#we know ringo took that hard with that lyric about not knowing if paul will play with him

[get-back-homeward]

I know it’s all just standards.

But Ringo’s Sentimental Journey is utterly charming.

We really should talk more about how he turns to this project as therapy as the band is falling apart. It’s pure nostalgia in a bottle but with Ringo jazz drumming and just having fun with it singing and adding these cute little improv bits. Blues Turning Grey Over You is a highlight for the “I just lost myself there, child!” laugh at the end.

It’s all utterly charming.

It’s a really cool collaboration too. He recruited different musicans arrange each piece (including Paul, who arranged Stardust, perhaps before the breakup drama heats up). George Martin produces and gets the big band together. They start recording more sporadically at first, starting Oct 1969. Night and Day, Stormy Weather (which got left off the final album but I love he tried it), Stardust, and Dream, all recorded before Christmas. The rest are Jan-Mar 1970.

It gets ripped to shreds by the rock cred sector. But Ringo using this as a grief project, sort of returning to childhood in the midst of a blow for comfort, feels more honest and healthy than he gets credit for. It’s also brassy as fuck. This is the height of “fuck jazz,” and Ringo’s just like “so what? I’ll do what I like.”

George said he liked it. John slagged him off for it in interviews, but I bet he secretly liked it too. Not sure whether Paul ever commented on it given the dual release drama. He does his own standards album decades later, after it becomes a thing artists do. But when Ringo does it in 1970? No one was doing that.

[paulmusicblog]

Rockin’ the Sixties: Top Music Artists That Shaped a Revolution

The 1960s was a wild time for music. With everything happening in the world, artists found new ways to express their feelings and ideas through music. From rock ‘n’ roll to folk, the music scene was bursting with talent. Let us look at some of my favorite top music artists from the ‘60s that changed the way we listen to music.

The Beatles: A British Invasion

Who does not know The Fab Four? This iconic band, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, took the world by storm. They changed popular music forever with their catchy tunes and innovative sounds. Songs like “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be” still resonate today. The Beatles were not just about music; they started a whole cultural revolution!

Bob Dylan: The Voice of a Generation

When you think of folk music in the ‘60s, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan stands out. His powerful lyrics tackled social issues, love, and life. Tracks like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” spoke to a generation looking for change. Dylan’s mix of rock and folk made him a trailblazer and a voice that echoed through the years.

Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul

With a voice that could move mountains, Aretha Franklin earned her title as the Queen of Soul. Hits like “Respect” and “Chain of Fools” showcased her powerful singing and heartfelt emotion. Aretha’s music was not just entertaining; it was empowering, especially for women during the civil rights movement. She showed everyone the power of soul.

Jimi Hendrix: The Guitar Legend

Jimi Hendrix turned the music world upside down with his incredible guitar skills. Songs like “Purple Haze” and “All Along the Watchtower” showcased his unique style and creativity. He pushed the boundaries of what an electric guitar could do and inspired countless musicians to follow in his footsteps. Watching him perform was like seeing a magic show.

The Supremes: Motown Royalty

The Supremes brought sparkle and glamour to the ‘60s music scene. With hits like “Stop! In the Name of Love”, they helped define the Motown sound. Their harmonies and catchy tunes made them one of the best-selling girl groups in history. The Supremes not only entertained but also inspired many young women to follow their dreams in music.

The Rolling Stones: Rock ‘n’ Roll Rebels

The Rolling Stones were the wild side of rock ‘n’ roll. With Mick Jagger’s energetic performances and Keith Richards’ guitar riffs, they brought a hard edge to the music scene. Songs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Paint It Black” became anthems for many. They showed that music could be raw and real, setting the stage for future rock bands.

Simon & Garfunkel: Harmony Masters

Simon & Garfunkel captivated hearts with their soothing harmonies and thoughtful lyrics. Tracks like “The Sound of Silence” and “Bridge over Troubled Water” made them one of the standout duos of the ‘60s. Their music spoke to a deep connection between people, often making listeners feel understood and less alone.

Janis Joplin: The Queen of Rock

Janis Joplin was a spirited force of nature. With her powerful voice and electric stage presence, she took the rock scene by storm. Songs like “Piece of My Heart” and “Me and Bobby McGee” showcased her raw emotion and passion. She was not just an amazing singer; she was a symbol of freedom and individuality.

Motown Hits: The Sound of an Era

The ‘60s was packed with incredible Motown artists like Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and The Temptations. Each had their unique style and unforgettable songs. Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” became an anthem for peace, while The Temptations’ “My Girl” remains a classic. This era showed that love, heartbreak, and joy could all be wrapped up in a catchy beat.

Conclusion: A Decade of Musical Magic

The 1960s gave us a treasure trove of music that still influences artists today. From The Beatles to Aretha Franklin, each artist left their mark on the world, shaping the sound of a generation. Their songs carried messages that resonate far beyond their original time. The magic of ‘60s music will always remind us of a vibrant and tumultuous era filled with passion, creativity, and change. So, put on a tie-dye t-shirt, crank up those tunes, and let the good times roll!

By Paul Whatley | COMO News and Radio

[oasis-for3v3r]

Runaway Baby <3

Pairing- Paul x Assistant!Reader.

Request- maybeeee a Paul x reader where the readers super shy ? And she works as an assistant in the studio but in the next room to their studio? Super fluffy 🥺? And maybe the reader runs away from his romantic advances and Paul accepts the challenge 🤣?

A/N-Please accept this as my “i’ve got my mojo back “ fic. Man transitioning to college is hard. Also, this request reminded me of the song Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars- so essentially this is a song fic. And it will appear latter in the chapter.

Warnings- one suggestive commet but thats it.

You dreaded going to work.

It’s not that you hated it, quite the opposite actually. It had a nice location, not too far from home so your feet wouldn’t hurt from the walk. The pay was nice, considering that you worked for the Beatles as their assistant. You even had your own studio! All together these perks were amazing, but it wasn’t the reason why you dreaded going to work.

It was the people..

Ringo, John and George were considered like your brothers, always teasing you but caring and protecting you none the less. It was so fun to help them and hear the first tastes of the new songs they were writing. 

Paul though.... was a different breed.

He was always... flirting with you. It didn’t make you uncomfortable. Its just the things he’d say made you blush and your ears get hot. It was humiliating and you try to have a normal conversation but you couldn’t get through one without getting flustered and tripping over your words. And it was more humiliating to admit that you liked it a bit.

A bit.

So when you finally got out of the house and onto the street that lead to the studio you practice what would happen.

He calls you bunny? Say “Hey fox”.

No thats way too much

Say “Paul, please we are at work”

No then he would flirt with you outside of work.

What about ‘” I cant be a bunny I don’t have a carrot to chew on”

Oh hell-

Just as you were making yourself red, you bumped your head straight into the door. You were thankful only the receptionist were there otherwise you would have a nosebleed from humiliation.

When you entered the room John and Paul we’re huddled together and mumbling about something, most likely a song. And Rings and Georgie were playing cards.

“Y/N!” Paul said excitedly.

Oh shit

“Hi” you said trying to make your voice deep, but made it higher.

“Before you get all blushy and cute on us, we want to show you something, bunny” Paul said with a wink. Which made your stomach do flip flops.

You sat down, smoothing out your skirt, while George, Ringo John and Paul took their places with their instruments. 

“so Paul came up with the bright idea that he should write a song about you and his relationship” John said he seemed to feel a mix between unamused and excited.

“Relationship?!”you piped up your nose turning a deep red color.

“ Calm down Cutie, its not like that” Paul said calmly, “ it just describes how we are” "Now if there are any more interruptions, i would like to play?”

The bass line started and he began to sing:

Well, looky here, looky here, ah, what do we have? Another pretty thing ready for me to grab But little does she know that I'm a wolf in sheep's clothing 'Cause at the end of the night, it is her I'll be holding

With the song he started to look at t you. And the lyrics made sense. But he was cocky...too cocky.

Run, run, run away, run away, baby Before I put my spell on you You better get, get, get away, get away, darling 'Cause everything you heard is true

The tabloids although fabricated, had some truth to them. And although taboo you did wonder how he would treat you on a date.

So many eager young bunnies that I'd like to pursue Now even though they're eating out the palm of my hand There's only one carrot and they all gotta share it

You understood that reference, and for once you didn’t blush, you grew a smirk on your face , if he wanted to play this game then fine. 

You would just. have to play harder.

Uh, check it out See, I ain't tryna hurt you, baby No, no, no, I just want to work you baby See, I ain't tryna hurt you baby No, no, no, I just want to work you babyIf you're scared, you better run (you better run) You better run (you better run) You better run (you better run) You better, you better, you betterRun, run, run away, run away, baby Before I put my spell on you You better get, get, get away, get away, darling 'Cause everything you heard is true Your poor little heart will end up alone 'Cause Lord knows I'm a rolling stone So you better run, run, run away, run away, baby

When they finish the song, Paul felt victorious. That didn’t last long.

“Well Paulie, if you’re gonna chase me you are gonna have to work faster than that fox.” you said and turned on your heel and left.

Ringo cheered

George joined him and clapped.

John nodded in approval and chuckled.

Paul was cherry red.

[star-consultant]

Bright are the stars

You need a Beatle song that perfectly encapsulates your sign? Of course you do. (Spotify playlist) 

Aries—“I Saw Her Standing There” 

One two three FOUR! An eager and intense song for an eager and intense sign. Aries falls hard and fast, with a tendency to rash vows that everyone doubts they mean—but Aries doesn’t doubt. Paul (who later styled himself as a "ram” at a key point in his creative development) makes good on the Cardinal Fire vibe with his exuberant vocals, and John of the Aries rising contributed the street-smart innuendo that utterly makes the song: And you know what I mean. Fittingly, this song kicked off the group’s first album, which itself has plenty of Aries “HELLO I AM HERE TO MAKE A MARK ON YOUR WORLD! (like me plz ok? this is my heart and i am Doing My Best??)” energy. 

Taurus—“All I’ve Got to Do"

A song that takes its sweet time but burrows deeper than the average ear-worm into your consciousness. It’s a patient song that is unassuming but knows exactly what the hell it’s doing. The intensity builds bit by bit, so that you’re unaware when the power of the bridge comes crashing down. Describes the Taurean romantic ideal: lazy, loyal, cozy, constant, tender, and ever-so-true. Also, “All I’ve Got to Do” is featured on the second album, With the Beatles, which has plenty of other Bullish touches, noticeable even with a casual glance at the tracklist: “Don’t Bother Me,” “Not a Second Time,” and “Money (That’s What I Want).” 

Gemini—“She Loves You”

Paul is a Gemini Sun, and throughout his catalogue it shows. But perhaps he never topped the Twinniness of this energetic, optimistic, breathless, gossipy classic. It was composed “eye-to-eye” with John, a truly dual-authored song, and one the rare Beatles numbers where the two lead vocalists double up on every single line, in true (Nerk) Twin fashion. Also the first but definitely not the last of their many “third-person narratives,” Paul’s novelistic instead of confessional slant being distinctly a Gemini thing. The speaker in this one couldn’t be more enthusiastic about this relationship if it were already repaired, and he couldn’t be more enthusiastic about it if it were his. Love is great! People reconciling is great! You should be glad, dumbass! But the real corker? What makes this so Gemini that it hurts? Yoko has confirmed that in the early 70s, during her separation with John, she actually had Paul play agony aunt. Then, during that meetup in L.A. where they were last photographed together, Paul urged John to “apologize to her” and get back together... which he did. That’s right. "She Loves You” is not merely a Gemini’s song: it’s a Gemini’s life. 

Cancer—“Octopus’s Garden”

Ringo the Crab’s musically-complex fantasy about an underwater sanctuary where children are “happy and safe,” he and his lover can be together, and there’s “no one there to tell us what to do.” George (a triple Water sign himself, probably not-so-incidentally) always insisted that his best mate’s song Had Depths, and he himself supplied a lot of them: check out his lead guitar lines. They function as emotional counterpoint. When Ringo’s vocal line is especially wistful, the guitar is bright; when Ringo ends on a confident note, the guitar is quirky, ironic, even stiff-upper-lip pessimistic. Result: a shifting kaleidoscope of FEELS. The Moon approves. 

Leo—“Good Day Sunshine” 

Paul perfectly expresses his own Leo moon with a sublime, vibrant ode to laughter, love, and pride on a cloudless summer day. The bit in the lyrics about she knows she’s looking fine and I’m so proud to know that she is mine? That’s not marring the high tone of the song: that is part of the tone. Hear us roar! And by “roar” I mean "laugh and canoodle, coz Leo is about living the good life, bitches.” 

Virgo—“Please Please Me” 

What’s fair is forkin’ fair, mate! A exemplary blend of Virgo’s Mutable passive-aggressive sensitivity with its Elemental directness... half-critical, half-begging... plus the very sign-typical humblebragging. About their sexual prowess. Damn, Virgo. People forget how Earthy you really are sometimes. But here we are. In very Virgo fashion, instead of ditching the girl he’s decided to harangue her. On a more meta note, the Beatles were still studio virgins when they first began crafting this song, and it took several passes and incorporation of George Martin’s feedback before it became the bursting pop hit as we know it now. There’s that Virgo work ethic paying off.

Libra—“Strawberry Fields Forever”

The imagery of the title suggests an eternal harvest. But the star sign resemblance goes deeper than that: Always, no, sometimes think it’s me, but, you know, I know when it’s a dream. I think, er, no, I mean, er, yes, but it’s all wrong... that is, I think I disagree. Did you just hear your Libra roommate rambling after a joint, or did you listen to verse three of “Strawberry Fields”? Same difference. The song is absolutely lovely, as anything associated with the child of Venus should be, and innovative, as befits a Cardinal sign. Most of all, even in all of Libra Sun John’s weighing and weed-wandering, he knows one thing: he’s got to take someone else along with him. A companion, stat! 

Scorpio—“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

George of the Scorpio moon and Scorpio ascendant had to really lean into this side of his nature to even get this damn track properly recorded. He resorted to the social power play of inviting Eric frickin’ Clapton into the tense post-India studio just to get Lennon, McCartney, and Martin to give his song proper Beatle recording magic. Which it deserved. The dark drama of the hard-won arrangement is the perfect Scorpio accompaniment to the moody, reflective lyrics about “all the love there that’s sleeping” in this weary world. There’s tender, horrified pity here for those who are stifled into inauthenticity: I don’t know how nobody told you how to unfold your love. I don’t know how someone controlled you; they bought and sold you... Bonus points for the Watery ‘just can’t even’-ness of not being able to so much as pick up a damn broom. 

