This was the last song recorded for the Revolver album, a John Lennon song with some help from George, and harked back to a strange incident in a rented home in Los Angeles while the Beatles were doing several concerts on the West coast.
LSD and The Byrds
Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds were among a bunch of people in the home that day for an LSD party with the Beatles (all except Paul, who abstained). At one point, George Harrison said he was afraid he was dying, and actor Peter Fonda, also present and tripping, did what he could to reassure George that he would be OK. But he also went on at some length about how he had almost died when he was a young boy, and then said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.”
When I Was A Boy
John Lennon heard him and went ballistic; he didn’t want anyone to be talking to his friend about being dead, let alone some guy in sunglasses who he didn’t know. But Fonda’s one-liner proved to be very generative – it stuck with Lennon, who changed “he” to “she” and softened his rage so that early iterations of the lyrics also were more even, more accessible. By the time that George stopped by John’s house one day the next year, John had fragments of more than one song he was working with, including one about childhood innocence (“When I was a boy everything was right”) that George helped him combine into what would that be the final version of “She Said She Said.”
McCartney Opted Out
It may be no coincidence that, as at the party in California, McCartney opted out of this song as well, one of the only Beatles tracks on which he does not appear at all. The song is officially attributed to Lennon/McCartney, but it would have been more accurate to describe it as a Lennon/Harrison piece. McCartney recalled in Many Years from Now,
I think we’d had a barney [a noisy quarrel]…and they [John, George, and Ringo] said, “Well, we’ll do it.” I think George played bass.
George Played Bass
And they did. John sang lead, played rhythm guitar, and added a track on a Hammond organ; George did the harmonies, played a raspy, sitar-like lead guitar, and played the bass guitar track; and Ringo’s drumming was described by Rolling Stone as “spirited.”
No LSD
It would not be much of a stretch, I think, to say that we have been living in a surreal time in 2020 and 2021. No LSD is necessary for us. And we – the collective WE – need to persevere and do something about our major national challenges before (how many more?) people know, quite literally, what it’s like to be dead.
Bill Zygmant took some of the most iconic photographs of the 1960s, with many of The Beatles. He took the very first photos of John and Yoko and, when told that John would be on the BBC show “Top of The Pops”, he gained exclusive access to the rehearsals.
“I took the last photos of John and Yoko together before they left for America in 1971. The photos of the two of them cuddling were really natural, and after a few pictures, Lennon signalled to me that that was enough, so I stopped.
Were They In Love?
“If anyone asks me if they were in love, then I say yes. You could tell when they were together, especially away from the camera. I was the only photographer allowed in the studio for the rehearsals, but not for the “live” show, because the BBC had their own photographers present, so I wasn’t allowed to be there then. John was singing “Instant Karma”, while Yoko sat there with what many thought was a napkin, but was actually a sanitary towel.
“I did lots of Top Of The Pops pictures over the years, through knowing the agents. I was well known at the BBC as I was there so often. A lady who worked there said that “you have first choice of anyone at the BBC”.”
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Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles on Magical Mystery Tour
“Strawberry Fields Forever” from Magical Mystery Tour
Equal time here for a critically acclaimed Beatles song, one that some critics have described as a masterpiece. “Strawberry Fields Forever,” written by John Lennon, was on the other side of the double-A-sided 45 with Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane” when it was initially released in 1967, and then included on the Magical Mystery Tour album. It was based on Lennon’s recollections of playing as a child on the grounds of Strawberry Fields, the Salvation Army home for children in Liverpool.
Lennon crafted the song during the six weeks that he was on the set for a small part in Richard Lester’s film How I Won the War. With the help of LSD to give the song its psychedelic tone, Lennon referred to “Strawberry Fields” as psychoanalysis set to music, a look inside the real him, including some of his significant insecurities. For example, in David Sheff’s Lennon biography All We are Saying Lennon reflected:
John Lennon on Strawberry Fields Forever
“No one I think is in my tree.” Well, what I was trying to say in that line is “Nobody seems to be as hip as me, therefore I must be crazy or a genius.” It’s the same problem as I had when I was five: There is something wrong with me because I seem to see things other people don’t see. Am I crazy, or am I a genius?… What I’m saying, in my insecure way, is “Nobody seems to understand where I’m coming from. I seem to see things in a different way from most people.”
