Interivew with John

 

Just like the interview with George I posted yesterday, this is an interview with disc jockey Gary Stevens and John Lennon from Datebook magazine, published in 1965.   It occurred during the 1965 Beatles North American tour. 

New York's Gary Stevens is one of the youngest DJs in the Empire City, entertaining one of the nation's largest teen audiences from 7 through 11 p.m. every night on WMCA, the home of the "Good Guys." Gary shares the spotlight with his friend enemy, the Wooley-burger, which he calls "the world's most ferocious animal." According to Gary, "Listeners can tell by its growl that this is no beast to fool around with," but they can count on this lively character to serve as the foil for Gary's lively pranks. 

Before joining W.M.C.A., Gary DJ'd in Miami, St. Louis, and Detroit, where he also hosted a TV bandstand show. 

He's a Beatlemaniac from way back, even having vacationed with them in London. 

Following are excerpts from Gary Stevens' various exclusive interviews with the Fab Four. 

Gary: Do you feel that your audience has changed any?

John: Over all, it's probably grown a bit.

Gary: Is your audience growing up?

John: No, I think getting younger. The average age is about 13.

Gary: Is it easier to play for a lot of people than for a small group?

John: Yes. Nobody is going to know what we're doing. 

Gary: How is life for a Beatle in London? Are you always surrounded by fans?

John: We can go almost anywhere in the world as long as we go alone. If I leave the house, say, at 10 a.m. and go out to buy a pair of shoes - a few people will see me, but no big crowds with gather, and no press. 

Gary: you have the reputation of being the "intellectual" of the gorup. how do you react to fans' worship of the Beatles?

John: It looks like worship from the outside, but we really don't meet any fanatics. You know that the fans like you, but you never know how they really feel.

Gary: It has been said that you fellows don't take yourselves seriously. Is that true?

John: No, we couldn't. If we did, we'd start thinking we were gods or something.

Gary: Do you get nervous when fans charge at you?

John: Not too. As you know, our security is pretty amazing. 

Gary: If you could say one little thing to your fans, what would you say?

John: What I'm saying now.  I don't think of them as a mass. If I were talking to one of them, I'd find out what she wanted to know. I wouldn't just say "Hi, thanks for buying my records." Maybe she likes us and doesn't buy our records.

Gary: Does acting come naturally to you? Do you have a dramatic coach?

John: No, we don't. They just give us lines, and they try to make it look like we're acting. Half the time, we don't look at the script. We do it on the spot, and it requires many takes. I didn't even know what our two films were about until I saw them. 

Gary: Do you like to listen to your own singing?

John: I like to listen to our new records.

Gary: Are you a perfectionist?

John: No!

George and Drew (Datebook inteview from 1965)

 

This interview was posted in Datebook magazine in 1965 after the Beatles 1965 N. American tour.  

Atlanta's Paul Drew, one of the most influential disc jockeys in the nation, has been the mainstay of WQZI's talk-and-music schedule since he took over in 1963. With his straight-from-the-shoulder, no-kidding-around approach, Paul has managed to garner the enthusiasm of both teenagers and adults in and around Atlanta on weekdays from 7 to 11p.m. and Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight.  The kids really listen to what "Paulie" has to say on station "QUIXIE" because they know he's a phony baiter from way back.  On his show, you can hear the latest in pop as well as authentic regional music. Paul Drew's favorite composers? Paul McC and John L. 

Paul traveled with the Beatles on both their American trips.  Following are excerpts from the series of interviews he had with the Beatles as he accompanied them on their last tour. 

Drew: Who is Steve Bimbo and the Alligators?  I heard you mention him yesterday. 

George: Steve Bimbo is nobody.

Drew:  Who made it up?

Geroge: John. It's one of these things that we do if somebody is having a discussion or talking about something.  And one of us just doesn't quite catch a name and says who, and the other one, instead of telling him the name, he'll make the name up, and that's what John did the other day. 

Drew: Oh, this is a brand new joke from yesterday?

