The last of the four part series of interviews with individual Beatles and Derek Taylor and Dave Hull on the beach in the Bahamas in March 1965.
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| Dave Hull wins the "Beatle Award" (who gave him this award? How can I win the Beatle award?) | | | | |
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Let’s Talk with Paul
KRLA the Beat interview
April 21, 1965
Derek: Paul McCartney
just came down on the sands. He probably
looks the smartest of the three this morning.
He’s got on grey trousers, light blue jacket, blue checked shirt, deep
take film makeup, and I think his feet are bare. Good morning, anyway, Paul.
Paul: ‘Morning, Derek?
Derek: How have you been?
Paul: Well, you know,
Derek, what it’s like…fine dandy, everything’s going great. You knew I’d say that, didn’t you?
Derek: Well, you see,
I just sort of let you walk through the opening, because I don’t need to tell
you what to say, and never did. Or did
I.
Paul: No. Of course
you didn’t, no.
Derek: How many
people are in this film who were in the last film besides you, Paul, besides
the Beatles?
Paul: Victor Spinetti
was in the last one—he was the TV producer – and this time he’s one of the
baddies. Dick Lester and Walter Shenson,
really. I think that’ all. The actors are all different except for
Victor Spinetti.
Derek: I don’t know
whether the plot has ever been published so I don’t want to go into tremendous detail because it would
spoil things; but could you just give me a bit run-down what it’s all about?
Paul: Yeah, it
roughly people trying to get hold of Ringo’s’ ring for some reason or other, so
that he can be sacrificed or something.
It’s very funny. And they keep
trying get a hold of him and get the ring and we keep trying to rescue him, etc.
etc and it goes on. It fills ninety minutes
worth of screen time.
Derek: There are a
lot of new songs. I think in “A Hard Day’s
night” there were six or seven brand new ones. How many in this one?
Paul: There’ll be
about the same – six or seven new ones. In
actually fact I don’t’ think we’ll stick
in old ones like we did in “A Hard Day’s
Night.” I think it’s better if we got
some completely new songs.
Derek: You mean you wouldn’t
use any old ones as background music?
Paul: I don’t think
so. We might as well --- we’ve recorded
eleven new songs.
Derek: Those are
actually already on tape are they/?
Paul: Yes, and the
could all be done for the film. What
Dick Lester is going to do is pick the best seven --- the seven he likes best –
or that fit best in the film. And if we
do need any background music we’ll put the others in.
Derek: George Martin,
presumably, is cooperating completely on the score ad the background and that
sort of thing?
Paul: Nobody’s got round to the score yet because we’ve only
just done the numbers and he’d write the score around the numbers. Anyway we’ve only just started filming so
there’s no particular panic for that.
Derek: No. I think when I last saw you when I left you
in December, there were no songs at all.
Is that right?
Paul: Right.
Derek: You must have
worked pretty hard since then.
Paul: No. Not
really. We just sort did a couple a
week. I know I wrote a couple on holiday
and John wrote a couple on holiday too.
And we did a lot together. So
when we go back we have quite a bit ready.
We have about fourteen songs in all to record. We’ve done about eleven of them There are still one or two that we haven’t
done actually . Might do those when we get back to England.
Derek: It’s widely
known now that a lot of the songs which bear both your names were, in fact,
written by one or the other on your own, and then arranged jointly later. Of the songs in the film, are several of them
single records or have you written them alone or are they joint endeavors.
Paul: Well there are
a couple of single efforts and couple of joint. What normally do, though, even if I go away
and write a song…normally the reason I write it on my own is ‘cause its daft to
sit around waiting for the other one to came up and finish the song. If you happen to be off on your own you might
as well finish it off yourself, cause we don’t’ have words and music as you
well know. So what normally does happen
is that if I get stuck on the middle of the song, I‘ll give in, knowing that
when I see John he’ll finish it off for me.
And it’ll be a fifty-fifty thing.
That’s what happens even with a lot f the single efforts. I just sort of forget about the middle eight
until I see John and then say, “I need a middle eight for this one” and he
says, “Right. Okay!”
Derek: I think “I saw
her standing there” was written almost entirely by you, but John put in one
word which sort of made it right.
Paul: Yeah, that’s
it. What happened was, he took out one
word, which would have made it very wrong.
The first two lines…I did it going home in a car one night, so I wasn’t
really thinking too much about it. The
first two lines, originally were “she was just seventeen and she’d never been a
beauty queen,” which just sounded like it rhymed to me.
Derek: How’d you
happen to write a line like this?
Paul: You try writing a song going along in a car and, I don’t
know, you sort of think of things like that.
Anyway , when I saw it the next day and played it through to John, I
realized it was a useless line. So we
sat down and tried to think of another line which rhymed with “seventeen” and
meant something. We eventually got “you
know what I mean,” which means nothing…completely nothing at all.
