#paul and tara browne

[tavolgisvist]

A Day in the Life

Q: Then the tricky one that the BBC banned – ‘A Day in the Life’. It’s been said that this is a sort of requiem to Tara Brown (the heir to the Guinness Trust, killed last December in a car crash in London). A: I’ve heard that. I don’t think John had that in mind at all. The real words to that are ‘Read the news today’. There’d been a story about a man who’d made the grade, and there’d been a photograph of him sitting in his car. John said ‘I had to laugh’. He’d sort of blown his mind out in the car. Q: Literally, with a gun? A: No, he was just high on whatever he uses, say he was pissed in this big Bentley, sitting at the traffic lights. He’s driving today; the chauffeur isn’t there, and maybe he got high because of that. The lights have changed and he hasn’t noticed that there’s a crowd of housewives and they’re all looking at him saying ‘Who’s that? I’ve seen him in the papers’ and they’re not sure if he’s from the House of Lords. He looks a bit like that with his homburg and white scarf and he’s out of his screws. That’s a bit of black comedy…

(Paul McCartney, November 1967, interview with Alan Aldridge for The Observer)

The verse about the politician blowing his mind out in a car we wrote together. It has been attributed to Tara Browne, the Guinness heir, which I don't believe is the case, certainly as we were writing it, I was not attributing it to Tara in my head. In John's head it might have been. In my head I was imagining a politician bombed out on drugs who'd stopped at some traffic lights and he didn't notice that the lights had changed. The "blew his mind" was purely a drug reference, nothing to do with a car crash. In actual fact I think I spent more time with Tara than John did. I'd taken Tara up to Liverpool. I was with Tara when I had the accident when I split my lip. We were really quite good friends and I introduced him to John. Anyway, if John said he was thinking of Tara, then he was, but in my mind it wasn't to do with that.

(Paul McCartney, 1997, Many Years from Now by Barry Miles)

I did once have an accident in Liverpool where I fell off a moped and busted my lip open, and we had to get the doctor round to my cousin Betty’s house. That was around this same time, when I was twenty-something and going out on the moped from my dad’s house to Betty’s house. I was taking a friend, Tara Guinness. He died later in a car accident. He was a nice boy. I wrote about him in ‘A Day in the Life’: ‘He blew his mind out in a car / He didn’t notice that the lights had changed’. Anyway, I was with Tara and had an accident – fell off my moped, busted my lip, went to Betty’s, and she said, ‘Get a doctor, get a doctor. It needs stitches.’

(Paul McCartney about Rocky Raccoon (!), The Lyrics, 2021)

[bbbrianjones]

“HE BLEW HIS MIND OUT IN A CAR... HE DIDN’T NOTICE THAT THE LIGHTS HAD CHANGED”

TARA BROWNE [04.03.1945-18.12.1966]

“He looked like something that had fallen from the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel. He was like a king in his own terrain. He was miles ahead of his years. I’d never met anyone like him. He was completely unique.” - Glen Kidston, a friend of Tara’s

“He was this charming, very young-looking, rather frail-looking child. Very blonde, with big eyes and I think clad in something that put me in the mind of Little Lord Fauntleroy. And he was dancing in a very wild and deranged fashion. I’d never clapped eyes on him before and I thought, “Who is this strange flower that’s suddenly sprouted in the garden?” - Christopher Gibbs

“It was like a death knell sounding over London. I think it was a definite turning point for a lot of us. It was the end of the sixties for many people. To have someone who was so full of life and so full of joy suddenly taken from you, it made you very pessimistic and cynical about the world, which is what we'd all been trying so hard not to be.” - Marianne Faithfull

[crepesuzette2023]

ooh Mike/Tara? Interesting!

This one is in the early stages, meaning I have one page and a general idea and free-floating images, but yes--it's from Mike's POV. Tara took Mike to Paris, and it's centered on that, but it's also about Mike's observations of Paul, and John, and the LSD issue, and of course that grisly polaroid. A story about brothers and their shared childhood and weird memories, and the danger of losing each other, and trying to hold on? Then there's the '68 wedding, and the McGear album. So much material. It might be beyond my current skills, but you know what they say: the more you do, the more you can do. (Very Paul.)

[beatleskinkmeme]

paul wants to try having sex with a man just once (for artistic purposes so he can see himself as truly living a bohemian lifestyle). he ends up having sex with tara browne at a party, but for some reason can’t stop wishing that tara was john

.

