Privates on Parade

 Denis O’Brien and George Harrison watching the filming of Privates on Parade, directed by Michael Blakemore, ca. 1982. Denis O’Brien Papers. Harry Ransom Center.

Paul takes it Away

 

Paul McCartney Spreads His Wings (1982)

 

Paul McCartney Spreads His Wings

No Author Listed

The Gazette (Montreal, Canada)

April 24. 1982

"Will you still need me?

 Will you still feed me?

When I'm 64?"

From the song "When I'm 64" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

     Paul McCartney was 25 when he wrote those words in 1967. He was the most popular member of the most beloved team in the history of pop music--a group whose exuberant message was built around youth and a sense of optimism. 

    So what could have been more playful in those days than a song about retirement, something that seemed a lifetime away today? Pushing 40, McCartney still exhibits the charm and disarming smile that made him the favorite Beatle in the '60s, but you can also see gray in his hair and lines around his eyes.

     He has gone through much in recent years, besides the trauma of John Lennon's death, was also the Tokyo drug bust for marijuana possession in 1980 that could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. Then there was the death of Elvis Presley, McCartney's first rock hero, and the responsibilities of raising four children. 

    So it's no wonder there is a lot of reflection in his new album, Tug of War (easily the most satisfying work from McCartney since his Band on the Run and Venus and Mars period in the mid 70s). For all his craftsmanship, McCartney has been frequently ridiculed by critics for the lack of substance in his music. But Tug of War, which is due for release in Montreal next Thursday, abounds with commentary, though much of it is packaged in such bright colors that the LPS tone remains hopeful. 

    The album, which reunites McCartney with Beatles producer George Martin, features such guest musicians as Stevie Wonder, Ringo Starr, Carl Perkins, and bassist Stanley Clarke. The tracks on Tug of War range from the reassuring "Somebody Who Cares" to the title tune, a richly designed but melancholy statement that outlines the album's primary theme, about life struggles. 

    The most immediately accessible number is "Ebony and Ivory," a graceful expression of brotherhood featuring a duet with Stevie Wonder. Wings guitarist Denny Laine and vocalist Linda McCartney, Paul's wife, are on most of the songs on Tug of War, but it is essentially a Paul McCartney album. In fact, its release signals the breakup, at least for the foreseeable future, of Wings as a group.

     Asked whether the challenge of working with Martin and Wonder seemed to have been good for him. McCartney nods vigorously. "I don't want to take away from Wings, but it's true, I needed that," he said. "I've been feeling there was something missing. And making this album, I found out what it was when George and I were working on the orchestral arrangements for the song 'Tug of War', for example, we recorded the orchestra, and it sounded pretty good, but we had some bass parts we hadn't recorded quite right. And George said, 'Look, this is my reputation, and yours going right on the line. Would you mind if we brought the orchestra back and recorded it again?' So we did it at a huge cost to somebody, probably us in the end, but it was worth it."

     Wonder also refused to settle for less than the best. After Wonder and McCartney had recorded "Ebony and Ivory," they began jamming in the studio. Wonder on synthesizer, McCartney on drums. "He told me I was playing a bit too busily," McCartney recalled, "and I slightly resented it at the time, but he was right. I played more simply and in five minutes, Stevie living and breathing music the way he does, we-- actually mostly he --had come up with another song."

     Tug of War also contains a song about John Lennon titled "Here Today". It's a deeply personal ballad in the "Yesterday" tradition. McCartney reconstructs the final dialogue with Lennon, trying to break through the public feud of the post-Beatle years to re-establish a strong emotional bond that he felt still existed.

     During a brief stop in Los Angeles to record some vocal tracks for the next Michael Jackson album, McCartney spoke about the song. "One of the feelings you always have when someone close to you dies is that you wish you could have seen him the day before to square everything up and make sure he knew how much you really cared. The song is about saying to John, 'Do we really have to keep this sort of thing (the feud) up?' But we never got around to doing it. I guess we never felt any urgency about it. We were behaving like we were going to live forever, which is what everyone thought in the Beatles days, right? I mean, whoever thought we were going to die?"

     About the album's reflective theme, McCartney said, "At one time, I didn't think life was a tug of war, even when I wrote "When I'm 64," I had the feeling that everything was possible. The age 64 seemed as far away to me as 150.  Not until you get into your 30s do you start seeing the other side of it. You see how your life can be affected by things that are irrational and beyond your control. You suddenly begin to realize how delicate everything is.

