs fresh inspiration and sometimes mistakes can be a source of new sounds and ideas. Now, more than ever, musicians and producers have the tools to scrub every error from a recording but the end result can be flat, dehumanised and boring. Whether we screw up when the tape is rolling or mess up in rehearsal and then decide to keep the results, sometimes throwing a spanner in the works is the smart thing to do. Or at least leaving the spanner where you dropped it. Mistakes can make the listener feel they are really THERE or that the vibe is laid back or 'real' and not cleani ..read more

At what age did you realise you wanted to become a musician? Probably five, as soon as I heard The White Album. It was pretty much my inspiration, that and AC/DC. Elliott Smith: NME (2000) My friends and I were just starting to teach ourselves guitar in 1980. I was 11 and really into Beatles songs like Julia and Sexy Sadie— cool, kaleidoscopic chord changes. I was totally immersed in trying to figure it all out, and it was slowly happening when some madman gunned down the guide. At first, kids at school acted like it was a hoax. It didn’t seem real at the time, and to be honest, I rarely th ..read more

In order to better understand the influence of ideas on and by the Beatles songs are laid out in chronological order. Songs known to have an influence on the Beatles are in italics. This page is a work in progress. Errors? Typos? Suggestions? Did I miss an example? Leave a comment below! For more on this songwriting tip go here 1960 Mack the Knife (Ella In Berlin) - Ella Fitzgerald (1:55, 2:50, 3:44, 4:00) Ella forgets the lyrics and freestyles new verses, (3:16) Ella does an impression of Louis Armstrong. 1963 I Saw Her Standing There – The Beatles (0:00) Audible count-in. 1963 Twist And ..read more

You can signal that this really is the end of your song and tie things up with a pretty bow by repeating the end of the chorus. This works best by singing the final line twice or three times. Double Final Line All I've Got To Do When I Get Home Think For Yourself Yes It Is Triple Final Line Nowhere Man One After 909 Please Please Me Your Mother Should Know If your final line ends on the tonic/root chord (I) - which it almost certainly will - you can combine this ticket with Aeolian Cadence (Ticket 10) by ending the penultimate line on the six minor (vi) instead of the root chord (I). O ..read more

In order to better understand the influence of ideas on and by the Beatles songs are laid out in chronological order. This page is a work in progress. Errors? Typos? Suggestions? Did I miss an example? Leave a comment below! For more on this songwriting tip go here 1962 P.S. I Love You - The Beatles (1:49) 1963 Please Please Me - The Beatles (1:39) 1963 Ask Me Why - The Beatles (2:10) 1963 I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles (2:30) 1963 She Loves You - The Beatles (1:47) 1963 All I've Got To Do - The Beatles (1:39) 1963 I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles (2:08) 1964 When I Get Hom ..read more

In order to better understand the influence of ideas on and by the Beatles songs are laid out in chronological order. Songs written or performed by the Beatles are in bold. Songs covered by the Beatles, or to known to have had an influence on them, are in italics. This page is continually being revised. Errors? Typos? Suggestions? Did I miss an example? Leave a comment below! Read a detailed explanation of this ticket here - Plant A Chorus: Grow An Intro. 1962 P.S. I Love You - The Beatles - intro 1963 All My Loving – The Beatles - outro 1963 From Me To You  ..read more

Written in Rishikesh and originally titled Obla Dee Obla Da, the received narrative about this song is that Lennon hated it and furiously forced it over the finish line, propelling the band at breakneck speed with his drug-crazed piano playing. McCartney was always the musical visionary who could complete what Lennon started but on this song the tables were turned. For once McCartney was at sea musically and it was Lennon that came to the rescue. A walk through the different versions reveal a clear plan and stunning failure to execute it. Esher demo Version 1 Version 2 – this is the ve ..read more