George: You see, I was drying my hair with a weird hair dryer that actually shook my head so that I couldn't hear what everybody was talking about, so I kept sticking my head out, saying "Who" or "What?" And every time I do, John would say, "Steve Bimbo and the Alligators." Just a little joke, you know. 

Drew: Have you done any shopping for any of your friends in England since you've been in America?

George: No, we're all slow. We just bought a few T-shirts and hats, but you know we haven't bought anything spectacular; all we bought was a portable radio, you know, a transistor.  We usually have to get somebody to come down from the shop and bring everything he has, and then we end up buying quite a bit of stuff. But you know, there's nothing really that we can think of that we want. 

Drew: And I guess it does take some of the fun away not to be able to go out and buy it yourself?

George: Yes that's the thing, 'cause you know I like going in a shop and then seeing something and then buying it. for us, we've got to know what we want beforehand and send for it. But when somebody who owns a shop brings down a whole lot of stuff, he usually brings stuff that we never thought of, but we like, you know.

Drew: I notice you have a comb in your pocket, do you comb your hair much? Or do you just usually let it lay naturally?

George: Well, I just usually comb it when I get up in the morning, trying to get it going right. Because it's usually like a tree when I wake up in the morning. Then I comb it before I go on to the show. 

Drew: Have you had a haircut since you've been on this tour?

George: I clipped a bit off of it myself last night. 

Drew: What did you do with the locks? Everyone will be interested.

George: I wrapped it up in a few pieces of tissue and threw it down the toilet. 

Drew: Shame on you. Those poor fans who'd like to have a lock of your hair!

George: Never mind.

Drew: Any particular reason why you don't sing one of your two songs on the American tour?

George: Yes. We like to do songs that are older ones that people know more about. You know, it's bad enough for them trying to hear what we're doing as it is. At least if they know the song, then they don't worry about hearing it as much. you know they can all join in or do what they like. 

Drew: If you could play, just for the fun of it, with any other group of your choosing, just say the other Beatles would say, "Go ahead, George, have a ball, go play with such and such, and give it a good go." Not professionally, and not for a future, but jsut for the fun of it, who would you like to sit in with?

George: I don't know. I'd like to sit in with the Byrds I think.

Drew: Have you ever done this, sat in with another group?

Geroge: Yes. Last trip to America. LAst year we ended up in Key West 'cause we couldn't land in Jacksonville because of the hurricane, and we stayed in a little motel there, and the Bill Black combo was on the trip with us, set up the equipment in the bar, and later when everybody had gone home, we had a sssion, just on our own, and it was nice.  I never enjoyed playing so much for ages. It was great. 

Nonstop interviews

 February 12, 1964 

JFK Airport

 

Interviewing in Brazil

 February 3, 1979

Russian Radio

 January 26, 1989 

Casual interview

 January 24, 1964 

Busy press day for Paul

 January 14, 2009 

Interviewing the Honeymooners

 

The MBE interview

 

The Colbert Report

 

December 14, 2008 

Chatting with McCartney

 December 13, 1983

Confessions of a Rock N Roll Name Dropper - A book Review

Laurie interviewed Paul and Linda in 1979 during the Back to the Egg era and she interviewed John and Yoko while they were promoting Double Fantasy on December 8, 1980

 

I feel like I just made a new friend.  The past three days I spent with Rock & Roll journalist, Laurie Kaye and I got to know all about her life and adventures with some of the biggest names in music.  

Alright -- I just got finished reading the book Laurie Kaye's new book, Confessions of a Rock N Roll Name Dropper, but her book was so well written and engaging that I now feel like I know Laurie and really think we need to be friends. 

To those of you who visit this site, you will know Laurie Kaye as the woman who conducted John Lennon's last interview on December 8 with RKO.    Her interview with John is well-known and loved.   Parts of it were used in the Anthology and other documentaries about John's life.   When she interviewed John, he was in a wonderful mood and said some great things.  While no one at the time would have known that it was John's final interview, his words in this interview are just amazing.  If you haven't heard it in a while, it is well worth the time to take a listen. 

