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For decades, the iconic “i” in Apple’s products—like the iPhone, iPad, and iMac—has sparked curiosity and speculation among tech enthusiasts and casual users alike. While theories range from the philosophical to the whimsical, the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs clarified its origin during a 1998 speech introducing the iMac. ET Year-end Special Reads Corporate Kalesh: Top family disputes of India Inc in 2024 The world of business lost these eminent people in 2024 Fast, faster, fastest: How 2024 put more speed into your shopping At the time, Jobs explained that the “i” primarily stood for “internet,” reflecting the web’s burgeoning influence during the dot-com boom. However, he also hinted that it represented a broader range of concepts. According to Paul Bischoff, a privacy advocate at Comparitech, Jobs noted that the “i” encompassed terms like “individual,” “instruct,” “inform,” and “inspire.” Despite these explanations, Jobs admitted that the “i” didn’t have a rigid definition. It was open to interpretation, embodying both personal and educational connotations. “The ‘i’ can also be seen as the pronoun ‘I,’ emphasizing individuality and personalization,” Bischoff explained in an interview with Reader’s Digest. From Internet to Intelligence Fast-forward to the latest technological advancements, and the meaning of the “i” has evolved. With the release of the iPhone 16 and iOS 18, the “i” now signifies “intelligence,” highlighting the integration of AI-powered features into Apple’s ecosystem. However, the reception to these updates has been mixed. Some users have resisted adopting the latest iOS version, citing concerns over change and functionality. This reluctance comes with risks, as older software versions may leave devices vulnerable to security breaches. For example, a previous iOS bug allowed hackers to exploit sensitive user data. Fortunately, the new update addressed this vulnerability, reinforcing the importance of staying current with software updates. Looking Ahead: Foldable Technology In addition to AI advancements, Apple is reportedly developing foldable devices to expand its innovative portfolio. A foldable iPad is rumored to debut in 2028, with a foldable iPhone expected no earlier than 2026. These devices aim to redefine portable technology while maintaining Apple’s commitment to sleek design and functionality. Steve Jobs’ vision continues to shape Apple’s trajectory and influence the tech industry at large. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently shared how a pivotal interaction with Jobs inspired him to overcome a creative block. According to Benioff, Jobs challenged him to expand Salesforce’s capabilities, resulting in the creation of the AppExchange, a cornerstone of the company’s success.

The Indiana vs. Notre Dame matchup in the first round of the College Football Playoff is the most expensive ticket on StubHub, but it's Tennessee vs. Ohio State that's selling the fastest. StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said Monday that the game being hosted in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 21 has sold 34% more tickets than the game in South Bend, Indiana, on Dec. 20. “The expanded college football playoffs are seeing early high demand, especially as we see new teams enter the competition for the first time,” Budelli said. StubHub lists tickets for sale from official event organizers, but most of its offerings are from the resale market. Here's the ticket marketplace's average CFP first-round prices as of Monday evening: 1. Indiana at Notre Dame — $733 2. Clemson at Texas — $518 3. Tennessee at Ohio State — $413 4. SMU at Penn State — $271 Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Watetown's Schmidt, Lakeside's Wolfram earn all-state soccer recognitionHugh Jackman may spend some of the Christmas holidays either without his two children or his rumored new girlfriend, Sutton Foster, because his ex-wife Deborra-Lee Furness isn’t ready to created a “blended,” “modern-family” dynamic with all of them celebrating together. The 56-year-old Jackman reportedly wanted to introduce Foster, 49, to his adult children, Oscar, 24, and Ava,19, but Furness is not “keen” on the idea, Woman’s Day reported. “It’s going to take more time for loved ones to adjust to the new normal and so that means Hugh and Sutton are bracing themselves for way less time together than they’d like during the holidays,” an insider told Woman’s Day. Even without saying anything publicly, Furness, 68, has reportedly made it clear that she’s not happy with how her marriage ended. A report last month said she appeared to confirm a social media post that said that Jackman’s alleged backstage affair with Foster , his co-star in the hit Broadway revival of “The Music Man,” is the reason behind their divorce after 27 years of marriage. For that reason, Furness feels like Jackman is “moving on quickly” even after she “gave so much of herself to their marriage,” the Woman’s Day source said. She definitely doesn’t want a “blended” Christmas, in which she’d presumably include Foster and even her 7-year-old daughter in their family celebrations. “Hugh and Sutton would love to get together with their kids for the holidays, but it’s still awkward, and Hugh is conscious of respecting Deb’s feelings,” the source said. Tensions are “still simmering,” according to Woman’s Day. “Deb feels like Hugh hasn’t properly acknowledged the hurt he caused by moving on so quickly,” the insider also said. Jackman and Furness shocked fans when they announced their separation in September 2023. One of a few Hollywood couples known for a long and seemingly happy marriage, they issued a statement that sounded polite and amicable, saying that their journey together was “shifting,” and they had “decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.” But then came reports in October, saying that Jackman had developed a “close relationship” with Sutton when they starred together in “The Music Man,” which ran from