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AUGUST 1966 THE BEGINNING OF AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR ...
It was easy to forget that London had experienced the war 22 years earlier.
There was this England that we recognize
thanks to black and white photos and images
and there was this new era, the multicolored one,
and the Beatles were at the forefront.
- Are you looking forward to going on tour? - Yes.
This religious controversy, you don't want to talk about it too much
but do you worry in the USA ?
Yes, that worries me, but I hope everything will go well.
Do you think it will be a controversial tour
as in the Philippines?
- No. - Not really.
It will be alright.
- What makes you say that ? - It will be fine. You will see.
The Klan, we are going to demonstrate
in different ways to end this concert.
COME HOME
In front of the Coliseum, a small group of protesters ...
HUNT THE COMMUNISM
... was the only visible sign.
Let's not forget that the Beatles were a planetary phenomenon.
The Beatles were also important a meeting of heads of state
or state leaders in one room.
What does it do ?
You can say "hello"?
Hello.
Say hello".
Hello !
John, are you sorry for your words?
Yes.
I think it's true.
This group was much more popular.
JOURNALIST
I'm not going to use the two words, "J.C.",
but they were much more popular than the Church of England and religion.
Without a doubt.
This is where the trouble started,
in this tiny studio on the top floor of WAQY Station,
the "wacky radio" of 750,000 inhabitants from Birmingham, Alabama.
The disc jockey and manager, Tommy Charles,
read in Datebook,
John Lennon's remarks on Christianity,
remarks that had gone unnoticed when they came out in England.
If we think about it to the impact of Jesus in the great era,
300 people must have heard of him.
In terms of industry, even to this day,
in what it represents for society,
and especially in Europe, the Beatles are more important.
But you know,
America was, at that time, obsessed with Jesus.
JESUS IS DEAD FOR YOU, JOHN LENNON
Regarding the objective of this meeting,
I thank God. Jesus Christ matters to me,
because he saved me 31 years ago.
All the people here for whom it matters, say "Amen".
Amen!
They weren't qualified to speak
of the price of milk, let alone the state of the world.
They were sponges. They absorbed things ...
BEATLES SPECIALIST
... emotions in such a way
they felt to age twice as fast.
I know Brian was worried ...
SECRETARY OF BRIAN EPSTEIN
... before they leave for the United States.
But it was so innocent for John.
They were so large.
More people wanted to see the Beatles that go to church.
Are you worried of what could happen
to the Beatles over there?
AUGUST 1966
- I'm worried. - What about ?
Security.
What do you suggest to protect them?
There is not much we can do.
They have always benefited, in this country,
maximum security and tours have always been
very well organized
and I hope everything will be fine.
They burned albums in Memphis ...
AUTHOR / JOURNALIST
... and these singers were afraid to get killed.
We say to ourselves: "Something is happening which escapes me. "
Most critics came from the Bible Belt
and we wonder if you are going change the Beatles route
to avoid areas where radios
burn their albums and photos.
It's unlikely.
I met several promoters, this morning,
and, after this conference, I meet others
who think that no concert will be canceled.
In fact, if one of the promoters was very worried
and wanted to cancel a concert,
I would not object.
Besides, the Memphis concert,
closest to ...
from where it all started,
apparently sold more tickets yesterday, than he had done to date.
Tony Barrow alerted Datebook
of the existence of these interviews.
He contacted Art Unger, the publisher, and he said ...
AUTHOR OF THE BEATLES '66
... "You'll love these interviews. They will please you. "
But Art Unger had the idea to send them
to some animators followers of controversies.
He knew it would annoy some DJs.
He sent them to these DJs in Birmingham, Alabama
and it annoyed them well and this is where it all started.
WASHINGTON DC, AUGUST 15, 1966
They hate you. Did you see that ?
I saw a similar version of what you talk about in the article.
If it makes other people happy, so it makes me happy.
But there are not as many people upset as I thought.
And not so upset as that.
Brian Epstein wanted to cancel the tour,
but they decided to continue if John apologized
and he did so reluctantly.
Forced apologies.
In fact, I was referring to England ...
CHICAGO, AUGUST 11, 1966
... where we count more than Jesus or religion for children.
I was not tapping on it or to belittle it.
I was just exposing a fact, and that's more true for England only here.
I am not saying that we are better or larger,
I don't compare us to Jesus Christ as a person
or to God as an entity or whatever it is.
I said what I said and I was wrong. Or it has been misinterpreted.
And George said, "I don't care. They will buy new albums
to replace the ones they burned. "
What do you think
of this group that gives their point of view?
Is it possible in their position?
Absolutely.
I never suggested to them to do otherwise.
Did you suggest John apologize?
We discussed it and it was a mutual feeling.
I never gave orders to boys,
whether it's musical, artistic or on positions.
They...
We all have our opinion and I contribute a fifth.
It happened in the end of a very long world tour
where horrible things had arrived at the Beatles.
Death threats in Japan, rowdy in the Philippines ...
BACK FROM THE PHILIPPINES, JULY 1966
... for apparently snubbing the First Lady, Imelda Marcos,
by not going to a ceremony she was giving.
It was too much.
WE LOVE YOU LENNON
They were afraid of being murdered.
This is what was germinating
in people's minds.
What happened at Manila Airport?
We were jostled and heckled by some monkeys
and we were very scared.
Really scared?
We were terrified.
Yes it was...
It was serious. There were approximately
five weird and beefy guys
with weapons and all the equipment.
- Who heckled us. - They were there...
Yes, it was obvious.
They were there to make us pass a dirty quarter of an hour
before our departure.
So we hurried.
Personally, I avoided them.
They were the only ones to look for trouble.
There were five of them. The rest were calm.
Did you have to carry your luggage in the airport ?
Our hand luggage, yes.
Our managers took the bags.
- Because they know ... - They turned off the escalator
and we had to wear them.
- To top it all. - Very clever.
How many people were involved?
About thirty.
I say 30 and George says five.
It looked like a small army who came to beat us.
There were ten other people behind the crowd
who were booing us and we were looking for them to see them
and there were only young people all smiles, about 18.
All these guys basically like the Gestapo booing us.
The real protesters.
It was an ambush
where they were just waiting to fight.
They jostled us. If we had done something ...
- That's enough. - Yes.
Apart from the Philippines, did you like this trip?
Yes, a great tour.
Except this morning.
- Yes. - Japan was wonderful.
- And Delhi was good. - Yes.
Wonderful people in Japan, all our meetings.
They took possession of Manila during the war.
Will you be playing in the Philippines?
- No. - I will never go again.
I will no longer board a plane for Manila. Never.
When they left Manila for Delhi,
they spoke for the first time
to give up touring. Brian was very upset,
because he saw that it would be useless
if they just stayed in the studio.
What would be its place? It existed mainly in the tours
to prepare and accompany the Beatles.
And he liked show biz.
He loved the theater. He had been to RADA, so he liked the theatrical side.
Passing directly from their lodges to the security zone,
the Beatles appeared for their second concert,
every step carefully watched by Captain Barney Hicks police,
82 men working overtime paid 30 shillings an hour.
There was pure madness and this for years around the Beatles.
The most surprising, is that they were playing the game.
They did what was expected of them.
When you think temperament and ego
of today's small rock bands,
what the Beatles endured
for the common good, because they were told to do it,
including John, was extraordinary.
While the Beatles' private plane is coming ...
MEMPHIS, AUGUST 19, 1966
... it draws away hundreds of fans
and goes to a deserted area reserved for the National Guard.
Some teenagers managed to pass the safety cords.
Worried about their visit to the south,
the Beatles could at least console themselves with the success of this tour.
Halfway through the concerts,
they had already cashed over $ 500,000
and their latest single "Yellow Submarine" sold for a million.
Your first trip here?
No, we have been to Texas before.
Where are you going next?
Cincinnati, I believe, yes.
How long are you staying in the USA ?
About two weeks.
- Two more weeks ? - Yes.
What did you eat?
Not much.
Not much.
- I have to go. It's hot. - Okay. Thank you so much.
BEATLE STREET FOUR BOYS WHO MOVE THE WORLD
They came out of the lodges making the head.
John said: "We should never have done that.
- Never. " - They had two numbers one.
Return to a tiny club ...
But they promised to do another concert. Well, good luck.
One lodge.
Big as a phone booth.
We were in it. The Beatles too
and someone else too and ...
They were not delighted.
But they held on.
John was crying with laughter.
There was a piano on stage with a blanket over it.
"Why are you laughing?" "King Size Taylor has left his mark."
The Beatles are mounted, the girls were screaming
and, there, power failure.
Except a very small bulb.
A small light bulb on the stage, Do you remember ?
- Yes. - No power, nothing at all.
We all said to ourselves: "And now ?"
So, Paul, it looks like him, jumped on the piano
and started singing this little song with John in acoustics.
We could hear the acoustic guitar a bit.
For years, it was believed that Paul
had taken over an old song from his father
from the 20s, because that was what it reminded us of.