But Laurie didn't just interview John.  She also interviewed Paul and Linda during the promotion of Back to the Egg in 1979 (and it is thought that Paul might have recommended her to John for his interview).   And she conducted an interview with George Harrison over the telephone.  The stories about these interviews were great to learn about and they really show the personalities of both former Beatles. 

Laurie is a Beatles fan and she wrote one of the first Beatles radio shows that was syndicated and played around the United States in the 1970s.   Many, many Beatles fans came to know and love the band after listening to the program.  

This book isn't about The Beatles but about the life of a young, single woman that worked in the California music scene in the 1970s.   As the title suggests, she met a lot of famous people during that time, and she tells her stories about them as she tells the story of her life. 

I found the book to be a really fun and enjoyable read.   It wasn't a book that was too long and was easy for me to read a few chapters here and there while traveling.     

For those of you who were concerned, Laurie talks about John's killer because, unfortunately, John's murder is part of her story.  However, she does NOT mention the killer's name at all in the book.  I know that is a concern of many of you, and I want you to know that she purposely has left that terrible person's name out of the book, but the parts about John's death are upsetting, as you would expect.  

https://amzn.to/4310dZ4

*The Amazon link posted after all my reviews is an affiliate link.   I make an extremely small amount of money from any purchases made from this link.   All money made from this Amazon affiliate link goes to pay to keep this site going ad-free. 

Paul asks the pressing questions

 

November 21, 1963

He met the Walrus

 I have only seen this photograph previously cropped quite a bit.   Here is the whole thing!  Taken on May 26, 1969 when Jerry Levitan interviewed John Lennon in he and Yoko's hotel room.   If you haven't heard his story, go watch the short called "I Met the Walrus."  

The Beatles: In Their Own Words - A Book Review

 

I was looking for an inexpensive and quick-to-read Beatles book on Amazon last week to read on my flight home from Houston and The Beatles:  In Their Own Words by Barry Miles filled that bill perfectly.    The fact that it was compiled by Beatle friend and author, Miles really sealed the deal for me.  

However, this book was just a typical run-of-the-mill Beatles interview book.   I would think that I was familiar with 80% of the interviews in the book and I can't say that anything in the book was a surprise.   

The interviews are transcribed word for word and do not go in chronological order, but instead are by theme.  The themes were  The Beatles story, Press conferences, songwriting, the songs, the films, drugs & politics.   The time frames of the quotes seem to skip all over the place, but I wasn't sure what year each quote was from. 

I particular quotes that really hit home for me since I read this book shortly after heard "Now and Then" for the first time were these quotes by John:

"Beatlemusic is when we all get together..."  "So when the combination works you come out with what we call 'Beatlemusic.' Of course we don't write songs together anymore.  We haven't written together for two years.  Not really, anyway.  When The Beatles perform that makes it into Beatlemusic.  I mean it's a long time since we've sat down and written for many reasons. We used to write mainly on tours.  We got bored, so we wrote.  Today, the Beatles just go into the studio.  And IT happens!"

The Beatles:  In Their Own Words was interesting enough to read on the plane, but if you are looking for a book of transcripts of great Beatles interviews, this isn't the book.    There is a great book called Speaking Words of Wisdom that was self-published and has many more interviews than this Miles book does.   However, Miles' book was fine, even if you might be able to quote along with the words in the book at times. 

https://amzn.to/3Igzzl5

*This is an Amazon Affiliate Link.  If you buy this book or anything else using this link, Sara gets a small percentage of the money spent.   She uses that money to keep this site up and running.  Any help is always appreciated.  

Interviewed on the beach

 November 1, 1973 

Interview with George Harrison

 Interview with George Harrison

Beetle Magazine (1974)

The following is a transcript of George Harrison’s L.A. press conference given shortly before he embarked on his North American tour.  Out of those of you who saw him perform, some may have been elated, some disappointed and others merely interested in what an ex-Beatle looked like.  One thing we all know now is that Geoge sure ain’t the fab four in another incarnation.  He doesn’t want to be.  So what does he want?  Find out in retrospect.  Maybe it’ll shed a little light on what you saw, or didn’t see.

