by Tim Riley
8. This same Casey later performed with Paul McCartney’s Wings Venus and Mars tour in 1975–76.
9. Author interview with Howie Casey, 2004.
10. Best and Doncaster, 115.
11. Spitz, 228.
12. Devin McKinney, Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004), 4.
13. Alan Clayson, John Lennon: The Unauthorised Biography of John Lennon (New York: Chrome Dreams, 2001).
14. Guralnick and Jorgensen, 41.
15. BA, 49.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Doncaster and Best, 46.
19. Andy Babiuk, The Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four’s Instruments, from Stage to Studio (San Francisco: Backbeat, 2001), 35.
20. Doncaster and Best, 42.
21. Ibid, 55. Also, Stark, 150. Stark comes up with the best interpretation of this Scouser term: “No translation necessary.”
22. Sutcliffe and Thompson, 99.
23. Philip Norman, Shout!, 97.
24. Sutcliffe and Thompson, 135.
25. Norman, Shout!, 97. A deliciously ironic quote: innocence is not “all-protecting,” it requires protecting.
26. CLJ, 69.
27. Frith and Horne, 85.
28. “Living together” before marriage was more common among European families than it was in American homes of the period. Cynthia Powell soon moved in to live with John at his aunt Mimi’s house later in 1962, strictly as a “boarder” in the adult’s mind, but quite something else for the young couple. And Paul famously lived with his girlfriend Jane Asher’s family when he settled in London in 1964.
29. Author interview with Astrid Kirchherr, 2008.
30. Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd (Princeton: Vintage Books, 1960).
31. Doncaster and Best, 58.
32. Ibid, 59.
33. Norman, Shout!, 100.
34. Doncaster and Best, 120.
35. Sutcliffe and Thompson, 88.
36. Du Noyer, 32.
37. BA, 45.
38. Author interview with Tony Bramwell, 2006.
39. BA, 49.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Coleman, 132.
43. Bramwell, 4.
44. BA, 56.
45. Doncaster and Best, 85.
46. Clayson, Hamburg, 188.
Chapter 7: I Found Out
1. BA, 69.
2. Sutcliffe and Thompson, 121.
3. Ibid.
4. Author interview with Astrid Kirchherr, April 2008.
5. Sir Eduardo Paolozzi received his knighthood in 1989; his sculpture of Sir Isaac Newton (on William Blake’s image) sits outside the British Library in London.
6. Sutcliffe and Thompson, 134.
7. JLE, 64.
8. Bill Harry, Mersey Beat—The Beginnings of the Beatles (New York: Omnibus Press, 1977), 22.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “One After 909” was recorded during 1963 then held, and later revived as a delirious throwaway during the Let It Be sessions in 1969. It remains the largest question hovering over their early set list: apparently, Lennon was never satisfied with the lyric.
12. BA, 67. McCartney: “We would still do our rock act, though we wouldn’t get decent money for any gig apart from cabaret. I could pull out ‘Till There Was You’ or ‘A Taste of Honey,’ the more cabaret things, and John would sing ‘Over the Rainbow’ and ‘Ain’t She Sweet.’ These did have cred for us because they were on a Gene Vincent album and we didn’t realize ‘Rainbow’ was a Judy Garland number, we thought it was Gene Vincent, so we were happy to do it.”
Chapter 8: A Man You Must Believe
1. Debbie Geller, In My Life: The Brian Epstein Story (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 24.
2. Ibid, 23.
3. Ibid, 42.
4. Author interview with Colin Hanton in Liverpool, 2005.
5. Harry, Mersey Beat, 10.
6. Ibid, 19.
7. Alistair Taylor, With the Beatles (England: John Blake, 2003), 13.
8. Author interview with David Backhouse, Liverpool architect, May 2004.
9. BA, 65.
10. Geller, 37.
11. Taylor, Alistair, 28.
12. Geller, 25.
13. Ibid, 25–26.
14. Ibid, 21.
15. CLJ, 103.
16. Geller, 37.
17. Taylor, Alistair, 29.
18. Ibid, 31.
19. Ibid, 33.
20. Gay conspiracy theories swarm the Lennon-Epstein relationship, to the point where they have them hooking up in Hamburg in 1961, long before Epstein sees Lennon at the Cavern, and postulate Epstein’s 1967 death as a suicide at Lennon’s break-off of the five-year affair. While unverifiable on any number of levels, it still says a great deal about the alternative sexuality underground that such whispers were fervent throughout Lennon’s career, and spoke to their sense of his heroic stature.
