Beatles FAQ

Wedding photo

  "one of the Beatles most dispensable items". [8] Run for Your Life’ I always hated ... John Lennon Lennon Remembers (1971

Until 1968 wives and girlfriends stayed away from Abbey Road during business hours. This unwritten rule  was unilaterally abandoned by John. The new arrangement was to have “Yoko literally in the middle of the recording session...sitting on the amps" as Paul later put it.

In 1962 Brian Epstein was the best man hastily arranged wedding of John Lennon and Cynthia Powell in Liverpool. 

  We were first introduced in about 1974 by Elizabeth Taylor. 

  A special Christmas present

John Lennon was very short-sighted but in his teens refused to wear spectacles in public.

"one of the Beatles most dispensable items". [8] Run for Your Life’, I always hated ... because it was a song I just knocked off Lennon Remembers Few would argue with this assessment. Thomas Ward diplomatically suggests that it is one of the Beatles most dispensable items".[8] while Ian MacDonald is characteristically forthright ('a dismal track'). 'Run for Life' was the first song recorded for what would become Rubber Soul. It was 'knocked off' during a break between the filming of Help and their return to Abbey Road in October 1965. Words One reason Lennon was later embarrassed by the song was what MacDonald calls its 'lazily sexist lyric'. Even allowing for the different social climate, 'you better run for your life ... or that's the end' has an unpleasant menacing edge. The words and the sentiment came from the old Elvis song 'Baby, Let's Play House'. There was a line on it; I used to like specific lines from

The Beatles cheerfully sang 'Roll Over Beethoven' in their pre-fame stage show. The Chuck Berry anthem also appears on their second album. But if Ludwig was not safely out of copyright, his legal team would most likely have a solid royalties claim. In one of his last interviews, John Lennon revealed how the great German composer provided direct inspiration: I was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven's - Moonlight Sonata, on the piano. Suddenly I said, 'can you play those chords backwards'. The Beatles version retains the key and key change, plus the pattern of arpeggios. Lennon also added some bass notes and of course and a lyric which he claimed was ' clear, no bullshit, no imagery, no obscure references.' You won't find that kind of language in Fidelio but there is arguably a similarity of intent across the centuries. .

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 

On 29 September, I967, John Lennon worked with George Martin and the Abbey Road sound engineers on a potential new Beatles single.

'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)

Liverpool was heavily bombed in 1940 Contrary to Aunt Mimi’s later recollection, John Lennon was not born during an air-raid. The shadow of the Second World War was, however, very apparent at his birth. 

I moved in with my auntie who lived in the suburbs in a nice semi-detached place with a small garden and doctors and lawyers and that ilk living around... not the poor slummy kind of image that was projected in all the Beatles stories. In the class system, it was about half a class higher than Paul, George and Ringo, who lived in government-subsidized housing. We owned our house and had a garden. They didn't have anything like that .  Playboy Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono: Published in January 1981  10 Admiral Grove where Ringo grew up - now owned by National Trust A slightly more accurate summary would point out that Ringo was at least  'half a class' lower than Paul and George and did not live in social housing or what the British call a council house. Dingle was one of the poorest areas of Liverpool and the Starkeys paid ten shillings (£0.50p) a week to a private landlord for 10 Admiral Grove, a terraced house without a bathroom or indoor toilet. It is also int

 It’s a throwaway, a piece of garbage...from a Kellogg’s cereal commercial. I always had the TV on very low in the background when I was writing and it came over ...{ i n this } song .  During his Weybridge years, John Lennon was a British version of Benjamin Braddock in  The Graduate  (1967). Though extraordinarily privileged in material terms he felt alienated: a rich, successful young man angry at the suburban world he found himself in. This anger was largely expressed through petty acts of passive aggression against those surrounding him.   In the conventional Beatles narrative, John Lennon was the wild man, with an artistic bent and a taste for the avant garde.  Paul, in contrast, was the son-in-law choice: cute, sensible and with the common touch.  In reality, the roles were reversed. McCartney spent his Beatle downtime careering around  Swinging London in his Mini Cooper, the pop world's Toad of Toad Hall. He was a fixture of the hip clubs, fashionable parties and talked-abo

  Mount Pleasant Registry Office, Liverpool. August 23rd 1962

On Saturday the 6th July, 1957 St Peter's Church held it a annual summer fete in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton. After the usual stalls and games for children in the afternoon, a new skiffle group played in the church hall in the evening. They were named The Quarrymen, after the school the band-leader attended. His name was John Lennon. John with the Quarrymen a few hours before meeting Paul Paul McCartney was only just fifteen, eighteen months younger than Lennon. He lived a bus ride away and went to a different school. But he and Lennon shared a mutual friend, Ivan Vaughan. Vaughan invited McCartney to the fete, promising that there would be girls there. “You can meet my mate John, too,” he added. “He plays guitar like you…” Read full piece free on on Medium    3 min read with video The Beatles Teaching Pack  free download during pandemic BBC Witness (audio): The Band That Made The Beatles

Tomorrow Never Knows took The Beatles into previously unexplored musical territory. Its use of tape loops, a mellotron, Tibetan chants and various Musique Concrete techniques were startling innovations for a mainstream pop record.  The title, however,  was inspired by a more homely source: I took one of Ringo's malapropisms as the title, to sort of take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics. Where did this  'heavy' philosophy come from? The Tibetan Book of the Dead via  The Psychedelic Experience by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (1964). Leary notoriously promoted the use of LSD as the key to what Huxley had termed the Doors of Perception.  Lennon discovered the  The Psychedelic Experience when browsing the shelves at the Indica Bookshop in London:  John began to scan the shelves. His eyes soon alighted upon a copy of The Psychedelic Experience, Dr Timothy Leary's psychedelic version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  John was delighted and settled down