SG: Then, what happened? You finally got to meet with John and Yoko, and there was an all-night session at the Dorchester hotel. And something happened in that all-night session at the Dorchester that totally won their allegiance to you.
AK: John said, listen, the Beatles are represented by the Eastmans,
will you represent me and Yoko?
SG: The Beatles’ legal affairs were represented by the Eastmans?
AK: You see, you have to read that piece of paper.
SG: The piece of paper the Eastmans had with the boys?
AK: Oh yes. All signed.
SG: All of them signed it?
AK: Yes. And Apple. It never used the word management, but it didn’t have to. If you represent all the negotiations throughout the world of Apple and the Beatles, you have it. The import of that particular piece of document was that everything would have to flow through them.
(Allen Klein, 1980, interview with Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, All You Need Is Love, 2024)
John comes into the office and says, ‘Don’t care about the others, don’t give a shit … but I’m having Klein, he can have all of my stuff and get it sorted out.’
(Derek Taylor, As Time Goes By, 1973)
AK: …We were just trying to get to know one another… Lennon and Yoko, I would rather not say what won them over for me. I would think that a principal thing was the fact that they really wanted someone for themselves. Apart from the Beatles. That’s really what it was. John is a very practical human being and the conflict was there, and it was his band and he was losing control, and he didn’t want to. He wanted to be protected. It was as simple as that. That first evening that I met with John, he said, “Do you want to represent us?” I said yeah.
(Allen Klein, 1980, interview with Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, All You Need Is Love, 2024)
When the four of us entered into our partnership agreement in 1967, we did not consider the exact wording or give any thought to the agreement's legal implications. We had thought that if one of us wanted to leave the group he would only have to say so. On the way in which the four of us had sorted out our differences in the past, I deny that it had been on a three-to-one basis. If one disagreed, we discussed the problem until we reached agreement or let the matter drop. I know of no decision taken on a three-to-one basis. I deny that the Eastmans and I obstructed Mr. Allen Klein in the preparation of accounts. Nor had the Eastmans been contenders for the job of manager for the group. I wanted them as managers but when the rest of the group disagreed, had not pressed the matter. Mr. Lennon had challenged my statement that Mr. Klein had sowed discord within the group, but I recall a telephone conversation in which Mr. Klein had told me, "You know why John is angry with you? It is because you came off better than he did on Let It Be.' Mr. Klein also said to me, 'The real trouble is Yoko. She is the one with ambition.' I often wonder what John would have said if he heard the remark.
(From Paul McCartney’s affidavit, Feb 26 1971, The Beatles Diary. Volume 2. After The Break Up. 1970-2001. Keith Badman)
I was very upset when they said I was just trying to bring in Lee Eastman, because he’s my in-law. As if I’d just bring in a member of the family, for no reason. They’d known me twenty years, yet they thought that. I couldn’t believe it. John said, ‘Magical Mystery Tour was just a big ego trip for Paul.’ God. It was for their sake, to keep us together, keep us going, give us something new to do…
(Paul McCartney, Private Call with Hunter Davies, May 1981)
Klein keeps saying that I don’t like him because I want Eastman to manage the Beatles,’ he said. ‘Well, this is how it really happened. I thought, and still think, that Linda’s father would have been good for us all. And I decided I wanted him. But all the others wanted Klein. Well, all right, they can have Klein, but I don’t see that I have to agree with them.
‘I don’t think I need a manager in the old sense that Brian Epstein was our manager. All I want are paid advisers, who will do what I want them to do. And that’s what I’ve got. If the others want Klein, well, that’s up to them, but I’ve never signed a contract with him. He doesn’t represent me. I’m sure Eastman is better for me.
(Paul McCartney, interview, Evening Standard, April 21-22, 1970)
In fact, there was one classic little meeting when we were recording Abbey Road. It was a Friday evening session, and I was sitting there, and I’d heard a rumor from Neil or someone that there was something funny going around. So we got to the session, and Klein came in. To me, he was like a sort of demon that would always haunt my dreams. He got to me. Really, it was like I’d been dreaming of him as a dentist. He came round to the session, and he said, “I gotta have this thing signed, I gotta get you guys on a contract,” and then so I said, “Wait a minute, c’mon, it’s Friday night, what’s the hurry? Give us the thing over the weekend, and we’ll let ya know Monday?” Fair enough?
And everyone said, “Uh-huh, there he goes.”
...
John said, “Oh, fucking hell, here you go, stalling again.”
I said, “I’m not stalling, I want it checked out. It’s a big movement, going with a new manager, you know, and maybe we don’t want to go with this guy. What’s the hurry? Why can’t he wait?”
(Paul McCartney, 1980 - All You Need Is Love: The End of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, 2024)
‘Security is the only thing I want. Money to do nothing with, money to have in case you wanted to do something.’
(Paul McCartney (1964) in Love Me Do! The Beatles’ Progress by Michael Braun, 1964/1995)
They said, “Oh no, typical of you, all that stalling and what. Got to do it now.”
I said, “Well, I’m not going to. I demand at least the weekend. I’ll look at it, and on Monday. This is supposed to be a recording session, after all.”
I dug me heels in, and they said, right, well, we’re going to vote it.
I said, “No, you’ll never get Ringo to.”
I looked at Ringo, and he kind of gave me this sick look like, Yeah, I’m going with them.Then I said, “Well, this is like bloody Julius Caesar, and I’m being stabbed in the back!”
It’s the first time you realize in our whole relationship that whenever we voted, we never actually had come to that point before—three were going to vote one down. That was the first time, and they all signed it, they didn’t need my signature.
(Paul McCartney, 1980 - All You Need Is Love: The End of the Beatles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, 2024)
Steve Miller happened to be there recording, late at night, and he just breezed in. ‘Hey, what’s happening, man? Can I use the studio?’ ‘Yeah!’ I said. ‘Can I drum for you? I just had a fucking unholy argument with the guys there.’ I explained it to him, took ten minutes to get it off my chest. So I did a track, he and I stayed that night and did a track of his called My Dark Hour. I thrashed everything out on the drums. There’s a surfeit of aggressive drum fills, that’s all I can say about that. We stayed up until late. I played bass, guitar and drums and sang backing vocals. It’s actually a pretty good track. It was a very strange time in my life and I swear I got my first grey hairs that month. I saw them appearing. I looked in the mirror, I thought, I can see you. You’re all coming now. Welcome.
(Paul McCartney in Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, 1997)
The nature of The Beatles’ management deal with Allen Klein remains a source of annoyance to McCartney:
“I kept saying, ‘Don’t give Allen Klein 20 per cent, give him 15, we’re a big act!’ And everyone’s going, ‘No, no, he wants 20 per cent’. I say, ‘Of course he does, he wants 30, really, but give him 15. It’s like buying a car. You don’t give the guy what he asks for.’ But it was impossible in the end, because it became three to one and I was like the idiot in the corner – trying, I thought, to save the situation.”
