(on songwriting, during the 'White Album' period)
JOHN: "I've got another one here... a few words... I think I got them from an advert. 'Cry baby cry, make your mother BUY.' I've been playing it over and over on the piano. I've let it go now, but it will come back if I really want it. Sometimes I get up from the piano as if I've been in a trance, and I know I have let a few things slip away which I could have caught had I wanted something."
PAUL 1968
(during the recording of 'The White Album')
Q: "Did you write alot of music while you were in India?"
PAUL: "Yea. We're recording all that now. We've just gone into the studios and we're recording the material that we wrote over there. I think it will probably take a couple of months to complete all the recordings."
Q: "Are you concerned about now being seen as businessmen because of Apple?"
PAUL: "It doesn't bother me how people see us. It really matters to all of us what we really are. It matters to me personally what I am, and I don't feel like a businessman. I also don't feel like a performer anymore just because I haven't performed for so long. I feel more like a recording artist these days."
JOHN 1968(following the release of the 'White Album')
JOHN: "What we're trying to do is rock 'n roll, 'with less of your philosorock,' is what we're saying to ourselves. And get on with rocking because rockers is what we really are. You can give me a guitar, stand me up in front of a few people. Even in the studio, if I'm getting into it, I'm just doing my old bit... not quite doing Elvis Legs but doing my equivalent. It's just natural. Everybody says we must do this and that but our thing is just rocking. You know, the usual gig. That's what this new record is about. Definitely rocking."
PAUL 1968
(following the release of 'The White Album')
PAUL: "It's a return to a more rock and roll sound. We felt it was time to step back because that's what we wanted to do. You can still make good music without going forward. Some people want us to go on until we vanish up our own B sides."
RINGO 1968
(on his place in history)
RINGO: "I'm not the creative one. I know that. If Rory Storm hadn't come along... and then The Beatles... I would have continued running around in teddyboy gangs. Today, well... I'd probably be a laborer. I'm glad I'm not, of course. It'll be nice to be part of history... some sort of history anyway. What I'd like to be is in school history books and be read by kids."
PAUL AND GEORGE 1968
(regarding the 'Yellow Submarine' movie, and the Maharishi)
PAUL: "We're just in it as drawings. It's us animated."
Q: "Did Magical Mystery Tour put you off making a film completely yourselves?"
GEORGE: (jokingly) "Yeah, we're only gonna be cartoons forever now, because they really put us off... those no good, damn critics."
PAUL: (laughs) "It's a new career piece."
Q: "The cartoon makes a bit of fun at the Maharishi. Does this mean you're finished with him?"
PAUL: "It's not that we're FINISHED with him, but it was a bit of a phase. He's still a great fella, and everybody's fine... but we don't go out with him anymore."
RINGO 1968
(responding to reports of tension within the group)
Q: "Are The Beatles still as close as they used to be?"
RINGO: "Yes. You know there's that famous old saying, 'You always hurt the ones you love.' And we all love each other and we all know that, but we still sort of hurt each other occasionally, you know. Or we just misunderstand each other. And we go off and it builds up to something bigger than it ever really was. Then we have to get over with it and sort it out. But we're still really very close people."
JOHN 1968
(on image versus reality)
JOHN: "I'm not a mixer. My so-called outgoing image is all false. I kept it up for years, but I'm not a loudmouth. It was a character I put on... as a defense. I cried wolf, and now I'm paying for it. I know it sounds like a moan. Perhaps it's just because the grass is always greener."
GEORGE 1968
(on wealth and experimental lifestyles)
GEORGE: "We're in a position to try new things which others can't or won't. Like drugs. People doing ordinary jobs just couldn't have given the time we did to looking into all that. If Mick Jagger had gone to jail for taking pot, he would have been the best person it could have happened to. Being rich and famous makes it easier to go through with that sort of thing. That would have been much better than, say, if it had happened to someone with no money who it could have ruined."
