The Beatles Give THEIR Views (1963)

 The Beatles Give THEIR Views

By Kenneth Yates

Sunday Mirror

November 10, 1963

    What makes the Beatles beat? Everyone wants to know what goes on behind those mop-cut hairstyles. In their frankest exclusive interview, yet they have talked on sex, clothes, morals, and the surveys that are supposed to find out what makes teenagers tick. Of the latest survey on teenage behavior, carried out by the Teenage Information Center and reported in the Sunday Mirror last Sunday, the boys had this to say:

     On sex: "Some people boast a lot about sex, but it doesn't mean they do what they say. Others try to make themselves out to be more moral than they are or say nothing."

 On the facts of life:  "No one at home ever told us the facts of life. We got to know them, like most kids do, from boys at school. It's the best way. We would have been embarrassed if we had been taken on one side at home and told about them. We are sure our parents would have been too, and we are all quite sexually normal."

    On teenagers:  "There is an awful lot of rubbish talked about teenagers. We think they are a good bunch of boys and girls,  just as good as, if not better than, their parents. It's just that chaste people get the idea they are not just because they talk about sex more. They keep it in the open, not shut away in secret, as they used to."

     On girls who go dancing:  "Nearly every girl goes dancing. Why not? It doesn't mean that they go to dances just with the idea of getting a fellow to pop into bed with. It's a slur on British girls."

     On coffee bars:  "How on earth can anyone say that dance halls lead girls into promiscuity or that coffee bars don't? How can they say that girls who go into pubs are more promiscuous than girls who don't?"

     On promiscuity:  "Girls and boys are promiscuous, just like grown-ups, if it's part of their makeup. If they want sex, it doesn't matter whether they go to a coffee bar, dance, or church; they will get it. They might never go to any of these places, but they will have sex if they want it. Some people who seem to be the most good living in the world have private lives. They don't talk about them, but they're often as bad or worse than those who do. And they may be good church goers, just as they may be RC, C of E, atheists, or Jews."

    . Can a girl hold off:  "Sure she can if she doesn't like a boy's advances, she can stop him, unless he's a sex maniac."

     On parties:  "Most parties lead to petting if they go on long enough, but kids know what they are doing and just how far to go."

     On Teenage clothes: "Older people don't like their clothes. They criticize them. But why shouldn't kids wear what they want? They can afford to buy and wear what they like. Nowadays, they don't have to bother anymore with pass downs. They get their own clothes, not old ones, from their big brother or sister. Teenagers choose their clothes because they're individuals. They want it that way, but they stick out in a crowd and get blamed for lots of trouble they have nothing to do with. People always connect riots with teenage hooligans, even though it might be older people who cause them."

     On teenage morals:  "People seem to think all teenagers are sex mad. It's not true. It's some of the older people who are the sex mad ones. They're the ones who are getting divorced, jailed for assaulting girls, and spending such a lot of time looking at dirty books and pictures in shop windows."

     On Beatlemania:  "We are flattered by our fans. We talk to them. They don't want to get into trouble when they queue for tickets. It's just the same thing as people queuing for football matches or other things. Because they are older people, they don't call them hooligans when there is trouble. Some of the worst riots and troubles happened when Rudolph Valentino died, and they weren't caused by teenagers. Our fans are just plain ordinary, nice people. We think they are fabulous, the greatest in the world. We don't mind the kids screaming and shouting at all. They pay their money to get in, and if that's the way they want it, why shouldn't they shout? If we had wanted to do the same when we were their age, we would have been annoyed if anyone had tried to stop us."