Derek: On the other
hand it’s not an embarrassing line like “beauty queen” would have been.
Paul: No, but on the
other hand it could have been a deep and sort of involved line, “you know what
I mean,” you know, seventeen year old
girls….you know…..great…you see. It’s
just a Liverpool expression as it were, Derek.
Derek: That’s what I
thought, a Liverpool expression. A lot
of your songs could actually be conversation piece Liverpool:
“She loves you, “ “I saw her
Yesterday,” and that sort of thing.
Paul: Yeah. Actually there was some fellow in England who
was thinking of doing that, speaking our songs just to use them. Call John Junkin. Do you know him? He was in our last film, played “Shake” the
road manager.
Derek: Yes.
Paul: He wanted to do
a record of something like “She love You….Yeah….Yeah?”
etc.
Derek: Probably work,
I think.
Paul: It might do,
yeah.
Derek: But it seems
to me it might be the only thing left to do now…an exploitation of Beatle material. I would like to say that during the time I
was with the Beatles I never saw any professional jealousy. Paul came along with a song that became the “A”
side, and John had one which he thought might have been the “A” side. There was never any sort of nonsense or a
back biting or jealousy. Paul, for
instance came up with “She’s a woman,” and thought it was an “A” and other people
did, and then John came up with “I feel Fine,” so Paul’s “She’s a woman” went
on the back. Did you mind?
Paul: I didn’t mind
at all. In fact, I wouldn’t have liked
it to have been an “A.” As it happened
afterwards, it was quite well received.
A lot of people just thought I was singing too high. They thought I’d picked the wrong key.
Derek: Probably less
commercial anyway.
Paul: Yes, might have
been. I don’t know. You get those people who come up and say, “Why
did you sing it that high, you should have done it in a lower key,” because it sounds
like I was screeching it. But, ladies
and gentlemen, that was on purpose, honest. It wasn’t a mistake, honest.
Derek: Maureen Cleve,
who is a London journalist, had a very good line in the piece on the disc and when
she wrote, “How can a dirty great voice like that come out of such a face?” I think it’s often surprising that with a
face like yours…sort of angelic face…the face of a delinquent choir boy,
someone once said…that you have actually got many voices. One of them you might call a “colored voice.” That was your “colored voice” in “She’s a
woman,” wasn’t it?
Paul: No, it was my green voice.
Derek: What would you
call your anti-lovely voice?
Paul: I don’t know…soppy,
I suppose.
Derek: Away from song
writing since you’re now actor….
Paul: Me James Cagney
one, isn’t it?
Derek: Yeah he’s
playing a James Cagney face, which isn’t recording too well on tape. Could you give us a James Cagney line?
Paul: No. I’m afraid not.
Derek: Would you do
us a quick imitation of any of your friends?
Paul: Any of my
friends? I couldn’t really. I’m not very good on these imitations.
Derek: You don’t’
like being prompted to do it.
Paul: You’re right.
Derek: I see Bob
Freeman over there.
Paul: He’s done the
cover for our latest album in England. I
don’t think it was in America, was it?
Derek: No, it wasn’t,
but the disc is on sale in America.
Paul: But they
changed the cover.
Derek: They did. But the English disc has another name, “Beatles
for Sale” and has a bonus of two numbers over and above the American album.
Paul: That’s it, you
see, better value. Buy Britain, folks,
buy Britain!
Derek: When you come
back to America you know you’re going to Hollywood again…
Paul: Yes, see you
there.
Derek: Well, I’ll see
you there if not before. Thank you very
much indeed, Paul and it’s nice to see you again.
Paul: Okay Derek, see
you.
Dave: Hi Paul.
Paul: Hi Dave.
Dave: the last time
you were in Hollywood you appeared to be a little put out with me because of
the addresses I gave out.
Paul: I was, yes.
Dave: Are you still
put out with me?
Paul: Well for that,
yes.
Dave: you still think
I’m a rotten guy, do you?
Paul: No, I just didn’t
like the idea, of your giving everybody’s addresses out just because if you’re
trying to keep quiet ever—not that I particularly am – but if I was trying to
keep quiet and you were giving the addresses out it would be a big drag, you
know.
Dave: Really the
addresses I gave were your folks’ addresses, as you know, and not your hotel.
Paul: That doesn’t
matter at all, I don’t mind. It’s just
that I know a lot of people who have sort of been cursing you because it’s caused them a lot of
inconvenience. It’s okay, and it’s good
news for you to give our addresses out, I agree. I would probably do the same thing if I were
in the same position. But if you were in
my position and other people’s position, you’d probably think the same as me
giving out addresses as I thought then.
Actually it doesn’t worry me too much.
I don’t hate you or anything because of it. In fact, we’re quite good friends.
Dave: What about your
getting around the islands here. Have
you been other places besides Nassau? Have you been jumping around the island?
