#book:myfn

[sgtpeppers]

This is peak Paul for me, he's so funny. A whole paragraph explaining how he decided he didn't care about being academic because of Elvis. And then in the next breath explaining how he hated the teachers because they wouldn't just lie on his school reports and say he was a good student.

I nearly did very well at grammar school, but I started to get interested in art rather than academic subjects. Then I started to see pictures of Elvis, and that started to pull me away from the academic path. “You should see these great photos…” Then you’d hear the records - “But wait a minute, this is very good!” - and then the tingles started going up and down your spine, “Oh, this is something altogether different.” And so the academic things were forgotten.  The words they used in their end-of-term reports: “If you would only buckle down…” and you’d go, “No! No! Get out of my life! I hate you. You should say I’m great. I’ve got to take this home, you know.” If I had buckled down, it could have worked out that way, but I’m glad it didn’t of, course. There was always the great pull of the other stuff: show business, music, art, the other stuff…

Paul McCartney, interview for Many Years From Now by Barry Miles

[sgtpeppers]

The way the Paul vs Stu stuff is written in Many Years From Now is making me laugh because it's just sooo Paul.

It starts with Paul describing it as a 'deadly rivalry' which was rooted in two things; his jealousy about John's attention and the fact Stu wasn't good enough on bass:

PAUL: He and I used to have a deadly rivalry. I don't know why. He was older and a strong friend of John's. When I look back on it I think we were probably fighting for John's attention. He was older and John was a year older than me, and that year makes a hell of a lot of difference at the age of eighteen. So I wasn't such a big friend of Stuart's. I was always practical, thinking our band could be great, but with him on bass there was always something holding us back.

Then the way Barry Miles tees up the next quote from Paul is by saying this:

There has been a lot made of the supposed animosity between Paul and Stuart but most of it is rumour, exaggerated and amplified by time.

Which (to me anyway) sounds like Paul's going to try and soften it, 'Me and Stu did mostly get along fine' or something, but then the quote is:

PAUL: It wasn't just me. Legend so often divides these things neatly down the middle: John was hard, I was soft; John loved Stuart, I didn't. But John was perfectly aware that Stuart couldn't play and it wasn't just me telling Stu to turn his back to the camera, it would often be John saying that. We used to ask him to turn away and do a moody thing looking over his shoulder so no one could see that his fingers weren't in the same key as the rest of us. It wasn't a good thing for a group to have someone who was such an obviously weak link. I think John felt a sense of relief when Stuart stayed in Hamburg. In a way, it was actually very convenient. Nobody wanted to sack him; it would not have got to that because of his personal friendship with John. But nobody was that sad to see him stay in Hamburg. It seemed right that we all had to move on and I quite easily got into bass.

So not that the rivalry between him and Stu was overblown, but that people have forgotten John also thought he was shit on the bass and was probably relieved to have him out of the band.

[sgtpeppers]

Our family had never been to university. It was during that time, A-levels time, I remember thinking, in many ways I wish I was a lorry driver, a Catholic lorry driver. Very very simple life, a firm faith and a place to go in my lorry, in my nice lorry. I realised I was more complex than that and I slightly envied that life. I envied the innocence.

Paul McCartney, interview for Many Years From Now by Barry Miles