Sagittarius—“Something” 

You’re asking me, will my love grow? I don’t know, I don’t know! A deeply instinctual lover knows that Cupid has done hit a bullseye. He remains emphatically ambivalent about the future, but he knows what he feels in this moment, and in that moment is romance and wonder that is as deep as the earth is from the heavens. Sags are intense, but of all the Fire signs they are most far-seeing and detached (due to their Mutable quality, which makes them see the world a bit more like an Air sign does). “Something” keeps trying to capture that je-ne-sais-quoi, and despite the speaker’s happiness he can’t help but circle back again and again to take another shot at that the mental target. A philosopher even when in love. Ultimately, however, he doesn’t want to leave her now... which for a restless Sag is already saying a ton.

Capricorn—“Revolution”

John let his unfashionable midheaven Capricorn off the leash with this blunt, pointed savaging of radical and violent revolutions. (Given the tanks on Tiananmen Square and the millions dead on the killing fields of Cambodia, I can’t say that his cautionary note about “destruction” and “minds that hate” was unnecessary.) Few things are more Capricorn than ‘Oh, you want my money? Yeah, first show me that you’ve done your fucking homework, mate.’ Bonus Earth points for the fact that he somehow worked sex—a lot of sex—into this political track. 

Aquarius—“Come Together”

John of the Aquarius moon’s decidedly loony attempt to write a political campaign song in order to stop Reagan. (The result was too weird for Timothy Leary, whose reaction was pretty much ‘wtf? I don’t think even I have enough residual acid in my system for this one... ’) John invokes the ideal of collaboration, but his call to solidarity is built around fantastical lyrics that no one can comprehend: He wear no shoeshine, he got/Toejam football, he got/Monkey finger, he shoot/Coca-Cola, he say/I know you, you know me... Oh, right. The lyrics contain exactly one discernible message: One thing I can tell you is you got to be free. How Aqua. Also in true collaborative Water-Bearer fashion, the arrangement really makes the song (special mention to the tight, tight work of the rhythm section). Bizarre genius that attracts a true team effort—it doesn’t get much more Aquarius than that.

Pisces— “I Want to Tell You”

The wall of sound builds up thickly enough that soon the words seem to be traveling through the sea to reach you: I want to tell you my head is filled with things to say... But when you’re here, all those words, they seem to slip away. A gorgeously, emotionally tongue-tied song... about being tongue-tied. Written by George, a Pisces Sun, this absolute mystery of a lyric is all emotion and no logic. If he seems to act unkind, it’s only him, it’s not his mind. Okay, Fishboy. Good thing the track is compellingly lovely and utterly relatable. Which suits the Pisces life exactly: ‘I don’t know what I mean, but it’s exceedingly beautiful and I want you to share it with you very, very much.’ 

[beatlesdumpsterfire]

prompt -> everyone cowers in front of ringo's supreme power

There’s a reason why Ringo never played drum solos. If you thought it was because he simply didn’t like them, then I’m sorry, but you got fooled by a famous Beatles lie. No, Ringo didn’t play drum solos because he had stage fright, or he thought that they were too ostentatious - he refused to play them because he knew it would give him too much power. So much power, in fact, that he could cause the end of the world.

Sounds dramatic, I know, but don’t believe me? Back in the Hamburg days, after being heckled by a rambunctious crowd for over 2 hours straight to play something that could put Buddy Rich to shame, Ringo finally cracked. He ran 64th notes down his drum kit in such a rapid succession that he started to glow bright orange, as if he were on fire. Rory and the rest of the band didn’t know what to do with their glowing orb of a drummer, but they didn’t have much time to fret on it anyways because the walls of the Kaiserkeller started to rattle and crack, which made the German audience, still recovering from WW2, duck for cover with a collective yelp.

“Ringo!” Rory tried to yell over the ear-splitting noise that was coming from Ringo as his orange glow got progressively brighter. Ringo couldn’t hear him because he was in the zone. The Auto Zone. “Quit it!!”

Ringo moved from his 64th notes to smacking away at his cymbals like he was releasing the rage of a thousand years. The middle of the dance floor started to cave in, swallowing those who couldn’t move away fast enough. If you listened closely, you could hear a deep, Liverpudlian laugh coming from the pit. The only reason Ringo didn’t cause the end of the world on this occasion was because, as he was about to start balancing his twirling drumsticks on his nose, his allergies (the thing that humbles us all) got the better of him, causing him to let out a loud sneeze that rocketed him away from his set. With his senses knocked back into him, Ringo gaped at the chaos in front of him and turned to Rory, who was gaping back at him with a look on his face that could only mean Ringo was out of the band.

This is the history of The Beatles that you don’t know about. Ringo was a freelancer for a brief moment in Hamburg before John, Paul, and George found him. There had been a rumor circulating that there was something wrong with Ringo, but when the three lads saw him standing outside of a club one cold evening, lighting a cigarette in his own solitude, they just assumed that everyone else was being mean and hinting at how big his nose was.

And just like that, Pete was out and Ringo was in, because John, Paul, and George had heard that Ringo could really bring the house down. Ringo had tried to warn his new band members on multiple occasions that he suspected there was something wrong with him, but all of them insisted that he was fine and that his nose really wasn’t that big, so he had nothing to worry about. Ringo wasn’t so sure about that but, following the Incident, he had braved the drums once again and managed to keep a steady beat without causing Armageddon. Needless to say, that didn’t mean he was any less nervous about playing. Luckily, he insisted enough times that he would never do a drum solo, and John, Paul, and George listened, though they did think he was a little bit looney.

And things were alright like this for a while, through the ups and downs of their career, playing across the globe to thousands of screaming fans. Ringo never once let his guard down: there were no solos coming from him, no matter how many people wanted it.

That fateful night in Hamburg felt like another life, so much so that Ringo nearly forgot about the unusual power he contained. It wasn’t until he was pushed to the edge that he remembered he held the fate of the world in the palm of his hand, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

The year was 1969, the holiest year of them all, and Ringo was about ready to thrust his head through some drywall, he was so fed up with his bandmates. The incessant bickering over which songs made the cut on the album and which didn’t were really starting to drive him up the wall. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was just the icing on the cake.

“We need another take on that one,” Paul announced to the band with an air of authority that Ringo wished he could strangle. They had just finished playing through their forty-seventh take and, although Paul was acting like it wasn’t his fault, it was absolutely his fault that they had to play the damn song again. For someone who acted like he was the leader of the band, Paul sure was having trouble remembering his baloney lyrics.

Without a word, John let his guitar slip out of his hands so it clunked to the ground in an amplified drop, its buzzing filling the room. John left them like that, stomping to the door and letting himself out, back to sanity. George gazed longingly at the door like he wanted to follow behind John, but he knew too well that Paul wasn’t going to let that happen. Completely unbothered by John, Paul turned to face the engineers in the sound booth and motioned in a grand gesture for them to start a new tape.

George looked across at Ringo and Ringo stared blankly back at him. He was really trying to repress everything he was feeling.

“Take 48,” George Martin nervously announced into their headphones, like he knew he was stoking a fire.

“Ringo, I’m gonna need some more umph on that drum part,” Paul turned back to Ringo with a smug look stretched across his face. “If you can handle it.”

That was it. That was freaking it. That was the line. The line’s way back there. Paul crossed that line. He crossed that line so hard it’s not even funny.

Ringo stood from his kit but, unlike John, he didn’t book it for the door. Instead, he rushed around the room, gathering every single percussion instrument he could find.

“I’ll give you umph,” he growled at Paul. In return, Paul smiled back at him because that was exactly what he wanted. In between them, George grabbed at his head. His two mates were really making him question why they were his mates in the first place.

“Take 48!” Paul called up to George Martin, spinning his finger around to motion that they start the tape. Then, he turned back to Ringo, who was staring at him with so much intensity it was a miracle Paul wasn’t sent flying backwards.

“One, two, one two three...”

Paul started to play the opening chords on his dinky little piano but Ringo wasn’t having any of that, oh no. He pounded into his snare drum so hard one of the drumsticks broke through the skin. Instead of pulling it out, Ringo left it there and grabbed a tambourine, which he proceeded to bang against his hi-hat. Paul wasn’t sure what Ringo was doing, but they had experimented enough in the past that he let it slide. George, on the other hand, was silently whispering prayers to himself as he stared at Ringo's glowing figure in horror. Ringo knew exactly what he was doing; if he did a drum solo, he could wreck their studio enough that he wouldn’t have to listen to Maxwell’s frickin Silver Hammer again. The trouble was, Ringo didn’t know when the right time was to stop.

By the time he started using two maracas as drumsticks on a timpani, Ringo began to slowly levitate. George’s whispered prayers were becoming louder from his panic. Up in the booth, it looked like the two remaining Beatles were performing an exorcism on Ringo.

“What the-” George Martin muttered. The boys must have stumbled across some new kind of street drug that really messed you up.

“Maxwell Anderson, majoring in medicine,” Paul cheerfully sang from his piano, his back turned to Ringo. Ringo started to shake in place, now suspended 5 feet above the ground, clicking castanets angrily while glaring down at Paul. George gaped as Ringo's color switched to a fiery, Kool Aid Man-red. It was bad. Paul continued to unknowingly play, but his left hand took a break to wipe some sweat from his brow. Someone must have turned up the heat, he mused to himself.

But no, it was Ringo, on the brink of causing a thermonuclear explosion. George was initially concerned for Ringo’s safety but, after seeing actual waves of heat emitted from his beige suit, George decided that his pal wasn’t worth it. He’d had some great memories with Ringo, but he could remember those later in therapy. For the meantime, he was getting the hell out of dodge, to wherever John had escaped to.

The problem was, Ringo’s power was sucking George so dry that he hardly had any energy left in him to move. It was like the goddamn relativity cadenza all over again. The more Ringo banged out the drum solo of the millenium, the more powerful he became. No one could stop him, he was a god. Ringo, god of the bongos. The most feared of them all.

Something caused Paul to finally turn around (probably Mal missing his cue to play the anvil because he was too distracted by whatever the hell Ringo was up to) and, when he did, his jaw dropped.

“Wot the fuck Ringo?” he shouted. They hadn’t agreed that Ringo could become a celestial being during their recording session. At that moment, John barged back in through the door, ready to give his half-hearted apology to Paul. That was quickly thrown in the trash when John looked up at their drummer, who now resembled a ball of fire, like the sun or something. (Even though it seems appropriate, no, unfortunately George didn’t write Here Comes the Sun about this event - that song had already been recorded at this point). John, as terrified as he was, couldn’t help but let out a loud cackle at the spectacle that was playing out in front of him. He knew that their session for Maxwell’s Silver Hammer had been bad, but he didn’t realize it was this bad, so much so that their drummer was spontaneously combusting.

“Silence, mortal!” Ringo boomed down at John, not even missing a beat on his woodblock solo.

That got John to shut up pretty fast.

“No one dares laugh at the almighty and powerful Ringo!” Ringo continued, his words practically searing through everyone’s skulls. “I can end you with the crash of a cymbal, I can tear this planet apart, piece by piece with only the sheer power of my mind!”

“Good for you, Ringo,” Paul stammered out as he tried to hide behind his piano. Paul was smart to pick up on the fact that, out of all of them, Ringo probably had the biggest score to settle with him. He really sincerely hoped that his charm would be enough to keep Ringo from smiting him but, just to be extra safe, he threw one of his famous winks Ringo’s way. Ringo, in turn, glared at Paul and pulled out a triangle.

“With a single ding on this triangle,” Ringo bellowed out, so loudly that everyone in England could hear him, “our planet will cease to exist.” He floated closer to Paul and Paul in return tried to back up, though he quickly found himself pushed against the wall. “Is that enough umph for you, Paul?” Ringo sneered back at him. Paul tried to respond that Ringo really didn’t have to do that and, actually take 14 had come out pretty good, but he found all of his words trapped in his throat. Ringo’s power was too overwhelming. Ringo seemed satisfied that he had terrified Paul so much that he finally shut his yap and, to really gloat in his glory, his hand slowly crept towards the triangle.

The closer Ringo got to hitting that triangle, the bigger he got. The image was straight out of Alice in Wonderland - in a matter of seconds, Ringo had grown too big to fit in their studio. That didn’t matter much, as the heat coming off of him helped sear away the wooden ceiling so it came crashing around him.

He’s really getting a big head, John mused to himself, though he didn’t dare make his observation out loud, which was a good decision because he would have been a goner otherwise. At this point, Ringo’s feet stretched the entire length of the studio (or, what remained of it) and his head was well above the skyline of London, where everyone could see him and scream with horror before going, “Wait, is that Ringo Starr from the Beatles?”

Ringo was only inches away from the triangle now and London had never been hotter. The ocean was starting to dry up on the coast, fields were bursting in flames at random, and children started asking their parents why they didn’t have more fans in their houses. Alongside the heat, the ground started to quiver before shaking, rattling, and rolling. Cars rocked in the street, smashing into each other, and trees and buildings started to tilt sideways, like wannabe Leaning Towers of Pisa. People were starting to panic, because nothing this exciting had ever happened in England before.

“Ringo!” George tried to call up to his mate, though he knew it was no use, considering how high up Ringo was. “Please, stop it!” John and Paul heard George’s desperate pleas over the commotion and joined in, falling to their knees and clasping their hands together, begging with all the energy they had left.

“We’ll let you have more songs on our album!” John tried.

“I’ll bring you more flowers,” George tried.

“We’ll stop recording Maxwell’s Silver Hammer for once and for all!” Paul tried without really thinking.

Ringo was a millimeter away from making contact with the triangle. But then, he stopped. And, faster than you could say “Maxwell Anderson,” the shaking and heat stopped. Ringo had almost instantly shrunk himself back down to his normal size and was no longer glowing a searing red. He calmly set the triangle down on the stool next to his kit and turned around to look at Paul, John, and George.

“Good,” was all he had to say. And, with that, he turned on his heel and strutted out of the practically demolished studio, whistling a happy tune to himself. Left behind, Paul, John, and George all tried to compose themselves.

“A new rule for the band,” Paul started slowly, “let’s not mess with Ringo.”

“Agreed,” John was quick to respond.

“Agreed,” George repeated.

