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August 31, 1961: Bob Wooler predicts the Beatles’ future in Mersey Beat
A PHENOMENON CALLED THE BEATLES!
by Bob Wooler [x]
Why do you think The Beatles are so popular? Many people many times have asked me this question since that fantastic night (Tuesday, December 27th, 1960) at Litherland Town Hall, when the impact of the act was first felt on this side of the River. I consider myself privileged to have been associated with the launching of the group on that exciting occasion, and grateful for the opportunities of presenting them to fever-pitch audiences at practically all of the group’s subsequent appearances prior to their last Hamburg trip.
Perhaps my close association with the group’s activities, both earlier this year and since their recent reappearance on the Merseyside scene, persuades people to think that I can produce a blueprint of The Beatles Success Story. It figures, I suppose, and if, in attempting to explain the popularity of their act, the following analysis is at variance with other people’s views, well that’s just one of those things. The question is nevertheless thought-provoking.
Well then, how to answer it? First some obvious observations. The Beatles are the biggest thing to have hit the Liverpool rock ’n’ roll setup in years. They were, and still are, the hottest local property any Rock promoter is likely to encounter. To many of these gentlemen’s ears, Beatle-brand noises are cacophonous on stage, but who can ignore the fact that the same sounds translate into the sweetest music this side of heaven at the box office!
I think The Beatles are No. 1 because they resurrected original style rock ’n’ roll music, the origins of which are to be found in American negro singers. They hit the scene when it had been emasculated by figures like Cliff Richard and sounds like those electronic wonders The Shadows and their many imitators. Gone was the drive that inflamed the emotions. This was studio set jungle music purveyed skillfully in a chartwise direction by arrangement with the A & R men.
The Beatles, therefore, exploded on a jaded scene. And to those people on the verge of quitting teendom—those who had experienced during their most impressionable years the impact of rhythm ’n’ blues music (raw rock ’n’ roll)—this was an experience, a process of regaining and reliving a style of sounds and associated feelings identifiable with their era.
Here again, in The Beatles, was the stuff that screams are made of. Here was the excitement—both physical and aural—that symbolized the rebellion of youth in the ennuied mid-1950’s. This was the real thing. Here they were, first five and then four human dynamos generating a beat which was irresistible. Turning back the Rock clock. Pounding out items from Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, The Coasters and the other great etceteras of the era. Here they were, unmindful of uniformity of dress. Unkempt-like long hair. Rugged yet romantic, appealing to both sexes. With calculated naivete and an ingenious, throw-away approach to their music. Affecting indifference to audience response and yet always saying “Thank-you.” Reviving interest in and commanding enthusiasm for numbers which descended the Charts way back. Popularizing (more than any other group) flipside items—example, “Boys.” Compelling attention and influencing, wittingly or unwittingly, other groups in the style, choice and presentation of songs.
Essentially a vocal act, hardly ever instrumental (at least not in this country), here they were, independently minded, playing what they liked for kicks, kudos and cash. Privileged in having gained prestige and experience from a residency at the Hamburg Top Ten Club during the autumn and winter of last year. Musically authoritative and physically magnetic, example the mean, moody magnificence of drummer Pete Best—a sort of teenage Jeff Chandler. A remarkable variety of talented voices which song-wise sound distinctive, but when speaking, possess the same naivete of tone. Rhythmic revolutionaries. An act which from beginning to end is a succession of climaxes. A personality cult. Seemingly unambitious, yet fluctuating between the self-assured and the vulnerable. Truly a phenomenon—and also a predicament to promoters! Such are the fantastic Beatles. I don’t think anything like them will happen again.
———
Retrospective from Bill Harry, Editor of Mersey Beat [x]
Editor’s note: Cavern disc jockey Bob Wooler, a Mersey Beat columnist, penned this piece in the August 31 1961 issue of Mersey Beat. How prophetic his last sentence proved to be! In recent years I told Bob I intended to revive Mersey Beat and I wanted him back in the fold as a columnist. Sadly, he died early in 2002 while I was still panning the website.
