One of the most outlandish of these rumors came to light in 2003 when an auction was selling a box and a cassette that they claimed was used in the Beatles reunion recording session that happened on November 2, 1976 in a recording studio in L.A. The auction claimed that the session, which was naturally produced by George Martin, did not go well and by the end of the 5th song, one of the Beatle members stormed out of the studio. At the request of the Beatles, the tapes were to be deleted, except for one master tape, which Abbey Road Studios has in their vaults. So all that was left was a box with the date and name of the songs and a blank cassette tape. Give me a break! Who believes this junk?
Well to help debunk this reunion rumor, the Tokyo Beatles Fan club magazine in their March 2004 issue wrote a fan story about a fan who met Paul in London on November 2, 1976! Here is that story.
The Rumour proved to be untrue
By Kenji Maeda
Tokyo Beatles Fan club Magazine issue 31
March 2004
You should have taken by surprise when you read the
newspaper on 17th December 2003.
Papers said that the Fab Four recorded five songs secretly at a studio
in Los Angeles on 2nd November 1976 and they say that the tape has a
credit of the names of the Beatles and five titles: “Happy Feelings,” “Back Home,”
“Rockin’ Once Again,” “People of
the Third World,” and “Little Girl.”
But this can’t be true.
We can prove that it was impossible for the Beatles to meet together in
LA on that date. One of our club members,
Takashi Sekiya from Nagano prefecture, Japan had met with Paul McCartney in
London on that day! It was only 12 days
after Paul and Wings had finished their last concert at the Empire Pool in
Wembley, London (21st October).
On 1st November 1976, when visiting the Abbey
Road Studios, Takashi heard from a guard that Paul was busy mixing Wings new
album which later turned into the “Wings over America” album. He waited there and saw all of the band
members including Paul and Linda go into the studios. Paul was driving a purple Austin Mini and
Denny Laine was driving a Mercedes.
Takashi didn’t bring a pen to get an autograph that day. So he decided to come back again to the
studio the next day.
Paul and Linda on November 1, 1976 photographed in London |
On 2nd November, Paul came to the studios alone
and on foot (maybe direct from his house on Cavendish Avenue). At the entrance, fans asked Paul why he didn’t
bring Linda that day and Pau said, “she is taking care of the children.” At last Takashi got Paul’s autograph with a
doodle and it is still one of his treasures.
So it is certain that Paul McCartney was in London, not LA on 2nd
November 1976!
The autograph Takashi got from Paul with doodle on November 2, 1976 |
Then how about the other three Beatles? George attended a party arranged by Warner
Brothers in Los Angeles on 17 November.
He may have been there in early November (He soon left LA and recorded
several songs in New York with Paul Simon for the “Saturday Night Live” show on
the 19th. He later appeared
in London and recorded an interview with Bob Harrison the 30th of
that month). Ringo appeared on stage
with The Band in San Francisco and played drums on “I Shall be Released” on 24th
November (later released as a movie “the Band/the Last Waltz”), so he could
have been in the west coast in early November.
How about John? There has been no
available information about John during this period but he was enjoying the life
with Yoko in New York after the long “Lost Weekend” era. It must be hardtop imagine that he went back
to LA alone (It has been said that John and Yoko dined with Carly Simon and her
husband James Taylor on 31st December that year at the Shun Lee
Dynasty restaurant in Manhattan).
There has been many rumours about the Beatles. But these rumors are not always true. They are untrue in many cases. But anyway, these rumours may show how the
band named the Beatles is still great, after 34 years since their break-up.
HA! The tipoff, for one, are the horrible titles! "Rockin' Once Again", yeah, right! Thanks, gave me a laugh! And what are the chances that you'd find an alibi for one of the Fab Five! (i'm including George Martin). Well...around here, on this blog....the chances are pretty good! I fancy me chances with MTBFR!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sara!