“And to Klein it looked like I was trying to screw the situation. He used to call me the Reluctant Virgin. I said ‘Fuck off, I don’t want to fucking marry you, that’s all.’ He’s going, ‘Oh, you know, he may, maybe he will, will he, won’t he, that’s a definite maybe.’
(Paul McCartney, Dec 2003, interview with Paul Du Noyer for The Word)
Q: He was once quoted in New York magazine as saying he was going to roast your ass.
А: Yeah, well, he never did, you know, and that’s cool. He wouldn’t get near my ass to roast it, anyway. Punk.
(Paul McCartney, Jan 1974, interview with Paul Gambaccini for Rolling Stone)
[Allen] Klein came to London with the sole objective of closing the deal, and having had an unsuccessful meeting with Paul in the morning, he left for Heathrow to return home to New York. Paul and I were working together in Olympic that afternoon, and there was a noticeable sense of relief when he heard that Klein had left for the airport. However, Klein had second thoughts about leaving and decided to have one more attempt at changing Paul’s mind face-to-face. Unannounced, Klein walked into the studio, and very quickly it became apparent that as voices were raised a private conversation was taking place. I turned off all the mics in the room and left them to it. The control room of a studio is isolated from the recording room where the musicians play, but even all that acoustic treatment was not enough to prevent me hearing Paul McCartney defend himself against Allen Klein’s attempt at bullying him into submission. It was extremely unpleasant to witness.
(Glyn Johns, Sound Man: A Life Recording Hits with the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Eric Clapton, the Faces…, 2014)
I never much liked authority. I didn't like school teachers or critics telling me what I could do. Or myself telling me. I'm alive - do it!
(Paul McCartney, March 2001, interview with Nicci Gerrard for the Observer)
And the thing is, of course, you know that when you’ve got a daddy, it is nice. If you’re a little bit sort of worried as to what to do next, and your daddy says, [claps hands] “What are you worried about? Hey John, what do you want, son? You want a house? [claps hands] You got it.”
(Paul McCartney, November 11th, 1971, interview with Chris Charlesworth for Melody Maker)
They talk Klein’s script. John Lennon once said to Allen Klein, “So what do I do now, Allen?” You know, I mean, these are all – I’d say there are certain little things, you know, and… brought together in one big thing, it does look a bit sort of heavily that way. It’s not [inaudible]. But it’s all true, you know. It’s not… John did say that. And it indicates something that he’s just turned to Allen and said, “Well, what do I do now?” And that’s the kind of role that Klein is playing for them all now.
(Paul McCartney, November 11th, 1971, interview with Chris Charlesworth for Melody Maker)
The build-up is the thing — All these things continuously happening making me feel like I’m a junior with the record company, like Klein is the boss and I’m nothing. Well, I’m a senior. I figure my opinion is as good as anyone’s, especially when it’s my thing. And it’s emotional. You feel like you don’t have any freedom. I figured I’d have to stand up for myself eventually or get pushed under.
(Paul McCartney, 1970, interview with Richard Merryman for Life Magazine, published in April 16 1971)
When the Beatles were falling apart in 1969, he suffered from depression – staying in bed, forgoing shaving, drinking too much, taking consolation in little beyond his marriage to Linda Eastman.
(Paul McCartney, Nov 2013, interview with Jonah Weiner for Rolling Stones)
PAUL: As far as I was concerned, yeah, I would have liked the Beatles never to have broken up. I wanted to get us back on the road doing small places, then move up to our previous form and then go and play. Just make music, and whatever else there was would be secondary. But it was John who didn’t want to. He had told Allen Klein the new manager he and Yoko had picked late one night that he didn’t want to continue.
…
PAUL: And he said, “I wasn’t going to tell you until after I signed the Capitol thing, but I’m leaving the group.” And that was really it. The cat amongst the pigeons.
…
PAUL: We weren’t going to say anything about it for months, for business reasons. But the really hurtful thing to me was that John was really not going to tell us. I think he was heavily under the influence of Allen Klein. And Klein, so I heard, had said to John – the first time anyone had said it – “What does Yoko want?” So since Yoko liked Klein because he was for giving Yoko anything she wanted, he was the man for John. That’s my theory on how it happened.
(Paul and Linda McCartney, interview for Playboy, December 1984)
For the first time in my life, I was on the scrap heap, in my own eyes. An unemployed worker might have said, “Hey, you still have the money. That’s not as bad as we have it.” But to me, it didn’t have anything to do with money. It was just the feeling, the terrible disappointment of not being of any use to anyone anymore. It was a barreling, empty feeling that just rolled across my soul, and it was… I’d never experienced it before. Drugs had shown me little bits here and there – they had rolled across the carpet once or twice, but I had been able to get them out of my mind. In this case, the end of the Beatles, I really was done in for the first time in my life. Until then, I really was a kind of cocky sod. It was the first time I’d had a major blow to my confidence. When my mother died, I don’t think my confidence suffered. It had been a terrible blow, but I didn’t feel it was my fault.
(Paul and Linda McCartney, interview for Playboy, December 1984)
“At a certain point I asked myself, ‘Are you going to sit around doing nothing, or are you going to make some music again?’ So I’d be at home sitting around, doing something on guitar, and Linda would say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you could do that!’ Then I’d be drumming – ‘I didn’t know you could do that!’ So I got back into it just to impress Linda, really. I wanted to prove my usefulness again.”
(Paul McCartney, Nov 2013, interview with Jonah Weiner for Rolling Stones)
"The thing about Paul," George says, "is that apart from the personal problem of it all, he's having a wonderful time. He's going riding and he's got horses and he's got a farm in Scotland and he's happier with his family. And I can dig that."
(George Harrison, 1970, interview with Al Aronowitz)
Paul was already thinking about recording again. Never happy unless he was making music andwiththe Beatles not functioning, probably extinct, Paul began recording tracks for a solo album…
Paul had been given a release date by Neil Aspinall [April 10, 1970 at first and April 17 later when Paul agreed to one week delay for help sales of Ringo Starr’s album “Sentimental Journey“, scheduled to be released on March 27] and he built the project around meeting the various deadlines that entailed: handing in a final mix tape, designing and proofing the cover art, approving test pressings and so on. Working with the artist Gordon House and the designer Roger Huggett, whom he still uses, Paul and Linda put the entire thing together at home.
Paul: "I was feeling quite comfortable, the more I went on like this. I could actually do something again. Then I rang up Apple one day and said, "Still okay for the release date?" and they said, "No, we're changing it. You got put back now. We're going to release Let It Be first.""
(Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles)
GEORGE: "But it's more of a personal thing, you know. That's down to the management situation, you know, with Apple. Because Paul, really - It was his idea to do Apple, and once it started going Paul was very active in there. And then it got really chaotic and we had to do something about it. When we started doing something about it, obviously Paul didn't have as much say in the matter, and then he decided… you know, because he wanted Lee Eastman his in-laws to run it and we didn't. Then that's the only reason, you know. That's the whole basis. But that's only a personal problem that he'll have to get over because that's… The reality is that he's out-voted and we're a partnership. We've got these companies which we all own 25 percent of each, and if there's a decision to be made then, like in any other business or group you have a vote, you know. And he was out-voted 3 to 1 and if he doesn't like it, it's really a pity…"
(George Harrison, May 1th 1970, interview with Howard Smith at WABC-FM radio in New York City)
Paul: They eventually sent Ringo round to my house at Cavendish with a message: "We want you to put your release date back, it's for the good of the group" and all of this sort of shit, and he was giving me the party line, they just made him come round, so I did something I'd never done before, or since: I told him to get out. I had to do something like that in order to assert myself because I was just sinking. Linda was very helpful, she was saying, "Look, you don't have to take this crap, you're a grown man, you have every bit as much right …" I was getting pummelled about the head, in my mind anyway.
(Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles)
YORKE: Do you dislike writing a song and not being able to record it immediately?
JOHN: I can’t stand it. I can’t stand having songs lying around for years. It just annoys me, and I think it annoys all of us.
(John Lennon, December 23rd, 1969, interview with Ritchie Yorke)
Dear Paul, we thought a lot about yours and the Beatles LPs – and decided it’s stupid for Apple to put out two big albums within 7 days of each other (also there’s Ringo’s and Hey Jude) – so we sent a letter to EMI telling them to hold your release date til June 4th (there’s a big Apple-Capitol convention in Hawaii then). We thought you’d come round when you realized that the Beatles album was coming out on April 24th. We’re sorry it turned out like this – it’s nothing personal*. Love John & George. Hare Krishna. A Mantra a Day Keeps MAYA Away.
(The letter from John and George to Paul, March 31th, 1970)
*in 1968 Two Virgins was released ten days prior to the White Album, btw
As a director of Apple, he had had to sign a letter that he wrote with John ordering Paul not to release his McCartney album on a day that would conflict with the release of the next Beatles record, Let It Be. When the letter was finished, Ringo had volunteered to deliver it because he didn't want Paul to suffer the indignity of having it handed to him by some impersonal messenger. At Paul's house, he gave the letter to Paul and said, "I agree with it."
(George Harrison, 1970, interview with Al Aronowitz)
I doubt he meant to do anything, I think they sent him round just as a sort of scapegoat, and he didn’t realize what he was telling me, really.
(Paul McCartney, 1980, interview with Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, All You Need Is Love, 2024)
“I went to see Paul. To my dismay, he went completely out of control, shouting at me, prodding his fingers towards my face, saying: 'I’ll finish you now’ and 'You’ll pay.’ He told me to put my coat on and get out. I did so.”
(Ringo, during 1971 Beatles court proceedings)
Ringo Starr said in his statement: “Paul is the greatest bass guitarist in the world.” But he added that he thought Paul had behaved like a spoiled child.
(Daily Mirror, February 24, 1971 - about the third day of the Court Case for the dissolution of The Beatles’ contractual partnership)
Then he had to stand there while both Paul and his wife, Linda, screamed at him. When Ringo returned from delivering the letter, he was so drained his face was white.
(George Harrison, 1970, interview with Al Aronowitz)
[John Lennon and George Harrison] didn’t send me round. They, as directors of the company, wrote a letter to him, and I didn’t think it was fair that some office lad should take something like that around. I was talking to the office, and they were telling me what was going on, and I said, ‘Send it up, I’ll take it round’. I couldn’t fear him then. But he got angry, because we were asking him to hold his album back and the album was very important to him. He shouted and pointed at me. He told me to get out of his house. He was crazy; he went crazy. He was out of control, prodding his finger towards my face. He told me to put my coat on and get out. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I had just brought the letter. I said, ‘I agree with everything that’s in the letter’, because we tried to work it like a company, not as individuals. I put my album [Sentimental Journey] out two weeks before [released 27 March 1970, in compliance with the original schedule], which makes me seem like such a good guy, but it wasn’t really, because I needed to put it out before Paul’s album, else it would have slayed me!
(Ringo Starr, 1971, from “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman)
‘Strictly speaking we all have to ask each other’s permission before any of us does anything without the other three. My own record nearly didn’t come out because Klein and some of the others thought it would be too near to the date of the next Beatles album. I had to get George, who’s a director of Apple, to authorise its release for me. ‘Give us our freedom which we so richly deserve.
(Paul McCartney, April 21-22, 1970, Interview for the Evening Standard)
On the radio, they're playing Paul's album now. George may be the youngest of the Beatles but his attitude toward Paul is the same as a big brother trying to wait out a kid's tantrum because the kid can't get the candy he wants. He talks about the last time Paul spoke to him on the phone.
"He came on like Attila the Hun," George says. "I had to hold the receiver away from my ear."
It was as if the whole world was waiting for Paul's album and George was standing in its way.
"I don't want to say anything bad about Paul," George laughs, "but I can be egged on."
(George Harrison, 1970, interview with Al Aronowitz)
From my point of view, I was getting done in. All the decisions were now three against one. And that’s not the easiest position if you’re the one: anything I wanted to do they could just say, ‘No.’ And it was just to be awkward, I thought.
…
I got so fed up with all this I said, ‘OK, I want to get off the label.’ Apple Records was a lovely dream, but I thought, ‘Now this is really trashy and I want to get off.’ I remember George on the phone saying to me, ‘You’ll stay on this fucking label! Hare Krishna!’ and he hung up – and I went, ‘Oh, dear me. This is really getting hairy.’
(Paul McCartney, The Beatles Anthology, 2000)
PAUL: I didn't want to do a press conference to launch the album because whenever I'd meet a journalist, they always floored me with one question: they'd say, "Are you happy?"' and it almost made me cry. I just could not say, "Yes. I'm happy," and lie through my teeth, so I stopped doing interviews.
Peter Brown, who was at Apple at that time, said, "What are you going to do about publicity?"'
I said, "I don't really want to do any."
He said, "It's a new album. You'll kill it. Nobody'll even know it's out at all. You should do something."
I said "Well, how do you suggest we do it?"'
He said, "Maybe a questionnaire?"'
I said, "Okay, look, you write some questions that you think the press wants to know. Send 'em over to me and I'll fill it out but I can't face a press conference."