late 2021 to January 2023 at the Winter Garden Theatre in Manhattan. At the time, both were married to other people. The reports about a rumored affair began as soon as the Tony Award-winning Foster filed for divorce from screenwriter Ted Griffin after 10 years of marriage. A source close to Foster told Us Weekly: “Sutton and Hugh’s relationship is the reason Hugh and Deb (separated).” In October, gossip blogger Tasha Lustig also said that Furness was “blindsided” by her husband’s romance with his co-star, even after she had given her “whole life and career to him,” Us Weekly also reported. Lustig said that the Broadway stars were planning to “soft launch” their relationship publicly. But even if Furness was “blindsided” by her husband’s alleged romance, she had concerns about him working with Foster, the Daily Mail reported . A source told the Daily Mail that the relationship was “not a secret to her.” The relationship also was “not a secret” among the New York theater community. It was in fact an “open secret” in Broadway circles, multiple reports said. The romance allegedly developed while Jackman and Foster were working together on the classic musical comedy, which is set in small-town America at the turn of the 20th century. His conman and her librarian fall in love through a series of music and dance numbers. As Jackman and Foster promoted the show, they didn’t hide their regard for each other. During a 2022 interview on “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Foster admitted that she and Jackman developed a very close bond and explained how they started a pre-performance ritual that took place when they were alone in her dressing room. “We call it carpet chat,” Foster revealed in the interview. Woman’s Day reported that Jackman and Furness’s children are handling the upheaval with “remarkable maturity.” The source said, “They just want peace and happiness for their parents. But they’re definitely aware of the tension.” Meanwhile, Jackman and Foster are “shocked by the backlash,” another insider told Woman’s Day. With a blended family Christmas off the table, the new couple are reportedly planning a romantic getaway in the New Year. “They’re determined to make it work, but for now, they’re trying to keep things as low-key as possible out of respect for everyone involved,” the source said.BUFFALO, N.Y. — Looking for a way to give back this holiday season ? Perhaps look no further than an organization in Buffalo. Catholic Charities of Buffalo and the Ladies of Charity are looking for donations and people who may benefit from the Santa's Workshop program. “Family budgets are stretched, and Christmas can be an overwhelming and stressful time for many,” said Julie Lulek, senior director of Catholic Charities. “Through the community’s generous donations to Santa’s Workshop, we are helping to brighten the holidays and provide a gift, books, and stocking stuffers to hundreds of local families. While anything you may be able to contribute is greatly appreciated, this year we have an urgent need for items aimed at tweens and teens.” You can be part of that mission, too, to make sure that everyone gets a gift underneath the tree. "I wish that we could share the joy that we get by being able to fulfill Christmas dreams. It's really special to be able to be part of that. Everybody should feel the magic of Christmas and receive at least one gift," Lulek said. They're asking for new or unwrapped donations of toys, books, puzzle, board games and more. They're collecting donations for children and teens age 10 and older. Lulek said, " Catholic Charities , Ladies of Charity program is unique that we serve kids up to 18." Santa’s Workshop will accept referrals Monday, Dec. 2, through Wednesday, Dec. 11. These referrals are first come, first serve. If you live in Erie County those will go through the Catholic Charities’ Downtown District Office . If you live outside of Erie County, you can call 211 and ask for a referral to the WNY Holiday Toy Partnership.

Passive income can help get you on the road to financial freedom. As you grow your passive income sources, you'll become less reliant on your job to support your lifestyle. Investing in real estate investment trusts ( REITs ) can be a great way to start building your passive income. Several REITs offer high-yielding dividends that they pay monthly, making them ideally suited for generating recurring income . For example, $5,000 invested across a trio of monthly dividend REITs could produce nearly $275 of dividend income per year (almost $23 each month): Monthly Dividend Stock Investment Current Yield Annual Dividend Income EPR Properties ( EPR 0.49% ) $1,666.67 7.65% $127.50 Stag Industrial ( STAG 1.00% ) $1,666.67 4.07% $67.83 Gladstone Land ( LAND 1.95% ) $1,666.67 4.73% $78.83 Total $5,000.00 5.48% $274.17 Data source: Google Finance. Table by author. That income stream should grow as these REITs increase their dividends. Your ticket to a lucrative monthly income stream EPR Properties is a specialty REIT focused on owning experiential properties like movie theaters, eat-and-play venues, and attractions. The REIT leases these properties to tenants that operate the experiences. It typically gets paid a stable base rental rate and , in some cases, gets a cut of the property's revenue. The company is on track to generate $4.80-$4.92 per share of funds from operations ( FFO ) as adjusted this year . That's plenty of cash flow to cover its monthly dividend payment of $0.285 per share ($3.42 annualized). EPR Properties retains the excess cash to fund new income-generating experiential property investments. It will invest $225 million to $275 million into new properties this year, which includes development and redevelopment projects. The REIT expects new property investments to grow its FFO per share by around a 3% to 4% annual rate . That should enable it to increase its dividend by about a similar rate (it raised its payout by 3.6% this year). Multiple growth drivers Stag Industrial is an industrial REIT that owns warehouse and light