[cultofbeatles]

parts of pattie boyd’s book wonderful tonight that involved george that stuck out to me:

pattie didn't have any of the beatles records at first and only bought please please me since she was going to be in their film 

“on first impressions, john seemed more cynical and brash than the others, ringo the most endearing, paul was cute, and george, with velvet brown eyes and dark chestnut hair, was the best looking man i’d ever seen.”

during a lunch break pattie and george sat next to each other and were both very shy 

george asked pattie “will you marry me?” and after she laughed he said, “well, if you won't marry me, will you have dinner with me tonight?” and she turned him down.

she deadass invited george to hang out with her and her boyfriend at the time.

pattie and george are both pisces.

once reshoots for the film were happening george asked pattie about her boyfriend, she said she had dumped him, and george once again asked her for dinner. she accepted this time.

brian epstein joined them for their first date.

they sat side by side and were too scared to even hold the others hand.

george got along great with pattie’s family.

pattie liked cynthia lennon but found her difficult to make friends with. 

“she wasn't like my friends, who enjoyed a giggle and some fun: she was rather serious, and often, i thought, behaved more like john’s mother than wife.”

there was a rumor that john and pattie were having an affair and pattie worried cynthia believed it. it wasn't true.

maureen cox (ringo’s girlfriend) was another beatles girl that pattie had a hard time being friends with. but said that she was “jolly and friendly, more relaxed than cynthia.”

pattie got along best with jane asher but saw her the least.

“i felt there was definitely a north-south divide among the wives and girlfriends. and i had the definite impressions that the girls from the north (maureen and cynthia) felt they has a prior clam to the boys.” okay shade, we see you. 

(talking about going on holiday with john, cynthia, and george) “it was a good way to split the group. john and paul were the closest in some ways and immensely creative together, but they clashed if they were in each other’s pockets for too long.”

george asked pattie to cut his hair while on holiday and one of the cleaners found his hair and kept it. 

(talking about george) “he was so beautiful and so funny.”

once a “weird looking man” tried to force his way into pattie and george’s house. pattie thought he was either a salesman or a jehovahs witness. it turns out it was paul in disguise. 

george said the only place he got peace was in the bathroom of his hotel suite.

pattie got a lot of letters saying that if she didn't leave george there would be a curse put on her.

 pattie’s cleaner was a male ballet dancer and “a terrific duster.”

pattie would count the days till george came back. once he jumped into the bed early in the morning to wake her up. 

those two would deadass not lock their doors and were surprised that clothes were going missing...what is with older generations and not locking their doors i -

george would be in the studio from 11 am - 11 pm. sometimes midnight. 

george’s mom loved when john would visit and would always ask him for an “upper.”

when john lennon is your drug dealer.

pattie wasn't a good cook but was optimistic.

“i loved listening to him (play guitar), loved the sound of the guitar in the house. sometimes i would start to talk and he'd be so deep in thought about the lyrics or the melody he was writing that he wouldn't answer. we’d be the same room but he wasn't really with me: he was in his head.”

pattie developed a kidney disorder.

(talking about the beatles dynamic) “in many aspects they were still children. they had few real friends apart from each other, and when they were asked questions they could answer as one - they were so much on each other’s wavelength. if one went to a gallery opening, they all went; if one bought a new car or new house, they all did. if one seemed in danger of taking himself too seriously, the others knocked it out of him.”

one evening george stopped the car and said, “let’s get married. i'll speak to brian.” they went to brian’s house, george went inside, and when he came back in the car he said, “brian says it’s okay. will you marry me? we can get married in january.”

briannnnnnn, is it my turn to get married yet pleaseeeee

pattie invited her absent father to their wedding but he did not come.

at the train station everyone left cynthia behind as she was carrying the suitcases and john was carrying nothing. peter brown had to go back and get her. 

pattie’s quote from the lsd in the coffee moment is hilarious to me. “you've just had lsd. it was in the coffee.” john lennon: “how dare you fucking do this to us?”

pattie and george didn't go to brian’s funeral in liverpool but george sent one single sunflower.

pattie stopped modeling because george didnt like it. and she felt like she lost a part of herself.

maureen was afraid of flies.

during the India trip, mia farrow told john that maharishi was inappropriate with her and john wanted everyone leave after that.

after India george and pattie’s relationship changed.

(talking about george) “some days he would be all right, but on others he seemed withdrawn and depressed. this was new: he had never been depressed before, but there was nothing i could do. it wasn't about me, but i found that my moods started to mirror his...so bad indeed, that at times i felt almost suicidal. i don't think i was ever in any real danger of killing myself, but i got as far as working out how i would do it: i would put on a diaphanous ossie clark dress and jump off beachy head.”

george became more obvious about his cheating. it hurt pattie.

george was gaslighting her.

cilla black was staying at george and pattie’s house and was uncomfortably close to george so pattie left. six days latter george called to tell her the girl was gone and she could come home.

“..but my ego was too fragile and i couldn't see it as anything other than betrayal. i felt unloved and miserable.”

“jane asher came home unexpectedly from new york and found another woman in the house, an american girl - and did what i should probably have done with george...”

george would start to talk about his feelings about paul or john but would stop bc he never wanted to admit that he felt left out. 

“we had once been so close, so honest and open with each other. now a distance had developed between us..”

(about yoko contributing to the beatles break up) “the four had never allowed anyone into the recording studios with them, but yoko not only sat by john throughout every session, he consulted her about the music they were making, which upset paul.”

during the let it be sessions there was a time with george and paul got in a fist fight and george left.

the same day john told George he was leaving the beatles, george’s mom told him she was ill and in critical condition.

i love that she vibe checked george. “he was bringing home bad vibes.”

george continued cheating and they continued arguing.

“my diary is full of entries about my unhappiness and the disintegration of our relationship.”

john came to visit george and pattie’s new mansion and said that it was so dark he didn't know how they could live in it, and george recommended that he took of his sunglasses.

eric clapton being a piece of shit and saying “if you won't be with me pattie i will become addicted to heroin.”

pattie said the only thing she had left was cooking and george took that away.

the couple was suppose to go on holiday together but george cancelled last minute bc he didn't want to go with her. he ended up going to spain.

“when i challenged him, he denied it and tried once again to make me feel as though i was paranoid.”

i'm not even...the whole fucking story of the george and maureen affair PISSES ME OFF more than i can describe. maybe i’ll make a whole other post but omfg i'm fuming. fuck them bothhhh. they deserve no rights.

george harrison, mere days before their wedding anniversary: “let’s get a divorce this year.” what an amazing new years resolution jerk.

ringo offered pattie a job.

when george told ringo about the affair pattie was so mad she dyed her hair red. 

george loved pattie’s little brother and was his role model but he wouldn't come to the man’s wedding even though he was invited.

the night pattie told george she was leaving him george came to bed in sadness and said, “don't go.”

“i'm going.”

george invited pattie to dhani’s eighteenth birthday party bc she “had to be there. she was family.”

george had become more of an older brother to her now.

pattie had learned about john’s death from eric clapton and immediately went to the beatles office in london to hang out with everyone there.

(after finding out about george’s death) “i couldn't bare the thought of a world without george. when i left him for eric, he had said that if things didn't work out, ever, i could always come to him and he would look after me. it was such a selfless, loving, generous thing to say and it had always been tucked away at the back of my mind. now that sense of security had gone.”

the last time they saw each other was when george called saying he wanted to visit her new cottage and see her.

pattie didn't go to his funeral nor did she go to the memorial concert that took place a year later. but she spent that day high on the mountains thinking of george. “i was happy to mourn him alone and in my own way.”

she would have dreams of george after his death. “oh george, it’s so wonderful that you are alive after all, this is so fabulous; i knew they had all made a mistake.”

and then she’d wake up.

[monkberries]

Wait what's wrong with the AKOM How Do You Sleep episode? I remember it being fine but its been ages since i listened to it so if you've got any thoughts I'd love to hear them :)

Be aware, this is only about the first episode, not about the George-focused episode. If they resolve any of the issues I have with the first episode in the second episode, then I sincerely apologize.

First, there are some things they talk about that I agree with! Near the end of the episode, they discuss the dynamic between John and the people around him in a really insightful way, and in a way I’ve often thought about it; both John and the people around him were all kind of in this mindset of “oh, Paul rejected us? Well, we didn’t want him ANYWAY! So THERE!” They also discuss the fact that John was very easily manipulated, and nearly his entire support system (minus Ringo, and shame on them for not mentioning that) basically egged his anger and viciousness on. And they also play/read some interviews with John about the song and tangential subjects, and it’s always nice to hear primary sources.

However, much like their post about Lewisohn, I find a lot of this episode excessive, overtorqued, and generally far too exaggerated. They perceive an imbalance in narratives (which I do think is there, just not to the extent they say) and overcorrect, imho.

First, I want to get my opinion on the song itself out of the way: I listen to it a lot. It’s on my Fall 2020 playlist. I enjoy the musicality, the style; the mood it evokes is extremely strong to me. Sometimes it’s fun to indulge in feeling evil or mean without having to actually be evil or mean! Plus, I love playing it right before Jealous Guy, or Steel and Glass, or I Know (I Know), just to get that maximum John Lennon Mood Whiplash effect. I think George’s solo is vicious and perfect for the mood as well. However, the lyrics are pretty horrendous in terms of their effect on Paul and his feelings; they’re also horrendous in that they’re just not well-written lyrics. IMHO you can tell it was written by three different people all throwing insults at the wall to see what would stick and rhyme. Half of the digs don’t even make sense. “So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise/You better see right through that mother’s eyes” Wut? “The one mistake you made was in your head” ??? The hell do these things even mean lmao

Anyway. Onto the episode itself.

Around 1 minute in, they say that there’s not a lot of check and balance in the Beatles fandom w/r/t this song, and that much of the fandom espouses that HDYS was “deserved” and “honest”. They reiterate this sentiment over in different ways throughout the episode, and I just do not see that kind of thing being a majority opinion in Beatles fandom spaces at all. Perhaps they are occupying different fandom spaces than I occupy (tumblr/Hey Dullblog/beatlebioreview), and it is true where they are? (In which case, my goodness, find some better blogs to follow, babes!) They talk about how they’ve never seen anyone pick it apart before, and that the discussion around it has not changed, that people have been saying Paul deserved it since it came out. Again, this is does not jive with my experience in the Beatles fandom.

From Shout!, a book with a well known anti-McCartney streak, published in 1981: “John’s Imagine album - despite the plea for universal peace and brotherhood in the title track - launched a thermo-nuclear strike back at Paul with ‘How Do You Sleep?’ a title suggesting crimes almost in the realm of first-degree murder. The McCartney references were unmistakable, and, often, cruelly unjust: ‘The freaks was right when they said you was dead... The only thing you done was Yesterday...’ There was even a two-fingered gesture of contempt for Paul’s new outdoor life with Linda on their Scottish farm.” Also, the RS review spends two paragraphs talking specifically about how heinous and unjustifiable HDYS is. You can definitely say that rock journalism takes some of the attitude of HDYS and runs with them, such as Paul’s music sounding like muzak - that sentiment certainly persisted. But I would argue that most of the shit journos are reacting to and buying into comes from Lennon Remembers primarily, where John says all the same crap and more, and worse, rather than HDYS itself, which they seem to balk at.

They make the claim as well that the Imagine LP has been elevated to some kind of untouchable, un-criticizeable status. In the years after his death, I think there is probably some truth to that, although again, untouchable is an extreme word. Even in 2003, the LP was number 80 on Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. However, it was 227 on NME’s list in 2013 and dropped to 223 on Rolling Stone’s new 2020 list, suggesting a waning in popularity over time and a willingness to look more objectively at the quality of it.

The thing that really bothered me about this episode is like... They talk about the need for nuanced discussion of the song, right? And that’s all fine and good, and I agree, nuance in any Beatles discussion is essential if you want to get close to any actual truth. However, they then go on to say, quite adamantly, that if you say the music of the song is good, even if you think the lyrics are awful, then they wouldn’t even bother having a conversation with you. It’s very “We want nuance! NO NOT LIKE THAT! YOU’RE DOING NUANCE WRONG!” Like, I’m sorry, the music is good, in my opinion! John is very good at evoking a mood! The fact that I think George’s solo is incredible, or that the keyboard riff gives me chills, or that I think the bass goes super hard, doesn’t mean I don’t understand how rough the lyrics are or the effect they had on Paul. In fact, imho, I think it’s important that we discuss how quality the music is because it underscores the calculated cruelty John exhibited. He worked hard on this song. He wanted to create a very specific feeling out of it, and he succeeded in spades. I think if it had been crappy musically, people would have been much more contemptuous of it than they already are. As I said earlier, some of the digs don’t even make sense; I think they’re bolstered and propped up specifically because the music underneath them is so good. Also, it’s not fucking wrong to enjoy a groove.

I also take some issue with them saying that HDYS was easily among the worst things John ever did. Like... equivalent or worse than going on anti-Semitic, homophobic rants? Yikes.

There are many instances in this episode where they will go “I often read things like...” or “Jean Jackets will say...” or “I see this a lot...” and then never actually talk about where they see these things or quote directly from them. One instance goes “I often read things like, ‘John Lennon is expressing years of pent-up resentment over creative differences’, as if John is some kind of, like, drunk art teacher doling out free advice to Paul on his music.” I’ve read a lot about HDYS and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that. Just about every discussion of the song I’ve seen says very clearly that it was an unjustified, deeply personal attack. I realize there is an aversion to publicly Naming Names when you’re calling out people who perpetuate a bad narrative. But I want to know where this stuff comes from. I want to actually see what it is they’re upset about.

Lastly, they talk near the end about music innovation and experimentation, and this is where I think things go much too far in overcorrecting a narrative. The well-known narrative for many years post breakup was that Paul was a boring square who wrote granny music. That is true; he was much maligned in the press about that. However, I think post-Hertsgaard, post-Revolution In The Head, post-Complete Recording Sessions, and post-Many Years From Now, that attitude has changed quite a bit. Most serious Beatles fans know now that Paul was the first one to really get into Avant-Garde stuff; most fans know about the fact that he made McCartney 1 basically alone in a homemade studio. Most fans have probably heard or at least heard of Temporary Secretary, lmao.

But it feels like these women are still living in the past where Paul was still being maligned for being a square, so instead they go way far to the other end and say “Paul was the musical innovator, not John.” And that is just flat out NOT true. They were BOTH musical innovators. The fact that Paul was the first to get into avant-garde art does not exclude John from also being incredibly innovative and experimental in his own way. Perhaps he wasn’t doing that on Imagine; they are right that Imagine is a collection of really good but fairly commercial songs. But they utterly discount the fact that he did Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Want You (She’s So Heavy), popularized backmasking, was one of the first if not the first to use amp feedback in a song in I Feel Fine, experimented with recording his voice differently with Tomorrow Never Knows and Revolution, and also the entirety of Plastic Ono Band!!! You don’t have to downplay or erase John’s experimental contributions to music in order to elevate Paul’s. You can elevate both of them. It’s fine.

