15 years ago
John and Paul talk about Sgt. Pepper
John and Paul Interviewed for Top of the Pops for the soon to be released Sgt. Pepper album.
With the Beatles in India - Part 3
by Paul Saltzman
These are excerpts from the new, Deluxe Limited Edition, box-set book, The Beatles in India. The time that John, Paul, George and Ringo spent at the Ashram in India, in 1968, was the single most creative period in their illustrious careers--they were inspired to write 48 songs in the few weeks they were there. But the real reason they went to India was to find inner peace: George Harrison shared this with me in one of the many intimate times I was fortunate to spend with the Fab Four.
Part 2 here or start from here
Not knowing what I was looking for, I walked a half-mile along the pebbly and rocky riverbank until I saw a small sign at the foot of a narrow path. Made of rough wood, it had the word 'ashram' crudely painted on it, with a small arrow pointing towards the heavens. After a circuitous and steep climb through trees, thickets and patches of large purple wildflowers, I reached the top of the cliff. It was early afternoon on a beautiful day. From there, a one-lane dirt road ran several hundred yards away from town, along the cliffs, leading me to the ashram.
At the entrance stood a faded, yellow, wood picket-fence gate. It was locked and a man in a slightly tattered, dark blue Nehru jacket stood guard. He spoke no English but motioned to someone inside and a short young man in his early thirties, with a lovely light-brown complexion and a short, dark, trim beard came to talk to me. He introduced himself in a quiet, warm voice as Raghvendra, a disciple of the Maharishi, and asked if he could help me. I told him I had seen the Maharishi speak at Delhi University a few days before and that I'd come to learn meditation. Raghvendra was kind, but firm, "I'm very sorry but the ashram is closed because the Beatles and their wives are here, and were doing a meditation teacher's course." I had nothing to lose: "You have to teach me." I said, " I'm in a lot of emotional pain." He considered this for a moment, then said, "I will ask the Maharishi. I will send you a cup of chai, but I may not be back for two or three hours."
These are excerpts from the new, Deluxe Limited Edition, box-set book, The Beatles in India. The time that John, Paul, George and Ringo spent at the Ashram in India, in 1968, was the single most creative period in their illustrious careers--they were inspired to write 48 songs in the few weeks they were there. But the real reason they went to India was to find inner peace: George Harrison shared this with me in one of the many intimate times I was fortunate to spend with the Fab Four.
Part 2 here or start from here
Not knowing what I was looking for, I walked a half-mile along the pebbly and rocky riverbank until I saw a small sign at the foot of a narrow path. Made of rough wood, it had the word 'ashram' crudely painted on it, with a small arrow pointing towards the heavens. After a circuitous and steep climb through trees, thickets and patches of large purple wildflowers, I reached the top of the cliff. It was early afternoon on a beautiful day. From there, a one-lane dirt road ran several hundred yards away from town, along the cliffs, leading me to the ashram.
At the entrance stood a faded, yellow, wood picket-fence gate. It was locked and a man in a slightly tattered, dark blue Nehru jacket stood guard. He spoke no English but motioned to someone inside and a short young man in his early thirties, with a lovely light-brown complexion and a short, dark, trim beard came to talk to me. He introduced himself in a quiet, warm voice as Raghvendra, a disciple of the Maharishi, and asked if he could help me. I told him I had seen the Maharishi speak at Delhi University a few days before and that I'd come to learn meditation. Raghvendra was kind, but firm, "I'm very sorry but the ashram is closed because the Beatles and their wives are here, and were doing a meditation teacher's course." I had nothing to lose: "You have to teach me." I said, " I'm in a lot of emotional pain." He considered this for a moment, then said, "I will ask the Maharishi. I will send you a cup of chai, but I may not be back for two or three hours."
I thanked him, dropped my backpack to the ground, and plunked myself down. I had no idea the Beatles would be there and, at that moment, it was not good news. I spent the afternoon resting there by the gate and wrote a letter to my parents and one to my girlfriend, hoping she would reconsider. A few hours later, Raghvendra returned. Again, he was soft-spoken and kind.
"I'm sorry," he said, "the Maharishi says 'Not at the present time'."
He explained that there were sixty meditators in the ashram from all over the world, to take their advanced teacher's course, and with the Beatles and their wives there the ashram was closed to all visitors and the press. Without thinking, I said, "Can I wait?" Raghvendra was a little taken aback. He paused, seeming to check my sincerity, then said, "Yes" and added that, since I had come all the way from Canada, I could sleep in one of two old, white canvas army tents pitched across the path in a clearing of scrub grass under the old teak trees. He added that they would send me their "simple vegetarian meals." Each tent could sleep about six adults, but I was alone in mine. A local tailor from the village below had temporarily set up shop in the other tent.
As each day stretched slowly into the next, I thought about my quest to 'find myself' but I just wanted my heart to stop hurting. I longed to be taught meditation. Over the next few days Raghvendra and I talked often. A kind, decent, down-to-earth man, there was always a twinkling joy in his eyes and whenever we looked at each other we couldn't help smiling. Raghvendra was a brahmacharya, or novice monk, and one of the Maharishi's closest disciples. He had spent many years looking for a guru and when he finally met the Maharishi, two years before, he gave up his law studies and became one of his lifetime students.
The turbulence of world events in 1968 didn't echo in Rishikesh. At the same time, the world's press arrived to find out what the Beatles were doing there. Every day 20 to 30 would arrive: camera crews, radio and press reporters: BBC, the American networks, Time Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, Paris Match, Vogue, Der Stern, Italian and Japanese television, and more. Each afternoon I'd watch as the Maharishi came out of the gate to give a press conference and answer questions. Referring to the Beatles, one British reporter asked me if I thought they'd "gone bonkers".
Meditation
I waited for eight days outside the gates to the Ashram. Then one day, in the early morning mist, Raghvendra came through the gate. He said I could come in now and learn to meditate, and I could spend my days in the ashram, take my meals with them and continue to sleep in the tent at night. My initiation into transcendental meditation took place in Raghvendra's quarters, with only the two of us there. We sat cross-legged on white futons on the floor and began with a short puja, a traditional Hindu offering of fruit, flowers, cloth and prayers. After Raghvendra sang ancient Sanskrit prayers, he told me my mantra, or incantation, that I would use in meditating. Mantras can be words, which lose their meaning through repetition, but mine was simply a one-syllable configuration of letters that gave a soft sound when pronounced. He instructed me in how to say the sound silently, within, and just easily follow it, listening to it until it faded to silence; and how to repeat this until I experienced a transcending of normal waking consciousness. I closed my eyes and tried it for a few minutes. Raghvendra asked me to describe what I was experiencing, to make sure I was using the technique properly. Then after reminding me that the mantra was mine, and secret, he left me alone to meditate for the first time.
I relaxed, shut my eyes, and let thoughts come and go. As I became engrossed in thought, the outside world seemed to recede. I no longer noticed the wind in the trees or the sound of faraway talking. Then, as Raghvendra had instructed, I gently replaced my thoughts with my mantra. I silently said my sound and listened to it, following it. Thoughts flooded back in, and again I replaced them with my mantra. I lost sense of time and for a moment only the sound of my mantra was in my conscious mind. As the sound faded no verbalized thoughts replaced it and I was left in a place without sound and without thought. I wasn't actually conscious of this until a second later, when that faithful little observation voice in my head said, "Hey! That's it!" which right away pulled me back into conscious, verbal thought.
I hadn't fallen asleep, yet it had been a very restful place of silence and darkness. I didn't know quite where I had gone, but I knew I had been somewhere deeply peaceful. I felt reenergized and I realized that I must have transcended. I wanted to experience it again and so continued meditating for about half-an-hour and transcended once more. It could have been for a second or two, or several minutes--I couldn't tell. Most of the time, though, I just thought about things, and my thinking seemed clearer, less cluttered than usual.
When I stopped, I waited for about a minute, slowly opened my eyes, and walked into the bright afternoon sun. It took my eyes a moment or two to adjust. The scream was gone. The agony was gone. I felt like a newborn chick, having just come out of its shell into a whole new reality. I walked toward my tent feeling rested, calm, mildly euphoric, turned on at being alive. As I sat, I couldn't help smiling at the friendly hills. I felt a soft physical vibration in my body and a warmth in my heart. I felt a new sense of oneness with the world. I realized, sitting there, that truly loving another person is not possessive or controlling, but expansive and supportive. Surprisingly, I felt happiness for my girlfriend. And, I realized I had abandoned her before she left me. I felt different, like something profound had shifted within me. Was this part of 'finding myself'? Was this what I had been looking for? And was it to be found inside me? It felt like it, like the beginning of a new path--and I felt very grateful.
That night I sat alone looking up at the mountain stars for hours. The trees rustled faintly in the distance, the sweet fragrance of evening jasmine filling the air. Monkeys chattered and somewhere in the valley below a lone peacock called out. From the far side of the ashram another answered. Allowing the soft, velvet touch of night to envelop me, I felt at peace.
Part 4 here
Bookshelf - British Invasion: How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America
by Bill Harry
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Pub. Date: January 2004
ISBN-13: 9781842402474
Sales Rank: 378,855
250pp
Synopsis
The explosion of British bands onto the American rock scene in the 1960s is examined in this thorough history. Marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' first trip to the United States, this look at British rock music covers in detail the pre-Beatles music that first gave Americans a taste of the British style, Beatlemania, and the British acts that followed their lead, including the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks. This account includes in-depth interviews with key figures and fully updated information on this dynamic time in American pop music. Previously unseen photographs and reproduced newspaper front pages provide a visual history of that music explosion.
