#violating my 1980s dont exist here rule :(

[get-back-homeward]

The Saga of the Bowler Hat: In Four Acts

Sep 30-Oct 15, 1961: Paris trip

We planned to hitchhike to Spain. I had done a spot of hitchhiking with George and we knew you had to have a gimmick; we had been turned down so often and we’d seen that guys that had a gimmick (like a Union Jack round them) had always got the lifts. So I said to John, ‘Let’s get a couple of bowler hats.’ It was showbiz creeping in.

Gustafson happened to bump into them the day they left, Saturday September 30. “They both had bowler hats on, with the usual leather jackets and jeans. They said they were off to Paris, so I walked down to Lime Street station with them and watched them go. They were an incredible pair: always great fun, irreverent, and so close.” [x]

We still had our leather jackets and drainpipes – we were too proud of them not to wear them, in case we met a girl; and if we did meet a girl, off would come the bowlers. But for lifts we would put the bowlers on. Two guys in bowler hats – a lorry would stop! Sense of Humour. This, and the train, is how we got to Paris. [x]

March 2-4, 1964: Filming A Hard Day’s Night train scene

The specially-hired train was destined for Minehead and back, where for the next three days scenes were filmed in the suitably cramped setting. There was a dining car for The Beatles to eat in...[their] dialogue was recorded using microphones hidden inside their shirts, but numerous retakes were required due to sound problems.

The first we did was the train, which we were all dead nervous in. Practically the whole of the train bit we were going to pieces.

I’m sure it’s less noticeable to people watching in the cinema, but we know that we’re dead conscious in every move we make, we watch each other. Paul’s embarrassed when I’m watching him speak and he knows I am. [x]

March 29, 1967: With A Little Help From My Friends day

At two o’clock in the afternoon John arrived at Paul’s house in St. John’s Wood. They both went up to Paul’s workroom at the top of the house...John started playing his guitar and Paul started banging on his piano. For a couple of hours they both banged away. Each seemed to be in a trance until the other came up with something good, then he would pluck it out of a mass of noises and try it himself. They’d already established the tune the previous afternoon. Now they were trying to polish up the melody and think of some words to go with it.

“Are you afraid when you turn out the light,” sang John. Paul sang it after him and nodded that it was good. John said they could use that idea for all the verses, if they could think of some more questions on those lines.

“Do you believe in love at first sight,” sang John. “No,” he said, stopping singing. “It hasn’t got the right number of syllables. What do you think? Can we split it up and have a pause to give it an extra syllable?”

John then sang the line, breaking it in the middle: “Do you believe—ugh—in love at first sight.”

“How about,” said Paul, “Do you believe in a love at first sight.”

John sang it over and accepted it. In singing it, he added the next line, “Yes, I’m certain it happens all the time.”

They both then sang the two lines to themselves, la-la-ing all the other lines. Apart from this, all they had was the chorus: “I’ll get by with a little help from my friends.” John found himself singing “Would you believe,” which he thought was better.

Then they changed the order, singing the two lines “Would you believe in a love at first sight/Yes I’m certain it happens all the time” before going on to “Are you afraid when you turn out the light,” but they still had to la-la the fourth line, which they couldn’t think of.

It was now about five o’clock. [x]

The Beatles began by recording the rhythm track in 10 takes, the last of which was the best. It had Paul McCartney on piano on track one, George Harrison’s rhythm guitar on two, Starr’s drums and cowbell played by John Lennon on three, and George Martin playing organ on track four.

A reduction mix, numbered take 11, made free some space on the tape for further overdubs. Starr then added his lead vocals to tracks three and four, with backing vocals by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. This session ended at 5.45am, and recording for the song was completed on the following day. [x]

1967-1968: Paul’s favorite artist inspires Apple Corp name and logo

We were discovering Magritte in the sixties, just through magazines and things. And we just loved his sense of humour. And when we heard that he was a very ordinary bloke who used to paint from nine to one o'clock, and with his bowler hat, it became even more intriguing.

René Magritte, The Son of Man (1964)

One day [Robert Fraser] brought this painting to my house. We were out in the garden, it was a summer's day. And he didn't want to disturb us, I think we were filming or something. So he left this picture of Magritte. It was an apple - and he just left it on the dining room table and he went. It just had written across it "Au revoir", on this beautiful green apple...So it was like wow! What a great conceptual thing to do, you know. And this big green apple, which I still have now, became the inspiration for the logo. And then we decided to cut it in half for the B-side!

René Magritte, Le Jeu de Mourre [The Game of Mora] (1966)

The title was found by Magritte's friend, the Belgian poet Louis Scutenaire, and is probably a play of words on Les Jeunes Amours [Young Love] (1963), the title of a work by Magritte showing three apples. The game of mora is "a game in which one of the players rapidly displays a hand with some fingers raised, the others folded inwards, while his opponent calls out a number, which, for him to win, has to correspond to the total of the raised fingers.” [x]

Epilogue

Paul McCartney’s 1989 My Brave Face single cover

My Brave Face lyrics, written early 1988 with Elvis Costello

January 1988: The Beatles are inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame