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UTCzech III

Certifiably Surly
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  1. First-hand account of that weekend by Mike Nesmith's wife, very interesting. Article about Mike and Phyllis Nesmith's February 1967 visit to London and staying the weekend with John and Cynthia at Kenwood: A Weekend With John & Cynthia Lennon (told exclusively to "Monkee Spectacular" by Phyllis Nesmith) When Mike and I left for our first vacation in England I had some wild ideas about what I wanted to see and do, but I never dreamed we would spend an entire weekend with John and Cynthia Lennon! When we first arrived in London, we wanted to call John Lennon, even though we'd never met him. We wanted very much to take them to dinner so we sent him a telegram. John never responded to our telegram, but the next night we received an invitation to a Beatles' recording session at EMI studios. John met us there and told us he got our telegram and thought it was great. He knew it would be hard to get together, so he waited to invite us to the session. At the end of the session John and Cyn invited us to spend the weekend with them! The session itself was the wildest thing I've seen in my whole life. First of all, it was a very private thing – everyone was there by invitation only. The Stones were there, Marianne Faithful, and Pattie Harrison, among many others. The only Beatle wife who wasn't there was Maureen Starkey because she wasn't feeling well. I was so nervous! It seemed like such a freaky scene because I didn't know what was going on. The four Beatles were so cordial, I can't begin to tell you! We walked in and sat by the door on two little chairs and Paul came over and said "Hello, how are you, its good to see you." We had met Paul at a night club the night before. When we first came in, everyone else was seated at one end of the studio and they were laughing and talking and the orchestra was tuning up. And you should have seen the orchestra! They wore white ties and tails and they all had false noses and weird glasses! Paul was doing most of the work with the orchestra, so George Harrison came over to us and he was so outgoing and nice. Finally John came over and thanked us for the telegram and said, "Come on down and meet Cyn" and he made us feel so at ease. We all went down and John introduced me to Cynthia and I sat down and said, "I'm so nervous." She said, "Hold on, this isn't really my scene, you know, I'm nervous too." She said that John had told her to put on something wild, so she wore these wild purple pajama pants that seemed way too tight on her. Everyone else was also dressed really freaky. When we sat down, the idea of the session was to record everyone talking and laughing. All the girls except Cynthia and I were walking around the orchestra with burning sparklers! Cynthia and I talked and we found that our reactions to our husbands and their fame were so much alike we really hit it off. We agreed that it was important to our family and our husbands to maintain a sense of proportion throughout the whole thing. It wasn't so much expressed in words, I knew she felt the same way. We said that it was hard to be married to a person who was affected by so many outside things. You really have to be on your toes and you have to really love him in order for that not to make any difference. You have to be able to sort out the hang-ups that come from the outside and affect your husband -- what really pertains to your own relationship and really keep a sense of proportion about that, then you're going to have a groovy relationship no matter what it looks like to the outside world. I think John acts toward Cyn very much like Mike acts towards me -- he sort of keeps her in good humor. She has a tendency, like I do, to be overly sensitive to harsh remarks. Sometimes John teases her and she starts to take offense and then he says, "Oh, Cyn, don't do that." Then she can laugh and she knows it doesn't have anything to do with her. Cynthia is very thoughtful and very quiet. She's very sensitive because she had an awful lot to go through. I never travel on tour with Mike, so I don't go through the airport scenes. I don't go to any press interviews or anything like that. And I don't feel left out because I understand that when Mike is going through all of that, it's very hard on him. There is a lot of loneliness and inactivity being on tour -- sitting in a hotel room, getting all excited about the performance, being let down when it's over. You go through changes and I know if I were with Mike for more than two or three days on tour there would be tension between us. John was telling us that Cynthia never goes with him because he treats her so shabbily, and he feels bad about taking it out on her. I'm sure that Cynthia loves her husband and I don't think she's unhappy at all. I think living with John Lennon forces her to change, to expand her life and outlook. People are like weathervanes -- they change directions with the wind. She may wish for peaceful moments and they may not come to her too often, but that's not really "unhappiness" – it's more like acceptance of her lot. She thinks she is as vital to John as his right arm and I'm sure she believes that. I haven't always been perfectly content myself. I don't know if I'll ever be able to say that I'm fulfilled because that