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The Beatles

Page 127

by Bob Spitz


  “feeling would begin to vibrate”: “Soon this feeling would begin to vibrate right through me and started getting bigger and bigger and faster and faster.” Giuliano, Dark Horse, p. 92.

  “hung out with him”: Ringo Starr in Anthology, p. 231.

  “he offered to give me some instruction”: Giuliano, Dark Horse, p. 93.

  “how to sit and hold the sitar”: George Harrison in Anthology, p. 233.

  Shankar’s “disciple”: “George had not come as a Beatle but as my disciple.” Shankar, My Music, My Life.

  “Sometimes [George] would play”: Giuliano, Dark Horse, p. 95.

  “harmonizing with a greater power”: Ibid., p. 93.

  “by various holy men”: George Harrison in Anthology, p. 233.

  “Ravi and the sitar were excuses”: Ibid.

  “blood money”: “Just give him his blood money.” Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 216.

  “Don’t do anything else”: Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “just indulging himself”: Author interview with Peter Brown; Arena archives.

  “morbid,” often incoherent: Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 217.

  “Nothing I said or did”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/9/97.

  The collapse, when it eventually came: “I didn’t see it coming.” Ibid.

  “I stayed in the library”: Ibid., 12/2/97.

  “a foolish accident”: Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 217.

  “I can’t deal with this anymore”: Peter Brown, Arena archives.

  “But none of us, however shortsighted”: Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “You must be mad!”: Author interview with Ken Partridge, 1/18/98.

  “He wanted to be Ziegfeld”: Author interview with Don Black, 1/18/98.

  “terrible” musical: Ibid.

  “During the week, we had Gilbert and Sullivan”: Author interview with Tony Bramwell, 8/6/97.

  an ominous melancholy: “When John came back, he was in a serious funk.” Author interview with Tony Barrow, 10/31/97.

  “There was so much going on”: Author interview with John Dunbar, 1/13/98.

  The future of the Beatles: “At some time or other that’s when I really started considering life without the Beatles—what would it be?” John Lennon, 1980 interview, in Anthology, p. 231.

  “There were all those Chelsea people”: Green, Days in the Life, p. 76.

  “We never had a painting as such”: Aitken, The Young Meteors.

  to “liberate art as a commodity”: Author interview with John Dunbar, 1/13/98.

  “a real happening”: “I told him it would be a real happening.” Ibid.

  “I thought, ‘Hmm,’ you know, ‘sex’ ”: John Lennon, 1980 interview, in Anthology, p. 235.

  “Well, watching telly”: Green, Days in the Life, p. 79.

  “I was in a highly unshaved… state”: John Lennon, 1980 interview, in Anthology, p. 235.

  sat in the car for “some time”: Les Anthony, 3/87, AGA.

  “bullshit and phony”: Peter McCabe interview, 7/71, AGA.

  “When he came in, it was like”: Author interview with John Dunbar, 1/13/98.

  “flittering around like crazy”: Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 86.

  “mirror to see your behind”: Unfinished Paintings and Objects, Indica Gallery catalogue.

  “Is this stuff for real?”: Author interview with John Dunbar, 1/13/98.

  “This is a joke”: Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 86.

  “It looked like a black canvas”: Wenner, Lennon Remembers, pp. 173–74.

  “You take a magnifying glass”: Peter McCabe interview, 7/71.

  “I argued strongly”: Author interview with John Dunbar, 1/13/98.

  “Okay, you can hammer”: Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 88.

  “I’ll give you an imaginary”: Coleman, Lennon, p. 327.

  “My God,” she thought: Peter McCabe interview, 7/71.

  “John was a fun drug-taker”: Author interview with Terry Doran, 8/13/97.

  “first high-voltage superblues group”: Dalton & Kaye, Rock 100, p. 122.

  “Show business will vibrate”: “Beach Boys Beat Beatles,” NME, 12/3/66.

  “We’re all four fans”: “Paul and Ringo Talk about the Beatles,” NME, 12/31/66.

