Ringo Starr says the reason the new Beatles documentary, Get Back, has been postponed from its opening in September until August of next year is because director Peter Jackson has been locked out of his studio due to the pandemic.
The film is based primarily on unreleased footage captured during the 1969 making of their Let it Be album. Ringo says he's impressed with what's already been done. The movie only shows that the Beatles are not getting along but that's not the whole story, that's just the way it was edited. Here is Ringo on the documentary.
"I'd only seen the on the roof stuff that Peter edited together and, you know, in the movie, it was, I'm guessing, 10 minutes long. It's now 36 minutes long and it is incredible. You know how it started. We found 56 hours of unused footage ... and I always believed that the one that came out (Let it Be) was a bit dull and it stuck to one second of what happened between the boys. And he when he comes into L.A. he'll bring up his iPad...we're all laughing or telling jokes. We're having fun we’re playing and there's a lot more joy."
Elton John’s ex-wife Renate Blauel has broken her three-decade silence about their marriage and launched legal proceedings against him.
While not going into details about what the suit is about, her lawyer says she felt the need to seek a high court injunction against him, but added that she was “hoping to resolve it amicably.”
Renate and Elton met during the sessions for his 1983 album Too Low for Zero. Although he's gay, they married in 1984 while he was on tour in Australia. They divorced in 1988.
He wrote about her in his memoir, Me, and the marriage was featured in his film Rocketman, both of which were released last year. Elton John on his marriage scene in Rocketman:
"I could not leave the fact that I got married and I was a gay man out of a movie. Renate's only in the film for a very short time, we didn't need to elaborate. And I wanted it to show her as being loving and I made the mistake."
And she figures; you're rich give me money. (I added that last part)
Former Clash guitarist and singer Mick Jones was born on June 26th, 1955. The song "Should I Stay or Should I Go" has an interesting history. It was on the album Combat Rock in 1982 and peaked at number-45 on the Billboard Hot 100. 9 years later the song was re-released in Britain and it went to number 1 there. Guitarist Mick Jones -- who sang the song on Combat Rock, his final album with the group -- explained what happened.
“It was a pretty strange situation, because the record company wanted to release it and it was released and sort of went to number-one in this country. I don’t know, it was pretty nice to have a number-one, but the problem was that I think it was probably about eight years too late, because the group had already split up. I mean, it’d probably have helped us out a lot more if it’d been a hit while we were still together.”
Original Foreigner multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, who co-wrote "A Long, Long Way From Home," was born on June 25th, 1946. McDonald was also an original member of King Crimson.That song was the first song Mick Jones and Lou Gramm wrote together and the first Foreigner worked on as a band. It peaked at number-20 on the Billboard Hot 100. The original Foreigner lineup featured three British expatriates -- Mick Jones, Dennis Elliott and Ian McDonald -- along with Ed Gagliardi and Al Greenwood from New York City and singer Lou Gramm from Rochester, New York. Jones says that situation directly led to the writing of "Long, Long Way From Home."
“When Lou came down to New York when we were getting the band together that was sort of the first song that we collaborated together on and wrote. Lou was actually a long way from home, I guess I was, too, and here we were kind of getting something together. And that was the first thing we put together as a band when the final lineup got together. I guess we were all feeling a bit lost — ‘Gosh, what are we doing? What is this?’ — and that sort of summed up the feeling.”
Zombies singer Colin Blunstone is 75 today (June 24th, 1945). Their biggest hit was "Time of the Season", number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. His vocal didn't come easy. In fact, it almost didn't happen at all. Colin Blunstone's main memory of recording "Time of the Season" involves some friction between him and the song's composer, Zombies keyboardist Rod Argent, who was producing him from the control room as he sang in the vocal booth. Blunstone recalls that he was having some trouble getting his vocal the way Argent wanted it, and feeling pressure because time was tight and their budget was low. He tells what happened next.
“I said to Rod, ‘Listen, if you know it so bloody well you get in here and you bloody sing it.’ And Rod said, ‘You’re the bloody lead singer, you stand there until you get it bloody right.‘ And it always makes me laugh, ‘cause, ‘It’s the time of the season for loving,’ and at the same time we’re going at one another. And I’m so glad that I did stay there and finish the song. That would have been really embarrassing if I was the lead singer in the band and Rod sang the big hit.”
