Beatles vs. Stones

by John McMillian

  “began interrupting everything”: Brown, The Love You Make, 308.

  Finally, Eastman: Klein later claimed that he had practically arranged for that to happen. “It was embarrassing as hell. I didn’t mind it for myself—sticks and stones, you know—but for the boys, it was sad. I think everybody saw exactly what was happening and who the Eastmans really were.”

  “We hadn’t been in there”: Wenner, Lennon Remembers, 148.

  “advisor”: Wenner, Lennon Remembers, 145.

  “Well, he’s the only one”: The Beatles Anthology, 324.

  It is sometimes claimed: Prince Rupert Loewenstein says, “It was Mick who introduced Klein to John Lennon a few weeks before I met Mick. After we had spoken he rang Lennon back and said, ‘I’ve rethought it and I’ve gone to this other person I think you should do the same because I’m not happy about my introduction of Klein.’ But it was too late.” Beatles assistant Tony Bramwell says that he and Lennon once attended a party at Mick’s ornately decorated Chelsea home, at which Mick said to them, “Keep away [from Klein]. He’s messed us right up, man.” And Peter Swales, an assistant to the Stones, says that Mick once asked him to deliver a handwritten letter to McCartney. “It was a warning, maybe in solidarity with him,” Swales said. “It was to the effect of, ‘Don’t go near [Klein], he’s a dog. He’s a crook.’ ”

  “We know [Klein] through”: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 334. (The paper was almost certainly Disc and Music Echo.)

  “I had heard about all these”: Wenner, Lennon Remembers, 141–42.

  “We, the Beatles, were all”: Miles, Many Years from Now, 545.

  “the first time in the history”: As quoted in Doggett, Peter, You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 70.

  “James knew of Klein’s”: Brown, The Love You Make, 316.

  “a startling blend of bluff”: Brown, The Love You Make, 309.

  “I’ll play whatever you”: Let It Be, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (Apple Films, United Artists, 1970).

  “We were always wondering”: As quoted in Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, 44–45.

  “What I thought about the”: The Beatles Anthology, 302. This was in keeping with one of George’s one-liners: “Avant-garde is French for ‘haven’t got a clue.’ ”

  He got up and: Lindsay-Hogg, Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond (New York: Knopf, 2011), 134.

  “There was always a”: Wyman, Stone Alone, 526.

  “the prospect of some professional”: As quoted in Wyman, Stone Alone, 464.

  “These conversations have not”: As quoted in Wyman, Stone Alone, 465.

  “When they went to America”: Greenfield, Robert, “Keith Richards Interview,” Rolling Stone (August, 1971).

  “I don’t really like what the Beatles”: Mick Jagger Interview with John Carpenter, Part Two, Los Angeles Free Press (November 21, 1969), 33.

  “Nah. But if we did, we”: As quoted in Norman, Mick Jagger, 415.

  “[Mick] is obviously so upset”: Wenner, Lennon Remembers, 67.

  “Not even McCartney”: YouTube video, “Keith on the Beatles”—now marked “private” by user.

  EPILOGUE

  Fans have long debated: The question is most intriguing if you consider McCartney’s McCartney and Ram, Lennon’s John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and Harrison’s audacious triple LP, All Things Must Pass, all of which appeared within fifteen months of one another. (Ringo’s first two solo records, Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues, both released in 1970, are usually not included in the thought experiment because they both contained cover songs. Still, the Beatles probably would have continued to feature Ringo on at least one song on any subsequent albums they recorded.)

