Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The Nurk Twins


I love this "new" photo of John and Paul that is now making the rounds from 1961.   Many of the ones I have been seeing online today are just from the shoulders up, so I was glad to locate one that is the full photo.   So nice to see them from when they first really starting being friends.

16 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a great one! Paul`s hair is really long here - if this is 1961 I wonder if it could be mid-61 - Paul`s hair was quite long then too. On the other hand they look too warmly dressed for that time of year. By November they had rather neat haircuts. Maybe Autumn 61 would be a good approximation of a date.

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    1. This is a photo from the upcoming Lewishon book, so maybe he has more details about it in the book. Let's hope so!

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    2. Someone has this photo now listed as "Summer 1961" But yes the clothing does not look like summer wear.

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  2. Paul`s hair was also pretty long in a photo-booth-shot, which I do not remember the book it came in right now. It features photo-booth-shots of all 4 though you cannot tell wether they were related to each other in any way. You sure have seen this - Paul has totally wild hair on it.

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  3. Light-colored turtleneck plus leatherjacket combination also seen in photo of John from ca. Feb.-March 61. Maybe Winter/Spring 61?

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  4. John's face is Photoshopped in. It is at an entirely different angle from his head. Also, the shadow at the bottom cuts off with a squared, instead of a round, line. And is that even Paul? Look closely, guys! (And it's "Nerk," BTW.)

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    1. I have seen it spelled both with the ur and the er. I highly doubt that someone as esteemed as Mark Lewishon would publish a photo that was photoshopped in his book. But if it is, then at least I get to see a new photo of John's head that is new.

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    2. That is definitely Paul, I see what Corey means, but perhaps that's some photoshop repair on an old photo.

      And I too have seen it as Nurk, and Nerk. A quick search reveals that both spellings are words (with different meanings). Nerk means "nerd" or "geek", and "nurk" means a shrew, so it probably is Nerk.....but I have seen it spelled both ways.

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  5. There is something really odd about this photo...I am not 100% sure this is Paul. I thought maybe Stu...but Stu was pretty short. Plus John looks odd....I am wondering if Cory is right and it is photoshopped.

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  6. That is definitely Paul. It looks odd to so many because there are so many pics floating around of the 'correct' Beatles with guitars or at the Cavern. I have seen other odd pics of John and Paul that are very similar to this one. I think this is actually the real John and Paul as they were back then. Kind of arty, and often acting like Peter Sellers and The Goons. They would often pose this way together. This was their relationship. I think they were different than the way they have been portrayed in popular books. Hopefully Mark will have more on that. A lot of authors seem to try to give the impression that they didn't like each other and had nothing to do with each other, and nothing in common except the death of their mothers and rock and roll. Almost as if they are catering to a readership that is on opposite sides and wants to read that they were opposites. Looking at a photo like this, makes me understand how You Know My Name Look Up the Number probably came about.

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  7. Hi - Mark says the shot is genuine and from summer 1961. I can proof that the photo must have been taken AFTER the Beatles returned back from Hamburg in Juli 1961. Very simple: I studied the leather gear the Beatles bought in Hamburg in 1960 to 1962 for a German article in a fanzine I wrote and John cut off the wristbands of his leather jacket somewhere down the line in Hamburg around May 1961. You can sport the wristband on the session by Jürgen Vollmer but not on par example the session of the Beatles on the Top Ten roof. All other have left their wristband at the jackets - easily to spot on the Albert Marrion session. The guess "summer 1961" will be right. Thorsten www.bravo-beatles-blitztournee.de

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  8. I read somewhere way back that John and Paul played music briefly as a duo called the Nurk Twins. I thought it was in France between Quarrymen and The Beatles. But I also read Nurk is an expression meaning opposites; left handed versus right handed. Any truth to these stories?

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  9. definitely paul but has to be photoshopped john face as it's just wrong

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    1. If Mark Lewishon says it is a genuine photo--then I believe him. He has done more Beatles research than any of us and has studied more Beatles photos than I ever will.

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  10. John's head is not right in this picture - perhaps this was faded & another replaced it

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