There are one or two things I would like to point out. The main advertisement on this page was for NEMS record store. Apart from the fact that I regularly discussed the Beatles and the Mersey scene with Brian Epstein each time I dropped copies to him, in addition to the fact that he began to review records for me from Issue No. 3, it is obvious from the sort of coverage, such as this article, which the Beatles were receiving every issue, that Epstein was aware of the Beatles from Mersey Beat and not some youngsters asking for a record in his store some months later. Bob also mentions the impact the group made at Litherland Town Hall. It was Bob who persuaded promoter Brian Kelly to book them for their debut appearance there on that date. It's also interesting to note that the only member of the Beatles mentioned by name is drummer Pete Best. Bob nicked the 'mean, moody, magnificent' tag from Howard Hughes' description of Jane Russell in the movie 'The Outlaw.' As this article was published in 1961, Bob did get something wrong: he mentions a residency at the "Hamburg Top Ten Club during the autumn and winter of last year." They only had residencies at the Indra and Kaiserkeller in 1960, although they made a few appearances at the Top Ten (Their Top Ten residency didn't actually commence until 1961).
#the beatles#bob wooler#1961#mersey beat#august 1961#newspaper clippings#beatles and the press#the humble beginnings#as transcribed in tune in#havent seen this one anywhere on here#been looking for the clipping but havent found it#if youve seen it give a shout#oh found the copy on the mersey beat archives#have to get bill harrys note bc its a great example of how a good story works#not a clipping tho so an august beatles cover is the closest i can get#litherland#december 1961#hamburg era#brian epstein#bill harry#ran into crit bill harry got from other liverpool bands during the early merseybeat days bc he would write so much about the beatles#so its impossible the beatles had missed brians radar before the my bonnie record request#‘beatles sign recording contract’ aww they mean the german label printed my bonnie how cute
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July 8th 1968 - Three Beatles attend a press screening of Yellow Submarine🌷🍀🍁
Press preview of the film, "Yellow Submarine," at the Bowater House Cinema. Paul, George and Ringo attend, and pose for photographers with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of their Yellow Submarine cartoon images. John Lennon does not attend🍁🌷🍀
Via Beatles and Cavern Club Photos FB🪴
#60s icons#the beatles#paul mccartney#george harrison#ringing#yellow submarine#press preview#july 1968
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The Beatles - New York press conference (1965)
#they were so done with the press at that point#it stills amazes me how he would say jokes like this so publicly#it’s the kind of joke that i would think in my head but i wouldn’t say it out loud so easily#and he just did it. he really insisted that it was a joke so i assume that he felt a bit bad to have said that#but i admire him for saying this during a PRESS CONFERENCE !! couldn’t be me!#he definitely had guts. and of course back then he was considered the rude beatle but the press was still so fascinated by him#he was really special#also he looked so good that day. they all did. 1965 is a powerful year#john lennon#the beatles#george harrison#paul mccartney#ringo starr#1960s#1965#press conference#classic rock#beatlesedit#edit
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REVOLVER press conference - Los Angeles, California (August 1966)
#they are so beyond fed up with the press at this point#beatles and the press#1966#third us tour of hell#1966 american tour#los angeles#bigger than jesus controversy#press conference#paul looking at john#he looks pretty smitten here but watch the whole thing to get the mood of the room#pauls trying to do his best to lighten things but then both end up slicing and dicing#the press deserved it#they were the worst this whole tour#this is a week in they already knew the question was coming
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PAUL and LINDA McCARTNEY at Les Ambassadors Club in London at the wrap party for THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN. May 4, 1969.
#NEW PAUL AND LINDA PIC!!#i am so happy!!#look at them!!#and lin is expecting mary during that time#funny how paul would deny her pregnancy in the interview jnaskjasjas#i get it he didn't want the press up on them X(#paul mccartney#linda mccartney#1960s#60s#1969#the beatles#my edits#my edit#technically is an edit because where i got this i screencapped it because hq supremacy!
