Paul's Favorite Subject - John

Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison performing as Japage 3, photographed by Mike McCartney on March 8, 1958. This was taken at Paul's Aunt Gin's house during the wedding reception of his cousin, Ian Harris. The person standing next to Paul is Dennis Littler, a friend of Ian's.

Happy McLennon day! 60 years since John met Paul at the Woolton Church Fete on the 6th July 1957 and started this whole thing off… 

“I just thought, ‘Well, he looks good, he’s singing well and he seems like a great lead singer to me. Of course, he had his glasses off, so he really looked suave. I remember John was good. He was really the only outstanding member; all the rest kind of slipped away.”

[Paul, talking about his first impressions of John, Record Collector Magazine, 1995]

“I was on a battered old guitar, which hadn’t cost much. A bloke named Rodney was on banjo, Pete Shotton was on washboard, I think Eric Griffiths was on another guitar and Len Gary [sic] was on box bass. 

“There was a friend of mine called Ivan who lived at the back of my house and he went to the same school as Paul McCartney - The Liverpool Institute High School. It was through Ivan that I first met Paul. Seems that he knew Paul was always dickering around in music and thought that he would be a good lad to have in the group.

“So one day when we were playing at Woolton he brought him along. We can both remember it quite well. We’ve even got the date down. It was June 15th 1955 [sic]. The Quarrymen were playing on a raised platform and there was a good crowd because it was a warm sunny day.”

[John, talking about how he and Paul met, quoted in Beatles Monthly No 2, September 1963 - and obviously getting the date really wrong - on purpose or not?!]

Pics - top - the first (?) photo of John and Paul together. The Quarrymen, including Paul, playing at New Clubmoor Hall, Broadway, Liverpool on 23rd November 1957. Photo by Leslie Kearney.

Photos on truck taken by James Davis - Rod Davis’ dad, who is the Rodney on banjo that John’s talking about. Photos taken on 6th July, 1957. (John with his eyes closed in the centre of the first photo, he’s obscured by Pete Shotton in the second).

Bottom 2 photos - The Quarrymen playing on 6th July, 1957, the day John met Paul. (Last photo - Geoff Rhind, other photo - Unknown but maybe Geoff Rhind?).

Happy McLennon Day Beatle fans everywhere!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/3aYz7zkyI14?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque

I’ve uploaded a new video :)

George Martin, Art Garfunkel, May Pang and others talk about John and Paul.

This is a compilation of interviews I thought were really interesting. All of these people knew or have met with John and/or Paul at one point or another. And they all talk about how close they were and many of them talk about how much they wanted to write with each other again. Sadly, none of those plans ever became a reality.

Based on “Love Me Do: The Beatles’ Progress” by Michael Braun for The Observer (5 July 1964).

Scotch and music:

“Uh, I need another drink, baby,’ says John.

Paul goes to the phone. ‘Hello? Yeah, send us six single Scotches - No, make it doubles, yeah, doubles.”

‘It’s a more expansive, inclusive version’: how women reshaped the history of the Beatles

For decades, academic appreciation of the fab four was an overwhelmingly male pursuit. Meet the female scholars, musicians and podcasters redressing the balance

A great article on a topic of great interest!

“‘You see,’ he says, snuffing out his cigarette with a defiant jab, ‘what I have to combat is the original image of me as the downtrodden dummy. It’s still in everybody’s minds. you don’t know how hard it is to fight that tag. I’ve been caught in this trap for almost twenty years now. But it hasn’t ruined my life. I know what I am, I know what I can do. But what am I going to do, take out a newspaper ad or a billboard and say, “I’m not really like that”? People always latch on to the first image and refuse to let go. ‘It was the same with John. Because he had this rapier wit, they said he was nasty and things like that. But John was the kindest person I ever knew. He was the only one of the four of us who would give his soul. The three of us would hesitate, but John would give you anything without hesitation. And I loved the man dearly. We were friends all the time. ‘I love the other two, you know. We’re friends, and there’s no real problem, but we have arguments and little fights. We did when we were touring, and we do now. But nothing like the newspapers make it out to be.’ […] For Ringo, the enforced intimacy created bonds of camaraderie that no amount of time or litigation can break. ‘They are my brothers, you see. I’m an only child, and they’re my brothers. I’ve always said that if I ever spend all my bread, I can just go live with one of them, and vice versa, ‘cause we all love to spend it,’ he chuckles.”

— Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone: Ringo in the afternoon. (April 30th, 1981)

Get Back Narrative

I’ve received a couple of asks seeking clarification regarding my earlier post about how the Get Back documentary was redefining the Beatle narrative.

I’ll try to summarize. 

1. Media articles like this, this and this regarding Ono’s presence. While it’s obvious that the band was heading toward dissolution with or without Ono’s presence, Ono’s continued presence in the studio, her unsolicited participation in band business (no, she didn’t just sit there and read, as some would claim), and her willingness to speak on John’s behalf is hardly exculpatory. Even Time magazine, which at least attempted a more considered analysis of the Beatle break-up era, claimed, after watching Get Back, that ‘Yoko’s presence was not a huge negative factor, and that none of the band members appear much bothered by her constant presence; they joke and talk with her comfortably”.  This is a shocking claim, given that a) the documentary clearly depicts the deleterious effect of Yoko’s presence upon band members during the failed meeting at George’s house, and b) George, Paul, and Ringo have all gone on record regarding their discomfort in Ono’s presence and the disruptive nature of her involvement in band business. 

(As an aside, I would also like to know in what workplace, no matter how creative or unorthodox, it would be acceptable to bring your lover or spouse to work everyday and insist that the presence of that person was absolutely benign.)  

2. The exclusion of information which would provide context to behaviour, such as John and Yoko’s heroin addiction. “By the advent of the “Get Back” sessions, Ono openly joked about taking heroin being the couple’s form of exercise”).  This was excluded in the Get Back documentary and, as a consequence, from mainstream media. Obviously the inclusion of this information would more accurately contexualize John’s behaviour in the band, including his insistence on Yoko’s presence.  

Another compelling piece of information that was not included in the documentary was that Patti Harrison briefly left George around the time of George’s departure from the band.  Since there was no mention of this event during filming, Peter Jackson decided not to share it, claiming he didn’t want to make any “moral judgements.” To whatever extent his brief estrangement from Patti affected George’s judgement we’ll never know (George didn’t even mention it in his diary of that day), but its exclusion in the documentary is regrettable. 

3.  Editorial Choices by the filmmaker.  Peter Jackson has gone on record that he was not influenced by Ringo or Paul, and nor by Olivia or Yoko at any point in the making of the Get Back Documentary. And there’s no reason not to believe him.  But:  the Get Back documentary reflects his editorial choices–what he believed was important to leave in, and what he believed was acceptable to leave out.  As Erin Torkelson Weber indicated in this earlier post, “the reality is that, without unrestricted access to the hundreds of hours of actual audio and visual tapes Hogg and Jackson used to make their films, fans are still being offered only someone else’s interpretation/vision/translation of the primary source material…so we have to rely on evidence that has already been framed and filtered.” 

And that reality–that we are watching someone’s else’s version of the truth, has escaped mainstream media and a certain cohort of Beatle fans who either find the Get Back version of the Beatle break-up era more commensurate with their own beliefs, or simply don’t know any better. 

54 years ago…It was Mad fucking Day Out for The Beatles

Such a good writer!!

Have I been checking regularly since yesterday whether you updated ATM? Nope, not me ... *whistles* :D

Ha! It’s happening! I’ve uploaded it to AO3, I just need to check the formatting and hit post. Also, signal is somewhat patchy where I am, so when all those things align, it’ll be live. Thank you for showing you’re interested. Made me smile a lot.