But when the album came out Sgt. Pepper ...
It was incredible.
We heard this song in 1963.
It doesn't matter if people don't like our albums, our style
or our words.
They have the right not to love us
and we have the right not to want to rub shoulders with them
if we don't want to.
We all have rights.
Towards the end, it was madness.
They could be anywhere. They were in a room ...
FAN CLUB SECRETARY
... and this piece could be in Wales or Tokyo.
They didn't know it. It was just a hotel.
It's hard to believe but the songs of Revolver
that could be played on stage these days,
they never imagined playing them
and they played few titles from Rubber Soul on stage.
They didn't play anything Revolver even if it was their last album
- during their last tour. - In addition to rock 'n' roll,
they have developed their own melody
and they needed to hear the tangles of songs.
And when they were playing, they heard nothing.
I was in New York for the Yardbirds
when the biggest tour of the Beatles was in New York.
Brian was there.
I did not work with him but I knew what was going on,
and Brian and the group wanted a maximum of 15,000 spectators
for sound problems. They wanted be able to play and be heard
and not be stifled by screams.
But the police didn't believe it.
They knew there would be between 100,000 and 200,000 people,
even if it was a room 10,000 places.
Very dangerous to have 10,000 people inside and 90,000 outside.
So it was not a promoter, of a greedy group or manager.
It was the police and their authorization.
They were captive. Imprisoned by the tour.
They freed themselves when they returned.
They went around the world by plane.
People were screaming.
They didn't even get along. They said to themselves:
"We didn't start this for that.
We started this for fun. No more fun. "
John told me about it in detail at a dinner in New York in 1980.
He told me that, when they were playing "Twist and Shout",
he had changed the words in an insult,
what he found hilarious.
First, because it was funny and also because no one heard it.
The first row was filled children in wheelchairs.
John, in particular, was panicked.
He had a terrible phobia physical disability
but these poor children were taken to their lodges
after the concert as if they were saints who could heal people.
Sometimes worse, some people grabbed an armchair
when they did not know the child to go to the lodges.
It was a horrible scene
and they were doing with it. It was amazing.
They were obedient.
George said a lot that they weren't progressing musically,
because they were still progressing playing in front of an audience
with whom they had an intimate return
and, to date, they no longer saw their audience.
At Candlestick Park, they were in a cage,
literally in a cage on stage.
We are far from the Cavern, right?
We were working with machines which regulated the volume, the tone ...
and the bass, those three buttons.
We didn't have all these buttons
and all these computers, those flashing lights.
The Beatles contract said
that the promoter had to provide two or three microphones
and adequate lighting.
Songs like "Eleanor Rigby", even if they had played them
would not have had an answer from the public.
It was not a song that makes you jump or dance
and the critics said that it was too dark a subject:
churches, single women, death and all that.
Not in the Beatles style.
For a long time, the Beatles were able,
thanks to their immense popularity in the whole world
and especially among young people,
say what they meant
without giving importance
at judgment, at maturity or the wisdom of the words.
He is just honest.
His answers are light
and his attitude is very strange, sometimes.
we never know whether he is honest or not.
How did this tour, because of this fuss, is it different?
Is it?
Paul?
Not really. It’s just more hectic.
Press conferences are a little meaner.
When we last came, we said
that our responses were light.
They are not this time?
Apparently the questions are more serious this time.
It had no impact on sales.
Sales are ... People who come to concerts
were the same except for the Memphis concert
which was a little less full but whatever...
There was an interesting change in the music industry
in 1966 and 1967.
It was the beginning of use of the word "rock".
Never heard before.
In 1967, the event of the year was the Monterey Pop Festival.
"Pop" was a buzzword and who was at this festival?
People we would call rock stars.
Little by little, that year,
the press has started to use the word "rock"
and they applied it to all groups
who did not depend by authors of Tin Pan Alley
and groups that played their own music with real musicians.
Most bands like this
wanted to give themselves a reputation as protesters
letting hair grow
and the Stones were the first.
Then the Who knew how to pass from pop to rock.
Will you iron albums Beatles?
The people of Capitol Records who distribute these albums
in this country asked me to. Brian Epstein wanted to know
when the ban would be lifted,
because everyone expect a gesture from us
and wanted to know what to do. I have no price.
I don't ask the Beatles anything.
I do not know.
I want them to make me change my mind on them.
I want to see them...
I do not know, I want to see them grow a little.
Disc jockey Tommy Charles at the origin of this protest said
that he would no longer play your albums until you grow up.
What do you think ?
I do not care that he no longer passes our titles.
Here is the problem :
when we say things like that,
we are accused of being childish.
We don't say something like that unless you're an idiot child.
Do you feel that the Americans
transform this in a witch hunt?
Do you agree to talk about Vietnam in America ?
- Is it really useful? - I do not know.
If we can say that war is useless
and let a few people believe us, then it is useful.
But we cannot say it too much. Pity.
It's stupid to be in America
and not to talk about Vietnam.
But why you? You are there to entertain us.
Americans always ask to the stars what they think.
Like the English.
It's show biz.
You can't shut up on what's going on
in the world unless you are a monk.
My apologies to the monks! But I think so ...
They took the reins of what had already started ...
SISTER OF JOHN LENNON
... the adolescent revolution as a full human being.
The Swinging London was a huge movement.
Based on the counter-culture:
everyone had long hair, beards and mustaches
and everything else. They were going to the UFO Club and other places like that.
All the psychedelic stuff with the Pink Floyd.
There were mini skirts, new trends, boutiques
and everything else and it was changing all the time.
I was a model for Foale and Tuffin
but we also had a store and, when I was not wearing the clothes ...
SISTER OF PATTI BOYD
... I worked there
and the boys from the shops from Carnaby Street came
and we shared the albums.
We were not interested to music and style.
It all started when Paul had his motorcycle accident
and broke the front tooth and opened her lip
the day before the clips were filmed from "Rain" and "Paperback Writer".
He let his mustache grow not to be embarrassed
by his broken tooth.
He didn't think about going to the dentist.
He used chewing gum to hide it
and he let his mustache grow to cover his war wound.
The others thought it was cool
and they did the same.
Suddenly, the whiskers and stuff like that,
drugs and a different vision of the world ...
Everything you do as a musician,
it comes out in your songs, in one way or another.
There is always a link with your experience.
We were smoking weed at the time
and it changes your perception.
It makes it fall a number of walls.
We protested against the state
and we stayed in touch with our creativity.
They were constantly trying to detach from this image
of the four well-groomed fluff.
It was one of the reasons behind all this:
to be different, to dress differently, look like adults.
Will the Beatles split up?
Absolutely not.
In the article of the day, is it true
that they plan to separate?
Not at all.
Why is there not of planned tours
for Christmas and America next year ?
They are involved in several projects.
John Lennon is making a film.
Paul writes music for a new Hayley Mills film.
And...
I do not...
They will be in this country
at the end of December ... November.
They will record other albums and ...
They are working on the next film.
Will there be any changes in their work ?
Will there be fewer tours?
It's possible.
As I have said, there will be no significant changes
but the Beatles have always progressed
and to progress, you have to change.
They had a nice antenna. They could bounce back quickly.
It's a way of doing things
and it was part of their education.
And they were ...
They were...
Apart from "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields",
they did not get caught for Americans.
They were no longer pseudo-Americans.
They did not have an American accent.
Paul's father said: "Why say 'yeah'?
Why not 'yes'? "
They used their own culture,
what is interesting and "Penny Lane" is ...
These are two fantastic songs.
In fact, the real tragedy of Sgt. Pepper,
is that these songs are not there.
PENNY LANE BARBER
It would have been a fantastic album. They should have
add them by saying: "Two songs from before."
And these are the best.
"Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever".
A very specific: the very precise image by Paul McCartney on the 1950s
in a district of Liverpool that they knew well.
Another slightly more surreal from John
but which gives an impression likelihood.
John's surreal vision from a place he knew as a child.
When they stopped touring ...
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHER
... they were responsible for themselves.
They did Sgt. Pepper in their own way
and they started to ignore Brian Epstein who no longer controlled them.
They started to work with George Martin.
George looked after technical aspects.
He gave his opinion but they did what they wanted.
George Martin said it very quickly.
When the tours ended, Brian felt helpless.
On tour, he didn't do much.
He was with them. Everything was organized
by the local promoter
but he was traveling with them.
He had the impression to be part of the group.
After that, he couldn't find his place
in the studio.
He never helped create a song.
He was not George Martin
and he felt completely neglected at once.
And that wiped it out.
He started taking more drugs, to play more
and he felt that their relationship
had been deeply damaged.
Brian’s role, like theirs, had changed
but for me, he will always be the fifth Beatle.
He drove them from the Cavern to world scenes.
In early 1967, as they ...
As they had made pieces played during the rave at Roundhouse,
and, as far as I know,
only Mark Lewisohn heard them
but apparently they just hit
loudly ... a kind of tin can,
a table, anything in the studio for seven minutes ...