Buy it here new for 25$ or used for 5$
Buy it here new for 20$ or used for 5$
The Beatles and Mersey Beat
by Bill Harry, Beatles' friend and founder of Mersey Beat
Liverpool College of Art, 1958: students would go over to Ye Cracke pub in Rice Street for a beer. I'd got to know an extremely talented student, Stuart Sutcliffe and his best friend Rod Murray. I'd also got to know a new student John Lennon and introduced him to Stu and Rod in the pub.
It was the four of us who, early in 1960, in that same pub, decided to call ourselves the Dissenters and made a vow to make Liverpool famous – John with his music, Stuart and Rod with their painting and me with my writing.
Stu and Rod had settled in a flat in Percy Street and then moved on to Gambier Terrace which John was to share with them. It was here, after a drinking session at Ye Cracke that John took Cynthia Powell and sealed their relationship.
It was also here that I sat round with Stu and John while they were trying to come up with a name for John's group, which Stu had now joined. Stu suggested that they coin a name similar to that of Buddy Holly's backing group the Crickets. So, insects it was. They came up with Beetles, although it wasn't until August of that year that the name finally evolved as the Beatles.
I must admit I was surprised when, decades later, people seemed to think that the name came from the film 'The Wild One', which was actually banned in Britain for 14 years and the group had never even seen the film!
I met my girlfriend Virginia at the Jacaranda early in 1960. This was the coffee bar which John, Stu, Rod and I frequented. At one time the owner Allan Williams asked Stu and Rod to paint some murals in the club. They did, with the help of another student Rod Jones. John and I didn't participate – Stu and Rod were experienced, having painted a mural in Ye Cracke and also at Norris Green Territorial Army HQ!
Liverpool College of Art, 1958: students would go over to Ye Cracke pub in Rice Street for a beer. I'd got to know an extremely talented student, Stuart Sutcliffe and his best friend Rod Murray. I'd also got to know a new student John Lennon and introduced him to Stu and Rod in the pub.
It was the four of us who, early in 1960, in that same pub, decided to call ourselves the Dissenters and made a vow to make Liverpool famous – John with his music, Stuart and Rod with their painting and me with my writing.
Stu and Rod had settled in a flat in Percy Street and then moved on to Gambier Terrace which John was to share with them. It was here, after a drinking session at Ye Cracke that John took Cynthia Powell and sealed their relationship.
It was also here that I sat round with Stu and John while they were trying to come up with a name for John's group, which Stu had now joined. Stu suggested that they coin a name similar to that of Buddy Holly's backing group the Crickets. So, insects it was. They came up with Beetles, although it wasn't until August of that year that the name finally evolved as the Beatles.
I must admit I was surprised when, decades later, people seemed to think that the name came from the film 'The Wild One', which was actually banned in Britain for 14 years and the group had never even seen the film!
I met my girlfriend Virginia at the Jacaranda early in 1960. This was the coffee bar which John, Stu, Rod and I frequented. At one time the owner Allan Williams asked Stu and Rod to paint some murals in the club. They did, with the help of another student Rod Jones. John and I didn't participate – Stu and Rod were experienced, having painted a mural in Ye Cracke and also at Norris Green Territorial Army HQ!
Mersey Beat #1
Surprise, surprise when, decades later, people claimed that John had painted the murals with Stu. Another piece of nonsense!
Virginia and I used to drop around to the Gambier Terrace flat to have long conversations with John and one night, because Virginia had missed the last bus home, John put us both up in the bath!
It was in 1960 that Virginia and I began planning a newspaper and, I suppose, I was to fulfil my promise as a Dissenter when I actually created the newspaper Mersey Beat, which I helped use to promote the Beatles.
I'd also come to know Paul and George, who were next door to the art college at Liverpool Institute and they used to frequent our canteen and also rehearsed in the college Life Rooms. Stu and I were on the students union and we booked the group for our college dances, although at that time they hadn't decided on a name and I referred to them as the college band. Stu and I also used student's union funds to buy p.a. equipment which they could use – but they took it and never returned it!
I suspect this is the reason why Stu was turned down for the ATD (Art Teachers Training Diploma) when he returned to Liverpool from Hamburg. As a result he returned to Hamburg and I never saw him again.
The group also began playing in the coal hole of the Jacaranda the main port of call for Virginia and I to meet. After watching them play we'd often drift off to Streates in Mount Pleasant to listen to poetry readings and would notice Paul and Dot Rhone and John and Cynthia necking in the doorways in Slater Street.
So we launched Mersey Beat with Virginia the only full time member of staff. I was on a students scholarship but spent virtually all of my time on the paper, writing the articles, designing the pages, organising the photos, getting the advertising and distributing the publication while Virginia manned the office, handled the accounts and kept her eye on the Beatles, who often dropped in the office to give a hand answering the phone and chatting with the other regular visitors. Members of groups recall the Beatles in the office when they visited – particularly with sights such as John leaping over the counter and tossing paper from the desks into the air!
Virginia and I used to drop around to the Gambier Terrace flat to have long conversations with John and one night, because Virginia had missed the last bus home, John put us both up in the bath!
It was in 1960 that Virginia and I began planning a newspaper and, I suppose, I was to fulfil my promise as a Dissenter when I actually created the newspaper Mersey Beat, which I helped use to promote the Beatles.
I'd also come to know Paul and George, who were next door to the art college at Liverpool Institute and they used to frequent our canteen and also rehearsed in the college Life Rooms. Stu and I were on the students union and we booked the group for our college dances, although at that time they hadn't decided on a name and I referred to them as the college band. Stu and I also used student's union funds to buy p.a. equipment which they could use – but they took it and never returned it!
I suspect this is the reason why Stu was turned down for the ATD (Art Teachers Training Diploma) when he returned to Liverpool from Hamburg. As a result he returned to Hamburg and I never saw him again.
The group also began playing in the coal hole of the Jacaranda the main port of call for Virginia and I to meet. After watching them play we'd often drift off to Streates in Mount Pleasant to listen to poetry readings and would notice Paul and Dot Rhone and John and Cynthia necking in the doorways in Slater Street.
So we launched Mersey Beat with Virginia the only full time member of staff. I was on a students scholarship but spent virtually all of my time on the paper, writing the articles, designing the pages, organising the photos, getting the advertising and distributing the publication while Virginia manned the office, handled the accounts and kept her eye on the Beatles, who often dropped in the office to give a hand answering the phone and chatting with the other regular visitors. Members of groups recall the Beatles in the office when they visited – particularly with sights such as John leaping over the counter and tossing paper from the desks into the air!
The first issue was launched on 6 July 1961 – 45 years ago – and on page two I published John's first printed work, a short biography of the Beatles which I'd commissioned him to write for me. He hadn't given it a title, so I called it 'Being A Short Diversion on the Dubious Origins of Beatles, Translated From the John Lennon.'
John was completely surprised and delighted when I printed it in its entirety and came into the office with virtually everything he'd ever written and drawn and gave it to me, saying it was mine to do with what I will.
So I decided to use the pieces as a regular column, which I called 'Beatcomber', because I felt there was some rapport with the humorous Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper. Sadly, all this work was lost during a move to larger offices – resulting in John crying on Virginia's shoulder when we told him about it one night at the Blue Angel club.
Some of the copies I personally distributed by hand, going into all the musical instruments and record stores in the city centre. At NEMS in Whitechapel I asked to see the manager and a dapper young man called Brian Epstein came down the stairs from his office. I showed him the publication, explained its content and he took a dozen copies. Then he began to phone me ordering more and more copies. With issue No. 2 he ordered 12 dozen copies, an incredible amount of newspapers from a single store.
This was the issue with the entire front page dedicated to the Beatles recording in Hamburg, illustrated with the first published photograph by Astrid Kirchher which Paul had brought me back from Hamburg.
Incidentally, apart from John's pieces, I also published pieces by Paul, who always wrote me letters about his exploits – including the time the Beatles backed a stripper, the story of his impressions of Hamburg and details of his trip to Paris with John.
Brian called me into the office to discuss the newspaper. He poured over the pages, astonished that such a thriving music scene existed around him. He asked if he could be my record reviewer and his reviews began to appear beginning in Issue No. 3. on 3 August.
Brian also took out advertisements which I placed on the same page as Beatles stories – in particular, the famous column by Cavern compere Bob Wooler who penned the most prophetic piece about the Beatles yet written which ends with the words "Such are the fantastic Beatles. I don't think anything like them will happen again." This incredible prediction was published on 31 August 1961!
Mersey Beat 1962
As the Beatles were my pals and it was my newspaper, I began to feature them above everyone else, with the result that Bob Wooler turned up at the office one day to say that all the groups were complaining about my coverage of the Beatles, saying that I should re-name the paper the Mersey Beatle! I was later to actually introduce a regular page each issue called Mersey Beatle.
Brian Epstein invited me to lunch at the Basnett Bar on a couple of occasions to discuss this new musical scene which he found exciting. He asked me if I could arrange for him to visit the Cavern one lunchtime so that he could have a look at these Beatles himself.
I phoned Cavern owner Ray McFall and arranged it.