feels like such a nothing state of being to me. There is something more than that sense of accomplishment, it's progress and growing, never standing still. Sometimes you think you feel unhappiness, but it isn't -- it's learning and compromising. The Lennons live in a big old brick house with lots of high ceilings and staircases that wind up three floors. Mike and I sort of wandered through the house during our weekend there. I remember the dining room -- there's a huge banquet table and the walls are covered in purple velvet! It's very rich and very comfortable; it's great. John has a lot of freaky psychedelic art and a lot of little knick-knacks that are hard to describe. There was so much stuff all over the place. In the breakfast room, John has wildly colored shelves. He's on a kick of wildly colored things, so he had a friend paint a piano with flowers and designs and every key on the keyboard is a different color! It goes through all the shades from light to the darkest. The wildest thing of all is his Rolls Royce car. It's yellow with all the flowers on the side. It really blew our minds; it's beautiful. The Rolls is really fantastic. It has a built-in record player, though I can't imagine how you could play it when the car is moving over bumps. It also has a TV, a tape recorder, and a telephone. We didn't go many places in the car, except Cyn took me to Maureen Starkey's house. I never did meet Ringo's little boy -- he was out for a walk. But we had tea with Maureen and talked endlessly. We enjoyed that. Julian Lennon is a very withdrawn and seemingly lonely child. He may be going through one of those stages where he's very shy, but he refused to speak to us. A record was on and he was dancing. He amuses himself nicely. He's very quiet. The whole weekend was so relaxing. Cyn and I cooked a big Sunday dinner. She made a roast and some great potatoes. The potatoes are really the best thing about English cooking. I watched how she made them so I could learn how. She peeled them, cut them into chunks, boiled them for awhile, then about 20 minutes before the roast was done she put them with the roast in the juices. The outside of the potatoes were all brown and crispy and the inside was almost as soft as mashed potatoes. They were the best potatoes I've ever put in my mouth though I expect I'm a bit fatter because of them. John showed us some movies the first night we were there. They were really weird films -- like art films. Then we talked for awhile and went to bed. The next day we just sat around the whole day and had tea and talked. John played the unfinished and unmixed tracks to "Sgt. Pepper" (it wasn't out yet then) and that was so exciting to us. Their music seems worlds away from what Mike and the others are recording. I'll never forget the weekend, it was great just to relax and get to know such wonderful people. They mentioned to us they loved fresh grapefruit, but couldn't get it in London. When we got home I went to the Farmers' Market and had a whole crate sent to them. Although I never heard back from them, I hope they liked it.
  2. Recording session for orchestral parts in "A Day in the Life"
  3. A lot went into video production, see Elephant Parts and Television Parts above. Also financed some pretty decent movies, including one of my top 5 of all time.
  4. Could go here or in TV. My favorite Monkee. Rest in peace sir.
  5. That's first rate cipherin' right there.
  6. A few random comments on the breakup and all that. First, they did not go into Abbey Road planning it as their swan song. A tape came out two years ago that Mark Lewisohn, when he heard it, claimed on Twitter, 'This tape rewrites everything we knew about the Beatles'. Here's a link to the article, but major points are quoted below: LINK I too think that if they had taken some time off, maybe a year or so, each done a solo album, and then got back together to reassess everything, things might have been different. But they also were just growing apart. They each wanted to do their own thing. The real death knell to me was when John, George and Ringo outvoted Paul 3-1 on hiring Allen Klein to handle their affairs. Paul wanted Linda's brother, he was out voted. "That was the crack in the Liberty Bell" Paul says. And I really think the other 3, at least John and George, just grew tired of Paul's "bossiness" (again not precisely that), but also musically. Paul is pure pop, some of it "Paul's granny music" as John once said. John and George were going in vastly different directions, John stripping his music down to the bare minimum (Give Peace a Chance, Instant Karma, Plastic Ono Band album). George was really exploring his spiritual side, beautiful music but not necessarily Top 40 material (not that he couldn't crank a great pop tune out). John, George and Ringo all played on each others' albums through out the early to mid 70's, John and George loved Ringo and gave him some of his best singles. The flip side to "It Don't Come Easy" is a song Ringo wrote called "Early 1970" that pretty much sums it up: I think the biggest thing they missed (especially John) in the 70's was being challenged, or having someone to reign in some of their impulses. Even Paul, his albums are littered with pop masterpieces, as are John and George's, but there is also a ton of just self-indulgent crap as well. I guess that's what solo albums are for, though.