There was this idea that everything they did,
especially when it wasn’t forced,
was worth gold, artistically speaking,
but this was not always the case.
Just a problem. They said to themselves, "Now what?"
They had been better group on tour, best pop group.
They had written the biggest songs,
still leading the charts.
Where to go now?
The only way to progress, is to make great art.
"We have to experience something else, go higher.
If we can't become a rock band,
we could make pop a great art,
great music, a big painting. "
This is what they must have said to each other.
"No need to do anything else.
No need to release a new one Revolver full of pop.
We have to do something breathtaking. "
And they did.
I listened to "Strawberry Fields" and I was amazed.
And I told my editor.
The Beatles are still progressing
and I thought it was incredible.
A huge jump from "Love Me Do" or something else.
No one could say
if "Penny Lane" were to pass "Strawberry Fields" but it was likely,
because John had taken the plunge in writing a title on Liverpool and Paul ...
There was a magnificent competitive spirit between John and Paul.
They were pulling themselves up.
In all friendship, they said to themselves:
"I want to have the A side of the single."
Or "He did that. I'm going to do that." It was fantastic.
Without any animosity ...
They were trying to be the best.
The plan was to start over and write a whole album on Liverpool.
They had considered to do something,
maybe an album related to Liverpool.
Of course, they had "Penny Lane" in reserve and "Strawberry Fields"
and "A Day in the Life".
And George Martin said:
"You are silent for too long."
They gave him that
insisting on having a double face A.
As a double face A, it divided the sales
and they were only number two.
Meanwhile, in Liverpool,
there was a group, the Hillsiders,
and the manager, Spencer Lloyd Mason,
had noticed that one of the members had found a fabulous title
that they wanted to record.
They sent it to their manager AandR at Decca, Noel Walker,
who also came from Merseyside, and said:
"We want to record this with an orchestra. "
It was a title called "Release Me".
Instead of saving it with the Hillsiders,
he passed the title on to someone for whom it was the ideal title,
at Engelbert Humperdinck
and it became number one
and he prevented the Beatles to be in the lead
for the first time from several albums.
The fault of a group from Liverpool.
The Liverpool themed album,
there was enough with "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane"
for more than one album.
They did it with a single.
They did it in a magnificent single double-sided A.
ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS DECEMBER 1966
- A word, please? - Yes.
Will the Beatles split in 1967?
They can work solo or together.
We are linked to each other whatever we do.
Is there a moment where you haven't worked together?
It happened during a period
but we end always by coming together.
You need others to get ideas
and we get along very well.
Are you going to make movies on your side next year?
I don't want to make a career out of it. I did it because I liked it
and that I accepted Dick Lester's proposal.
I would not have done it if it hadn't pleased others.
They said, "Okay." We were on vacation.
Do others have this kind of ambition?
No, nobody is really interested.
I am not so interested.
- What do you want to do ? - No idea.
I want to do a few things.
You haven't decided what yet?
I will try several things
but I learned more about the movies by doing this.
Collaborating to write,
you will continue?
Yes, we will continue to write all of our lives,
whatever happens, because you can't stop.
We end up writing, whether we want it or not.
Do you think the tours, like those in America
or the one in England, the fans ...
There comes a time when it doesn't work anymore,
because it no longer fits to our recordings or our films.
They knew they were taking big risks in 1966 and 1967.
They did not know if people would follow them,
if it would work and they calculated:
"We risk losing a big market share.
We are too daring. "
HOW I WON THE WAR
Then they decided it would become
what's called a concept album
like Frank Zappa had made one, Freak Out,
and McCartney was enthusiastic to this idea.
As Ringo said later, they made two other pieces
and they said to themselves: "Forget the concept album.
Let's make other pieces. "
But, of course, they have been strangely articulated.
It was a mix of Beatles adventurers
and sentimental at the same time.
These different elements are in the album.
And John, weirdly, is the one who associated them
not only with his masterpiece ...
His masterpiece "A Day in the Life"
but he also provided small pieces
who seem to be part from "A Day in the Life"
and Paul's "Lovely Rita".
So, that sounds like a concept
even if they didn't think make a concept album.
- Paul. - Yes ?
- Good evening. - Good evening.
- Don Edwards, ITN. - It's okay ?
A word ? Stop touring, do you worry?
I do not know.
- I do not think so. - Really ?
In fact, for us, it's a performance
and this performance has declined.
We are not progressing if nobody hears us.
You understand ? So, for us,
giving a concert is difficult. More and more each time.
They don't listen to you then you want to stop.
We want to continue but if we are not listened to
and if we don't get along,
we cannot improve, you can't get better.
We try to improve with others things like recording.
It took months and months and an astronomical sum.
Again, that was part ...
It wasn't just Sgt. Pepper. The other great albums of the time
turned the market upside down saying that
the single was the only thing that mattered
and then the album served as a backdrop.
There was the single and a few things
with the name of the single like Please Please Me.
At the moment, the album started to become
the point of concentration groups and pop groups.
They were making albums and singles were born from it.
- Hello. - Merry Christmas !
- It's okay ? - Good.
- Some questions ? - Yes.
- This side. - Which side ?
- This one. - Good evening.
- You are very handsome. - Thank you. I took a bath.
Why are the Beatles going less work together this year?
We don't ...
If we do things together, every four,
it will be as usual.
- You don't want to? - We don't want to redo what we did.
With the film,
there is no decent script or we’re looking for one.
If we don't succeed,
we will do something different.
- Alone ? - Yes, but...
It is not a separation. We will always meet again.
- Thank you very much. - Thank you.
- You will work ? - It depends on the others.
It's tea time, I hope.
Paul had started to work on the idea of a ghost group.
It consists of inventing a group: "We are this group.
And not the Beatles. "
How are you ?
- I... - A word ?
- Yes. - Just a question :
do you think that this year
are you going to separate?
- No. - No ?
No. Not at all.
And another word?
These are already your words.
They were tired of being the Beatles.
They were not tired
to exist as a Beatles
but the name "Beatles" was starting to oppress them
and they had the idea to create an alter ego
who would be called Sgt. Pepper
and that matched the trend military tunics.
It was in the mid-1960s.
If you look closely,
there is a photo of Paul's father, Jim McCartney,
who had a small group in the 20-30s in Liverpool.
He played the piano by ear in the Jim Mac Jazz Band.
There is a photo of them at the end of the 1920s
and they surrounded a bass drum
and it sounds like the concept of Sgt. Pepper,
without marijuana.
They became the precursors of a joke in the world of rock 'n' roll.
How long can we spend in a studio for a project
and how much can we spend?
The Beatles were in the studio for Sgt. Pepper
and everyone said: "It must be super exciting."
The most boring period in all my life.
We used to record in a few days, sometimes a week.
Revolver took a few weeks
but Sgt. Pepper dragged on,
because they hadn't written it together.
The only one who was prepared for the studio, it was Paul.
When they were in the studio, no woman was allowed,
not even the wives.
You know, they ...
Even during tours. It was like that.
The boys were leaving.
I think it's Chris O'Dell who had the guts to say:
"Can I come to a session?"
We never imagined
be able to attend a recording.
People wonder why groups have more time to record.
It's not record label money.
An advance on the group's royalties. So the record company doesn't care.
Often, the record company worries. "We give them time.
If they don't make a tube, we will pay for them. "
A successful group, we give them all the time they want.
They pay. It's taken from their royalties.
It is not explained to the groups.
They think to use record label money
and, meanwhile, they have enough money
to buy drugs and do stuff in the studio
that don't make them move very quickly and the recordings are lying around.
Paul was leading the boat.
George and John took care of it when it was
of their compositions but it was Paul at the helm.
He said, "Like that." And they were doing
dozens and dozens of takes
and I thought: "It was good the first time.
Why didn't they take it? I would like to go back. "
Even experienced engineers
were surprised by the Beatles' demands.
Nobody had ever done that.
In a sense, Abbey Road was a blessing for them.
They were enthusiastic and teeming with ideas
and these are the best times of life,
in my twenties. They could do whatever they wanted.
They had the nerve to say: "We want to do things."
The first time they came,
they had gone through the entrance on the side. There, in front.
"Whatever you want to do, we are following you. "
The Beatles tore to pieces what we took for granted
like spending three months in the studio.
We don't tick when U2 goes by two years making an album.
The Beatles were the first.
The Beatles were the first to make such an ambitious album,
an album far from pop albums,
not just pieces to dance or listen in the car.
I think John was a genius.
There is no doubt about it.
ON THE ROAD TO GREECE JULY 1967
How many geniuses can there be in a group?
But, without Paul, I don't think John would have done what he did with his life.
I called them the dream team.
Paul had lost his mother at the age of 14.
He spent a lot of time with us.
My mother said, ironically:
"Poor boy, he lost his mother."
When our mother died,
a real link instantly woven between them
and I think this relationship was the basis of the Beatles.
John had that reputation.
THE DISSENTORS
He was the one who attracted others, because he had a bitter mind
and he had a rebellious side
which doesn't matter much.