Also, this is the episode where they say Lewisohn’s book is exactly the same as all the other Jean Jackets books except thicker, and I have a viscerally bad reaction to that for many reasons I have already outlined on this blog. Suffice to say, it is demonstrably untrue (not least because Lewisohn hasn’t published anything in his Tune In series that goes beyond 1962) and unfair to someone who has done an unbelievable amount of legwork to back up his writing. They also compare Lewisohn to Goldman (???????) and call them John and Yoko’s “fuckin bitch boys saying the same shit over and over again.” I have to imagine Goldman was a misspeak and she meant someone else, but still that jarred me lmfao

[brn1029]

Get those tin foil hats ready to go!

The 10 greatest conspiracy theories in rock

By Emma Johnston

In a world where fake news runs rampant, rock'n'roll is not immune to the lure of the conspiracy theory. These are 10 of the most ludicrous

Conspiracy theories, myths and legends have existed in rock’n’roll for as long as the music has existed, stretching all the way back to bluesman Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for superhuman guitar skills, fame and fortune.

There are those who believe Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison live on, others who think the Illuminati control the world through symbolism in popular culture, and plenty of evangelical types with their own agendas trawling rock and metal songs for secret messages luring the innocent to the dark side.

Let us take a look, then, at rock’n’roll conspiracy theories ranging from the intriguing to the ludicrous, as we try to separate the truth from the codswallop.

Lemmy was in league with the Illuminati

Few men have ever been earthier than Lemmy, but one conspiracy theorist claims that the Motorhead legend didn’t really die in December 2015, instead “ascending into the heavenly realm” after making a “blood sacrifice pact” with the Illuminati.

A “watcher” of the mythical secret society some believe are running the world – despite evidence that is at best flimsy, at worst straight from The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s discarded notebooks – told the Daily Star: “Lemmy signed up for the ultimate pact – he signed his soul to the devil in order to achieve fame and fortune.”

While we can only imagine what the great man would have to say on the matter, there’s one word, in husky, JD-soaked tones, that we can just about make out coming across from the other side: “Bollocks.”

Paul McCartney died in 1966

As you might expect from the most famous band that has ever existed, there are enough crackpot theories about The Beatles to fill the Albert Hall. From John Lennon’s murder being ordered by the US government, who, led by Richard Nixon, suspected him of communism (the FBI actually did have a file on Lennon, but the story is spiced up by the man behind murderlennontruth.com, who apparently believes author Steven King was involved due to, uh, looking a bit like Mark Chapman) to Canadian prog outfit Klaatu being the Fab Four in disguise, there are plenty of tall tales more colourful than a Ringo B-side.

The most enduring, though, is the notion dreamt up by some US radio DJs that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike. They came to this conclusion having studied the cover of Abbey Road – McCartney’s bare feet on the zebra crossing apparently symbolising death, while others found “evidence” in the album’s opaque lyrics. There were a lot of drugs in the 60s.

Gene Simmons has a cow’s tongue

It’s easy to see why all kinds of far-fetched stories sprung up when Kiss first took off in the 1970s. The fake-blood-spitting, the fire, the demon-superhero personas – middle America clutched its pearls and word spread that these otherworldly weirdos’ moniker stood for Knights In Satan’s Service. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

It was Gene Simmons’ preposterous mouth that got the nation’s less voluminous tongues wagging though. So long and pointy is his appendage, and so often waggled at his audiences (whether they asked for it or not), that eventually the rumour spread around the world’s playgrounds was that he’d had a cow’s tongue grafted onto his own. The bovine baloney is, of course, bullshit, but Simmons has admitted it's one of his favourite Kiss urban myths.

Supertramp predicted 9/11

The Logical Song may be Supertramp’s calling card, but one man in the US stretches common sense to the limit having come to the conclusion that the artwork for their 1979 album Breakfast In America gave prior warning of the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11, 2001.

Look at the album cover – painted from the perspective of a window on a flight into the city – in a mirror, and the ‘u’ and ‘p’ band’s name appears to become a 911 floating above the twin towers, while a logo on the back features a plane flying towards the World Trade Center.

So far, so coincidental, but when our intrepid investigator falls down a rabbit hole of Masonic interference, strained Old Testament connections (“The Great Whore of Babylon – Super Tramp”), and the title Breakfast In America reflecting the fact that the planes crashed early in the morning, things get really tenuous.

It’s fair to say it’s unlikely a British prog-pop band had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks 22 years before they happened. But maybe Al Qaida were really big fans.

Stevie Wonder can see

Stevie Wonder is a genius. That fact is not up for dispute. The soul/jazz/funk/rock/pop legend was born six weeks prematurely in 1950, and the oxygen used in the hospital incubator to stabilise him caused him to go blind shortly afterwards. But his love of front-row seats at basketball games, the evocative imagery in his songs, and the fact that he once effortlessly caught a falling mic stand knocked over by Paul McCartney (who, let us reiterate, did not die in 1966) has caused basement Jessica Fletchers to muse that he’s faking his blindness as part of the act.

Wonder himself, a known prankster, has great fun with his status as one of the world’s most famous vision-impaired musicians. In 1973, he told Rolling Stone: “I’ve flown a plane before. A Cessna or something, from Chicago to New York. Scared the hell out of everybody.”

Dave Grohl invented Andrew W.K.

When Andrew W.K. first broke through in the early 2000s, dressed in white and covered in blood, his mission was serious in its simplicity: the party is everything. He took his message of having a good time, all the time, to levels of political fervour. But rumours of his authenticity have been doing the rounds from the start.

Reviewing WK’s first UK show at The Garage in London, The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis wrote: “One music-biz conspiracy theory currently circulating suggests that Andrew W.K. is an elaborate hoax devised by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.”

As time went on, the theory gained traction – Grohl was believed to be the mysterious Steev Mike credited on the debut album I Get Wet. And as W.K.’s style changed over subsequent records, and his own admission that there were legal arguments over who owns his name, whispers began that he wasn’t even a real person – he was a character, played by several different actors, an attempt to create the ultimate Frankenstein’s frontman.

"I'm not the same guy that you may have seen from the I Get Wet album," W.K. said in 2008. “I don't just mean that in a philosophical or conceptual way, it's not the same person at all. Do I look the same as that person?" The jury is out, but if this is a great white elephant concocted just for the sheer hell of it, we kind of want this one to be true.

Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager

An early victim of the 27 club, the death of Jimi Hendrix was depressingly cliched for a man so wildly creative: a bellyful of barbiturates led to him asphyxiating on his own vomit, according to the post-mortem. But in the years following the grim discovery at the Samarkand Hotel in London on 19 September 1970, a different theory was offered by the guitarist’s former roadie, James “Tappy” Wright.

In his book Rock Roadie, Wright claims Hendrix was murdered by his manager, Michael Jeffery, who he says force-fed his charge red wine and pills. The motive? He feared he was about to be fired and was keen to cash in on the star’s life insurance. One thing we do know for certain is Jeffery won’t be able to give his version of events, as he was killed in a plane crash over France in 1973.

The 50th anniversary of Hendrix's tragic passing was "celebrated" with the release of Hendrix and the Spook, a documentary that "explored" his death further and was described by The Guardian as "a cheaply made mix of interviews and dumbshow dramatic recreations by actors scuttling about flimsy sets in gloomy lighting." Sounds good.

Courtney killed Kurt

Courtney Love is no stranger to demonisation from Nirvana fans. When Hole’s second album, the searing, catchy, feminist, witty, aggressive, vulnerable and unflinchingly honest Live Through This was released, days after Kurt Cobain’s death, rumours almost immediately started up that Love’s late husband wrote the songs. That was insulting and sexist enough, but nowhere near as damaging as the conspiracy theory that Love hired a hitman to kill Cobain amid rumours they were about to divorce.

After Cobain’s first attempt to take his own life in Rome, the Nirvana frontman was eventually convinced to go to rehab following an intervention by his wife and friends. He ran away from the facility, and the private investigator hired by Love to find him, Tom Grant, eventually became the source of the idea that Love and the couple’s live-in nanny Michael Dewitt were responsible for Cobain’s death shortly afterwards.

His claims, made in the Soaked In Bleach documentary, include the notion that Cobain had too much heroin in his system to pull the trigger of the shotgun, and that he believed the suicide note was forged.

People close to Cobain (and the Seattle Police Department) have refuted the theory, including Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg: “It’s ridiculous. He killed himself. I saw him the week beforehand, he was depressed. He tried to kill himself six weeks earlier, he’d talked and written about suicide a lot, he was on drugs, he got a gun. Why do people speculate about it? The tragedy of the loss is so great people look for other explanations. I don’t think there’s any truth at all to it."

The CIA wrote The Scorpions’ biggest hit

Previously synonymous with leather, hard rock anthems and some very questionable album artwork, West Germany’s Scorpions scored big with Wind Of Change, a power ballad heralding the oncoming fall of the USSR, the end of the Cold War, and a new sense of hope in the Eastern Bloc.

In a podcast named after the 1990 song, though, Orwell Prize-winning US journalist Patrick Radden Keefe follows rumours from within the intelligence community that the song was actually written by the CIA, as propaganda to hasten the fall of the ailing Soviet Union via popular culture.

“Soviet officials had long been nervous over the free expression that rock stood for, and how it might affect the Soviet youth,” Keefe is quoted as saying. “The CIA saw rock music as a cultural weapon in the cold war. Wind of Change was released a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and became this anthem for the end of communism and reunification of Germany. It had this soft-power message that the intelligence service wanted to promote.”

It's a convincing theory, but one that is disputed by Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine: “I thought it was very amusing and I just cracked up laughing. It’s a very entertaining and really crazy story but like I said, it’s not true at all. Like you American guys would say, it’s fake news."

There are satanic messages in Stairway To Heaven

The great comedian Bill Hicks had something to say about people searching for evidence of devilry in rock’n’roll: “Remember this shit, if you play certain rock albums backwards there'd be satanic messages? Let me tell you something, if you're sitting round your house playing your albums backwards, you are Satan. You needn't look any further. And don't go ruining my stereo to prove a point either.”

The memo didn’t get through to televangelist and stylus ruiner Paul Crouch, who in 1982 attempted to scare the Christian right into believing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven was stuffed with demonic meaning, and that played backwards it revealed the following message: “Here’s to my sweet Satan/The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan/He will give those with him 666/There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.”

Guitarist Jimmy Page, of course, is no stranger to the esoteric, making no secret of his interest in occultist Aleister Crowley and the attendant magick, and there were even rumours the band made a Faustian pact to achieve fame and fortune. But hiding messa

[p4nkow]

Happier - part III

i love the fact that you guys are loving Happier as much as i do! here’s part 3

as usual let me know what you think, i love reading your comments! and ofc it can be read as Ben!Roger

Part I , Part II

Summary: you work as an assistant at EMI and you meet Roger while organising Queen’s gig at Hyde Park. lots of fluff but then, after months of relationship, Roger admits something that breaks your heart and the two of you break up. You try to move on and so does he, but after two months of being apart you meet at a pub and you both have a date. What will happen? But most importantly, will you and Roger fall in love again after being forced to see each other everyday?

Warnings: Paul Prenter being... y’know, Paul Prenter

“Did she really say she wasn't impressed?” Veronica was clearly amused by the things you were telling her about your date night.

You started to play with the phone cord, laying on your couch as you updated your best friend on your amorous adventures.

“Yeah, 'cause it wasn't their first date. So typical of Roger.”

You heard her huff on the phone. "What I thought wasn't so typical of him was being a complete asshole."

You chuckled at her words, nodding even though she couldn't see you. “How the hell are we supposed to be friends when I was dumped by him? Is that humanly possible?”

“If he says so. Y/N, please, don’t forget what he said to you.” She was almost begging you through the phone.

“Ronnie I won’t, I promise. I’m moving on. I’m way over him by now.” It wasn’t exactly the truth and you hated lying to her but you didn’t want for her to worry about you.

“And what about Noah? Didn’t the two of you have dinner at your place yesterday?”

“Yeah, we did” You replied with a smile.

“And?” You were amused by Veronica’s hopeful tone.

“And nothing happened, don’t fantasise about it.” She groaned and you narrowed your brows. “What’s wrong?”

“This little peanut is kicking so hard I‘m starting to think he’s making his way out by force.”

You smiled and you sat down, glancing at your dog. “Maybe you should pick a real name for that little peanut” You teased her.

You immediately thought of her belly and you couldn’t help but think how your life would have been if you were still with Roger. Would you have started a family? Bought a big house far from the city lights? No matter how much you though about it, you just couldn’t imagine Roger settling down.

“We’re brainstorming names, I swear.”

You chuckled, brought back to reality by her words. “Yeah, I can only imagine John’s— hey! Ringo, don’t! Let it go!”

You let go your receiver in order to get back your shoe from your dog, ending up running around the couch in order to catch him. “Ringo!”

You quickly went back to the phone, saying in an heavy breath “Ronnie, gotta go. Ringo took my shoe.”

You heard Veronica chuckle from the other side of the phone. “Maybe getting a dog of almost 100 Ibs wasn’t the best idea you ever got. And name it Ringo? What the hell were you thinking? Isn’t it... I dunno, some kind of dog trauma?”

You softly laughed at her words, looking at your dog while played with your sneaker. “There’s nothing wrong with my dog nor with its name. Ringo’s cool.”

“Ringo Starr wouldn’t be happy to know you named your dog after him, though.”

“There’s no need for him to know.” You quickly glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and swore under your breath. “Fuck, I’m late. Gotta get to work.”

“Call me later if there’s any news.”

After getting off the phone you hurried to get ready, spending at least ten minutes to choose what to wear. You wanted to dress to impress, but on who? Roger? You didn’t do that anymore.

The ride didn’t take you long but you were nervous as hell. You did nothing but hum random songs he entire way until you got to the studio. You were happy to notice that Roger’s car wasn’t there yet so you didn’t think that much before going in.

As soon as you stepped in you felt like home. You had spent entire days in that room, surrounded by instruments and electronic devices built by John.

You kinda missed all the spats between the boys, which ended up in different pubs every night. You raised your gaze to the high ceiling and you smiled, taking a deep breath. You wouldn’t have allowed Roger to ruin your job.