So the questionnaire came, and Peter Brown realised that the big question was the Beatles so he put in a couple of loaded questions and rather that just say, "I don't want to answer these," I thought, Fuck it. If that's what he wants to know, I'll tell him. I felt I'd never be able to start a new life until I'd told people.
(Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles)
It is 1970. Paul still doesn’t like Klein but John digs him more than ever and George digs him more than that and Ringo doesn’t mind him. Paul? He is so uptight about Klein he only leaves the Beatles, that’s all. Klein and me meet the press and TV and all that; together we sit on a sofa and talk about Paul. Mr Klein, why doesn’t Paul like you? Mr Taylor, why doesn’t Paul like Mr Klein? I don’t know, don’t ask me, man, don’t ask me.
Paul releases his album and Klein releases the Beatles’ album and they both make a million and Klein has had Phil Spector remix Paul’s song ‘The Long and Winding Road’, adding a women’s choir and some violins etc. Paul thinks this is the shittiest thing anyone has ever done to him and that is saying something, but Klein laughs up his silk sleeve and releases ‘Long and Winding Road’ as a single anyway and still with Phil’s new arrangement.
Up there in Scotland, Paul McCartney, one of the four owners of Apple, the company formed to give total freedom, artistic control, to struggling performers and writers, wonders what went wrong, when even he can’t control his own work.
(Derek Taylor, As Time Goes By, 1973)
Q: "The album was not known about until it was nearly completed. Was this deliberate?"
A: "Yes, because normally an album is old before it even comes out. (A side) Witness 'Get Back.'"
…
Q: "Is it true that neither Allen Klein nor ABKCO have been nor will be in any way involved with the production, manufacturing, distribution or promotion of this new album?"
A: "Not if I can help it."
Q: "Did you miss the other Beatles and George Martin? Was there a moment when you thought, 'I wish Ringo were here for this break?'"
A: "No."
(Paul McCartney, April 9th 1970, press release 'McCartney')
Derek Taylor, the Beatles' press officer, is with us, talking about how unexpected Paul's attack had been.
"He was only supposed to write out information explaining how he made the album,? Derek says. "Instead, he hands us this interview in which he asks himself questions, such as would he miss Ringo? It was entirely gratuitous. Nobody asked him that question. He asked that question of himself."
(George Harrison, 1970, interview with Al Aronowitz)
We’re beginning now to only call each other when we have bad news. The other day Ringo came around to see me with a letter from the others, and I called him everything under the sun. But it’s all business. I don’t want to fall out with Ringo. I like Ringo. I think he’s great. We’re all talking about peace and love, but really we’re not feeling peaceful at all. ‘There’s no one who’s to blame. We were fools to get ourselves into this situation in the first place. But it’s not a comfortable situation for me to work in as an artist.’
(Paul McCartney, April 21-22, 1970, Interview for the Evening Standard)
We all started on a bus and small clubs and things like that, but Paul is that type of person. Paul wanted to do it all over again, and he did. And he went through hell. He went through hell. I mean, now he’s not talking to me and that’s too bad, but he started again from the bottom to do the Paul McCartney show. I don’t wanna do it anymore. I did it once.
(Ringo Sarr, 1980, interview with Peter Brown and Steven Gaines, All You Need Is Love, 2024)
I’m an only child, spoiled brat, who was very sick and overprotected. My father left when I was three, but I saw him occasionally. I was mainly brought up by my mother and his parents, instead of my mother’s parents. So, between them, they looked after me. My mother had to go to work all the time so I’d go there from school and, when I was older and if I ever was sick, my mother just wrapped me in a blanket and ran me down to my grandmother’s.
When did you know you wanted to be a musician?
My grandma played mandolin and my grandfather played banjo. It always sounds like a sob story, but when I was seven, I was very ill with peritonitis and in hospital. They told my mother I’d be dead three times. So that’s why I believe in God; you won’t die till your time is right. I don’t remember, but they told me, during one of my deliriums I said, ‘Mouth organ.’ It was 1947, just after the war and Liverpool was bombed to bits so my grandfather travelled the streets of Liverpool looking for a harmonica. I believe he found one, but by then I had no interest in it. We always had a piano, which I had no interest [in] either. I used to walk on it as a kid, being spoiled, and I had no desire to play the mandolin or banjo. I was back in hospital again in 1953 when I was thirteen. To keep you busy, you would knit. That would be in an afternoon and I would make things or we’d do some lessons as schooling. But then once every so often they brought instruments in for the kids to play. There were drums, triangles, tambourines, maracas, things like that, mainly percussive instruments. And there was a big easel, and if she pointed to the red dot, I hit the drum and if it was yellow, they hit the triangle. Well, ever since then I would not play in the band unless I had the drum. So that was my first real madness for drums. It was only a snare drum. I used big old cotton bobbins to play on the little cupboard next to my bed where they’d keep the bedpan, I would tap on that. When I came out of hospital, I started making kits out of biscuit tins and putting little bits of metal on them so it sounded like a snare drum. I’d cut pieced of firewood down into sticks. There were lots of parties in our area and everyone had to sing, someone would play harmonica and someone else would play the piano. There was always a guy with a banjo. This was before guitars: you never really saw guitars as a young teenager, people mainly played banjo or piano. I bought this big old bass drum for thirty shillings. I don’t know where I got the money from but I used to bore them all shitloads because I wanted to play my drum. It was so loud.
Ringo Starr, interviewed by Jenny Boyd, Icons of Rock in their own words (2023)
Flower power. Yes, that was fabulous. There hasn’t been a time like that. I was so disappointed, totally miserable when it failed. I thought, God, this is it, all together and all through music. That was great. And everyone was just giving each other flowers, not shooting each other or stabbing.
And the problem, why it failed, is because all the guys who decided to start taking substances decided then to take the hard shit and it fell apart. That’s the demon.
Ringo Starr, interviewed by Jenny Boyd, Icons of Rock in their own words (2023)
This interview predates Ringo’s sobriety. Boyd doesn't give exact interview dates, but she started her interview project in 1987, and did most of the interviews from 1988-90. She must have interviewed Ringo early, since he went into rehab in 1988. Was he thinking of John as one of the guys who ‘decided then to take the hard shit’? Does he count cocaine as hard (given Paul was on it at the peak of flower power)? He’s explicitly talking about the whole 1960s scene, not his own band, but some of what he’s saying has a big potential overlap. I wonder if he meant it that way.
'...in our songwriting, I had signs that the group was gonna break up...'
(Paul McCartney, April, 1985, interview on German television show Exclusiv)
8th April 1970
I told John on the phone the other day that at the beginning of last year I was annoyed with him. I was jealous because of Yoko, and afraid about the break-up of a great musical partnership. It’s taken me a year to realise that they were in love. Just like Linda and me.