Naturally, I don't know the reason why Brian opened his book 'A Cellarful of Noise' with the claim that he'd never heard of the Beatles until a boy came into his store on 28 October asking for a copy of the record which I'd promoted in the pages of Mersey Beat, but the physical copies of Mersey Beat, display the truth in black and white and put the lie to it.
In addition to the fact that I had discussed them on numerous occasions with Brian, he had noticed them in his store during the months following their lunchtime sessions at the Cavern. They'd drop into NEMS to listen to the B sides of records in the recording booths – and Pete Best even recalls Eppy looking at the boys clad in black leather to ask his shop girls who they were. Also, prior to the alleged enquiry by Raymond Jones, Brian had posters in his shop for the Operation Big Beat promotion at the Tower Ballroom and was selling tickets to the event in which the Beatles topped the bill.
All the groups throughout Liverpool were exited when I announced a readers poll to decide who would be the leading group in the city. I was aware that members of the group were buying up copies in order to increase their positions in the poll – and newsagents were even telling me of lads who came into their shops to buy up all their copies.
When Virginia and I counted up the votes, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes (with drummer Ringo Starr) came top. Having convinced myself that surely with the saturation coverage in Mersey Beat, the Beatles must have won, I decided to go through the votes again.
I noticed a bundle of Hurricanes votes had been written in green ink, obviously by the same hand, and suspected that Rory had been responsible, so I cancelled all those votes, about 40 of them. This meant that the Beatles were now number one – I decided not to cancel other votes, even though I knew that similar attempts to Rory's efforts had been committed by the Beatles and other groups, something which Paul admits.
So the first year of Mersey Beat ended with Brian Epstein offering to manage the Beatles and with the group safely ensconced in the position of No. I group in "the north west" and the bill toppers at the Mersey Beat Poll Concert, which I'd organised at the Majestic Ballroom, Birkenhead.
My association with the Beatles continued throughout the Mersey Beat years during which I was to sadly write a brief obituary to my friend Stuart, see Pete Best, creator of the 'Atom Beat' turfed out of the band, watch as Ringo from one of my favourite groups became a Beatle, turning out to be so popular in America that records such as 'Ringo For President' were released.
I was also proud to see that all the photographs which I had personally commissioned for Mersey Beat from Dick Matthews, Peter Kaye, Graham Spencer, Harry Watmough and Barry Farrell had captured the Beatles very early days for posterity and was naturally pleased to see that decades later, John's piece from Issue No. 1 was to inspire Paul with 'Flaming Pie.'
The times from 1960 to 1965 were never to be repeated experiences. Apart from Virginia and I visiting the Star Club in Hamburg on various occasions, making lots of friends there, we were also to meet many of our rock idols such as Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Carl Perkins and we produced, once again for posterity, the most detailed record of a most incredible musical explosion when young kids on the banks of the Mersey river created a sound which was to reverberate around the world.
When I said that those times were never to be repeated, I really should qualify that – because they were for Virginia and me. We moved down to London and became immersed in the 'Swinging London' scene, attending gigs, concerts and parties several nights a week, during which I became p.r. for London 'in' clubs such as the Speakeasy, Revolution, Blaises and Tiles and pr. for a range of artists including Pink Floyd, Kinks, David Bowie and Led Zeppelin.
High octane all the way!
Bill Harry, born in Liverpool, attended Liverpool College of Art with John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe. He coined the phrase Mersey Beat and launched a newspaper of that name. He later moved to London where he became personal press officer to over 30 major acts including Hollies, Kinks, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. He was the first person ever to write regularly about the Beatles and has written more about the group than anyone else in the word.
The Liverpool Museum's Beatles online exhibition
In National Museums Liverpool's collections there are a few unusual Beatles records that you wouldn't normally find in the average juke box or record shop.Musical ephemera from our collections also includes the empty packaging for a Beatles guitar string. Beatles fans no doubt hoped that using strings endorsed by their heroes might help to improve their guitar playing and inspire their own creativity.
Moreover:Miscellaneous Beatles memorabilia
Clothing
Art
Promotional material
Music
After The Beatles
Beatles information and resources
Find it here
The Beatles - I Need You
Clip from their second movie, Help! of George and the band singing "I Need You."
Beatles Talkin' 1968 - 2
JOHN 1968
(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.
(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.
With the Beatles in India - Part 2
by Paul Saltzman
These are excerpts from the new, Deluxe Limited Edition, box-set book, The Beatles in India. The time that John, Paul, George and Ringo spent at the Ashram in India, in 1968, was the single most creative period in their illustrious careers--they were inspired to write 48 songs in the few weeks they were there. But the real reason they went to India was to find inner peace: George Harrison shared this with me in one of the many intimate times I was fortunate to spend with the Fab Four.
Part 1 here
As the first days passed, I felt the wonderful winter heat of Bombay bathe my body. My neck and back stretched out and stood tall, and my shoulders came upright from their long-defensive hunch. My chest opened up, feeling unrestricted, and my breathing became deep and relaxed, like I couldn't remember. I loved India, that first week, just for that. Just for the visceral, joyful feeling of coming home to a place within myself that I had long forgotten. It was my first conscious step on the journey within, which George Harrison wrote about so beautifully in his songs Within You, Without You and The Inner Light. It would be only a few weeks later, and a few city blocks from where I was staying in Bombay, that George would first record The Inner Light--on January 12, 1968, at EMI's Bombay studios--and I couldn't have imagined that by mid-February my path would unexpectedly cross his, and that of the other Beatles, in Rishikesh.
When the NFB film director and his cameraman arrived a few days later, I moved across the road into the Taj Mahal Hotel. The premier luxury hotel in Bombay, it was renowned for its ornate British Raj architecture. I was now living in luxury on the film production's budget. Two days later, we drove north by Econoline van, filming up the beautiful west coast of Gujarat and across the western scrublands of Rajasthan. Six weeks later, we finished our filming and on January 24, 1968, we drove into New Delhi. I was excited. A letter from my girlfriend back home was waiting for me. All I can remember is her first line: "Dear Paul, I've moved in with Henry." As I read her "Dear Paul" letter that first night in Delhi, my heart felt crushed by a sledgehammer. I could hear a screaming inside me and I feared that if I let it out I would drown in it. I could barely breathe through the tears. I felt totally abandoned, alone.
It didn't help that I was now 'off the production budget', near broke and had to check out of the posh Oberoi Intercontinental Hotel. After checking out the next day, I walked into the hot mid-afternoon sun and found a crowd of between thirty and forty press people milling about. Even though I'd worked in current affairs television for several years, I had never experienced a news scrum. A gaggle of journalists, reporters, news photographers, cameramen and soundmen were camped outside waiting for someone to arrive. A moment later, a white chauffeur-driven Ambassador, then the most common car in India, pulled in and at a shout they all grabbed their news gear. Paparazzi-like, they swarmed the car. The object of the hunt, a petite, wispy, beautiful young woman could barely get herself out of the car. As she and her female friend were rushed into the lobby by hotel staff, the press crushed around yelling out questions, microphones thrust forward, cameras rolling, snapping photographs. I recognized Mia Farrow from the numerous pictures I'd seen of her in newsmagazines, when her marriage to Frank Sinatra had ended.
Mia was clearly shaken and frightened by the rapaciousness of the news people as they all pushed past me in pursuit of her. Two large Sikh doormen, wearing starched white uniforms and crimson-red turbans, blocked the press from entering as three assistant managers rushed Mia and her friend through the lobby toward a waiting elevator. One photographer slipped through a side door and as he raced up behind Mia calling her name, so she'd turn around, she lost it. She ran at him, screaming, hitting him with her bag. Two security men grabbed him and ushered him out. Mia was close to tears with a look on her face like that of a terrified child.
Deeply moved by her distress, I bought a beautiful giant yellow mum at the hotel flower shop and took the elevator up to her floor. I got off and headed down the long hall towards the Maharajah Suite. The doorbell sounded quietly through the heavy mahogany double doors. After a long moment, the friend I'd seen Mia enter with opened the door. She was, I later learned, Mia's sister Prudence Farrow. I explained that I had witnessed the scene downstairs and wanted to make a kindly gesture. Prudence was wary but accepted the flower, saying she would give it to Mia, and as I turned and went back down the hall she called after me, "Thank you." As I left, I understood the double-edged sword of fame in a way I never had before.
As I hung around New Delhi, not knowing what to do, I was desperate for relief. A new American acquaintance, Al Bragg, asked me if I wanted to come along to hear the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi give a talk on transcendental meditation. "I'll try anything." I said, jumping at the chance. That night, the large auditorium at New Delhi University was jam-packed, overflowing with foreigners and Indians as we squeezed in against the wall at the back. On stage, a low dais was festooned with flowers. After ten or fifteen minutes, a short, curious little man draped in white cotton, with long scraggly graying hair and beard, entered at the rear of the hall and walked down the center aisle. Close behind, twenty Westerners followed, each of them wearing colorful Indian clothes and garlands of red, white, and orange flowers around their necks. They were, it turned out, part of a group of meditators on their way to the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh. As the Maharishi sat cross-legged on the dais, his followers seated themselves in a semicircle behind him.
The Maharishi talked in a high musical voice about meditation as a direct path to inner peace and harmony. He said, "Transcendental meditation naturally takes the mind beyond the present level of experience to the finer stages of experience, and eventually takes it beyond the finest state of experience and leaves it in a state of pure awareness. It takes the mind behind and beyond the fears and anxieties that trouble us. Reaching those fields of pure consciousness, of pure being, we tap the very source of bliss and energy."