The late Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter was born today (June 23rd, 1941.) The music to the song "Box of Rain" was written by bassist Phil Lesh to sing to his dying father. It was on American Beauty with lyrics by Robert Hunter. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh reportedly wrote pretty much all of "Box of Rain," except its lyrics, going so far as to craft the vocal line so all Robert Hunter had to do was to drop the words right in. Guitarist Bob Weir explains why Lesh was so hands-on with the song, and sheds some light on how it got its title.
"Originally it was Hunter who wrote the lyrics and he wanted it to be 'Ball of Rain' but Phil changed it to 'Box of Rain.’ I can't remember why, though. I guess it was something of an offering of Phil to his dad who was in the act of shedding this mortal coil at the time that he was working on the tune. So that was certainly what was going through his head and his heart."
Happy Birthday to Ann Wilson of Heart. She celebrates 70 (June 19th) The songs her and her sister nanvy write tend to be about guys they like but mostly guys the do not. By the time Heart released their second album, Little Queen -- which was really the third album they'd recorded -- they'd seen enough of the music business to know what, and who, they didn't like. Ann Wilson explains how that led them to write "Barracuda."
“‘Barracuda’ was written about a guy we knew early on who was a real schmooze artist, one of the stereotype record guys with the big cigar. I guess we have a history of writing about those guys, ’cause they really rub us the wrong way. And we were new into the industry and we hadn’t been worn down yet, so we were still really uptight about these guys. And this guy was just going along in his life — minding his own business, being a real schmuck. But we had to write about him, ’cause he really made us mad. He kind of stands for a type of person.”
Sir Paul McCartney turns 78 today. When he and John Lennon wrote Beatles songs, he felt that the title was very important. The song title: "Eight Days a Week" came from something a chauffeur said to him while making small talk.
”I remember writing that with John out at his place. Chauffeur drove me out this day and I said, 'How have you been?' You know, just normal conversation. 'How’s things been?' 'Oh, working hard,' he said, 'working eight days a week.' And I'd never heard anyone say that expression. So I got to John's house -- he dropped me off -- I said 'Hey, this fella just said "Eight Days a Week" to me, right?' Sings: ‘Oooh, I need your love, babe.’ We were always looking for titles. Once you've got a good title, someone says, 'What's your new song?' If you can say a title that interests them, you're kinda halfway there.
Last week, Brian May said he wasn't yet ready to comment on the racial unrest that has swept the world following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department.
At the time, May said, "Like many of you, I feel scared to say anything, because if you disagree with the kind of 'mob' mentality of the moment, you've got hell to pay. So I agree with some of it, and then some of it I don't agree with. But you think I dare speak up and say anything, well not easily 'cos you risk being pilloried, don't you."
May has now commented saying we can't change the past, but we "can change the future."
"However much we may hate the past or dislike it or be ashamed of it, it's not changeable. And it's essential, it's vital that we don't try to change it or sweep anything under the carpet because with all its atrocities and evil deeds and mistakes, it has to be preserved intact and in truth. Otherwise, our children and our children's children will have no idea what we were trying to do in 2020."
And, May goes onto explain why we can't or should not try and change the past.
"It's vital that we know these things or humanity will never learn these lessons. Imagine trying to pretend that the Holocaust never existed or that all the appalling acts of torture and betrayal that the human race has committed -- imagine if all that was covered up or changed in some way and we were no longer telling the truth. There would be no way of learning, no way of us improving ourselves."
So, in order to effect change, May says we have to communicate.
"We should sit down and talk and let's talk with compassion and understanding and even with a sense of humor. It all has to be there, otherwise we will make terrible mistakes and make this into the next bloody mess. I think we have to go slowly and carefully and try to understand each other's point of view. And, above all, do not let us suppress free speech. Once free speech is suppressed that's how totalitarian states are born and I don't think that's the route we want to walk down."
Picozzi talked to Lauren Danner, who, with Teach Connecticut Dot Org is recruiting more teachers to work! Check out her resume!
2017 Connecticut Teacher of the Year
“As a former scientist, I now get to share my passion for science through teaching… The greatest rewards in teaching come from the day-to-day conversations and meaningful connections with my students; a surprise letter or thank you note; the laughs and smiles; or the stories of former students being inspired to pursue a career in science because of something we learned in class together. To me, nothing is more rewarding.”
