Beatles News: The Fabs' Country Roots, Ringo's Lucky Break, Liverpool News, More


T-Bone Burnett, producer of Ringo's new country-tinged LP, Look Up, makes the case that the playing of at least two of the Beatles was heavily influenced by country and swing music:

“The Beatles started as a skiffle band, as a folk music outfit. But when Ringo joined them, he was the electricity underneath them. I don’t think they were the Beatles before Ringo joined them. And he was the biggest country fan. George Harrison also was very smitten. He played big-string rock’n’roll on a Gretsch Country Gentleman, which is very much a hillbilly guitar. It’s not a rock guitar. He’s certainly not a rock player, and neither is Ringo. They’re both swing musicians.

“For me, rock’n’roll and country are all really woven together. Rock started later at some point. But Ringo, almost everything he did with the Beatles was country. Matchbox, Honey Don’t, What Goes On, Ask Me Why, Act Naturally, even Octopus’s Garden.”

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Ringo Starr counts himself lucky to have been in a band with songwriters who penned tunes suited to his voice. Via Music News:

"Well, I always wanted to be someone else. Like Jerry Lee [Lewis] or someone! I mean, I can hold a tune, as long as it’s in my key.

"And it just worked out with the Beatles because John and Paul were great writers.

"That’s what made us. And I’d get one song. And a couple of them were really good, you know, 'With a Little Help from My Friends' and 'Yellow Submarine'. They’re still huge and I still do them on tour. They wrote me a lot of really nice songs." 

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Liverpool news: The Beatles birthplace has become a center for biotech research, The Guardian reports.

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