All this, he said, could begin quickly and easily without conflict in the mind and without giving up any of life's pleasures. I couldn't quite buy this. I guess I believed the road to inner peace and happiness was one of struggle. And yet, he was light and joyful and his laughter seemed to embody what he promised was available to all of us through meditation. Standing there at the back of the auditorium, I prayed he was right.
That night, I decided to go to his ashram, or spiritual retreat center, in Rishikesh to learn meditation. Distracted by the pain I was feeling, I didn't think to make arrangements and several days later I rode through the night by third-class train, northeast into the foothills of the Himalayas. As morning came, a dawning lavender-pink sky illuminating the forested green slopes that rose on either side of the tracks, we entered Dehra Dun, a town known for its two elite British-run private schools, its temples and as one of two rail stops close to Rishikesh.
An hour and a half ride by scooter-rickshaw and 43 kilometers up the road, at 1,175 feet above sea level, we enter Rishikesh. The majesty of the Himalayas begins as the Shivalik range towers another 5,500 feet above the town that straddles the banks of the Ganges. To India's eight hundred million Hindus, the Ganges is Ganga Ma--or Mother Ganges--the holiest of rivers, making Rishikesh a pilgrimage center filled with temples and hostels. A center for yoga, meditation and philosophical studies since ancient times, it also has many ashrams, both in the town and in the hills around, like the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's.
I hadn't realized there were many ashrams there and I asked a young man if he knew where the Maharishi's was. He didn't, but said that most of the ashrams were across the river. Walking through the bustling town, past small white temples, sadhus and a few beggars, I arrived at the bathing steps, or ghats, for pilgrims that lined the river. The Ganges flowed swiftly, a rich emerald green colour, as I hired a small motorboat to take me across the river. The old boatman steered us out into the fast current in a wide trajectory that carried us the 150 yards to the east bank of the river. Nearing the far shore, we passed in front of the ghats on the Swargashram side of the Ganges. Men and women, young and old, were bathing and washing clothes in the bright sun. As the boatman pushed off, he pointed south along the riverbank and said, "Maharishi ashram, there."
Part Three here
These are excerpts from the new, Deluxe Limited Edition, box-set book, The Beatles in India. The time that John, Paul, George and Ringo spent at the Ashram in India, in 1968, was the single most creative period in their illustrious careers--they were inspired to write 48 songs in the few weeks they were there. But the real reason they went to India was to find inner peace: George Harrison shared this with me in one of the many intimate times I was fortunate to spend with the Fab Four.
Part 1 here
As the first days passed, I felt the wonderful winter heat of Bombay bathe my body. My neck and back stretched out and stood tall, and my shoulders came upright from their long-defensive hunch. My chest opened up, feeling unrestricted, and my breathing became deep and relaxed, like I couldn't remember. I loved India, that first week, just for that. Just for the visceral, joyful feeling of coming home to a place within myself that I had long forgotten. It was my first conscious step on the journey within, which George Harrison wrote about so beautifully in his songs Within You, Without You and The Inner Light. It would be only a few weeks later, and a few city blocks from where I was staying in Bombay, that George would first record The Inner Light--on January 12, 1968, at EMI's Bombay studios--and I couldn't have imagined that by mid-February my path would unexpectedly cross his, and that of the other Beatles, in Rishikesh.
When the NFB film director and his cameraman arrived a few days later, I moved across the road into the Taj Mahal Hotel. The premier luxury hotel in Bombay, it was renowned for its ornate British Raj architecture. I was now living in luxury on the film production's budget. Two days later, we drove north by Econoline van, filming up the beautiful west coast of Gujarat and across the western scrublands of Rajasthan. Six weeks later, we finished our filming and on January 24, 1968, we drove into New Delhi. I was excited. A letter from my girlfriend back home was waiting for me. All I can remember is her first line: "Dear Paul, I've moved in with Henry." As I read her "Dear Paul" letter that first night in Delhi, my heart felt crushed by a sledgehammer. I could hear a screaming inside me and I feared that if I let it out I would drown in it. I could barely breathe through the tears. I felt totally abandoned, alone.
It didn't help that I was now 'off the production budget', near broke and had to check out of the posh Oberoi Intercontinental Hotel. After checking out the next day, I walked into the hot mid-afternoon sun and found a crowd of between thirty and forty press people milling about. Even though I'd worked in current affairs television for several years, I had never experienced a news scrum. A gaggle of journalists, reporters, news photographers, cameramen and soundmen were camped outside waiting for someone to arrive. A moment later, a white chauffeur-driven Ambassador, then the most common car in India, pulled in and at a shout they all grabbed their news gear. Paparazzi-like, they swarmed the car. The object of the hunt, a petite, wispy, beautiful young woman could barely get herself out of the car. As she and her female friend were rushed into the lobby by hotel staff, the press crushed around yelling out questions, microphones thrust forward, cameras rolling, snapping photographs. I recognized Mia Farrow from the numerous pictures I'd seen of her in newsmagazines, when her marriage to Frank Sinatra had ended.
Mia was clearly shaken and frightened by the rapaciousness of the news people as they all pushed past me in pursuit of her. Two large Sikh doormen, wearing starched white uniforms and crimson-red turbans, blocked the press from entering as three assistant managers rushed Mia and her friend through the lobby toward a waiting elevator. One photographer slipped through a side door and as he raced up behind Mia calling her name, so she'd turn around, she lost it. She ran at him, screaming, hitting him with her bag. Two security men grabbed him and ushered him out. Mia was close to tears with a look on her face like that of a terrified child.
Deeply moved by her distress, I bought a beautiful giant yellow mum at the hotel flower shop and took the elevator up to her floor. I got off and headed down the long hall towards the Maharajah Suite. The doorbell sounded quietly through the heavy mahogany double doors. After a long moment, the friend I'd seen Mia enter with opened the door. She was, I later learned, Mia's sister Prudence Farrow. I explained that I had witnessed the scene downstairs and wanted to make a kindly gesture. Prudence was wary but accepted the flower, saying she would give it to Mia, and as I turned and went back down the hall she called after me, "Thank you." As I left, I understood the double-edged sword of fame in a way I never had before.
As I hung around New Delhi, not knowing what to do, I was desperate for relief. A new American acquaintance, Al Bragg, asked me if I wanted to come along to hear the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi give a talk on transcendental meditation. "I'll try anything." I said, jumping at the chance. That night, the large auditorium at New Delhi University was jam-packed, overflowing with foreigners and Indians as we squeezed in against the wall at the back. On stage, a low dais was festooned with flowers. After ten or fifteen minutes, a short, curious little man draped in white cotton, with long scraggly graying hair and beard, entered at the rear of the hall and walked down the center aisle. Close behind, twenty Westerners followed, each of them wearing colorful Indian clothes and garlands of red, white, and orange flowers around their necks. They were, it turned out, part of a group of meditators on their way to the Maharishi's ashram in Rishikesh. As the Maharishi sat cross-legged on the dais, his followers seated themselves in a semicircle behind him.
The Maharishi talked in a high musical voice about meditation as a direct path to inner peace and harmony. He said, "Transcendental meditation naturally takes the mind beyond the present level of experience to the finer stages of experience, and eventually takes it beyond the finest state of experience and leaves it in a state of pure awareness. It takes the mind behind and beyond the fears and anxieties that trouble us. Reaching those fields of pure consciousness, of pure being, we tap the very source of bliss and energy."
All this, he said, could begin quickly and easily without conflict in the mind and without giving up any of life's pleasures. I couldn't quite buy this. I guess I believed the road to inner peace and happiness was one of struggle. And yet, he was light and joyful and his laughter seemed to embody what he promised was available to all of us through meditation. Standing there at the back of the auditorium, I prayed he was right.
That night, I decided to go to his ashram, or spiritual retreat center, in Rishikesh to learn meditation. Distracted by the pain I was feeling, I didn't think to make arrangements and several days later I rode through the night by third-class train, northeast into the foothills of the Himalayas. As morning came, a dawning lavender-pink sky illuminating the forested green slopes that rose on either side of the tracks, we entered Dehra Dun, a town known for its two elite British-run private schools, its temples and as one of two rail stops close to Rishikesh.
An hour and a half ride by scooter-rickshaw and 43 kilometers up the road, at 1,175 feet above sea level, we enter Rishikesh. The majesty of the Himalayas begins as the Shivalik range towers another 5,500 feet above the town that straddles the banks of the Ganges. To India's eight hundred million Hindus, the Ganges is Ganga Ma--or Mother Ganges--the holiest of rivers, making Rishikesh a pilgrimage center filled with temples and hostels. A center for yoga, meditation and philosophical studies since ancient times, it also has many ashrams, both in the town and in the hills around, like the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's.
I hadn't realized there were many ashrams there and I asked a young man if he knew where the Maharishi's was. He didn't, but said that most of the ashrams were across the river. Walking through the bustling town, past small white temples, sadhus and a few beggars, I arrived at the bathing steps, or ghats, for pilgrims that lined the river. The Ganges flowed swiftly, a rich emerald green colour, as I hired a small motorboat to take me across the river. The old boatman steered us out into the fast current in a wide trajectory that carried us the 150 yards to the east bank of the river. Nearing the far shore, we passed in front of the ghats on the Swargashram side of the Ganges. Men and women, young and old, were bathing and washing clothes in the bright sun. As the boatman pushed off, he pointed south along the riverbank and said, "Maharishi ashram, there."
