What happened in India? Comment by Michael Gerber on Jul 22, 15:48 I know this is what the Ballad suggests — that all John needed was the love of a good woman, who could show him the vast creative vistas beyond the Beatles, so he could do what he really wanted to do since August 1966. But it doesn’t cut much ice with me. First, because there was a lot of great Lennon music created between August 1966 and August 1969, and a lot of close contact between the four. Do we really think that John hated all his work, and hated working with the other guys? The tension isn’t in evidence until after India, and the hating-all-his-Beatle-stuff is the 1980 interviews, which is heavy myth-making. If John had really wanted to leave — for YEARS — do we really think he was that passive? He’s passive like that with Yoko, but not with P/G/R. So let’s say for the sake of argument that Lennon was conflicted after August 1966. Conflicted or not, The Beatles was his band, something he’d practically invented, and something that was still pretty much under his control even post-India in 1968-69 — insofar as if John didn’t want to do something, the group didn’t do it. Why would he feel he needed to leave, rather than take a break from? Who did it benefit that he permanently leave the group? Not him as a political figure — Lennon’s political platform was immensely bigger as John Beatle. Not his pocketbook. It benefitted his ego, and his new wife. Or was he simply feeling stifled, musically within the Beatles? But with the exception of his Plastic Ono Band record which was a departure and something you couldn’t see as a Beatles record, Lennon’s solo stuff seems to fit solidly in the Beatle bin; it was when he was a Beatle that he did all the experimental music. Why couldn’t that have continued indefinitely? Who was stopping him from recording with Clapton and The Stones? Nobody. So what impelled him to go? People always talk about how John Lennon never did anything by half-measures, and once he’d lost interest in The Beatles, it was old news, doomed. But while he’d pick up and put down enthusiasms like LSD or TM, Lennon didn’t really act like that with the people who were important in his life — he didn’t sever ties with Aunt Mimi, nor Cyn, nor the other three Beatles, nor even Yoko during the Lost Weekend. In fact, storming off and then hanging around was much more John’s style. “Making a clean break” with P/G/R doesn’t fit with him; and in fact he didn’t do it. With the benefit of hindsight, the thing that’s weird about John is how little he reinvented himself; yeah, he wasn’t the same guy at 31 that he was at 21, but who is? The guy at 40 was dressing like he had at 17, still playing Beatle-like music, still talking to the other three, even (supposedly) wanting to write with Paul again. All of the data suggests that 1) something happened in India that really shook his relationship with the other three; 2) he brought Yoko in as a wrecking ball; but 3) by 1971, he’s firmly back into the pop star (not pop artist) game, and 4) by 1976, he’s back loving The Beatles. Do I think Yoko encouraged him, via letter and in person, to think of himself as a genius and get rid of those other three freeloaders? Yeah. Do I think that’s why he left the band? No.
Prince Plays While My Guitar Gently Weeps Comment by on Jul 20, 12:11 Even later to the party, I discovered Prince’s performance while surfing during covid lockdown. I knew nothing about Prince, or his music, but I was totally blown away by his performance. Enough so to send the link to friends and family, who all agreed that it was the most amazing and beautiful guitar solo they had ever seen.- Reader Question #1: George Harrison and Beatlemania Comment by on Jul 20, 10:30 I always thought I was an introvert, but none of the descriptions fit me. Sociopath? IDK. It’s difficult to put people in boxes, and even the professionals can struggle to identify personality ‘disorders’, whatever that even means.
- How I’d publish Tune In Vol. 2 and 3! Comment by on Jul 19, 14:33 I can’t remember where I saw it (it was a very long time ago), but I seem to recall his deal was for $1.4 million? Or one-point-something at any rate. That was in about 2003 or so. It wouldn’t have been at all difficult to have spent all that by the time Vol. I was published, depending on his cost of living. Doesn’t he live in London? Pretty expensive place. But further to the point, I would absolutely contribute to any crowdfunding effort for Vols II & III. And I think your estimates of how many people would contribute to it are very low. Just enlist every Beatles podcast/Youtube channel in existence to spread the word, and Lewisohn would be absolutely swimming in money.
