ohblahdo

[ohblahdo]

'I didnt mention this in the book but from time to time John would say to me ''I wonder what Paul is thinking about, right now.'' I said John, I've only met him a couple of times in my life you know ... I have no idea. And John would ask ''Do you think he thinks about me at all?'''

Elliot Mintz about his 70s conversations with John Lennon, Beatles Podcast 2024

“Also not obvious is that McCartney [for the Liverpool Oratorio] has penned a gorgeous black-spiritual-like piece for mezzo-soprano that intones the last words spoken to John Lennon as he lay dying of gunshot wounds in the back of a New York police car – "Do you know who you are?” McCartney gets a bit choked up at one point when he reveals, “Not a day goes by when I don’t think of John.”

Interview with Paul McCartney, 1991

[ohblahdo]

saw a picture of Julia Lennon and thought "hey she kinda looks like a woman version of Brian Epstein" immediately followed by "oh... oh no"

[ohblahdo]

“WHITE: ‘Not Guilty’, on George Harrison, written during the sessions for the Beatles’ White Album, was a pointed barb at your old bandmates. GEORGE: It was me getting pissed off at Lennon and McCartney for the grief I was catching during the making of the White Album. I said I wasn’t guilty of getting in the way of their careers. I said I wasn’t guilty of leading them astray in our all going to Rishikesh to see the Maharishi. I was sticking up for myself, and the song came off strong enough to be saved and utilized.”

— George Harrison, interview w/ Timothy White for Musician: The quiet Beatle finally talks… about everything. (November, 1987)

[ohblahdo]

PAUL AND RINGO WERE TOGETHER TONIGHT!!!

[ohblahdo]

“Fitted up in Sgt. Pepper’s vibrant satin suits Harrison’s face in photographs is frequently a picture; he wears the same look of wounded dignity as a dog forced to wear a dress.”

— Graeme Thomson, George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door (122)

[ohblahdo]

Paul McCartney selecting John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” as one of his Desert Island Discs for the programme, broadcasted on January 30, 1982.

(Why did I only just realize he’s singing along to the “it’s getting better and better” lyric. Reminiscent of a Beatles song with that title perhaps..? I chose pain today.)

[ohblahdo]

Scouse

Viscount Montgomery Brian Epstein’s personal assistant Barry Leonard quit his job ‘because the strain of managing the Beatles is just too great’. In an article in the Daily Express Leonard told about his experiences with the Beatles. Among other things, he said Paul wanted to leave the group and was trying to lose his Liverpool accent. As the Beatles gathered at the office of their accountant, Epstein mentioned the story to Paul. ‘Barry says you are trying to lose your accent,’ he said. ‘Couldn’t,’ muttered John, as he examined a likeness of the Beatles fashioned in papier mâché.

(Love Me Do. The Beatles Progress by Michael Braun, 1963/1995)

Interviewer: Are you going to lose some of your Liverpool dialect for the Royal show? Paul McCartney: No, we don't all speak like BBC

(Interview 16th Oct 1963, befor the Royal Variety Charity)

After a short interview in which they sound like they're putting on Liverpool accents (particularly Paul and John), 'and now their new single Love Me Do'. 'FANTASTIC…turn it UP!' (I shouted in my head). That's my brother…my bloody brother!…My head's exploding…'so ple-e-e-se love me do'. <…> I dashed back to Forthlin to tell Dad I'd seen our Paul on the TELLY and then waited for Paul to come home to see if he'd changed at all. By the time he eventually got in, Dad and I were in bed but I was still awake. The conversation probably went like this: 'Psst…here you.' 'Is Dad asleep?' 'Of course he is, it's past two o'clock.' 'We were celebratinh. Did you see it?' 'Yeah it was gear, it really was.I had to watch it in a bar down from Bernard's, but it was fabulous.' 'Could you see the velvet collar?' 'Sure, you could see everything.' (When the decision to 'go commercial' and buy suits instead of the cool Hamburg leathers was reached, mainly by Brian, Paul had smoothed over the shock by saying, 'But ours are different from anybody else's…ours have got velvet collars…look.' As the cardboard box lid was lifted and the white tissue paper unfolded to disclose the dark blue 'Dougy Millins' tailor-made suit, sure enough, the highly polished, trouser creased, mohair suit was topped with a black velvet collar.) 'But why did you talk like that on the TV? It sounded like George gone wrong…you don't talk like that.' 'I know that, you know that, but they don't know that…It's part of the image…' 'Monkey suit and phoney accents?…anyway it worked, it was fantastic.' 'Gear, I'll be off then, ny nyte.' 'Nigh-night…psst can I have your autograph?' 'Sod off.'

(Mike McCartney, 1981, Thank U Very Much. Mike McCartney's Family Album)

We went to London to party. I always tell this story, it happened pretty much like this. The week before Merseybeat broke up here [in London], or a couple of weeks before, I was just with my friends, and you were at a posh party, and they'd come up to you [adopts 'posh' voice] 'hi, how are you?' 'Great, thanks.' 'My name's Peregrine, and this is Cecilia…' 'Oh, great, hi.' 'Where are you from?' 'Oh, Liverpool…' 'Anyway, Cecilia, you said…' And they just turned their backs on you, because it was so simple - you were useless to them, useless. Anything north of the Cape was the hinterland, the jungle. So they couldn't care less. And then, a week later, Merseybeat suddenly goes 'bang!' He goes down to London before he conquers America and the world… and it's the same party, "Oh, I'm Sebastian, this is Claudia, what's your name?" "I'm Mike." "Where are you from?" "Liverpool." "Liverpool, oh my God, guys, come here, look, these guys from Liverpool, it's just wonderful." And then they'd do a Liverpool accent, and that's why it always came out Brummie [Birmingham], because they couldn't do a Liverpool accent. So, yeah, you were a nobody, and suddenly everything changed.

