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@bodhbdearg
Masterpost: Where to find everything
The McLennon Files digital archive
My posts about interesting finds while archiving:
John's demos
John's collage for Paul
Whose minutes are crumbling away?
Who's sleeping and where?
Confusing timeline of the "Paul got JohnandYoko back together" story.
My fics.
Novel-length fic: Pentimento
My essays/meta.
Beatles (and solo) albums through the McLennonlens.
Beatles book reviews.
Excerpts from Lennonology: A Scrapbook of Madness
by David Bailey, 21th January 1965
by Michael Cooper, 30 March 1967
During your archiving if you ever come across a Tony Bramwell anecdote like this, will you please let me know? I was just relistening to Breakup Series #9 of the OSD podcast, and Diana says Tony Bramwell tells a story about Paul being drunk in a pub and complaining about his and John's class difference and John always thinking he knows best. She doesn't give a source because she doesn't think it's important *rolls eyes* I'm sure it exists out there, but I haven't been able to find it.
I've never heard about this anecdote, but I'll let you know if I find more about it.
@bodhbdearg do you know some information about this?
Hi @st-johns-wood and @m1ssunderstanding I think what she was referring to was a part in Tony Bramwell's book Magical Mystery Tours where he recounts (with suspiciously verbatim dialogue lol) a conversation with Paul in the pub sometime round 1964, excerpts below. It seems to have been mostly joking in nature and of a piece with the Beatles' usual way of teasing each other or jokily talking about each other. For that reason I don't know if I'd call it Paul complaining about John exactly, but of course like everything it's open to interpretation. Then there's the question of Tony Bramwell's reliability - he has a rep for embellishing things (e.g. it's unlikely he remembered every word of dialogue from an afternoon in the pub word for word).
one of the reasons lennon-mccartney was such a successful songwriting partnership is bc no one else could stand working with them
I know something you don’t know I want you to listen to the tale I know a reasonable woman Handsome and witty, yet a friend She’s got the right amount of passion She isn’t into rumour Not too serious or too dumb
An equal mixture of good humour And sweet, sweet memories Sweet, sweet memories Sweet memories […]
Has he got any faults then? Yes, she has one I must admit When all the world tries to praise her She refuses to hear it She’s got the right amount of passion Not too serious or too dumb
An equal mix of good humour And sweet, sweet memories Sweet, sweet memories […]
She’s got the right amount of passion She isn’t into rumour Not too serious or too dumb An equal mix of good humour And sweet, sweet memories
And sweet, sweet memories Sensible soft and melancholy Sweet, sweet memories […]
Sweetest thing you ever saw Hey yeah, sweet, sweet memories Sweet, sweet memories Taking me back Taking me back Taking me back
Some lyrics borrowed from the poem “On A Certain Lady At Court” by Alexander Pope:
I KNOW a thing that's most uncommon (Envy, be silent and attend!) I know a reasonable woman, Handsome and witty, yet a friend. Not warp'd by passion, awed by rumour; Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly; An equal mixture of good-humour And sensible soft melancholy. 'Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?' Yes, she has one, I must aver: When all the world conspires to praise her, The woman's deaf, and does not hear.
‘Alexander Pope’s ‘On a Certain Lady at Court’ is a poem about the unrequited love the speaker had for Catharine Howard, one of Queen Caroline’s waiting-women. Throughout the poem, it is described how everyone can see the beauty, grace, and intelligence of Howard except “Envy,” which remains a mute listener in the first two stanzas. It does not remain silent as it has nothing to comment upon the lady’s character, but the poet asks it so. However, in the end, the poet satirically remarks that the lady, being deaf, cannot listen to the world praising her wit.’ X
Paul McCartney and Wings perform "Lady Madonna" during the Wings Over America tour, 1976
Source: Twitter user carlosgvizcaino
Paul McCartney & Wings (feat David Spinozza) with Mary McCartney, New York, 1970. ㅡ From "RAM Deluxe Edition/Paul McCartney Archive Collection."
speaking of acid, has john ever commented on the "emperor of eternity" trip? paul's spoken about it a lot and to him it was very important in restoring their closeness. given how much john went on about paul's reluctance to take it you'd think he'd have a lot to say about when he finally did...
also, what was ringo's experience with lsd? i only ever hear about john and george
He didn't comment publicly on it (ofc neither did Paul until 1997, years after John's death). But he might be referring to it in the song I Know (I Know) from the 1973 album Mind Games, where he sings "And I know it's getting better all the time / As we share in each other's minds". The song has already, by this point, had a musical reference to Paul's 1969 Beatles song I've Got A Feeling; a reference to "yesterday"; and then this line. "Getting better all the time" is the refrain in the song Getting Better from Sgt Pepper, so it's possible that "share in each other's minds" refers to the LSD night, which occurred in March 1967 while the band was working on Sgt Pepper. Obviously that's speculative and can't be conclusively proven, but I think it's certainly possible.
Re: Ringo and LSD - I don't think he took it much. IIRC, his first time was with JG at the house in LA in 1965, leaving Paul the only Beatle holdout that day. Probably he took it a bit in 1967 as it was the style at the time, but I never got the impression he was as evangelical about it as John and George. Not against it, but it didn't seem to be as life-changing for him.
