My Websites
Official Beatles sites
Other Websites
- Archer Valerie Beatles pages
- Beat Gear Cavern
- BeatleLinks
- Beatles History
- Beatles International
- Beatles Pics
- Beatles Wiki
- BeatleSource
- BeatlesTube
- Bill Harry's Mersey Beat
- Bootlegzone
- Demonoid
- Fab Guitars
- Fab News
- Hunger City
- MopTops Guide to the Beatles
- Reunion sessions
- Solo Beatles Photos Forum
- Steve at Examiner.com
- The Beatles Interviews Database
- The Beatles on DVD
- What Goes On?
- Yellow Sub (France)
Featured post
The Daily Beatle
This is a website about all things Beatle. There will be news if we find them attractive, there will also be articles and features about sol...
Followers
Total Pageviews
Archives
Find Us On Facebook
Blogs
-
McCartney & Wings – One Hand Clapping Live Studio Sessions from 1974 Newly Mixed - Seems someone at Universal Music Canada hit the “Publish” button a little early on a press release about a hitherto unknown June release from Paul McCartne...
-
All You Need is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words - A Book Review - Here are a few of Peter Brown's Photos from the book. In the bottom photo, Peter is with Queenie Epstein. One of the most controversial Beatles books ...
-
Restored Let It Be film coming to Disney+ 05-08-24 - The Beatles’ 1970 film Let It Be is coming to Disney+ on 8 May 2024. The film, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in January 1969, has been commercially un...
-
THE BEATLES' 1970 FILM 'LET IT BE' DEBUTING ON DISNEY+ IN MAY - The Beatles documentary "Let It Be" is coming to the streaming service. ...
-
LIBB P767: 15 April 2024 - Show 1460 Panel: Graeme Dickenson, Gary Lally, Greg Armstrong *LIBB Show 1460 WynFM Podcast P767* Download Or Stream LIBB Show 1460 WynFM Podcast P767 ...
-
Revamping the Red and Blue albums – it’s all too much - Amid all the hullabaloo surrounding the release of ‘Now and Then’ in November, the major facelift and expansion of the definitive Beatles compilations whic...
-
Having a Large Time! - I’m still working on the manuscript, but I just got the proof for the cover for my upcoming book about Southern music, and I’m very pleased with how it tur...
-
Harry Benson : « Paul » livre l'intimité de McCartney - C’est en 1964 que Harry Benson commence à photographier le jeune Paul McCartney, année charnière pour les Beatles qui déferlent sur l’Amérique, sillonnen...
-
-
ED治療の際はシルデナフィルの使い方を正しくマスターしよう! - シルデナフィルはED治療によく使用されていますが、使い方を間違えると命に関わることもありますので注意が必要です。一番良い方法は、医師や薬剤師など専門家に相談し、指示を守って服用することですが、ここでは一般的に言われているシルデナフィルの正しい使い方についてご紹介します。 市販されているシルデナフィルには25...
-
William Leslie Anthony (Les Anthony): 30 April 1933 - 21 May 2020. - Les Anthony, John's driver from 1965-1971, has died. The story goes that John was having problems finding a suitable chauffeur, and so Brian Epstein, upo...
-
The Decca Tapes - First Time In Stereo (By Lord Reith) - BITRATE: FLAC TRACK LISTING: Money The Sheikh Of Araby Memphis, Tennessee Three Cool Cats Sure To Fall September In The Rain Take Good Care Of My Baby Till...
-
The Final Beatles' Recording Session - On April 01 1970, final work was done on three of the tunes for the upcoming "Let It Be" (formerly known as "Get Back") project. The session was held in St...
-
There are seven levels. - [image: giphy (4)]
-
-
Bitcoin and Other Donations - Hello fellow Beatle-people! I have not been idle but been working on many things including the promised book for Comprehensive Beatles. I hope to have new...
-
-
-
-
Beatles Rarity of the Week – “Act Naturally” (Ringo Starr duet with Cilla Black, 1971) - Welcome to the Beatles Rarity of the Week. On August 1st, 2015 long-time Beatles-friend and fellow Liverpudlian Cilla Black (real name Priscilla Maria Vero...