(Mike McCartney, interview for the Super Deluxe Edition, September 26, 2019)

pic by lisamarie-vee

+about suits

[ohblahdo]

Hello!

Could you elaborate on the beat the meatles Story from Victor spinetti? I don't think i ever heard of it. Thanks! Love your blog!

What am I, the Wanking Whisperer?

‘Frequent Beatles collaborator actor Victor Spinetti offers a markedly different version of the story in his memoir Up Front: His Strictly Confidential Autobiography (2006). He places the group masturbation years later, post-fame, and includes the other Beatles. Group masturbation, according to Spinetti, was a way for the Fab Four to pass the time while on tour or filming a Beatles movie (three of which Spinetti appeared in). He writes:

“Even in private I knew they hadn’t become hard bitten because if they were stuck together far away from home, the most daring thing they got up to was a wanking game. There they’d lie in the darkness like schoolboys in a dormitory and the first to put the others off from coming was the winner. They’d all start and then John would say ‘Madame de Gaulle’ and if the others didn’t fall out of bed laughing he’d try ‘Richard Milhous Nixon.’”

Spinetti eventually collaborated with Lennon on a theatrical version of the circle jerk story, and John wrote a play about jerking off with Paul. Called “Four In Hand,” it was part of a part of the nude musical theatrical revue Oh! Calcutta by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan, which premiered in 1969; other contributors included Samuel Beckett and Sam Shepard. In his autobiography, Spinetti writes that he suggested the idea to Tynan, but Philip Norman gives a different account. According to Norman, the play came about when John—of course—shared his masturbation story as an anecdote at one of Tynan’s “famously starry parties.” In response, Tynan proposed Lennon write it as a sketch for Oh! Calcutta, with the working title “Liverpool Wank.” Norman adds that Yoko Ono “responded wholeheartedly” to the “Liverpool Wank” idea and coached John through writer’s block as he wrote, “standing at his shoulder, the way Paul McCartney once used to.”

Vice.com - The Beatles Have Been Talking About Jerking Off Together Since the 60s

[ohblahdo]

telling my friend the Beatles biopics casting news, and she asked if the same actors are going to play the Beatles across all four of the films - and now I'm laughing at the idea of each film being cast differently depending on the pov of each Beatle, like if in Paul's film George is played throughout by a literal child

[ohblahdo]

My possibly-unpopular McLennon take is that I think, regardless of whether Paul had non-platonic feelings for John at other points in his life (especially when he was a wee lad and John was The Boy), he really didn't want to be John's keeper by late 68/69. John was EXHAUSTING and Paul was TIRED*, and he just wanted to find a nice woman to be his own emotional support person and to start a family with to help keep him grounded. He did still want to make beautiful music with John, though - literally - and I feel like that's where the conflicted response to Yoko comes in: he didn't want to take Yoko's place, because he didn't want that job, but he wanted John to have someone like Cynthia who would do the thankless work of being equal parts mommy, sexual partner, and secretary, without infringing on Paul's territory.

But I feel like "Paul was capable of dating John, he just didn't want to" is not a particularly attractive narrative in a shipping context, nor is the idea that Paul loved John but might have preferred being with Linda anyway, not just because of heteronormativity, but because she was nicer to him and relationships tend to work better when both parties aren't high-maintenance.

(*Note: I think it's also true in some ways that professionally, it was the other way around: Paul was exhausting, and John was tired. Hence the split: that rope was fraying at both ends even before other people in their lives took a hacksaw to it.)

[ohblahdo]

just Thinking

[ohblahdo]

Also, how is the winner of an RPF tournament a ship with 139 works on AO3??? All of bandom did not die for this!

jesus/judas isn't even the best jesus yaoi. the betrayal kiss is a powerful symbol for sure and judas killing himself after jesus' crucifixion is of course hugely significant (see: jesus christ superstar). but in biblical canon there is literally a disciple described as jesus' most beloved. his favourite disciple. his philtatos, for the song of achilles girlies. he was the last disciple to die, he leans his head on jesus' shoulder at the last supper (and some scholars believe he was the only one jesus told of the nature of judas' betrayal). and lest we forget peter, who also betrayed/rejected jesus after swearing his eternal love for him, threatened to kill and die for him, was all like "i'll follow you anywhere" and "i'll be with you forever". straight up tried to walk on water for jesus. He was crazy. it was yaoi central in there

[ohblahdo]

Best RPF Ship - Round 6 Match 2

[ohblahdo]

I'd like to thank the New York Times Connection AI tool (which tries to guess why people incorrectly grouped words together) for a much-needed laugh. Yes, those famous and beloved X-Men: Rogue, Wolverine, and Bananas.

[ohblahdo]

Sorry but Paul lowkey making hyperpop was awesome

[ohblahdo]

One of the (many) things that makes me Insane in Beatles historiography discussions is the bizarrely omnipresent presumption that, if Paul's version of events runs counter to objective facts or someone else's narrative, then the only/most likely possible explanation is that Paul is intentionally, maliciously lying to attain some kind of PR or monetary advantage.

I'm not saying this is a thing he would never do or has never done, but that it is not Occam's razor here. The most probable explanation is that, because Paul does not spend the amount of time researching and analyzing Paul McCartney's life and the on-record statements of all other players in the Beatles saga that we here on Tumblr dot com do, 95% of the time the problem is that Paul has forgotten, confused, or potentially never knew this contradictory information.

The extent to which Paul is rarely, if ever, given any grace or benefit of the doubt is Wild to me. Philip Norman really imprinted HARD on everyone's brain, lol.