Beatles FAQ

"Nobody wanted to play bass in those days."

I wrote that in my front parlour in Forthlin Road. I was about 16. 

Paul & Mary McCartney Paul McCartney has recently suggested a ‘subconscious’ inspiration for the line I said something wrong/Now I long for yesterday  was his regret at once chiding his mother for ‘talking posh’:

George Harrison and Paul McCartney first met while at secondary school.

  None of The Beatles had a background in classical music. 

The first meeting of The Beatles and Bob Dylan was in a room at the Delmonico Hotel in New York on Friday 28 August 1964.

 

  Outside Paul's family home in the early 1960s Soon after first seeing them at the Cavern, Brian Epstein invited The Beatles for a formal meeting at his office. This was arranged for the afternoon of Sunday 3rd December 1961 at 4.30. Epstein wanted to manage the band but had doubts about their reliability and professionalism. The Beatles for their part had achieved success in Hamburg and Liverpool but had no record deal or national profile John, George and Pete took the bus to the meeting. They arrived on time - but after forty five minutes there was still no sign of Paul.  A call was made to the McCartney family home. This revealed that  Paul had just got up and was having a bath. Epstein exploded, "How can he be so late for such and important meeting?"     To which Harrison famously replied, "He may be late but he's very clean".  A frosty silence melted into laughter. Why was Paul so  late? On one level Paul's lateness was symptomatic of  what ...

Nam Ngô Composition has always been  an instinctive process for Paul McCartney, with inspiration coming from unlikely sources:

John Lennon teases clue seekers and his bandmate  Written days after the death of Brian Epstein, the lyrics of 'I am the Walrus' have confused everyone, including their author - read full story here In his 1971  Rolling Stone  interview, Lennon tries to explain the McCartney reference in Glass Onion:  Here's another clue for you all. The Walrus was Paul.  Is Lennon teasing his bandmate? Or having a pop at the rapidly growing army of conspiracy theorists? Interestingly, Glass Onion was a genuine collaboration between John and Paul. The theme (an attack on the 'pseuds' over-interpreting Beatles' lyrics) sounds typical of Lennon but in fact came from McCartney. Their relationship was fraying but here they come together in a howl of complaint about how Beatles' lyrics were avidly scoured for hidden messages.   Ian Macdonald disapproves. He suggests that the 'sour A minor melody' and snarling tone of the song express the intent of they lyric" - a ...

'Evidence' of an alleged height disparity 

Photo by  Nick Fewings  on  Unsplash Paul :   What I think… the main thing is this: You have always been boss. Now, I’ve been sort of secondary boss.” John :  Not always. Paul : No, listen. Listen. No, always. From the secretly recorded conversation in The Beatles: Get Back (2021) John Lennon began what became The Beatles - Paul and George joined his band when all three were teenagers. That is what Paul is referring to in the documentary. Whether John remained 'the boss' through to the end is a more open question.  Read more  (free)

'Love Me Do' is Paul's song. He wrote it when he was a teenager. Let me think. I might have helped on the middle eight, but I couldn't swear to it. I do know he had the song around, in Hamburg, even, way, way before we were songwriters"  John Lennon in David Sheff's : All We Are Saying). [8]   For their first single, George Martin wanted The Beatles to record a promising song by Mitch Murray, a young British songwriter.   I was convinced that How Do You Do It was a hit song. Not a great piece of songwriting, not the most marvellous song I had ever heard in my life, but I thought it had that essential ingredient which would appeal to a lot of people.   The boys stubbornly refused, 'We couldn't sing that in Liverpool,' they told him. 'We want to record one of our own songs.' Reluctantly, Martin allowed them to record LOVE ME DO - the song he considered the best of a bad bunch.   Read full story (free) on Medium (3 minutes)

The Beatles collect their MBEs - contrary to myth they were  thrilled to get them Paul McCartney has often expressed his admiration for Queen Elizabeth, who came to power five years before he joined The Quarrymen.  We all kind of liked the Queen. It’s an age thing. We were kids when she was crowned, so to us she was like a glamorous film star. We identified with her. She’s ours. She’s the Queen.   Interview with the Radio Times, September 2019 The Beatles with Princess Margaret. The four Beatles tracks which mention the late Queen Elizabeth II are:  Penny Lane For You Blue Mean Mr Mustard Her Majesty Read more  (free) Free Beatles Teaching Materials

Paul soon abandoned the trumpet

57 Wimpole Street where Paul lived with the Asher family

The original pressing was a song short

 

The B842, Kintyre, Scotland