The Mal Evans I met
By Beck
The Mess (issue 11)
It was on July 22, 1969, the day I first met Mal. Not surprisingly enough, I first met Paul,
John, George and Ringo the same day.
Beautiful!
The summer of Abbey Road.
The wind gently teasing the trees.
And all the first name-only best friends to the Beatles teasing the
girls outside. One of them was Mal.
Before I encountered Paul, Mal introduced himself to
me. I wasn’t the first to know, “if you
really want to meet Paul, you’ll have to do it through me.” I was quite sure I could do it on my own,
but some girls weren’t as sure.
I remember meeting a girl from the South who naively
believed Mal’s words to be the truth.
Rumor has it, she went home with him that night. I never saw her again. Initiation was too much for the girl.
For those of us who could handle the lines, meeting Paul
came just as easy. But we didn’t get to
know Mal as well, so to speak.
At any rate, my fondest memory of Malcolm did happen on that
very day.
A notorious little green Mini came roaring and colliding
into several fans and made a sudden halt in the EMI studio lot. When much to my surprise out popped Paul
McCartney. At age 16 I was more than
impressed at the great hulk of a hero and I was caught by surprise,
speechless. I managed to throw some
blossoms his way and received a “thank you” note.
I followed the man up the drive, leaped the steps closely
behind and proceeded to tail him down the ivy halls of EMI. But alas, as fate has it, I met with the
mighty hand of Mal Evans. It seems that
not everyone is eligible to enter the EMI kingdom and I qualified. But I wasn’t easily convinced and got in a
couple punches as I was dragged to the door.
I gasped and muttled and fought the mighty Mal but he had a good grip on
me. The fight paid off though because
Paul had forgotten some pressing business with Mal and had decided to come back
and see us. To this day I cannot recall
a word that was exchanged between Mal and Paul for those few minutes that
day. I do remember gazing lovingly at
Paul and admiring the closeness of his being.
As he turned to leave, he held some flowers up to me and waved
acknowledgement that meant the very world to me. Thanks Mal.
Thanks Paul. And in the end….
in Mal's defense (?), this person doesn't seem like the most reliable or trustworthy of narrators.
ReplyDeleteLennon himself said many times (including the Tom Snyder interviews) that the roadies had the "pick of the litter", and many other bands' roadies did the same type of thing (whether or not this particular story is true), I know Frank Zappa wrote many songs about this very subject. Not excusing it at all, just pointing it out that it could totally be a true story. For young guys, guys from Northern England, (or any guys) to all of a sudden have girls and women throwing themselves at you, they were bound to take advantage of it. (girls also....there's that notorious Go-Gos video of them with some boy-toy fan backstage).
ReplyDeleteI believe the story, and even if this story isn't true, I believe such things did happen. Unlike other bands like, say, Led Zeppelin who were notoriously disgusting, violent and degrading with not many "nice stories" coming out of them (unless you count Jimmy Page's 13 year old girlfriend who grew up to say nice things about him) at least Mal and the "boys" themselves seem to have other sides to their personalities, and stories like this are comparatively few and far between...and also discreet.
I don't think this erases all of the nice stories about Mal, and like you said, he's not here to defend himself and tell his side of the story.
We love these people.....warts and all...as the human beings they were and are (or at least I do).
I toured as a musician with a well-known band (i won't say who)....a so-called "indie" band, internationally known, but I wouldn't say superstar-status whatsoever....and I remember guys showing up (we had a female lead singer) and lying to get backstage, and giving her gifts and poetry and drawings and blah blah blah, same thing with the main guy in the band, the songwriter...these people put themselves in this position, sorry to say, and it seems, at least with the Beatles, that they had some decorum (for instance, Larry Kane always mentions that he never saw them with underage girls).
Lizzie Bravo can probably shed more light on this, but I remember her saying (hilariously) once that as much as she loved John and the guys, if anyone of them had "made a move" she (and her friends) would have probably run away!
Man oh man, I've written a book here. Just like my emails!!! Sorry!!! I meant to put my two cents in, I ended up putting in a hundred dollars!!!
You made some very good points here Sad Michael and you've put things into perspective. Your 'hundred dollars' worth is thoughtful and sensible. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Girl!
DeleteYou've made good points many times here yourself!
If anyone has ever heard that call-in radio show Mal did, right before he died....the way he talks to the fans....the way HE himself was a fan.....I swear, it gives you CHILLS. That's the way I will always think of him, the ONLY way I can think of him.
(if anyone hasn't heard it, I shall upload it at once! Just say the word, Beatlepeople! It will bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened criminal!)