Part Three here
Japan keeps Lennon's memory alive
BBC News, Monday, 8 December 2008
John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono is marking the 28th anniversary of the musician's death by playing a special memorial concert in Tokyo.
The anniversary of Lennon's death prompts quiet reflection in Japan. Japan is one country where John Lennon's memory is kept very much alive. Beatlemania has never really died.
Every night in Tokyo, bands dressed as John, Paul, George and Ringo faithfully reproduce their sound.
Even though many of the musicians would struggle to hold a conversation in English, they know every word of the entire Beatles songbook.
Fans of all ages sing along, but only the older generation can remember the momentous occasion when the Beatles performed in Japan.
They played Tokyo's Budokan Arena for five nights in the summer of 1966, with each show lasting just thirty minutes.
Warm welcome
Thirty-five thousand policemen guarded the group from their fans and from nationalist protestors who threatened to disrupt the concerts.
They believed a foreign pop group would "desecrate" a hall which had been built for judo and other "noble" martial arts.
In the end, the concerts passed without incident, but Yoko Ono says that later, Lennon looked back on the experience with bemusement.
"The Beatles were a little bit concerned because the people were rather quiet, so they thought maybe the people didn't like it," she explains.
"But then the organiser explained that the Japanese are very polite and they do not want to scream and shout - they just want to applaud.
"In those days it was like that, but now, of course, the Japanese fans have learned to be expressive," says Ono.
The Beatles' 1966 Tokyo shows were part of a gruelling world tour to promote their records and, of course, to make money.
However, they also became unofficial diplomats for Britain - a point noted by the then British ambassador to Tokyo, Michael Stewart.
"In sober truth, no recent event connected with the UK - apart from the sole exception of the British Exhibition of 1965 - has made a comparable impact on Tokyo," he wrote in a confidential memo.
He also praised the Beatles' skill in handling the Japanese media at a press conference.
"Most commentators accepted them for what indeed they are - agreeable, talented and quick-witted young musicians," wrote the ambassador.
Japanese musicians regularly pay homage to the Beatles
Junichi Mizusawa, who runs the John Lennon museum in Saitama, says the Beatles received such a warm welcome because they represented the chance for a fresh start.
"We really felt that they were singing for us. They sounded completely different to Japanese music or jazz or American pop, so initially it was rather shocking," he explains.
"But young people in the 60s had no problems accepting them because they seemed to be giving voice to our feelings. It was a new sound that excited a generation which had nothing to do with the war."
After he married Ono in 1969, John became a frequent visitor to Japan and even tried to learn the language. He treasured the fact that the Japanese rarely intruded upon him and his family.
Intimate remembrance
Since his murder on 8 December 1980, Yoko has worked tirelessly to maintain Lennon's image as a music icon and peace campaigner.
Now at the age of 75, she's back in Japan for an anniversary concert at the same venue where the Beatles played their legendary shows.
"Now I'm getting philosophical about it, I think that my ancestors, the spirit of my ancestors, is calling to me saying, 'Yoko, you should come back to Japan once in a while.' So I'm now saying okay."
Ono explains she has always been sensitive to spirits and feels her husband's presence keenly when she is in her home country.
"He loved Japan so much. I don't think it was to do with his wife - well maybe a little bit!
"But he liked the sensitivity and the quietness that the Japanese have and the reason is because he was a shy person.
"I'm sure you don't think that he was a shy person but he was, and he related to that I think."
Ono's concert at the Budokan will raise money to build schools in Asia and Africa, and will also feature Japanese artists such as Tortoise Matsumoto and Bonnie Pink.
Some fans of John Lennon, though, are choosing to commemorate the 28th anniversary of his death in a more intimate way.
Outside the museum in Saitama, visitors place flowers at a memorial bearing the word Imagine.
And most take a few moments of silence to remember the man they think of as their closest English friend.
By Duncan Bartlett
BBC News, Tokyo
John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono is marking the 28th anniversary of the musician's death by playing a special memorial concert in Tokyo.
The anniversary of Lennon's death prompts quiet reflection in Japan. Japan is one country where John Lennon's memory is kept very much alive. Beatlemania has never really died.
Every night in Tokyo, bands dressed as John, Paul, George and Ringo faithfully reproduce their sound.
Even though many of the musicians would struggle to hold a conversation in English, they know every word of the entire Beatles songbook.
Fans of all ages sing along, but only the older generation can remember the momentous occasion when the Beatles performed in Japan.
They played Tokyo's Budokan Arena for five nights in the summer of 1966, with each show lasting just thirty minutes.
Warm welcome
Thirty-five thousand policemen guarded the group from their fans and from nationalist protestors who threatened to disrupt the concerts.
They believed a foreign pop group would "desecrate" a hall which had been built for judo and other "noble" martial arts.
In the end, the concerts passed without incident, but Yoko Ono says that later, Lennon looked back on the experience with bemusement.
"The Beatles were a little bit concerned because the people were rather quiet, so they thought maybe the people didn't like it," she explains.
"But then the organiser explained that the Japanese are very polite and they do not want to scream and shout - they just want to applaud.
"In those days it was like that, but now, of course, the Japanese fans have learned to be expressive," says Ono.
The Beatles' 1966 Tokyo shows were part of a gruelling world tour to promote their records and, of course, to make money.
However, they also became unofficial diplomats for Britain - a point noted by the then British ambassador to Tokyo, Michael Stewart.
"In sober truth, no recent event connected with the UK - apart from the sole exception of the British Exhibition of 1965 - has made a comparable impact on Tokyo," he wrote in a confidential memo.
He also praised the Beatles' skill in handling the Japanese media at a press conference.
"Most commentators accepted them for what indeed they are - agreeable, talented and quick-witted young musicians," wrote the ambassador.
Japanese musicians regularly pay homage to the Beatles
Junichi Mizusawa, who runs the John Lennon museum in Saitama, says the Beatles received such a warm welcome because they represented the chance for a fresh start.
"We really felt that they were singing for us. They sounded completely different to Japanese music or jazz or American pop, so initially it was rather shocking," he explains.
"But young people in the 60s had no problems accepting them because they seemed to be giving voice to our feelings. It was a new sound that excited a generation which had nothing to do with the war."
After he married Ono in 1969, John became a frequent visitor to Japan and even tried to learn the language. He treasured the fact that the Japanese rarely intruded upon him and his family.
Intimate remembrance
Since his murder on 8 December 1980, Yoko has worked tirelessly to maintain Lennon's image as a music icon and peace campaigner.
Now at the age of 75, she's back in Japan for an anniversary concert at the same venue where the Beatles played their legendary shows.
"Now I'm getting philosophical about it, I think that my ancestors, the spirit of my ancestors, is calling to me saying, 'Yoko, you should come back to Japan once in a while.' So I'm now saying okay."
Ono explains she has always been sensitive to spirits and feels her husband's presence keenly when she is in her home country.
"He loved Japan so much. I don't think it was to do with his wife - well maybe a little bit!
"But he liked the sensitivity and the quietness that the Japanese have and the reason is because he was a shy person.
"I'm sure you don't think that he was a shy person but he was, and he related to that I think."
Ono's concert at the Budokan will raise money to build schools in Asia and Africa, and will also feature Japanese artists such as Tortoise Matsumoto and Bonnie Pink.
Some fans of John Lennon, though, are choosing to commemorate the 28th anniversary of his death in a more intimate way.
Outside the museum in Saitama, visitors place flowers at a memorial bearing the word Imagine.
And most take a few moments of silence to remember the man they think of as their closest English friend.
By Duncan Bartlett
BBC News, Tokyo
With the Beatles in India - Part 1
by Paul Saltzman
These are excerpts from the new, Deluxe Limited Edition, box-set book, The Beatles in India. The time that John, Paul, George and Ringo spent at the Ashram in India, in 1968, was the single most creative period in their illustrious careers--they were inspired to write 48 songs in the few weeks they were there. But the real reason they went to India was to find inner peace: George Harrison shared this with me in one of the many intimate times I was fortunate to spend with the Fab Four.
Introduction
The 1960s were archetypical. Following the enormous destruction and inhumanity of two world wars in the first half of the 20th century, and the reactive focus on creating personal wealth for safety in the 1950s, the 60s quickly became a time of tremendous change in society, marked by a world wide upheaval between the generations and growing skirmishes between governments and their own young people. The 'old order' was being challenged daily by social and political activism, as well as drugs, rock 'n' roll, and the 'free love' movement. As Bob Dylan told us, the times they are a-changin'. Our generation was looking for fun, yes, but also for deeper meaning for ourselves and for others, trying to create a better world.
The 1960s came to a head in 1968. It was both positive and negative. It started with the 'Prague Spring' liberalization of communism in Czechoslovakia, followed by the 'Tet Offensive' in Viet Nam and the buildup of the anti-war movement in the United States. In May of that year the 'Paris Riots' saw hundreds of thousands of French citizens take to the streets in a general insurrection, started by university students in a quest for social and political reform. By August, Russian tanks crushed the 'Prague Spring' but it was the first crack in the face of totalitarian Soviet communism that would eventually lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. And while the early and mid 1960s saw major leaps forward in the American civil rights movement, 1968 was the year the movement lost two heroes in the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., at age 39, and Bobby Kennedy, just 42.
