Paul and John

[carolsturka]

[amoralto]

Tape labels and official lyrics sheet (w/ Jeff Lynne’s notes?) for ‘Now And Then’ /‘I Don’t Want To Lose You’ from the Beatles’ Anthology sessions. (1995)

[ladiesandgentlemen-the-beatles]

[eggshell-seas]

Beatle historians help!! Does anyone know off the top of their head what interview(s) it is where John’s talking about how if he were to have sex with a man, he’d have to be in love with him first / they’d need to have a very solid connection and intellectual bond / he talks about his “checklist” for a male partner and how he never found anyone that fit the bill, so to speak?? This would either be from the mid 70s or closer to 1980.

Similarly, there’s an interview with Yoko where she alludes to John saying something similar, and I feel like sometime around 1980 we have John talking about how before he began his relationship with May / just before the Lost Weekend began, there was discussion between him and Yoko about whether he should explore a relationship with a man or woman, and that he tried to convince Yoko that it would perhaps be easier for her if he were to pursue a man for the time being??

Anyways I’ve been looking for the quotes for about 20 minutes now after hearing them quoted in the AKOM podcast and I know I’ve seen the sources on here before but I’m having trouble locating them so figured I’d make a post lol

[bodhbdearg]

Putting these in a reblog as I can't put pictures in a comment. Quotes from Yoko (quoting John at the time of the Lost Weekend) in Philip Norman 2008 biography of John

Also, a quote from Yoko in an interview with The Daily Beast, October 2015:

"I think he had a desire to [have sex with men] but I think he was too inhibited,” says Ono. [...] “No, not inhibited. He said, ʻI donʼt mind if thereʼs an incredibly attractive guy.ʼ Itʼs very difficult: They would have to be not just physically attractive, but mentally very advanced too. And you canʼt find people like that.”

[ififeller]

some doomed yaoi for colouring practice

[blackvinyl]

mutual masturbation except it's just the two of you playing your guitars while face to face with one another

[muzaktomyears]

The fact that Paul played guitar left-handed made it easier for him to stand with his head close to John or George. This looked terrific and had a very powerful impact — it was as if they were singing to each other, and the fans loved it. Although John and George also sang with their heads together, it was not as effective as when either stood alongside Paul.

It Was Thirty Years Ago Today, Terence Spencer (1994)

[valend]

John Lennon CANNOT handle allat…….

[tavolgisvist]

When I hear that John says

Oh! Darling was a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. And I always thought I could do it better. It was more my style than his… But he wrote it, so what the hell, he’s gonna sing it… But if he’d had any sense, he should have let me sing it. [laughs]

(John Lennon, interview with David Sheff, 1980)

I think Paul could say the same about John's I Want You (She's so heavy). I mean 'if he’d had any sense, he should have let me sing it' part.

Visit Original Link

[tavolgisvist]

The Beatles stuff all got too heavy, and 'heavy' at that time had a very particular meaning for me. It meant more than oppressive. It meant having to go into meetings and sit in the boardroom with all the other Beatles and with the accountants and with this guy Allen Klein. He was a New York spiv who had come over to London and talked to The Rolling Stones and persuaded them he was the man for them. Prior to that, he had persuaded Sam Cooke he was the man for him. I smelled a rat but the other chaps didn’t, so we had a fight over it and I got voted down. I was trying to be Mr Rational and Mr Sensible, and it all went haywire.

(Paul McCartney about You Never Give Me Your Money in The Lyrics, 2021)

[tavolgisvist]

But I know you won't leave me 'cause you told me so And I've no intention of letting you go

(Bad to Me, 1963)

Whatever happened to The life that we once knew? Can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch That seemed to mean so much? It always made me feel so Free as a bird

(Free As A Bird, 1977/1995)

So you, you must tell me something,…I love you, Say goodbye or anything

(The Lovers That Never Were, 1987)

I talked with Yoko the day after John was killed and the first thing she said was, “John was really fond of you, you know.” It was almost as if she sensed that I was wondering whether he had… whether the relationship had snapped. I believe it was always there. I believe he really was fond of me, as she said. We were really the best of mates. It was really ace.

(Paul McCartney,May, 1982, interview with Ray Bonici for Music Express)

I do (have a connection) and I don’t expect it to go even though we are separated by death. It’s just something I will always feel, some sort of link with John. That’s for sure.