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Brian Jones, Nicky Browne, Tara Browne, Paul Getty Jr, Talitha Getty & Anita Pallenberg photographed by Michael Cooper in Ireland on Tara's 21st birthday, 1966🥀🍃🍂

"The first time I met Robert was in Ireland when he was chaperoning Mick, Keith, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg at Desmond Guinness's superb Georgian castle, Leixlip, near Dublin. Mick and Marianne were lording around the grounds like the old money Mick was not. It was amazing how quickly he laundered himself from a terraced house in Dartford to a very large castle in Ireland. It had taken the Guinnesses a hundred and fifty years to achieve the same transformation. It took Mick fifteen months." -Andrew Loog Oldham🥀🍃

Via @weirdtvland on Instagram🍂

[got-ticket-to-ride]

13 for the Beatles ask game :)

13. If you could travel back in time to one Beatles event, which would it be?

Acid trips. The first time when Paul dropped acid with John. I would drop acid with them and join their trip, WHAT DID THEY SEE? WHY WAS REVOLVER SO GOOD? WHY WAS JOHN THE EMPEROR OF THE UNIVERSE?

Why did Paul drop acid with Tara first and invited him to the family Christmas party and not John? I love me a good Hallmark movie, where the childhood friend (John) is jealous and the rich, privileged guy (Tara) gets to impress the family in the small town.

WHY PAUL, WHY?

(also wasted this question because I should've gone to one of their concerts or fucking went to Hamburg and joined their flea infested mattresses at Bambi Kinos. Rat boys for life).

[elafranco2024]

Paulie with the chipped tooth in 1966.

The case of the motorcycle accident that happened to Paulie and Tara Browne is so poorly explained and mysterious.

His beautiful face was so bruised and Paulie looked so sad, helpless and vulnerable after the accident.

A few months later Tara had a tragic and fatal car accident and died so young.

[ljblueteak]

Andy Warhol, Gerard Malanga, Michael Cooper and Robert Fraser by Michael Cooper. Text by Paul McCartney (transcribed below)

Andy Warhol was lovely. We had dinner one evening at a place that used to be called The Baghdad House in Fulham Road, where the big attraction was that you could smoke hash downstairs. Andy knew Robert quite well and he came down and showed one of his films at my house. He was a very shy, quiet guy who didn't talk much, but he seemed very interesting.

The film that we looked at at the time was of the Empire State Building and there was something like three hours of one building, which is pretty tough going--it was a good job we were into pot, because we couldn't have handled it otherwise!

Tara Browne got killed very near The Baghdad House one evening and that's another connection in mind mind. Tara was such a sweet guy.

[kinsfaun]

A travesty! Not THE FACE....

59 years since this diva messed up his face baaaad

[m1ssunderstanding]

Understanding Lennon McCartney Rewatch Part 1.3

Okay can anyone explain the “false hotel registration” thing to me? Does it mean they registered under a false name? So Paul registered under a false name so he could go fuck a girl in his room without getting in trouble with the press? I'm confused. Didn't they bring girls to their rooms all the time without getting in trouble? It doesn't make sense. Why did he feel the need to register under a different name?

Paul, talking about American conservatism, “So many organizations over here that are nuts anyway.” John, “Yeah, they're so far right they just–” tape ends. They really were brave, though. To say what they thought and risk losing what they'd only just got. I wonder who cut the recording. 

Journalist: Paul, are you planning to marry Jane Asher? John: scream ‘no.’ Go on. Lol John certainly says what he feels doesn't he?

Paul making fun of the racist question. Good job bud. 

The whole “Yesterday” thing is crazy. Like, what a feat, first of all. I think we forget how unbelievably successful the song was.

Second of all, I know John's reaction was childish and mean, but his feelings were valid if you just look at the treatment and reception of “Ticket to Ride”  (John's dead mum song). Like objectively yesterday is a better song, but still.

Oh, John. Poor thing. 

If “Girl” is secretly about Paul . . . yeesh. It's so obsessive and adoring and simultaneously so disappointed and disparaging. John always has such impossible standards for Paul. “She promises the earth to me and I believe her, after all this time I don't know why.” Um… maybe because he literally did give you the world? At so many points I find myself asking, “what more could Paul possibly have given John?”

People always take this quote as a sexuality thing, but couldn't it also be a conscience thing? Revulsion at taking advantage of the fact that all these women are fans? At the scale of his infidelity? I don't know, am I giving him too much credit?

