#paul mccartney fraser

[solmelo]

❝ The thing I remember is his smell, after coming out of jail. He smelled like he’d been in jail. Scrubbed with carbolic soap or something — his clothes smelled. It put me off going to jail in a big way, that you’d smell jail. It was only for a couple of days. ❞

—Paul McCartney on Robert Fraser

[franklyimissparis]

endless love for his gay little moustache

[undying-love]

"With Robert [Fraser]’s thing of course there would be gayness. But there was no open gayness. If there was to be gayness it would be a quiet phone call that Robert would go and take in the bedroom or something. That was one of the good things, actually, because I knew he was gay and he knew I wasn’t gay so we were quite safe in our own sexuality. We could talk to each other. " -Paul (1997)

[ljblueteak]

Robert Fraser’s interview with Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, All You Need is Love

Some highlights:

Robert Fraser: Peter Asher was Jane’s brother. I think he brought Paul over to my place. He made me sorry because he saw a sculpture in my apartment and said, “I want that.” It was quite a lot of money for those days, it was like 2,500 quid. Paul never asked the price until he decided to buy something. If he liked it, he wanted it.

Steven Gaines: I guess they didn’t have to think about the price

Robert Fraser: No, but most people, even if they don’t have to think about it, they want to know the price. Paul was very, very open-minded, but he was also more…Well, John was too, but I mean John was sort of very difficult to…He was more difficult to…He was very shy in a way, and it comes out in an aggressive way.

Steven Gaines: It’s an odd decision Paul made to live at his girlfriend’s home with her parents.

Robert Fraser: Paul was a very domestic sort of personality. He liked the idea.

Peter Brown: I didn’t think twice about it, but looking back on it now, it was pretty ahead of its time to move in with your girlfriend’s family.

Robert Fraser: Even now, he’s done exactly what he wants. He’s not really like…He never really lived a rock star’s life.

[paulandjohn]

Similar Vibes

On the left is John Lennon with Andy Warhol in New York, 1971

On the right is Paul McCartney with Robert Fraser in London, 1981

[babsi-and-stella]

Marianne Faithfull, Paul McCartney and Robert Fraser in 1983.

[beatlesficrecs]

Fic: Managing Expectations

by @pauls1967moustache

Link to fic

Summary:

A shaken and confused Paul runs into Brian, and questions him about his relationship with John. Things escalate into an intense exploration of Paul McCartney's sex and psyche, and come to a halt in the most beautiful way.

Why I like this fic:

Because it's relentless, and because of the way Brian handles Paul.

.

[big-barn-bed]

I WOULD HAVE DONE TONS OF COCAINE WITH YOU, AND KEPT YOU ALIVE FOREVER.

[therobertfrasergang]

Paul McCartney World Tour Book 1990

In a section called "It started to become Art", Paul talks about Robert Fraser and Magritte:

"This big house in St. John's Wood. It was like a salon, almost. Brian Jones, John, Mick, Marianne, always round there. It was great. Some magic moments. Robert Fraser was this gallery owner - the guy who got busted with The Stones? He's a great guy, he died a few years ago, he was great. He was brilliant and I bought a couple of these Magritte paintings through Robert - dirt cheap. We didn't think he was going to be famous one day. In fact now I think he's the best surrealist. Certainly didn't think he'd ever be that. He was just one that we all liked - the skies, the doves and the bowler hats. Robert's greatest conceptual thing he ever did, it's like a scene out of a movie for me, was, it was one of those long hot kind of summers and I had a big back garden in St. John's Wood and we were all playing in the back garden, sitting amongst the daisies, and he didn't want to break in on our scene. So he arrived and when we got back on he'd gone, but he'd left a painting just as we came through the back door, just on the table. It was a Magritte painting with an apple which we used for the Apple thing. That's where we got the Apple insignia, this big green apple. And written across the apple were the words 'Au Revoir', like a calling card."

There's a small photo of Robert on that page.

The tour book is 98 pages with many great photos and a lot of narrative from Paul. You can buy it on eBay or Amazon.

[mydaroga]

Re his growing interest in art:

The most formative influence for me was Robert Fraser. Obviously the other Beatles were very important but the most formative art influence was Robert. I expect people to die so I don't feel a loss but there's a vacuum where he used to be.

Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now

[solmelo]

As an older sibling, I need a Robert Fraser in my life.

Based on this quote by Paul McCartney on Robert Fraser

Imagine your whole life, you've had to play the role of the boss or the older brother. Then, for the first time, you meet someone who's older and more mature, someone with whom you can finally drop the act of being the tough one. For once, you're not the big brother or the leader—you can just let your guard down. You're not always the strong one, and he understands that, like a big brother.