     McCartney, always the gentleman, is courteous in interviews, but he seemed much more at ease this day than during the interviews.  In 1974, for instance, he was especially uncomfortable when discussing the Beatles. After a few questions on the old group, he flatly refused to consider any more.  By his 1976 tour with his group Wings, however, he was more open to the early days. One reason was that the success of the tour and the Band On the Run album eased some of the insecurity about his solo career. Yet McCartney still seemed guarded at the time, weighing answers in his head before speaking to make sure it sounded okay. This time, however, McCartney responded quickly, and no subject was off limits. He seemed especially pleased with his new album, and was excited about working with musicians of the caliber of Wonder and Jackson.

Question:  Why did you decide to work with George Martin again? Do you think you may have avoided working with him before because of his ties to the Beatles days?

Answer: Sure, I did "Live and Let Die" with him, but never a whole album. I don't think I could have for a while after the Beatles break up, everything was so weird. Everyone was warring, and we didn't want to be around anything or anyone who reminded us of the pain. In my shows, I wouldn't even do Beatles songs at first; they almost had to break my arm to get me to even do "Yesterday", which was silly, because I loved a lot of those songs. The thing is, I had to convince myself there was life for me after the Beatles. So I couldn't very well go back to George Martin because he was part of the Beatles. Eventually, though, you get over all that.

 Question: Did you approach the new album differently from the others with Wings?

Answer: Yes. Normally, I just sort of run in and start the album. But this time, we did a lot of preparation ahead of time. For one thing, we decided not to use the other guys in Wings. I wanted the freedom to use anyone. If I  made another album with Wings, I felt I'd be limiting myself.  If I wanted a certain guitar sound,  I wanted to be able to get the right guitarist. So we ended up casting each part just the way you might in a movie.

 Question: When you wrote "64", what did you think you would be doing at 40?

 Answer: We used to laugh at the idea of still rocking at 40. I remember when I was a kid, there were pop guys like Frank Ifield, who seemed ancient when he was only 25.  We were sure the whole thing would be over at 30. Then you start pushing it back to 30 and 40, and now 45?  The truth is, I'm still very excited about the future musically. I suddenly realized I got millions of musical ambitions. There are so many things I still haven't done. It's been really liberating working with some of these new musicians.

 Question:  What about touring?

 Answer: Before John's death, I'd been thinking about it, but his death changed a lot of that stuff, because it made me--- don't know,--- it just sort of changed my plans. Now I'm not really bothering to have any plans about it, but I do still enjoy performing. I eventually like to go out with some of the musicians I've been working with lately. They're so good, and they challenge you to do your best, but like I used to get with the Beatles.

 Question:  There seems to be more ambitious concepts involved in Tug of War than in most of your albums. 

Answer:   I didn't want a formal concept, but I did have this idea about a tug of war, which is the struggle of all types, man, woman, yes, no, life, death, countries, anything. It's nice to have a general theme to an album because it gives you a direction. If we have a song about crying, we could immediately follow with one about laughing. Everything really is a tug of war. I eventually wrote a song to go along with that idea.

Question:   Did you resist writing the song about John at first?

 Answer: Yes. I worried that it might not be good enough and that someone might think I was trying to cash in on it or something, but eventually I realized it was silly. I figured I'd just let it happen naturally. If I wrote a song about John, okay, if I didn't, it's okay too. I've always had two sides to me, the creative and the judicial. The creative starts to do something, and the judicial starts to question and second-guess 'Is that right? "Does that make sense?" "What will people think?'  I've been trying to make sure the judicial doesn't interfere with the creative.  Anyway, I kind of forgot about the whole thing until I sat down one day and struck the beginning chords of "Here Today", and it fell out. 

Question: It must have been quite moving for you.

 Answer:  I was kind of crying when I wrote it. I'm sure you understand why, without me going into it. His death is something that the three of us find very difficult to talk about, even to each other. 

Question: The song is like a dialogue with John. 