- “Let It Be,” “Get Back,” and History as Art Comment by on Jul 19, 11:11 We didn’t like it — how could you? – Michael G. I just can’t understand this Mike. Perhaps because I’m a boomer who missed Let It Be the first time around. In 1970, I was 15. And although I was a big fan of the music, I wasn’t into the background noise.
- The Beatles, “Let It Be,” and “Get Back”: “Trying to Deceive”? Comment by on Jul 19, 10:59 Having watched both movies only recently, I didn’t feel a lot of negativity. If anything, there was more of an apathy (drugs?) I think John was basically done with the Beatles after revolver, but couldn’t decide how to leave, and what would he do on his own, until Yoko came along. Similarly, George had lost interest in the band, but wanted to be able to get back together when he needed money. I thought Jackson was most disingenious with the lunch time recording, trying to make it more negative than the actual conversation on the Nagra tapes. Lindsey Hogg probably did the best he could with the constraints he was under.
- Lester Bangs’ anti-Beatles sermon, 1975 Comment by on Jul 19, 06:49 Sounds bitter to me, I wonder who spurned him?
- Memories of Nicholas Schaffner and The Beatles Forever Comment by on Jul 16, 10:10 Doug, I got excited for a moment when I saw your comment about the “Get Back” book. I thought I might be sitting on a gold mine. So I looked online, and the book is available at places like Abe Books and eBay for about 50 to 70 bucks. Certainly more than the dollar or two I paid in 1970, but not enough to lift me out of my genteel poverty.
- What happened in India? Comment by on Jul 16, 09:16 I think it was simply motivated by Yoko send love notes to John in India, then later encouraging him to leave the Beatles, which he had been disinterested in probably since doing How I Won the War. He didn’t have the courage to leave on his own, but she finally convinced him that he had the talent to do his own thing, which is what he wanted, but was too insecure.
- What happened in India? Comment by on Jul 16, 07:57 This is brilliant, imo. I just finished watching LIB again, and I don’t see much negative there. I’m a boomer, but didn’t get to see or read about it when it first came out. I really enjoyed it, especially since the Jackson polishing. All the negativity surrounding the initially tv show must have simply been a sign of the times.
- The Artist as a Dissipated Man: Fred Seaman’s “The Last Days of John Lennon” Comment by on Jul 16, 04:19 It’s also worth noting that NYC was the world epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at the time. The first cases had not even been identified or given a name. That said, I’d still argue it’s unlikely.
- “Get Back” open thread Comment by on Jul 12, 07:00 A little late, but that was absolutely amazing and hilarious, thank you @Alejandra!
- “Get Back” open thread Comment by on Jul 9, 08:18 It makes me wonder how they did it on earlier albums. There seemed to be a lot of fooling around and time wasting for a concept with a deadline.
- “Get Back” Halftime Report Comment by on Jul 9, 08:12 You can still see that Paul irritates George in the Anthology series, over two decades later. George just can’t let go of it.
- Memories of Nicholas Schaffner and The Beatles Forever Comment by on Jul 2, 21:41 This book is “Get Back;” it was issued in Britain and Canada (but not the US) as part of a boxset with the “Let it Be” album. I live in the US and had never heard of it until around 1976, when I found it on a clearance table in a book store. The were selling the box with the book (but not the LP) for a dollar! I bought a copy; if I had been thinking like an investor, I would have grabbed a lot more. I’m sure they’re worth more than a buck now.
- “You, my pal, ROCK!”: Inspiration from the spam filter Comment by on Jun 29, 11:37 Just because they call it advanced doesn at mean it is.
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 29, 08:24 They all have some great post Beatles songs imo, but I don’t have any of it on my playlist. It’s more like a greatest hits, than like the Beatles music, which I like 99% of.
