Hi undying-love!
First of all, I just wanted to tell you how much I love what you’re doing with your blog, it’s fantastic! I first started looking at the mclennon tag on Tumblr in October, after reading Ian Leslie’s book and thinking that the “intimate but platonic bond” theory was… a bit odd, like it was incomplete. I knew Tumblr would give me the answers I needed, and your blog was by far the most helpful. I am now completely obsessed with the Beatles (even more than I was before discovering the most interesting, loving, and heartbreaking parts of their story).
The reason I wanted to write to you dates back to the same days I started reading Ian Leslie’s book. There was a Beatles (and John-focused) event near my city and the local Beatles fan organisation invited Julia Baird to speak. One of the members of the organisation asked my girlfriend’s mum to be the official translator for Julia, since she’s an English teacher.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there because I was in Paris with my girlfriend for her birthday (I know, the irony), but her mum had the opportunity to have dinner with Julia, and they talked a bit about John. I wanted to share with you what she remembered about this experience (the reason I’m doing it only now is that she talked about it with my girlfriend at Christmas).
She said that Julia asked not to be questioned about Yoko, because she “created an ocean between John and them.” Julia also said that when John and Yoko wanted to move to New York, she and her husband suggested they move closer to them, in France, but Yoko wouldn’t listen and wanted to go to New York at all costs. She added that after John moved to New York they lost all contacts, implying that it was all Yoko’s fault.
Julia also talked a bit about Paul and said that, in the early days, Paul would knock on their door very often, even unannounced. John and Paul would sing all afternoon in the bathroom for better acoustics. One day, John’s mum (although my girlfriend says she doesn’t remember whether her mum meant Julia or Mimi, and the story sounds more like Mimi, but who knows), before going out to do the groceries, exasperatedly shouted at John and Paul to stop, saying they would never make anything of their lives with music, and that if they were still singing when she returned, there would be trouble.
Julia also said that her family had “adopted” Paul in some way, often inviting him to eat with them, because Paul didn’t have a mum and that saddened them.
She “confirmed” that the Beatles were basically just John and Paul (not saying that I agree here, just reporting 😂).
I know this isn’t anything groundbreaking, and I’m not even sure how much of it is new. I was already aware of the bathroom story, that Julia said her mum felt sorry for Paul’s loss, and of course Mimi’s hostility toward how much time John and Paul spent together, but I didn’t know about the Yoko parts, especially the France suggestion. Obviously, even though I’ve spent a lot of time digging into Beatles history over the past few months, there’s still so much I haven’t read, so this may already be out there.
Either way, when I found out that my girlfriend’s mum had learned this information firsthand, I felt this experience was too special not to share with the Beatles Tumblr world, and you were the first person I thought of.
Thank you again for the work you’re doing. You’re amazing!
Ps. I would obviously love to know if you have any interesting opinions on any of these topics (but especially the France thing, since I know you’ve already talked a bit about the early days in old posts) and if there are other sources where we can find these informations!
First of all, thank you so much! And I'm glad you decided to share this with me. That’s so interesting! Yeah, that definitely sounds like something Mimi would say rather than Julia. It seems much more likely that your girlfriend’s mom was referring to Mimi, as you suggested. But whoever told them that, it still makes me feel so sad for them :( Two teenagers pouring everything into music because it made them feel alive, and being told it was pointless 💔.
I didn’t know that Julia had wanted them to move to France. Since John loved Paris so much, I imagine he probably wasn’t completely opposed to the idea, at least deep down. As for them losing all contact, I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. They did speak on the phone occasionally, and Julia herself said that John would sometimes call her and ask her to check on Julian. So it doesn’t seem like there was a total break. And that detail about Paul turning up at their house so often, and unannounced, is both really sweet and a bit sad at the same time. It immediately reminded me of Paul saying that after his mother died, he was grateful he found John. That bond was incredibly important to him, and it explains why they became so inseparable during those early years. Paul’s brother Mike has said something very similar, that John really lifted Paul’s spirits after their mother’s death.
I know a small anecdote involving Julia. She once said that she was at a Beatles-related event, giving a speech or participating in some way, when a man interrupted her and kept pressing her (publicly) to “tell the truth” about John and Paul’s relationship. She responded that she "couldn't comment about the relationship between two people I had not been with at the time." But the man kept insisting that she tell the truth about their relationship, and Julia got angry and said, "No!". That story has always stuck with me.
Thank you so much for sharing all of this! It’s lovely to hear accounts from people who’ve had direct or indirect contact with someone from that inner circle. There are still so many new details and perspectives to uncover.