Paul said this is only "one" of their most "touching conversations" btw. He didn't tell us what the others are.

He's always said that Robert was a very close friend to him yet he didn't reveal lots of their moments which is fair because Robert wasn't a public figure, and he was his emotional support so there mustve been lots of sensitive topics but who knows.

[franklyimissparis]

paul mccartney have a normal relationship with an older man challenge (impossible)

[lenetaylor]

Just a photo of Robert Fraser looking unnervingly like Paul McCartney, 1969

[beedlemania]

Robert and Paul in Paris

[ljblueteak]

Paul McCartney on Sgt. Pepper. Photos by Michael Cooper

(transcribed below)

I came up with the title and went to Robert with some drawings for the idea of the cover. I had come to the conclusion that The Beatles were getting a little bit safe, and we were a little intimidated by the idea of making 'the new Beatles album.' It was quite a big thing: "Wow, follow that!" So to relieve the pressure I got the idea, maybe from some from friends or something I'd read, that we shouldn't record it as The Beatles.

Mentally we should approach it as another group of people and totally give ourselves alter egos. So I came up with the idea of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the song 'It was Twenty Years Ago Today', and I started mentioning this to Robert in our late-night talks.

The original concept was actually a little bit different from how it turned out. I'd always liked those floral clocks that they have at seaside towns; they have a little green bank and put flowers in the shape of a clock. The original idea was that it was going to be a presentation from the Mayor of Middlesbrough or somewhere. There'd be this floral bank and there'd be us there and then at other parts of the cover we were going to have all the band's heroes--they were going to be on a photo, maybe behind the wall or something.

So there were these two ideas that eventually got pushed into one and then I said to everyone, 'OK, who are your favourites?" Marlon Brando was one of the first choices, and James Dean, Monroe--all those obvious ones and then other suggestions started to come in. George came up with all the Hindus, Babaji was his, and then there were things like footballers from our youth, you know, we had little joke things--Albert Stubbins--he's a footballer and so he was in and then it kind of snowballed.

I took all these ideas, the floral clock, the kind of presentation by a mayor, these heroes of ours, and Robert and I went with them to Peter Blake. Peter had all these sculptures of little people around, because he was married to Jann Haworth at the time and Jann was doing all those surfers and things like John Betjeman as a teddy bear and all that, so they crept in there.

The famous flowers that started off as the floral clock then became a guitar and the word 'Beatles'--they weren't marijuana leaves, they just looked like them--and so the Americans thought "Wow, well, this is it, it's all happening." We started shooting the cover and people would say, "Oh, can I come, can I come?" and we let more or less everyone come along, but eventually it got to the point where we had to say, "That's enough!"

So Robert would get all this and he'd show all the Indian stuff to George; and there'd be H.G. Wells and Johnny Weissmuller, Issy Bonn and all those people, and Burroughs would have been a suggestion probably from Robert, and there were a few kind of LA guys that Robert had slipped in. He'd slip in people that we didn't even know but we didn't mind, it was the spirit of the thing.

I don't know how many nights Michael spent on it but we were only there for that one night, the last night. They did all this without us. It was very nice when we turned up and it was all done, but not as impressive as when I saw the cover; just actually looking at the set wasn't as impressive as seeing the finished cover.

Jesus and Hitler were on John's favourites list but they had to be taken off. John was that kind of guy but you couldn't very well have Hitler and so he had to go. Gandhi also had to go because the head of EMI, Sir Joe Lockwood, said that in India they wouldn't allow the record to be printed. We said "You're kidding, they'll love it," but he said no, so that was something the lawyers made us take off. There were a few people who just went by the wayside.

We went to Burman's, the theatrical costumiers, to have all our outfits made up and the Stones did the same for the Satanic Majesties album.

It was great. The main centrefold was originally going to be a drawing by The Fool--Simon Posthuma and Marijke Koger, Dutch artists who'd produced some surrealistic work. They depicted us all up in the clouds and it was all very very acid, everything everywhere, lots of colours--but Robert didn't like it as art and so he vetoed it. We said "No man, it's really good. We love it, we love it."

The shoes were made by Anello and David, which was the first place we came into contact with, and we got our lovely handmade Beatle boots there.

Robert and I went down to Peter's house and Peter developed it all from there. The lists were his idea, and all the cut-outs instead of using real people, and then the floral clock got changed around; but basically it was the original theme.

The 'Welcome The Rolling Stones' was something they put in. They sort of asked us if we minded and we said, "No, no, not at all." Peter organized a fairground painter to paint the drum as that was someone that he used to hang out with.

From Blinds & Shutters