“I heard we’ve got a new assistant.” You jumped by hearing that deep voice and Brian chuckled. He was sitting right in front of one of the biggest windows with a notebook placed on his knees, probably working on a new song. He immediately stood up and approached you.

“Heard that, too. I hope she’s good, though.” You replied as you held him in an embrace. God, you’d missed him.

“Missed you, space boy” You softly said against his curly hair and he held you tighter.

“Missed you too, bossy.”

You gave him an amused smile and friendly patted him. “Still stuck on that?”

“Always.”

“What are you working on?” You nodded towards the notebook and he shrugged, giving it to you. “Fat bottomed girls. I like it.”

Brian’s smile grew wider as he met your gaze, looking at the lyrics first and then at you. “Really?”

“Really. Even though I don’t really wanna know what kind of nannies you had as a child.”

He bursted into laughter and the pair of you have been interrupted by the sound of door closing. You turned towards it and you immediately smiled as you saw John coming in.

You hadn’t really really missed him considering the fact that you saw him almost everyday, thanks to Veronica.

“Hey Deaks” You greeted him as you looked back at the notebook, trying to pay attention to the lyric of Brian’s song.

“‘s good to see you back in here. Are you updating her on the booty’s song?” Deaky asked as he approached you and Brian gave him a death stare.

“Fat bottomed girls” He clarified and John limited himself to just stare at him.

You chuckled and you looked at them, returning the notebook to Brian. “I’d love to read something of yours, too. Maybe after I catch up on everything.”

“Sure” He said with a nod and he walked towards his bass. You met Brian’s gaze and tried not to laugh as you shrugged and approached on of the shelves with lots of documents.

Ten minutes passed by before the door opened again. You turned towards it, hoping it would be Freddie but you were wrong.

Roger came in, his left arm surrounding Nicole’s shoulders. She bursted into laughter because of something Roger said and they looked at each other in the eyes. Well, not really because Roger was wearing shades, but that was the idea.

You cleared your throat and you looked back at your papers, trying to catch up with everything you had missed.

“Hi everyone” Nicole said with a big, bright smile and you raised your gaze. You forced yourself to smile back at her and that’s when she noticed you “Hey, Y/N! Rog, look who’s here.”

Roger met your gaze and slowly moved his arm off Nicole’s shoulders, giving you a nod. “Yeah, hi.”

You didn’t reply and went back to work as they sat on the couch, still giggling as teenagers. You clenched your jaw and tried to focus but you couldn’t think clearly. Bloody Roger Taylor.

“You okay?” Deaky murmured, leaning towards you as he softly played a riff on his bass.

You faked a smile and nodded, closing the binder with a thud. “Yeah, I’m fine.” The sound echoed all over the room and you caught Roger’s attention. His blue eyes were on you as he gently caressed Nicole’s shoulder, casually nodding at her but not really paying attention to what she was saying.

You cleared your throat and said out loud “So, anyone who wants to catch me up on everything?”

“I’ll do it, darling!” Freddie popped in to the room and your smile grew wider as soon as you saw him. “Fred!” You walked towards him and you threw your arms around his neck, hugging him tight. He hugged you back, placing a hand on your back as he murmured “As much as I love being this close to you, dear, I’d like to take a few breaths.”

You backed away and gave him an apologetic smile and only then you noticed Paul Prenter standing right next to him. “Paul” You greeted him with a nod.

“Look who’s here” He murmured, looking at you first and then at Roger and Nicole. He gave you an evil grin before passing you by and taking a seat on one of the chairs.

“Come, darling. There’s a lot you need to know.” Freddie led you to an armchair placed right in front of the couch and you sat down with a deep sight. Brian sat in one on the armrest and gave you a warm smile.

You were all sat in a circle and you tried to avoid Roger and Nicole’s gaze as much as you could.

“So, you’re working on a new album.”

“Jazz” Roger immediately answered and you nodded without looking at him. You heard Freddie cough but you avoided his gaze, too. The tension was palpable.

“Right, Jazz.”

“I’m working on a few songs, so is Freddie. John’s too busy with the bun in the oven but he’s got something, too. Roger, on the other hand...” Brian didn’t finish his sentence and you gave him a confused smile.

You looked at Roger, who was giving him a death stare. “I’m working on something, too.”

“Yeah, a fuckin’ disco song.”

You raised your brows at their little spat, deciding to intervene. “‘kay, I got it. How many tracks?”

Prenter looked at you with the same green as earlier but it was Freddie who replied. “Hopefully thirteen, maybe fourteen.”

“Good, that’s good. And when are you planning to record it?”

“If everything’s ready then on July, in Montreux.” John looked at you with the corner of his eye, folding his hands in front of him.

“Can I come?” Nicole asked but no one answered her.

“July? But the baby is supposed—”

“I know” John said, interrupting you and you sighed in displeasure.

John and Veronica’s baby was supposed to be born towards the end of July and he wouldn’t even been there for his wife. That sucked.

Wait, did he just say Montreux? In Switzerland?

“Switzerland?” You asked in disbelief and Nicole chuckled. You completely ignored her.

“Bowie recorded there, too.” It was the first time Prenter intervened and you gave him a confused look.

“And how exactly that does concern us?”

He shrugged and looked at Roger with a grin, saying “He wrote Heroes in Montreux. Isn’t it about two young lovers who fight for their love?”

You clenched your jaw as you tried to avoid his jab. Roger looked back at him and answered in a low voice “Yes, yes it is.”

“Though nothing will keep us together” Paul murmured, quoting Bowie’s words. “Ah, so heartbreaking. He wrote it for his mistress!”

“That’s enough” Deaky spat and you cleared your throat, looking away from everyone.

“So, on July in Montreux. Awesome.” You murmured and silence fell on the room for a few moments.

“And hopefully by then Roger will remember that he’s in a band.”

Roger couldn’t take anymore Brian’s jabs and he stood up, his arms wide open. “‘kay, that’s enough. What’s wrong with you, mate?”

“The real question is what’s wrong with you.”

You noticed Brian’s gaze moving to Nicole and you had a bad feeling about that entire situation.

“Watch it” Roger murmured under his breath and you quickly stood up, placing yourself in among the two of them.

“Bri, please” You tried to catch his attention but he didn’t look at you, so you turned towards Roger. It was the last thing you wanted to do but you placed a hand on his chest in order to stopping him from moving forward towards Brian.

“Roger” You softly said and his gaze immediately met yours. He was breathing heavily and so were you, but for a completely different reason.

As soon as he looked at your hand on his chest you backed away, recoiling from him. You cleared your throat and said “That’s enough, you guys gotta get back to work. You have an album to make.”

“She’s right, let’s get back to work.” Freddie backed you and without any chitchats everyone took their place and Nicole made herself very comfortable in the couch.

Roger and Brian seemed to have forgotten their little spat as they rehearsed and you glanced at them once or twice while talking with Prenter.

He was catching you up on the tour you had to schedule when you suddenly heard Roger exclaim “We can’t slow down!”

Brian deeply sighed at his words while Freddie chuckled. “I’m trying to slow it a little down—“

“Well it doesn’t need slowing down, it’s— god, it’s creeping at the moment!” Roger said by interrupting Brian.

“Is everything okay?” You asked and Freddie glanced at you.

“Oh yes, darling. It happens all the time. Alright, try—”

“God, it was so slow! And it was getting even slower. You always try to play this like I’ve never—”

“Roger” Nicole softly said as to catch his attention, to calm him down. You used to do that when stuff like this happened and your heart sank.

John didn’t pay her attention and said in an amused tone “You’re playing the fucking twelve string.”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Fred moved the mic’s wire and took again his position.

“Alright then, I’ll follow you!” Roger replied, all fed up.

You stared at him longer than you should have but you just couldn’t stop looking at him.

You still weren’t used to his short hair but they gave him a different look— even hotter. You couldn’t resist him when he was behind his drums— the way he twirled his drumsticks or the way he shook his head when hitting the cymbals... just wow.

“Y/N” Paul suddenly said, trying to catch your attention.

“Hm?”

“Nicole doesn’t look much happy about you staring at his boyfriend.”

You immediately raised his gaze to meet his, giving him a death stare. “‘m not staring.”

“I understand, Roger’s been your great love, but don’t you really think—”

He’s been interrupted by Nicole, who was now standing and looking at you. “Y/N?”

You turned towards her with a worried look, fearing that she’d say something about you staring at Roger. That’s until you noticed Noah standing next to her.

“Noah!” You quickly reached him and you bit her lip as soon as you were in front of him, trying not to smile. You threw your arms around him and you hugged him, glad that he was there to save you from that situation.

“Well, hello to you too.” He placed a hand on your back and held you tight, chuckling against your ear.

You heard the guys whispering behind your back and you heard Roger “What’s he doing here?” But you completely ignored him.

However you asked Noah that exact same question, to which he answered “Hello boys!” He said greeting them before turning back to you. “You gotta sign a few papers, bureaucratic stuff. All boring but necessary things.”

You slowly nodded, leading him to the closest table.

As you gave a quick look at the papers you told him loud enough for the boys to hear “After the rehearsals we’re planning on going to a pub for a drink a few blocks down. D’ya wanna come?”

You looked at him with hopeful eyes and he was about to answer you when he was interrupted by Roger. “Actually is more like... a band thing.”

You let go your papers and slowly looked at him, replying with your brows raised “A bandthing?”

He shrugged and you could barely see him from behind his drums. Why was he wearing his bloody shades inside? But more importantly, why was he being an asshole?

“Y/N, it’s okay. I can—”

You shook your head and you interrupted Noah by saying “No, it’s fine. If it’s a band thing then I shouldn’t go either. We can order Indian food and we can watch Happy Days at my place.”

Noah looked at you with a big, bright smile. “You sure? You’re gonna miss all the fun.”

“Oh, my dear. That’s bullshit, don’t even listen to Roger. The two of you are more than welcome. Nicole’s coming too!” Freddie said by nodding at her. Of course she was.

Deaky gave you the kind of look which said ‘I already know what you’re thinking’ and that’s probably why he didn’t seem surprised when you shook your head and said “No, I’d rather spend the night with Noah. Thanks Fred.”

You faked a smile and you focused back on the papers, quickly signing where it was needed before giving them back to Noah. “D’ya mind ordering at the restaurant? I can pick it up when I head back home.”

“C’mon, Y/N. Come with us. You too, Noah.” Brian said by trying to persuade you but you never looked away from Noah, who nodded at your question and placed a kiss between your hair.

“I’ll go get something for Ringo, too.”

“There’s no need, you know that.”

He started to recoil, never stop smiling at you. “You know I love that dog. See ya later.”

You watched him disappear behind the front door and since that moment you never looked at Roger, not even once. You were so bloody mad at him that you wanted to punch him straight in the face.

You had the chance to state that time flies faster when you’re mad, and that’s why rehearsals were over before you could even notice it. 

You quickly grabbed your things and made your way to the front door, exclaiming a general “Bye, boys!”

“So you’re not coming with us, are you?” Nicole asked you on your way out and you shook your head without looking at her.

“Have fun” You murmured while pushing the door, storming out of the room.

You heard John calling you but you didn’t stop and you also heard Brian murmuring “Roger, sometimes you’re a total prick.”

As you told Noah, you stopped by the restaurant to grab your ordination and quickly headed back home, swearing under your breath every time you thought of Roger. Bloody idiot. Bloody, bloody moron.

You petted Ringo as soon as you arrived home, trying to distract yourself. Noah arrived shortly after and the two of you were having dinner sitting on the couch and making comments about Happy Days.

“I swear it, I still have that exact same jacked somewhere.”

“Like Fonzie’s?”

Noah quickly looked at you and you gave him an amused smile. “Don’t laugh at me, they were cool a few years back.”

“Yeah, right.”

The two of you spent most of the night like that, cuddling on the couch while watching sitcoms over sitcoms. Noah wasn’t the kind of guy who made you pressure or speeded things up. He was a quiet person, and maybe quiet was exactly what you needed after being with a hurricane of emotions like Roger.

It was almost 1AM and you had fallen asleep in his arms. He was gently hugging you and you were so comfy that you didn’t want to move to the bed. Ringo had fallen asleep too and he was laying at the foot of the sofa, snoring out loud.

You groaned when you heard a loud sound waking you up. You were so confused that at first you didn’t even realise it came from the front door— someone was knocking.

“What’s wrong?” Noah murmured without opening his eyes and you quickly broke the embrace and stood up.

You rubbed your eyes, trying to completely wake up. You tried to be as silent as possible as you walked up to the door, looking through the peephole in your tiptoes. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing and that’s why, under Noah’s questioning gaze, you quickly unlocked the door.

“Roger?”

Taglist: @but-legendsneverdie @ohtheseboysilove @xgypsy-witchy-vibes @queen-turtle-boiii @scarsout @hystericaldancingqueen @mercurycrowley @protectrowanwhitethorn  @70sarreaga @loveandbeloved29 

If you wanna be added in the taglist just tell me!

[fixingaheart]

#1

Released: 1968 Album: Single

And not surprisingly we have the ultimate Beatles song of all time.  There is no universe, past, present or future where this song will not be my all time favorite Beatles track.  Paul McCartney came up with this song while driving out to visit Cynthia and Julian Lennon.  Cynthia and John were going through a divorce and Paul was thinking a lot about Julian, John's son, and how he would handle this situation.  He started it off by singing Hey Jules but changed it to Jude after a character from the movie Oklahoma.  John Lennon when hearing this song, believed that the song was about him saying about the line "go out and get her" that Paul "subconciously he was saying, Go ahead, leave me."  He was speaking about Paul's feelings on his relationship with Yoko Ono.  Also one of my favorite things I've ever read about the Beatles comes from this song.  George Martin noted the length of the song and told the group that they couldn't make a single that long because if they did it might never be played on the radio.  To which John Lennon replied, "They will if it's us."  Just an absolute legend, knowing this group is the best ever and it doesn't matter how long a song is, as long as it's The Beatles they will play it on radio lol.  I love that.  Also within the song there is a faint cursing that I believe Paul does on the track where I watched a video on Youtube where they say where it is, and now everytime I hear the song I can't not hear that part lol.