  Some have even speculated: In 1973 all of the ex-Beatles appeared on Ringo Starr’s album Ringo, although they played different tracks. In 1974, Lennon and McCartney participated in an incredibly sloppy, cocaine-fueled jam session at a Los Angeles recording studio (later released as a bootleg, A Toot and a Snore in ’74). In 1976, promoter Sid Bernstein ran an advertisement in American newspapers urging the Beatles to reconcile, calculating that a single concert, transmitted around the world, could generate $230 million. Also in 1976, on the television show Saturday Night Live, producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 if they’d appear on the show. One night, when George Harrison was the musical guest, Paul happened to be visiting John at the Dakota building, and the two of them claim to have actually considered grabbing their guitars and taking a cab to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which was only two miles away. In 1979, at Eric Clapton’s wedding, Paul, George, and Ringo all played “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (with Clapton subbing for John). In 1980, Paul attempted to contact John around the time that John and Yoko were working on their Double Fantasy LP, but according to Peter Doggett, “that communication had been prevented by a third party” (presumably Yoko). In 1980, Lennon swore in an affidavit that the Beatles were planning a reunion concert, but that was probably perjury—an attempt to bolster the Beatles’ case against the producers of the Broadway musical review Beatlemania.

  John Lennon taped an interview with Playboy magazine: Playboy (January 1981).

  “run of albums against which”: Andrew Mueller, “It’s Only Rock ’N’ Roll,” The Ultimate Music Guide to the Rolling Stones (from the Makers of Uncut), n.d., p. 70.

  “a series of roughly perfect albums.”: Crispin Sartwell, “Beatles Versus Stones: The Last Word,” in Luke Dick and George A. Reisch, eds., The Rolling Stones and Philosophy: It’s Just a Thought Away (Chicago and Lasalle, IL: Open Court, 2012), 162.

  The only thing that complicates the Stones’: John Strausbaugh: “In 1978, those of us who had by then been Stones fans for fifteen years took Some Girls as a last memento, an aloha from a band entering its sunset years. This was Silver Age Stones, a magnet of instant nostalgia, a last hurrah.” A Rolling Stone reviewer said, “Some Girls brought the Rolling Stones back to life.” An NME writer observed, “In this album, Jagger suddenly seems interested in what he’s doing again.” Not everyone was fond of the record, however. In response to a lyric on the title track (“Black girls just wanna get fucked all night / I just don’t have that much jam”), the civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a boycott. The Stones responded that the song was merely “a parody of certain stereotypical attitudes.”

  “As much as Mick professed his love: Bill German, Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy from Brooklyn Got Mixed Up with the Rolling Stones (New York: Villard, 2009), 219–220. German continues: “Keith, of course, would have preferred the old way. Throw everything to the air and see where it comes down. Take some risks and embrace the vulnerability. Keith didn’t want the show to turn into a predictable greatest hits package . . . [but] Mick felt the band and audience weren’t ready.”

  “What Will They Do With All That Money?”: See Peter Newcomb, “Satisfaction Guaranteed,” Forbes (October 1989). Instead of working with legendary rock promoter Bill Graham, who had handled previous Stones’ American tours, the group turned to Michael Cohl, a much less experienced Canadian promoter who guaranteed them a minimum of $70 million. According to the Stones’ financial advisor, Prince Rupert Lowenstein, Graham was so livid when he heard about the Stones’ decision that he found out about a flight that Mick was taking, booked a seat on the same airplane, and buttonholed him. “ ‘You’re insane,’ he shouted. ‘Michael Cohl doesn’t know how to produce. . . . What have you got against me?’ Mick said, ‘It’s very simple, Bill: not enough money.’ ”

  Depending on how one counts: In addition to all this, on their website, the Stones peddle apparel for men, women, children, and pets. They sell books and calendars, posters, laminated commemorative tickets, coffee mugs, pendants, tote bags, trading cards, notebooks, and even fiftieth anniversary K2 Rolling Stones downhill skis. (It is unclear whether the skis are being offered up ironica
lly.) A Japanese distillery sells a limited edition, specially blended Rolling Stones whiskey for $6,300 per bottle.

  Way back in 1975, Jagger said: As quoted in Jim Jerome, “The Jaggers,” People (June 9, 1975). This sentiment—that Mick did not plan to be singing raunchy Stones songs as a middle-aged man—has been frequently attributed to Jagger. In 1978, a Rolling Stone interviewer said to Mick, “You once said you didn’t want to be singing ‘Satisfaction’ when you were forty-two,” and Mick answered, “No, I certainly won’t.” According to a quote investigator website, Mick “may have made similar statements on more than one occasion, and he may have specified different cut-off ages.”