- From Faith Current: “Fool on the Hill: The Myth of Perfectionist Paul” Comment by on Jun 26, 09:55 I love Paul’s granny songs
- Ian Leslie: “Notes on Peter Jackson’s Get Back” Comment by on Jun 23, 11:10 And I loved Ian Leslie’s article, I thought he was spot on. Thanks for pointing me to it back in ’23.
- Ian Leslie: “Notes on Peter Jackson’s Get Back” Comment by on Jun 23, 11:08 Great album, and a great movie, although I think Peter Jackson is tedious, and could have shortened it by a few hours, or perhaps used other material if worthwhile. I burned this 8 track tape out by 1972.
- Will the Beatles Last? Comment by on Jun 22, 17:16 My twenty something dental hygienist told me she was going to India to visit her grandparents. I said the only thing I knew about India was the Beatles and their visit to the maharishi and the ashram. I asked her if she had ever heard of the Beatles, and she said, ‘oh yeah, I listen to them all the time”
The Dizz Gillespie Story Comment by on Jun 16, 08:13 If I encountered Dizz like that in the bathroom, I would’ve beaten his ribs in.
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 11, 21:30 @Mike, it does seem as if John’s death took something out of Paul; I imagine he rarely wrote a song without wondering, at some level, what his old partner would think about it, and surely the same was true for John. It doesn’t seem accidental that Paul seems to have been much more inclined to collaborate with other major musicians — Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson — after 1980; before that, I suspect there was some part of him always waiting for John to come to his senses and reignite the old partnership. I will have to revisit the songs Paul did with Costello, who strikes me as someone who — at his best — displayed some of the best qualities of both Lennon and McCartney as a songwriter: sharp wordplay combined with surprising tunes.
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 10, 16:08 Michael, Your “fans, man” arrived at just the right time. We were, by happenstance, given two behind-the-dugout seats to a major league baseball game last evening. I have not been to a game in decades, but what a fun date night under the lights it was and we got to see, even though we were neutral as to who won, a couple of players who will be in the Hall of Fame one day. The “fan experience ” as it is so labeled was however, to put it mildly, an eye-opener. Thousands of men and women wearing jerseys of their favorite player and frequently springing from their seats to cheer on their cherished team. It was about the 4th inning when a group of guys, who seemed to have frequented the beer stand on more than one occasion, leaped up and waved towels around and lodged vociferous complaint with the umpire. They were, apparently, disputing the latter’s call at second base against the baserunner. My wife, who had also read your reply, leaned over and asked “What was that you were saying about Paul McCartney fans?” All I could do was shrug my shoulders and say “fans, man.”
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 10, 15:57 Thank you for the reply J.D. You make a great point about finding it rewarding to take Paul’s post Beatle career on its own terms. Here I was bellyaching about how I get tired of his music, but then you named two of my absolute favorites in Uncle Albert and Mull and I had to immediately listen to them again. Great stuff!
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 7, 20:00 Neal, for many years I found it difficult to appreciate almost any of Paul’s solo stuff because I found myself automatically comparing it to his work with the Beatles. But I’ve found it more rewarding to approach it on its own terms, as the deeply idiosyncratic, almost stream-of-conscious creations of a genius who felt free to indulge whatever weird musical whims popped into his head. I can’t think of any hit songs of the 1970s as profoundly odd as “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” and only Paul could have a hit in the New Wave era with “Mull of Kintyre,” a song that sounds like it could be hundreds of years old. Then there’s “McCartney II,” which gives us a Paul who sounds like he’s already anticipated the music of the 1980s before that decade was even a year old. I will say that my interest in Paul’s music rapidly declines after “Tug of War,” and I don’t have a ton of interest in his later stuff. I’m delighted that he’s still around and making music, and the stuff he’s doing is inoffensive enough that I don’t think it will mar his legacy.