What I Love About the Song: The thing that I love the most about this song is just the hope that it conveys.  You have no clue how many times in my life that I have not been feeling all that great and the thing I always do to cheer myself up is to go throw this song on and give it a listen.  It never fails to make me feel better.  I love the piano in this song and Paul's voice throughout the entire thing is just so fantastic.  Ringo's drums in the song are steady and the cymbal parts are really magnified on this one.  The backing vocals are fantastic as well.  But for me there is nothing quite like the outro to the song.  Paul just straight up loses his damn mind for like four minutes lol.  The outro part is actually longer than the verses and chorus parts.  I just love how they go on and on with the na, na, na's.  There are parts where you just wonder what the hell Paul was thinking on the day this was recorded he just loses it.  I love the "Jude Jude Jude Judey" part that he does and how the intensity he has goes up and up throughout the outro.  I also really love towards the end of the outro where Paul starts with his "my my my" over and over.  I wrote about this song a couple years ago on the 50th anniversary of its release and it's hard really to explain just what this song has meant to me over the years and how much I truly, truly love this song.  

Lyric that kills me/Personal story of the song:  "Take a sad song and make it better."  This has kind of become my motto for life.  For a long time I allowed the sad moments in my life to control me, to take over daily life.  But recently I have come to actually practice this lyric.  Before I would say it and it would all sound good but it was rare where I actually took the sad song and made it better.  Now I find myself doing that way more than I ever have before in my life.  I have thought about getting a tattoo at some point in my life and for me I feel like if I were to get one it would be music related.  I have thought about getting a lyric tattoo and this one has been the one I have always thought about getting.  It's such a great lyric but how personal it has been to me over the years is what makes it so meaningful to me.  Again I could sit here for probably days going over this song and this lyric especially and I know I could not convey just how much it means to me.  Also, being able to sing along with thousands of others on the outro to this song at two Paul McCartney concerts is something I will never forget for as long as I live.

[britishchick09]

Magical Tipsy Tour: A Beatles Fic

ladies and gentlemen... my first beatles fic! this idea came to me in a dream and it was so funny that i thought, “why not write it?” and thus, a new fic series was born! this took a day to write (march 17th to the 18th) and it was incredibly fun to write. enjoy my first foray into the world of beatlemania! :D

when john and ringo come home drunk af, paul and george must find a way to keep them (mostly) sober for the concert. will it work?

Paui fiddled with his guitar, a new tune flashing through his mind faster than he could play it. Through the sounds of his instrument, he heard something odd.

Silence.

George was taking a much-needed nap in the bedroom while Cynthia and Julian- John’s wife and baby son who lived in the other (much bigger and nicer) room- had recently departed for a two week long vacation. Ringo was probably doing something downstairs and John-

Where was he?

Paul frowned. With John around, the flat was rarely silent. The only blissful time was eight at night and later, when Julian went to bed (and even then it wasn’t silent sometimes).

As Paul looked around in confusion, George walked by.

“Have you seen John around?” Paul asked him.

“I dunno,” George yawned and ran a hand through his messy hair. “Went out, I think.”

“’Went out’? When?”

“What time did I crash?”

“Um… around five or so?”

“So he’s been gone that long, then.”

Paul’s eyes widened. “He’s been gone for almost five hours?”

“Oh, he has? In the words of John himself, ‘Oh shoot!’ The uncensored version, of course.”

“He better come home soon or he’ll hear the uncensored version from me.”

Not even a moment later, the door burst open.

“John!” Paul exclaimed as he rose from his chair. “There you are! Where the hell have you- Ringo?!?!”

“’Ello.” Ringo said through a chuckle.

“Were you out with him, too?” George inquired.

“Oot in a boot in Canadaaaa!”

Ringo skipped by, causing George to frown.

“Does he normally do that?” he asked.

Paul shook his head. “No, I-”

“Hello, you beautiful stranger!” John said in a high voice, cupping Paul’s face in his hands.

He kissed his mate on the lips, causing Paul’s eyes to widen in absolute shock and horror. John ran away with a laugh.

“Oh. My. Fucking. God,” Paul blinked and took a breath to regain what little composure he had. “If you’ll excuse me for a minute, I need to scream.” he said quietly before rushing out of the apartment.

George walked backwards until his back touched the wall. All he could do was watch as John and Ringo skipped and chattered like madmen.

“What’s gotten into you two?” George asked them.

“Probably a girl.” Ringo said.

He and John burst out into schoolgirl-like giggles and they ran down the hallway.

Paul returned a couple minutes later and said, “If there’s anything I learned from that… ungodly kiss, it’s that-”

“John secretly loves you and is now confessing his feelings after six years of seemingly mutual friendship?” George asked.

“Oh god, I hope not! I think John’s been out drinking!”

“How do you know?”

“Does the strong taste of wine, beer and maybe whiskey on his breath tell anything?”

“What about Ringo?”

“If I had to guess, he’s probably been doing the same thing. I hope he didn’t waste himself like John, but you never know with him.”

“Is there anything we can do about-” George stopped as John let out a laugh mixed with a scream in one of the other rooms. “That?”

“All we can do is wait and-” Paul slapped a hand on his forehead. “Shoot! We have a concert tomorrow!”

“So?”

“So those mad lads will probably have massive hangovers before it starts. John especially.”

“Playing with a hangover? That’s rough.”

“It sure is. They’ll probably crash any minute now and maybe the effects will mellow down by the time of the concert. …Hopefully.”

...

 Much to Paul’s dismay, John and Ringo didn’t mellow down. The drunkards were noisy almost all night. Ringo banged on his drums while John screamed their songs, botching many of the lyrics. He was finishing ‘Twist and Shout’ when someone knocked on the door.

Paul stumbled out of the room he shared with George (and sober Ringo). He tied his robe before answering the door.

“No, I’m not giving out autographs.” he said sleepily.

“But you will settle down in here!” a woman snapped. “I can hardly sleep with all this ruckus!”

“You’re telling me,” Paul muttered with a sigh before telling the woman, “Thanks for letting me know, I’ll take care of it.”

After the woman left and Paul locked the door, he stormed into John’s room, where the drunkards were still singing away.

“Can you lads quiet down a little?” Paul asked.

John and Ringo ignored him.

“Excuse me?”

John continued to scream,

“’She loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah,

She loved me, ooh, yeah, yah,

She love meeeeeee-‘”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Paul yelled.

John stopped singing and Ringo stared at him.

“Go to bed, why don’t you?” Paul asked in a much quieter voice.

“’Mkay.” Ringo said before slamming his head on his drum set and instantly falling asleep.

John grinned at the sight of Paul and dashed over to him. “Come over here and kiss me, pretty boy!”

“I think we already did that, thanks.” Paul said, turning his face away.

John managed to kiss Paul’s cheek and giggled.

“Are you happy now?” Paul asked. “Will you finally go to bed?”

“Not until we dance the night away, if you know what I mean.” John replied, his words slurring together.

“I don’t think I want to know what that me- woah!”

Paul was swept away by John, who grabbed him and began whisking him through the room.

“Play us a tune, Rongles.” John told Ringo, who snored.

Paul noticed George standing by the doorway and reached out to him. “George, help me!”

“I’m callin’ him ‘Rongles’ now.” George said before walking away.

“Oh, for cripes’ sake! John, I-”

“Yes, I do wanna marry you!” John exclaimed. He and Paul fell onto the bed.

“Let’s kiss the bri-”

Paul jumped up and backed away. “Go to bed now.” he ordered menacingly.

He slammed the door and John simply shrugged the comment off.

George returned to bed a couple minutes later, where Paul was brooding.

“Thanks for the help, George.” he said.

“You’re quite welcome.” George replied.

Paul groaned and stuffed his face in his pillow as John’s singing started up again.

...

The next morning was full of renewed energy.

Paul, however, was not.

“Sleep well?” George asked.

Paul glared at him, putting his unkempt hair and dark circles under his eyes into full view. “Does it fucking look like I fucking did?”

“…I’m gonna take that as a no, then.”

Paul ran a hand through his hair as he asked, “How are John and Ringo?”

“Ringo’s still sleeping and your boyfriend’s in the bathroom.”

“He isn’t my boyfriend.”

George smiled. “I saw your little dance last night.”

Paul rolled his eyes and went to John’s room. He peeked inside, seeing Ringo fast asleep by his drums. He gave his friend a gentle nudge.

“Wake up, Ringo. It’s morn- Ow!”

Suddenly wide awake, Ringo had sat up with a start, smacking Paul in the face with one of his drumsticks.

“The walrus was Paul all along!” Ringo exclaimed.

“…I don’t think I’m a walrus.” Paul said with a confused blink.

“What if I’m the egg man?” Ringo gasped. “Or… we’re the egg men! You think I’m the walrus? Or maybe it’s still you?”

“I… I don’t- Sure. Make me the walrus. Whatever the heck that means.”

Ringo smiled. “Oh, good! You make wonderful mashed potatoes, by the way.”

“…Thank you…? Speaking of John, do you know where he-”

“HELLO!” John yelled, busting the bathroom door open.

“Oh, dear god, here we go,” Paul muttered before turning around to face his friend. “Good morning, John! Please don’t kiss me again.”

“Why would I kiss you?” John asked. “We’re married! Married people do more than just that…”

Paul quickly walked out of the room and rushed back to the other room, John following him like a puppy. He told his drunken friend, “How about we have a nice, uh… couples breakfast together?”

He cringed somewhat at the idea of him and John as a couple, but John seemed to love it. He practically skipped to the dining area, where he and Paul shared a breakfast of eggs, toast and waffles. John tried to mimic the spaghetti scene in ‘Lady and the Tramp’ more than once, but Paul wouldn’t allow it.

“Go get dressed,” Paul told him. “I-”

“Won’t that be fun!” John exclaimed, gripping Paul’s hand.

Paul jerked his hand away. “Go get dressed with Ringo, why don’t you?”

“But he’s not my husband-”

“Yeah, and I’m not either. So go.”

John lowered his head and trudged to his room, accidentally slamming his head into the wall at one point.

Paul sighed as he asked George, “What are we gonna do about this?”

“Ringo’s alright, I suppose,” George replied. “That extra energy will make his drums better or something.”

“But what about John? We can’t have him screaming on stage.”

“What about ‘Twist and Shout’?”

“Besides that song. If he’s crazy on stage, the fans will notice and the press might spread rumors and- …Well, I don’t want to think about it past that point.”

“I’m sure he’s sober enough now. That long night could’ve tuckered him out a little.”

“Sure tuckered me out,” Paul said with a yawn. “Here’s hoping it goes well.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“The Beatles might become the Drunkles.”

George chuckled at the funny name and smoothed out Paul’s messy hair. “Everything will be alright, Paul. You’ll see.”

...

The concert took place a couple hours later. During the ride there, the driver gave Paul and John funny looks. John kept snuggling up to Paul and fiddling with his hair. Paul ignored it for the most part and kept his gaze out the window, stopping to give John a glare when he pulled too hard.

“They say when a gal pulls a guy’s hair, it means he likes her.” John said in a mix of his usual and high voice.

“…I think it’s the opposite.” George commented quietly.

“It is,” Paul said. “And thank you for that, John. Thanks a lot.”

“You’re welcome, hubby!” John said, receiving another look from the driver.

They soon arrived at the venue.

“Oh god,” Paul muttered before saying, “Here we go. You ready, lads?”

“Readier than Canadaaaaa!” Ringo exclaimed.

“What is it with drunken you and Canada?” George quietly asked his friend.

Once the four were backstage, Paul took George aside.

“I know this is last minute-”

“Way last minute.” George said.

“-but do you have anything that might help John… relax a little?”

John was happily skipping with Ringo in a circle. Paul was glad no one from the stage crew was around to see it.

“I think so,” George looked through his suit pockets and found a pill, which he gave to Paul. “It’s supposed to relax you.”

Paul took the pill and said, “Nice one. Now I’ll just need to find some water-” He stopped as George handed him a bottle of water. “…How did you fit that inside your pockets?”

“As Ringo says, ‘tomorrow never knows’. You think that would be a good song title?”

“Yeah, it would. Speaking of Ringo, keep him at bay while I tackle John.”

“Don’t do it literally. He might think it’s-”

Paul rolled his eyes. “Oh, shut up.” he said, giving his friend a teasing smile.

He went over to John, who gave him a big hug.

“Hello, hubby!” he said cheerfully.

“First of all, don’t call me that. Secondly, take this.” Paul handed John the pill.

“Ooh, what is it?”

“Just a relaxing pill,” Paul frowned at John’s wink. “Not for whatever the hell you’re thinking of! Take it and-”

“We’ll go out on a date? I suggest the lake- Ooh! With a rose garden and-”

“-and we’ll get the show started. I can’t guarantee the date will happen.”

The Beatles’ manager, Brian, appeared backstage a minute later.

“You’re on in five minutes,” he said. “I- Ringo, what are you doing?”

Ringo stopped hitting his head with his drumsticks. “Exercise.”

Brian looked at the others.

“It’s not really his day today.” George said softly.

Five minutes later, the announcer said, “Ladies and gentleman… The Beatles!”

Almost earsplitting screams could be heard from past the curtain.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Paul muttered with a sigh.

To his amazement, the concert went just as planned. John only got drunkenly hyper during ‘Twist and Shout’ and messed up a couple verses, but no one noticed thorough the crowd’s screams. Ringo was more energetic than usual and pounded on the drums but it also went unnoticed. Overall, the performance was a success.

“My god, we did it!” Paul exclaimed through the applause once they were all backstage.

John gave Paul a kiss on the cheek, which Paul didn’t mind this time due to his immense relief.

“What did I tell you?” George asked.

“You said everything would be alright.” Paul told him.

“And it was!”

Paul laughed. “I guess them being drunk wasn’t too bad after all!” He frowned and dodged John, who wanted to kiss him on the lips again. “…Mostly.”

...

The four kept up their joyful spirits throughout the ride back to the flat.

But that all went away as soon as John and Ringo stepped inside.

“Lads… I don’t think I feel too well.” Ringo said.

“Same here,” John agreed. “I feel like I’m gonna-”

“Don’t say it. I know, too!”

John and Ringo rushed to the bathroom.

“Who do you think is using the sink?” George asked. “Can’t brush my teeth tonight without it.”

“Probably neither. Knowing John, he’s probably using the shower,” Paul shook his head with a smile. “I’m glad this is all over with.”

“I am, too. You think John would mind if we used the bathroom in him and Cynthia’s room?”

“Probably. I’ll use it just to spite him.”

“Even though he feels awful right now?”

Paul laughed. “He deserves it after snogging me in the kisser!”

“And it sure was a snog.” George muttered to himself.

A few minutes later, Ringo groaned softly as he snuggled into a sofa pillow.

“Are you feeling alright?” George asked his friend gently.