(Paul McCartney, interview with Steve Wright, Radio 2, December 9, 2005)

And I won't go away until you tell me so No, I'll never go away

(No More Lonely Nights, 1984)

I stand by what I said The promise that I made Will never be broken

(Days We Left Behind, 2025)

[tavolgisvist]

1968

On the way home our plane stopped off in Rome where we had lunch. Wouldn’t it be fun to finish the day with dinner in London, after breakfast in Greece and lunch in Rome? We laughed. “Let’s get John to join us.” Alex suggested I ring him to let him know what time we would be back. I spoke to him briefly. “Hi, darling, I’ll be home soon. Can’t wait to see you.” John’s reply sounded normal: “Fine, see you later.” <…> We arrived at four in the afternoon and immediately I knew something was wrong: the porch light was on, the curtains were still drawn and everything was silent. <…> John and Yoko were sitting on the floor, cross-legged and facing each other, beside a table covered with dirty dishes. They were wearing the terry-cloth robes we kept in the poolhouse, so I imagined they had been for a swim. John was facing me. He looked at me, expressionless, and said, “Oh, hi.” Yoko didn’t turn around. I blurted out the only thing I could think of: “We were all looking forward to dinner in London after lunch in Rome and breakfast in Greece. Would you like to come?” The stupidity of that question has haunted me ever since. Confronted by my husband and his lover—wearing my dressing-gown—behaving as though I was an intruder, all I could do was carry on as if everything were normal. In fact I was in shock, operating on autopilot. I had no idea how to react. It was clear that they had arranged for me to find them like that and the cruelty of John’s betrayal was hard to absorb. The intimacy between them was daunting. I could feel a wall round them that I could not penetrate. In my worst nightmares about Yoko I had not imagined anything like this. As I stood in the doorway, rooted to the spot in shock and pain, John said, indifferently, “No, thanks.” I turned and fled.

(John by Cynthia Lennon, 2005)

As the meeting was drawing to a weary close, John, not this day with Yoko, who hadn’t seemed particularly connected with what was going on, said he wanted to play us a tape he and Yoko had made. He got up and put the cassette into the tape machine and stood beside it as we listened. The soft murmuring voices did not at first signal their purpose. It was a man and a woman but hard to hear, the microphone having been at a distance. I wondered if the lack of clarity was the point. Were we even meant to understand what was going on, was it a kind of artwork where we would not be able to put the voices into a context, and was context important? I felt perhaps this was something John and Yoko were examining. But then, after a few minutes, it became clear. John and Yoko were making love, with endearments, giggles, heavy breathing, both real and satirical, and the occasional more direct sounds of pleasure reaching for climax, all recorded by the faraway microphone. But there was something innocent about it too, as though they were engaged in a sweet serious game. John clicked the off button and turned again to look toward the table, his eyebrows quizzical above his round glasses, seemingly genuinely curious about what reaction his little tape would elicit. However often they’d shared small rooms in Hamburg, whatever they knew of each other’s love and sex lives, this tape seemed to have stopped the other three cold. Perhaps it touched a reserve of residual Northern reticence. After a palpable silence, Paul said, “Well, that’s an interesting one.” The others muttered something and the meeting was over.

(Michael Lindsay-Hogg (filmmaker), Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond, 2011)

1969

Klein asked John to wait until the contracts were finalized before he started talk that the Beatles were disbanding. But that didn’t keep John from enjoying the satisfaction of telling Paul. Shortly after John’s return from Toronto, he demanded a meeting at Apple. Paul arrived, his usual magnanimous self, full of plans for new Beatles projects. But no matter what Paul suggested, John kept saying, “No, I don’t want to do that,” or “No, I’m not interested.” The discussion finally dissolved into a mean argument, which Paul finally recovered from by launching into one of his Beatle-pep talks, one of those “Toppermost of the Poppermost” things. “When everything is said and done,” he summed up, “we’re still the Beatles, aren’t we?” “Aw fuck,” John said, “I ain’t no Beatle.” Paul wouldn’t hear it. “Of course you are—” “I’m not!” John shouted, “Don’t you understand? It’s over! Over! I want a divorce, just like the divorce I got from Cynthia! Can’t you get it through your bloody head?” The meeting ended shortly after with John rushing down the stairs, Yoko right behind him, shouting, “It’s over! Finished!” Still, John said nothing to the press, and when he and Yoko left Savile Row that afternoon in their white Rolls-Royce, Paul still somehow believed that John would calm down and there would always be the Beatles.

