114: A Week In The Life – July 1969

While echoes of 1967 live on this year with 50-year commemorations of Sgt. Pepper and the Summer of Love, the events of two summers later were, if anything, even more portentous as far as the Beatles’ story goes. In this episode, Richard and Robert examine one specific week: July 1 through July 9, 1969. These eight days marked the resumption of the Abbey Road sessions after a month-long break. During this time, several tracks were recorded or developed –  John crashed his car in Scotland – Brian Jones died – the Rolling Stones performed a free concert in Hyde Park –  “Give Peace A Chance,” the Plastic Ono Band’s debut single was released, and John returned to work (along with Yoko – and her bed). The period saw the group compartmentalizing a 3-1 business split while striving to remain functionally harmonious musically.
Songs include “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Give Peace A Chance.”
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10 thoughts on “114: A Week In The Life – July 1969”

  1. Very enjoyable apart from the gratuitous (and sexist) swipes at Yoko. Not sure it was even a serious thought to put her on a Beatles album, she wouldn’t appear on a proper studio Lennon solo album for 3 years. And Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is awesome, do a show on it one day …

    1. Colin Ricketts

      I agree. The predictable, reflexive Yoko bashing and silly John-v-Paul sniping are the least entertaining and enlightening bits of a fantastically entertaining and enlightening podcast.

  2. Great show guys. A fascinating time in the group’s history. Robert this would make for a great discussion topic at the upcoming Beatlefest!

  3. So which came first, Remember Love or Sun King? John plays the same finger-picking pattern on both. That caught my ear immediately when I first heard Abbey Road.

    1. We first hear Sun King at Twickenham during the January 1969 sessions; presumably it was written (or at least conceived) sometime before the new year. But most accounts assert that Remember Love came from the couple’s first burst of musical collaboration, also in 1968; along with Look At Me. So it’s really tough to pinpoint a precise which came first; at the very least, they came about roughly concurrently.

  4. Serious (but weird & practical) question: So when Yoko was in bed in the studio, did she stay there 24/7?
    Did she leave home, travel to the studio, then get into bed?
    When they finished for the day did she get out of the studio bed, travel home, and return to her own bed?
    Did she stay in the bed 24/7 and was it moved to & from the studio with her in it?
    How did that work, exactly?

    1. Inferred by what we glean from contemporaneous accounts, which aren’t all that explicit: the constant was her sticking to John’s side, coming to and leaving the studio when he did. The fact that she was on “bed rest” didn’t reduce her to the level of a quadriplegic (since she clearly had the mobility to make a beeline over to George’s digestive biscuits, and – presumably – bathroom breaks; John’s and her’s).

      Her actual injuries in the accident involved her head, where she received stitches. The “bed rest” was ordered after she complained of a sore neck and back. (Plus, she was pregnant.) There was no specific injury to them beyond what might be expected from being in a car that rolled. Really, what the whole episode speaks to is the couple’s flair for the dramatic. Since they were coming late to the July sessions, some way of making an entrance was evidently called for.

  5. Yoko wants a mic
    Yoko wants a biscuit
    Yoko wants a bed
    Yoko wants a Beatle…

    Could someone set that to music ?
    Could be like “God” from POB with a bit of work.

  6. Super episode continues the high quality of this pod.

    lol, you are right, they really did film the wrong sessions. 🙂

  7. Love these Goon shows!

    How about a couple of suggestions: 1. Fabs in Asia – a review of the band’s tours in Hong Kong (1964, with Jimmy Nicol), Japan (1966, the Budokan being the site of one of their best recorded if underperformed shows), and of course their blissful time in the Philippines.

    Outside the tours, there’s also Yoko, actually like Linda E. a longtime New Yorker but obviously born and raised in Japan. The band’s huge and enduring popularity in Asia has been an under-reported constant of their legacy for us in the West; us older fans remember Japan saw the first release of Abbey Road on compact disc. Also, Wings was supposed to tour Japan in 1980, but something happened; maybe Richard can fill us in.

    2. Beatles Vs. The Beach Boys – Obviously a lot of cross-pollination went on there, with the Beatles’ output spurring the Beach Boys onward, and vice versa. It would be great to figure out who helped who most and how.

    I knew Paul was a big fan, but was surprised to find this quote by John Lennon in Wikipedia regarding one of the Beach Boys’ rare flop singles, “The Little Girl I Once Knew”: “This is the greatest! Turn it up, turn it right up. It’s GOT to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. He never tours or anything. He just sits at home thinking up fantastic arrangements out of his head. Doesn’t even read music. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement. It goes on and on with all different things. I hope it’s a hit so I can hear it all the time.”

  8. Absolutely fascinating stuff! Love your site and I am a “first generation” Beatle fan going back to 1963 who’s dad was from Liverpool. Love you blog!