Paul was very polite
and people are usually attracted to the rebel,
as I immediately was. That's what drew me to his place.
Paul was an avant-garde. It was very important.
No idea was too far-fetched for him
and he read a lot,
went to exhibitions,
listened to avant-garde composers
and developed along this path very significantly.
John ...
John read a lot and wrote a lot of songs
home because he had family responsibilities.
Paul was ahead of him in exploring London,
in the forefront, in the underground movement.
John was ...
He liked it but he didn't ...
He was not daring enough to do it himself.
But, in November, he meets Yoko Ono
at the opening of a gallery ...
YOKO ONO, LONDON, AUGUST 1966
... and we know where it got him.
One of the great myths
annoying Paul McCartney still today,
because it tends to be tenacious,
is that John was hungry for experiences.
And that Paul was a brave slipper who was not taking a risk.
It is not true.
As Tony Bramwell said,
John was a big slacker who was staying in his suburban lodge.
Paul lived in the heart of London.
Paul has always sought to improve.
He bought books on modern art when he was 13
and he was interested in the whole avant-garde from London
and especially to complex music, brave and very contemporary,
nothing to do with pop, like John Cage,
Luciano Berio and the others.
He knew all this.
Endless soundtracks.
Paul was a leader.
There was a bookstore and a gallery
and Paul had given the order that we send him all the news
and then he talked to John about it.
So Paul was talking to John about it:
"Relax, turn off your mind and let yourself be carried by the current. "
John read the book and he wrote "Tomorrow Never Knows"
and John was the avant-garde.
They were more involved in modern art
and in modern classical music than they let it appear.
Remember they were in high school.
And, for its part, John went to art school.
Unlike other rock stars ...
I have to choose the names ...
... who left school at 15 and barely knew how to read and write.
The Beatles, apart from Ringo who never went to school ...
The Beatles were high school kids who had read Shakespeare in class,
who had read novels and poems.
John and George lived in the countryside.
Paul lived in the heart of London.
They no longer passed all their time together.
Until 1966, they were still with each other.
They were that four-headed hydra.
They were never seen alone.
Paul was the most musical
and trained John.
So it was much more nuanced than that.
The idea that Paul was a straight man
in charge of press relations,
this was partly true,
but he was also extremely gifted.
There were rumbles ...
different music who came back from before,
who came back from Revolver.
The wait was high for Rubber Soul and Revolver
but it was at its peak for Sgt. Pepper.
Largely because of the weather spent in the studio.
It was constantly highlighted in the articles:
all the money spent, the time it took.
There were these four geniuses with George Martin.
If they spent that much time on something, it was going to be amazing,
because it couldn't be otherwise.
SGT PEPPER EXHIBITION THE HISTORY OF BEATLES
We have to come back at the time of its release.
People have no idea of the difficulties.
It has been done with a four track recorder.
George Martin said it was very difficult.
Nowadays, we see all the studios can do
and yet this album, designed with a four track recorder, remains magic.
I remember the day they decided words on the cover.
For all albums released before,
we had exchanged sharply on words.
We did not know...
One of the great joys brought by the Beatles,
it's their Liverpool accent.
A great story for me ...
I worked at Stafford Street
and George came to see me:
"I have these lyrics. Could you type them in?
Because they are illegible. "
He said to me, "I sit by your side
and I'll read it to you so you can type it. "
So I did it.
When the page was finished, he handed it to me
and I threw it in the trash.
All songs from Sgt. Pepper were in the trash.
If I had known...
The EMI group was very shocked
by the amount spent on coverage
and they also wanted bring up all the lyrics.
The Beatles held out the stick to be beaten
because once the audience would have read the lyrics he might
interpret them
and impute meaning to them which probably didn't exist.
They had a pocket produced by The Fool group
psychedelic style.
Robert Fraser, their advisor
and owner of a gallery, said to them:
"It won't look good, because it will age quickly. "
They decided to keep this concept and Paul said:
"We are going to write a list of all our heroes and that will make the cover,
heroes and people that we admire will be on this album. "
Brian Epstein was in New York, during that time,
and he was horrified at the news.
He said to himself, "All these people. Only the Beatles count. "
He had decided to return to London
but he had a vision where his plane crashed.
So he left a message to Nat Reese's lawyer:
"A brown blanket for the album Sgt. Pepper. "
The public expected them let them be ahead in everything.
We said to ourselves: "The Beatles first
and the others follow. "
Of course, it was the time of military tunics
that Sgt. Pepper kissed. Then it was the hippie era.
As you would expect, John Lennon wanted
Jesus Christ, Hitler.
Hitler is on the board but it is hidden.
When Sir Joseph Lockwood of EMI arrived
and saw Gandhi, he was struck down.
"Impossible. We sell well in India."
So he was dismissed.
But...
Peter Blake had succeeded to get nine wax dummies
from Madame Tussauds:
four of the Beatles and other people
like Sonny Liston and Diana Dors.
I told them very early:
"You have all your heroes, your actors and your musicians.
But no footballer? "
They replied that none of the four was not interested in football
even if they had grown up in Liverpool.
During teenagehood, they had not attended matches.
They weren't very fans.
They were too busy to play guitar in the Quarrymen.
Paul later said he was coming from an Everton family
but he never said it in front of me
and his parents, his father, either.
So they said: "It's a good idea."
They added a footballer at this meeting:
Albert Stubbins.
John had chosen Albert Stubbins, because his name amused him.
If it had been another year,
there would have been Ravi Shankar and the Maharishi.
There were a lot of Americans ...
At that time, there was no Internet.
You had to write to them to have their permission
and, if they were dead,
you had to ask their families.
I have a file of this thickness
matches for Sgt. Pepper.
Chertsey.
Ready to go to Weybridge, a bohemian caravan.
A gift for a four year old child who already has everything.
His name: Julian Lennon, son of John Lennon.
Who else but the Beatles?
£ 4,000 for this vehicle entirely renovated and brightly colored,
a great toy for a little boy.
She was escorted by the police
but not all fathers spend so much money for their children.
It's in this kind of occasion that money can buy love.
And if he decides to leave the house, which seems unlikely,
he will be the best equipped gypsy on the roads.
I was visiting a friend of mine on King's Road.
We were many, sitting around the table,
to listen to good music and smoke weed
and no one was talking.
There were books on this table.
Very interesting spiritual books.
I took one, Karma and Rebirth,
written by a certain Christmas Humphreys.
I was leafing through the book and I saw this sentence:
"Life goes on with you and without you."
I thought to myself, "This is very special."
I called Patti and George
and George answered. I said, "Listen to this:
'Life goes on with you and without you.' "
He loved it and he made it
the song "Within You Without You".
George Martin told me later, after the death of George Harrison:
"If it's the first song
from the second side of Sgt. Pepper,
it is so that the listeners go directly to the second song.
I hadn't imagined that it would work.
The sitar in the songs, in rock or psychedelic music,
it was dominant in the album Sgt. Pepper.
Nobody had ...
We saw Elvis and Little Richard
but we never would have imagined see a sitar
in a popular group at that time.
Paul rightly said, growing up,
that the album booklet was very important,
as important as the colors of the label and that smell of the album.
He was aware tactile and visual aspects
an album and all the details that a child absorbs
and even Garrod and Lofthouse,
impressions at the bottom.
He wanted it to be filled with elements:
illustrations, small gifts.
The Fool had done ...
Like a spot of color on the inside page.
It was up to par. It was breathtaking.
You opened and they were there, in this Sgt. Pepper
and you open the booklet and you said to yourself:
"We can detach the mustache."
There is Sgt. Pepper. You can detach it and stand it up.
The dilemma was:
"I leave it intact so as not to damage it? "
That's what I did because you will not go far
with the paper mustache, right?
Especially at ten but ...
But I still have it. Intact.
And there was something who grabbed you in the booklet.
It was Paul's idea.
I had seen his drawings. I had heard discussions.
About the title.
I had heard how they would arrange it.
I came by one day and he said: "We are taking pictures this evening."
So I jumped into his Mini Minor
and we went to the studio by Michael Cooper on Flood Street.
Leaving Paul’s house, that he still has, right around the corner,
he said, "We will need of objects to decorate the front. "
I had seen drawings and they kept changing their minds.
I had seen the costumes. They had tried them and said:
"No ... I want another one."
There he said, "Take something to put it at the bottom of the photo. "
I looked around and I took a statue from his shelf.
I had no idea what it was.
It looked like that.
Like a rocket we gave them a few years earlier.
John had given his own to a fan who had come to his house.
He had given it to her.
So i took it from in front of his Magritte.
He adored Magritte.
He had bought Magritte's painting with an apple,
used by Apple.
And Linda bought her
the palette of paint and the easel from Magritte
and he wanted Magritte on it but not the old ...
Robert Fraser's people thought he was an agent.
To me, it was a disaster.
It could have been a wonderful concept,
all heroes and men who influenced them,
which would have given a beautiful image of the Beatles.