(Paul McCartney, interview, Evening Standard, April 21-22, 1970)
So he rang me up that day and said I’m doing what you and Yoko are doing, I’m putting out an album, and I’m leaving the group too, he said. I said good. I was feeling a little strange, because he was saying it this time, although it was a year later, and I said “good,” because he was the one that wanted the Beatles most, and then the midnight papers came out.
(John Lennon, interview with Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone)
9th April 1970
Q: "Did you enjoy working as a solo?"
PAUL: "Very much. I only had me to ask for a decision, and I agreed with me. Remember Linda's on it too, so it's really a double act." …
Q: "Did you miss the other Beatles and George Martin? Was there a moment when you thought, 'I wish Ringo were here for this break?'"
PAUL: "No." ...
Q: "Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?" PAUL: "No." …
Q: "Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones?"
PAUL: "Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don't really know."
Q: "Do you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again?"
PAUL: "No." …
Q: "What are your plans now? A holiday? A musical? A movie? Retirement?"
PAUL: "My only plan is to grow up!"
(Paul McCartney, press release 'McCartney')
(Btw, Stuart Sutcliffe died 10th April 1962)
17th April 1970 - McCartney album released
April 21-22, 1970 - interview Paul McCartney in Evening Standard
Last year John said he wanted a divorce. All right, so do I. I want to give him that divorce. I hate this trial separation because it’s just not working. Personally, I don’t think John could do the Beatles thing now. I don’t think it would be good for him.
(Paul McCartney, Evening Standard, April 21-22, 1970)
On the eve of the release of the Beatles new movie and album “Let it Be,” Paul McCartney said, “I quit,” or “I think I quit,” which is roughly the same thing. As a publicity stunt, it’s as good or bad as any stunt they ever appeared to pull. But like every stunt they never did pull, this isn’t one either. McCartney’s declaration of independence was entirely impromptu, spontaneous and personal…
<…>
I guess the way it stacks up now and the way it was around the time when Paul dropped the big on is that he wants right out of it all and they don’t.
(The Party's Over for the Beatles by Derek Taylor)
April 30, 1970, interview for Rolling Stone
A: No one has mentioned anything about doing another Beatles album.
<…>
Q: What about your relationship with John? He tells me that you haven’t spoken to him in two months.
A: I don’t know really. Normally I would phone him or go out to Weybridge and visit him, as I have done a lot in the past. I was that kind of person. But now I don’t go out at all and I don’t bother looking for it any more. I would rather be in bed than at the clubs.
He hasn’t called me and I haven’t called him but it doesn’t mean anything. We haven’t had an argument.
John is very busy at the moment. I don’t like to be busy. I don’t feel the need to. Neither of us really want to talk to each other at the moment. If we run into each other at Apple or we are making a record, I would see him but otherwise I really don’t call him. That is the way it has always been. In fact, the truth of the matter is we just haven’t called each other up lately. I don’t really think about it. I will see him when I see him. And I love him just the same.
*Btw, on the cover of Rolling Stone №58 (April 30, 1970) Paul wear well known (and not only us) shirt - just like starting over, yeah*
April 1970, London
John and Yoko undertook primal therapy
*Great post about Arthur Janov and his Primal Scream therapy*
As I realised this it all started to fall into place. This therapy forced me to have done with all the God shit. All of us growing up have come to terms with too much pain. Although we repress it, it’s still there. The worst pain is that of not being wanted, of realising your parents do not need you in the way you need them.
(John Lennon, The Lost John Lennon Interview by Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn)
13th May 1970 US première of Let It Be film20th May 1970 UK première of Let It Be film
John and Yoko went to Los Angeles for four months of intensive therapy with Dr. Arthur Janov (June through September)
John Lennon was in a movie theater, crying.
The image of Paul, singing from the rooftop in the final ten minutes, had set him off. Jann Wenner shifted in his seat. In the darkness of a tiny movie house in San Francisco, the Beatle, Wenner’s hero, whose iconic spectacles and nose adorned the first issue of his rock-and-roll newspaper, Rolling Stone, had tears running down his cheeks as light flickered off his glasses. And next to him was Yoko Ono, the bête noire of Beatledom, raven hair shrouding her porcelain face, also weeping.
It was a Saturday afternoon in the spring of 1970, and John and Yoko and Jann and his wife, Jane Wenner, were watching the final scenes of Let It Be, the documentary about the Beatles’ acrimonious last recording session.
John and Yoko were deep into primal scream therapy, their emotions raw and close to the surface, and the image of a bearded Paul McCartney singing from the rooftop of Apple Records, against a cold London wind, was too much to bear.
Get back to where you once belonged…
<…>
“And it’s just the four of us in the center of an empty theater,” marveled Wenner, “all kind of huddled together, and John is crying his eyes out.”
Lennon and Ono had driven up from Los Angeles to meet the San
Francisco fanboy who had bottled the counterculture and now commanded 200,000 readers. Wenner received the couple like visiting royalty to his spanking-new offices on Third Street…
<…>
When they got out to stretch their legs on Polk Street at four in the
afternoon—the skies overcast, not a soul on the sidewalk—they chanced upon a little movie house showing a matinee of the Beatles film Let It Be.
Wenner figured John Lennon of all people had seen it, but he hadn’t. Just as surprising, the woman selling tickets didn’t recognize Lennon—another bearded hippie who looked like John Lennon—and none of the half a dozen people in the theater noticed that John and Yoko themselves had ducked in.
“It was so emotional to see Paul up on the roof and singing,” recounted Jane Wenner. “First of all, it was hard to believe John had never seen it before.
And he was so taken aback.”
An hour later, blinking in the evening light, Jann and Jane Wenner were crying, too. They began to hug, all four of them, on the sidewalk. “He’s crying, she’s crying, and we’re just trying to hold on to ourselves,” Wenner said. “You’re there helping come to the emotional rescue of the Beatles.”
(Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine by Joe Hagan, 2017)
August 29, 1970
'Dear Mailbag, In order to put out of its misery the limping dog of a news story which has been dragging itself across your pages for the past year, my answer to the question, “Will The Beatles get together again?” … is no.’
(Paul McCartney in Melody Maker)
Ev'ry day she takes a morning bath she wets her hair,
Wraps a towel around her as she's heading for the bedroom chair
It's just another day
<…>
So sad, so sad,
Sometimes she feels so sad
<…>
As she posts another letter to the sound of five,
People gather 'round her and she finds it hard to stay alive.
It's just another day…
(Another Day, written circa 1968, was recorded 12 October 1970 and was completed on 21 January 1971 at Studio CBS Studios, New York City)
15 September 1970 John and Yoko returned from US in GB
26 September – 23 October 1970 John and Yoko recorded John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
9th October 1970, his 30th birthday, John records Remember
10th October 1970
The night after ‘Remember’ was recorded, Lennon invited his father Alf to dinner at Tittenhurst Park. Alf Lennon brought his young wife Pauline and their 18-month-old son David Henry Lennon.
