He has a need. A need for speed.

He was a demon driver. Banned from driving a couple of times, I think (or at least once!), for speeding. Naughty naughty boy.

Look guys, no hands!

In his own write

I’m sorry but all I can take from that is that in 1977 Woman magazine only cost 12p! 12p!! It’s well over 10 x that now - £1.70 I think. 12p!

And They Said It Wouldn’t Work

Came across this lovely photo of Linda on the cover of the April 30, 1977, issue of the U.K. weekly Woman. Her interview is titled “All you Need is Love, and a Beatle called Paul: Linda McCartney's story” by Bonnie Estridge (p. 28).

That’s all the info I have since the story is not reproduced anywhere online that I can see (though it’s obtainable from other sources).

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Turning my attention to the cover text, when “they” said the marriage wouldn’t work, “they” were not without just cause, IMO. Circumstances pointed to a relationship destined for failure.

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McCartney juggled multiple girlfriends simultaneously and had never practiced commitment in his adult life. Linda counted among her lovers many of the rock musicians she photographed. McCartney pursued and slept with Linda (among others) while engaged to someone else (Jane Asher).

So here we have a courtship, begun in deceit and sneaking around, between two people who still appeared to be enjoying the free love era. “If he’ll cheat WITH you, he’ll cheat ON you” goes the adage. The guy couldn’t even stay faithful to his fiancée. Is this the behaviour of a future responsible family man?

Beatles biographer Hunter Davies didn’t think the marriage would last [link]. John Lennon gave it two years [link]. The civil wedding seemed to be arranged in a rush with a bride who was three months’ pregnant. The night before the big day, the couple had such a huge argument they nearly canceled the ceremony [link]. No wonder the marriage was given such poor prospects.

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Yet it became rock music’s most famous love affair and its most enduring monogamous union. HOW? For one, it goes to show that it’s easy to make predictions based on superficial knowledge.

Observers saw a womanizing Beatle rock star who would never settle down with one woman. It turns out McCartney had deeper layers than met the eye, and they meshed with Linda’s. We just didn’t know his REAL values in life until he talked about them.

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Some men are womanizers and stay womanizers. That’s who they are deep down inside. Monogamy has no appeal.

Some men are womanizers when young. It’s an experience to try, not a routine to live by. I think Paul falls into this category. Deep inside, he was a family man. Going by his interviews, where he often speaks tenderly of Linda and rhapsodizes about fatherhood, one can sense that he believed in romantic love. He wanted a soulmate; he wanted children. He matured, and his ingrained values came to the forefront.

He didn’t become husband material right off the bat. It was a process, probably a difficult one given his status. When he played the field in the later 60s, perhaps it was not totally to have fun, but also to seek out girlfriends with whom he had a real connection. These he called his “serious relationships” [link]. Some of those girlfriends claimed he wanted to marry them [link1, link2]; yet even when he did get engaged, he seemed to be unsure and still searching. (I guess he didn’t consider it cheating if he wasn’t married.) Recalling those days for the 2001 documentary Wingspan, McCartney tells his interviewer (who is also his daughter Mary) that it was time to get serious; and he especially felt that way with her mother. He didn’t want to remain a bachelor playboy all his life.

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And so he got serious. Once he committed, he was husband and father all the way.

“I had my wild life,” he declared in a 1974 interview [New York News magazine: Just an Old-Fashioned Beatle, April 7, 1974]. “But I told Linda everything about that and all the rest. I have no secrets from Linda. I had my time, in my time. But I am much happier now. This new life [with wife and children] means more to me.”

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He expressed similar sentiments in other interviews over the years, such as TV interview with Barbara Howar, Aug. 23, 1986 and The Guardian: After Linda by Simon Hattenstone, Sept. 11, 2000, just to name two.

……………….

I bet he wiped his greasy hands on Paul’s coat when he finished eating that.

John Lennon enjoying a hot-dog in the Alps, during the filming of Help! — March 1965, Obertauern, Austria.

Just for a split second there, I thought Ringo was sitting on George’s knee.

(I don’t know why as I’ve seen that photo a million times, but perhaps because you can only see one of George’s legs with that head in the way. Haha)

George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney attend a press party at the home of manager Brian Epstein supporting the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, May 19, 1967 in London, UK.

George’s little turnip top.

The Nerk Twins in their matching glasses.

I’ve never seen this clip in such good quality before, so clear!

Everyone please go watch the full version of this. It’s short, but I love previously unseen rehearsal clips!

John Lennon eating an apple, November 26th, 1980. Photographed by Allan Tannenbaum

If you can’t trust him on small points, can we really trust him elsewhere on bigger issues?

That’s a big NO from me.

Lewisohn vs. Shepherd

I'm still at work on the whole Kim Bennett thing, but here's a quick Lewisohn vs. post to spice things up. Actually, the book from which I was cross-referencing was due at the library, so I started work on this, quickly realized the source was also readily availble online, but decided to finish it anyway.

The source at hand is Jean Shepherd’s October 28th, 1964 interview with the Beatles, published in the February 1965 issue of Playboy. You can find a transcribed version here or a scanned copy here. It’s a great, quick read - seven pages sparkling with Beatles wit and a concerted effort by George to convince the interviewer he's in love with Ringo. Small tw for transphobia in the form of a tired pronoun joke at the expense of April Ashley.

Tune In pulls three quotes from Shepherd's interview. Two of them are below the cut - their are minor changes (one exceedingly minor) to those quotes, but the first quote I'll address is taken wildly out of context. It's not the most offensive distortion of history that Lewisohn has put forward, but its maddeningly blatant - and pointless.