  9. So we learnt that it was, after all, Paul who broke up the Beatles because, as he said in an interview, he lost patience with waiting around for John’s next move. A podcast on that final bust up involving Paul’s first solo album, fisticuffs with Ringo, exile in Scotland and the infamous press release would be good.

  10. peter l chapman

    A wonderful discussion. As someone who has watched the original LIB many times, I’m incredibly excited about seeing “six more hours of Beatles”.

    Now if Mark Lewisohn would only finally release Vol 2…

  11. A wonderful and very thoughtful episode. I thought the section speculating on Peter Jackson’s motivations was the most interesting, because I’ve been holding out hope that GET BACK will be _more_ frank than LET IT BE (Sir Peter Jackson, three-time Academy Award winner, is presumably not working under the same power dynamic with Apple as was Michael Lindsay-Hogg).

  12. Interesting episode. I sense some dishonesty and more public relations on the part of Pete Jackson’s comment about making sure Paul McCartney approves anything with the Get Back documentary.

    But I wonder how much Disney had in spinning these references to McCartney. McCartney is very controlling and a revisionist on anything to do with his past (see Wingspan, Beatles Anthology, McCartney 3,2,1).

    Am sure the footage and audio to the Get Back documentary mini-series will be exceptional. But there is also the dilemma of the writer who sits with a finished novel for too long. Eventually making unnecessary changes simply for the sake of changing it and effectively ruining its edge.

    One wonders if the bread will be stale by the time its gets out of the oven.

  13. Thanks for another fascinating podcast, Robert.
    & so many more over the years!

    Btw I recommend re-watching the Director’s Cut of Anthology again.
    George’s dentist is named, there`s more on Maharishi, from memory
    and definitely some criticism of Yoko being in the studio and how
    it bugged George – from George!
    Obviously cut for the broadcast /Official DVD version.
    To keep everyone (else) happy!

    Duncan seems to frustratingly underestimate Peter Jackson’s
    intelligence tho.
    to paraphrase his take on PJ : “Wow I heard that there was all this agro at the Get Back sessions –
    – then I saw that there was nothing to the famous Paul/ George spat so THEREFORE the whole month was sweetness and light!”
    Really? Duncan thinks Peter is that one dimensional?
    PJ may choose to emphasise the upbeat moments in his cut (we’ll see) but even then I don’t believe the
    guy is so clueless as to extrapolate from one argument.

    Btw I really enjoyed the Pod on the passing of Alan Williams.
    Back then you had Mark Lewisohn on as a guest. And you had an
    amiable chat with him.
    But I notice lately, as with this episode, when you refer to Mark
    you always call him “Lewisohn” which seems a tad disrespectful.
    And are bringing him up to disagree with him.
    Is you new attitude to Mark due to the falling out with your previous
    co-host?
    Will you have Mark on again, as a guest?

    Look fWd to your review of the new Let It Be Box and Get Back TV series!

  14. I’m ok with a happy PG friendly edit on it. Screw it. Taking out ‘Fuckface’ from that bantering episode takes the edge off, but there has to be a slant no matter how its cut. Even Mark L’s first vol. slants John and Pete’s mugging of sailors in Hamburg as ‘boys will be boys’, mentioning it only in passing.

    The only way we could get a pure take is to have the complete footage and audio.

    Thank you to all! This podcast is so important and a joy to return to. Its the only Beatle’s podcast that offers primary sources to the Beatle’s history.

  15. Hello Robert,

    I received the Get Back book and have read it twice already. I was just wondering if you know if it largely matches up to the dialogue that will be in the film.

    There were various points I thought were important.
    1- the dramatic irony…much like a Shakespeare play we get to see the impending doom as a result of Lennon’s complete mental capitulation to Allen Klein. Even when Glynn Johns warns him, “Klein can convince you that a black piano is green,” it goes completely over Lennon’s head.

    2- you can see how Klein had set up his control. He impressed Yoko with the fake information that she was rehashing in the dialogue piece that Klein “owns half of MGM”.

    3- He had set up Harrison with his fake ability to set up a concert for charity – Biafra etc.

    Anyway- it would be great if you could do a show (if you get time) on your impressions on the book. What impressed you?

    I hope they have the bit “we’re stars…you don’t interrupt stars when they’re working”…but that dialogue wasn’t in the book, but it was in the show reels, so my guess is the book doesn’t marry up to the movie.

    Anyway, thanks either way for a great show.

    Cheers.

  16. Interesting to listen to this podcast after the Get Back docuseries has been aired, and the comments regarding the honesty of the version now produced by Peter Jackson. Pleasing that the hope of contacting and talking to Jackson came true ! Also interesting in the way “they” have tried to suggest that Paul and Ringo have “misremembered” the events seen in Let It Be as happening in May 1970 when the film was released. Possible ? Jury’s out on that one. I did see a Peter Jackson video where he did state that the restored Let It Be will be released – hopefully this is still the case.

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