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"We were good friends, and Ed said, 'Walter, Walter, tell me about those kids, tell me about those kids,'" Cronkite said. "'Those kids you just had on the air. What do you call them? The bugs or the beetles or something?'" [x]
"Do you have any fears that your public eventually will get tired of you and move on to a new favourite?"
The Beatles appearing on CBS News, interviewed by London correspondent Alexander Kendrick, 22nd November 1963. The piece debuted on the "CBS Morning News with Mike Wallace" on Nov. 22, 1963. Slated to run again that night on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite," it was preempted by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Weeks later, on Dec. 10, Cronkite re-aired Kendrick's report. Ed Sullivan called him immediately -- setting in motion the Beatles on CBS again Feb. 9, 1964, with a record audience of 73 million viewers. CBS News reports on The Beatles in 1963
#🐞🐞🐞#reporter addresses paul as ringo#paul answers#george: ‘this is ringo’#😂😂😂#george#og ringo fan#beatles and the press#had no idea the first interview aired the same day#jfk assassination#the ed sullivan show#1963#america
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Was just playing that Can't By Me Love (Beatles) Game on itch.io and my Spotify decided to play Boss Ass Bitch right as Paul answered the door at the very beginning.
I fully thought it was just part of the game-
#It was so funny and unhinged#i literally though there is no way this isn't just part of the game#like it made so much sense and suited Paul so well XD#I pressed the homekey and realised that my spotify was open because an ad started playing- TwT xD#the beatles#paul McCartney#mclennon#john lennon#paul mccartney#ringo starr#george harrison
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john lennon was at his absolute best, his prime, his girlboss baby girl wife, his magnum opus, his gold medal in a room of copper, his sparkling diamond hidden in a sea of rocks, his vibrant rainbow after a storm, his sunny day in the middle of july when the humidity is low and the flowers are out, his absolutely most perfect, era when he was chubby in 1965.
thank you for coming to this ted talk I’m here all night.
#john lennon#paul mccartney#the beatles#I love chubby john he’s my favorite#he was at his healthiest#and happiest#the press was so mean for no reason#i fucking hate them for what they did to him#he weighed only 135 when he died :(
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Life With The Lennons, Exclusive by Ray Coleman, April 1965 [x]
#john lennon#cynthia lennon#the beatles#ray coleman#kenwood#1965#wish we had a specific date for this one#given this is around the same time as help! writing and LSD coffee spiking#im not sure ive read another pre-1968 interview that sounds more like bitter 70s john#but some interesting things here#his comments on growing old consider he later called this era his fat elvis period#his game with the press compared to paul#sounding more enthused about films than recording#the guy who told john ab contacts#early glasses johnny#an appearance of nigel the dog#how he uses soft to describe him but then uses it to barrage the idk radio hosts?#i'll follow the sun coming on the radio and the absurdity of saying paul was 10 when he wrote it#(he was 16 at the earliest possibly 17 or 18 and he didnt finish it until he was 22)#they're so weird with referring to their ages in the 60s like j&p just keep saying they met when they were 12#(they were never 12 at the same time so its either shorthand or some absurd joke)#april 1965#john speaks#text scans#ad lib club
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“You build them up, and when you start running out of copy, you start knocking them.”
Quotes from Alisdair MacDonald and Victor Crawshaw - photographers for the Daily Mirror in the sixties:
- None of us were pop fans. It was just another job, and it was quite hard work.
- Nobody was very interested in the Beatles at first. The stories weren't so much about them, but what happened around them. We'd mainly stand with our backs to the stage, photographing the kids. All the paper wanted to see were these hysterical swooning girls. We'd do two or three pictures of the Beatles and then concentrate on the fans.
- There was always a problem photographing the Beatles or any group for that matter, because there were four of them. If you didn't hit them several times, one was likely to have his eyes shut, another might be looking the other way or making a funny face. So you took as many frames as you could to get it right. Hotels, taxis, aeroplanes, they were the expenses. Film was the cheapest product. So you didn't skimp. You just banged away.