  On average, the Stones charged: Some prime tickets sold for around $2,000, and some were as cheap as $85.

  “All the major blood vessels leaving the heart”: As quoted in Keith Elliot Greenberg, December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died (Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2010), 172. It is sometimes said that Lennon was treated by another doctor, David Halleran. Possibly they both worked on him.

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  BOOKS

  Appleford, Steve. The Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint, the Story Behind Every Song (New York: Da Capo, 2001).

  Badman, Keith, ed. The Beatles: Off the Record (London: Omnibus Press, 2008).

  Baker, Glenn A. Beatles Down Under: The 1964 Australia and New Zealand Tour (Wild and Woolley, 1982).

  Barrow, Tony. John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me (New York: Da Capo, 2006).

  The Beatles. The Beatles Anthology (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002).

  Blake, Andrew, ed. Living Through Pop (London and New York: Routledge, 1999).

  Bennahum, David, ed. The Beatles After the Break-Up: In Their Own Words (London: Omnibus Press, 1992).

  Bockris, Victor. Keith Richards: The Unauthorized Biography (London: Hutchinson, 1992).

  Bonanno, Massimo, ed. The Rolling Stones Chronicle: The First Thirty Years (New York: Henry Holt, 1990).

  Booker, Christopher. The Neophiliacs: Revolution in English Life in the Fifties and Sixties (London: Plimico, 1992, c. 1970).

  Booth, Stanley. The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2000).

  Bramwell, Tony. Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996).

  Braun, Michael. Love Me Do! The Beatles Progress (New York: Penguin, 1995, c. 1964).

  Bromell, Nick. Tomorrow Never Knows: Rock and Psychedelics in the 1960s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

  Brown, Peter. The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (New York: NAL Trade, 2002).

  Buskin, Richard. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Beatles (New York: Alpha, 1998).

  Carlin, Peter Ames. Paul McCartney: A Life (New York: Touchstone, 2009).

  Christgau, Robert. Growing Up All Wrong (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998).

  Clayson, Alan. The Rolling Stones: Beggar’s Banquet (New York: Billboard Books, 2008).

  ———. The Rolling Stones: The Origin of the Species (Surrey: Chrome Dreams, 2007).

  Cohn, Nik. Ball the Wall: Nik Cohn in the Age of Rock (London: Picador, 1989).

  Coleman, Ray. Lennon: The Definitive Biography (London: Pan Books, 1995).

  ———. The Man Who Made the Beatles: An Intimate Biography of Brian Epstein (New York: McGraw Hill, 1989).

  Cording, Robert, Shelli Jankowski-Smith, and E. J. Miller Laino. In My Life: Encounters with the Beatles (New York: Fromm International, 1998).

  Coyote, Peter. Sleeping Where I Fall (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1998).

  Dalton, David, ed. The Rolling Stones: The First Twenty Years (New York: Knopf, 1981).

  Dalton, David, and Mick Farren, eds. The Rolling Stones: In Their Own Words (London: Omnibus, 1980).

  Davies, Hunter. The Beatles (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2010, c. 1968).

  Davis, Stephen. Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones (New York: Broadway, 2001).

  DeRogatis, Jim. Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2003).

  DeRogatis, Jim, and Greg Kot. The Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock ’n’ Rivalry (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2010).

  Dick, Luke and George A. Reisch, eds. The Rolling Stones and Philosophy: It’s Just a Thought Away (Chicago and LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 2012).

  DiLello, Richard. The Longest Cocktail Party (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1972).

  Doggett, Peter. There’s a Riot Going On (London: Canongate, 2007).

  ———. You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup (New York: HarperCollins, 2010).

  Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (New York: Times Books, 1994).

  Egan, Sean, ed. The Mammoth Book of the Beatles (London: Constable & Robinson, 2009).

  Ehrenreich, Barbara, Elizabeth Hess, and Gloria Jacobs. Re-Making Love: the Feminization of Sex (New York: Anchor, 1986).

  Epstein, Brian. A Cellarful of Noise (New York: Doubleday and Co., 1964).

  Epstein, Joseph. On Friendship (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

  Evans, Mike. The Beatles Literary Anthology (London: Plexus, 2004).