manufacturing facilities. The company leases those properties to high-quality tenants under long-term contracts that escalate rents at a low-single-digit annual rate. The REIT currently pays out about 73% of its stable rental income via its monthly dividend. That enables it to retain about $100 million each year to fund new investments. Stag Industrial also has a very strong balance sheet, giving it additional cash to fund new income-generating industrial real estate investments. The company expects to invest $500 million to $700 million into acquiring additional properties this year. Demand for industrial real estate is robust these days due to the rising adoption of e-commerce and the onshoring of manufacturing. That's driving up rental rates for properties in the market. Stag Industrial is steadily capturing this market rent growth by signing new leases at higher market rates as legacy leases expire. The company has signed new and renewal leases at an average rental increase of about 30% this year compared to expiring rental rates. Rising rents (contractual and market) and new property additions are growing the REIT's FFO per share. That's enabling it to steadily raise its dividend, which it has done every year since it came public in 2011. Steady dividend growth Gladstone Land is a farmland REIT . It owns farms leased to farmers at either a fixed rate or participation rental rate, where it gets a portion of the annual crop revenue. The REIT routinely increases its monthly dividend (35 times over the last 39 quarters). The company grows its dividend by acquiring new farms. It also benefits from rent growth and rising crop income. For example, it recently renewed or amended eight leases of farms that grow annual row crops at an 11% higher rate compared to the prior lease rate. Gladstone Land has experienced some setbacks over the past year due to the impact of lower crop prices on some tenants. It has had to take back 20 farms that are either currently vacant or that it now directly operates. It has also had to renegotiate some other leases at lower initial rental rates in exchange for greater participation in future crop revenue. The company expects to work through these issues by the end of the year and should see higher revenue in the second half of 2025, when its farms harvest their crops. That should enable the REIT to continue growing its dividend in the future. Ideal passive income producers REITs are great passive income investments because they generate steady rental income that they distribute to investors. EPR Properties, Stag Industrial, and Gladstone Land pay attractive monthly dividends, making them ideal options for those seeking lots of recurring passive income.Giants release Daniel Jones: Veteran QB officially waived after two sides part ways following his benching - CBS Sports

Playoff game at Ohio State has sold 34% more tickets than Notre Dame game on StubHub

As the gaming world is rapidly changing, high-performance laptops have emerged as a necessity for gamers while preserving portability and power. However, immenseness in processing comes along with a big challenge - cooling. In gaming laptops 2024, advanced cooling comes into play to meet the demands of those gamers who push their limits to the very end. Let’s see how these innovations are changing the face of gaming and why this should be interesting to every serious gamer. Gaming laptops are generally designed for very high-end CPUs and GPUs to have fluid gameplay at ultra-high settings. These are sources of much heat during extended usage, which if not well managed, may lead to performance throttling, the reduction in the lifespan of the hardware, and eventually system failures. Maintain Optimal Performance: Prevent thermal throttling by keeping temperatures within a safe range. Enhance Durability: Protect internal components from overheating and wear. Improve Comfort: Ensure laptops remain comfortable to use, even during long gaming sessions. Here are 8 gaming laptops that excel in cooling technology, ensuring top-notch performance and durability: Features liquid metal thermal paste and a vapor chamber design for efficient heat dissipation. Incorporates Cryo-Tech cooling technology and AI-optimized fan systems for quiet and effective thermal management. Utilizes a quad-fan setup and a vapor chamber to keep its powerful components cool. Equipped with 5th-generation AeroBlade 3D fans for enhanced airflow and quieter operation. Combines a sleek design with a custom vapor chamber and high-performance fans. Features ColdFront 5.0 cooling technology with improved air intake and liquid metal thermal paste. Uses Omen Tempest cooling with three-sided venting and five-way airflow for efficient heat management. Includes a Windforce Infinity cooling system with dual fans and multiple heat pipes for sustained gaming performance. Liquid metal is a game-changer for heat transfer. Unlike traditional thermal pastes, liquid metal conducts heat much more efficiently, keeping CPUs and GPUs cool under intense loads. Many high-end gaming laptops now feature vapor chambers, which offer superior heat dissipation compared to traditional heat pipes. This design allows for even heat distribution across the laptop’s chassis. It adjusts the fan speeds according to dynamic user behavior with Artificial Intelligence, respectively optimizes power usage, and predicts all kinds of thermal patterns. Laptops like the ASUS ROG series are introducing innovative airflow solutions, such as raising the rear of the laptop to improve ventilation or using multi-fan setups that efficiently expel heat from the system. Some manufacturers are now offering external liquid cooling docks that connect to laptops, providing desktop-grade cooling for portable machines. Bulk and Weight: Advanced cooling systems usually add to the size and weight of laptops, making them less portable. Cost: Revolutionary cooling can inflate the gaming laptop's price. Noisy Levels: Some fans start making noise at full operating speed, reducing immersion for gamers. Looking