21. BA, 98.
22. Ibid, 58.
23. Leigh, 160.
24. Author interview with Spencer Leigh in Liverpool, May 2004.
25. Oldham, 132.
26. Taylor, Alistair, 28.
27. MYFN, 75.
28. BC, 65.
29. Jonathan Gould, Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America (New York: Harmony Books, 2007), 166.
30. Leigh, 158–59.
31. The eleven CDs of this material collected on bootlegs (The Complete Beatles at the BBC, on the underground labels Great Dane and Purple Chick) sport a feast of material, and diagram their songwriting, vocal, and ensemble models the way few bands ever get to chart.
32. BA, 69.
33. Some biographies insist Lennon confessed to L.A. session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, a notoriously unreliable source.
34. Kirchherr in Yoko Ono, Memories of John Lennon (Brattleboro: Harper Paperbacks, 2006), 119.
Chapter 9: Isolation
1. At EMI this boiled down to the difference between a regular session, capturing sound for a possible release, and test session, where newly signed acts were recorded at a preliminary session for audio diagnostics, which the producer rarely attended.
2. In 1923, Oscar Preuss founded the label’s British branch. Like many labels of this period, it hooked up through leasing arrangements with other small labels, like Okeh Records in the United States. Columbia Graphophone Company UK acquired a controlling interest in 1927, and in 1931, Columbia merged with the Gramophone Company to form EMI.
3. BC, 55.
4. Taylor, Alistair, 81.
5. TBRS, 17.
6. This version appeared on 1995’s Anthology 1, track twenty-one. See discography. George Martin also found an acetate of “Love Me Do” in his attic while preparing the Anthology.
7. TBRS, 17.
8. BA, 71.
9. Steve Garofalo and Reebee Chapple, Rock ’n’ Roll Is Here to Pay, the History and Politics of the Music Industry (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1977), 70.
10. CLJ, 90.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. BA, 71.
15. Ibid, 72.
16. Ibid, 71.
17. Ibid, 49.
18. Leigh, 167.
19. JLMB, 73.
20. BA, 72.
21. Wedding quotes from CLJ, 96. Bolthole, or “fuckpad.”
22. Bramwell, 77.
23. There are, however, several versions of “Love Me Do” in “official” circulation. They are easy to distinguish: on Ringo’s version, there is no tambourine. Which raises yet another question: if they are that similar in tone and effect, why did Martin sweat the difference?
24. BA, 77.
25. Harry, Mersey Beat, January 3–17, 1963, 49.
26. Ibid.
27. Norman, 292.
28. Oldham, 173.
29. Southall, 11–15.
30. John Winn, Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles’ Recorded Legacy, V
olume One (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008), 21–24.
Chapter 10: Hold On
1. Gould, 91.
2. To Britons this term is derogatory slang for “prostitute.”
3. Christine Keeler, The Truth at Last (New York: Picador, 2002). Keeler has since claimed she was a patsy for an Anglo-Soviet spy ring.
4. John Lennon, The Writings of John Lennon: In His Own Write/A Spaniard in the Works (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981), 39.
5. Michael Braun, Love Me Do: The Beatles’ Progress (New York: Penguin, 1964), 52.
6. Leslie Fiedler, A New Fiedler Reader (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 1999), 282.
7. Greil Marcus, “The Beatles,” The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock ’n’ Roll (New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1976), 181.
8. Author interview with Billy J. Kramer, 2005.
9. Oldham, 172. Mark Wynter, Oldham’s friend, was also at this rehearsal, and impressed enough to call his agent, Ian Bevan of the Harold Fielding Agency, which handled Tommy Steele. “I’m not interested in handling groups” was Bevan’s reply.