-
-
-
Translate
Popular Posts
-
"Pure McCartney" is a new 2CD or deluxe 4CD compilation of previously released songs. So the news are out...er somewhat. I gue...
-
The Beatles' "Long Tall Sally" EP, featuring a photo of The Beatles in Sweden. Ok, so we brougth you a survey of the most ...
-
George Harrison Video Collection By Mike Carrera A fan recently asked which was the best Harrison “promo clip compilation” and my resp...
-
From the photo session: The Beatles with Adam, the son of photographer Michael Cooper. If you're looking for news about the upcoming...
-
The Sunday Times: Anniversary re-release of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band" due. According to The Sunday Times, a ...
-
The Beatles in Madrid (the photos, that is) Okay, we fell for it, hook, line and sinker. It was after all, a good story with a beautiful...
-
LET IT BE In a new interview with Cinematographer Tony Richmond, who worked on the "Let It Be" film under director Michael Lin...
-
Record store in Amsterdam From Monday to Friday last week, I've been in Amsterdam in Holland. And that's where I was when the ne...
-
Get your tickets for a special recording session with Sir Paul at BBC Maida Vale Studios! The radio series Mastertapes returns to BBC R...
Video Of Day
Our Shop
Statistics
About Us
This website is all about The Beatles and the individual members of The Beatles. It is kept by Roger Stormo, who has been associated with the Norwegian Beatles fan club, "Norwegian Wood", since 1980. Feel free to quote from the site, but please give me credit and a link back to the original item. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This is not a news site per se, but if we hear about something that has yet to be reported by other Beatles news services, we tend to write about it. Apart from that, we will write stuff about the Beatles on an irregular basis at the whim of the author. A lot of our readers arrive at specific articles from internet searches or references to this site from forums and other Beatles sites. If you did, we encourage you to click here to access the main page, and also to indulge in our archives - you may find other posts that are interesting. You may also subscribe to news from the site and have each new issue delivered to your rss feed reader.
This is not a begging letter... but feel free to support me by donating money! It'll keep me in business... Or just buy a t-shirt! Or take a look at my Amazon wish list...If you have Beatles related product to push, feel free to send us a copy, the address is:
Roger Stormo
Baglergata 21B
NO-2004 Lillestrøm
NORWAY
email: roger.stormo@gmail.com
We can't promise that your product will be featured on the site, but it stands a better chance than the ones we don't get...
Mobile site
Move over, Ms L!
Monday 15 December 2008
The Beatles and Vietnam
Sir Paul's critics see his comments as a further attempt to revise the history of the Beatles, casting himself in a better light.
"We sort of stumbled into things," Sir Paul told Prospect magazine.
"For instance, Vietnam. Just when we were getting to be well known, someone said to me: 'Bertrand Russell is living not far from here in Chelsea, why don't you go and see him?' and so I just took a taxi down there and knocked on the door."
Russell, author of the seminal work A History of Western Philosophy, was one of the world’s best known pacifists and had been imprisoned during the first world war for warning British workers about the American army and its role in strike breaking in the United States. He was in his nineties in the 1960's.
He added: "He was fabulous. He told me about the Vietnam war – most of us didn't know about it, it wasn't yet in the papers – and also that it was a very bad war.
"I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John [Lennon], about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was."
McCartney says the band ignored requests from their publicist not to mention Vietnam when they went to America.
“Of course, we talked about it the whole time and said it was a very bad war. Obviously we backed the peace movement.”
Tariq Ali, who was one of the leaders of the anti-war movement in Britain, disputed Sir Paul's version of events.
He said: "It is not my recollection at all. It is possible McCartney met Bertrand Russell, but certainly I had no contact with Paul."
Hunter Davies, who spent 18 months with the Beatles during 1967-8 before writing their authorised biography, said: “At that stage the Beatles were open to all the smart, intellectual and artistic people trying to get them involved in things.
“It wasn’t just John. Paul was as interested in meeting these people and hearing their stuff.”
Backstage after a Beatles press conference in Memphis, Tennessee, August 19th, 1966, a british reporter gets some answers about how they feel about all the fuzz regarding John's "Jesus" statement and something about the war in Vitnam.
Q: "But do you mind being asked questions, for example in America people keep asking you questions about Vietnam. Does this seem useful?"