Answer:  One of my feelings, even when he used to lay into me, was that he really didn't mean it. I could always see why he was doing it. There was this attempt to get rid of the specter of me, which I understand, because he had to clear the decks just like I did, at least, that's my feeling. And Yoko may read it and think 'that's not how it was at all.'  And the song John would hear me say that and say, 'Oh, piss off. You don't know me at all!  We're worlds apart. You used to know me, but I've changed.'  But I feel I still knew him. The song is me trying to talk back to him, but realizing the futility of it, because he's no longer here, even though that's a fact I can't quite believe to this day. 

Question: Was the I love you part hard to say?

 Answer: Of course.  Part of me said, 'Wait a minute. Are you really going to do that?' I finally just said, 'Yeah, I've got to. It's true."

Hello Liverpool!

 

George Harrison exploring Australia incognito

 

This story about George in Australia in 1982 is from the Australian Women's Weekly and was first published on April 28, 1982.  It was written by Liane Maxfield. 

George Harrison --Exploring Australia incognito

By Liane Maxfield

He could have passed for a local fisherman in his shorts, thongs, and khaki bush hat. The only thing that might have given former Beatle George Harrison away was the Liverpudlian accent. 

But even that did not evoke interest among the holiday-makers strolling along the Shute Harbour jetty on Queensland's Whitsunday Coast. they were far more fascinated by the luxury $3 million cruisers at the wharf. 

George himself barely rated a glance as he jumped aboard and began stowing his gear. A few minutes later, the vessel pulled away. 

And that's the way George Harrison likes it, "I've spent the last 10 years trying to become un-famous. And I think that, just maybe, I have succeeded. Only two people have recognized me during my stay in Australia," he said. 

With the exception of a satellite broadcast for the TV show "Good Morning America" last year, George has not permitted an interview for six years. 

I was lucky enough to be invited to join George and his family on a cruise across the Whitsunday Passage to Hamilton Island as the guest of Queensland tourist entrepreneur Keith Williams. George and Keith met through a mutual friend, British racing driver Jackie Stewart. 

For three weeks, George, his wife Olivia, and their three-year-old son, Dhani, had been trekking around Australia as "typical tourists," visiting wildlife reserves, feeding kangaroos and koalas, and picnicking in national parks. 

For George, it's his first return visit since the days of Beatlemania. This time round he said with a smile, he is here as a "real person."

He loves Australia -- from the north Queensland tropics to the rugged beauty of Tasmania. 

"Everywhere I go I find myself thinking how happily I could live here. There's no tension," George said. 

And he stretched back in his deck chair to soak up yet more of the sun. 

"A lot of Australians don't know how lucky they are. It's a happy country.  In Britain, one almost feels guilty for feeling happy. Winter is so depressing. Strikes and more strikes. Everyone's miserable. It's a constant struggle not to let the attitude of others rub off on you."

But there is another reason George is not too keen on the British winters. He is unable to pursue what has become one of his grand passions -- gardening.

The Harrisons' home, Friar Park (a magnificent mansion built in the late 1880s by a millionaire Victorian eccentric), has a 14-hectare garden. 

"The gardens were a wilderness, " he said. "They had been unattended for about 40 years. And you know what they say about gardens -- for one year they are let, it takes three to restore them."

It took George and nine gardeners to accomplish the task. 

One of the garden's intriguing features is a series of three lakes, all built on different levels so that if a man crosses the middle lake on stepping stones from the house, he appears to be walking straight across the water. 

Because tropical plants cannot be cultivated with any great success in Britain's harsh climate, George is thinking of buying a home "somewhere in the South Pacific" to allow him to use his green thumb to its fullest advantage. 

Back home in the UK he loves pottering around the annual Chelsea flower show. Here in Australia, he has been visiting our botanic gardens, collecting ideas for the South Pacific hideaway he may buy one day. 

These days, record making is little more than a hobby.  George's priorities have changed dramatically. 

After the split up of the Beatles, he spent years "finding himself."  Devotional yoga helped him in the rough spots. 

His philosophy is simple. "It's a matter of finding out who I am, where I am coming from, and where I am going.

"I see life as a huge university. You come here to get knowledge to free the soul. The trick is to find out who you are before you kick the bucket."

Not that he sees "kicking the bucket" as the end. George believes in reincarnation. "I wouldn't mind coming back as a grain of sand," he grinned. "At least I'd never have to worry about the press hounding me again." 

Gone, along with the confusion, is the long, shaggy hair that caused such a sensation in the '60s. Today, George's locks look as if they have had a brief encounter with a blunt lawn mower. 