Paul: Well, we’ve
been out here on Paradise Island and to Nassau and a little bit around the
island location with the film. We’ve
been out to nightclubs in the town. It’s
pretty quiet here, you know. Nobody
seems to bother you. There doesn’t seem
to be an awful lot of people actually on
the island. It’s a quiet place. So we’re having it pretty easy.
Dave: The people who
do bother you, are they mostly Europeans or Americans?
Paul: Mostly
Americans, really. I think mainly
because the main lot of the tourists here are American. The natives here don’t bother much. They just sort of go out and…”Ho-ho the
Beatles.” And they have big grins on
their faces. That’s good enough for
them. But the people ask you for
autographs I think mainly are Americans or Americans living here or American
tourists.
Dave Do you have many
problems getting around when you’re on vacation?
Paul: It depends on where
you go. Last time I went to Tunisia and
had no problems at all. It’s so quiet
here, really. As I was telling Derek
before about the phones. They’re cut off
in Tunisia it’s ridiculous. I mean a
man from a newspaper came around when we were in Tunisia and spoke to me and
everything and it didn’t get back to England.
It was ridiculous.
Dave: You mean
nothing of the material got out?
Paul: No, because all the liens were so bad. I couldn’t speak to anyone in England. It was a fluke if you managed to get a good
line to England.
Dave: Isn’t it a
please, though, if you’re away on vacation?
You get away…
Paul: Yeah, right, it
was this time. I enjoyed it. Went away for two weeks, lazed around, went to
the little soukhs, which are little market places the Tunisian’s have. In fact, this very pair of sandals was bought
for one dinar. It’s about fifteen
shillings in English—I think about two dollars.
Dave: When you go on vacation
do you turn into a tourist like most tourists do?
Paul: Yes, mainly. Like Tunisia I did. Sometimes you don’t. You go to somewhere where it’s not so quiet,
then you don’t really get a chance to go out and turn into a tourist. I was completely tourist with a movie camera
and snapshots.
Dave: When you are
returning to Hollywood—of course the itinerary hasn’t’ been planned yet,
meticulously-but I understand you’re going to do a couple of shows in Hollywood,
then you’re going to San Francisco, then you’re returning to Hollywood for a
couple of days’ vacation. Is that true?
Paul: I think that’s
true. I’m not really sure about the
itinerary myself yet, but that sounds like it.
Dave: Were you
interested in seeing Hollywood? Remember
last time you didn’t a chance to see much.
You were locked n the house and really didn’t…
Paul: Well that was
good enough really. We saw Bel-Air and
we stayed in a nice house in Bel-Air and we enjoyed ourselves. That was good enough. That was really all I wanted. Like when I went to New York we saw
skyscrapers. That’s about all we wanted
to see in New York. In Hollywood we
wanted to be in Bel-Air for a bit.
Dave: When you
returned, Derek told me you were impressed with the performance at in Hollywood
and also that you were impressed with the other place, and that was the Red
Rock Stadium in Denver. Is that correct?
Paul: Yes, actually
we were impressed with a lot more places than that. But we enjoyed Red Rock. It was funny because it’s the mile-high city
and the air is different a mile high. It’s
must harder to breathe. We felt sort of
drunk or something on stage. We were
sort of falling about.
Dave: Because of the oxygen,
I suppose?
Paul: Somebody said
it was that. Sounds feasible. Might not be true Might be we were just
imagining it. Very hard to sing. I couldn’t get any breath. None of us could get any breath.
Dave: When you return
to Hollywood, a great many stars, as you know, listen to KRLA…any particular
stars you’re looking forward to seeing this time. You really didn’t get a chance last time…
Paul: We met Burt
Lancaster last time and he’s a great fellow…marvelous bloke and his kids great.
Dave: What about some
of the others. Of course during the lawn party in Beverly Hills you met a lot
of them. But are you looking forward
particularly to being with some particular star, this time around?
Paul: Well, I’ll tell you…I’m just like anybody else. When I meet any stars. I haven’t changed that much that it doesn’t
impress me. I always say, “Great” you
know, seeing them in the movies or “I saw him on television” But I’m always
impressed. So it doesn’t matter, really,
who I meet.
Dave: We’re on the
air at this time, broadcasting to Hollywood.
Is there anything particularly you can think of to say to the fans—the millions
of fans in Hollywood and Los Angeles and Southern California?
Paul: All I can say
is—it sounds corny—but just thanks for being nice last time and wanting to come
and see us. Because it still knocks me
out if people want to come and see us.
It’s great. I don’t’ think anyone
can get that blasé that they don’t care who comes to see them. So I just like to say thanks to everybody and
everybody who looked after us while we were there, and to people like Bert
Lancaster who invited us over to his house.
We had a great evening. In fact,
to everybody in Hollywood who came to see us or who met us at one time or
another Even the people who didn’t
meet us who brought our records. Great.
Dave: I want to thank
you, too Paul, for taking moment to talk with us.
Paul: Okay Dave.
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