10. Oldham had shepherded Dylan and his manager around London during this little-known BBC appearance in 1962.
11. Oldham, 171.
12. Ibid, 182.
13. Helen Shapiro quoted in Uncut Legends, No. 7 (2005): 18.
14. BA, 90.
15. Ibid, 92.
16. TBRS, 26.
17. Gould, 103.
18. The songwriting credit reads “Medley-Russell” because Berns sometimes wrote with his partner Phil Medley under the name of “Bert Russell.” He went on to refashion “Twist and Shout” into “Hang on Sloopy” for the McCoys, and to write “Here Comes the Night” for both Lulu and Van Morrison’s Them. There is no evidence that Lennon ever heard this original Top Notes track, although he probably spoke with Phil Spector about it later on.
19. Notably on a UK TV special called The Beatles in the Round from 1964.
20. BA, 95; in TBRS, Lewisohn has “From Me To You” dashed off on February 27.
21. Oldham, 175.
22. Ibid.
23. Bramwell, 101.
24. Geller, 56.
25. Screenplay to The Hours and Times by Christopher Munch, unpublished, http://imdb.com/title/tt0104448/quotes.
26. Richard Harrington, review of “The Hours and Times,” Washington Post, November 17, 1992, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/thehoursandtimesnrharrington_a0ab53.htm.
27. SS, 73.
28. Taylor, 72.
29. BA, 94.
30. Author interview with Billy J. Kramer, May 2005. Lennon gave Kramer his faux middle initial: “I went into Brian’s office, and he said, ‘John’s got a suggestion. How about Billy “J” Kramer. It’s American sounding, it’s catchy, it flows.’ And I said ‘What do I say if someone asks what it stands for?’ And he said, ‘Julian.’ Now I didn’t even know John was married, let alone had a son called Julian, so I said, ‘I don’t like that name, that’s a real poofter’s name!’ ” Uncut Legends, No. 7 (2005): 18.
Chapter 11: Thick of It
1. Winn, Way Beyond Compare, 91.
2. Oldham, 234–35.
3. Ibid, 235.
4. Ibid, 236.
5. Author interview with Kim Fowley, 2005.
6. Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume I: The Beatles Years (London: Omnibus Press, 2001), 118.
7. Oldham, 169.
8. Robert Freeman, Yesterday: The Beatles 1963–1965 (New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1983), 12.
9. Ronnie Spector with Vince Waldron, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or My Life as a Fabulous Ronette (New York: HarperPerennial, 1990), 72.
10. D. Lowe and Thomas Whiteside, “Talk of the Town,” “Beatle Man,” New Yorker, December 28, 1963, 23.
Chapter 12: One Sweet Dream
1. BA, 116.
2. Spector, 72.
3. Author interview with Barry Miles, May 2008.
4. Without consulting Epstein, producers of The Ed Sullivan Show ran each Beatle’s name beneath his head as they performed “Till There Was You,” their second song. Beneath John’s name came the message: “Sorry girls, he’s married.” It won Lennon’s argument for him.
5. Spector, 76.
6. J. Hoberman, The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties (New York: The New Press, 2003), 92.
7. Spitz, 458.
8. Braun, 28.
9. BA, 116.
10. Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles; Susan Frömke, Beatles—The First U.S. Visit (Capitol, 2001), DVD.
11. Steve Sutherland, editor, John Lennon: New Musical Express Originals (October 2003), 17.
12. BA, 119.
13. For the record: Magician Fred Kaps’s Card and Salt Shaker Trick, the Broadway cast of Oliver! singing “I’d Do Anything,” and “As Long as He Needs Me,” Frank Gorshin’s Hollywood impressions, Olympic athlete Terry McDermott, a show tune medley from Tessie O’Shea, and McCall and Brill’s office comedy sketch.
14. Author interview with Richard Meltzer, 2005.
15. BA, 120.
16. Author interview with Marshall Crenshaw, December 2006. Crenshaw played John Lennon on Broadway in Beatlemania in the early 1980s.
17. BA, 120.
18. Keith Badman, The Beatles Off the Record 2: The Dream Is Over (New York: Omnibus Press, 2008), 87–88.
19. BA, 123.
20. Badman, 88.
21. All in the Family producer Norman Lear later adapted this British series for America’s early 1970s hit, Sanford and Son.
22. BA, 128.
23. Ibid.
24. Braun, 51.
25. Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, ed., Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 325.