The thing about Paul, John – and though it drives you insane, it's a big factor in why you love him -- is he's not going to be bullied into anything. If he decides to take LSD it's going to be on his own terms. And I know you think it'll bring you two closer, and you're right, but peer pressure just doesn't work on him. There's no point. You know that.

I LOVE Paul and the Indica. Designing the wrapping paper in secret up in his little attic room, covering over the shop windows so he can do his handyman work building shelves and painting in peace. It's Linda's Paul pre Linda, you know?

John is so good at PR as in making something sound as beautiful and important and powerful as possible. Which is something Paul absolutely relied on John to do and clearly could not do on his own after the break up. Look how John makes them almost into prophets here.

"I really wanted to live in London but I wouldn't risk it." Another thing to make John envious of Paul and resentful of Cynthia. I really wish those two had just never got married. 

���I don't object to people having a lot of money, I never did. But I do object to people being stony broke and starving.” RIP John, you would've loved the American “left” of today. But you can't have the former without the latter, sorry.

This picture always gets me. It's ridiculous. Pattie and George. Mo and Ringo. John and Paul. With Cynthia awkwardly by herself. It's funny. It's adorable. It's crushing. And with that quote? It's impossible.

I think Tara Browne is overlooked. Paul brought him home for Christmas. That's a big deal. And John hated him enough to laugh when he read about his death. That's also a big deal. Paul and his messed up social climbing obsession. I do think it's worth pointing out, though, the difference between Paul’s LSD trip with Tara and his trip with John. More on that later.

I really do think they were all staunchly anti-racist for their time, you know, besides John's racist jokes and drawings… but Paul particularly. And I have to wonder where that came from. Did he have empathy for people being judged on appearance and background? Was it partially due to his idolization of black artists? Did Little Richard maybe say something to him about racism in America? Anyone have any thoughts?

Actually, same, John. 

Okay and I have to share my hot take on the whole Jesus scandal. It's this: the American right doesn't actually care about Jesus. They care about protecting their hegemony. They didn't like that the Beatles were openly and stubbornly integrationist. They didn't like Paul's comment about their inhumane racism. But they couldn't openly counter that without showing their hand. So they used the Jesus comment as an excuse. If they play the religious persecution card, they get to paint themselves as the victims and therefore the good guys while they take down anyone who challenges the status quo that keeps them in money and power (aka the Beatles). 

Maybe I should've had a “poor baby” tally because the number of times I've said that about John in these comments has got to be tally-worthy. I would've driven around in a gorilla suit with you, honey!

It is actually amazing that there hasn't been more speculation on Paul's sexuality with all these serious boyfriends. 

Paul tells a story about a time he flew a plane, and how much better he liked it than being a passenger. First off. Imagine being a pilot and just being like “oh, you've never touched a joystick in your life, but you're Paul McCartney? Sure, go ahead. Fly the plane.” But also. His control issues and his confidence are both off unreal. No one in their right mind would feel more safe flying a plane – as someone with a complete lack of experience – than when a licensed pilot is flying it. 

Okay I literally JUST learned that Here There and Everywhere says, “how good it can be” not could. Can. And it's one of those in my "for sure this was about John" folder. Okay then. Wow.

The thing is they really did compliment each other's songs a lot more than modern Paul makes it seem like. So I wonder what it was about the “Here There and Everywhere” compliment that made it so special to Paul?

This footage where John is hiding behind McCharmley. I love protective Paul and how different he is to protective John and how much they needed each other. 

Hall of Fame quote: “what composer do you respect the most?” “I dunno really. John Lennon.” “Paul McCartney.”

[dateinthelife]

26 December 1965

While George Harrison is sleeping on a cot in his parents' attic, Paul McCartney ruins his good looks forever in a moped accident while showing Tara Brown the moon.

Seriously, look at him. Ruined.

[crepesuzette2023]

For John's Birthday: some of my favorite John POV fics

Drop Chute (bookofapril). "The last stall on the end had an “out of service” sign on it: he darted in, locked the door, and sat down on the lid of the toilet. Thank god it was clean. He put his glasses in his pocket. Then he drew up his legs and rested his head on his knees, the cool embroidered satin of his trousers a balm on his forehead, safely hidden from sight." (1967, John vs. Robert F.)