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 7, 14:55 @Michael Thank you. Your reasons are very much along the lines of what I have been looking for in a discussion regarding Paul’s quite devoted fan base. I can understand that they do like him, but it all too sadly, just supposed to be taken as a given that he deserves such a fervent/adoring/zealous following. While we as humans are unable to tease out the exact ingredients and in what measure they went into the test tube to create the magic of the Beatles years, we fortunately are able to recognize, and then enjoy, what occurred. This seems to be the case with Paul and reading your response it made me think that the “magic” is different for every listener. The time, the place, the individuals, the cultural cross-currents, the technology. It all was part of a talent that, as you say, cannot be recreated and so remains personal, and treasured, by us. There are many reasons though that I think that the nil chance of it reoccurring might not be so bad. While we might bemoan the slack tides in which we are musically and culturally sailing at the moment/decades, I find the diversity a good thing. If talent, like energy, is neither created nor destroyed but is just stored and transmitted in various ways, perhaps the fracturing of things and the 1001 diverse directions in which they have scattered is something that might provide the impetus for an ultra-generational talent to emerge. Since, as you say, the mono-culture is no longer intact any upcoming talent has a very high bar to clear of course, but I am not sure that such revolutionary ideas/persons set out to change the world, but then it suddenly occurs. Not that it “just happens,” but it ends up making the things that went before almost unrecognizable from how things are now. That, though, is of course both the problem and the joy. A problem in that we feel as if we have been becalmed, but a joy in that something might very well come along and just pin everyone’s ears back. Perhaps a long way to say that it won’t happen the same way, but hope, as fragile a filament as that is, leads me to keep an eye and ear open. Btw. Just for fun I looked across a few sites that have covered the release of the album and the comments I read led me to that uncomfortable moment that you realize that you are at a gathering that you should not be or don’t want to be—that moment when you grab your hat and coat and back slowly toward to door. One commenter said that he/she has listened to album 40 times already. Another opined that four of the songs should be considered among the very best that Paul has ever released as a solo artist. Yikes!
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 4, 17:15 Well said. Now I have to buy the album.
- Some Thoughts on The Boys of Dungeon Lane Comment by on Jun 4, 15:24 George Orwell is reputed to once have said that he is more interested in how you think than in what you think. Obviously, there are caveats galore with this, but I have always hedged an appreciation for that ideal as it forms the basis of intelligent and constructive critique. In other words, if one is going to look at a topic from 360 degrees, then I would like to know the thought process behind the likes and dislikes and not just that “I really like it” or “I listened to it twenty times in the last two days.” I am not at all saying that this is what this reviewer has done—not at all. Instead. I am merely using the recent drop of The Boys of Dungeon Lane album as a springboard as a chance to howl at the moon and to try to sort out some of the thoughts that have been, for better or worse, buzzing through my head recently regarding Sir Paul, fandom, and what I see as a reflexive inclination among many to praise him without holding him to the very high standards that he created so many decades ago. I am once again, as is always the case when I assess anything by Paul post Ram and anything at all post 1970 by the other Beatles, feeling oddly guilty in not liking so much of it. I admit that I can be a rather thick-foreheaded cultural non-entity who is perhaps no further enlightened than the men of the Cro-Magnon Era, but I honestly wrestle with why almost none of it (Paul’s or the others) post-Beatles work piques my interest. This problem requires a full disclosure: I don’t even like music that much, but I very much enjoy reading about the artists, the history, and the cultural changes they wrought. This is exactly what Michael and his readership do on the HeyDullBlog site and I am an eager reader of all of it even if I am that guy who could drive across the country and never once turn on music. To be even more honest, I am envious of those who have (many at a mere four or five years old if the Internet is to be believed!) had transformative musical experiences that forever set them on a course of listening, playing, and even performing. I