Alf later described the event in a four-page handwritten statement which he sent to his solicitor.
'He launched into an account of his recent visit to America, and as the story unfolded, so the self inflicted torture began to show in his face, and his voice rose to a scream as he likened himself to Jimi Hendrix and other pop stars who had recently departed from the scene, ending in a crescendo as he admitted he was ‘Bloody mad, insane’ and due for an early demise. It seemed he had gone to America, at great expense to have some kind of treatment through drugs, which enabled one to go back and relive from early childhood the happenings, which in his own case, he should have been happier to forget. I was now listening to the result of this treatment as he reviled his dead mother in unspeakable terms, referring, also, to the aunt who had brought him up, in similar derogatory terms, as well as one or two of his closest friends. I sat through it all, completely stunned, hardly believing that this was the kind considerate ‘Beatle’ John Lennon talking to his father with such evil intensity…
There was no doubt whatsoever in my mind, that he meant every word he spoke, his countenance was frightful to behold, as he explained in detail, how I would be carried out to sea and dumped, ‘twenty – fifty – or perhaps you would prefer a hundred fathoms deep.’ The whole loathsome tirade was uttered with malignant glee, as though he were actually participating in the terrible deed.'
(Alfred Lennon)
Well, I met her at the bottom of a well (Of a well)
Well, I told her I was trying to break a spell (Break a spell)
But I can't get by, my hands are tied
I don't know why I ever got her to try myself
'Cause I can't get by, my hands are tied
<…>
Well, I'm fed up with your lying, cheating ways (Cheating ways)
But I get up every morning and every day (Every day)
But I can't get by, my hands are tied
I don't why I want her to try myself
'Cause I can't get by, my hands are tied
Oh, woman, oh why, why, why, why, why
What have I done?
Oh, woman, oh, where, where, where, where, where
Did you get that gun?
Woman, what, hey, what have I done?
Oh, what have you done?Woman what have I done?
(Oh Woman Oh Why, was recorded 3 November and 6-11 December 1970 at Studio CBS Studios, New York City)
We used to get asked at press conferences, 'What are you going to do when the bubble bursts?' When I talked to John just the other day, he said something about, 'Well, the bubble's going to burst.' And I said, 'It has burst. That's the point. That's why I've had to do this, why l had to apply to the court. You don't think I really enjoy doing that kind of stuff. I had to do it because the bubble has burst - everywhere but on paper.' That's the only place we're tied now.
<…>
I first said, 'No, we can't do that. We'll live with it.'
(Paul McCartney, April 16th 1971, interview with Richard Merryman for Life Magazine)
In January 1969, we were making a film in a studio at Twickenham, which was dismal and cold, and we were all getting a bit fed up with our surroundings. In front of the cameras, as we were actually being filmed, Paul started to ‘get at’ me about the way I was playing. I decided I had had enough and told the others I was leaving. This was because I was musically dissatisfied. After a few days, the others asked me to return and since I did not wish to leave them in the lurch in the middle of filming and recording, and since Paul agreed that he would not try to interfere or teach me how to play, I went back. Since the row, Paul has treated me more as a musical equal. I think this whole episode shows how a disagreement could be worked out so that we all benefited. I just could not believe it when, just before Christmas, I received a letter from Paul’s lawyers. I still cannot understand why Paul acted as he did.
(George Harrison, 'The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001' by Keith Badman)
I was shocked and dismayed, after Mr. McCartney’s promises about a meeting of all four Beatles in London in January, that a writ should have been issued on December 31. I trust Paul and I know he would not lightly disregard his promise. Something serious, about which I have no knowledge, must have happened between Paul’s meeting with George in New York [at the start of December] and the end of December.
(Ringo Starr, 'The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001' by Keith Badman)
8th December 1970 John and Yoko give interview known as Lennon Remembers (was publishedlater, in January 1971)
11th December 1970 was released John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
God is a concept by which we measure our pain
I'll say it again
God is a concept by which we measure our pain, yeah
Pain, yeah
I don't believe in magic
<…>
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me
Yoko and me
And that's reality
The dream is over
What can I say?
The dream is over
Yesterday
I was the dream weaver, but now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus, but now I'm John
And so dear friends, you'll just have to carry on
The dream is over
(God, was recorded 26 September – 23 October 1970, was released 11 December 1970)
*something about the dream*
She [Yoko] spoke in a really tiny voice, and she always referred to the Beatles in a peculiar, impersonal third-party way: “Beatles will do this, Beatles will do that,” never failing to leave off the “The.” That used to really irritate Paul. On occasion, he’d even try correcting her: “Actually, it’s the Beatles, luv,” but she persistently ignored him.
(Geoff Emerick in Here, There and Everywhere about recording Abbey Road)
Remember when you were young
How the hero was never hung
Always got away
Remember how the man
Used to leave you empty handed
Always, always let you down
If you ever change your mind
About leaving it all behind
Remember, remember today
Hey hey
And don't feel sorry
The way it's gone
And don't you worry
About what you've done
Just remember
When you were small
How people seemed so tall
Always had their way
Hey hey
Do you remember your ma and pa
Just wishing for movie stardom
Always, always playing a part
If you ever feel so sad
And the whole world is driving you mad
Remember, remember today
Hey hey
<…>
Remember, the Fifth of November
(Remember, was recorded 9 October 1970, was released 11 December 1970)
If you ever change your mind/About leaving it all behind is the quote from Sam Cooke’s 1962 song Bring It On Home To Me (Paul and John sang it and recorded solo versions: John on Rock 'N' Roll, Paul on СНОВА В СССР)
The line 'Remember, the Fifth of November' reminds all who grown in England the nursery rhyme: “Remember, remember the fifth of November/Gunpowder, treason and plot/I see no reason why gunpowder, treason/Should ever be forgot.”
'It was just an ad lib. It was about the third take, and it begins to sound like Frankie Laine – when you’re singing ‘remember, remember the fifth of November.’ And I just broke and it went on for about another seven or eight minutes. I was just ad libbing and goofing about. But then I cut it there and it just exploded ’cause it was a good joke.'
(John Lennon, interview with Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone)
'Well, there was this Japanese monk, and it happened in the last 20 years. He was in love with this big golden temple, y’know, he really dug it, like—and you know he was so in love with it, he burnt it down so that it would never deteriorate.
That’s what I did with the Beatles.'
(John Lennon, interview with Alan Smith for NME: At home with the Lennons, August 7th, 1971)
So then we began to talk again about the suit, over and over. I just saw that I was not going to get out of it. From my last phone conversation with John, I think he sees it like that. He said, 'Well, how do you get out?'