By 1968 the struggle for outer justice and equality was being mirrored by a growing thirst for inner transformation, and our generation dived into the universal quest for personal fulfillment. We were looking for a more loving redefinition of relationships than our parents' generation seemed to believe in. It wasn't just about getting a job and making a living, anymore. It was also about living your feelings, about honesty, joy and playfulness. It was about peace both inside and out. The Beatles, Dylan and Donovan were our heralds, our troubadours calling out to us, leading the way, in the ideal, to an end of the patriarchal, both within and without. It was the beginning of a movement from a struggle-based paradigm to a joy-based paradigm. In their music, they never felt or appeared or sounded as if they were out to please, or manipulate, or make money. For the Beatles, they were mostly having authentic fun, itself a great lesson.
But something was missing. Early in 1968, at the height of their popularity and arguably the most famous people on the planet, the Beatles traveled to India, to the foothills of the Himalayas, to find something that all their fame and fortune could not give them. They went to find inner peace. For eight weeks they disappeared into an ashram to study meditation. No press or visitors were allowed.
Seekers in their music, they were now seekers in their spiritual lives. For many of us, the Beatles were the avatars--the embodiment, the archetype--of western culture and society and when they turned to the East, millions of young people turned to see what they were looking at, where they were going, what they were doing. To the West, then, ashrams were a little known phenomenon. They were centers of spiritual learning, of yoga, of vegetarian eating and, to the generations of the 60s, word that the Beatles were at an ashram in India aroused a curiosity in a great many people searching in their own lives for a deeper fulfillment than materialism could deliver. The Beatles were forging ahead, again.
Why did all four Beatles go to India? George was the most interested. He was 'the quiet one', perhaps most in touch with himself. He was a devoted seeker, devoted to finding the inner connection with his own Divine Nature. This connection is soul food. It requires quiet to do this. That they all went was significant. Each, in their own way, more or less, was looking to get away from their fame, from the cacophony of their busy lives. Looking for the quiet. Looking for the soul food. As George said, when we sat together at the ashram: all the bells and whistles, all the outer rewards and distractions, "It isn't peace inside, is it?" They were also there to be together. They were family.
Personally, I woke up one morning in Montreal in late 1967 and realized there were parts of myself I didn't like. I was shocked. I had thought all was going well: I was working in film, been a television host at 21, was proud of myself for doing voter registration work in Mississippi in the dangerous summer of '65. And yet, in that moment, I felt empty inside. As I thought about it, I realized I lacked self-confidence. I lacked a sense of inner peace, even a sense of meaning for my life. In December of that year, I stuffed my backpack and set out on a journey to 'find myself'. I only thought of India. It was instinct, the inner voice. I knew nothing of India or meditation, and I had no idea the Beatles would be there.
I said good-bye to my girlfriend, both of us in tears, and arranged to end my time working at the National Film Board of Canada with one last job, as a sound recordist on a documentary shoot in India. On December 4, 1967, with two hundred dollars and a round-trip ticket to India in my pocket, I boarded a plane for my first trip overseas.
The Journey
Flying at 32,000 feet, heading for India, I was excited, and scared. I knew I was searching for something. I was looking for a different 'me'. But, who was that? And, how do I find him? And, what if 'he' didn't exist? What then?
Landing in the early dawn's dust and heat of Bombay on December 6, 1967, I was four days shy of my twenty-fourth birthday and I'd never been out of North America. On my own, far away from home, I found myself loving my girlfriend more than ever. Culture shock hit hard. I spent the first three nights in a Salvation Army hostel, for a dollar-fifty a night, including three meals and tea. The first night, my two hundred dollars in U.S. traveler's checks were stolen and I was awakened at 5:30 the next morning by an earthquake. Nonetheless, I was amazed by India--by its richness and its poverty. The streets around the hostel stank of sewage and yet the colourful clothes, the music, the art and the smell of incense were exquisite. The local people were remarkably hospitable. If I looked lost on a street corner for thirty seconds someone immediately came up to offer directions. Often, they were very curious and asked questions. "What is your name?" "How old are you?" "Where are you from?" "Are you married?" "How do you like India?" And several times I was invited into their homes for tea and conversation.
Part 2 here
These are excerpts from the new, Deluxe Limited Edition, box-set book, The Beatles in India. The time that John, Paul, George and Ringo spent at the Ashram in India, in 1968, was the single most creative period in their illustrious careers--they were inspired to write 48 songs in the few weeks they were there. But the real reason they went to India was to find inner peace: George Harrison shared this with me in one of the many intimate times I was fortunate to spend with the Fab Four.
IntroductionThe 1960s were archetypical. Following the enormous destruction and inhumanity of two world wars in the first half of the 20th century, and the reactive focus on creating personal wealth for safety in the 1950s, the 60s quickly became a time of tremendous change in society, marked by a world wide upheaval between the generations and growing skirmishes between governments and their own young people. The 'old order' was being challenged daily by social and political activism, as well as drugs, rock 'n' roll, and the 'free love' movement. As Bob Dylan told us, the times they are a-changin'. Our generation was looking for fun, yes, but also for deeper meaning for ourselves and for others, trying to create a better world.
The 1960s came to a head in 1968. It was both positive and negative. It started with the 'Prague Spring' liberalization of communism in Czechoslovakia, followed by the 'Tet Offensive' in Viet Nam and the buildup of the anti-war movement in the United States. In May of that year the 'Paris Riots' saw hundreds of thousands of French citizens take to the streets in a general insurrection, started by university students in a quest for social and political reform. By August, Russian tanks crushed the 'Prague Spring' but it was the first crack in the face of totalitarian Soviet communism that would eventually lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. And while the early and mid 1960s saw major leaps forward in the American civil rights movement, 1968 was the year the movement lost two heroes in the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., at age 39, and Bobby Kennedy, just 42.
By 1968 the struggle for outer justice and equality was being mirrored by a growing thirst for inner transformation, and our generation dived into the universal quest for personal fulfillment. We were looking for a more loving redefinition of relationships than our parents' generation seemed to believe in. It wasn't just about getting a job and making a living, anymore. It was also about living your feelings, about honesty, joy and playfulness. It was about peace both inside and out. The Beatles, Dylan and Donovan were our heralds, our troubadours calling out to us, leading the way, in the ideal, to an end of the patriarchal, both within and without. It was the beginning of a movement from a struggle-based paradigm to a joy-based paradigm. In their music, they never felt or appeared or sounded as if they were out to please, or manipulate, or make money. For the Beatles, they were mostly having authentic fun, itself a great lesson.
But something was missing. Early in 1968, at the height of their popularity and arguably the most famous people on the planet, the Beatles traveled to India, to the foothills of the Himalayas, to find something that all their fame and fortune could not give them. They went to find inner peace. For eight weeks they disappeared into an ashram to study meditation. No press or visitors were allowed.
Seekers in their music, they were now seekers in their spiritual lives. For many of us, the Beatles were the avatars--the embodiment, the archetype--of western culture and society and when they turned to the East, millions of young people turned to see what they were looking at, where they were going, what they were doing. To the West, then, ashrams were a little known phenomenon. They were centers of spiritual learning, of yoga, of vegetarian eating and, to the generations of the 60s, word that the Beatles were at an ashram in India aroused a curiosity in a great many people searching in their own lives for a deeper fulfillment than materialism could deliver. The Beatles were forging ahead, again.
Why did all four Beatles go to India? George was the most interested. He was 'the quiet one', perhaps most in touch with himself. He was a devoted seeker, devoted to finding the inner connection with his own Divine Nature. This connection is soul food. It requires quiet to do this. That they all went was significant. Each, in their own way, more or less, was looking to get away from their fame, from the cacophony of their busy lives. Looking for the quiet. Looking for the soul food. As George said, when we sat together at the ashram: all the bells and whistles, all the outer rewards and distractions, "It isn't peace inside, is it?" They were also there to be together. They were family.
Personally, I woke up one morning in Montreal in late 1967 and realized there were parts of myself I didn't like. I was shocked. I had thought all was going well: I was working in film, been a television host at 21, was proud of myself for doing voter registration work in Mississippi in the dangerous summer of '65. And yet, in that moment, I felt empty inside. As I thought about it, I realized I lacked self-confidence. I lacked a sense of inner peace, even a sense of meaning for my life. In December of that year, I stuffed my backpack and set out on a journey to 'find myself'. I only thought of India. It was instinct, the inner voice. I knew nothing of India or meditation, and I had no idea the Beatles would be there.
I said good-bye to my girlfriend, both of us in tears, and arranged to end my time working at the National Film Board of Canada with one last job, as a sound recordist on a documentary shoot in India. On December 4, 1967, with two hundred dollars and a round-trip ticket to India in my pocket, I boarded a plane for my first trip overseas.
The Journey
Flying at 32,000 feet, heading for India, I was excited, and scared. I knew I was searching for something. I was looking for a different 'me'. But, who was that? And, how do I find him? And, what if 'he' didn't exist? What then?
Landing in the early dawn's dust and heat of Bombay on December 6, 1967, I was four days shy of my twenty-fourth birthday and I'd never been out of North America. On my own, far away from home, I found myself loving my girlfriend more than ever. Culture shock hit hard. I spent the first three nights in a Salvation Army hostel, for a dollar-fifty a night, including three meals and tea. The first night, my two hundred dollars in U.S. traveler's checks were stolen and I was awakened at 5:30 the next morning by an earthquake. Nonetheless, I was amazed by India--by its richness and its poverty. The streets around the hostel stank of sewage and yet the colourful clothes, the music, the art and the smell of incense were exquisite. The local people were remarkably hospitable. If I looked lost on a street corner for thirty seconds someone immediately came up to offer directions. Often, they were very curious and asked questions. "What is your name?" "How old are you?" "Where are you from?" "Are you married?" "How do you like India?" And several times I was invited into their homes for tea and conversation.
