#bob spitz

[the-boney-rolls]

Is Bob Spitz implying something lavender about Jim and Mary McCartney's marriage?

There seems to be something underlying to the way that Bob Spitz describes the elder McCartney courtship in his Beatles bio. On Jim:

In his demeanor, his generosity, his plain-spokenness, his effusiveness, his intimacy, and his irrepressible wit, Jim, like Paul later on, proved an earnest, often devoted companion. People of both sexes were attracted to him.

No further elaboration for a very striking choice of words. Only that Jim then "shunn[ed] serious relationships for a period of ten years."

Mary's introduction emphasized a similar lack of interest in relationships:

at thirty-one and unmarried, Mary was no longer considered "a prime catch" [...] Remarkably, over the next seventeen years, there were no serious suitors in her life. "Mary was so career-conscious that she didn't worry much about men," says her sister-in-law and confidante Dill Mohin. [...] "We were so immersed in our work," she recalls, "no one was in any hurry to get married." But if Mary Mohin harbored any regrets or disappointment in what had been dealt her, she never let on to a soul."

Immediately after this is a description of Jim that raises the biggest (rainbow) flag:

Jim, at forty, had settled into what friends considered "a confirmed bachelorhood." Although he was about the same age as his father when he found a bride, he had shown no inclination toward marriage

No source is given for "a confirmed bachelor," but the implication is that it's someone who knew him before Mary, so not Dill. I looked it up to be sure, and while it's unclear whether "confirmed bachelor" was widely used to mean a closeted homosexual in the 1940s, by the second half of the 20th century, that connotation was certainly there. Wherever Spitz got this quote, it was likely sometime much later and from someone reflecting on the past but using the language of the time in which they were speaking. (As @bodhbdearg suggested, perhaps an off the record interview with Spitz at the time of writing.)

The book goes on to describe how they fell in love, chatting while hiding from a bomb threat and "Jim became an object of Mary's disciplined interest." Romantic! No description of Jim's feelings about Mary is given. OK!

(@bodhbdearg also pointed out that they then went on to have exactly two kids, in very quick succession, and then no more. Interesting!)

Make of that all what you will, but one can't help but wonder what Jim's "friends" might have said about him to Spitz.

Also, it can't help but be noticed that "he had shown no inclination toward marriage" sounds exactly like a phrase that would be used to describe Paul in the 60s.

[undying-love]

since the Beatles biopics are based off of bob spitz biography, which mclennon quotes we have from him?

Bob is one of my favorite biographers, because he actually seems to "get it" (not to mention that he has said that during his research he was told many things he decided not to put in his book). Look at the things he has said.

From his Beatles biography:

"School proved a nagging obstacle for John and Paul, the occasional stolen afternoons unsatisfying, hardly time enough to get something going before Jim arrived home from work. Weekends were reserved primarily for the band. It wasn't so much that they needed time to write as much as it was each other's company. "Something special was growing between them," says Colin Hanton, "something that went past friendship as we knew it." “The last week in August, Paul McCartney returned to Liverpool, tanned and noticeably slimmer. In addition to starting school, he came back to begin a relationship he seemed destined for: hooking up with John Lennon." "John hooked right in and fed off the energy. John and Paul had remarkably similar tastes; they liked it fast, hard, and loose." “Paul loved working with John. At the beginning it was like sex–they popped them off, one after another.“ "Their interest in each other was deeper and more complex than it appeared to anyone watching the encounter. There was instant recognition, a chemical connection made between the two boys [...] For all the circling, posturing, and checking out that went on, what it all came down to was love at first sight.” "At first Paul held out hope that the separation was temporary, admitting that “nobody”—especially himself—“quite knew if it was just one of John’s little flings and that maybe he was going to feel the pinch in a week’s time and say, ‘I was only kidding.’” But as the weeks, then months, ticked away, Paul finally realized it wasn’t a joke. Convinced that John was now abandoning him, increasingly jealous of his relationship with Yoko—and Allen Klein—Paul atoned for the loss with anger. He was angry at the Beatles, but even angrier at John. It took another six months for him to admit the extent of his heartbreak. "John is in love with Yoko", he told the Evening Standard, "and he’s no longer in love with the other three of us.” But for all intents and purposes, he might as well have been talking about himself." "Not only had they played music together, they'd hung out together, dreamed together, fucked together, become famous together."

From his book "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!":

"John saw right off that the boy had talent, not to mention plenty of nerve. He came on so loose and confident, without any inhibitions; John couldn’t take his eyes off him." "Their interest in each other was deep, complicated, and strong—a magnetic pull. There was something they recognized in each other, but it also repelled them, perhaps because it struck too close to home. Neither boy knew exactly what it was, but they could feel it. Instead of becoming instant friends, they played it cool, acting polite toward each other, interested but not too interested." "John was haunted by Paul McCartney’s display of skill, the way he had handled the guitar so smoothly and with such panache, the way he’d sung all the correct words to the rock ‘n roll songs. And John thought Paul looked a little like Elvis. “I dug him.” "There was also something unique about Paul, something John couldn’t quite put his finger on, that intensified his interest. Hooking up with someone like that was too exciting to pass up. John sensed he was on the verge of something important. Sure, they could make some music together and have a little fun, but there was something else, something indescribable that intrigued him. Whatever it was would become apparent in time."