lacked the musical gene and therefore there was no seedbed in my life where nascent interests would grow into forests of musical expression and experience. Worse, I grow very weary of so much music. I find it to be achingly repetitive and I bemoan songs that might have a snazzy hook, beat, and intro, but then make a four-minute lunch out of saying the same things over and over again. My Sweet Lord anyone? It is the definition of repetition, but then my Cro-Magnon dictionary only has a few entries as reading was not quite in vogue thousands of years ago. I think of my unsophisticated musical horizon as that of a small garden ornament and thus limited to cool drumming (think of the jazz influences of John Densmore’s work with the Doors) or what we enjoyed on Friday nights in college with beer and the likes of Van Halen’s Outta Love Again or Queen. Not to say that I cannot be moved at all. The early Beatles and Beach Boys catalogs were bursting larders of the eerily evocative and ethereal sounds of 1960s AM radios and dreams of worlds just over the horizon. Yet, like all the music we hear in our youth, these songs had a time and a place even if they, fortunately, can still bring us great pleasure. Ok, I engage in this prolix, and fully unsolicited, confession to say that I am genuinely curious as to what other listeners are hearing, and enjoying, when they say they just love everything Paul has written. I am obviously missing a great deal but I do not know exactly what or where to start to remedy those shortcomings. I am being neither snarky nor snobby here. I genuinely do not understand and since I do not understand then I cannot appreciate. My nephew, the art student, once explained to me the artistry behind Gustav Klimt and Egon Shiele and once he did, I have been an eternal aficionado of that style. Yet yesterday my better half and I listened to snippets of a few of the tracks from The Boys of Dungeon Lane. She, with a musical ear, could handle more than I as I had to tap out after only 15 seconds of each song. Was I indeed hearing the man who resides on the Mount Olympus of pop music? I felt bad as to me it was just the cloying and anodyne whispers of an 84-year-old man—and that is not age discrimination as I am not too far off the pace in the years-gone-by sweepstakes. I have read that those who do not like the music should instead focus on Paul’s magisterial lyrics, deep reflection, and the skill with which he plumbs the emotional deep. Uh…ok. Was this the Freshman dorm poetry reading? Granted, no one expects the chops of a Heinrich Heinne, John Donne, or Siegfried Sassoon, but seriously. Is no one at all in a position to play the foil of John Lennon? Wait, ignore that question has been open since 1969 and the last time John played the foil to Paul’s ideas. Paul is an entertainer of the absolute first rank who lives for the public eye. Good for him and good on him. To paraphrase the Black Eyed Peas – That’s what he does it’s who he be. Nor can one begrudge those who spend a few thousand to go see him in concert. I say this with every intention of compliment when I say that he is a living museum and to witness an actual Beatle on stage must be, for many who are ardent in their fandom, truly a life’s experience. Often this human quest to maintain a link with the past is admirable in paying homage to the greats of yesteryear while at times it can shackle us into smothering the object of our adoration with hagiographic phrases that have a weight but no longer any meaning such as when the media has to immediately report that this is an “excellent” album. Why is it? Tell me, says Orwell, how you came to that conclusion. Paul is not a jello mold, he is an artist and the art demands clear viewing. I have watched one too many videos today of YouTube influencers who are shedding diluvian tears in real or imagined emotional release over this new album. I just wish they could spare a dime for those in the corps of the Philistines and tell us why this is good music and not just because “It was released on what would have been my Nan’s 95th birthday, or “he is as good as he was when he was 25.” In the meantime, I will fall back on the words of Aldous Huxley and his worry that silence in the 20th century would be completely pushed to the side. I would have liked to have driven across the country with him. Maybe Sir Paul could have benefited as well. Thanks, as always, Michael for having this great site! It is, by a mile, the best Beatle one out there.
“Hope You Got That” Comment by on Jun 4, 09:08 The same. Just had the privilege of seeing Purple Rain & SOTT as a double feature in one of my favourite music venues, and was reminded all over again what a genius he was.
- Quick Housekeeping Note re: Moolah Comment by on Jun 3, 17:37 Done and done — took the money out of Patreon and started a monthly company-matched donation to UCP.