And it was rejected. So do not imagine
that it's the real, the authentic cover because it isn't.
There was a deductive logic:
"Who have they left out?
Why them? "
These are the personalities of the time,
the biggest.
We never knew if they were going to parody them
or say, "They are our heroes."
To me it was very ironic.
I said to myself :
"They laugh a lot about it."
They staged these people in one way,
saying, "These are all our friends."
And the charming little attention: "Welcome to the Rolling Stones."
It was incredibly expensive.
At EMI, we thought they were crazy.
"Why do all this for a pop album
who will be replaced in six months by another?
It's ... "They didn't understand.
The Beatles had ambition.
Ambition, talent and ego.
"We want to do something special and it will be good. "
There are also the medals. Pete Best's father
organized boxing fights in Liverpool, at the Liverpool Stadium,
and he had ...
He had a kind of cup who was to come back to him in Liverpool
and Neil Aspinall grabbed it to use it on the cover.
My mother’s family, even if they were English,
they were born during the Raj, a military family in India.
His father, my grandfather,
was an officer in the Lancers.
She was very proud that his father has a lot of medals.
On many occasions, when she welcomed them,
she was showing the four of them, these medals.
Brian had returned in 1967
when they were gathering business for Sgt. Pepper.
John remembered the medals.
He said, "They would be great for Sgt. Pepper.
Could you ask Mona if I can borrow them? "
She turned to Neil and said, "You have my blessing.
But tell John to give them back to me. "
Neil took them to London.
When deciding,
facing medals and other objects,
John decided that the medals he would wear
belonged to this collection.
So, we see them on Sgt. Peps.
Which is wonderful, is that he kept his word.
He asked Neil to bring the medals back to Mona.
This is how the family ended up involved in Sgt. Pepper.
The album was expected as the best-selling album in the world
and...
They were there.
For years, no one has known.
Chas and Jimi were friends of mine
and I had an Sgt acetate. Pepper
and I gave it to Chas who played it to Jimi
and Jimi immediately jumped on it.
He repeated and appropriated it.
I heard him play at the Saville Theater
the Sunday after the release of Pepper
and he played it.
McCartney agreed and loved it.
He was deeply flattered,
because he was a very big rock star
who was playing his creation and he was a composer.
He liked that the others play his compositions.
When Sgt. Pepper is out June 1, 1967,
he was expected for so long.
The anticipation was enormous.
We read NME and Melody Maker while waiting for its release.
Anywhere on King's Road,
the shops, the stores were playing this album.
It was an event.
The album, when I saw the cover, that alone was an event.
It said, "We're not kidding.
It is special."
A huge presentation.
When we were shooting the clip from "Strawberry Fields",
at Sevenoaks in Kent,
we had a small hotel, Bright's Hotel,
and an antique shop
The poster was on the wall.
It cost half a pound.
It was :
"For the benefit of Mr. Kite" and a whole list of acts.
Pablo Fanque's circus, and all these things ...
CIRQUE ROYAL PABLO FANQUE
... the dancing horse.
He had it framed and he displayed it in his living room in Weybridge
and, right after, he wrote the song ...
The evening of the season!
FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE
... from this poster.
He made it a poetry.
Then George Martin added these wonderful funfair effects.
A masterpiece.
He was inspired by other horizons.
As in the album Sgt. Pepper,
or in the Daily Mail article on her friend Tara Browne
killed in a road accident.
And the same with Paul and the idea of the Daily Mail
for "She's Leaving Home" on Melanie Coe ...
MISSING ... THE GIRL WHO HAS EVERYTHING
... who ran away with a man.
Paul talked about a man of the automotive world.
Everyone believed that it was Terry Doran
but Paul denied.
Terry Doran was their friend who managed the cars.
Chertsey.
One of the wheels of John Lennon's Rolls. An essence.
At over 80, it's fabulous.
A 1965 Phantom for £ 6,000, wonderful interior and exterior.
As much as the other
now that she's been pampered.
Even a Beatle could not have asked for better.
When Paul spoke publicly about LSD,
he was chatting with a journalist
and it was published.
I remember it made the front page of the Daily Mirror
and, of course, the news, TV news flocked.
John was upset
that he and George were the first to take LSD
and that Paul, a novice,
was the first to say: "I took LSD."
They thought it was unfair,
because they were the pioneers.
Paul, how often did you take LSD?
INTERVIEW TV, JUNE 1967
Four times.
Where did you get it?
As if I was going to tell you.
It's illegal. It would be foolish to say so.
I prefer to keep quiet.
Don't you think this is a subject who should have stayed private?
In fact, a reporter asked me a question
and I had to decide between lying or ...
tell the truth.
I decided to tell the truth
but I didn't want to talk about it.
If it was up to me,
if I could have decided, I would not have told anyone.
Because I don't want it to be known.
But this reporter is the man of mass media.
I would not have said anything if he hadn't said anything, if he had been silent
But he wanted to say it.
It is his responsibility, not mine.
You are a public figure and you said it.
You should have known that it would appear in the newspapers.
Yes, but I only told the truth.
I tell the truth.
I don't understand this anger.
Do you think you encouraged your fans on drugs?
It won't make any difference.
I don't think my fans will take drugs because I did.
But this is not the question.
I was asked if I had ever taken drugs.
Now, the proportions that it will take,
The number of people that it will encourage,
it's up to the newspapers and to you, on television, to decide it.
You are broadcasting this message.
This message enters homes
and I would have preferred that it did not happen.
But you ask me. I want to be honest.
I'm honest.
But, as a public figure, you have the duty ...
No, it's your duty.
You have the responsibility not to spread the word.
I'm ready to keep this confidential if you are too.
If you are silent, I will be silent.
The emergence of LSD, remember,
at the very beginning, it was not illegal in this country
and there was the International Psychedelic Center
where you could go get it.
You could have on a piece of bread.
It quickly became illegal
and there have been several debates very plausible
that it was wonderful to take it.
John always said that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
was talking about his son Julian who had returned from school
with a drawing of a certain Lucy, a girl from her school,
in the sky with diamonds.
He always denied that it was LSD
and he said so.
In my opinion, that spoke of that.
John should have been blind
to not see that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds "was L-S-D
and we know it was not.
Even John said: "It was an accident."
We can appeal to artistic freedom here,
but I think it's more just a coincidence.
The initials "LSD" were pure coincidence.
They ...
There was no code anywhere.
However, for titles like "I Am the Walrus",
people said: "What does it mean ?
It could be clearer, right? "
John was deliberately answering nonsense.
I have a quote in my book about :
"Let them think. It will disturb them. "
He didn't really send messages. He was a diversion.
The Beatles have a good story
which explains that "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds "is not LSD
but it was probably written by Brian Epstein.
In my opinion, they were talking about LSD,
but we told them that it was better to avoid.
However, the BBC was convinced that it was that
and they wrongly prohibited it, because it was part of youth.
In Sgt. Pepper, they knew what they were doing.
They distilled little jokes. There were before
in "Penny Lane" with "Fish and finger pie".
They did it on purpose.
A bit vulgar, it's true.
Obscenities of high school students.
They banned "A Day in the Life". They had misinterpreted it.
"Too many holes to fill the Albert Hall"
which was inspired by an article ...
The holes in our roads
... on the holes at Blackburn
and they believed it was holes made with syringes
so they banned it.
This is the attitude that reigned at the time.
Obviously, in this album, they took all the risks.
They took all the risks
when they made the long cry of "I'd like to plug you in."
LONDON, APRIL 1967
They knew what they were doing
and they managed to get by there often
they thought they could get away with that too.
They opened the world
to psychedelia and psychedelic drugs.
They had the platform.
There was a lot going on in America,
drugs and Timothy Leary.
To arrive at the superb replica from Bardo Thödol:
"She said, 'I know death.'"
Which was revolutionary.
Suddenly, from "She Loves You" to that.
It was a spectacular statement.
In general, it was Mick, Keith and their group of troubadours
who were known for having a bad influence
and to be men to whom one would not entrust one's daughter
but the Beatles weren't saints.
Besides, they would have admitted it.
It was not seen as drugs
who terrified the English,
like cocaine that has always existed.
Lady Diana Cooper, a woman of the great world,
lived in the 1920s.
Later, when meeting pop stars,
she said, "In the 1920s, we used to sit at dinners
and there were silver salt shakers filled with cocaine. "
So it was not new.
Lennon was reading Lewis Carroll and others
and they were absorbed by this universe.
At that time, drugs were seen as progressive:
"You could find your inner light
and interpret it differently. "
Music has a spiritual side.
They went to the bathroom.
They weren't doing that in the studio.
Or they were hiding behind an enclosure
to quickly pull on a joint.
One day John had to go up to the roof.
This again reveals the proximity between them.
Paul brought him home to St John's Wood.
Neil Aspinall was there too.
They took care of John, because he had used LSD.
When we take acid,
everything that happens during your trip,
you know it was there
and you have to live with this information
rather than repress it.
That's why it was easy for the Maharishi.