“I feel like I went on a submarine,” Ringo replied. “It was yellow and I think we stopped at a garden with an octopus.”

George soothingly stroked Ringo’s hair. “We all feel like that sometimes, don’t we?”

On the opposite side of the living room, John was groaning loudly, one arm draped over his eyes.

“Bloody hell, what did I do last night?” he asked no one in particular.

“Um… drank three types of alcohol and danced around like a mad man?” Paul guessed.

“Four. It was four types.”

“Really? I only tasted wine, beer and whiskey. What was the other one?”

“How the fuck should I remem-” John stopped and lifted his arm. “How do you know what I had?”

“Oh… let’s just say you may or may not have kissed me for five agonizing seconds last night. And professed your drunken love to me multiple times. And genuinely thought we were married. Did I mention the kiss already?”

John’s eyes widened. “Oh god-”

He cut himself off and ran to the bathroom, his footsteps pounding on the floor.

“Nice to have things back to normal, isn’t it?” George asked with a smile.

Paul smiled back with a nod. “I have to say it sure is!”

[seromreven]

Would you be willing to write a non-smut fic where its Paul's birthday but they're so caught up filming Let It Be that they forget and it sours his day until John suddenly remembers and decides to throw something together real quick? Much thanks ^_^

here ya go, here ya go, here ya go,

1969,

Paul showed up early at Abbey Road Studios the morning of the eighteenth of June. Ha hadn’t needed too but he had woken up in such a great mood early that morning and just couldn’t keep it to himself so he had left the house well before anyone else had even woken up.  It made him hope Linda hadn’t planned anything special because, well, he wouldn’t be there to experience it.

He got up the clean stone stairs leading to the entrance of the studio, full of anticipation. It wasn’t an especially exciting age he was turning. Twenty-seven. Hopefully just another of many years left for him. It made him wonder with excitement what he would be ten years from now. In twenty years. In fifty years! Imagine that! Him at seventy-seven. The thought made him all giddy and anxious at the same time.

He rushed to the studio itself and, unsurprisingly, he was the first to arrive of The Beatles. The cameramen and the miscellaneous crew was already there setting things up while looking at him with stunned faces or raised brow. While, yes, Paul showing up early wasn’t uncommon. It was to this degree. He was, in fact, very early.

He shrugged it off and continued his way to the front of the pianoforte where he placed his briefcase and jacket in a small bundle next to the small stool and sat down in front of the piano with a crack of his knuckles. Might as well warm up and look over some songs while he waited for the others.

Michael, the director of the film, came to his side and placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of him with a flow of well wishes and happy birthdays from him and the crew. It gave him a warm sense of wellbeing he knew to only be surpassed by that of his bandmates.

They hadn’t been getting along together well lately but Paul had hoped, and hoped and hoped, so intensely that it could be pushed aside for this one day. That for this day they could have a calm and easy time making music. Hanging out and hopefully, for once, eat dinner together like they used to before all this animosity came over them like a vengeful tsunami.

Paul played music for about an hour or so before the rest shoved up one after another. Only Ringo really said anything to him, much to his dismay. Only a ‘mornin’, and nothing else. He hadn’t recalled doing anything recently to piss off the other two but there must have been some reason for their avoidance. Maybe they were all much too into their work mindset already that they didn’t think of anything else but getting down to it. So that’s what they did when the hours rolled by. Singing and playing. Occasionally looking over lyrics and notes. The usual.

Paul felt his mood gradually dampen at the lack of… anything from the other men. Had they forgotten? Could they forget? They had known each other for over a decade so surely this wasn’t a date easily forgotten? He was getting right bloody sour and was quickly packing his things to go back home to his wife and kids who he knew for sure wouldn’t have forgotten like some people.

Turning towards the door; he saw that the room was already empty of any other Beatle. Which made him pause; he hadn’t noticed any of them leave. Last he had noticed (which was something that he found, in a way, peculiar now that he was giving it some thought) was that John had been whispering to the other two in hushed voices. Paul had wondered about that but had been far too depressed about the lack of any birthday greetings or attention to put any deep thoughts to it. Until now. What had that been about? Hopefully nothing too serious. Paul just couldn’t handle any more band related drama today.

He slowly made his way out of the studio and as he was nearing the front door was stopped by a heavily breathing John who suddenly appeared out of a corner down the long hallway. He wasn’t wearing the (his wife’s) coat that he had been wearing that morning and now was showing off his skinny arms in a tight-fitting t-shirt as he stood with his hands on his knees, trying to get his breath back.

“John... We were taught in school not to run indoors, y’know,” Paul joked, despite the mood he was in. He couldn’t help himself, really. John waved a hand at him as he finally straightened himself out.

“When did I ever do what the teachers told me to?”

He said with a snicker and Paul, again despite himself, joined in on it. Well, no matter how much he wanted to be mad and hold a grudge about what had happened (or not have) today; he also had found it hard to be mad at John for too long.

John’s slender, calloused hand came to rest on Paul’s bicep and started slightly tugging at it as he started to go in the direction from where he had emerged from not too long again. “Come along now, Paulie,” he said with a slight grin as he dragged the younger man along with him.

Paul questioned him as to where they were going but to no avail. John had apparently decided to stay mum the entire way to… wherever he was bringing him. It was all very… strange for Paul who much rather just wanted to go home after the rather exhausting and… lacking day he had had. John stopped in front of the door Paul knew to be belonging to the small kitchen and breakroom of the studio and looked to his old friend with a raised brow. Why had he led him there?

It was quickly found out once John slammed open the door (the force was pretty unnecessary, Paul thought) to a sudden influx of yelling ‘happy birthday” with small bundles of shredded paper thrown at him. It took a second or two before it really registered with Paul what was going on. He looked around the room to find a small, probably quickly done, birthday party done in his honour. Ringo and George stood behind the wide table with bags of white shredded paper (homemade confetti, apparently) and a small store bought cake that looked to be from the small grocery down the road.

He looked at the duo in gaping shock before turning to John. John, who seemed uncharacteristically nervous, glanced from Paul to the cake and back again. When their eyes connected; he smiled nervously to Paul as he awaited some kind of reaction.

Paul laughed. Laughed in relief. Laughed at the rather ridiculous sight the trio made. John smiling awkwardly by the door while Ringo and George held clear bags of shredded paper that was still flowing around the room due to the draft the open door and window made. It had gotten in their long brown hair for which they seemed oblivious.

“So you did forget!”

He managed to get out in the midst of his laughter and John started stammering in response. Most likely thinking of some kind of denial or excuse but it was clearly all very obvious to Paul what had happened in the proceedings of this impromptu birthday party. He dragged John into a hug, something he soon after realised hadn’t happened in… years, with a fluttering of thanks to both him and the confetti wielding duo.

And as he pulled back from the hug; both John and his own cheeks slightly pink, he admitted that whatever this was… it was much better than whatever they could have done if they had remembered his birthday in advance. That this small impromptu intimate affair was much closer to what he would have wanted from the three of them.

So, they celebrated in the small cramp room. Eating the strawberry cake, which wasn’t all that good but Paul didn’t mind, while throwing clumps of confetti at each other occasionally. Soon, Ringo and George each had to leave, leaving John and Paul alone. Sadly, a rare occasion these last few weeks. There were always people from various jobs and duties. Or Yoko, who seemed to be an eternal shadow to John’s figure. Paul didn’t exactly mind that. She was nice enough, but there were times where she needn’t be in the studio (admittedly that was most times) but she was.

“Again… thank you,” Paul said to John who sat across from him, scraping off the last few pieces of frosting off his plate as they sat talking. He shrugged with a shake of his head and licked his fork clean.

“It’s the least we could do for being such gits and forgetting your birthday, yea?” he glanced to the still open door. “In all the years we’ve known each other… you’ve never forgotten mine,” he muttered and looked back at Paul, looking distraught. Paul sighed, “it’s alright. We’ve been all very… stressed, y’know. Backed up with work and the like.”

John shook his head again and got up to collect their plates; putting them in the sink while saying in the midst of the porcelain clanking; “don’t excuse our actions.”

Paul said no more, knowing it to be a losing battle and satisfied himself in the feeling of content the small gathering had brought. It had been so long (too long) since the four of them last had been in a room alone with no fighting or threats of leaving the band.

So he got up; feeling a content sense of calm he had not expected to end the day with just a little earlier said day. He turned around to face the sink and almost bumped into John, whom had not heard near him at all. They followed each other out the room in serene silence but Paul was stopped by John before they reached the corner where they had almost crashed into each other earlier that day. Paul looked at him, feeling confused at the sudden interruption.

If his silent question was answered or not remained to be seen as John whispered a last ‘happy birthday’ before placing a chaste, bearded, kiss to his own soft lips. Paul knew not how to react and when he finally snapped out of his bewildered haze, John had disappeared out of sight. He heard a door slam but didn’t yet move out of his laconic state of being as he silently felt his lips with the tips of his fingers; trying to discern if that had really happened.

He blinked before lightly shaking his head, trying to snap himself out of it. Had John really kissed him? He took one step. Two steps down the hall before stopping again to, yet again, feel his lips that still tingled from the soft touch and rough tickles John’s lips and beard had left. It was certainly a birthday that both ended and started in a way he hadn’t expected.

[kinfauns67]

It was 50 years ago this week

The Beatles, with Billy Preston, gave their final live performance atop the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London, in what became the climax of their Let It Be film.

The sound engineers had to run cables all the way down from the roof and into the basement recording studio, while women’s stockings were wrapped around the microphones to protect against wind distortion. It was chilly enough for Paul McCartney’s fingers to go numb midway playing, while John Lennon had to borrow Yoko Ono’s fur coat. It could well have been farcical — Ringo Starr, also wrapped up in his wife Maureen's red mac to fend off the cold, had to be coaxed into playing minutes before they emerged 

"We went on the roof in order to resolve the live concert idea, because it was much simpler than going anywhere else; also nobody had ever done that, so it would be interesting to see what happened when we started playing up there. It was a nice little social study. We set up a camera in the Apple reception area, behind a window so nobody could see it, and we filmed people coming in. The police and everybody came in saying, 'You can't do that! You've got to stop."

George Harrison

Anthology

30 January 1969 in London was a cold day, and a bitter wind was blowing on the rooftop by midday. To cope with the weather, John Lennon borrowed Yoko Ono's fur coat, and Ringo Starr wore his wife Maureen Starkey's red mac.

"There was a plan to play live somewhere. We were wondering where we could go – 'Oh, the Palladium or the Sahara.' But we would have had to take all the stuff, so we decided, 'Let's get up on the roof.' We had Mal and Neil set the equipment up on the roof, and we did those tracks. I remember it was cold and windy and damp, but all the people looking out from offices were really enjoying it."

Ringo Starr

Anthology

The 42-minute show was recorded onto two eight-track machines in the basement of Apple, by George Martin, engineer Glyn Johns and tape operator Alan Parsons. The tracks were filled with the following: Paul McCartney, vocals; John Lennon's and George Harrison's vocals; Billy Preston's organ; McCartney's bass guitar; a sync track for the film crew; Starr's drums; Lennon's guitar; Harrison's guitar.

The songs performed on the roof:

Get Back (five versions)

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Don't Let Me Down (two versions)

I've Got A Feeling

One After 909

Danny Boy

Dig A Pony (two versions)

God Save The Queen

A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody

Brief, incomplete and off-the-cuff versions of I Want You (She's So Heavy), God Save The Queen and A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody were fooled around with in between takes – as was Danny Boy, which was included in the film and on the album. None of these were serious group efforts, and one – the group and Preston performing God Save The Queen – was incomplete as it coincided with Alan Parsons changing tapes.

The Beatles' rooftop show began at around midday. The timing coincided with the lunch hour of many nearby workplaces, which led to crowds quickly forming. Although few people could see them, crowds gathered in the streets below to hear The Beatles play.

There were people hanging off balconies and out of every office window all around. The police were knocking on the door – George Martin went white! We really wanted to stop the traffic, we wanted to blast out the entire West End...

Dave Harries, engineer

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

Traffic in Savile Row and neighbouring streets came to a halt, until police from the nearby West End Central police station, further up Savile Row, entered Apple and ordered the group to stop playing.

The Beatles began with a rehearsal of Get Back while the film cameras were being set up. At the end it was applauded by the spectators on the roof. In response, Paul McCartney mumbled something about cricketer Ted Dexter, and John Lennon announced: "We've had a request from Martin Luther."

Another version of Get Back followed. An edit of these two versions was included in the Let It Be film. Afterwards Lennon said: "We've had a request for Daisy, Morris and Tommy."

The third song was Don't Let Me Down, as featured in the Let It Be film. Afterwards The Beatles went straight into I've Got A Feeling, which was used in both the film and the album. At the end of the song Lennon can be heard saying: "Oh my soul, so hard."

One After 909 was also used in the Let It Be film and album. At the end of it Lennon broke out into a brief impromptu rendition of Conway Twitty's 1959 hit Danny Boy.

The sixth song The Beatles played was Dig A Pony. A short rehearsal was played first, with Lennon asking for the lyrics. They then performed the song properly, with a production runner on the film, Kevin Harrington, kneeling in front of Lennon holding a clipboard bearing the lyrics. George Harrison, too, briefly knelt next to Harrington.

Dig A Pony began with a false start. In the film, Ringo Starr can be seen blowing his nose and crying out 'Hold it!' This, and the full version that followed, were both included in the album and film, although on the LP the 'All I want is..." refrain which opened and closed the song were later cut by Phil Spector.

George Harrison joined Lennon and McCartney on vocals for the excised lines from Dig A Pony. He also contributed minor backing vocals to Don't Let Me Down and I've Got A Feeling.

As Alan Parsons changed the recording tapes in Apple's basement studio, The Beatles and Billy Prestonperformed an off-the-cuff version of God Save The Queen. This was never used; nor were second versions of I've Got A Feeling and Don't Let Me Down.

The final full song was Get Back, although The Beatles nearly stopped performing when the police arrived on the roof. The officers demanded that Mal Evans turn off the group's Fender Twin amplifiers. He complied, but Harrison immediately turned his back on. Evans realised his mistake and turned Lennon's back on too. The amplifiers took several seconds to start again, but The Beatles managed to continue long enough to see the song through to the end.