Part 2 here
Over 100.000 visits...
...nearly 900 posts in less than eight monts.Thanks to all our contributors who helped us in gathering the material diplayed and to all our visitors for encouraging us in our work. The Museum still grows...
John Lennon - Full Albums List in Chronological Order
29/11/68 LP Apple SAPCOR 2 Unfinished Music No.1 - Two Virgins
9/05/69 LP Apple ZAPPLE 01 Unfinished Music No.2 - Life With The Lions
7/11/69 LP Apple SAPCOR 11 The Wedding Album
12/12/69 LP Apple CORE 2001 Live Peace in Toronto 1969
11/12/70 LP Apple PCS 7124 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
8/10/71 LP Apple PAS 10004 Imagine
15/09/72 LP Apple PCSP 716 Some Time in New York City
16/11/73 LP Apple PCS 7165 Mind Games
4/10/74 LP Apple PCTC 253 Walls and Bridges
21/02/75 LP Apple PCS 7169 Rock 'n' Roll
24/10/75 LP Apple PCS 7173 Shaved Fish
17/11/80 LP Geffen K 99131 Double Fantasy
27/11/80 LP Music For Pleasure MFP 50509 Mind Games
15/06/81 LP Parlophone JLB 8 John Lennon (Boxed Set)
25/11/81 LP Music For Pleasure MFP 50522 Rock 'n' Roll
1/11/82 LP Parlophone EMTV 37 The John Lennon Collection
16/12/83 LP Polydor 817238-1 Heart Play - Unfinished Dialogue
23/01/84 LP Polydor POLH 5 Milk and Honey
27/01/84 CD Polydor 8171 602 Milk and Honey
6/84 LP Fame 41 3102 1 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
6/84 LP Silhouette SM 10014 Reflections And Poetry
21/09/84 LP Polydor POLH 13 Everyman Has A Woman
16/11/84 CD Polydor 8234 902 Everyman Has A Woman
24/02/86 LP Parlophone PCS 7301 Live In New York City
24/02/86 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46196 2 Live In New York City
10/10/86 CD Geffen 299 131 Double Fantasy
3/11/86 LP Parlophone PCS 7308 Menlove Avenue
13/04/87 CD Parlophone CDPCS 7308 Menlove Avenue
26/05/87 CD Apple CDP 7 46641 2 Imagine
26/05/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46707 2 Rock 'n' Roll
26/05/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46642 2 Shaved Fish
20/07/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46768 2 Walls And Bridges
3/08/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46769 2 Mind Games
10/08/87 CD E.M.I. CDPCSP 716 Some Time in New York City
10/08/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46783 2 Live Jam
5/04/88 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46770 2 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
11/07/88 LP Baktabak BAK 2096 The Last Word
10/10/88 LP Parlophone PCSP 722 Imagine : John Lennon (Music from the Film)
10/10/88 CD Parlophone CDPCSP 722 Imagine : John Lennon (Music from the Film)
30/01/89 CD Capitol CDP 7 91425 2 Double Fantasy
06/89 CD Apple CDP 7 90428 2 Live Peace in Toronto 1969
23/10/89 CD Parlophone CDP 7 91516 2 The John Lennon Collection
30/10/90 CD Parlophone CDS 7 95220 2 Lennon (4CD Box Set)
12/11/90 CD BBC BBCCD 6002 John and Yoko - The Interview
14/12/90 CD Thunderbolt CDTB 095 Testimony
1/93 CD Rock Classics SSI 9999 Unfinished Music No.1 - Two Virgins
11/94 CD Fame CDFA 3310 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
5/95 CD Apple CDP 7 90428 2 Live Peace in Toronto 1969
1/06/96 LP UFO JOHN 1 John Lennon Interview
9/06/97 CD Rykodisc RCD 10411 Unfinished Music No.1 - Two Virgins
9/06/97 CD Rykodisc RCD 10412 Unfinished Music No.2 - Life With The Lions
9/06/97 CD Rykodisc RCD 10413 The Wedding Album
27/10/97 CD Parlophone 821 9542 Lennon Legend
2/11/98 CD Capitol 830 6142 Anthology
3/11/98 CD Capitol 497 6392 Wonsaponatime
14/09/99 CD Dressed To Kill DRESS 155 Bedism ... (I now think this is a bootleg)
14/02/00 CD Parlophone 524 8582 Imagine
9/10/00 CD Capitol 528 7392 Double Fantasy
9/10/00 CD E.M.I. 528 7402 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
27/09/01 CD E.M.I. 535 9592 Milk and Honey
21/10/02 CD E.M.I. 542 4252 Mind Games
27/10/03 CD E.M.I. 595 0672 Lennon Legend
8/03/04 CD Virgin VTDCD 698 John Lennon's Jukebox
13/09/04 CD E.M.I. EBX 23 Double Fantasy/Milk and Honey
27/09/04 CD Capitol 874 3292 Rock 'n' Roll
1/11/04 CD Capitol 874 4282 Acoustic
3/10/05 CD Parlophone 340 0802 Working Class Hero - The Definitive Collection
9/05/69 LP Apple ZAPPLE 01 Unfinished Music No.2 - Life With The Lions
7/11/69 LP Apple SAPCOR 11 The Wedding Album
12/12/69 LP Apple CORE 2001 Live Peace in Toronto 1969
11/12/70 LP Apple PCS 7124 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
8/10/71 LP Apple PAS 10004 Imagine
15/09/72 LP Apple PCSP 716 Some Time in New York City
16/11/73 LP Apple PCS 7165 Mind Games
4/10/74 LP Apple PCTC 253 Walls and Bridges
21/02/75 LP Apple PCS 7169 Rock 'n' Roll
24/10/75 LP Apple PCS 7173 Shaved Fish
17/11/80 LP Geffen K 99131 Double Fantasy
27/11/80 LP Music For Pleasure MFP 50509 Mind Games
15/06/81 LP Parlophone JLB 8 John Lennon (Boxed Set)
25/11/81 LP Music For Pleasure MFP 50522 Rock 'n' Roll
1/11/82 LP Parlophone EMTV 37 The John Lennon Collection
16/12/83 LP Polydor 817238-1 Heart Play - Unfinished Dialogue
23/01/84 LP Polydor POLH 5 Milk and Honey
27/01/84 CD Polydor 8171 602 Milk and Honey
6/84 LP Fame 41 3102 1 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
6/84 LP Silhouette SM 10014 Reflections And Poetry
21/09/84 LP Polydor POLH 13 Everyman Has A Woman
16/11/84 CD Polydor 8234 902 Everyman Has A Woman
24/02/86 LP Parlophone PCS 7301 Live In New York City
24/02/86 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46196 2 Live In New York City
10/10/86 CD Geffen 299 131 Double Fantasy
3/11/86 LP Parlophone PCS 7308 Menlove Avenue
13/04/87 CD Parlophone CDPCS 7308 Menlove Avenue
26/05/87 CD Apple CDP 7 46641 2 Imagine
26/05/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46707 2 Rock 'n' Roll
26/05/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46642 2 Shaved Fish
20/07/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46768 2 Walls And Bridges
3/08/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46769 2 Mind Games
10/08/87 CD E.M.I. CDPCSP 716 Some Time in New York City
10/08/87 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46783 2 Live Jam
5/04/88 CD Parlophone CDP 7 46770 2 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
11/07/88 LP Baktabak BAK 2096 The Last Word
10/10/88 LP Parlophone PCSP 722 Imagine : John Lennon (Music from the Film)
10/10/88 CD Parlophone CDPCSP 722 Imagine : John Lennon (Music from the Film)
30/01/89 CD Capitol CDP 7 91425 2 Double Fantasy
06/89 CD Apple CDP 7 90428 2 Live Peace in Toronto 1969
23/10/89 CD Parlophone CDP 7 91516 2 The John Lennon Collection
30/10/90 CD Parlophone CDS 7 95220 2 Lennon (4CD Box Set)
12/11/90 CD BBC BBCCD 6002 John and Yoko - The Interview
14/12/90 CD Thunderbolt CDTB 095 Testimony
1/93 CD Rock Classics SSI 9999 Unfinished Music No.1 - Two Virgins
11/94 CD Fame CDFA 3310 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
5/95 CD Apple CDP 7 90428 2 Live Peace in Toronto 1969
1/06/96 LP UFO JOHN 1 John Lennon Interview
9/06/97 CD Rykodisc RCD 10411 Unfinished Music No.1 - Two Virgins
9/06/97 CD Rykodisc RCD 10412 Unfinished Music No.2 - Life With The Lions
9/06/97 CD Rykodisc RCD 10413 The Wedding Album
27/10/97 CD Parlophone 821 9542 Lennon Legend
2/11/98 CD Capitol 830 6142 Anthology
3/11/98 CD Capitol 497 6392 Wonsaponatime
14/09/99 CD Dressed To Kill DRESS 155 Bedism ... (I now think this is a bootleg)
14/02/00 CD Parlophone 524 8582 Imagine
9/10/00 CD Capitol 528 7392 Double Fantasy
9/10/00 CD E.M.I. 528 7402 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
27/09/01 CD E.M.I. 535 9592 Milk and Honey
21/10/02 CD E.M.I. 542 4252 Mind Games
27/10/03 CD E.M.I. 595 0672 Lennon Legend
8/03/04 CD Virgin VTDCD 698 John Lennon's Jukebox
13/09/04 CD E.M.I. EBX 23 Double Fantasy/Milk and Honey
27/09/04 CD Capitol 874 3292 Rock 'n' Roll
1/11/04 CD Capitol 874 4282 Acoustic
3/10/05 CD Parlophone 340 0802 Working Class Hero - The Definitive Collection
"The Music of Lennon & McCartney" TV Special 1965
"The Music of Lennon & McCartney was a 1965 show about The Beatles' music. Starring John Lennon and Paul McCartney, they show us other artists that covered their songs.