  “This idea of jealousy”: Ibid.

  pure “rubbish”: Ibid.

  “two of the Beatles had approached”: Sunday Telegraph, 11/18/66.

  “I think we were itching to get going”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 237.

  “it was absolutely lovely”: George Martin interview, 12/5/80, in Okun, The Compleat Beatles, p. 40.

  “I was spellbound”: Martin, Summer of Love, pp. 13–14.

  Martin cursed himself: “Oh, how I wish I had caught that very first run-through on tape and released it!” Ibid., p. 14.

  which took over forty-five hours: Lewisohn, Sessions, pp. 87–90.

  “about 80% separately written”: Ringo Starr in Anthology, p. 237.

  “creative rivalry”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 70.

  “were often answering each other’s songs”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 307.

  “John and I would often meet”: Ibid.

  “in the middle of the roundabout”: Lyric fragment from “Penny Lane.”

  its euphonious name: “He’d been toying with the idea of writing a song called ‘Penny Lane’ because he liked the poetry of the name.” Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 91.

  “painted in an exploding psychedelic”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 259.

  “more like a play”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 237.

  “The lyrics were all based”: Ibid.

  “a small collection of gems”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 26.

  “rooty-tooty variety”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 319.

  Beatles performed at the Cavern: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 89.

  “a bit of a shock”: George Harrison in Anthology, p. 239.

  “an old trap”: Ibid.

  “Quiet honestly,” he admitted: “Most Way-Out Beatles Ever,” NME, 2/11/67.

  “the Beatles have developed into”: “Other Noises, Other Notes,” Time, 3/3/67.

  “The people who have bought our records”: John Lennon, 1967 interview, in Anthology, p. 241.

  CHAPTER 31: A VERY FREAKY EXPERIENCE

  “cheerful music for dope smokers”: Ward, Rock of Ages, p. 330.

  the Beatles’ “playground”: “They loved the whole process of recording: the studio was a playground.” Martin, Summer of Love, p. 68.

  “every trick brought out”: George Martin in Anthology, p. 242.

  “because he wanted to sound like Elvis”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 53.

  “dry, deadpan voice”: Ibid., p. 55.

  “I noticed two stories”: Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 155.

  “The verse about the politician”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 324.

  “funny… little references”: George Martin in Pritchard & Lysaght, The Beatles, p. 241.

  “a little party piece”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 247.

  “It was a crazy song”: Ibid.

  “We’ll tell the orchestra”: Ibid.

  “something really tumultuous”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 53.

  “But ninety musicians”: Ibid., p. 56.

  “with little or no input”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 310.

  the theme of which John pinched: Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 155.

  “The top was all dark”: Julian Lennon in Pritchard & Lysaght, The Beatles, p. 238.

  “Wow, fantastic title!”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 311.

  “very trippy”: Ibid., p. 312.

  John had already begun playing: “The imagery was Alice in the boat.” Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 154.

  “swapping psychedelic suggestions”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 242.

  “trading words off each other”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 312.

&n
bsp; “People were running around”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 58.

  “orchestral orgasm”: Ibid., p. 60.

  “It was… remarkable”: Author interview with Ron Richards, 12/29/97.

  “I just can’t believe it”: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 96.

  “a gigantic piano chord”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 61.

  Daniel Barenboim’s piano: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 321.

  It took nine attempts: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 99.

  Newsweek’s critic: Jack Kroll, “The Beatles’ Waste Land,” Newsweek.

  “got mixed together”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 247.

  “very productive period”: Mojo, 11/95, p. 84.

  “assembly[-line] process”: George Harrison in Anthology, p. 242.

  “I was in a real big depression”: Interview with Barry Miles.

  Food no longer interested him: “John said he wasn’t eating much and was on a vegetarian diet.” Coleman, Lennon, p. 334.

  “it was becoming almost impossible”: C. Lennon, A Twist, p. 142.

  “tensions, bigotry, and bad temper”: Ibid.

