#this feels like stupid Paul girl nit picking but there’s enough shit where he’s the main one at fault | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

delightfullyatomicfest · 5 months

Text

I’m still obsessed with Ken Womack deciding a cartoon strip character was Paul on 9 May 1969.

Mainly because it seems like a misinterpretation of an image based on a misrepresentation of the situation?

Here’s what Womack wrote thanks to @muzaktomyears.

To summarise: Womack says the other three cornered Paul, insisting he appoint Klein. Paul started to lose him cool when the others accused him of creating needless roadblocks and wanting to appoint his relatives, Paul refused to sign, there’s a quote from Paul saying that was the night we broke The Beatles and that it was the liberty bell moment and… that’s it, end of chapter with some musing about Mal’s heartbreak and the pic of ‘Paul’ (i.e. Maisie) framed like this:

But… that seems a pretty lopsided view of how it went???

According to You Never Give Me Your Money, on 8 May the other three had signed with Klein without Paul’s knowledge (though George tried to tell him but he’d changed his phone number). The contract appointed ABKCO ‘exclusive business manager’ to Apple Corps Ltd ‘on behalf of The Beatles and The Beatles Group of Companies’. They knew at this point that Paul might not sign and it still needed to be ratified by the Apple board of directors (I.e. The Beatles).

On 9 May they gathered to do LIB overdubs and the other three tried to strong arm Paul into signing with Klein, bullying him and growing furious with him:

You Never Give Me Your Money p. 130

[Note: Womack included a quote from Paul about the 15% stuff but not the bullied and ganged up on bit.]

Rolling Stone

Edit to add one more:

And In The End, p. 113

So in the above we have:

‘They really bullied me and ganged up on me’

‘The others grew furious, but McCartney held his ground’

‘They said “Oh, fuck off!” and they all stormed off’

‘Lennon, Harrison and Starkey lost their cool and unleashed an unsparing verbal assault on McCartney leaving him bruised and bleeding on the canvas’

(These are selective quotes so this post doesn’t get too long - more context here which is also the source for the below paragraph. Also the quotes are all Paul’s POV - I’d like to find what the others have said about this day).

John then called Klein, who was on his way to the airport, and Klein came back, lied to Paul about needing approval from the board of ABKCO to try and pressure him into signing and, according to Glyn Johns “… all that equipment was not enough to prevent me hearing Paul McCartney defend himself from Allen Klein’s attempt at bullying him into submission. It was extremely unpleasant to witness”.

[Note: Womack doesn’t actually mention Klein being there]

Paul continued to refuse but the other three carried on anyway. John and George signed the document ratifying their decision to appoint ABKCO exclusive business manager to Apple Corps Ltd. The unanimous agreement rule which The Beatles had always had was resoundingly broken (though they’d already broken it on 21 March 1969 when they appointed Klein against Paul’s wishes the first time).

The full page from You Never Give Me Your Money is here but here’s the really pertinent section:

The signing of this resolution is surely the Liberty Bell moment and Womack doesn’t mention it, nor the fact that they’d previous made unanimous decisions.

So turning back to the cartoon - I imagine Paul was furious (YNGMYM mentions his rage on the next page in the context of drumming for Steve Miller), but from the sources above it seems that there were four other people who’d be equally good candidates for someone going apeshit and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Also, I don’t even know if Mal was there for these bits of unpleasantness (he’s not mentioned in YNGMYM).

Here’s Womack’s sources by the way:

Womack’s source for the events of the day is Anthology p. 326. I went and looked it up. It’s all from Paul and Neil’s PoV and says the same as above - the closest thing is Paul says about anger is “there was a big argument and they all left, leaving me at the studio”. (Here free on the internet archive). The fact that it is all from Paul’s PoV suggests JGR haven’t spoken about this day but I could be wrong on that.

That twitter link is Paul saying that was the day the liberty bell cracked.

And here are my sources:

Rolling Stone article Why The Beatles Broke Up: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/why-the-beatles-broke-up-113403/

You Never Give Me Your Money by Peter Doggett

Amaralto’s quote from Sound Man by Glyn Johns book (god I wish he hadn’t turned the audio off. Why couldn’t he have MLH’s lack of ethics when it comes to recording the Beatles interactions?)

Beatles Bible 9 May 1969: https://www.beatlesbible.com/1969/05/09/mixing-get-back-album-inserts-2/#:~:text=It%20took%20place%20at%20Olympic,Klein%20as%20Apple's%20financial%20manager (which also doesn’t include about the signing of the resolution that evening. Is YNGMYM wrong about the day or is it just that no one thinks it specifically matters?)

Paul McCartney Project, 21 March 1969: https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/1969/03/allen-klein-becomes-business-manager-of-apple/(When they first appointed Klein as Business Manager when Paul was out of the country on his honeymoon. Paul sent a legal rep along but they went with majority - not unanimous - rule and voted Klein as Apple Business Manager).

#this feels like stupid Paul girl nit picking but there’s enough shit where he’s the main one at fault #this day isn’t one of them #also disclaimer: maybe I’ve got all of this wrong #sorry for this Ken #you seem very nice in podcast interviews

75 notes · View notes