<…>
My lawyer, John Eastman, he's a nice guy and he saw the position we were in, and he sympathized. We'd have these meetings on top of hills in Scotland, we'd go for long walks. I remember when we actually decided we had to go and file suit. We were standing on this big hill which overlooked a loch - it was quite a nice day, a bit chilly - and we'd been searching our souls. Was there any other way? And we eventually said, 'Oh, we've got to do it.' The only alternative was seven years with the partnership - going through those same channels for seven years.
(Paul McCartney, April 16th 1971, interview with Richard Merryman for Life Magazine)
On December 31, 1970
Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit against the other three Beatles – John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr – and Apple Corps, in London’s High Court, seeking an end to The Beatles’ contractual partnership, and requesting that a receiver should be appointed to manage Apple till the case is settled.
21th January 1971
Rolling Stone publish John and Yoko interview with Jann Wenner:
'I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done' (about John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band),
'I’m influenced by her music 1000 percent more than I ever was by anybody or anything' (about Yoko),
'I thought Paul’s was rubbish' (about McCartney album), 'the music was dead before we even went on the theater tour of Britain' (about The Beatles),
'I’m a fucking artist, and I’m not a fucking P.R. Agent or the product of some other person’s imagination' (about his, Paul and George contribution in The Beatles music),
'…film was set-up by Paul for Paul. That is one of the main reasons the Beatles ended. I can’t speak for George, but I pretty damn well know we got fed up of being side-men for Paul' and 'On top of that, the people that cut it, did it as if Paul is God and we are just lyin’ around there', ''It was another one like Magical Mystery Tour. <…> I was stoned all the time and I just didn’t give a shit…' 'And I knew there were some shots of Yoko and me that had been just chopped out of the film for no other reason than the people were oriented for Englebert Humperdinck' (about Let It Be)
After Brian died, we collapsed. Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us, when we went round in circles? We broke up then. That was the disintegration.
<…>
'Paul had an impression, he has it now like a parent, that we should be thankful for what he did for keeping the Beatles going. But when you look back upon it objectively, he kept it going for his own sake. Was it for my sake Paul struggled?'
'That’s what I’m saying: I was the Walrus, whatever that means' etc.
(John Lennon, interview with Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone)
Q: What was your reaction when you read that stuff at the time?
A: Oh, I hated it. You can imagine, I sat down and pored over every little paragraph, every little sentence. “Does he really think that of me?” I thought. And at the time, I thought, “It’s me. I am. That’s just what I’m like. He’s captured me so well; I’m a turd, you know.” I sat down and really thought, I’m just nothin’. But then, well, kind of people who dug me like Linda said, “Now you know that’s not true, you’re joking. He’s got a grudge, man; the guy’s trying to polish you off.” Gradually I started to think, great, that’s not true. I’m not really like Engelbert; I don’t just write ballads. And that kept me kind of hanging on; but at the time, I tell you, it hurt me. Whew. Deep.
(Paul McCartney, interview with Paul Gambaccini for Rolling Stone, published 31 Jan 1974)
26 January 1971
At A&R Studios in NYC Paul added to Oh Woman Oh Why the sounds of firing blanks from a revolver.
Monday, Sept. 14, 1964: Ringo was first off the plane.
He emerged from the darkened doorway of the chartered Lockheed Electra around 4:40 p.m. and stepped into the bright sun, which highlighted his sad eyes, rakish sideburns and, of course, that glorious nose. Even from a distance, he was instantly recognizable. The world’s most famous drummer.
The shrieking, which had begun long before the plane stopped, reached new heights. Thousands of teenage girls held back by the Greater Pittsburgh Airport’s snow fences squealed, screamed, shoved closed fists into their mouths, grabbed handfuls of their own hair, wept, and generally fell into fits of hysteria.
Behind the crowd, a blond boy of about 12 shimmied up a light pole to see the spectacle: The four young men known throughout the civilized world as the Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - were invading his hometown.
Ringo started down the stairway to the tarmac. Behind him stepped John, cool in sunglasses and a flashy blue-and-white polka-dot shirt. Then George and finally Paul, who paused at the top of the stairs to point at something.
Ringo kept moving, five steps down, the other Beatles following close behind.
Then something came flying through the air. Something red and the size of a fist.
Ringo moved instinctively. He ducked, covered his head with his left arm and, less than a second later, sprang back upright as if nothing had happened.
He never paused in his descent, or changed his expression. He simply continued down and then calmly waded into a crowd of reporters, photographers, police officers and guys in work shirts and hard hats.
A reporter named Al McDowell from KDKA-TV approached Ringo.
“What’s that stuff they were throwing?” McDowell asked.
“Looked like a tomato, to me,” Ringo responded, pronouncing it toe-mah-toe in his thick Liverpool accent. “It’s always the same, you got a couple of lunatics in a couple of thousand … .”
(The Beatles in the 'Burgh, 1964, Steve Mellon for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
The song 'With A Little Help From My Friends' was written specifically for me, but they had one line that I wouldn't sing. It was: 'What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?' I said, 'There's not a chance in hell am I going to sing rhis line,' because we still had lots of really deep memories of the kids throwing jelly beans and toys on stage; and I thought that if we ever did get out there again, I was not going to be bombarded with tomatoes.
(Ringo Starr, The Beatles Anthology, 2000)
Poking a little fun at Ringo was actually a lof of fun. ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune?’
(Paul McCartney, The Lyric, 2021)
Actually, John and I wrote this song within a vocal range that would cause no problems for Ringo, who had a style of singing different to ours. We tailored it especially for him…
(Paul McCartney, The Lyric, 2021)
…There was an unusually late start for that night’s session because the Beatles had spent the afternoon and early evening overseeing preparations for the upcoming album cover photo shoot. <…>
Despite the late hour, all four Beatles were wide awake, excited by the events of the day; I remember them animatedly discussing the set that Peter Blake had built for them and talking about how much they loved their satin Pepper costumes. After hurriedly consumed cups of tea, we finally got to work. The backing track for the new song—initially called “Bad Finger Boogie” for some reason—had a real spark to it, and an inspired Ringo was really smacking his tom-toms… Ten takes were required to get a “keeper”; it was nearly dawn by that time. Richard and I watched an exhausted Ringo begin to trudge up the stairs. That was our signal, as usual, that the session was over, and we began to relax. He was at the halfway point when we heard Paul’s voice call out.
“Where are you going, Ring?” he said.
Ringo looked surprised. “Home, to bed.”
“Nah, let’s do the vocal now.”
Ringo looked to the others for support. “But I’m knackered,” he protested. To his dismay, both John and George Harrison were taking Paul’s side.
“No, come on back here and do some singing for us,” John said with a grin.