ahead, manufacturers are exploring technologies such as graphene-based cooling solutions and sub-ambient cooling systems that could revolutionize laptop thermals. The integration of liquid cooling directly into laptop designs without external docks also seems imminent. Advanced cooling systems will set courses for gaming laptops with unmatched performance, reliability, and lifespan. The manufacturers have made tremendous leaps in thermal innovation over the years and 2024 is probably a break-out year for portable gaming on the whole.As the 60s swung about them and their iconic mop-tops grew increasingly shaggy, enjoyed an unprecedented level of celebrity. Ubiquitous, universally adored, John, Paul, George and Ringo were the four most famous faces on the planet. Their uncanny ability to crank out concise, era-defining hits was the key to their success, and their world-beating charm was significantly enhanced by their easy camaraderie. The Beatles were a gang; a gang that everybody wanted to join. Boys wanted to be them, girls wanted to be with them. But the private world that they shared remained seductively impenetrable. Somewhere between the musty bowels of Liverpool’s Cavern and the sordid fleshpots of , they had developed an understanding that bordered on telepathy, an intuitive harmony that manifested itself in the creation of perfect pop. But times change. Especially when you live your life under an unforgiving media spotlight, indulged, pampered, preyed upon by divisive sycophants, your judgment almost permanently refracted through a psychedelic prism. Bound together by the captivity of fame, The Beatles came to resent their essential closeness. And by 1968, as they set about recording their eponymous double they were pretty much sick of the sight of each other. Just as telepathic harmony between the four Beatles had facilitated the creation of perfect pop, so growing disharmony bred the raw, discordant fury of rock. The most significant of a series of events that activated The Beatles’ metamorphosis from exemplary pop group to prototype rock band was the death of Brian Epstein. The band learned of their manager’s barbiturate overdose on August 27, 1967 while studying transcendental meditation with Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Wales. Within the week, they announced their decision to manage themselves. Without Epstein’s cautious hand on the tiller, The Beatles were let off the leash creatively. was hit the hardest by his death, and as he enthusiastically self-medicated with lashings of LSD, the balance of power steadily shifted towards . Epstein’s death left a gaping, substitute parent-shaped void in Lennon’s life (an unsatisfactory relationship with his absentee father combined with his mother’s early death left him vulnerable and in constant pursuit of a viable alternative). The drugs didn’t work, and his marriage to his first wife, Cynthia, was on its last legs. So when suggested a trip in February 1968 to Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, to attend a further course in TM under the tutelage of the Maharishi, John was the first to sign up. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Soon enough, Paul and Ringo followed, along with wives, partners, Celtic folkie Donovan, Beach Boy Mike Love, actress Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence. John had considered inviting Yoko Ono, the Japanese artist he had met at an art gallery in November 1966 and with whom a mutual attraction had grown, but as Cynthia was also in attendance he thought better of it. Newly decanted into a drug-free zone and with nothing other than TM to occupy their minds, The Beatles soon set about writing new material. And with the only Western instrument to hand being an acoustic guitar, the White Album’s sound was born of necessity. Donovan taught John to fingerpick and, utilising the technique, Lennon wrote (an exhortation to the shy, young Farrow to join in with the transcendental fun) and (ostensibly about his late mother, though also about Yoko, the in the lyric; Yoko literally means ‘child of the sea’ in Japanese). In all, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison wrote 17 of the songs that would appear on the White Album while in India. And, for the very first time, even Ringo wrote one. He was that bored. But John was still locked inside his own private hell. Trapped in a loveless marriage, obsessed with thoughts of Yoko and unable to sleep (an insomnia diarised in the White Album’s ), he wrote . Reminiscent of and the other blues boomers, the song was indicative of the fact that Lennon was far from happy. “When I wrote ‘ ’,” he admitted, “I’m not kidding. That’s how I felt, up there, trying to reach God and feeling suicidal.” Having travelled to India in search of direction and wise counsel from a parental figure, Lennon found only disillusionment. He left Rishikesh in a huff, accusing the Maharishi (falsely, as it turned out) of making a pass at Mia Farrow, an incident chronicled in the accusatory . “I was rough on him,” he said. “I always expect too much. I’m always expecting my mother and I don’t get her. That’s what it is.” Within a month John and Cynthia’s marriage had ended and he was in a relationship with Yoko. From the dawn of their celebrity, all four Beatles were individually famous. The public was soon able to differentiate which Lennon/McCartney compositions were Paul songs and which were John songs. George’s songs reflected another persona entirely, while Ringo was invariably gifted with the toxic chalice of Paul’s latest novelty song. In the absence of Epstein, and with disharmony in the ranks, the band split further apart into their constituent parts. Rather than drawing the band closer, India had only served to accentuate their differences. In Rishikesh, away from the skewed reality of London, only George had found enlightenment (along with six songs). Ringo complained about the food and left early, followed by Paul who, between bouts of meditation had knuckled down to write a dozen or so songs. John’s experience may