Paul on National Poetry Day in 2001

October 4, 2001 
 

The visitors

 October 4, 1966 

Paul McCartney: The Heart and Soul of Him (1966 - Maureen Cleave)

Paul McCartney: The Heart and Soul of Him

By Maureen Cleave

Teen Life

January 1967

     From the beginning, Paul McCartney was the most popular Beatle in Britain. This had a great deal to do with his looks, the sweetness and candor of his baby face, his joyous skipping movements on the stage, his beautiful eyes, his happy smile, charm really. Paul has the most devastating, the most incredible charm. It works on old ladies and small children, on housewives and young girls. Even grown men don't mind Paul. At least his hair is nowadays an acceptable length, and of course he writes such beautiful songs. He is, in fact, much more complicated person than his open face might suggest.

     He is quite demanding. He is also a terrible tease. He never lets you get away with an ill-considered remark or a stupid mistake. He is perhaps, in the ordinary meaning of the word, the cleverest Beatle. His wit is the quickest, his grasp the widest. He is also extremely influential in the group. John Lennon is commonly held to be the loudest voice, but I should not be surprised to learn that it was Paul who had the last word. 

    He enjoys poking fun at the others with their passion for the grand life, the Rolls Royces, the chauffeurs, the swimming pools, and the gangsters' widened windows. "I'm thinking," Paul said, "of having a bicycle with black windows."

     And there was the case of John and the chocolate. "Take John," Paul said, vastly amused. "John discovered the other day that he liked a certain kind of chocolate. Well, he bought a consignment. I mean, it was on every table in the house, and in a week he was pretty sick of it."

     Paul would never make an ass of himself over a bar of chocolate. He is the least naive, the most self-conscious. "If you can have everything," he said, "then there's no point in having everything, is there? I got a camera once, and it knocked me out for a couple of weeks. Then I realized that the craze has put me off the camera for life. Now I do things bit by bit instead of in clumps."

     He is a tall young man, taller than you might think. He is agile, alert, neatly dressed, and well organized. His hair is never too long. His clothes never outrageous. He moves very fast. He gets in and out of a room, a building, a car, with the minimum of fuss. He is a master of disguises, alone of all the Beatles. Even when the heat of Beatlemania was on, Paul went to the cinema in various beards, got himself in and out of the country with his hair brushed back off his forehead, and with nobody knowing. It is possible the rude public interference in his affection for Miss Jane Asher that he has made that has made him so deft at avoiding publicity. One imagines his having a bit of a laugh when Ringo married Maureen in secrecy, because the "eyes of the world" were firmly glued to Jane and Paul. He is adept at bluffing his way out of a situation. 

    Skiing in Switzerland recently, a photographer came up to him and said, "You are Paul McCartney." "Who me?" said Paul, with that innocent expression on his face. And the man went away. He loved pseudonyms and being incognito. He thoroughly enjoyed writing a song under the name of Bernard Webb. "I was getting sick of hearing about Lennon-McCartney songs," he said.

     He is half Beatle and half not. He relies on the others to the extent of considering living in Weybridge, an hour's drive from London with the rest of them. "I thought maybe we should all be grown-ups together." He said, and then I thought, "I don't want to live in Weybridge, so I didn't."

     He's bought a house in London, a pretty townhouse built in 1830, of which he will draw you a picture at the drop of a hat. One of the charms for Paul is that it has a story: lamps are inside the front gate." I love the look of London," he said.  He goes to the pictures, does the London Times crossword, drives himself about in his Mini or his Aston Martin D B6, goes shopping, keeps appointments, moves busily about. He decided to learn to read music, and he has a weekly lesson from a composer. 

     "The other day, I felt like an old person sitting there and saying, 'I never learned to read music,' so I decided to learn. One of the first bits of music he wrote down was something for his girlfriend Jane to play on her classical guitar. 

    Paul's father was a cotton salesman, and his mother was a midwife. When he was 14, she died. He can remember when he was five, standing in the backyard of his parents' house in Liverpool, and asking himself what he would be when he grew up. "No answer came back to me," he said, disappointed. He likes quick results. "I could not imagine myself as one of those old people of 20 with children."

     The problem cropped up again when he was 17. "I had just the right exams to get into teachers' training college, but I had a horror of doing something ordinary." So when the forms came for entry, he just didn't fill them in. "With things I don't want to do," Paul said simply. "Well, I just don't do them," and so he ended up a Beatle. "We knew he said that something would happen sooner or later. We always had this little Bethlehem star ahead of us."

     "Fame is what everyone wants in some form or another. There must be millions of people all over the world annoyed that people haven't discovered them. 'What's up?' They ask themselves. Fame, in the end, is getting off your parking ticket because the fellow wants your autograph, and fame is being interrupted while you're eating by a 50-year-old woman with a ponytail. None of us feels as famous as people think we are.