In the studio, some elaborate instrumentation accompanied Lennon’s introspection: all four of the Beatles played additional percussion instruments in addition to their guitars and drums, as did some Beatles assistants. Four trumpet players and three cellists contributed as well. And John Lennon and Paul McCartney each played a mellotron, a keyboard instrument that played tape loops and could mimic musical instruments. For this song, the mellotron’s flute sounds were accessed.
Knowing Where We Came From
“Strawberry Fields” began and ended with the mellotron and was dreamy/avant-garde/psychedelic in tone, with a false ending followed seconds later by cacophonous swirly-sounding mellotron, trumpet, and snare. John said this was one of the favorite songs that he wrote.
Knowing where we came from – and where we’re going, together – is worthwhile. Be smart, be safe, be well.
With all of the publicity surrounding the “new” Beatles Get Back film directed by Peter Jackson, I have had countless conversations about the new film. The anticipation is at almost fever pitch as the trailers we have seen look incredible.
It made me decide to back and watch the original “Let It Be” film that was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It has been years since I last watched it and through all the discussions over those years, one theme seems to permeate through everything: we were watching The Beatles fall apart. But were we?
Paul and George Argue
The most famous element was always the argument between Paul and George, where George tells Paul that he will play whatever Paul wants him to, or he just wouldn’t play. Fans also refer to Yoko being permanently at John’s side, which she was.
But was it a negative film? Is it too painful to watch?
I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again, and it was filled with lots of fun scenes where you could see all four of them enjoying what they were doing, especially when they break out into funny arrangements, or the silly voices come out, like in “Besame Mucho”. But, it wasn’t the dark, depressing film that I seemed to think it was.
The Beatles Rooftop Concert
Then of course, we end with that incredible rooftop concert. How Lindsay-Hogg and his team were able to capture that is incredible, with the limited technology and space available. Plus, when you see them performing, I think they were recapturing memories of playing to crowds, which they hadn’t done since August 1966. The Beatles were enjoying themselves and it still such an iconic film.
Apology Needed?
We know Peter Jackson’s 6 hour special series is going to be superb, and it will have been worth the wait. However, I believe we also owe an apology and debt of thanks to Michael Lindsay-Hogg who has probably had a lot of negativity surrounding the film he made. He did a great job with what he had to work with.
Let It Be or Get Back?
Yes.
Enjoy the original, but I can’t wait for the new one too.
Leslie Cavendish, hairdresser to The Beatles and many more stars of the 1960s, caused a storm in 1969 when he revealed that John Lennon was worried about going bald. Of course, the story hit the headlines and suddenly everyone wanted to talk to Leslie about it.
Lennon Could Go Bald
Every publication wanted to tell the story of how one of The Beatles, the biggest names on the planet, was worried about their crowning glory, the famous “mop-top”, could be losing that crown.
John Lennon likely to go bald
Leslie’s Book
The Cutting Edge (Paperback)
The Beatles’ hair changed the world. As their increasingly wild, untamed manes grew, to the horror of parents everywhere, they set off a cultural revolution as the most tangible symbol of the Sixties’ psychedelic dream of peace, love and playful rebellion. In the midst of this epochal change was Leslie Cavendish, hairdresser to the Beatles and some of the greatest stars of the music and entertainment industry.
Jimmie Nicol, a Ringo “lookalike”, John, Paul and George in Adelaide
Adelaide can rightly claim to have honoured—and even enriched—Lennon’s life at times. For instance, Adelaide astronaut Andy Thomas used to enjoy listening to Sgt. Pepper’s in space. And in 1964, the Beatles had the biggest reception of their career, with 300 000 fans screeching like corellas along Anzac Highway to the Adelaide Town Hall.
Lennon described the Adelaide crowd as bigger than New York.
George Harrison and Paul McCartney both returned to Adelaide more than once in later years. Although tonsillitis prevented Ringo Starr from making it to Adelaide in ’64 (and made Jimmy Nicol an instant Beatle), Starr finally found his way here in 2013.
Lennon never revisited Adelaide, but Adelaide kept visiting Lennon.
