Maybe this is too random/unsubstantial of a question but I’m watching All You Need is Cash right now and they make a joke about the Paul and John characters getting married to each other (before explaining they’re actually getting married to the Linda and Yoko characters). Where do you think the writers would’ve gotten the idea to hint at McLennon from? Was it that much of an industry secret for these people unconnected to the music industry to be able to know, if that makes sense?
Sorry this is so out of the blue and I appreciate your hard work!
I've seen it, and the intentionally awkward way he delivers that line is so funny (for those who don't know, "Dirk" is Paul and "Nasty" is John):
If he really was trying to imply something there, it actually makes total sense where he would have gotten the idea. The actor who says that line is Eric Idle (who also was the writer and co-director of the movie, btw). He and George were extremely close friends.
Eric once recalled a conversation they had:
"It occurred to me later that we both played similar roles inside our groups with big power blocks. Once I was moaning a little bit on Life of Brian, saying, ‘It was hard to get onscreen with Michael Palin and John Cleese.’ Then George said, ‘Well, imagine what it’s like trying to get studio time with Lennon and McCartney.’ I said, ‘All right. Absolutely. I’ll shut up now.’ Then it occurred to me that yes, in fact, we were slightly the outsiders, playing similar roles in our groups."
So if George ever dropped a hint or made a vague comment to Eric about the intensity of John and Paul's dynamic (which is not crazy to imagine, given how close he and Eric were for many years), it makes perfect sense that Eric would subtly bake that inside joke right into the movie script.
This song would eventually be released on Beatles For Sale. The verses of the original are basically the same, but the bridge is totally different (lyrics and melody).
But the bassline is the same.
This is really interesting, because while the bassline in this version isn’t very loud, once you hear it, it is noticeably more complex than Stu’s usual playing. It’s not a very difficult line to play, so we assume it is being played by Stu, but was more than likely written by Paul. This is suggested by the complexity, and supported by the fact that he kept that bassline for the album version of the song.
The lyrics of the original bridge are:
Well don’t leave me alone out here
Have courage and follow me my dear
(Both lines do not end in "my dear" as previously assumed, more on that later).
This is thematically very similar to In Spite Of All the Danger and You Must Write Every Day: needing courage, and being left alone. We believe that John living in Gambier terrace was looming large for Paul at this time, so that may be related. It also has an interesting echo in a much later song.
Here is the Beatles For Sale version for comparison:
If Paul was already writing basslines at this stage then maybe he was more familiar with the instrument than is usually assumed. This may be an early example of him “muscling in” on another band member’s territory, and could have contributed to the tensions between Paul and Stu. It is also possible that Paul is actually playing the bass here, but we can’t know whether this line was within Stu’s capabilities. Klaus, Pete, and Paul have all defended Stu’s playing, while acknowledging that it was basic.
Paul writing basslines and giving them to Stu could also have fed the idea that he was trying to take over the bass player role. We believe Paul when he says he didn’t want to play bass, but it could have looked a certain way to others.
Mike can also be heard playing ‘drums’ on a guitar case.
There's a short clip that precedes this song on the 2007 bootleg called Strong Before Our Birth, included here for interest:
As far as we can tell this is John (though we considered Paul) putting on a Spike Milligan style silly voice, saying "I need de sun, I do". The "I do" could be Paul, even if the beginning is John.
I suppose they all were teaching Stu to play bass.
When I was with Rory (Rory Storm and the Hurricanes) the Beatles were nothing. They weren't even formed, you know. And later on when we went professional…. I stopped work at twenty and went to Butman's holiday camp to play in the Rockin' Calypso. Usually every night they [the Cavern] had a steel band. Well, we went down this one afternoon and there's John and Paul, and they were teaching Stuart Sutcliffe how to play bass.
(Ringo Starr, August 1977, interview with Elliot Mintz for the program 'Inner-view' on American radio)
He wasn’t really a very good musician. In fact, he wasn’t a musician at all until we talked him into buying a bass. We taught him to play twelve-bars, like Thirty Days by Chuck Berry. That was the first thing he ever learnt. He picked up a few things and he practised a bit until he could get through a couple of other tunes as well. It was a bit ropey, but it didn’t matter at that time because he looked so cool. We never had many gigs in Liverpool before we went to Hamburg, anyway.