Tune In 26-20 vs. Shepherd 1965, p.54

The quote of interest is highlighted in green, but I included the preceding paragraph because the context matters greatly here. The Beatles & Brian were down in the dumps, having struck out with every record company with any semblance of artistic merit. Lewisohn highlights that John and Paul in particular were down in the dumps, but that “their young friend George stayed optimistic. He rallied them, he showed them that while they might be thinking the worst, he was remaining hopeful.” His evidence for this is the quote highlighted in green, in which John says Brian and George knew they would make it big.

Well. Let’s check the source.

If you look at the quote, once again in green, it’s almost correct—Lewisohn drops “our manager”, but it’s close by Tune In’s standards. Take a look at what’s around the quote, and you’ll see it’s taken wildly out of context. John isn’t talking about George’s confidence in the Beatles ability to score a record contract in 1962; he is unambiguously referring to George’s confidence that the Beatles will succeed in America in 1964. And that confidence didn’t stem from “the Beatles’ mantra” that “Something’ll turn up”—George thought they’d be successful in the states because he was aware of their U.S. record sales.

The thing that gets me here is that it’s so unnecessary. As a historian writing for a general audience, the Beatles must be a dream: you have a core group of four complex, interesting, musically gifted people whose personal and artistic growth played out in the public eye, exhaustively documented. They were surrounded by a supporting cast of vibrant characters to root for or revile, who all played a role in a story brimming with friendship, romance, rivalry, wit, and tragedy. There's no reason to rewrite history for the Beatles - their story can be both factually correct and narratively compelling, yet Lewisohn joins a storied list of authors who have felt the need to gild the lily.

What does this add to the Beatles story? How does it benefit the narrative to portray George Harrison as a plucky kid from an afterschool special, cheering on his elders with unflagging optimism when things look bleak? It’s trite, and it’s fake. It's not the Beatles.

This isn’t the most earth-shattering act of historical revisionism Lewisohn has committed to print, but its brazenness is galling. In the introduction to Tune In, Lewisohn states, “I’ve wanted a history of deep-level inquiry where the information is tested accurate, and free of airbrushing, embellishment and guesswork, written with an open mind and even hands, one that unfolds lives and events in context and without hindsight, the way they occurred…” And yet we get this. He knowingly took this quote two years and a whole Atlantic Ocean out of context, and he had the audacity to tout his book as “tested accurate, and free of airbrushing, embellishment and guesswork.”

He's pissing on our feet and telling us it's raining, folks.

Tune In 29-4 vs. Shepherd 1965, p.56

An impressive number of little deletions and changes for such a small quote.

Tune In 33-1 vs. Shepherd 1965, p.54

This one almost isn’t worth mentioning. The only change is the emphasis removed from Ringo’s “them” in the original quote.

Sources:

Lewisohn M. 2013. The Beatles: All These Years Vol. 1: Tune In. New York (NY): Crown Archetype. [ebook]

Shepherd J. 1965 Feb. Playboy Interview: The Beatles. Playboy 12:51-60. Accessed online 2024 Mar. Available from: https://imgur.com/a/HY2Ji

I want to hold your thing

Eye contact while holding hands is special...

I shouldn't be surprised by anything in this photo, since everyone is holding hands but... everything changes when we see John's look at Paul.

A very special look...

On the other hand, I find Paul's face funny hahaha, like confusion.

I still find this photo interesting, if anyone noticed another one, don't hesitate to share it.

Has Jesus got a cigarette in his hand?

Paul’s like that. He gives cigarettes to children and babies.

Paul giving the other guys the finger.

He’s especially bitter about the way the Apple “dream” broke up — and about the way John Lennon’s advisor, Allan Klein, has handled things. Says Paul, “Don’t ever call me ex-Beatle McCartney again. That was one band I was with. Now I’m not with them. I’ve got another band. We don’t do things the same way any more. We’re not so bothered in trying to please other people all the time — even though we obviously don’t try to displease them. All we want, in Wings, is to please ourselves with our music. That’s all." "If people start fan-clubs for us, do that kind of thing from the past, well, fine. But we won’t start one. I just get irritated by people constantly harping on the past, about the days when I was with that other band, the Beatles.  The other Beatles get together and that is fine, but I’m almost always in another part of the world. The Beatles was my old job. We’re not like friends  — we just know each other.  But we don’t work together, so there’s no point keeping up old relationships." Paul is also very bitter about that old Lennon track, “How Do You Sleep?” on the Imagine album, because it clearly related to the McCartney scene and how disappointing it had been since the break-up.  “When John really annoys me I suppose I let the odd line creep into my own songs, but I try not to do it consciously. I once wrote “Too Many People Preaching Practices” and I suppose that was aimed straight at him. I’m just a guy who learned to play a guitar and wants to play music and is lucky enough to have enough money available that I can enjoy it without worrying.”

'Paul McCartney and 'that other band'' by Peter Jones, in the Liverpool Echo, 13 December 1972

Fruity much.

John Lennon proudly dressing up for the camera (1971)

From the way Mal’s looking at Paul, he’s hoping it’s him!

"Thank you, thank you, yes I know you love me. I'm sweating and I need to go bang someone, now, thank you!"

I love him so much 💕

Amongst the huge crowds that greeted The Beatles on their first visit to America, there were a few surprises... 🐒

‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ is on display at Brooklyn Museum until August 18th 📷

(via Paul McCartney on Instagram)

May 28, 2024

Ol’ pigeon chest himself.

5/29/2024

Our fag of the day is Paul McCartney!