- The Beatles were very good, very funny. Although I thought John Lennon got pissed off very quickly. He had a short fuse. Paul McCartney could get a bit delicate as well. It began to get a bit heavy when they all started getting their lady friends.
- You couldn't set anything up with the Beatles, absolutely nothing. Everything was taken as soon as you could get it. I wouldn't say it was a struggle, because they were there to have their pictures taken, but they wouldn't necessarily stop and hang around for long. You weren't given much time at all. You had to be pretty sharp, otherwise they'd be gone.
- Quite honestly it was a pain in the arse whenever they came through [the airports]. It just wasn't straightforward. You'd have all these girls camping out, invading the airport a couple of days before the flight. The police used to try and herd them into specific areas, but they'd always hear rumours that something was happening at a different part of the airport and charge off looking for them.
- I'd get girls coming up to me saying, 'Have you met the Beatles?' 'Yes', I'd say. 'Who's your favourite?' they'd ask. 'Well, I like them all.' 'Have you touched them?' 'Well, I've bumped into them', and as soon as I'd said that they'd start stroking me!
- We never saw them much after they went off to America. Mostly only at the airport. You build them up, and when you start running out of copy, you start knocking them. After all that stuff about The Beatles being more popular than Jesus happened in the States, they started getting touchy with us. It was all knocking stories towards the end. They were getting stressed amongst themselves. The stress came over to us, so everyone started knocking them. They were no longer helpful to us.
- Nothing like it was seen again until Princess Diana. No other pop group had that type of reception. [...] The only thing which sticks in my mind as being remotely like it was when old Liberace came through the airport. But his fan club were all over fifty.
Taken from Beatle Files, by Andy Davis
#literally read that line and copied it to quote but you already did it#jeezus#talk about saying the quiet part out loud#the most succinct summary of why celeb press is pure abuse#what a fucked up game#fame is hell#beatles and the press#paparazzi#andy davis#this guy worked for the daily mirror in the 60s#its height at 1967 was the highest daily circulation ever in the uk (5.2 m)#the daily mirror
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The Beatles (minus Ringo) and Jimmie Nicol at their press conference in Adelaide, 12th June 1964 - part 2 (part 1, part 3)
Adding the video this time for George’s laugh…
#talking of great ships…#paul doing the classic ‘don’t look too pleased at your well-received joke’ face#with added chair rocking#look how proud john is though 🥰#they were all on fire on this press tour#when I went to australia I mostly slept and ate chips#paul mccartney#john lennon#the beatles#george harrison#beatles in australia/nz#javelin's gifs#it was sixty years ago today#give or take#javelin's gifs: 1964
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I recently learned that my beloved's seemingly very normal feelings about the beatles are comprised not of general fondness for penny lane but of a deep affection for paul mccartney that is nevertheless completely overshadowed by a how much she fucking hates john lennon. what a beautiful world we live in where we can turn a corner and see brand new facets of the people we love best. she wants that man deader.