Everyone was ready.
The Maharishi era has started with George's wife, Patti Boyd,
who had heard of him.
The Maharishi came to London for years.
I remember a photo of him in the metro,
long before the Beatles don't find out.
They were in the situation where wealth, luxury and fame
are starting to tire. They were looking for something else.
Something superior, spiritual
and the Maharishi had a fast lane
towards inner bliss and spirituality.
It was enough to practice half an hour a day,
perfectly compatible with their ability to concentrate.
One evening Michael McCartney called me:
"There is going to be an evening."
There were always in the 60s.
A simple hamburger and a Coca-Cola
and we called it an evening.
He said: "They're leaving for Bangor tomorrow."
I said, "Where?"
"See the Maharishi." "Who?"
"They met him yesterday."
They went to his party at the Hilton
and they had listened to him
and they were ...
George was already interested to Indian mysticism,
to spiritual awareness and Indian music.
EUSTON STATION, LONDON, AUGUST 1967
I took the train with the four Beatles
and I sat in a compartment.
It was in 1967.
A first class compartment
and, at that time, there was a corridor
and a closed compartment. You could lower curtains.
I sat down with the four Beatles,
Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull
and we went to Bangor.
During the trip, we stopped
twice, notably in Chester.
There were young people on the quay screaming,
asking for autographs. The windows could open.
They had three Beatles but not John.
John said: "I won't sign. It gets me drunk."
And there would have been tears. So, I signed for him.
The Maharishi was on the train. here why we had to take this one.
We went in his wagon.
He gave us a mantra that I will not reveal.
The Beatles are among your followers.
What do you think ?
It's a big promise for the younger generation,
because if the Beatles are using Transcendental Meditation,
they are ideal for energy and intelligence
in the younger generation
and it will lead youth
at a good level of understanding and intelligence.
I am very happy we have met
and they talked to me for an hour after our meeting.
They seem to be smart and honest.
If the Beatles adopt your teachings,
they can spread them among the youth?
Yes, and not only in England but around the world,
because the word "Beatle" has traveled on all continents
and all the young people are fascinated by this name.
What do you think of the Beatles?
Very intelligent young boys with great potential.
And their music?
I do not know her
but as it is much appreciated in the whole world,
she must have something gracious.
Cynthia was the candid of the Beatles, always left behind.
When they went to see the Maharishi in Wales,
it was left on the platform. She missed the train.
They all boarded. She was crying on the platform.
The Maharishi was intelligent and he knew how to make people talk about him.
AUTHOR THE BEATLES '66
Previously, other people
had done the same and targeted wealthy and celebrities,
because they knew that if ...
If their ideas were adopted by high society,
they could escape from the ordinary.
So it was not written but that's what he did
like the people of Hare Krishna,
because they felt things around Apple
and got a record deal.
And if someone knew the Hare Krishna movement,
he was necessarily the link
with the popularity gained thanks to the Beatles.
But, given their experience
and seeing what I went through
at a lower level than they
but I still experienced things with the group,
you want to find more.
Play on stage,
make music, have incredible experiences,
spice up your life
and then you have to manage it all.
They must have said to themselves:
"We will carry spirituality on another level. "
Yes, the Maharishi was intelligent. He had a wealthy American
who praised his merits in America
and his son became Bungalow Bill
in the song on The White Album.
He was aware of the value advertising of these four boys
the most famous in the world, probably,
of this most popular group in the world
even if he didn't know their music.
He had knowledge of their incredible value
to spread his message.
The Maharishi was a gifted businessman
who had studied physics.
He had studied physics in college. He had a scientific side
and an advertising side
and also a spiritual side.
We have arrived in Bangor.
The technicians hadn't arrived.
I went to town
with the four Beatles for dinner.
We went to Chinese.
An addition of ten pounds
and I only had five.
I said, "I'm sorry. These are the Beatles. "
In front of me, servers from Hong Kong
surely arrived the day before
who only heard a Liverpool accent.
It was quite common, Saturday evenings,
that the people of Liverpool come here,
have a big meal and run away
and they thought ... They closed the doors
and they sharpened their knives
and I said: "I am a reporter for the Sunday Times.
I wrote books. Here's my card. I'm coming back tomorrow with the money. "
It was starting to get worse
when George put his foot on the table.
He was wearing Indian sandals.
He asked for a knife and cut his shoe.
In fact, the Beatles were famous for four years and,
like the royal family, they never had money on them.
The technicians had the money. They never paid.
George cut out his sandal
and took out a £ 20 bill.
In the space of four years,
they had become famous
and multimillionaires on paper
and wore no more money on them. He said to himself:
"One day, I will need money.
Or I could be in trouble. "
And it was that evening.
Brian Epstein organized a party to celebrate Sgt. Pepper.
The Beatles originally wanted
make a promotional film or a concert
which would correspond to the output but it didn't happen.
Brian started playing a lot
and take too many pills
and all the rest and he was starting to get lost.
Even Cilla Black and her husband
had said: "Cilla wants another manager.
You don't pay attention to anything anymore. "
He had cried and had begged her to stay.
Brian was ...
homosexual.
And the people in the know had accepted it.
What was weird was that ...
Everyone was thinking that he pinched for Paul,
because Paul was the handsome kid of the Beatles.
But not at all. He was pinching it for John, because he preferred machos.
When he went hunting in London,
he was hitting on the boys who weren't gay.
He made them drink, he ...
I found out later.
He brought them back to his pretty house
to try to sleep with them
and there they beat him up
and it was his pleasure.
A masochist. He liked to be hit.
Then they stole things
often acetates and send them to Radio Luxembourg
and there was panic
they don't steal jewelry or money
but unpublished tapes of the Beatles.
There was nothing to do for Brian.
But don't forget that his company,
NEMS,
had become the biggest entertainment agency in the world.
She represented everyone.
The Beatles, Andy Williams, the Bee Gees, Cream, Donovan,
Tony Bennett and all this in the space of three or four years.
If the Beatles had stopped touring, which was the case,
and their registration contract
was signed, sealed and delivered,
just like their advertising contract,
the manager had nothing more to do, nothing left to negotiate.
And they were looking at another for personal advice,
how to live, how to spend their free time,
how to use their mind.
He felt more and more abandoned. He was taking drugs more and more.
He was looking for more partners
and became fickle.
He was moving away from them
as far as they were from him.
They joined his movement of Transcendental Meditation
and have agreed to take these courses in Bangor in North Wales.
It was a real circus when they got off the train
for this improbable environment
for training.
This is where they learned the death of Brian Epstein.
He was found dead in his room
around 2 p.m. by his cleaning lady.
LONDON, AUGUST 27, 1967
She said he often sleeps late
especially when he had passed a tiring week at work.
Yesterday he would have spent the day at home
as well as the evening, which is quite unusual.
M. Epstein was sick for a few months
and he used to to take sleeping pills to sleep.
Recently, just a month ago,
he was upset by the sudden death of his father.
Friends tried to persuade him to take a few days off.
But yesterday, he still said: "I'm on top of the world."
Half an hour ago, a friend ...
Friends spent the day here.
They came to visit his lawyer, M. David Jacobs.
One of them left and said to us:
"It was an accident."
He was an unhappy man.
He never had real partners.
He had had several, some of whom worked for Apple,
but it never changed into a real relationship.
And when it happened, he had the boys and it had gone wrong.
He was depressed.
He took pills thinking of suicide.
He did not commit suicide but ...
He had attempted suicide before.
And that depressed him.
Would you like to pay tribute to Mr. Epstein?
We are speechless. We loved it. He was one of us.
- You can't ... - Not a tribute with words.
What do you plan to do?
Go back to London and be useful.
Do you have a comfort message?
Yes, we ...
Meditation has given us enough confidence to endure such an ordeal
even in such a short time.
We learned that ...
Death doesn't really exist.
It's a death on a physical level but ...
Life goes on and we have to move on.
But ...
It's not as disappointing as ...
It is and it is not.
which is comforting, is knowing that he's okay now.
I see you have discussed it with the Maharishi this afternoon.
What are the tips that he gave you?
He told us ...
not to let us overwhelm by grief and ...
To make our memories with Brian happy times,
because all our thoughts for him will travel to him.
He had met Mr. Epstein?
No, but he couldn't wait to do it.
- Tomorrow? - Yes.
Thank you very much.
In this interview, we can see that John is in shock.
They were really fascinated by the Maharishi.
It was not another diversion.
They believed it.
They were immersed in this chaotic world.
Brian was dead.
And it was ...
EPSTEIN (THE MAN WHO MADE THE BEATLES) IS DEAD AT 32
There is always a moment in our lives where we turn to religion
as a lifestyle, as a philosophy, looking for answers.
And that's what they did.
A friend called me very early.
I couldn't believe it.
And I said to myself: "Where are we going now?"
It was a terrible shock for everyone.
Where were we going now?
The Maharishi said to them:
"Don't worry, he ...
He took the next step.
Do not be sad.
He left and it will turn into that.