  “I know Brian was convinced”: Author interview with Tony Barrow, 10/31/97.

  gone broke in the process: “Here was a man who had been bankrupt twice.” Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “borrowed money from EMI”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/9/97.

  “It was quite simple”: Robert Stigwood, Arena archives.

  “sound younger… and be a teenager”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 35.

  “joining up”: “Once, he told me he thought of joining up. But I’m sure it was another boyhood thing.” Author interview with Pete Shotton, 7/16/98.

  “It said the Hendersons”: John Lennon, 1967 interview, in Anthology, p. 243.

  “Almost the whole song was written”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 318.

  wanted a “fairground sound”: “The fairground sound, suggested by John…” Ibid.

  “smell the sawdust”: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 99.

  “a pumping kind of sound”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 91.

  “I selected two-minute segments”: Ibid.

  “but, amazingly, they came back”: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 99.

  “John was thrilled to bits”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 91.

  Paul had written during a nighttime walk: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 320.

  “the one hard drug used”: Ibid., p. 383.

  “I used to have a bit of coke”: Ibid., p. 384.

  “looking back on it, Pepper”: Coleman, Lennon, p. 335.

  John told Jann Wenner: “I never took it in the studio.” Wenner, Lennon Remembers, p. 76.

  “accidental trip”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 385.

  “By mistake this night”: Ibid., p. 382.

  “I suddenly got so scared”: Wenner, Lennon Remembers, p. 76.

  “George, I’m not feeling too good”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 109.

  “swaying gently against my arm”: Ibid.

  “I thought, Maybe this is the moment”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 382.

  “a guy who wasn’t keen”: Ibid., p. 381.

  “I always knew I’d have to keep”: Ibid., p. 185.

  “spacy”/“very, very deeply emotional experience”: Ibid., pp. 380–81.

  “It was a very freaky experience”: Ibid., p. 383.

  “They ran down to the studio”: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 109.

  “Couldn’t really be any other”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 332.

  “We had certainly not intended”: Ibid., pp. 332–33.

  “We wanted the sleeve”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 248.

  His best customers: Hewison, Too Much, p. 70.

  “the most formative influence”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 243.

  “not good art”: “He said, ‘It’s not good art.’ ” Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 248.

  “In years to come”: Peter Blake, 8/83, AGA.

  “No, not very much”: Ibid.

  “It was just a broad spectrum”: George Harrison in Anthology, p. 252.

  “naughty” little choice: “That was John’s sense of humor. There had been the Christ controversy… so I think it was just John being naughty again.” Peter Blake in Pritchard & Lysaght, The Beatles, p. 245.

  Hitler—which managed to piss off Paul: “I didn’t agree with it, but he was just trying to be far-out really.” Paul McCartney in ibid.

  “Whatever the others have”: Ringo Starr in Pritchard & Lysaght, The Beatles, p. 244; Peter Blake, 8/83, AGA.

  The legwork was left: “… so Mal and I went to all the different libraries.” Neil Aspinall in Anthology, p. 248.

  “We made a rough kind of wooden frame”: Peter Blake, 8/83, AGA.

  “so the delivery boy”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 344.

  “We just chose oddball things”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 248.

  “with goodies”: “So we wanted to pack it with goodies.” Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 340.

  But production costs rendered: “It was a packaging problem.” Peter Blake in Pritchard & Lysaght, The Beatles, p. 245.

  “Joe Lockwood was furious”: Robert Fraser, AGA (undated).

  that photo of Hitler: “Hitler is a definite no.” Martin, Summer of Love, p. 118.

  “take Gandhi out”: Norman, Shout!, p. 291.

  “We have some problems”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 338.

  “It had the flowers”: Neil Aspinall in Anthology, p. 248.

  friction between Brian and Robert Stigwood: “Brian had become disillusioned with Stigwood.” Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “He certainly couldn’t handle them”: Author interview with Alistair Taylor, 1/17/98.