 

Q:  Why did you decide to return to America?

George:  I’ve been back here many times.  This is the first time I ‘ve been back to work, but it’s the first time I’ve had a H-1 visa since ’71.

Q:  What was the reason for not having the H-1?

George:  I had the same problem as John Lennon.  I was busted for marijuana way back in ’67 [sic]by Sergeant Pilcher who was in jail for six years for planting dope on people.

Q:  Would you ever consider touring Mexico?

George:  I wouldn’t mind.  I just believe there’s a bunch of loonies.  I mean I would go anywhere.  This is really a test, I either finish this tour ecstatically happy and I want to go on tour everywhere or I’ll end up just going back to my cave again for another five years.

 

Q:  Looking back, what do you consider so far the crowning glory of your career as a musician?

George:  As a musician, I don’t think I’ve got that yet, as an individual, just being able to sit here today, and be relatively sane.  That’s probably the biggest accomplishment to date.

Q:  What is the possibility that you and the rest of The Beatles will join together and become The Beatles again?

George:  It’s a very slim possibility at the moment, everybody’s enjoying being individuals.  We were boxed up together for ten years, and personally, I’m enjoying playing with this band.

Q:  You said in your bio in ’64 that meeting The Beatles was one of the biggest breaks in your musical life, in ’74 you said leaving The Beatles.

George:  I mean the biggest break in ’63 was meeting The Beatles, the biggest break since then, I mean in retrospect, was getting out of them.

Q:  George, could you tell us your feelings and expectations for the upcoming tour?

George:  I think if I had more time I’d be panic-stricken, but I don’t really have time to get worried about it.

Q:  Is there any reason why Keltner, Clapton and Voormann didn’t accompany you?

George:  Oh well, I mean Eric’s out on his own.  Klaus has been living in America so I haven’t seen him all year, and during that time I met Andy Numark and Willy Weeks.  It’s just a time for a change.

Q:  Why would they perform on an album and not a concert?

George:  They performed on the tracks on the album because they were there at the time, I didn’t meet Willy Weeks and Andy Numark, they’re bass and drums, until about July this year.

Q:  Are you getting divorced?

George:  No, I mean that’s as silly as marriage.

Q:  Allen Klein is suing The Beatles.  How is that affecting you?  Do you have to sell more albums now?

George:  No. No.  To tell you the truth there’s a whole lot of money which is in receivership since Paul McCartney sued us and actually it’s fortunate that he did sue us, because the money’s in receivership so at least nobody can spend it.  There’s a lot of millions of dollars form The Beatles partnership and we either give it to the lawyers or we give it to the revenue.

Q:  how do you see the role of the entertainer as concerned with causes and charities?

George:  Well, I don’t think that has any relation to cause and charities.  I don’t think that’s just particularly an entertainer’s job.  I think it’s up to each individual to do what he can.  I do what I can and I can do it through music, but I don’t think it’s particularly just isolated to musicians.

Q:  What are you hopes for Dark Horse records?

George:  I want it to be reasonably small.  To tell you the truth, I’ve been here just over a week and if I signed all the people who gave me tapes I’d be bigger than RCA, but fortunately I don’t’ have time to listen to them.

Q:  I’m writing for Womens Pages and you are married.  May I ask you?  Does your wife cook for you?

George:  First of all, I don’t have a wife anymore, so, but even when I did, she used to cook sometimes and I learned how to cook myself.  I cooked vegetarian Indian food.  Although I like other food as well, I’m a vegetarian.  I don’t eat fish.  I don’t’ eat chicken and I don’t’ eat meat.  That’s why I’m so pale and thin.

Q:  Are sales down for the concerts and all that?

George:  Oh no.

Q:  What’s your relationship with John and Paul?

George:  It’s very good actually.

Q:  Do you see them often?