He charged them all this nonsense.
Unfortunately, the Beatles were interviewed
just after.
The Maharishi had told them all these nonsense
and they passed for insensitive beings.
Brian's mother and brother Clive,
were furious because of that.
The impression it gave.
The week Brian thought go to Bangor,
in fact, he stayed at home.
That weekend, Robert Stigwood invited me
to have a drink.
When I got there, Brian was at home
and we sat down to watch ...
We watched sport on TV and we had a few drinks.
Then we went to Battersea Fun Fair
and we had fun for two hours.
We had to smoke, because we laughed a lot.
I remember I was laughing
and one was not without the other.
Then we went to dinner.
At the end of the dinner, Brian said to me: "I would like us to do that again.
You are free ?" And we organized a dinner the next day.
The next day, I found Brian at his house
and we went to Fredericks for dinner.
We went home to have a few drinks.
And I understood after a few drinks brandy
that Brian wanted me to stay.
But I didn't mean to.
So I said to him, "I'm going." Brian pouted.
I said, "Sorry. I'm leaving. It's like that."
And he told me ... I was leaving and he said to me:
"Can you stay all weekend?"
And so what ?
I knew he wanted me to stay and I didn't want to stay.
I said, "We'll see later." The next day, on the phone, he said to me:
"You come to spend the weekend in the countryside ?"
"No, I'm going to Ireland."
What do we know on Brian's end of life?
Not much.
And we will never know anything.
I spoke to Jo the next day and she ...
They could not...
They didn't know he was at home.
He was supposed to be to his country house.
And she got this call
from the driver saying to him: "I can't open the door."
She went there and she found it.
I said, at that time:
"I do not understand. He was so happy there.
Why did he come back?
Right in the middle of the weekend? "
But no one will know what happened. Never.
So...
You know about Brian and me. I continue ?
- Yes. - Okay.
While I was in Ireland, I got a call from a friend
saying: "Brian Epstein is dead."
I immediately looked at the newspapers
and they said he was found that morning died of an overdose.
I had at home the very first answering machine
that the company had had specially for me.
They were experimenting what we could do with it.
I had a sixth sense inside me.
I knew that when I got home in London i would press the button
and there would be a message from Brian.
I was sure of it. I came home and I pressed
and there were several messages from Brian.
He had gone to the countryside as expected.
He called my house when I was not there
to say to me, "If you're here, join me in the countryside. "
Then he said, "I'm going home.
You can pass ?"
I did not hear these messages. I was in Ireland.
The messages continued. They were more and more vague.
And it was obvious, by listening to them,
that he had taken pills to sleep.
Each time he woke up, he had to start again one, forgetting that he had already taken it.
And the last message was very vague.
Said, "I wish you were here."
And other personal things which I will not repeat.
Then he died.
So I was a little involved.
And I did the stupid thing what the English do,
I erased the tape.
I couldn't listen to them again.
And There you go.
I didn't know the value of these things.
BRIAN SAMUEL EPSTEIN SEP 19, 1934 - AUGUST 27, 1967
Brian Epstein was part of it all.
And it was a real shock,
because we said to ourselves: "Will they recover?
What's going to happen ?"
In hindsight, it's as if he had played his part.
He left in this other spirit world ...
They were going elsewhere.
They realized that they had lost a protective shield.
Like a protective parent.
Brian's negotiations weren't the best for the Beatles.
Because he was always late, negotiations already made.
He didn't understand this new territory.
But despite that, he was entirely dedicated to their protection.
As...
During the sentence scandal "more popular than Jesus"
from John.
Brian wanted to cancel the tour american
he was so worried about them.
But, ultimately, contractually, he couldn't but he wanted to.
That's what was gone, that shield. A waterproof shield
that he provided them as soon as he met them.
He did everything to help them ...
Brian's group.
Pete Brown and the members from the NEMS office,
they maintained the Beatles.
They paid their bills,
they bought gifts
for their girlfriends and their wives.
It was said that Brian was not a good manager.
He had not been the best when they had become
a mega-group and to earn money.
But without him, they never would have existed.
It was his perseverance ... His affection for them,
his certainty that they would pierce
and that their music was great.
He did other things what managers do
and he did them well.
How to keep profiteers away from them.
He built a wall between them and all profiteers.
Which is weird, for he never succeeded in erecting a wall
between himself and those who took advantage of him,
who clung to him and stole money from him.
He knew how to do it with the Beatles.
He kept them away.
So without him ... Far from his cautious attitude
facing money and finance which has ... All the profiteers flocked.
Sometimes in a group, we need a referee.
Few groups are still agree on everything.
We saw that with Help!
when they all go through the same door and all live together
but it was only a moment For the movie.
Everyone knows that in a group,
the characters develop.
And you don't always the same view
but you have this thing that makes it work.
A consensus with which each member of the group
rather agrees and everything is fine.
When Brian left, there was no longer referee to supervise.
They didn't know how to do anything by themselves.
They had never done anything.
He was still there.
In the group, he was the one who kept it all together.
They bounced back pretty quickly
if we think about it logically.
And they launched Apple.
Apple was a financial measure to try to consolidate their fortune ...
INAUGURATION OF APPLE STORE DEC 1967
... and to try to escape at huge taxes
by investing in a business.
It was all based on ... And it was a mistake.
It hadn't been planned to protect their copyright.
It was a financial measure in the short term.
It was a music label with a secondary affair.
The Beatles' influence had spread to other areas like fashion.
They were going to have a shop ...
They were going to do everything.
But it was also a kind de Conseil Artistique
where deserving young creators could find help and support.
Because the Beatles remembered from the time they were ...
Where they had ...
The Beatles have always been supportive.
It was a legend.
Brian Epstein, George Martin.
Dick James.
Three honest men
who encouraged them and valued them.
But they had suffered. So they were going to help
the suffering people of the creative community.
I interviewed Paul and he was swarming with ideas
about a communist Mark and Spencer's.
And I said to myself: "It will never work."
But I also said to myself: "I'm not so sure."
Because we said: "It's very interesting but ...
it's Paul"
and they might be right. It turned out not.
This is how Alice Pollock and Ossie Clark imagine the girls this summer.
And here are two of the Beatles.
George Harrison ... His wife Patti Boyd paraded.
And John Lennon.
From the haircut to the dress
or the leather outfit called Baz which is worth 25 guineas.
Patti Boyd carries the African Queen.
All in crepe and it's worth nine and a half guineas.
More casual, a white satin jacket and black pants.
Ten guineas together.
I worked for the Apple Store from the start.
I had been there for three months when we went to India.
And it was so different of everything around us.
To start, the beautiful Indian jewelry
and Ganesha's posters, of gods and goddesses.
It was very exciting to work there and it was so different.
But you always had to stick to what we felt at that time.
This is...
The world can be colorful. It is not necessarily in black and white.
Have they seen you before?
- Last night? - Yesterday.
Yesterday they came to see me for ten minutes.
And, now, they've been with me for 10 hours.
After their breakfast.
How long did they stay?
From 10 a.m. to now. About three hours.
What did you do?
Have you meditated or discussed?
Meditation, discussion and meditation. They are very intelligent.
Will they become graduate spiritual guides?
- What will be their status? - I hope so.
what should they do to achieve this goal?
To reach this goal, they must have a deep experience of being.
A doctor said to me, even if it was wrong, that I suffered from angina.
In fact, it was something else.
Different people came to see me.
John and Cynthia came one day,
and John said: "I made this drawing for you."
It was the drawing of an Indian with a turban on his head.
He was playing the flute, sitting on the floor, cross-legged.
A snake was coming out of a basket placed at his feet.
There was an inscription:
"By the power to bring in and bring out,
I beg your angina to go away. Sincerely, John and Cyn. "
George often said, "Take LSD
gave me insights but it was like climbing a mountain,
look on the other side of the summit and see that there are others. "
He wanted to continue his quest
but drug free.
And it gave them a kind of natural break.
It gave them an excuse to meet elsewhere, in peace.
I do not know how the Maharishi entered their life
but he was not the first.
I was often with the group.
I saw them every night at the Scotch of St. James.
We already knew that they saw another person like that.
The Maharishi came second.
As they went up the stairs of Indian mysticism,
they realized that their Maharishi was not as high up as that.
So they went to India with this Maharishi.
Who, we all knew, was a bit of an impostor
and who was not so high up.
But he had followed them up in five star hotels.
It's nice to adhere to Indian mysticism
and all its ascetic dimension while doing it in big hotels.
This is a funny story.
When they decided to go see the Maharishi in India.
Maureen was ... Ringo's wife had a blue fear of insects.
So she went to Harrods to buy a sleepsuit
but adult size.
So that they cannot climb on it.
And Richie, who always had fragile stomach
because of an illness, child,
said to me: "Can you buy me from Dr. Collis Browne, several liters,
and white beans in sauce and put it all in a suitcase?
White beans, Collis Browne. "
So, I obeyed and it was full.
This suitcase full of Collis Browne and of...
They returned two weeks later.