<…>
Fortunately for all of us, Ringo got his lead vocal done relatively
quickly: perhaps the shock tactic of having him sing when he was least expecting it took the nervousness away, or perhaps it was just how supportive everyone was being. All three of his compatriots gathered around him, inches behind the microphone, silently conducting and cheering him on as he gamely tackled his vocal duties. It was a touching show of unity among the four Beatles.
The only problem was the song’s last high note, which Ringo had a bit of trouble hitting spot-on. For a while he lobbied to have the tape slowed down just for that one drop-in, and we tried it, but even though it allowed him to sing on pitch, it didn’t match tonally to the rest of the vocal—he sounded a bit silly, almost like one of the Goons. “No, Ring, you’ve got to do it properly,” Paul finally concluded. “It’s okay; just put your mind to it. You can do it,” George Harrison said encouragingly.
Even John added some helpful—if decidedly nontechnical—advice: “Just throw yer head back and let ’er rip!” It took a few tries, but Ringo finally hit the note—and held it—without too much wavering. Amid the cheers of his bandmates and a Scotch-and Coke toast, the session finally ended.
How do you think drugs and alcohol affect creativity? Do they enhance or block it?
It depends. I usually prefer to work straight. If you’re working a long time, sometimes you ave a little party, so you have a few drinks. Sometimes that’s good, but for me personally, I like to play practically straight. I mean, we’ve tried to be out of it, and all those bullshit stories that we recorded all this on acid, and we did it on this and that, it isn’t true. Occasionally, we made music on some substance but 90 per cent of the time it’s the wrong word to say straight, because you’ve actually been to all those other places. So, you’re not straight really, because you know where the bends are. And so, you use that as well. Overall, I prefer to be practically straight. I like maybe a shot of cognac just to loosen me up because I’m shy.
How many records do you have by a band that are always out of their brains? Nobody has any. Even the Grateful Dead, who were past masters of substances, if you listen to their early music, although they’re popular again now, but I think they worked the same way. ALl the bands I know who actually worked totally coked or on grass or hash or whatever, their careers suddenly disappeared. I mean, a lot of people besides the poor people we’ve lost altogether and went to heaven. But people who are still around and got caught up in, ‘We’ve got to do it out of our brains,’ their careers didn’t last long, because in the end, the drug overtakes your actual playing or your singing. I’ve noticed that with a lot of bands.
Ringo Starr, interviewed by Jenny Boyd, Icons of Rock in their own words (2023)
Published 2023, but the interview is from 1987 or early 1988, shortly before he went into rehab. Boyd adds this postscript from 2023 Ringo:
‘How life has changed since our interview! When I came out of rehab at the end of 1988 my sober life gave me renewed energy and the very next year, 1989, I put a band together and started touring - something I never did before and am still doing today in 2023. Grateful to be doing what I love all these years - peace and love, Ringo.’
In those days, there was 100 per cent work so you could get jobs and you wanted the money; that way you’d buy your Teddy boy suit. If you look back on the fifties in Liverpool, the best-dressed guys were spending all their money on clothes. So you really had to wear good stuff.
Being in the factory skiffle group was a way out of being in one of the gangs. I remember both Roy and me, because we both loved music, listening to Radio Luxembourg in the afternoon. You had to do it - that was like going to church listening to Alan Freeman. And we would hang out in places, like record stores and listen to records. It was a way out of the life we were leading and this gang membership madness.
I just wanted to play. I felt it was a better life. It was no great theory that I’d end up as one of The Beatles. If that hadn’t have happened, I’d still be playing in Liverpool. When I was twenty, much to the disgust of all the family, I got this job at Butlin’s, sixteen quid a week. Are you crazy? This is fortune time here. And I’m doing what I like, playing the rocking Calypso. I’d moved through a lot of bands by then, and now I was with Rory Storm, who was one of the biggest bands in Liverpool. And, as we’d jokingly say, we used to watch The Beatles rehearse while Rory and the Hurricanes were the top band there. I found the diary of when I first played with Rory and we were getting eight shillings one night and twelve shillings and sixpence another night. We were making between £5 and £10 a week playing. That was a fortune! I could buy a car for £75.
When we went to Germany, The Beatles were there. We were famous because we had suits and ties that matched, and when we came it was, like, ‘Hey, look out, here come the big guys!’ And so that’s how I met them. We were all young guys and were all drunk half the time. And I used to request slow songs when The Beatles were playing, like, three or four in the morning. I didn’t find out till later, but John told me, ‘God, we used to be terrified when you lot came in.’ I still had the sideboards, trying to look like a rocker.
Ringo Starr, interviewed by Jenny Boyd, Icons of Rock in their own words (2023)
…I had to find a job. I worked on the railways and worked on the boats. Then my mum met a guy in a pub who got me a job in a factory and I became an apprentice. I went for the job as an apprentice joiner, but when I arrived, they said there were no vacancies. How would I like to be an engineer? I said, ‘Fine.’ So I became an apprentice engineer. Our next-door neighbour, Eddie Miles, was one of those amazing guys who if you gave him a trumpet he could play it in five minutes, and he’d play guitar, mouth organ, he could play anything, he could just pick up an instrument and play it. He brought his guitar into the factor and used to play in the dinner breaks. So, we formed what was like a skiffle group. While this was going on, in 1957/58 I met my stepfather, Harry, who had been with us since they married when I was thirteen and he became my dad. One day he went down to Romford, where he comes from, because a relation of his had died and he bought me this drum kit for £12 and took it back on the train. So, then I got together with this Eddie Miles, who later called himself Eddie Clayton, and we became the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. Another friend in the factory, called Roy Trafford, played tea-chest bass, so the three of us used to entertain the lads in the basement of the factory. I was seventeen years old and that’s when we really started playing.
I’d only ever wanted to be a drummer; I had no interest in all the other instruments that were presented to me. From age thirteen I knew I wanted to be a musician. And that’s how we started. I was a Teddy boy like everyone else in our area. So, we used to go to all the pictures together, we’d all go to dances together, everybody had to have gangs in case you had to fight another gang. We started playing every freebie in town, there was always talent shows somewhere. We were very good, even though I had no sense of timing at all. You were luck in those days if you had an instrument; that’s how you got in the group - the only thing you needed was the access. We used to play every club around Liverpool, every pub, every bar, anywhere we could play for free just to get in. One time we played at some dance, we were like an express train, getting faster and faster and I’ll always remember these people dancing, trying to keep up with us and shouting, ‘Can’t you slow down! Can’t you slow down!’ We couldn’t. We just went!
So, we did all that and then we brought in a tea-chest bass player. All the guys were from the factory, so we had a guitar, snare drum and tea-chest bass format. We did ‘Maggie May’ and those sorts of songs.
Ringo Starr, interviewed by Jenny Boyd, Icons of Rock in their own words (2023)