  Everett, Walter. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

  Faithfull, Marianne. Faithfull: An Autobiography (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000).

  Flacks, Richard. Youth and Social Change (Chicago: Markham Pub Co., 1971).

  Fornatale, Peter. 50 Licks. Myths and Stories from Half a Century of the Rolling Stones (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013).

  Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents, trans. and ed., James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton, 1961).

  Frontani, Michael R. The Beatles: Image and the Media (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2007).

  Geller, Debbie (Anthony Wall, ed.). In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).

  German, Bill. Under Their Thumb: How a Nice Boy from Brooklyn Got Mixed Up with the Rolling Stones (and Lived to Tell About It) (New York: Villard, 2009).

  Graham, Bill, with Robert Greenfield. Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out (New York: Da Capo, 2004).

  Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness (New York: Vintage, 2007).

  Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (New York: Bantam, 1987).

  Giuliano, Geoffrey. Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney (London: John Blake, 1991).

  ———. Dark Horse: The Secret Life of George Harrison (London: Bloomsbury, 1989).

  ———. Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles (London: John Blake, 2006).

  ———. Two of Us: John Lennon and Paul McCartney Behind the Myth (New York: Penguin, 1999).

  Giuliano, Geoffrey, and Vrnda Devi. Glass Onion: The Beatles in Their Own Words (New York: Da Capo Press, 1999).

  Goldsher, Alan. Paul Is Undead (New York: Gallery, 2010).

  Goodall, Nigel. Jump Up: The Rise of the Rolling Stones (London: Castle, 2011).

  Goodman, Fred. Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-On Collision of Rock and Commerce (New York: Vintage, 1998).

  “Goodman, Pete” [Peter Jones]. Our Own Story, by the Rolling Stones (New York: Bantam, 1965).

  Gorer, Geoffrey. Exploring English Character (London: Cresset Press, 1955).

  Gould, Jonathon. Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007).

  Green, Jonathon, ed. Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1967-1971 (London: Heinemann, 1988).

  Greenberg, Keith Elliot, December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died (Milwaukee: Backbeat Books, 2010).

  Greenfield, Robert. A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People and the End of the Sixties (New York: Da Capo, 2009).

  ———. Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Sto
nes (New York: Da Capo, 2006).

  ———. STP: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones (New York: Da Capo, 2002).

  Grunenberg, Christoph, and Jonathan Harris, eds. Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counterculture in the 1960s (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005).

  Haslam, Nicky. Redeeming Features: A Memoir (New York: Knopf, 2009).

  Hector, James. The Complete Guide to the Music of the Rolling Stones (London: Omnibus, 1995).

  Hotchner, A. E. Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).

  Hutchins, Chris. Elvis Meets the Beatles (London: Smith Gryphon, 1994).

  Isherwood, Christopher. The Sixties: Diaries 1960–1969 (New York: Harper Perennial, 2011).

  Kane, Larry. Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles 1964 Tour That Changed the World (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003).

  Kaufman, Murray. Murray the K Tells It Like It Is, Baby (New York: Rinehart and Winston, 1966).

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  Lennon, Cynthia. John (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006).

  Lindsay-Hogg, Michael. Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond (New York: Knopf, 2011).

  Loewenstein, Prince Rupert. A Prince Among Stones: That Business with the Rolling Stones and Other Adventures. (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013).

  Luci-Smith, Edward. The Liverpool Scene (London: Garden City Press, 1967).

  Lydon, Michael. Flashbacks: Eyewitness Accounts of the Rock Revolution, 1964–1974 (New York: Routledge, 2003).

  MacDonald, Ian. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties (London: Fourth Estate, 1997).

  Mansfield, Ken (with Brent Stoker). The White Book: The Beatles, the Bands, the Biz: An Insider’s Look at an Era (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007).

  Marcus, Greil, ed. Rock and Roll Will Stand (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969).

  Marsden, Gerry (with Ray Coleman). I’ll Never Walk Alone: An Autobiography (London: Bloomsbury, 1993).

  Martin, George. All You Need Is Ears: Inside the Personal Story of the Genius Who Created the Beatles (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994).