The Beatles New York

July 7, 2007

The Beatles' New York

Recently Rolling Stone took a 60-second tour of The Beatles' New York, with a little help from Google’s Street Maps feature.
First up on their tour: John and Yoko’s first NYC apartment at 105 Bank Street (where they lived during the release of this album). Here's a closer look at the property, which is also shown at right.

In 1971, after a long stay at the St. Regis Hotel, John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved into a tiny pad owned by Lovin’ Spoonful drummer Joe Butler. This was during Lennon’s most political period, and he often hosted gatherings at the apartment that drew counterculture figures like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Lennon also demoed much of his Some Time in New York City album in this spot. After 18 months, though, John and Yoko moved on up, to the Upper West Side apartment building called the Dakota.

Other places on the trip down memory lane include

The Dakota (1 West 72nd Street) where Yoko Ono still lives today,

Ed Sullivan Theater (53rd Street and Broadway) where The Beatles played to an audience of 74 million on February 9th, 1964 (#1 in the 100 days that changed music).

The Plaza at 2 Central Park South ends the tour. In February 1964 the Beatles began their American journey there and ten years later they attempted to reunite in the same spot to sign legal documents that would formally dissolve their partnership. However "John didn’t show up. 'He wouldn’t come across the park!' Paul McCartney said.

'I had flown in from England, and John wouldn’t show up. George got on the phone and yelled, ’Take those fucking shades off and come over here.’ John still wouldn’t come over. He had a balloon delivered with a sign saying ‘Listen to this balloon.’ It was all quite far out.'"

Ringo's Ringo's Rolling Stone interview

Ringo’s Rolling Stone Interview w/ Audio

Rolling Stone recently interviewed Ringo for their fortieth anniversary issue and now rare audio excerpts from the interview are available on rollingstone.com. Twenty artists and leaders were interviewed for Rolling Stone’s celebratory fortieth edition, with Ringo being chosen for his indelible imprint on rock & roll history. Rolling Stone selected audio clips from the interview which capture Ringo’s thoughts on Kurt Cobain, how he discovers new music, who are among some of his current favorite artists, seeing Bob Dylan and

The Rolling Stones live, the enduring impact of the Beatles’ music, and coping with the loss of John and George. Visit rollingstone.com to listen to six audio clips from Ringo’s interview, and for the entire Ringo profile, get your copy of Rolling Stone’s fortieth anniversary issue, on stands now.