Olivia, his second wife, whom he married in 1978, is Mexican born.

She was working in his Los Angeles recording studio when they met. 

Both are semi-vegetarians. "We eat chicken and seafood," George explained as he tucked into freshly cooked prawns and mud crabs. Their son, by choice, is a total vegetarian.

Dhani (pronounced something like Danny) is a delight. His name is made up from two notes of the Indian musical scale, dha and ni, and doesn't mean "wealth" as was reported soon after his birth.

He is a bright, creative child, currently hooked on space toys. He speaks with a quaint upper-class English accent. Mum and Dad aren't quite sure how he picked it up. 

Perhaps it is the influence of his nanny, Rachael. Not that she is the plum-in-mouth, sensible-shoes type of nanny so often depicted in British films. She looks more like a flower child with her cheesecloth dress, flowing hair, and scrubbed, glowing skin. 

There is none of the relegate the child to the nursery where mama and papa will visit routine in the Harrison household. 

Olivia spends hours each day playing with Dhani, and George talks to him like an adult and patiently answers his never-ending stream of questions. 

Consequently, at three and a half, the boy prattles away in a manner that would put to shame children twice his age.

George feels they spoil Dhani, but admits he is drawing comparisons with his own childhood: "We were lucky to get one present at Christmas time."

Most of Dhani's toys are educational. When he outgrows them, they are passed on to charities.

According to friends, George's generosity is legendary. English comedian Eric Idle described him as "one of the few morally good people that rock and roll has produced. He's one of the people who have turned their attention to goodness. He's extremely generous and gives support you'll never hear of.

George stepped into the breach to put up a reported $4 million when Idle was having difficulty finding a backer for his Monty Python film, "The Life of Brian."

The stories go on. When George heard that another friend, Barry Sheene, was tryng to raise $280,000 to race Formula One cars, he promptly offered to pay the money for Barry NOT to do it because he was worried about the risk. 

Another recipient of Geoge's benevolence is the Hare Krishna religious sect, to whom he donated a magnificent manor in Hertfordshire, UK, estimated to be worth $500,000. 

George admits that if he doesn't work more than another hour again he will still have enough on which to live in comfort for the rest of his days. So, he is more than happy to help those less fortunate. 

Back in the early '70s, he raised $6 million for the child victims of the Bangladesh war by staging an all-star concert in New York. 

"I learned a lot from that exercise," he said. "Because of managerial bungling, we are still trying to get money from the concert into the right hands."

Now, he endeavors to keep news of his humanitarian endeavors on a very low key. 

But that's George Harrison today. He's unassuming, keeping a low profile, happy to be a family man, and, when weather permits, "mess around in the garden."

Take it Away

photo belongs to Paul Ferguson (posted here with his permission) 

 

I will always think that the "Take it Away" video shoot was an amazing opportunity for members of Paul's Fun Club to meet him -- as Paul and his friend was able to do.   It had to be the only time fans witnessed Paul, Ringo and George Martin performing together.   

Great photo!!!  

New Year's Eve Homecoming

 

December 31, 1982 

For many years, Paul and Linda would ring in the New Year in Liverpool with Paul's extended family members.   40 years ago they were in a pub in Wirral with family and friends.   (And some fans that couldn't resist getting photos and a autographs).   

All dressed up

 December 13, 1982

Charming Broadstreet

 December 1982 

Making a movie

 December 6, 1982

Beautiful couple

 

December 2, 1982 - Ghandi movie premiere 

Linda the Photographer

 

November 26, 1982 

Broadstreet Begins

 November 8, 1982 

Paul and Linda are on the move

 October 28, 1982

The Starkeys are back in the Bahamas

October 1982
 

Tug of War Winner

 October 1982 

The man on the street

 October 14, 1982 

Celebrating Love Me Do

 October 5, 1982 -  Paul showed up at Abbey Road to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Love Me Do and signed some items for some fans that had heard that he was going to be there.  They all told him "Happy Anniversary!"   

Today is now 60 years of  Love me Do!   And it is still an amazing song. 

Ringo drumming in Australia

 

September 29 , 1982 

To find out what Ringo was doing in Australia 40 years ago, here is a link from this very site to cue you in.

http://www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2020/04/ringo-down-under.html

Seeing Paul outside of AIR

 September 24, 1982