- “Hope You Got That” Comment by on Jun 3, 17:31 I just watched this yesterday! It must have been on Apple News. Even my wife, who’s not a huge music fan stopped and watched for a while. He is nothing if not charming, always has been. one of the few men I would marry if I were single. The Beatles were always people you felt you could hang out with, without feeling inferior, even though you are. Was it Liverpool? Britain? It’s impossible that four guys that talented and charismatic just happened to stumble on each other. Karma? Instant karma?
- Did Paul “Save The Beatles”? Comment by on Jun 2, 13:58 I think you’re right; John started an escalating game of chicken. With phases based on (devolving) circumstances and John’s state of being. Post-India Yer Blues White sessions John needed propping up and a buffer between he and Paul. With Yoko as a life preserver more than calculated provocation. But John definitely ran with the provoking. So we get John yanking Paul off a vocal for Yoko, Yoko inserting her commentary but also lots of time apart in separate studios. With Get Back, John limps in prodded by Yoko, heroin and mind games—and minus the bag of songs he brought in ‘68. Now we have everyone in the same room, on camera, with Yoko sitting between John and Paul, Yoko grabbing the mic and Yoko speaking for John. John plays the sex tape the day before sessions begin, a mic drop of intent: How far back on your heels can I drive you, pal? Phase II, heroin encroaching, is where John gives himself a second vote and tries to install Yoko in The Beatles with no one’s consent but hers. By the time John asks for a divorce, does he know from up? I think John meant to knock Paul down some pegs, not break up the band. After months of deferring to Yoko, heroin and Klein, Paul was such a wavering figure I doubt John could formulate him walking away. For a crucial period, it looks like John was persuaded any Beatles future should follow his dictates, as the outfit’s messiah. Which makes it even sadder if the hints John dropped for months in Instant Karma, interviews, etc., were sincere efforts to reel Paul back in. The more I learn, the more I suspect it was genuine.
- My Yoko Problem… and yours? Comment by on Jun 1, 09:11 The more concrete information joins the discourse (despite Yoko’ and The Estate’s decades of suppression and propaganda efforts), the more tragic I find it that the two of them never sought the mental health treatment—and, yes, conjoint counseling—that could’ve expanded their lives. Coercive control, addiction, codependency and what looks like twin misery shape the better part of a decade. Yikes. It would be depressing to see, as lump sum statistics, how much time and effort was dropped on astrology, numerology, the occult, shopping, fortune-telling and drugs instead. Dodging mirrors. I’m as surprised by anger and judgment uncut by compassion towards Yoko as I am the number of people who watched Get Back and missed (or deny the profound impact of heroin addiction and johnandyoko trying to insert her as another Beatle had on the general stress level and blowing the band apart. Yes, John chose to bring her. But Yoko chose to sit in the middle of the circle and speak for John—as if a full Beatle collaborator, not just John’s. I love a nuanced post asking us to interrogate our own (sometimes visceral) reactions. One of Yoko’s teachings, imo, is how hard it can be to see someone beyond their over-loud agenda.
- John and Mimi Comment by on May 31, 05:43 In fact, according to “Revolution A Secret History Of The Beatles – Strictly Unauthorized” (Audiobook here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEW1iX9Jcpw&t=4115s) Apparently John did tell someone, just one person. Not saying it’s 100% true but definitely interesting.
- Quick Housekeeping Note re: Moolah Comment by on May 29, 13:22 Hi Mike, I’m sorry to hear that we can’t compensate you directly. I will do it with the bystander, and just dropped a C note with UCP, and will continue with them yearly when I do my annual charitable giving. I’m sorry to hear about your CP. as one with a chronic illness, I can relate wholeheartedly. As I said before, you helped get me through covid, and anything I can do to return the favor is a blessing. I love your writing, and hope you are able to keep going for a long, long time. all the best!
Quick Housekeeping Note re: Moolah Comment by on May 28, 23:38 I’ve been so pleased to see this site up and running again! I’ve spent many, many hours reading the archives and all the comments – it’s truly an unparalleled resource in Beatledom. Thank you for creating and maintaining such an interesting discussion space.
Recent CommentsMichael Gerber2020-09-14T13:07:50-07:00