not have been terribly spiritual, but it was certainly profound. Off the acid and stunned into misery by the pin-sharp tedium of real life, he came to terms with the fact that his marriage was over and that he was falling in love with Yoko. During his stay, Lennon wrote 15 of what he later claimed to be some of his “best” and “most miserable” songs. When the four Beatles finally took their individual songs into Abbey Road Studios in May 1968, they worked more autonomously than ever before. Abandoning the meticulous crafting that had served them so well on , they jammed out a few backing tracks collectively, but generally worked individually. The majority of the White Album was recorded as if four solo albums were being made simultaneously. McCartney was no longer editing Lennon and vice versa, Harrison was left to his own devices, and Ringo Starr spent entire days twiddling his sticks in the studio’s reception; each songwriter took care of his own overdubs separately. A frustrated eventually abandoned production duties to go on holiday. His position as omnipresent fifth Beatle had been usurped. While you can debate whether or not The Beatles were the first rock band, there’s no doubt whatsoever that Yoko was the first Yoko. John’s relationship with her was finally consummated just 11 days prior to the start of the White Album’s sessions at Abbey Road, and it caused him to re-evaluate his pampered existence. He had not been happy with Beatle-life for a long time, and his feelings were becoming clear as the band reconvened for the sessions. “I was too scared to break away from The Beatles, which I’d been looking to do since we stopped touring [in ’66],” Lennon revealed in 1980. “I was vaguely looking for somewhere to go, but didn’t have the nerve... so I hung around. And then I met Yoko and fell in love: ‘This is more than a hit record. It’s more than everything...’” Yoko, who wasn’t in the slightest bit impressed by Lennon’s Beatle status, opened his eyes to the vacuity of stardom. “That’s how The Beatles ended,” Lennon said. “Not because Yoko split The Beatles, but because she showed me what it was like to be Elvis Beatle and to be surrounded by sycophants and slaves who were only interested in keeping the situation as it was. She said to me:, ‘You’ve got no clothes on.’ Nobody had dared tell me that before.” There was nothing particularly wrong with his marriage to Cynthia. It was, as he put it, “a normal marital state where nothing happened”. But Lennon wanted more, just as he always had. Above all else he wanted to be mothered. And with Yoko newly identified and installed as John’s perfect life partner, Cynthia wasn’t the only one facing redundancy. “Once I found the woman, the boys became of no interest whatsoever,” he said. Their relationship was way beyond close. They had become two inseparable halves of a single entity, and Yoko a permanent fixture in the studio; she would be found sitting on top of a guitar amp or under the piano. When she became ill, a bed was installed in the studio. The besotted Lennon, oblivious to the feelings of his bandmates, stoked more resentment. The fact that the pair were now using heroin heightened tensions as Lennon became prone to temperamental outbursts. The LSD-driven Technicolor pop lightness of gave way to darker rock shades as the opiates held sway. Guitars distorted as moods blackened, and Yoko’s very presence initiated an edginess that mirrored the social chaos occurring outside of The Beatles’ bubble: a happy accident that only served to enhance the band’s rock’n’roll relevance. To their credit, the others reacted to the Yoko-isation of the studio fairly well. They had to ask her to move every time they wanted to adjust their amps, but they generally favoured passive aggression over the frank exchange of fisticuffs you might expect of a band like The Who. Lennon was hypersensitive to any negative reaction to his newly attached Siamese twin. The indignation of his fellow Beatles was at least understandable, but the negative press and public reaction to Yoko was not. It was this undue criticism (partly born of racism) that particularly rankled. A dormant hard-man persona came to the fore in Lennon. The moptop-era puppy fat was gone forever, now replaced with a lean, mean demeanour: Lennon the Peace Yob. It was the template for Liam Gallagher 25 years later, and a role Lennon himself would inhabit for the remainder of the decade. Angry John was easily mistaken for Political John. Resentful that nobody liked his new girlfriend, he started ranting about peace, furiously planting acorns and shouting at journalists from bed. In so doing he inadvertently supplied the blueprint for Bono and every other rock star who assumes that just because they can sing in tune they’re Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Jesus Christ rolled into one. The onset of John’s apparent political conscience coincided with Yoko’s arrival. And as civil unrest continued to simmer across the globe, The Beatles suddenly found their voice. The White Album sessions commenced with , written by Lennon in the foothills of Rishikesh. “I wanted to put out what I felt about revolution,” he explained in 1970. “I thought it was about time we thought about it. The same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnam War.” But there was ambiguity in ’s lyric. John’s particular strain of revolt was to be purely humanitarian and strictly non-violent. Or was it? As he delivered ’s pivotal ‘ ’ lyric, he immediately followed it up with an entirely contradictory ‘ ’. Conflicted? Perhaps. Mischievous by instinct? Definitely. The first version of to hit record stores was faster and more aggressive compared to its bluesy, almost non-committal, White Album incarnation (titled ). Re-recorded as an A-side, but demoted at Paul’s insistence to the B-side of the non-album single, this primal scream-propelled invitation to insurrection, replete with distorted guitar riff, managed to Trojan-horse its way into eight million homes. Heavy rock had barely been invented, but The Beatles, having