  7. Heard he got a great gig with some pseudo-blues outfit, relegated to recording chiming clocks and airplanes and such...
  8. Plus, due to pressure from the record companies, they basically gave away an albums worth of singles and non-album tracks Strawberry Fields Forever Penny Lane It's All Too Much (recorded during the Pepper sessions but held until put on Yellow Submarine soundtrack) All You Need is Love Baby You're a Rich Man Hello Goodbye Lady Madonna The Inner Light Hey Jude (written and recorded during the chaos of the White Album) Revolution Hey Bulldog (written and recorded in one afternoon while shooting a promo film for Lady Madonna) Only a Northern Song All Together Now The Ballad of John and Yoko Old Brown Shoe
  9. No, it would have been John and Harry Nilsson. LAPD aided by an irate Tommy Smothers (look it up...).
  10. Yeah, they had so many songs rattling around, Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam go back at least to the Esher demos in May 1968.
  11. Yes, modern technology is something, which they would have had this back during Anthology for the two Threetles songs, Free as a Bird and Real Love... HOW PETER JACKSON USED AI TO STRIP OUT THE GUITARS AND UNCOVER THE BEATLES HIDDEN STUDIO CONVERSATIONS ON GET BACK
  12. Or was she...
  13. And Jane Asher.
  14. Little trivia - during filming Martin Sheen had a heart attack. Since they were already behind schedule, they got his brother, Joe Estevez, to do some of the voice over narrations. Coppola has said that he can no longer tell which parts are Martin and which parts are Joe.
  15. Couple of quick bits, first all 4 Beatles (or their proxies) have veto power, if one says no, it's a no go. Now, Yoko is said to be in poor health (she's freaking 88 years old! Will be 89 in February), last year she turned all business dealings over to Sean, who is certainly protective of both his parents but is also pretty open-minded. There may have been a few clips that they asked to be removed, haven't heard of any, I certainly didn't see anything that showed her in a bad light (other than the singing, ugh). George did NOT like here being there, going back to the White Album sessions, but he dealt with it. Finally, one last bit about George leaving, it was kind of hard to hear on Part 1, haven't re-watched it yet with the captioning on, but is a trranscript of the fight that led to George leaving, just Paul pushing a little too far... PAUL: It's not together, so that it's not sounding together. GEORGE: So we keep on playing until we find the bit. PAUL: Or we can stop and say it's not together. GEORGE: Yes. Then you've got to carry on until you get it together. I mean, that's all I'm going to play until it's found the blending with the rest. PAUL: Okay, well, you know, I never know what to say to that, because what I want to say is, “Now, come on” and play, you know. But I can't, you know, and we get into that one. … PAUL: See, if we can get it simpler and then complicate it where it needs complications. But it's complicated in the bit- GEORGE: It's not complicated. I mean, all I'm playing is the chords. PAUL: No, no, come on, you always gotta knock me when I say that. I'm trying to help you, but I always hear myself annoying you. GEORGE: No, you're not annoying me. PAUL: It gets so that I can't say... GEORGE: You don't annoy me anymore. PAUL: You know what I mean. But doesn't everyone agree that it's confused at the moment? So all I'm trying to say is let's get the confusion unconfused, then confuse it. But that's what we've been doing all afternoon. This is why we're not getting anything done. We're just rolling on with it, and we've only got twelve more days. So we've really got to do this methodically. … PAUL: I really am trying to just say, “Look, lads, the band, you know. Should we try it like this?” You know. GEORGE: It's funny, though, how it only occurs when we record the, um- PAUL: I know, on this one, it's like should we play guitar all the way through “Hey Jude”, and I don't think we should. GEORGE: Okay, well, I don't mind. I'll play whatever you want me to play. Or I won't play at all if you don't want me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it.