#for reasons i can't explain even to myself i assumed that swifties were john girls. why he is tswift coded in my head i do not know.#i agree that if you were assigning her beatle she'd be paul but she can't be any beatle because she would never agree to be in a band#nevertheless this belief persisted within me unexamined. maybe it's because i feel the same way about imagine and you belong with me#maybe because the yoko thing feels like a tswift move. like if you told me she'd taken up with an avant-garde performance artist/musician#and was taking him everywhere while telling the press they were one soul or w/e i would just be like seems like a tswift tuesday#we had talked beatles before! i knew penny lane was her favourite#i knew she thought they were overrated#nevertheless the depth of her true feelings... shocking... thrilling even. what else do i not know
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May 22nd 1968 - John and Yoko, George and Pattie, attend press launch of Apple Tailoring (more pictures)🌸🎍🌸🎍🌸🎍
Via Beatles and Cavern Club Photos FB🌸🎍
#60s icons#girlsofthesixties#60s couples#60s models#the beatles wives#pattie boyd#george harrison#george and pattie#john lennon#yoko ono#john and yoko#mal evans#amanda lear#press launch#apple tailoring#may 1968
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ringos nose is the best thing ever i love it so so so much
#ringo starr#the beatles#1960s#i dont understand why people make fun of it like?? it suits him#i love when i see pictures of his side profile#hes so so so pretty#the press was so mean to his nose god#my mum made a joke about his nose once i was so annoyed#i do have sinful thoughts about his nose lol oopies#I JUST LOVE RINGO SO MUCH MAN 😭😭😭😭😭
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Decision making within the Beatles
So the re-formation suggestions were never convincing enough. They were kind of nice when they happened – ‘That would be good, yeah’ – but then one of us would always not fancy it. And that was enough, because we were the ultimate democracy. If one of us didn’t like a tune, we didn’t play it. We had some very close shaves. ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was a pretty close shave.”
“Paul McCartney’s New Album, New Life and How the Beatles Almost Reunited” by Brian Hiatt for Rolling Stone (1 March 2012).
"Well, say if George was the only one who didn't like a certain script but we were all mad about it, then we would try everything we could to change his mind, persuade him," he joked, as he raised his fist menacingly. "But if he just didn't want to do it, that would be it. We just wouldn't do it. We've always got to be in complete agreement on things as important as this, otherwise, later on it just wouldn't work out."
Paul McCartney interviewed by Maureen O’Grady for Rave, December 1965
“If they are asked to do something as a group and any one of them doesn’t want to take part, then the scheme is dropped,”
Norrie Drummond’s 1967 Melody Maker interview with McCartney
“We had a democratic thing going between us. Everyone had to agree with everything that was done, whether it was a concert in Liverpool or to go to Hamburg”
Harrison’s May 1998 testimony to the London High Court regarding the Star Club Tapes
Paul was the only thorn in his side. Paul refused to sign the contract and walked out of the offices. This left things in limbo, since according to the terms of the Beatles’ partnership agreement, all their business decisions had to be agreed by quorum. It might seem remarkable that Klein so quickly acquired this degree of power over the Beatles’ affairs. But bizarre at it might seem, the matter of the quorum was totally ignored. It might even have been that none of the Beatles were really aware that this clause had been written into their partnership contract by Brian. I doubt if at that stage any of them even had a copy.
Magical Mystery Tours My Life with The Beatles by Tony Bramwell
GEORGE: But it’s more of a personal thing. That’s down to the management situation. You know, with Apple. Because Paul, really, it was his idea to do Apple, and once it started going, Paul was very active in there. And then it got really chaotic and we had to do something about it. When we started doing something about it, obviously Paul didn’t have as much say in the matter, and then he decided – because he wanted Lee Eastman – you know, his in-laws – to run it, and we didn’t. Then that’s the only reason, you know. That’s the whole basis. But that’s only a personal problem that he’ll have to get over because that’s the reality. [It’s] that he’s out-voted, and we’re a partnership; we’ve got these companies which we all own 25 percent of each, and if there’s a decision to be made, then like in any other business or group you have a vote, you know. And he was out-voted three to one. And if he doesn’t like it, it’s really a pity. Because we’re trying to do what’s best for the Beatles as a group, or best for Apple as a company. We’re not trying to do what’s best for Paul and his in-laws, you know?
May 1st, 1970 (New York): George
It was true, that when the group was touring, their work and social relationships were close, but there had been a lot of arguing, mainly about musical and artistic matters. I suppose Paul and George were the main offenders in this respect, but from time to time we all gave displays of temperament and threatened to ‘walk out’. Of necessity, we developed a pattern for sorting out our differences, by doing what any three of us decided. It sometimes took a long time and sometimes there was deadlock and nothing was done, but generally that was the rule we followed and, until recent events, it worked quite well.