I said to Maureen: "It has been a long stay.
You got rid of all the white beans? "
Obviously the concept of Apple
was born before Brian died.
He was also worried about that,
it would take him away even more. Because he had not been consulted.
They weren't pushing him out
but it was not a project who was born at his instigation.
I heard about Apple a few weeks before his death.
It was one more element that made him feel
that he was no longer part of the group.
When they launched Apple,
we had lunch at the head office.
We had a chef and everything.
One day Paul came by
and they were losing money. They were giving too much.
He said, "I brought in a guy who will tell us where we are wrong
in our business plans. "
It was Beeching.
They invited him to lunch ...
PRESIDENT OF BRITISH RAILWAYS
... to use his brain to understand what they were doing wrong.
They had lunch
and I took the notes at the meeting that followed.
He looked at Paul and said,
"I'm not going to help you much.
Because I work for organizations much larger than Apple. "
And Paul said to himself, "Oh, my God."
I looked at Paul and said, "Indeed."
They had good ideas but also eccentric ideas.
They wanted to open a school, publish books.
A lot of things. Great ambitions. And they appealed to people:
"Send us your poems, your stories, your novels. "
They found themselves with rooms full of stuff
without being able to look at them. They weren't prepared for it.
And here is another area where they were the pioneers.
They didn't go all the way but they started
to have more control on their products.
Check the album covers.
The appearance of things.
They controlled their equipment.
But not as much as the percentage that we have today.
Apple's problem and the Apple Store
and everything in this building,
was that they had money, they were free,
they had ideas from India, ideas of the Maharishi.
And a bunch of profiteers.
Profiteers who were rather ...
Who were rather talented.
Like Magic Alex.
Who thought it was possible to have a roll of wallpaper with microphones
who would give the best sound?
Magic Alex.
And of all, John was the most convinced of his magical talents.
They were...
We were all naive.
All of this was a new experience.
But I think it was great
they have not been transformed by celebrity.
Everyone who came up with an idea ...
If someone said: "I'm making spilled cream",
John would have said: "We will eat it at every lunch."
Anyone could be hired over there.
So it quickly got crowded. Second-rate people ...
Very charming but second-rate.
The same thing happened with the Boutique.
If you designed clothes
which was nothing commercial, so it was for the Boutique.
Everything they touched at that time
seemed non-commercial.
Neil was incredibly conscientious and a deeply good man.
And Peter worked hard.
The office was running smoothly and efficient.
I had an office between Neil's and Peter's.
Neil and Mal were working on the start
from "The Long and Winding Road", memory of a cassette.
At that time, I was busy ...
mail with America.
All journalists asking: "Do you have old pictures?"
It's like that that we have recovered everything.
They were very gifted.
This night, I was heading for Neil's office.
Neil and Mal were by the fire. I will never forget him.
And I had to go over ...
I shouldn't say that.
Over Derek Taylor, who was fucking on the floor
and which prevented me from passing.
The cartoon was making fun a bit of Maharishi.
does that mean that you’re done with him
- and you laugh at him? - We have passed this phase.
It was kind of a phase.
But he's a good man and everyone is fine
but we don't want any more hang out with him.
I knew he was an impostor at first sight.
I thought to myself, "My God."
One of the problems ... And John was the worst,
because he clung to things.
He clung to things and was easily influenced.
It can be a problem from which they have been protected.
They were locked up in the Beatles for a long time.
They were...
I was like, "This guy is a crook."
I am on that there is something behind.
Meditation can provide well-being for those who like it.
But I didn't believe it. And I still don't believe it.
The Beatles believed on the spiritual side of things.
And they wanted to spread this.
The Maharishi saw in them
their international celebrity.
They could spread his message.
Originally, their idea was to develop
a school of Transcendental Meditation in London
and the Beatles would have been one of them.
Patti had dreams of the Maharishi
who were showing it in a whole different light.
And ...
And there was a connection to Mia Farrow.
There were a lot of people.
But I think they were miles away
and it was a very different life and he was there,
to meditate six or seven hours in a row,
sometimes at night, sometimes for several days.
And it was completely different
what everyone was used to, especially the Beatles.
In one way, the Maharishi had a bad reputation
but it was rather harmless.
He was a little strange.
Today you couldn't say that.
His character was ridiculous.
And he said things which cannot be answered
like "Love each other" and all that.
It was an extension of hippie philosophy.
Poor Maharishi has learned that his best assets were leaving him
and he sat watching them go
with this man holding an umbrella above him.
He said, "Why are you leaving?"
He really didn't understand.
I know that John had a famous reply ...
I don't remember but he said:
"If you were so cosmic, you should know that. "
And it was over.
CLOSING THE APPLE STORE JULY 1968
The Beatles' brief excursion in the trade is over.
According to them, they are tired of this toy.
I'm all turned upside down. I don't know what I'm doing there.
I've been here for 7 hours and I got pushed around.
Upset by the rush?
I have never seen that.
I'm from Canada and ...
- What clothes are you looking for? - No idea. Everything.
- Anything and everything? - Stylish.
Why are you here?
No idea. Because it's free.
would you have come if it hadn't been free?
It's too expensive for me.
What are you looking for?
Anything and everything. I'm not fashion.
A dress or pants.
would you have come if it hadn't been free?
I've been here before. I bought items.
Not because it's free but because I like this store.
You had to ask yourself
How long was going to last the relationship between the group
and the manager?
Then we had to talk to Yoko Ono
with his growing influence, especially on John.
Then you watched the Beatles like a deal.
Then you think of Allen Klein.
Which sends you back to perpetual evolution
Of the history of this brilliant pop group.
For me ...
it's the ultimate album.
It made so much sense and it still is.
And it continued, once his time is over.
This is the number one rock album worldwide.
In my eyes, no Beatles album is bad.
They're all brilliant.
But this one is my favorite.
My favorite, because it's the one for which
I attended all the stages.
And he was so revolutionary in its concept and its coverage.
It's my favorite album.
It was huge, because they had the ability
to promote them in an extraordinary way.
And everyone was in their grip.
We were all captivated by the Beatles.
No one has ever criticized anything: their cover was great,
the songs and the presentation too.
For me, it's a miniature masterpiece.
It was a pop symphony with wonderful continuity.
The main stage, the title song at the beginning and at the end.
Everything went perfectly together.
It was an absolute joy.
There is something for every mood in the Beatles.
For posterity, this is the greatest album of all time.
It's impressive.
What other group who disappeared 50 years ago
continues to be listened to by so many generations?
Listen to the album in mono. Don't think about stereo.
The Beatles weren't there during assembly.
They were in India. Where the four of them used to sit,
and listened to everything and took decisions. It was mono.
This is the most important thing to say on Sgt. Pepper.
You have an album and there will be ...
It was years ago.
There were two or three songs throughout the album
that you really like
and the rest of the album ... it was on the album.
And you skipped them when it was still manual.
The Beatles albums were the reverse.
Perhaps a song you liked less
and you loved everyone else.
They seized the moment. They grabbed it.
They were perfect
and they shot everyone like a locomotive.
They pulled everyone with them.
And if they had put
"Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields" on Sgt. Pepper, it would have been different.
It would have been, literally, the best album of all time.
I contradict myself.
Often, I say to myself: "I can't believe it."
Then I say to myself, "Yes, because ... I knew it would be forever. "
This music is eternal.
It's a great window in an incredible era of change.
If you study the Beatles from any angle,
you study the 60s and you study
the history of the West and its evolution.
But it's endless.
Like people who study Shakespeare for years.
With the Beatles, there is always a feeling of well-being.
I said to my friends, "If you are sad, listen to the Beatles. "
It helps you see the world as a better place.
They have beneficial properties.
Four boys, it worked.
And the talent was there.
I think there will never be other Beatles.
It reminds of the Liverpool Echo
and an article by Brian Epstein.
He said, "I think the Beatles will be taller than Elvis. "
Everyone laughed saying:
"How a group from Liverpool coming out of the Cavern scene,
with all that leather and everything, could become
taller than Elvis? "
Elvis is on the other side, in America.
The biggest star in the world.
History has proven that he was right. The largest group of all time.
He had seen something in them.
The Beatles were embarrassed compared to that,
because there were other good bands in Liverpool.
"Bigger than Elvis? Let's see ..."
Brian was right.
Still today, charisma and excitement
caused by the name "Beatles" ...
Not just in Liverpool but worldwide:
Mexico, South America, Japan, Germany, everywhere.
A small island in Samoa ...
You mention the name "Beatles" and it's euphoria.
This is...
This is the legacy they left behind.
Will someone else overtake this heritage?
Only god knows.
It's a sacred heritage.
And it's wonderful to have been a small part of it.
538 DAYS AFTER RELEASE FROM SGT PEPPER,
THE BEATLES ARE GOING OUT A DOUBLE ALBUM CONTAINING
30 NEW SONGS IN AN ALL-WHITE POUCH ...
IT BECOME NUMBER ONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD...
Where's the dog's whistle?
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