  16. Another bit of wizardry I wished they had shown... This is the very beginning of the first day, I don't think Paul is there yet, basically warming up, throwing shit against the wall, John had already had a few passes through "Don't Bring Me Down"... George starts playing "I Shall Be Released" by the Band, John joins in, after a couple of minutes it morphs into a guitar riff you will definitely recognize, which merges back into "Don't Let Me Down". Just out of thin air...
  17. Well, since you asked.... I'll go a little bit into why I think George left, just my personal opinion, a lot of this is based on listening to the Nagra tapes, a lot of this stuff is not in the doc so hard to deduce otherwise. First, the very first day, I don't know if the cameras even capture this, John breaks out a little bit of "Everybody Had a Hard Year" (which would be incorporated into "I've Got a Feeling" later, but for a while it was its own standalone song...). Right after that, George give a couple of run-throughs of "Lay It Down", one of his most brilliant songs ever IMO. John doesn't react at all. No comment, no "hey, that's nice", nothing. John really was like a big brother to George, so I think that hurt his feelings. Second, the one George song they did attempt, "All Things Must Pass", got a fair amount of work in, but they abandoned it after January 8. two days before George quit (same for "I Me Mine", it was only worked on for one day, January 8, the album version came from, and on a side note, I don't know why they abandoned that flamenco section in the middle, I love it, would have loved to have heard that in the final version...). So he's already starting to feel short-changed. In the meantime they spend tons of time working on "Maxwell" and "Bathroom Window" and "Long and Winding Road" and "Two of Us", all Paul songs. Third, the whole, live, no overdubs concept I think really grated on him. He had "Let It Down", "All Things Must Pass", "Something" was coming along, all brilliant songs, and I think he knew they deserved better than this rag-tag approach that was going on. He was coming into his own and I don't think he wanted to "throw these songs away", he knew they could be really made special, strings, moog, whatever. So he was being held back in that regard. Fourth, and the straw that broke the camel's back, was just Paul's bossiness. And not so much bossiness, but his insistence, ever how slight, to put his thumbprint on all their songs. He did the same thing to John, I can't remember which song, probably "Don't Let Me Down", where he tells John, "Let's try it this way" and you can see John is not having it, he's like "this is my fucking song, I'll do it the way I want". George had already been through this on "Hey Jude", ("I'll play if you want me to, or I won't play if you want me to, whatever it is to please you" is basically the quote). They had been working on "Get Back" and "Two of Us" all morning, with Paul basically directing how he wanted the song to go. I think George finally felt, fuck, do it yourself then. I can have a better time sitting in my garden writing songs and then fucking Patti at night. Although that actually may have had something to do with it as well, relating to George's overall state of mind, as Patti had left him at the beginning of the year. and finally, like Ringo, I don't think he was into the project at all, you can tell he hated the cameras and microphones being around, "Oh so you're taping our conversations" he says right at the beginning. And just the entire trying to run their own business affairs was a drag, it all piled up on him. Just my $.02 anyway
  18. Excellent article on Glyn Johns and the Get Back album LINK And I do have to correct myself, Phil Spector didn't just take Glyn Johns album and add strings to it, he actually did use some completely different takes than Glyn Johns did. I'm listening to the Get Back 2nd mix right now and the takes are noticeably different. Glyn Johns version is truly the original vision the Beatles had, no overdubs or corrections at all. Exactly what you see and hear in the documentary. ETA: interesting, the version on the Let It Be box set is the Glyn Johns 1st version, from 1969, and not the 2nd mix, which is what I have, guess I'll be getting the box set now.
  19. You’re friends with Randolph Duke?
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