PAUL: "I dunno, you know. If you can say that war is no good, and a few people believe you, then it may be good. I don't know. You can't say too much, though. That's the trouble."
JOHN: "It seems a bit silly to be in America and for none of them to mention Vietnam as if nothing was happening."
Q: "But why should they ask you about it? You're successful entertainers."
JOHN: "Because Americans always ask showbiz people what they think, and so do the British. (comically) Showbiz... you know how it is!"
RINGO: (laughs)
JOHN: "But I mean you just gotta... You can't keep quiet about anything that's going on in the world, unless you're a monk. (jokingly, with dramatic arm gestures) Sorry, monks! I didn't mean it! I meant actually...."
(laughter)
Beatles Press Conference: New York City August 22, 1966
Q: "Would any of you care to comment on any aspect of the war in Vietnam?"
JOHN: "We don't like it."
Q: "Could you elaborate any?"
JOHN: "No. I've elaborated enough, you know. We just don't like it. We don't like war."
GEORGE: "It's, you know... It's just war is wrong, and it's obvious it's wrong. And that's all that needs to be said about it."
(applause)
PAUL: "We can elaborate in England."
Q: "One of you, I beleive it was George, said that you couldn't comment on Vietnam in this country but you could in England. Could you elaborate on that a little bit?"
GEORGE: "I didn't say that. Maybe one of us said that, but I didn't."
PAUL: "It was me. I mean, you know about that, anyway, you know. I mean, we could say a thing about... like John's religious thing in England and it wouldn't be taken up and misinterpreted quite as much as it tends to get here. I mean, you know it does. The thing is that, I think you can say things like that in England and people will listen a bit more than they do in America, because in America somebody will take it up and use it completely against you and won't have many scruples about doing that. You know, I'm probably putting my foot in it saying that, but..."
JOHN: "You'll be explaining to the next bunch."
PAUL: "Yeah, I know."
(laughter)
PAUL: (jokingly, in American accent) "Oh well, it's just wonderful here."
(laughter)
Beatles Press Conference: Tokyo, Japan June 30th, 1966
Q: "How much interest do you take in the war that is going on in Vietnam now?"
JOHN: "Well, we think about it everyday, and we don't agree with it and we think it's wrong. That's how much interest we take. That's all we can do about it... and say that we don't like it."
Two years earlier, in Boston Massachusetts, September 12th, 1964, Paul had this to say:
Q: "Would you advocate sending all the young boys your age to Vietnam?"
PAUL: "No... (pause) Not unless they wanted to, you know."
New York City 8/13/65, two days before their famous Shea Stadium concert, the Beatles were interviewed upon arrival from England:
Q: "Any plans for going to Vietnam and entertaining the troops?"
JOHN: "I wouldn't go there, no."
Lennon & McCartney Interview: Newsfront 14th of May, 1968
Q: "The United States has been plagued by the war in Vietnam, and the world has been concerned about it. What are your views about the war?"
JOHN: "It's another piece of insanity. It's all part of the same insane scene that's going on. There's nothing else for it... no reason, just insanity."
PAUL: "You know, whoever's right and whoever's wrong, it's still... the thing that's going on there isn't a good thing."
In 1980, the year he was murdered, John Lennon talked to Playboy magazine about the Beatles songs he composed, here's what he said about "Revolution" (1968):
"We recorded the song twice. The Beatles were getting really tense with one another. I did the slow version and I wanted it out as a single: as a statement of the Beatles' position on Vietnam and the Beatles' position on revolution. For years, on the Beatle tours, Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war. And he wouldn't allow questions about it. But on one tour, I said, 'I am going to answer about the war. We can't ignore it.' I absolutely wanted the Beatles to say something. The first take of 'Revolution' ...well, George and Paul were resentful and said it wasn't fast enough. Now, if you go into details of what a hit record is and isn't... maybe. But the Beatles could have afforded to put out the slow, understandable version of 'Revolution' as a single. Whether it was a gold record or a wooden record. But because they were so upset about the Yoko period and the fact that I was again becoming as creative and dominating as I had been in the early days, after lying fallow for a couple of years, it upset the apple cart. I was awake again and they couldn't stand it?"
No comments:
Post a Comment