JOHN 1968
(on joking around)
JOHN: "I miss playing soft jokes on people. I used to do it on trains... go into other people's compartments and pretend to be soft. I still feel an urge to do that. We were on the way to Wembley once in a van. We wrote on a piece of paper, 'Which way to Wembley?' We spoke in a foreign language and pointed to a map of Wales. Everybody went mad putting us right. Then one time we did try disguises so we could get around. George and I went through customs in long coats and beards thinking no one would recognize us, but they all did. Paul was the best. He pretended to be a weird photographer... coming out with alot of psychological gibberish. He even fooled Brian."
RINGO 1968
(on being Ringo)
RINGO: "I saw a program on TV the other day about the effect a long period in the hospital can have on a child. It can make them very withdrawn. I'm beginning to see now that I am what I am because of the kind of upbringing I had... with no father and my mother always out of work. It did make me very quiet and introverted. I'm only figuring myself out now... though I was very happy at the time."
GEORGE 1968
(regarding Apple)
GEORGE: "We've gotten very involved with this business thing, which actually we were always involved in. Maybe people think it's a drag, but we were always involved with it anyway. When Brian Epstein died, we suddenly realized we had to sort it all out."
PAUL 1968
(regarding Apple)
PAUL: "The idea of Apple is that even if you are a clerk in an Apple office or in anything to do with Apple, we really do try to turn you on. There is a definite effort to turn people on in this building. The people who don't want it, who don't like it, will go back to being hired clerks because they'd rather do that. But if you want to come here in order to be a sort of turned-on clerk, that's great. I think occasionally too much of it goes on and you don't get much work done because everyone's so busy turning each other on. But it is nicer. I mean it really is a different atmosphere in this place from any building I've ever been in."
JOHN 1968
(reflecting on being given MBEs by the Queen)
JOHN: "All we did when we were waiting in the Palace was giggle. We collapsed, the whole thing was so funny. There was this guardsman telling us how to march and how to curtsey when we met the Queen. We knew in our hearts that she was just some woman, yet we were going through it. I really think the Queen believes in it all. She must. I don't believe in John Lennon Beatle as being any different from anyone else because I know he's not. I'm just a feller. But I'm sure the Queen must think she's different."
RINGO 1968
(on Beatle finances)
RINGO: "We have spent alot of money, because we don't earn as much as people think. If we earn a million then the government gets ninety percent. And we didn't sort of realize how much we were spending. Someone pointed out that to spend ten thousand you have to make one hundred and twenty thousand. So what we're doing now is tightening up our own personal money, and the company's money, you know. We're going to cut down a bit until we've sorted ourselves out again, and do it properly as a business. It's not that we're broke. On paper we're very wealthy people... it's just when it gets down to pound notes... then we're only half-wealthy"
GEORGE 1968
(on the past and future of The Beatles)
GEORGE: "We've all come together along the same path. We've been together a long time. We learned right from the beginning that we're going to be together. We haven't really started yet. We've only just discovered what we can do as musicians, and what thresholds we can cross. The future stretches out beyond our imagination."
IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO TODAY... THIS WEEK IN 1968
Monday, December 9th, 1968 - Dr. Douglas C. Englebart, the inventor of the computer mouse, publicly demonstrates his invention for the first time at the San Francisco Convention Center.
Tuesday, December 10th,1968 - The annual Heisman Trophy for college football is awarded to O.J. Simpson of the University of South Carolina.
Wednesday, December 11th, 1968 - President-elect Richard M. Nixon introduces all twelve of his Cabinet appointees in a single announcement during an unprecedented TV appearance carried by all the networks.
Thursday, December 12th, 1968 - Tallulah Bankhead, the outspoken and unconventional actress of the 1920's - 1940s, dies from influenza in New York City at the age of 66.
Friday, December 13th, 1968 - A Boston research team, headed by Dr. Andrew Weil, finds marijuana to be a relatively harmless intoxicant with minor short-lived affects.
Saturday, December 14th, 1968 - Two-time World Middleweight Boxing Champion Nino Bevenuti defends his title for the first time, beating Don Fullner of the U.S. in a 15-round bout held in San Remo, Italy.
Sunday, December 15th, 1968 - United Artists releases the musical film "Oliver", starring Ron Moody, Mark Lester, Jack Wild, and Shanni Wallis. Four months later the movie wins six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1968.
No comments:
Post a Comment