Adelaide cameraman John Howard filmed the Beatles in Adelaide and also co-filmed the Beatles song ‘Revolution’ in London’s Twickenham Studios in 1968. During a break, Lennon approached Howard. They discussed Adelaide and Lennon said: “Jesus. I’ve never seen so many bloody people in my entire life.”
One of those bloody people, in the crowd at Adelaide Town Hall, was Chantal Contouri. The future international film and TV star found herself suspended from Adelaide High for escaping school to see the Beatles. Unfortunately for her, a front-page story in The Advertiser had quoted Contouri as saying “my school is a prison”.
Fast forward to London, 1969. Contouri was working as a waitress at the exclusive Revolution Club. She rubbed shoulders (and her pink suede boots) with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Raquel Welch and bands of brothers famous and infamous, from the Bee Gees to the Krays.
At the Revolution Club, Contouri became friendly with Lennon, who called her by her nickname, Chunky. He was unfailingly nice and polite and always said “thank you” to her.
Contouri arranged for a nervous Molly Meldrum to enter the club and meet Lennon for the first time. Meldrum proceeded to fall over and spill a drink on John and himself. Says Contouri: “John just laughed and then invited him to sit down.” A good friendship was born, thanks to an Adelaidean midwife.
A fellow Adelaide youth who saw Lennon in Adelaide and then London was Jim Keays, the charismatic frontman from Masters Apprentices. In ’64, Keays watched the Beatles travel in their open-top car along Anzac Highway. He froze when Lennon looked straight at him.
In 1970, Lennon made Keays freeze again. Keays was recording an album with the Masters at Abbey Road at the same time Lennon was recording his first solo album. Keays was left speechless when Lennon stood alongside him to pee at the Abbey Road urinal. “Because it was John Lennon, I couldn’t utter a syllable, and I went ‘Aaah, aah, waah, waah!’ And he finished his wee and walked out.”
Another time, Keays sneaked into Abbey Road’s Studio Two, where the Beatles recorded. He thought everyone was at lunch. To his surprise, Lennon was alone in the studio, so Keays hid behind some speakers and watched. “Lennon was fiddling around with a song, and he was singing, ‘A working-class hero is something to be.’ I thought, ‘Ah, that sounds good.’”
In a strangely similar pattern, Glenn Shorrock, lead singer with the Twilights and Little River Band, also experienced the Beatlemania on Anzac Highway. He then heard the Beatles record ‘Penny Lane’ at Abbey Road in 1967.
Shorrock, whose songs were ultimately produced by Beatles producer Sir George Martin, would later switch roles when Lennon listened to Shorrock’s music.
Enter May Pang. Lennon’s lover from 1973 to 1975 during his so-called lost weekend, Pang claims that she and Lennon continued to have secret trysts after Lennon and Ono re-united.
Jim Keays recreating his bathroom encounter with John Lennon. Photo: Michael X. Savvas
“In 1978,” says Pang, “John called me and asked me to come by for a visit. He told me there was a song on the radio that stuck in his head because it reminded him of us. He couldn’t remember the words, but he did know the tune and hummed it to me. That tune was ‘Reminiscing’ by [Adelaide’s] Little River Band, which surprised him. That became an ‘our song’ for us, and as it turned out, the last. Today, every time I hear the song, I know ‘Dr Winston O’Boogie’ is around.”
John Lennon’s son Julian is also convinced his father has shown him he’s still around. John had told him that after he died, he would reveal his presence through a white feather.
When Julian Lennon came to Adelaide in 1998, Aboriginal elders of South Australia’s Mirning people met him at Glenelg’s Grand Hotel. They presented Julian with a white feather (unaware of John’s statement about this). Julian felt John was watching over him, and as result, started his White Feather Foundation.
Perhaps John Lennon had revisited the site of his band’s greatest reception after all.
Michael X. Savvas is co-author (with daughter Olivia Savvas) of One Dream Ago: The Beatles’ South Australian Connections (Single X Publications, 2010).
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One Dream Ago
In 1964, The Beatles had their biggest reception ever, with 300 000 people lining the streets of Adelaide to see the band (minus Ringo). Adelaide and South Australia also had other (sometimes surprising) connections to The Beatles, many of which have never been written about before this book. One Dream Ago‘s striking cover artwork was created by Klaus Voormann.