nailed its key components, casually disseminated its message into every corner of the planet. While John and Yoko were orbiting each other, McCartney was busy in his own world. A one-man Tin Pan Alley, McCartney has long been regarded as the soft pop cheese to Lennon’s hard rock chalk. But he could be just as hard, if not harder, than John. During the course of a particularly unguarded interview, ostensibly to promote in August ’68, McCartney flatly stated that: “Starvation in India doesn’t worry me one bit. Not one iota. It doesn’t, man.” He concluded: “The truth about me is that I’m pleasantly insincere.” Never prepared to alienate the mainstream audience that had always formed The Beatles’ core constituency, McCartney’s stance in ’68 appeared counter-revolutionary next to Lennon’s. “People seem to think that all we say and do and sing is a political statement,” he said, “but it isn’t. In the end it’s always only a song.” The final chapter in the saga, , was never “only a song”. It remains the White Album’s most ‘difficult’ moment. Eight minutes and 22 seconds of tape loops, sound effects and musique concrète, it was John and Yoko’s arty indulgence, and Paul argued against its inclusion. John and Yoko’s relationship found its genesis in a shared fascination for the avant garde. In early May 1968, while Cynthia was holidaying in Italy, John invited Yoko over to his house. He played her tapes of his experimental home recordings, and over the course of the night the pair contrived to concoct an entire album’s worth of material. By morning they were a couple, and the commercially suicidal awaited its controversial release (it would emerge a week after the White Album, wrapped in the most unflattering nude cover in the history of sleeve art). Enthused by their efforts, John and Yoko were keen to repeat the exercise, this time under The Beatles’ name. Two weeks later, with George Harrison along for the ride, they set to work on . So why did McCartney take issue with what could have been construed as the most brave, progressive and genuinely revolutionary statement on the White Album? Surprisingly, it wasn’t down to the kind of musical conservatism one might expect of the man responsible for . “I didn’t find that interesting,” he had shrugged of . “The music wasn’t shocking to me, because I’d made a lot like that myself.” And he had. In January ’67 he’d recorded an avant-garde abstract sound collage of his own, the still-unreleased , for show at London’s Roundhouse. Paul’s interest in the avant-garde significantly predated that of Lennon’s. It’s more than likely that his opposition to John’s had less to do with its radical nature than with the fact it was an inferior version of John Cage’s , released a whole decade earlier. Up to and including The Beatles were leaders. recast them as followers. Yoko might have fast-tracked John into the avant-garde, but whether he had an actual aptitude for it was never considered. His Beatle status guaranteed an audience, but didn’t guarantee that it was any good, or indeed any more valid, than the efforts of any other enthusiastic novice in the field. Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention had concluded 1966’s (the very first double album, and the only one other than Dylan’s released prior to the White Album) with , a sound collage not dissimilar to . In March 1968 the Mothers’ -parodying had featured the accomplished Varese-esque musique concrète of Rather than being a brave new harbinger of an age yet to come, was the least influential and, arguably, least original piece on the White Album. The most enduring lesson Paul McCartney learned while serving his apprenticeship on the Reeperbahn was that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. If you want to keep your audience satisfied while you exercise your right to artistic freedom, he reasoned, you’ve got to give them a bit of what they fancy while you’re at it, no matter how excruciating it might seem. “We’ve always been a rock group, The Beatles,” Paul said a week before the White Album’s release. “It’s just that we’re not completely rock’n’roll. That’s why we do one minute and this [the stripped-back 12-bar blues ] the next. When we played in Hamburg we didn’t just play rock’n’roll all evening, because we had these fat old businessmen coming in and saying play us a mambo or a rumba. So we had to get into this kind of stuff.” With Lennon insistent on the inclusion of , the equally hard-nosed McCartney figured that the only way to render eight minutes of avant-garde medicine palatable was with an awful lot of sugar. He was compelled to balance out ’s uncompromising approach with ’s syrupy schmaltz, ’s music-hall bounce, and ’s kid-friendly yarn of feuding frontier folk. Then there was itself, a song memorably defined by John Lennon as “granny music shit”. But in between the self-indulgence and the saccharine lay the sheer brilliance. The real reason we’re here: The Beatles’ enduring blueprint for rock. With the White Album effectively delineated as four solo projects knitted together, the obvious question is: which one of The Beatles was it that first stumbled upon rock’s holy grail? And the answer? All four of them. Every one of rock’s key ingredients can be found scattered between Lennon’s , Harrison’s , Ringo’s and McCartney’s . is the sound of pure disaffection, rock’s essential fuel. Lennon would retrospectively redefine its unalloyed passion as mere parody, a mocking comment on the burgeoning British blues boom. But there’s no doubt that its suicidal lyrical undertone was genuine. And whether he meant it or not, he certainly sounded like he did – especially on its key ‘ ’ a line, a sentiment that encapsulated the disillusionment felt by a generation poised to abandon the utopian optimism of the Summer Of Love for its decidedly darker flip-side. The following year would see the doom-laden template – complete with the iron-booted bass drum thud that Ringo adopted across the entire White Album – echoed in the sound of Led Zeppelin. Typically, neither John nor Paul