I am a big fan of the If I Fell valentine. I believe it is a core mclennon artefact. But please listen: the dedication is NOT John's writing.
The dedication is bland! The writing is neat! Show me any single example of John maintaining consistent character height for one whole sentence!
John Winston Lennon did not walk into a shop, buy a generic valentine card, write a greeting that would embarrass a schoolteacher writing a pity card for a student that didn't get any, and then proceed to open it up and write the lyrics of his (at that point) masterpiece.
And what gets me the most is that's a much less good story!!!
Isn't is better if John is like "oh, so it is, a valentine card, how funny! It was *wink* the only piece of paper available *wink*". BOTH of them would have been into the plausible deniability of that.
what's worse than a young man with bottomless talent and a superiority complex? two young men with bottomless talent and a superiority complex who chose to enmesh into one two-headed monster from a young age
colin hanton in the beatles by bob spitz // bob wooler in tune in: all these years vol. 1 by mark lewisohn // mick fleetwood in conversation with bob costas
he's just so fond of how evil they could be together, damn X
Hello! I love your blog and your historical research! I would like to ask for your thoughts on a question regarding John and Paul’s experiences with LSD.
In Many Years From Now, I feel that Paul's description of LSD is, on the whole, somewhat cautious and negative. However, in Derek Taylor's account, Paul spoke enthusiastically about his and John's shared LSD trips, encouraged others to try it, and Jane even expressed jealousy over it. Does this suggest that, at the time, Paul’s attitude toward LSD was actually quite positive? Do you think Paul's perspective changed over the years as time passed and personal/societal views on substance abuse evolved?
Hi there! It's an interesting question, and you're right to note that there's some discrepancy between the contemporary accounts and Paul's later reflection. It's impossible to know for sure, but I think it's possible that his feelings about taking LSD were mixed. His initial introduction to the idea seems to have been negative, with what he describes as "peer pressure" from the others to take it, and not partaking in LA in summer 1965 when JGR were all taking it (along with Peter Fonda lol). It also seems likely, based on accounts and songs from the period, that Paul initially not taking it caused problems between him and the others, especially John, so it's not surprising that memories of that difficult time would colour his later memories. That said, once he and John were taking it together in 1967, it seems to have led to very positive-feeling bonding, as described in Derek's account and Paul's own very happy memories of the Sergeant Pepper's period. Paul's only explicit account of taking it with John, in Many Years from Now, expresses both positive and negative feelings - positive in the sense of closely bonding with John, to the extent of "disappearing" into each other's eyes, but also negative in the sense of it feeling like too much for Paul, who had to take breaks and eventually go to bed. That's all quite understandable and probably reflects a lot of people's experiences with psychedelics.
I say "Paul's only explicit account" because I believe he took LSD a lot more than the handful of times he describes. This applies, I believe, to all his accounts of drug-taking - there's no way he only took cocaine in 1967 and never again! That's also understandable, as he didn't want to have a "druggy" image and as he got older and had children he may not have wanted to be seen to be setting a bad example (except when it came to weed, which he was always fairly open about). His ambivalence could also partially stem from all the drama after the magazine interview in 1967 where he admitted to taking LSD - he may have decided after that to be circumspect about his drug-taking so as not to have to deal with that kind of grief again.
I recall an interview (I don't have the source) where someone commented on how thin he was in 1967 and he said something along the lines of "that's what happens when you take loads of acid and forget to eat". If he was being honest there, in an off-the-cuff moment, that indicates he was using LSD fairly often that year - not as much as John, but no one could take as much as John did lol.
My feeling is that LSD was positive for him when it was increasing he and John's closeness, but outside of that context it had less appeal and the sense of losing control of your mind outweighed the positive aspects - that's just my speculation, though, I can't know for sure.
Thanks for the ask!
Self-portrait by Stuart Sutcliffe from Liverpool Art College days.
Viktor Kolář, Ostrava, 1990 From Banik Ostrava
McLennon Files Quiz!
For the past year or so, @st-johns-wood and I (as well as other great volunteers) have been working on the McLennon Files Archive, a collection of material relating to John and Paul's relationship, stored for posterity on the Internet Archive. The project is intended to have all this material in one secure place, as it can be hard to find on Tumblr and doesn't always have the right dates or attributions. We've recently passed a milestone of 600 items on this archive, and to celebrate @st-johns-wood had the idea of making a quiz! All answers can be found by searching on the archive - why don't you test your McLennon knowledge and get to know the archive!
What press conference do we see John doing
Tips: There are many ways to find material on the archive - you can filter content by year, creator, subject term, type of material etc - more detailed tips on searching here. You can also use the search bar at the top of the collection - most significant terms will come up in object descriptions.
Let us know in comments or reblogs how you get on!
Trumpeter Ernestine ‘Tiny’ Davis (left) and saxophonist Willie Mae ‘Rabbit’ Wong (right) travelling with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm on a European tour, circa 1945.
New theory:
honestly a much better match than either Jane or John imo
This started as a shitpost but
a) that’s genuinely a better match than Jane or John’s writing b) I think George taking the piss is actually a really good explanation for the generic greeting, and is totally in character c) he frequently signed with three x’s