    "The other night I was with some people sitting around having a laugh, and we decided to go out and eat. They were wondering if we had enough money, and I said, 'It's okay, I've got some money,' and they just collapsed with laughter. But I meant it. I meant I had some money on me. It's only at times like that, that I think I have a lot of money. I love having it, but it has its disadvantages. It becomes a fact about you that you have money. You are treated as though you have money. I don't think I want any more."

     "When I was younger, I was always reading about tramps, out and out scruffs living on a few shillings. I suppose I still have some of that romantic spirit."

     But the romantic spirit is not, from Paul's own point of view, at work in his songs. Those moved to tears by his beautiful song "Yesterday" would do well to remember that Paul himself always called it "Scrambled Eggs." He has another equally beautiful one up his sleeve called "Suicide."

     "Eleanor Rigby", possibly one of his finest ever songs, does not appear to have been inspired by any great consciousness of the problems of old age or loneliness. Is curious to find that he hates writing words. "I don't know," he says, "when poets feel they have to experience something to write about it, but we don't feel that. Ours are all imagination. If they weren't, John would be writing songs called "Cynthia," and I would be writing songs called "Jane," and it would be very boring for everyone except Cyn and Jane."

     He is capable of quite fierce anger when he thinks people are being stupid or intolerant; he hates people who think of culture with a capital C, people who are forever complaining about the decadence of the younger generation, about the length of its hair. "You can't kid me," he said, "that the last generation were any more moral than we are. If you wheedle it out of people, they were just as bad as this generation. Only they hid it better."

     He likes London because it is the center of things. "The point of a city," he said, is that everything is there. The point of the country is that everything is not there." Intellectually, he is the most mature, difficult playwright.

    For instance, Alfred Jarry, difficult composers. For instance, Stockhausen and Lucidio Berio appeal to him enormously. He has an interest in an art gallery, an interest in a bookshop. "I'm trying to cram everything in," he says, "All the things that I've missed. People are saying things and writing things and painting things that are great. I must know what people are doing.

    " You see," said Paul anxiously, "I vaguely mind anybody knowing anything I don't."

Letter for Ringo

 

Living in the Material World Premiere

October 1, 2011 
 

Starkey and Gripweed

Early October 1966 -  Ringo and Maureen take a trip to Germany to visit John on the set of How I Won the War. 

Back at EMI

 October 2, 1971 

George's last photo (possibly)

 October 2, 2001 

Ringo Starr Engaged (1976)

 Ringo Starr Engaged

By Nigel Dempster

Oakland Tribune

October 3, 1976

    My uneasy bodings about Ringo Starr suffering the same fate as Samson, as I revealed recently, the ex-Beatle took matters to extremes and shaved his head, eyebrows, and all, have been justified.

     He has become engaged to Nancy Andrews, 25, the California model named in his divorce 14 months ago. They split up last September after a year together, and he was then to be found with the delectable Lindsay DePaul, but they were back together in July and moved into a flat overlooking Monte Carlo, where Ringo has taken up tax exile. "It's convenient for my children to visit," he told me. 

His sons Zach and Jason and daughter Lee live with their mother, Maureen, Ringo's childhood sweetart near.Ascot in their former home, Tittenhurst Park, bought from John Lennon, is up for sale. Only time will tell how serious the engagement is. Ringo is now sporting a beard, and his beard looks like an August wheat field after harvest

Ringo Starr 36 Years Old and a Pop Star (1976)

 

Ringo Starr — 36 Years Old and a Pop Star

The drumming ex-Beatle held a press conference in Copenhagen
 By  Arve Strømsether

The Nationen 

October 9, 1976

    Ringo Starr, ex-Beatle, ex-film star, ex-record-company director, but still a singer, was in Copenhagen last week to promote his new LP, Ringo's Rotogravure. After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Ringo has been the one of the four Beatles who has had the hardest time retaining his popularity. As is well known, he has no great singing voice and little talent as a composer, and just being a drummer isn't exactly something people would normally want to hear about.

    He has certainly made a number of successful records, but these have been more characterized by his skillful musician friends than by himself. It was therefore a somewhat exciting prospect to attend the press conference in Copenhagen. Can an old Beatle still attract attention?

    Well, it must be made clear right away that there is nothing in the world like Ringo's small talk. I sat for almost an hour listening to the famous star drummer, who was witty, sarcastic, irritated and cheerful in turn, answering all kinds of questions, whether they concerned the Beatles' past or Ringo's future.

    The first questions were not particularly original, but nevertheless very topical:

Will there be a reunion of pop's most popular and influential group?

"No, why? It would be a catastrophe. When we were together, it was fun, and I sincerely think we added something to music. But today we are all different and occupied with our own things. We are still good friends and meet regularly, but there will be no permanent cooperation. We have played, and will continue to play on each other's records, but that's all."