John Lennon’s affidavit – From “The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001” by Keith Badman
“I kept saying [to the other Beatles], ‘Don’t give Allen Klein 20 per cent, give him 15, we’re a big act!’ And everyone’s going, ‘No, no, he wants 20 per cent.’ I say, ‘Of course he does, he wants 30, really, but give him 15. It’s like buying a car. You don’t give the guy what he asks for.’ But it was impossible in the end, because it became three to one and I was like the idiot in the corner – trying, I thought, to save the situation. And to Klein it looked like I was trying to screw the situation. He used to call me the Reluctant Virgin. I said, ‘Fuck off, I don’t want to fucking marry you, that’s all.’ he’s going, ‘Oh, you know, he may, maybe he will, will he, won’t he, that’s a definite maybe.’ It was really difficult.”
Paul McCartney, interview w/ Paul Du Noyer for The Word: Let it be… naked. (December, 2003)
“On the way in which the four of us had sorted out our differences in the past, I deny that it had been on a three-to-one basis. If one disagreed, we discussed the problem until we reached agreement or let the matter drop. I know of no decision taken on a three-to-one basis”
Paul Mccartney - Keith Badman, The Beatles After the Breakup
John was a very forceful personality. Mostly – I mean, if we had arguments within the group, I remember George would turn to us, “Oh, he’s won again. John’s won again.” Just because he shouted loudest. And that often used to happen. “Ah, I’m not bloody doing that—” “Alright then, alright alright.” So there was a lot of that going on. So you do tend to get forced into another position, you know, if somebody’s very loud and very – I mean, I’m not saying he was just loud, he was a wit. He was a funny man, John, he was a clever guy, I loved him, you know. But somehow we got this anti position.
November 26th, 1984 (Soho Square, London): On British television show The Tube
“It’s not like we spend our time wrestling in the studio trying to get our own songs on. We all do it the same way… we take it in turns to record a track. It’s just that usually in the past, George lost out because Paul and I are tougher. “It’s nothing new, the way things are. It’s human. We’ve always said we’ve had fights. It’s no news that we argue. I’m more interested in my songs. Paul’s more interested in his, and George is more interested in his. That’s always been.”
John Lennon Interview: New Musical Express 12/13/1969
GEORGE: "Yeah, well, I wrote some songs -- in fact some songs which I feel are quite nice which I'll use on this album -- I wrote about four years ago. But, uhh, it was more difficult for me then to, you know, get in there to do it. It was the way the Beatles took off with Paul and John's songs, and it made it very difficult for me get in. And also, I suppose at that time I didn't have as much confidence when it came down to pushing my own material as I have now. So it took a while. You know, I think the first... I did write one song on about the second album, and I left it and didn't write any more. That was just an exercise to see if I could write. About two years later I recorded a couple more songs -- I think 'Rubber Soul.' And then I've had one or two songs on each album. Well, there are four songs of mine on the double White Album. But now, uhh, the output of songs is too much to be able to just sit around, you know, waiting to put two songs on an album. I've got to get 'em out, you know." "Yeah. It's always... it was whoever would be the heaviest would get the most songs done. So consequently, I couldn't be bothered pushing, like, that much. You know, even on 'Abbey Road' for instance, we'd record about eight tracks before I got 'round to doing one of mine. Because uhh, you know, you say 'Well, I've got a song,' and then with Paul -- 'Well I've got a song as well and mine goes like this -- diddle-diddle-diddle-duh,' and away you go! You know, it was just difficult to get in there, and I wasn't gonna push and shout. But it was just over the last year or so we worked something out, which is still a joke really -- Three songs for me, three songs for Paul, three songs for John, and two for Ringo."