26. Author interview with Victor Spinetti, August 2007.
27. Taylor, With the Beatles, 109. Also DCH, 110–112.
28. BA, 135.
29. Kane, 14.
30. Ibid, 21.
31. Ibid, 28.
32. Spector, 77.
33. Ibid, 80, 84. Ronnie describes how she lost her virginity to Phil several months later when he brought over the test pressing of the new Ronettes record, “Do I Love You?” to her house. “Phil and I made love for the first time listening to that record. And every two minutes and fifty seconds, Phil would reach over from the bed and lift the needle back to the beginning of the record. We must’ve played that song fifty times, because we made love on that mattress until late into the night.”
34. Tony Barrow, John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me: The Real Beatles Story (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2005), 66.
35. James Sauceda, The Literary Lennon: A Comedy of Letters (Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1983), 3.
Chapter 13: Watching the Wheels
1. Michael R. Frontani, The Beatles: Image and the Media (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 100.
2. Miles, Diary, 189.
3. Author interview with Victor Spinetti, Chicago, August 2006.
4. Ibid.
5. Victor Spinetti, Up Front . . . His Strictly Confidential Autobiography (London: Anova Books, 2009), 163.
6. George Harrison, I Me Mine (Simon & Schuster, 1980), 47.
7. CLJ, 182.
8. Ibid.
9. Pattie Boyd with Penny Junor, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me (New York: Harmony Books, 2007), 101–2.
10. The photo for Beatles VI was taken on Lennon’s birthday, October 9, 1964, by Robert Whitaker at Farringdon Studio, with all four Beatles holding a carving knife cutting a cake, cropped from the final photo.
11. Winn, That Magic Feeling, 103.
12. Author interview with Richard Meltzer, 2005.
13. Kane, 225.
14. The Beatles, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, Alan Aldridge, ed. (New York: Delacorte, 1969), 33.
15. Coleman, 310.
16. BA, 193.
Chapter 14: An
other Kind of Mind
1. Ringo Starr, Postcards from the Boys (Britain: Cassell Illustrated, 2004), 49.
2. Maureen Cleave, “How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This,” reprinted in Read The Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter, June Skinner Sawyers, ed. (New York: Penguin, 2006), 85–91. Cleave’s Evening Standard article ran on March 4, 1966.
3. BC, 214–15.
4. Author interview with Barry Miles, May 2008.
5. Author interview with Ken Townsend, Abbey Road Studios, London, November 2006.
6. This was long held to be a Lennon move; more recently, Robert Whitaker has done interviews taking credit. (Web: http://www.rareBeatles.com/album2/openalbm.htm).
7. Author interview with Kim Fowley, 2005.
8. Miles, Diary, 234.
9. BA, 216.
10. Robert Cording, ed., with Shelli Jankowski-Smith and E. J. Miller Laino, In My Life: Encounters with the Beatles (New York: Fromm International, 1998), 49.
11. Hoji Murayama, a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo’s New York Times), reported to the author that Lennon’s Tokyo spree included a $20,000 bill at a specialty antiques store, which revealed a previously unknown interest in Oriental artifacts. This was four months before he met Yoko Ono, who would immerse him in Japanese culture and turn Japan into his favorite refuge from the world during the 1970s.
12. The first two of these performances were taped for Nippon Television (NTV).
13. Cording, 56–57.
14. BC, 212. 74,450 Philippine pesos, or £6,840.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid, 216; also BA, 205.
17. Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 70. Everett notes that Epstein’s naïve acceptance of the damage unintentionally gave the Lennon flap legs.
18. BA, 226.
19. Winn, That Magic Feeling, 62–63.
20. BA, 227.
21. Ibid, 229.
22. Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1968), 205–6.
23. Mike Evans, ed., The Beatles Literary Anthology (UK: Plexus Publishing, 2004), 184.
24. Wenner, 106–7.
25. Evans, 185.
26. JLE, 682, and MYFN, 272. Miles writes that Lennon later contributed some watercolored lyrics to “The Word,” which he and McCartney gave to Yoko Ono. Cage featured it in his book Notations, among other scores he assembled for the Foundation of Contemporary Performance Arts.