    Ringo becomes irritated that every time he holds a press conference, he spends 20 minutes explaining something that could be said in three or four words. He sincerely wants the Beatles kept far away and is more interested in his own career.

"With my new LP, I hope I can now make people aware that I can still produce music."

With some help from others, a cheeky journalist interjects.

"Yes, I am first and foremost a drummer, and that is not music, but rhythm. I can play a little piano and three chords on the guitar, and I am dependent on other instrumental help. I like to play drums, sing and write songs. Arranging and production can be left to others."

    How was the new LP made?

    "Very scattered. The songs were mostly ready in the spring, but they were recorded during the spring and summer. This was because the musicians I wanted to use weren't available."

    You don't have any particular problems getting top musicians?

"No. I am very nice [laughs], and I think people understand that. There is a certain prestige in being allowed to play with him. But there is also another reason: Years ago, all the groups were bound together by a sense of togetherness."

    Do you think it will be difficult to get some of them to work with you?

    "I hope not. It depends on whether people have time when I need them. Most of them have their own groups."

Speaking of concerts. During the Beatles' time, there were many concerts, but despite this, there was never a record released of a Beatles concert. In recent years bootleg records have flourished, and some of these contain very good concert recordings. What does Ringo think about something like that?

    "That's something I have nothing to do with."

    Allan Williams and “King-size” Taylor claim they have recordings from Hamburg with good quality?

    "Yes, I heard something about that. They called me and asked whether 200 million dollars would be a suitable price. I haven't heard the tape, but as far as I remember, the recordings weren't good enough for anything to come of it."

    What does EMI have in its possession? Can you or the others control it?

    "What EMI has in its possession, I or the others cannot control. It may be possible that they will release something."

    Do you like the reissues of the old Beatles records?

    "Not so much. I think it is exploitation of the public, all the time finding things that are on other records. The only one that was a little fun was the reissue of all the singles. I don't think I or the others can do anything about it.

    "John and I disagreed about the choice of material on Rock 'n' Roll Music. No one wanted to listen to our suggestions. John offered to make another cover because the one that was used was too bad. But they weren't interested in that either."

    Since Ringo hasn't made much music since the breakup of the Beatles, the Nationen reporter asks about his musical activities.

    "Music is most of my life. I have acted in some films, and although that is fun, I am known as a drummer. I am going to make ten films next year, but whether I can say anything more about that, I don't know."

You have directed a couple of films. Would you like to do it again?

    "No, I don't. It is too demanding and requires too much work in too many different areas. I am not suited to organizational work."

You have also been a furniture designer?

    "That was eight years ago. I made a whole lot of nice furniture in glass and steel, but it was too expensive."

Couldn't you have made your own records?

     "Yes, I suppose I could have, but since the distribution agreement was with Polydor, it didn't make much practical sense."

What do you think of your new LP, Ringo's Rotogravure?

    "It is the best one I have made. There are good songs, good music, and it is a nice product, and I hope other people think so too."

Is this the only way the Beatles will come to play together?

    "It is."

In England, pop artists are treated harshly by the tax authorities. Several of the country's major artists have had to leave the country to avoid the tax pressure. This applies to Ringo Starr as well. Was his move really worth it?

    "I would gladly have stayed, but I simply couldn't afford to pay 53 percent of my income in taxes. Would any of you do it?"

Now you are living in Monte Carlo and seem to be enjoying it?

    "Yes. The only thing that bothers me is that I can't get to England and see my children for a year."

A politically interested journalist asks why Ringo, who has such great influence, couldn't enter politics and try to change the situation.

    "I am a musician, not a politician. I would rather play than talk nonsense, and then I leave. That doesn't mean I don't care about the country. What is worse for Mother England is that both doctors and teachers are fleeing from there. It is no wonder the pound is falling."

The questions rain down on Ringo, jumping from one subject to another. The aforementioned subject concerns The Beatles Tapes, which George Harrison made a legal attempt to stop. Why?

    "It was a rather [topical/current] record, where the interviews were made for the press conference, or one-man show, as you might call it. "[The exact wording here is difficult to read in the scan.]

At another point Ringo is asked about the Rolls-Royce matter:

“For my part, I don't deal with that anymore. Otherwise, I thought about using Rolls-Royce parts as heaters, but the factory didn't think much of that idea.”

One of the last questions concerns Ringo's imitation of Kojak.

Was that an attempt to attract some declining attention?

 "It was an experience every man ought to allow himself at least once in his life. I did it to shock Nancy [Ringo's then companion/fiancée]. Besides, I did it because I wanted a change. My hair has benefited from it too."

But the reporters have now asked enough. Only one question remains, and it will be given to the person who has not yet asked anything.

A modest woman's voice calls out:

“What about when you are 64, Ringo? Will you still be a musician?”

 “If you'll still feed me, 64,” says Ringo with a crooked smile, and leaves the room with a trail of autograph-hungry journalists following him.