I Think of Things We Did (J_Deandra_j). "He sucked Paul’s dumb, lovely fat lips, licked his teeth, tasted the drumbeat of Paul’s heart in the stubble threatening to erupt beneath his jaw, and his soul awoke like a sad bitch at the shudder of Paul’s skin under his tongue." (Obertauern)

at midnight (anonymous). "The first time John lets another man press against him, it feels like dying." (Long brilliant character study)

Sunday Driver (@boshemians). "Tara Browne is the kind of pretty boy who wouldn’t bat an eye at being called one. Proud of it, even, and not shy of an excuse to do just that—bat his eyes, or eyelashes really, at anyone. Men, women, dogs. It annoys John when Paul does it but it annoys him even more in Tara because of the money thing, the always having had it, so that he is not so much coy as simpering." (65/66, John v. Tara B.)

February in New Orleans (@eveepe). “Kiss it,” said May, from where she was tucked in beside Linda. “Go on, he likes that.”—“Do what she says, baby.” Linda leaned over to slide her hand into Paul’s hair and guide his head gently towards John. (John and May visit Paul and Linda in 1975)

deeper than oceans you run (@orphanbeat). "Rich kisses him slowly, purposefully, as he does them all. John thinks he probably likes Rich’s kisses the best, then realizes that they all must do." (Beatles OT4, Greek Island AU)

Our Version of Events (@javelinbk). "There are also some stories that have just tilted the world’s axis slightly, asking questions like if Brian hadn’t found them, would they still be famous? The answer, according to that writer, was no, which John felt gave Brian far too much credit and Paul’s bullheadedness too little." (John discovers fan fiction in 1971)

non nobis solum (downtothelastdrop). “I think it’s cute,” Helen says again. “The way he looks at you. He likes to push back, doesn’t he, but I bet when you get down to it he’d do anything you asked.” (John's fascination with Paul in school uniform)

Bermuda (@scurator). "Today he felt that life really might begin at forty, if a bloke could just admit certain predilections to himself." (1980 as it should have been)

The McCartney Issue (@pauls1967moustache). "It’s only because it’s Perfect Beatle Paul with a dildo up his ass that anyone cares at all." (John Lennon's purely artistic appreciation of Linda McCartney's Playboy spread of her husband)

dreaming of the past (@revollver). "Meanwhile, the real Paul, sweet boyish features and Beatle-cut grown a touch too long, can be seen on the coffee table, inspecting the cupcake wrappers on George’s plate. All John gets is a brief look: soft curve of a furred thigh as Paul darts behind the paper cups. Graceful calf and perfect, miniature foot. Tantalising glimpse of one arse cheek." (1969 John imagines Tiny Paul to distract himelf from the present–with delightful consequences)

ageless children, animal sweat (eyeball2eyeball): "Looks like Pete’s got his night lined up, eh?” He looks back to John and rests his chin on his palm and smiles, this small secretive thing, and John can’t help but be convinced that Paul knows what he’s thinking somehow — dangerous, that. “What about you?” (Hamburg)

[beatleskinkmeme]

Paul takes Tara up to Liverpool to stay overnight with his family but either can't stop comparing or finally gets to live out his fantasies

.

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Birthday boy Paul McCartney holidaying in Palaiokastritsa, Corfu, September 1963. Accompanying Paul during his stay were girlfriend Jane Asher, fellow Beatle Ringo Starr and his girlfriend Maureen who can be seen in two of the four black and white photographs. In the foreground of images 3 and 4 is West London gallery owner Jonathan Ross - "That's 10 year old me in the foreground with a Beatle haircut and very excited to be there!"🌺🌹🌺🌹🌺

The photos were taken by Jane's friend, Lucy Hill, daughter of renowned Mayfair bookseller George Heywood Hill, and model for Chelsea agency English Boy Ltd🌺🌹🌺🌹

In addition to being friends with Paul and Jane, Lucy was a childhood companion of Tara Browne who famously 'blew his mind out in a car' and became immortalised in the Beatles' 1967 song 'A Day In The Life. Both Tara and Lucy can be seen in slide 6, pictured strolling along Pall Mall with Jane and Julian Ormsby-Gore, Sir Mark Palmer and Tara's wife Nicky Browne in early 1966🌹🌺🌹

Via @waybackinthe1960s on Instagram🌹🌺

[pauls1967moustache]

Paul's biopic needs to feature Tara Browne and Robert Fraser!!

Paul taking LSD with Tara for the first time, getting into the crash, Tara dying and Robert providing drugs to Paul.

Enough of Paul's relationships erasure.

Here’s the pitch I just made to @philcollinsenjoyer