"In the end it started to filter up from Mal that the police were complaining. We said, 'We're not stopping.' He said, The police are going to arrest you.' 'Good end to the film. Let them do it. Great! That's an end: "Beatles Busted on Rooftop Gig".' We kept going to the bitter end and, as I say, it was quite enjoyable. I had my little Hofner bass – very light, very enjoyable to play. In the end the policeman, Number 503 of the Greater Westminster Council, made his way round the back: 'You have to stop!' We said, 'Make him pull us off. This is a demo, man!' I think they pulled the plug, and that was the end of the film.

Paul McCartney

Anthology

As a climax it could scarcely be bettered, with McCartney brilliantly ad-libbing, "You've been playing on the roofs again, and that's no good, and you know your Mummy doesn't like that... she gets angry... she's gonna have you arrested! Get back!"

The police presence ensured that The Beatles would play no more on the roof. The concert over, McCartney thanked Starr's wife Maureen for her enthusiastic cheering with a simple "Thanks Mo".

I always feel let down about the police. Someone in the neighbourhood called the police, and when they came up I was playing away and I thought, 'Oh great! I hope they drag me off.' I wanted the cops to drag me off – 'Get off those drums!' – because we were being filmed and it would have looked really great, kicking the cymbals and everything. Well, they didn't, of course; they just came bumbling in: 'You've got to turn that sound down.' It could have been fabulous.

Ringo starr

Then, of course, there was John Lennon's immortal closing quote: "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition." Both these comments were used at the end of Get Back on the Let It Be album, although the version of the song was not from the rooftop performance. Around half of the performance was used in the Let It Be film. Furthermore, edits of I've Got A Feeling, One After 909 and Dig A Pony all featured on the Let It Bealbum.

The final Get Back take was included in the Let It Be film, and appeared on Anthology 3 in 1996.

[mclennunf]

Hey idk if you're still doing prompts so please forgive me if you aren't! But I was hoping maybe you could do a fic about George and Ringo slowly realising that John and Paul are together? Like they keep seeing these little moments and then they either see something or both kind of are like...... wait wut. Idk? Sorry if this is a weird prompt!! (Also I love your writing, it's amazing, thank you for blessing this fandom)

It took a long time. 

It took a shockingly long time. 

It was right in front of them the entire time. Years and years George Harrison and Ringo Starr watched the phenomenon that was the famous John Lennon and Paul McCartney from the middle of the four headed monster, but from the side lines of the real relationship between the two. They had watched the long nights of rehearsing, watching the sweat drip off their foreheads, hearing their laughter bounce off the walls and echo throughout the walls of the Cavern. George and Ringo had also watched the long nights of fighting, watched the two men tear each other apart because they were the only ones who knew how to tear the other’s world apart. George watched Paul come to school with bags under his eyes after spending the entire night writing songs with John. Ringo watched the two walk to Paul’s home in Cavendish together after a day of recording nearly every single day in 1967. 

Paul and John were relatively shocked they had kept it a secret from the two people they were closest two other than each other for nearly 10 years. George had questioned their relationship for the first time in 1961. It was October, which happens to be the month Mr. John Lennon was brought into this world. So, for his birthday he was given 100 pounds by a rich Auntie. John decided to take off to Spain with Paul, but they only made it as far as Paris. The most romantic place on Earth. That was when George had questioned their relationship for the first time. Why take your mate, when he could’ve taken his girlfriend at the time? George thought it was rubbish. Perhaps they wanted to get away from the band.. But his initial assumption was right all along, wasn’t it?Ringo had questioned their relationship when the Beatles were recording A Hard Day’s Night in 1964. The band had gathered in the studio to listen to John play a song he wanted on the album. Ringo and George had shown up a bit late, but Paul and John were already there, huddled together on the piano bench tinkering away at the keys. “Right, let’s hear it then.” George instructed as he sat on a stool. As John began to play the song that would henceforth be called “If I Fell”, Ringo saw the exchanging looks between Paul and John. Ringo heard the lyrics to the song. He often wondered to this day if George had the same experience of accusations running wild in his mind about their two dearest friends and band mates as he did. He did.

George and Ringo discussed their thoughts about the true nature of Paul and John’s relationship for the first time in 1965 whilst on tour in America. Paul and John had gone to their shared hotel room early that night to write songs. To which George and Ringo always believed, but they now know that writing songs wasn’t always the case. Ringo and George had been drinking that night. George could never keep up to the drummer’s pace of drinking no matter how hard he tried. This particular night was a drunken one. Ringo was still relatively sober, feeling a buzz, but nowhere near as intoxicated as Harrison was. “I reckon Paul ‘n John are more than song writing partners.” George had suddenly blurted out in the middle of a conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with the two men. 

Ringo was shocked to hear the words out loud at first. He’d only ever silently contemplated the possibility of Paul and John to himself. To hear his best mate say the words out loud was a shocking relief. “So it’s not just me then!” Ringo and George burst out laughing. They didn’t further discuss it. Mostly because it hadn’t been long after that George had passed out drunk, but also because they didn’t think it was their place to discuss it. The next morning when they ran into a giggly Paul and John in the hotel lobby, Ringo and George suddenly remembered the brief conversation they had about the two and nodded at each other, silently agreeing that it would stay between them. 

They hadn’t discussed it again until the day Paul and John hadn’t shown up to the studio in 1967. They were in the middle of recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and George and Ringo had never been more shocked in their lives when the two didn’t show. This album was Paul’s baby, and anything that Paul loved, John loved too. George had suggested he and Ringo walk over to Cavendish to see what was going on, and Ringo agreed. They didn’t bother calling John before they left because John had basically been living at Paul’s house since late 1966, they assumed he was there. George and Ringo were nearly arriving at Cavendish when a very familiar, very fluffy face was barreling toward them. “Martha?!” Ringo crouched down and greeted her. “What on Earth are you doing out here on the street without Paul?!” He asked her, secretly wishing she could respond. The two men pet her gently for a few moments before carrying on to Cavendish, Martha close at Ringo’s side. George always teased that the only reason Martha liked Ringo better than him was because she was bigger than Ringo, and he needed her protecting. 

“The bloody door is wide open!” George pointed as the they walked up to the house. Ringo put a finger to his lips, gesturing for George to shut his big mouth. They walked into the house quietly and slowly, waiting for a crazed fan to pop out of a closet. When Paul’s bedroom door finally opened, John walked out with his hair astray, no glasses on his face, wearing nothing but an over-sized t-shirt. He froze as he made eye contact with George and Ringo. “Babe? What’s the matter, then?” They heard Paul’s tired voice call from behind John. When he appeared, touching John’s waist, he immediately jumped back and widened his eyes. That was one of the first times that the all famous band of musicians, The Beatles, stayed absolutely silent for more than a minute while being in the same room. Finally, John broke the tension. “Well, cat’s out of the bag then, innit?” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Paul hid his face in his hand before gesturing for Ringo and George to sit down at the table while he made tea, after making John put pants on of course. The Lennon-McCartney duo then proceeded to tell their story. The real story. The way they felt when they met. John had described it as two souls that had been searching for each other. George noticed Paul blush at that. Paul told them about their first kiss in Paris. Paul also explained that the door was open because John was way too eager to get his hands on him and he left the bloody door open when they returned from the Supermarket.  Ringo and George stayed silent the whole time until finally Paul couldn’t stand their silence any longer. “Please, for the love of all that is holy, say something.” Paul’s voice was low but shaky. 

“It’s funny, we talked about this two years ago, didn’t we Ritchie?” George shifted the mood of the room with voice dripping with humour. “That we were, I believe you owe me money, son!” Ringo joked back. “Hey, you bet against them, not me!” Paul and John were extremely relieved that their two best friends had decided to handle their secret with such delicacy, the one thing that held the Beatles together other than love, humour. “We love ya’s no matter what, and it’ll stay with us to our graves if that’s what you want.” Ringo told them as he covered one of their hands with his own. 

It took a long time for George and Ringo to find out the truth about the real relationship between Lennon and McCartney.

It took a shockingly long time. But they were happy for them nonetheless.

[amclennonblog]

The big “If I Fell” analysis

I promised and here it finally is:

There are many reasons why If I Fell is the mclennon anthem, even when we have such a song as Here Today around. There are many layers to If I Fell that are important to take note of. As a matter of fact it was rarely played live, and this is probably due to 1. It’s a very hard song to sing live 2. It’s very personal and probably very important to be played at leisure like A Hard Day’s Night or whatever at the time.

First thing we must notice in the song i how it was written. Surely he had ideas of how he wanted it to sound like, but the lyrics are the most important part here, specially when we get to the recording of the song. It’s a song written in first person, about an insecure man that is helplessly falling in love with someone and asks directly to this person to be true to him, and is also worried about a third person, a woman. When he talks about finding that love was more than just holding hands, he recognizes two problems: love goes beyond physical expression, and also sometimes love is not this innocent either.

90% of the song is sang in harmonies with Paul and only Paul. Two voices. When they got to the studio, they required they’d record this particular song at the same time sharing the same microphone, in 1964, mind you, before they entered that era when they’d do whatever whatever artistic decisions, like record thousands of I Will demos because Paul wanted it to be THIS PERFECT! No, simpler times, learning how the recording works still, yet they asked specifically to sing it in the same mic together, probably because when they were singing it and the tone was perfect their voices would create a bubble and make the world freeze for a moment, like you do when you sing a song that is playing at home. And probably because other reasons too.

The first part, the asking part, is sang just by John (don’t let that version on Spotify fool you). The rest of the song is just damn vows. Promises. Sang by two men, looking into each other’s eyes, one on each side of the same microphone inside their own sound bubble, focused on the lyrics they were singing, in first person asking another person to love him. I s2g if they weren’t in love before it, they surely were after this session.

And who is the “her”? I bet you always thought it was the previous girl, or in this case the official one, as this song is officially not about Cynthia and one can tell actually, but thanks John for mentioning anyway. But apparently…not? See, John was a man that read a lot, and we can sometime make some excuses for poetic reasons for him (Like Love Me Do wtf?), but let’s not ignore the implications of “her” there. You see, I haven’t notice it at first because English is not my first language as you can tell, but it seems to imply that he’s not talking about a previous affair of his, but someone this person he is falling in love with loves or loved. You see “would love me more than (you love) her”. Someone pointed out that it could be “would love me more than (I loved) her” but it doesn’t make sense into the song. Actually I never understood the mention of this third person, that in the demo John apparently wanted to see sad and hurt that his new love was blooming. Weird. It actually got me thinking “her” is Jane Asher, not Cyn.

Another point: The video. Yes, we know they had a scene with this song in the movie A Hard Day’s Night. While John is supposed to be singing it to Ringo (because why the f*ck, right?), he still couldn’t take his eyes off Paul most of the time when he thought acting could wait and no one would notice. Important bits. And Paul also look at him. But this footage isn’t the best thing this scene brought to the world. No. It’s THIS PHOTO

There we go, body language y’all, Paul is clearly surprised. His eyes are wide open, his jaw drop and his body lunged backwards. And John is on his knees with a guitar looking right at him. An unexpected move of John that caught Paul by surprise, as if he had turned into a snake, what could it be? 1. John could have got on his knees and started singing If I Fell for Paul there, and while he was ruining their secret and Paul’s reaction can show it, people probably took it as a joke. Again: It does not look like a joke. Or 2. John got on his knees and Paul freaked out because people would suspect. You thought I’d say he was proposing…yeah right, with that many people there they would get out of there direct to prison, ugh.

It’s relevant to remember that If I Fell if “semi autobiographic, but not consciously” and yet shows a lot of vulnerability. Oh, oh…and once he wrote the lyrics on the back of a Valentines Card with directions about the song like “intro” and stuff, which are irrelevant if you’re not a musician who is supposed to be part of the recording of this song. I wonder who it was for…

Hope you enjoyed, if so I’d think about doing another one about You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away/That Means A Lot.

[fabjohn]

do you know any quotes from john or paul about the other post beatles? ! maybe some contradicting or semi negative about the other?

hmmm…

i don’t know if you count lyrics as quotes, but all of how do you sleep is negative toward paul. these are a few personal highlights:

“Those freaks was right when they said you was dead”

“The only thing you done was yesterday / And since you’ve gone you’re just another day”

“A pretty face may last a year or two / But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do”

here’s a letter john wrote to paul and linda that’s particularly nasty. some highlights: 

“Do you really think most of today’s art came about because of the Beatles? — I don’t believe you’re that insane — Paul — do you believe that?”

“they ask me about Paul and I answer—I know some of it gets personal—but whether you believe it or not I try and answer straight—and the bits they use are obviously the juicy bits—I don’t resent [him]—I’m sorry for him.”

“… get off your high horse! — by the way — we’ve had more intelligent interest in our new activities in one year than we had throughout the Beatle era.”

“Of course, the money angle is important—to all of us—especially after all the petty shit that came from your insane family/in laws—and GOD HELP YOU OUT, PAUL”

here are some miscellaneous john quotes:

“we got fed up with being sidemen for Paul” [x]

“I thought Paul’s (debut album) was rubbish.” [x]

i’m having a hard time finding negative paul quotes? i feel like john was more outwardly negative about paul; paul made two subtle lyric jabs at him in too many people:

You took your lucky break and broke it in two

Too many people preaching practices

i also dug up this quote, and while i can’t find a legitimate source for it for the context, this could also be interpreted as a subtle attack toward john:

Explaining the motives behind the breakup of the Beatles: “Personal differences, musical differences, business differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family.”

idk, you could argue that the “i have a better time with my family” part was meant to say “see? i don’t need you, or even want you, anymore.” but like i said, without context, it’s hard to make a case for that.

he did a radio interview where he placed the entirety of the blame on john for the beatles break up:

“Basically me, George, and Ringo said, ‘Does this have to be final? Could we do a couple of gigs or can we think about this tomorrow?’ But John was off with Yoko and he was saying, ‘No, no, it’s great – I feel a release,’ and all that. So that was kind of final.”

this is a statement he has contradicted, as shown here:

“I think it was just straightforward jealousy, Ringo left first, then George, then John. I was the last to leave! It wasn’t me!”

so by saying that, he’s admitting the band already had issues prior to john leaving, so it couldn’t be entirely his fault. 

i’m sure there’s a lot more out there (from both of them), but i don’t really keep track of negative quotes like this lol i like to think about them being happy. if anyone knows any other quotes, feel free to add them!

edit: i can’t believe i forgot this one, but this is probably the nastiest thing paul has ever said:

“You and your Jap tart think you’re hot shit.” [x]

thanks @lauriemanning! they also suggested looking into ram, particularly dear boy and monkberry moon delight, as well as paul’s “off the record” phone interview with hunter davis.