Bookshelf - Shoulda Been There
Shoulda Been There
by Jude Southerland Kessler
by Jude Southerland Kessler
Published 1994
by OnTheRock Books
Hardcover, 795 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9799448-0-2
Shoulda been there, the first researched historical novel on the life of John Lennon, is truly extraordinary. The book, the first in a promised trilogy of Lennon novels, written by Jude Southerland Kessler, covers John's life from 1940 to 1961, and traces the events that motivated his desire to become a famous rock star and the day-by-day activities of the early Beatles.
No less an authority than Bill Harry, founder of Mersey Beat, the '60s magazine that documented the Liverpool scene of the time, says in the book's foreward that Kessler got it right.
In what Mr. Harry referred to as a "factional" approach, Kessler blends twenty years of research on Lennon with her ability to create authentic Scouse or Liverpudlian dialogue and with an incredible familiarity with the ins and outs of northern England. Jude describes events in Lennon's adolescence as if she were there, as if, as Bill Harry notes, she had been a fly on the wall during these landmark events.
In the pages of this remarkable book, you will experience the Quarry Men's first performance at The Roseberry Street Festival and The Beatles days in Hamburg, you'll walk with John into Liverpool College of Art as a freshman in 1957, and you'll stand beside John at his mother's funeral in 1958. Each moment in John's youth and teen years becomes a moment in the reader's own experience. For 795 pages, the reader is John's shadow. Each reader is John's comrade.
As vivid as these are recounted, the accounts are not fiction. Jude documented these events in over twenty years of research including 7 trips to Liverpool and an incredible number of interviews of the people who were actually there and around at the time. The book is footnoted, and Jude's end notes debate the veracity of past non-fiction research, pointing out contradictions where they exist. Beatle myths are exposed, and new truths are suggested. The book, Shoulda Been There, works to present John Lennon as he really was, not as we've imagined him to be over the last 40 years.
The novel also supplies Beatle enthusiasts with a great deal of documentary material. Jude includes the "Encyclopedia of Real Characters" which provides 125 short biographies of those closest to The Fab Four, and her "Scouse Glossary" gives a necessary insight into the language of Merseyside. There is more at work here than just an extremely good read. The book carefully balances on that tightrope between fact and fiction, plainly telling us when the author leans to one side or the other.
Capturing the essence of long-lost, half-remembered conversations is what Jude sets out to do, all while separating fact from fiction with regard to myths and legends that have been handed down for years about Lennon's youth and The Beatles' unimaginable rise. What happens, through the magic of Jude's words, is that readers come to know the younger Lennon and relive his painful childhood.
The book is an exhaustive work for the early Lennon years. It captures the imagination, but tells the truth.
Featured Book Excerpt
Shoulda Been There, pages 376-378
Reprinted with permission
Friday, 6 May 1960
The Jacaranda
23 Slater Street
Liverpool 1
It was Thursday before Al had secured Tommy Moore as their drummer and Friday before they'd decided on a band name. Stu still favoured the Holly hat-tip that "The Beatals" implied, but the odd designation was ridiculed by experienced showman, Brian Casser, and influenced by Cass, Allan put his foot down. "It's fuggin' lunacy - this Silver Beatals! Give it up! Beatals is out!"
Among John, Paul, George, and Stu, there was general grumbling and a string of half-hearted suggestions that inspired no one, and while they were divided, Allan resurrected the Long John Silver tag again. This time he insisted on it.
"Look, Lennon," he raged, "I haven't time to argue about this. I've scads to do before Tuesday mornin', so listen up. It's Gerry and the Pacemakers, as I've said before, Cohn Green and the Beat Boys, Cliff Roberts and the Rockers, Bob Evans and his Five Shillings, Deny and the Seniors..."
"Cass and the Caskets," John snarled.
Allan ignored him. "To select some anonymous band name without delineating group leadership is flagrantly swimmin' upstream, and you know it! In fact, from Manchester to Doncaster - in all the fuggin' musical North - not one fuggin' name like the fuggin' Beatals has ever been heard of!"
"Right." John's nostrils flared. "Now you're catching on, son."
Paul shouldered in, standing beside John without one hint of his usual cheery disposition. "John's not a solo virtuoso 'shoo-bopped' by some insignificant chorus, y'know," Paul said. "We're all in the group, Al. It's all of us, y'know."
"It's a hand-selected band of individual players," John agreed, tactfully re-establishing his leadership without saying so.
"No one sings all the songs," George tossed in.
"Sod that!" Allan stood his ground. "It's Long John Silver and the whatever else you want to call it...or it's nothin' at all."
John stood up. "We'll not be a name and a conjunction, Al... and I won't be Long John anythin' - not for you, Parnes, or the Queen Mother herself - gig or no gig, tour or no tour, audition or the obvious fuggin' alternative!"
"Look," Allan stepped up, equally irate and stubborn, "I don't give a fuggin' rat's ass what you say, Lennon. I've no time for your shenanigans at this point." He pushed a finger in John's chest. "You're not gettin' up there in front of Billy fuggin' Fury and Larry fuggin' Parnes with some harebrained insect name spelled in some jimmied up, ludicrous fashion! It's bad enough you've never even practiced with yer bleedin' drummer yet..."
"And who exactly do we have to thank for that?" John hissed.
"...but at least you'll look legit and act legit and have a name that sounds like an honest-to-goodness musical group!"
"Gerroff, Al," John sneered. "We've work to do."
"Understand me?" Allan tried Paul first for confirmation, but Paul only shrugged and looked away. "Got it, Harrison?" George whistled and twiddled his thumbs. Only John continued to make eye contact, and his rebellious glare promised only defiance. Allan raised his voice in one final threat, "I'm tellin' you lot right here and now...don't fuggin' cross me on this! Don't come into the fuggin' Blue Angel as the bloody Silver, Bronze, Gold, or Iron Beatals, or y'er out on yer bleedin' ears before you even darken the door. Dress professionally! Don't be late! And don't bring this crap up again! You'll not give my management a bad name just because you're all too fuggin' green to know what's what in the music world!"
"And you make sure," John returned, not the least bit intimidated, "that yer fuggin' drummer shows up. You do your job, Manager...and we'll do ours."
"You'd better hope so," Allan turned to leave, "because if any of you so much as begins to embarrass me in front of Larry Parnes..."
"Out!" John pointed towards the door, dismissing Allan from his own coffee bar, and turning to George in the same breath. "One, two...one, two, three, four..."
"Bollocks to you, Lennon!" Allan mouthed while John flashed a malicious Cheshire grin and began to play. Paul smiled and waved goodbye. George gave a slight nod, then turned away.
Quickly glancing at his watch, Allan pulled his "final-final checklist" from his pocket and hurried to the street, shaking his head in disgust.
They need a fuggin' warden, not a manager, Allan swore. And John Lennon needs a zookeeper with a muzzle and a cudgel.
Al unlocked the sleek, navy blue Jaguar parked in front of The Jacaranda and piled in, his heavy cloth coat rumpling about him. He flipped on the radio and pushed the cigarette lighter in with one quick, simultaneous motion. He inhaled deeply. Holding it for a second, Al let the air out slowly with puffed cheeks. He closed his eyes.
Radio Merseyside was playing Rosemary Clooney's '56 hit, "Come Rain or Come Shine." It was a musical martini for the nerves. It soothed. Allan inhaled deeply again, and turned up the volume a notch.
Not my favourite - Rosemary Clooney, he thought, but I'll take a bit of a lullaby after that lot inside! Sing, Rosemary, sing! Work yer magic, girl!
Allan turned on the ignition and revved it three times.
Beatals! he frowned. Idiotic! Silver Beatals! Who 's ever heard of shite like that?
Adjusting his mirrors, settling into the cushy leather, and popping into gear, Allan screamed away from the curb, foot to the floor. A group of pedestrians scattered out of his way as Allan flew down the street at twice the speed limit. And another crowd jumped as he cut the corner short at Slater and Seel. Allan had been warned several times about aggressive driving on the M-6, but no one, he reasoned, could fault him for this. Having to wrangle with the Silver Beatals was, in his opinion, adequate justification for a little vehicular recklessness.
"In fact," he snarled to his reflection in the rear view mirror, "it's far and away the perfect excuse for just about any crime."
All events are actual, including the make and colour of Allan's car (which, by the way, he lost the license to drive a year or so later...you can read the story in The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away. Priceless!) All conversation is conjecture.
Excerpt Copyright © 1994, Jude Southerland Kessler
To order a copy of Shoulda Been There, send a check for $24.95 to OntheRockBooks, P.O. Box 9572, Dothan, AL 36304. Mention you read this review on The Internet Beatles Album and shipping will be free.
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