(George Harrison in Anthology)
And I can't remember but Mike somewhere said Paul could play bass (and drums) and he was teaching Stu to play bass. If Paul knew how to play bass why he couldn't write basslines?
"Brian didn't want to go to gigs dressed as Mr. Epstein from NEMS," says Peter Brown. "He didn't want to look like a prick in a suit, so he put on a turtleneck and a leather jacket to seem more like the boys." Bill Harry recalls him at the Cavern one night, "with his hair combed forward, looking completely ridiculous." He was experimenting, looking for ways to square himself with the Beatles, to square himself with himself.
From Mark Lewisohn's Tune In:
"Was Woolton fete the first time John met Paul? A riddle in two paragraphs:
In certain private company, Paul sometimes reveals that he hadn’t only seen John on buses before the Woolton fete, but they’d also exchanged a few words. Paul says he was working as a paperboy (on his bike, delivering the Echo to local houses in the evenings) when he once talked to John outside the newsagent’s shop. John never mentioned it, and Paul has chosen, consistently for decades, never to say it publicly. He was a paperboy after the McCartneys relocated to Forthlin Road in summer 1956, when he turned 14. Paul is shy about giving away the shop’s identity to anyone who’d print it, but one local family who knew him think it was “Abbas.”
From beatlesliverpoollocations.blogspot.com:
The unnamed family mentioned in Mark Lewisohn’s notes are the Hodgsons. In 1956 Charles (senior) and his wife Annie were living at 111 Stamfordham Drive, Allerton with their two sons, Reginald, 26 and Charles, 14. Peter Hodgson, Reginald's son, has told me how his Uncle Charlie got to know the 14 years old Paul McCartney when he was working as a paper boy.
Peter Hodgson: In or around 2010 I told Mark [Lewisohn] that (Paul had worked at) the shops at the Cenotaph, right by my Dad’s [...] We now know that sometime in the past, Paul has revealed the actual first meeting between himself and John and where that meeting took place. I think someone close to Paul has let the cat out of the bag to Mark and (Lewisohn) has wanted to know the name and location of Abbas in 1956. At this time and in the subsequent years, the locals will still have referred to the shop as Abbas when mentioning it, hence it was still known as Abbas by my Dad and brother...many decades later. This is where the confusion started as to the shop’s location as Mark was relying on documentation only, whereas I was relying on first hand witnesses who actually lived literally yards away. I got it straight from Macca, face to face, he agreed and nodded when I mentioned Abbas so when I told Mark many years later he went searching and could only find an Abba in Aigburth. What’s interesting is that at some point Mark actually asked Paul the name of the newsagent’s he delivered for in Allerton. Paul refused to answer him. An unusual refusal for such a seemingly trivial question.
[Peter was pleased with what my own research had uncovered, for personal family reasons as much as for the benefit of Beatle’s history. (He said to me): You finding W.W. Abba at 85 Woolton Road vindicated me to Mark, as it’s impossible for me, my Dad or Uncle Charlie to have been making it up].
(Scene from the Fuh You music video. The location of the newsagent, W.W. Abba at Woolton Road, is on the left, which is shown as Paul sings, "on the night that I met you...". The Liverpool local who found the newsagent did his research much earlier than the release of this video. He was shocked when he saw it.)
Paul's brain: I am singing about dreaming of John, standing side-by-side with him, and promising to be in love with him until the day I die.
Paul's mouth: Well, we used a Studer four-track machine. And the thing we loved most about it was the snare drum sound. Oh, and we also stuck the tape rewinding at the end because nobody hears that, you know. There isn't much more to say about it.
Look two magpies
A girl and a boy
One for sorrow
And two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
I saw two magpies
Two for joy
Content to cry
No more to lie
In truth with you
To face down fear
Content to cry
No more to lie
No more to lie
And face down fear
(Two Magpies, 2008, Electric Arguments)
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
or
One for sorrow
Two for luck
Three for a wedding
Four for death
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
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