  “fell in love”: “Robert fell in love with them, especially with Barry Gibb.” Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/10/97.

  “Brian became annoyed”: Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  Shirley Temple… wanted to approve: Anthology, p. 251.

  “What would I be doing”: Peter Blake, 8/83, AGA.

  CHAPTER 32: THE SUMMER OF LOVE

  getting stoned with the Jefferson: “We went over to their place, smoking pot.” Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “golden… far-out”: Paul McCartney in Anthology, p. 254.

  “the idea tumbled together”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 350.

  “Everyone would spend time”: Ibid.

  “I still felt every now and then”: John Lennon in Anthology, p. 272.

  “enjoyed the fish and chip quality”: Fawcett, John Lennon: One Day at a Time, p. 92.

  “We didn’t see any way”: George Harrison in Anthology, p. 272.

  “Nobody quite knows”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 353.

  “McCartney arrived at the studio”: MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, p. 203.

  “references to drugs”: Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 353.

  “the worst kind of musical cliché”: Riley, Tell Me Why, p. 237.

  When the Beatles returned: Lewisohn, Sessions, p. 111.

  “a combination of two separate”: Sheff, Playboy Interviews, p. 155.

  unable “to resist singing”: MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, p. 206.

  “He knew he had to confront it”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/10/97.

  “positively sick”: Ibid.

  Paul felt strongly: He considered the Dick James deal “draconian.” Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 146.

  “What about us?”: “Yeah, well Klein got the Stones a million and a quarter, didn’t he?” Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 248.

  “fast-talking, dirty-mouthed”: Ibid., p. 247.

  Brian refused to shake hands: Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “fucked-up and all hazy”: “… which is what those pill do to you…” Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/9/97.

  “felt that more and more”: Joanne Newfield Petersen, Arena archives.

  “One nigh
t Peter had been”: Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  “a rather grand farmhouse”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/9/97.

  “more irrational, more incoherent”: Robert Stigwood, Arena archives.

  “isolated themselves, not only”: Daily Mail, 5/12/67.

  a small but “grandiose” party: “It was done in a very grandiose way.” Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/10/97.

  “very Waspish, a real anti-Semitic Jew”: Author interview with Jerry Leiber, 7/11/95.

  “She always insisted”: Author interview with Nat Weiss, 1/28/98.

  it is more likely that they met: “The night I met Linda I was at the Bag o’ Nails,” Miles, Paul McCartney, p. 432.

  “the hottest ticket in town”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 152.

  “Besides… I thought she was cute”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/10/97.

  “zero[ing] in on Paul”: Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 247.

  “couldn’t help but notice”: Author interview with Tony Barrow, 10/31/97.

  “resembled an animated Victorian”: Melody Maker, 5/27/67.

  “looked haggard, old”: Coleman, Lennon, p. 334.

  “like someone out of a Scott Fitzgerald novel”: Melody Maker, 5/27/67.

  “could be considered to have drug-taking implications”: BBC press release, 5/17/67.

  “He’d decided this”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/10/97.

  “perhaps all week”: “We picked Derek and Joan up after an all-night (or all week)… LSD trip.” George Harrison in D. Taylor, Fifty Years, p. 298.

  “Everyone was getting along”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/9/97.

  “The minute you walked through”: Author interview with Lionel Bart, 1/16/98.

  “the mad hatter’s tea party”: C. Lennon, A Twist, p. 145.

  Peter Brown reports: Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 255.

  “she hadn’t taken anything”: D. Taylor, Fifty Years, p. 301.

  “Wasn’t that always the case”: Author interview with Peter Brown, 12/10/97.

  “Paul… didn’t… come”: Brown & Gaines, Love You Make, p. 254.

  “This was to have been for Paul”: D. Taylor, Fifty Years, p. 300.

  “I was downright scared”: Martin, Summer of Love, p. 151.

  “remarkable”/“tremendous advance”: Sunday Times, 6/3/67.

  “Any of these songs”: The Times (London), 6/4/67.

 

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