George Harrison Interview: Howard Smith, WABC-FM New York 5/1/1970
GEORGE: To get it straight, if I hadn’t been with John and Paul I probably wouldn’t have thought about writing a song, at least not until much later. They were writing all these songs, many of which I thought were great. Some were just average, but, obviously, a high percentage were quality material. I thought to myself, If they can do it, I’m going to have a go. But it’s true: it wasn’t easy in those days getting up enthusiasm for my songs. We’d be in a recording situation, churning through all this Lennon-McCartney, Lennon-McCartney, Lennon-McCartney! Then I’d say, [meekly] “Can we do one of these?”
George Harrison, Guitar World: When we was fab. (1992)
John: Well, I’m saying that “Dear Prudence” is arranged. Can’t you hear [John vocalizes part of the song]. That is the arrangement, you know? But I’m too frightened to say “This is it.” I just sit there and say, “Look, if you don’t come along and play your bit, I won’t do the song,” you know? I can’t do any better than that. Don’t ask me for what movie* you’re gonna play on it. Because apart from not knowing, I can’t tell you better than you have, what grooves you can play on it. You know, I just can’t work. I can’t do it like that. I never could, you know. But when you think of the other half of it, just think, how much more have I done towards helping you write? I’ve never told you what to sing or what to play. You know, I’ve always done the numbers like that. Now, the only regret, just the past numbers, is when because I’ve been so frightened, that I’ve allowed you to take it somewhere where I didn’t want
...
John: And that’s all I did on the last album was say, “OK, Paul, you’re out to decide [how] my songs [are] concerned, arrangement-wise.” … I’d sooner just sing them, than have them turn into, into ‘[Being For the Benefit of] Mr. Kite,’ or anything else, where I’ve accepted the problem from you that it needs arrangement. … I don’t see any further than the guitar, and the drums, and, and George Martin doing the … I don’t hear any of the flutes playing, you know? I suppose I could hear ‘em if I [spoken as if straining] sat down and worked very hard! You know, I could turn out a mathematical drawing, if you like …
Jan. 13: The Lunchroom Tape
PAUL: You see the thing is also, I, I get to a bit where I just sort of push all my ideas, you know, and I know that my ideas aren’t the best, you know. They are [mechanical voice] “good, good, good” but they’re not the best, you know. We can improve on it. Because we write songs good, and we improve on it. [to Ringo] And you can improve on your drumming like it is, if you get into it. If you don’t, you know, then okay, I have better ideas, but if you get into it, you’re better! You know. It’s like that.
Twickenham, January 6th
I wasn’t surprised that Paul disliked “Revolution 9” as much as he did. Although he was well versed in all musical genres—in fact, he’d been into avant-garde well before John—he simply didn’t see it as Beatles music, and he certainly didn’t agree that it was the direction that the Beatles should go in. Later on, when they were sequencing the White Album, I heard through the grapevine that John and Paul ultimately had a huge row over “Revolution 9.” Paul absolutely did not want it on the album, and John was just as adamant that it would be on there. In the end, of course, he got his way.
Here, There and Everywhere, Geoff Emerick
I was more ready for the drink or a little bit of pot or something. I’d not wanted to do it, I’d held off like a lot of people were trying to, but there was massive peer pressure. And within a band, it’s more than peer pressure, it’s fear pressure. It becomes trebled, more than just your mates, it’s, 'Hey, man, this whole band’s had acid, why are you holding out? What’s the reason, what is it about you?’ So I knew I would have to out of peer pressure alone. And that night I thought, well, this is as good a time as any, so I said, 'Go on then, fine.’ So we all did it.
Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles
"John's fellow student Helen Anderson remembers him ushering Paul in, with George, their tag-along junior, usually following a little later. The three would go into the cafeteria for a cheap lunch of chips then take their guitars into an empty life-drawing room, which tended to be more spacious than the others. Helen, being extraordinarily beautiful, was among the very few they allowed to watch while they rehearsed. 'Paul would have a school notebook and he'd be scribbling down words,' she says. 'Those sessions could be intense because John was used to getting his way by being aggressive---but Paul would stand his ground. Paul seemed to make John come alive when they were together.”
Paul McCartney: The Life - Philip Norman.