took George’s compositions seriously. Frustrated, he persuaded his friend Eric Clapton to the studio, where the presence of an outsider made everyone shape up. “Paul got on the piano and played a nice intro and they all took it more seriously,” Harrison remembered. The resulting song, , written with the Eastern concept of everything being relative in mind, boasts a brooding darkness that Clapton’s solos ignite and intensify. Rock guitar was never more passionate than this, and its overwrought crescendos set the bar high for all subsequent axe heroes. And then there was Ringo. Carelessly benched by his self-absorbed colleagues, the drummer temporarily ‘left’ the band for a fortnight in August 1968, though not before recording . While Ringo finally nailed its lyric nursing a curry-ravaged intestinal tract in Rishikesh, he’d been working on the song for years. Ill-served by a throwaway, guitar-free, piano-heavy McCartney arrangement, the White Album’s incarnation of practically oom-pahs. Yet buried beneath the customary ‘comedy’ treatment accorded any Ringo vocal performance lay a southern rock exemplar par excellence. Neither his fellow Beatles nor George Martin realised the full boogie-rocking potential of ’s driving, country-laced insistence. But the Georgia Satellites certainly did, granting Ringo’s pièce de résistance the barn-storming arrangement it deserved on their 1986 debut album. With Lennon focused on Yoko, Harrison and Ringo Starr sidelined and George Martin’s influence receding, it was Paul who grasped the reins to gallop the White Album’s sound in the general direction of rock’s future. As September wore on and sessions ground toward their fraught conclusion, the four Beatles set about recording the loudest and dirtiest performance of their career. Eighteen takes later, they had , one of the prime progenitors of heavy metal. “I read a review of a record [The Who’s ] which said that the group goes really wild with echo and screaming and everything,” McCartney said in ’68, “And I thought, ‘That’s a pity, I would have liked to do something like that.’ Then I heard it and it was nothing like it. It was straight and sophisticated. So we did [ ]... I like noise.” While very much a group effort by comparison to the majority of the White Album’s performances, was most definitely Paul’s baby. Both and their other proto-metal experiment, the re-cut version of , attained a level of sonic extremity later disparaged by Harrison and Lennon. “ is pretty good and it grooves along,” said Harrison, 30 years later, “but I don’t particularly like the noise it makes. And I say ‘noise’ because I didn’t like the distorted sound of John’s guitar.” Lennon was even keener to distance himself from . “That’s Paul completely,” he said in 1980. “It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me.” ’s influence continued beyond heavy rock and metal into mid-70s punk. Siouxsie And The Banshees recorded the song for their debut album, 1978’s (though possibly more for its macabre association with Charles Manson, whose bizarre interpretation of the song’s lyric as an incitement to commit mass murder only served to accentuate its enduring appeal in certain quarters). Perhaps more significantly, ’s violent nativity was witnessed by one of punk’s leading sonic architects. By this point, George Martin had effectively thrown in the towel by going away on holiday, though not before scribbling a quick note for his rookie assistant Chris Thomas to “make yourself available to The Beatles”. Thomas (who eventually went on to produce ) was to enjoy something of a baptism of fire: George Harrison running around the studio with a flaming ashtray on his head ‘doing an Arthur Brown’ while Paul McCartney screamed ever more demented vocal takes for . The 30, dizzyingly diverse components of The Beatles’ ninth studio collection were finally released on November 22, 1968. Housed in a plain white sleeve (embossed with the band’s name and a unique serial number) designed by pop-artist Richard Hamilton in collaboration with McCartney, the apparently eponymous set (a working title of had been abandoned when Family released in July) was greeted by an unprecedented chorus of critical disapproval. Writing in the Nik Cohn dismissed the album as “boring beyond belief”, while ’s Robert Christgau called it “their most consistent and probably their worst”. The truth of the matter was that the critics had, as usual, missed the revolution unfolding before their very ears. They focused largely on the ‘idiotic mediocrity’ of the ‘pretentious’ and its counteracting anodyne ‘pastiches’. Interpreting The Beatles’ paradigm shift from overworked, ornate mini-symphonies to unfussy production values as sheer artistic indolence, they missed the crucial point that hindsight makes so plain: the White Album’s enduring influence on rock’s future lay in its embrace of the easy over the difficult; of visceral feel over cerebral contrivance; groove over gimmickry. The Beatles found their way to the clear-headed simplicity of the White Album by pioneering methods that are now so familiar in the rock arena that they’ve become clichés. First in Wales, then in India, they were ‘getting their heads together in the country’; from acoustic demos at George’s to informal studio jams at Abbey Road they were ‘stripping back to basics’. And not before time. Since , pop musicians had seemed compelled to produce dense, psych-laced production numbers. The charts were clogged with countless kaftan-trussed quartets all desperately over-stretching themselves in the general direction of the cod-classical. This overwrought whiter-shade-of-pompous landscape, where proto-prog pretentiousness and lyrical gobbledygook prevailed, needed saving from itself. The White Album arrived into 1968 like a breath of fresh air. It was just as influential and game-changing as punk would be less than a decade later. As The Beatles’ sound palette and cardinal frame of reference refocused away from the European orchestral tradition and back on to American roots music (country and blues, rock’s