George:  I haven’t seen John ‘cause he’s been in the States, although I’ve spoken to him quite a lot on the telephone and he sounds to me like he’s in great shape.  It’s as if we’ve gone right round the cycle and we’re back at the beginning again.  I just met Paul recently and he’s…    everybody’s really very very friendly.  But it doesn’t really mean we’re going to form a band.

Q:  Will the publicity from your tour lead to the re-release of Raga?

George:  I’m not too sure if it ever even got released, you know, complete…it may do, it depends on people’s interest.  The problem is with people who distribute movies.  It’s very difficult to get a look in there…the film industry, this is my personal opinion, needs a kick in the behind because it’s got too much control by people who own the theatres, who own the distribution networks, it’s like if you don’t work on Maggie’s farm you don’t get your movie on, y’know?

Q:  Can you still meditate?

George:  It’s too difficult a question to answer really because…I must say there’s a state of consciousness which is the goal of everybody…I haven’t sat down and done meditation like that for some time but at the same time I constantly think of the Lord in one fashion on another and so that’s really my thing is just to remember and to try to see him within all of you and that feeling itself is a meditation.

Q:  Can you foresee a time when you’ll give up musical objectives?

George:  I can see a time when I’d give up this sort of madness, but music, I mean everything is based upon music, I’ll never stop me music.

Q:  There’s a paradox there between lifestyles.

George:  It is difficult, yeah, but the point is it’s also like good practice in a way.  As they say ‘to be in the world, but not of the world.’  You can go through the Himalayas and miss it completely and you can be stuck in the middle of New York and be very spiritual.  I mean I noticed in certain places, like New York, it brings out a certain thing in myself.  If I go someplace like Switzerland, I find a lot of uptight people there because they’re living amongst so much beauty that there’s no urgency in trying to find the beauty within themselves.  If you’re stuck in New York you have to somehow look within yourself otherwise you go crackers.  So, in a way, it’s good to be able to go in and out of both situations.  Most people think when the world gets itself together, we’ll all be okay.  I don’t’ see that situation arriving. I think, one by one, we all free ourselves from the chains that we ourselves have chained ourselves to.  But I don’t think that suddenly some magic happens and the whole of us is all liberated in one throw.

Q:  What direction is your music going now?

George:  Haven’t got a clue. I mean it’s getting a bit funkier, especially with Willy Weeks and all them.

Q:  Do you pay attention to what the critics say?

George:  Oh, I canceled all my newspapers five years ago, to tell you the truth, so I don’t really know what people say.  If I do see a review of an album I’ll read it although it doesn’t really  make too much difference what they say because I am what I am whether they like it or not, y’know.

Q:  Are you ever amazed by how much The Beatles still mean to people today?

George:  Not really.  I mean I realize The Beatles did fill a space in the sixties and all the people The Beatles meant something to are all grown up now.  It’s like anything you grow up with, you get attached to it.  I mean, that’s one of the problems in our lives, become attached to things.  I can understand The Beatles, in many ways, did nice things and it’s just appreciated that people still like them.  The problem comes when they want to live in the past and they want to hold onto something.  People are afraid of change.

Q:  Would you ever want to live permanently in India?

George:  Yes.

Q:  When?

George:  When I get through with all this madness.  There’s a word that’s called karma and it means that whatever we are now we cause by our previous actions.  Whatever is going to be in the future is what we cause by our actions now.  I’d like to be able to cause my actions to lead me to end up sometime in India.

Q:  Who are some of the contemporary artists that you admire most?

George:  There’s so many…Smokey Robinson.  I am madly in love with Smokey Robinson.  To try to pick one or two. I mean Smokey Robinson is my favorite.  I like Dicky Betts.  There’s a lot of guitar players, Ry Cooder I think is sensational.

Q:  What about the big groups like the Rolling Stones?

George:  The Stones, yeah, they’re fine…y’know…they’re nice.  I like the Stones.   I think variety’s the spice of life.

Q:  Are you involved in any series negotiations to get the Beatles back together for one night?

