Someone looks out of place on the beach

 

Paul McCartney: Chat with a Modern Legend

 

This is an article about Paul published on October 2, 1966, in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle (reprinted form the London Sunday Times)

Paul McCartney was in his new mansion in St. John's Wood. He lives alone. A Mr. and Mrs. Kelly look after him.  Nothing so formal as a housekeeper and butler.  Their job, he says, is just to fit in. 

The house had a huge wall and an electrically operated black door to keep out non-Beatle life. Inside, there is some carefully chosen elderly furniture.  Nothing flashy, affected, or even expensive looking.  The dining room table was covered with a white lace tablecloth. Very working class posh. 

McCartney, along with John Lennon, is the author of a song called "Eleanor Rigby." No pop song of the moment has better words or music. 

"I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it.  Just like Jimmy Durante. The first few bars just came to me. And I got this name in my head - Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been.  I don't know why. "

"I can hear a whole song in one chord. In fact, I think you can hear a whole song in one note if you listen hard enough. But nobody ever listens hard enough. 

"OK, so that's the Joan of Arc bit. I couldn't think of much more, so I put it away for a day. Then the name Father McCartney came to me - and all the lonely people. But I thought people would think it was supposed to be my dad sitting knitting his socks. Dad's a happy lad. So I went through the telephone book, and I got the name McKenzie. 

"I was in Bristol when I decided Daisy Hawkins wasn't a good name. I walked round looking at the shops and I saw the name Rigby. You got that? Quick pan to Bristol. I can just see this all as a Hollywood musical...

"Then I took it down to John's house in Weybridge. We sat around laughing, got stoned, and finished it off. I thought of the backing, but it was George Martin who finished it off. I just go bash. bash on the piano. He knows what I mean. 

"All our songs come out of our imagination. There never was an Eleanor Rigby.

"One of us might htink of a song completely, and the other jsut add a bit. Or we might write alternate lines. We never argue. It just doesn't matter that much. I care about being a songwriter. But I don't care passionately about each song."

"'Eleanor' is a big development as a composition. But that doesn't mean 'Yellow Submarine' is bad. It was written as a commercial song, a kid's song. People have said, 'Yellow Submarine? What's the significance? What's behind it?' Nothing. Kids get it straight away. Kids have got it. It's only later they get messed up.

"I tried once to write a song under another name, just to see if it was the Lennon-McCartney bit that sold our songs. I called myself Bernard Webb - I was a student in Paris and very unavailable for interviews. The song was 'Woman,' for Peter and Gordan. They made it a big hit. Then it came out it was me. I realized that when I saw a banner at a concert saying 'Long Live Bernard Webb.'

"I really can't play the piano or read or write music. I tried three times in my life to learn but never kept it up for more than three weeks. The last block I went to was great I'm sure he could teach me a lot. I might go back to him. It's just the notation - the way you write down notes, it doens't look like music to me."

"John's not trying acting again, and George (Harrison) has got his passion for the sitar and all the Indian stuff. He's lucky. Like somebody's luck who got religion. I'm just looking for something I enjoy doing. There's no hurry. I have the time and the money.

"People think we're not conceited, but we are. If you ask me if I wrote good or bad songs I'd be think to say bad, wouldn't I? It's true we're lucky, but we got where we are because of what we did.

"The girls waiting outside. I don't despise them. I don't think fans are humilating themselves I queued up at the Liverpool Empire for Wee Willie Harris' autograph. I wanted to do it. I don't think I was being stupid.

"I can go out and around more than people think without being recognized. People never really believe it's you. They don't really expect to see you in the street, so you can get away with it.

"I think we can go on as the Beatles for as long as we want to, writing songs, making records. We're still developing. I've no ambitions, just to enjoy myself. We've had all the ego bit, all about wanting to be remembered. We couldn't do any better than we've done already, could we?"

Brian interviewed

 

John, Paul, George and Ringo

 

Signed Gripweed

 

Tokyo arrival

 

Hair raising excitement

 

Snip Snip Snip

 

Paperback Writer

 

Two tried guys

 

Photographer John

 

The friendly skies to Japan

 

How I Got George Harrison's autograph (a fan story from 1966)

 

Just a week before this story, George was in San Francisco

Sometimes the most charming stories of a fan meeting a Beatle (for real) can be found hidden in an auction listing.  Often to verify an autograph as genuine, the seller writes out how the autograph was obtained.   That is the case with this story.   The seller's name was not listed, but she included her story along with her diary pages.  

How I got George Harrison’s autograph

 

In 1966 I was 13 and lived in Hinchley Wood, not far from Esher where George Harrison lived at the time.  I was a massive Beatles fan!

On 2^nd September my friend Linda and I went to the shops.  I then walked home, crossing the road by the traffic lights next to the EFS petrol station.  I saw a black mini with tinted windows with George Harrison at the wheel.  There was no self-service back then so his window was down.  Star-struck as I was, I could still see he looked like he had a raging hangover!  I was entirely overwhelmed, but very polite, and asked him if he was George Harrison.   He said, “If you want an autograph, no, but if you’ve just come to say hello, yes.”  So I lied and said I didn’t!

I went home and told everyone including Linda who lived nearby.  Also, a Beatle fan, she was naturally really jealous.

The next day she and I walked to the shops together to buy her Beatles Monthly (I had mine delivered).  On our way home – incredibility - - George Harrison was getting petrol again, this time in his green Ferreri with Patti.   He gave us the autographs I claimed not to want the previous day, and a smile!  Linda’s was on her Beatles’ Monthly (my turn to be jealous!) and mine on a scruffy piece of paper. Whether it was mine or George’s I can’t remember.

Like a real teenage stalker, I wrote everything in my diary – including the car registrations! 

German arrival in 1966

 

Paul has so many questions

 

Stopping for a tea break

 

Let's give Ringo a hand

 

Maybe one of Alf's last jobs for The Beatles?

 

John's new toy

 

Butcher cover interview