“I don’t know about being in a band with him, how that would work out,” he told Rolling Stone in 1979. “It’s like, we all have our own tunes to do. And my problem was that it would always be very difficult to get in on the act, because Paul was very pushy in that respect. When he succumbed to playing on one of your tunes, he’d always do good. But you’d have to do fifty-nine of Paul’s songs before he’d even listen to one of yours. So, in that respect, it would be very difficult to ever play with him.”
A Conversation With George Harrison
What was clear from the start was that writing would be a matter of Lennon and McCartney. “I remember walking through Woolton, the village where John was from, and saying to John, ‘Look, you know, it should just be you and me who are the writers,’ ” McCartney recalled. “We never said, ‘Let’s keep George out of it,’ but it was implied.”
In “Paul McCartney Doesn’t Really Want to Stop the Show” by David Remnick for The New Yorker (11 October 2021).
“I do stand back at times, unlike John. I look ahead. I’m careful. John would go for the free guitar and just accept it straight away, in a mad rush. I would stand back and think, but what’s this bloke really after, what will it mean? I was always the one that told Klein to put money away for tax. “I don’t LIKE being the careful one. I’d rather be immediate like John. He was all action. John was always the loudest in any crowd. He had the loudest voice. He was the cock who crowed the loudest. Me and George used to call him the cockerel in the studio.
Paul and Hunter Davies, 1981
George “I’ve got about forty tunes which I haven’t recorded, and some of them I think are quite good. I wrote one called ‘The Art Of Dying’ three years ago, and at that time I thought it was too far out. But I’m going to record it. I used to have a hang-up about telling John, Paul and Ringo I had a song for the albums, because I felt mentally, at that time, as if I was trying to compete. And, in a way, the standard of the songs had to be good, because theirs were very good. Another thing is I didn’t want The Beatles to be recording rubbish for my sake, just because I wrote it. On the other hand, I don’t want to record rubbish just because they wrote it. The group comes first. It took time for me to get more confidence as a songwriter, and now I don’t care if they don’t like it. I can shrug it off. Another thing with The Beatles is it’s sometimes a matter of whoever pushes the hardest gets the most tunes on the album, then it’s down to personalities, as to whoever is going to push. And more often, I just leave it until somebody says that they would like to do one of my tunes.”
The Beatles Off the Record (Keith Badman)
Paul came across in 1963 as a fun-loving, footloose bachelor who turned on his charm to devastating effect when he wanted to manipulate rivals, colleagues or women he fancied. (...) He had enormous powers of persuasion within The Beatles. He would get his own way by subtlety and suaveness where John resorted to shouting and bullying. John may have been the loudest Beatle but Paul was the shrewdest. I watched him twist the others round to his point of view in all sorts of contentious situations, some trivial, some more significant, some administrative, some creative.
John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me: The Real Beatles Story, Tony Barrow (2005)
#the beatles#paul mccartney#john lennon#george harrison#ringo starr#i just find it funny that yelling the loudest supposedly won arguments#makes me imagine them as the always sunny gang#pressing x to doubt when j&g claimed 3-to-1 was their usual decision making process
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“After Epstein died there was nobody to comfort them or tell them how to handle things so Paul thought he was personally responsible. I constantly saw Lennon & McCartney together because Paul came along to see that I wasn’t rude to John — who I can’t say I got on with. Paul didn’t want me to upset John and thought he could handle me better than Lennon which of course he could.”
— Sir Joseph Lockwood, former chairman of EMI, quoted in Northern Songs: The True Story of the Beatles’ Song Publishing Empire
#something about this quote scratched some itch in my brain that made me want to post it immediately#normally I just add my quotes to the queue (there are like. a hundred?)#but this felt pressing#something about the very sad image of no one being there to COMFORT them#and Paul’s feeling responsible being tied to him making sure people weren’t being rude to John#and the ‘which of course he could’#just got to me#my quotes#paul mccartney#john lennon#joseph lockwood#the beatles#beatles#northern songs
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