George:  No.  No..you been reading Rolling Stone.  I thought the 50 million for one shot…after reading that I was a bit disappointed at Bill Graham saying he could make us 4 million especially as Crosby, Still, Nash and Young made 8.  I mean sure we could make more than that.  The point is, it’s all a fantasy the idea of putting The Beatles together again.  If we ever do that, I’ll tell you, the reason will be that everybody’s broke.  And even then, to play with The Beatles, I’d rather have Willy Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney.  That’s the truth, with all respect to Paul, the Beatles was like being in a box, it’s taken years after being out of The Beatles to get to play with other musicians ‘cause we were so isolated together.  It became very difficult playing the same old tunes day in, day out.  Since I made All Thing Must Pass, it was so nice for me to be able to play with other musicians, I don’t think The Beatles are that good.  I mean, they’re fine…fine.  Ringo’s got the best backbeat I’ve ever heard and he’ll play a great backbeat 24 hours a day.  He hated drum solos.  Paul is a fine bass player, he’s a little overpowering at times, and John has gone through his scene, but it feels to me like he’s come around, and we’re all at the point.  I mean, to tell you the truth, I’d join a band with John Lennon anyday, but I couldn’t join a band with Paul McCartney, but that’s nothing personal.  It’s just from a musical point of view.

Q:  What do you think of Lennon’s solo material?

George:  His new record I think’s lovely.

Q:  How is it you don’t want to do personal interviews?

George:  There’s nothing to say, really I’m a musician, I’m not a talker.  I mean, if you just get my album, it’s like Peyton Place, it’ll tell you exactly what I’ve been doing.

Q:  Did you do a musical rebuttal to Layla on that album?

George:  What do you mean musical rebuttal?  I mean that sounds nasty, don’t it?  I like to sort that one out.  I love Eric Clapton. He’s been a close friend for years.  I’m very happy, y’know, about it.  I’m very friendly with them.  Sure.

Q:  Why are you happy about it?

George:  Because he’s great.  I’d rather she was with him than some dope.

Q:  Is it conceivable you could get together the Beatles to generate some money for charity?

George:  Well, if you’re a promoter I’d say no.  I wouldn’t rule anything out in life.  People think we plan, ooo, we don’t plan anything, it’s all at the mercy of the Lord and I’m sorry to keep talking about Lord to y’all, but he’s there, I have experienced something in my life and I know he’s there.

Q:  What’s your attitude about drugs now?

George:  Drugs!  What drugs? Aspirins or what are you talking about?  I mean I think it’s awful when it ruins people. It’d be the same as it was ten years ago.  What do you define as a drug and what isn’t?  Like whiskey?  I don’t want to advocate it all because it’s so difficult to get into America, y’know?

Q:  You said you had an experience which made you believe in the Lord.  Was this a specific experience?

George:  Just certain things happened in my life which left me thinking “What it all about Alfie?”  and I just remembered Jesus said somewhere ‘knock and the door will be opened’ and I said (knock, knock) hellooo.  It’s very difficult.  From the Hindu point of view each soul is potentially divine, the goal is to manifest the divinity.  I mean yoga.  The word ‘yoga’ means union and the union is supposedly between the mind, the body and the spirit and yoga isn’t lying on nails or just standing on your head.  I mean there’s all various forms of yoga and they’re all branches on one big tree and the Lord or God has got a million names, whatever you want to call Him, it doesn’t matter as long as you call him.  Jesus is on the mainline, tell him what you want.  Nobody tries anything.  Going back to self-realization, one guru said he found no separation between man and God saving man’s spiritual unadventurous, and that’s the catch, everybody’s so unadventurous.  We’re all condition, our consciousness has been so polluted with material energy that it’s hard to try and pull it all away in order to really get at our true nature.  It’s like everyone of us has within us a drop of that ocean and we have the same qualities as God, just like a drop of the ocean has the same qualities as the whole ocean.  Everybody’s looking for something, we are it.  We don’t’ have to look anywhere, it’s right there within ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John in L.A.

 October 22, 1973

Evert Day with Ringo Starr

 October 6, 1978