fundamental foundations), so vast sections of the contemporary musical community were almost bound to follow. The Rolling Stones’ often gets the kudos for leading the way in this regard, but not only did The Beatles boast a far broader cultural influence in ’68, The White Album – though recorded later – also hit stores two weeks earlier. While The Beatles’ influence may have been diminished by a combination of the Paul-directed movie (the band’s inaugural artistic own goal, televised the previous Boxing Day – to almost universal bafflement) and a marked dip in John’s popularity since he’d fallen under the influence of ‘that woman’, they continued to outrank the Stones in the public mind. The Stones, only just recovering from the disastrous, sub- catastrophe that was , were still widely considered to be slavishly following The Beatles’ lead in all things artistic, whether they’d already moved on or not. And while The Band’s Americana-birthing album had been released two months into the White Album sessions, and could therefore be considered as a potential influence on its roots-ward direction, the majority of its core material had been composed in Rishikesh four months earlier. (Even without benefit of the ornate curlicues of quasi-classical multi-tracking, Bach trumpets and reverse tape-loops, the stripped Beatles continued to be progressive with Lennon’s resolutely linear casually challenging the very nature of song structure.) They fashioned their look in a similarly simple style. The gaudy showbiz flash of the era joined the Epstein-dictated sartorial conservatism of their touring years on the cultural scrap heap. In their black waistcoats, white shirts, black hats, snake-hipped, low-slung, tapered and tailored flares, they looked more like a gang than like a marching band. Cuban-heeled, ankle-hugging Chelsea boots, mix-and-match moustaches and meticulously mussed hair suggested the brooding frontier cool of the American West, riverboat gamblers with issues. It was an enduring stylistic template for the likes of the Black Crowes, The Raconteurs and the Temperance Movement. The ’68 Beatles – a one-stop shop for 21st-century stylists – were rock-band-cool incarnate. Looking back on the White Album, Lennon and McCartney were more than satisfied. “I always preferred it to all the other albums, including ,” John said in ’71, “I thought the music was better. The myth is bigger, but the music on the White Album is far superior.” “I think it was a very good album,” Paul agreed, but with reservations. “It stood up, but it wasn’t a pleasant one to make. Then again, sometimes those things work for your art.” While it is indeed the grit in the oyster that makes the pearl, and great rock’n’roll is more often than not born of friction, antipathy and discord, any relationship based in negativity, even that of rock’s biggest band, cannot be sustained indefinitely. Marginalised, underappreciated and made to feel redundant he may have been, but Ringo had already found that any decision to break-up The Beatles was way beyond his pay grade. George Harrison too: the guitarist ‘left’ the band for five days in January 1969, and was persuaded back only on condition that McCartney abandoned all plans for the band to return to the road. In the end, though, there was no saving The Beatles. However much McCartney wanted the band to carry on, it was abundantly clear that Lennon, keen to investigate fresh artistic vistas with Yoko, had completely lost interest in continuing to work within the constraints of a four-piece rock band. Lennon quit in September ’69, and McCartney, after months in denial, finally turned off the life support machine in April ’70. The Beatles were a leviathan, a cultural colossus whose influence on their musical contemporaries was wholly unprecedented and remains unsurpassed. They were the first four-piece guitar band to smoulder moodily in leather jackets and shades; the first to grow their hair, to fly their freak flag, to tune in, turn on and flaunt it in the tabloids; the first to India; the first to soundtrack a ; and the first to fall out over the first – and still the very best – Yoko. With the White Album, The Beatles delivered all the necessary components for what we now know as classic rock, but the disharmony that facilitated its birth proved fatal. As John Lennon himself acknowledged: “The break-up of The Beatles can be heard on that album.” Ultimately, having planted the seeds of sonic revolution in the fertile soil of the late 1960s, The Beatles’ work was done. With the spiritual progeny of their final incarnation on the rise, the artistically drained former Fabs were suddenly rendered old and in the way, an immovable reminder of a lost innocence, too ubiquitous to ignore, too enormous to eclipse. For the green shoots of rock to thrive, The Beatles had to die. “They asked Chris Cornell – they needed an exceptional singer”: How Faith No More’s landmark alt-metal masterpiece The Real Thing could have been very different "What a night. What a gig. What a f**king band." Kneecap's joyous, messy, and wildly celebratory tour-closing London show is further proof that the West Belfast hip-hop trio are utterly unstoppable “Pink Floyd said they weren’t sure how to get out of the Another Brick In The Wall solo – would I like to try?” How jazz master Lee Ritenour helped David Gilmour track the band’s epic single Classic Rock’s Reviews Editor for the last 20 years, Ian stapled his first fanzine in 1977. Since misspending his youth by way of ‘research’ his work has also appeared in such publications as Metal Hammer, Prog, NME, Uncut, Kerrang!, VOX, The Face, The Guardian, Total Guitar, Guitarist, Electronic Sound, Record Collector and across the internet. Permanently buried under mountains of recorded media, ears ringing from a lifetime of gigs, he enjoys nothing more than recreationally throttling a guitar and following a baptism of punk fire has played in bands for 45 years, releasing recordings via Esoteric Antenna and Cleopatra Records.

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