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In this listener-suggested subject show, Robert and Richard lay out the questions they would ask John, Paul, George and Ringo, if given a chance (and total candor). Songs include “Do You Want To Know A Secret” and “You Know My Name (Look Up My Number).”
Find Richard’s books here.
Find Robert’s books here.
Thanks for the reference to my favorite French artist, Les Toulouse.
I’ve often wondered how John mistook acid for speed. I’ve never taken either myself but doesn’t speed come in tablet form while acid is a tab?
LSD is a liquid which might be applied – for dosage purposes – to any porous material like a tablet, or encased in a capsule. That’s not the typical vehicle nowadays but the modern conventions hadn’t evolved in the 1960’s when this was a brand new drug…
For John, (who I always considered as my favourite Beatle)
Why did you take such a set against working on George’s songs? Did you feel any guilt when George played on your Imagine album? Why did you say in 1969 that you weren’t interested in how the other’s songs were received, only your own? With hindsight and as an artist, do you wish that you had been more prepared to help the others, George particularly, to make their artistic statements? And why did you claim that some of George’s songs had too many chords and were too hard to play after you had put the band through hell trying to get “Happiness is a Warm Gun” right?
For Geoerge,
What is it about Paul that seemed to make you dislike him so much, even during the Anthology sessions? You always carried this air of real dislike for the man. Given your “enlightened, religious” lifestyle, couldn’t you have forgiven him for any of his transgressions?
I’m sure I’ll think of more…leave it with me and I’ll get back to you!
Enjoyed the episode.
Cheers,
Lindsay
Really interesting questions. With regard to George’s attitude towards Paul, I think it comes back to Paul adopting that older brother dynamic with George, that was set from the very early days and didn’t alter ever! Reading the recent Mark Lewisohn book volume 1, it really struck me that John Paul and George’s relationships became very fixed early on, and never really progressed that much. John was always the one they’d look up to. George being the baby was of course the one who felt most stifled. I think he was also a little envious subconsciously that Paul could effortlessly play the fame game, and more consciously, got annoyed about Paul always having an element of self consciousness and playing up to the cameras, whereas George was always just being himself, more or less. However…. I have no doubt that he loved Paul deeply and would always jump in to defend him if someone outside the family went to attack him.
I’ve always wondered what are those strange sounds (rattling chains, perhaps????) in the opening seconds (approx 00:09-00:15) of the slow version of Revolution on the white album. Too late to ask John, but Paul probably knows.
Hi Guys,
Don’t know if you have already have done a show on the Beatles sense of humor,but I think that would be “fun’.
Good subject choice & discussion as ever guys – guess I would ask John “Why did you even bother to do take two of Twist & Shout when you’ve just recorded the greatest vocal of all time ?(still to this day)
My Question — Both John and Paul have gone thru their songs and explain how they came up with the songs and who wrote what.
But the song “I ‘ve Got a Feeling” is actually a bit of mystery still.
There are demo bootlegs floating about of John doing early version called “Everybody Had a Hard Year” but how did Paul come up with HIS PART of the song.
Did Paul hear John’s “Everybody Had a Hard Year” and wrote his part of song to finish it off?
Did Paul happen to have a bit of an unfinished song that had the same chords and worked perfectly with John’s bit?
Did they have a sit down writing session to finish the song ?
This is the last Beatles tune that was a combination of Paul song and John song. And it is odd that there is no information about how the tune was actually created
My Question — Both John and Paul have gone thru their songs and explain how they came up with the songs and who wrote what.
But the song “I ‘ve Got a Feeling” is actually a bit of mystery still.
There are demo bootlegs floating about of John doing early version called “Everybody Had a Hard Year” but how did Paul come up with HIS PART of the song.
Did Paul hear John’s “Everybody Had a Hard Year” and wrote his part of song to finish it off?
Did Paul happen to have a bit of an unfinished song that had the same chords and worked perfectly with John’s bit?
Did they have a sit down writing session to finish the song ?
This is the last Beatles tune that was a combination of Paul song and John song. And it is odd that there is no information about how the tune was actually created
a mystery
Since the premise of the song ‘she said, she said’ is one of John’s acid experiences which was shared by George and Ringo, ( the Peter Fonda episode) I suspect the root of Paul’s walk out may have been connected to this.