(The Love You Make by Peter Brown, 1983)

1972

Everybody was dumbfounded [at the election results]… <…> So here is Lennon, at our apartment, having a nervous breakdown <…> He was really out there. He was getting more and more sober every second as the realizations were starting to penetrate, that this was like the end of his whole life. Because then, at the same time, it was "I don't want to be John and Yoko anymore. I'm through, I had enough, I can't stand it, I don't want her." He looked at her and said, "I don't want you." Then he said to everyone, "I don't want her." It was very heavy. He was practically having epileptic fits. <…> Eventually he was kissing me instead of my nose ring. I got very embarrassed. On the other hand, I didn't want to throw this guy away, I will admit, it was John Lennon. <…> John woke right up and came out and took me in the bedroom. I totally cooperated with him and we got into a total sex trip. I couldn't stand knowing that his wife was listening to us in the next room since I had recently become friendly with her and I was fond of her. So I told him we should go downstairs to the basement. He was unclear on where he was, he was so fucked up. And he made me explain everything to him. He thought he was in Jerry's house and that I would have to go home somewhere and he wanted to take me home. "I'm sorry, we are home, this is where I live." That's when he snapped out of it and sobered up and he realized what was going on, and that his wife was in the next room listening to him making out with me. And he didn't care. His attitude was "fuck her." So we went downstairs to the basement and he told me that before he and Yoko married, they made a pact and were totally monogamous for all the time up until that moment. It's true, she told me. And he told me he wanted to break the pact. He wanted her to know that he was through with her and he had been trying to tell her this for some time and he couldn't get through to her. He felt the one way that he could get through to her would be to break the pact in a way that she would know he broke the pact. He wanted to use me for that. I agreed to let him use me.

(Carla Realini about party in November 1972 in Steal This Dream: Abbie Hoffman and the Countercultural Revolution in America by Larry Sloman, 1998)

[muzaktomyears]

Paul McCartney in Beverly Hills, June 1968 (source)

[tavolgisvist]

Obertauern, Austria 18 March 1965, photo by Henry Grossman

The Beatles performing on stage at the Star Club, Hamburg, April-May 1962

[therealsaintscully]

So I'm reading Victor's Spinetti's book Up Front, and at first I thought the events he was describing regarding John weren't linear, because the way he describes it John was taking meetings with professionals and was only 'allowed' to eat Yoko makes for him as far back as the recording of I Am The Walrus and Magic Alex appearing on scene.

This conjures John and Yoko in 69 but it's is in regards to discussing the adaptation of In His Own Write and took place in late (probably December) 1967. This is months before India. Olivier is Laurence Olivier, 'the pair of them' is John and Yoko of course. The play opened 18 June 1968 (ON PAUL'S BIRTHDAY), one month after they supposedly "became a couple", and would be their second official appearance as a couple.

This would take place around the same time - immediately following Christmas, 1967. John, Cynthia and Victor took an impromptu New Year's trip to Marrakech (which I'm researching right now, so if anyone has quotes from Cyn about this trip I'd love a link).

Also, whatever these are, referring, probably, to the recording of Magical Mystery Tour (appearing earlier in the book).

There's no doubt that for quite a while Yoko made John very happy?

When a wife comes along the closeness between the pals ends?

Tagging a few peeps I hope that's OK @tavolgisvist @thinkpink-20 @i-am-the-oyster @undying-love

[irbis-marlen]

Paul about Julian and John:

“We once went on a holiday and Julian was along, his first son. The kind of family I’m from in Liverpool, there was always babies. You’d been thrown a baby to jiggle on your knee. It wasn’t anything precious. We were very tactile, I think, my family. There was always babies. I always imagined it like a bit of an Italian sort of thing. John didn’t know that, and I didn’t realise any of that until much later in our relationship. You don’t talk about that stuff when you’re a teenager and you’re in a group. But we were on this holiday, and I would be bored with the adults, because, you know, they’re just sitting around getting drunk or whatever, you know, which is fun for a while. But I’d get bored, so I’d go off with Julian and we would be on a boat and I’d be like, okay, now, I’m a pirate and you’re an Indian and I’m going to get you, okay?? And I’d just go into the fantasy world and he’d go, ‘Okay’ And so the two of us would be running around this boat and stuff with all the adults in the next door, you know. And John saw this once and he came up to me and he said, ‘how do you do that?’ And I just, I felt like crying, you know. It was like, God, you know, I can’t tell you. It’s just years of having babies thrown at me or being a kid or playing with kids. It was just something my family taught you. Whereas his, with his dad leaving home when he was three and his mum not living with him, I would go with him to visit his mum. I would be John’s moral support. When we’d go, we’d go together, we’d see his mum, and he idolised his mum. But then again, she got knocked over by an off-duty policeman who was a learner driver or something. It was terrible, tragic stuff. I was just very, very fortunate to have this sort of rather stable, warm Liverpool family. And in talking to John later, he had none of that. So he had to fend for himself. So that was the basis of John’s acerbic wit. He was always having to use it.”

[paulisdead]

Well that’s his business…

[needlesmercy]

i'm crying bruh freddie wanted that cookie so effing bad 😭

[i-am-the-oyster]

the drawing Freddie did of Paul as a teenager