The following ones is not from his book, but from OSD podcast, 2021:

"They fell in love. I’m convinced. They looked at each other and they went like, “this is it for me”. Very platonic...but...They got married when they were in their teens and they got divorced when they were 29 and 30. There you have it. Yoko took John away from Paul. It was a divorce. John divorced Paul and found himself with Yoko." "When I talked to Paul about John and when he missed John most, he couldn't answer me for a long time and his eyes teared up. And I asked him where he thinks about John and when John comes into his mind and he just … he lost it, he completely lost it … I think the fact that John was killed in the way he was destroyed Paul. I think it killed a part of Paul. So was there real love there? Absolutely!"

[singemall-stayallnight]

Led Zeppelin - Tour Over Europe 1980 Shenanigans

At the outset, everyone was in a playful mood. "The first night, I was fast asleep when suddenly my door crashed in, a cherry bomb went off, and two buckets of ice water were thrown on me," Phil Carlo, the new road manager, recalls. Through the billowing smoke, he was able to make out Bonzo, who was convulsed in laughter and shouted, "Welcome to the tour!" Before the drummer ran for cover, he told Phil, "By the way, Robert wants to go swimming for his physical therapy at six o'clock in the morning when nobody's in the pool. Sort it out."

The next morning, dutifully at half past five, Carlo, dressed in a Speedo with goggles and a pair of flippers, knocked on Robert Plant's hotel door. "Robert—time to go!" he called. A few minutes later, Robert appeared in an overcoat with a scarf, a woolly cap, and dark glasses. He took one look at Phil and said, "What the fuck are you up to?"

"I've come to take you swimming," he said.

Robert shook his head. "At six o'clock in the morning? Are you mad? Fuck me, Phil, Bonzo's done you up. We'll have to figure out how to get back at him."

Excerpt from Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz

Led Zeppelin, 1980.

[musicmags]

Classic Rock Magazine | June 2026

[magejamespage]

Guys im lowkey so excited. I got a new book to read! It’s the Led Zeppelin biography by Bob Spitz.

It seems like it will be going through the entire timeline of ledzep and im really curious what it’s going to reveal.

On one of the first pages it has a quote from Jimmy on it that says “Fuck the sixties, we are going to chart the new decade!”

[thebeatles]

Paul and John as each other's mirrors

From Bob Spitz' The Beatles: The Biography (2005):

But he was enamored of Paul's prodigious talent, so much so that all previous reservations disappeared. Transfixed, John squatted on his haunches, squinting, close enough to study Paul's elastic hands. Despite the convoluted right-handed chording (Paul was left-handed), which gave a reverse "mirror image" to his patterns, the mechanics made perfect sense to John, "Paul taught me how to play properly," John recalled. "So I learned [the chords] upside down, and I'd go home and reverse them." (pg. 102)

From the beginning, John tapped right into the approach that Paul first experimented with. Clearly, it presented no struggle for him. He had an innate feel for songwriting, a talent for turning a phrase inside out until it squealed. "It was great," Paul recalled," because instead of looking into my own mind for a song, I could see John playing – as if he was holding a mirror to what I was doing." (pg. 133)

[eppysboys]

“Dot Rhone, who had rented the basement flat below John and Cynthia, recalls being invited upstairs one night in early October and being asked by John to phone Radio Luxembourg to request ‘Love Me Do’. Dot didn’t mind doing the favor. John had shown enormous sympathy following her breakup with Paul, going so far as to give her the rent sometimes when she was short. There was no problem getting a deejay on the phone, nor responding that it was ‘fantastic’ when he asked her personal opinion of the song. But her heart skipped when, out of the blue, the deejay confessed he ‘wasn’t at all that thrilled with it’. It startled Dot, and it must of have shown on her face, because as soon as she hung up, John sneered: ‘He didn’t like it, did he?’”

The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz

[long-after-love]

“[Paul] had a real talent when it came to drawing,” remembers Don Andrew, another future Remo Four member, who sat next to Paul in class. “It wasn’t something he learned from a book, he was self-taught, and so the work he produced was truly imaginative.” Paul had drawn for as long as he could remember; he was “always sketching.” Come vacation time, he recalls, “I always [made] my own Christmas cards,” decorating them with nervous pencil sketches overlaid with watercolor washes.

Many years later he would linger in a Long Island barn and watch his friend Willem de Kooning “work on these massive, great canvases” that fed Paul’s own hunger to paint, but there was no such encouragement from the masters. At the institute, students never “stayed with art” throughout their school career; the meat-and-potatoes classes were so demanding that there just wasn’t enough time for it. But those boys who showed talent were given the opportunity to “stay behind on a Tuesday night” for extra art instruction. Once a week Stan Reed, the institute’s resident draftsman, conducted lessons in line and perspective drawing, as well as watercolors for a class of ten or twelve self-motivated students. Paul, who had energy, albeit conventional talent, flourished under Reed’s practical guidance. What’s more, Reed helped Paul overcome the insecurity he had in relation to “true” artistes at the art college next door—abnegating the notion “that they paint, and we don’t.” Paul took full advantage of the advice—so much so that, in time, some students actually approached him for tips and technical hints. Says Don Andrew: “I remember walking along the art room on Parents Nights, when our work was hung, and being drawn to the most outstanding piece on exhibit. It was always Paul McCartney’s—he was that good.”

- Bob Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography (2005)