We arrange them in the studio normally. We get a basic idea, because you write a song and you get a sound in your head that you think it’s gonna sound like. And it usually turns out different. We’ve given up trying to plan it too much before we go in. None of us can read music. Our A&R man (George Martin) can read music, so sometimes he’ll say: ‘That note’s just - it doesn’t work. You can’t have it.’ And we have to go into detail with the piano and everything and work it out and say ‘It does work. We’re singing it. It works.’ And sometimes he’s right, sometimes he’s wrong. But it usually all works out in the end.
I find it very similar, only over here they sort of went wilder quicker, you know. In England we sort of had to go around, we toured and things like that and got known. But I suppose the publicity helped a lot here. … We could have just come over and got off the plane, if they said ‘We don’t want to know about that’, you know, ‘Look at them, we don’t ...’. Publicity can do a lot, but you can’t sell anything if the kids don’t want it. … Oh, obviously. Anything in this business is a fad. I mean, we don’t think we’re gonna last forever. We’re just gonna have a good time while we last. … Something that’s got this wild, whatever people say about it: ‘You’ll die tomorrow,’ we could go on working for another five years, even if not at this rate, and make a lot of money. Obviously it’s gonna level out. People say: ‘You’re gonna die next month.’ You might’nt be as popular but you know, you can go on and on from this peak.
John Lennon auf die Fragen, ob sie in den USA ebenso bekannt seien wie in Großbritannien, welche Rolle die PR dabei spiele und ob alles eine Mode-Erscheinung sei, im Gespräch mit Ed Rudy in New York City kurz vor dem Auftritt in der Carnegie Hall am 12. Februar 1964.
***
There were no flies on Frank that morning – after all why not? He was a responsible citizen with a wife and child, wasn’t he?
So beginnt John Lennon seinen ersten Gedicht- und Prosaband „In His Own Write“ (erschienen im März 1964) mit eigenen Zeichnungen, mit experimentellen und witzigen Texten, wie sie oft auch in seinen Songs zu finden sind:
I was bored on the 9th Octover 1940 when, I believe, the Nasties were still booming us led by Madalf Heatlump (Who only had one). Anyway they didn’t get me. I attended to varicous schools in Liddypol. And still didn’t pass-much to my Aunties supplies. As a member of the most publified Beatles my and (P, G, and R’s) records might seem funnier to some of you than this book, but as far as I’m conceived this correction of short writty is the most wonderfoul larf I’ve ever ready. God help and breed you all.
Jesus El Pifco was a foreigner and he knew it. He had imigrateful from his little white slum in Barcelover a good thirsty year ago having first secured the handy job as a coachman in Scotland.
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I’ve got a copy of my book here. I’ll read a poem what is called ‘Alec Speaking.’He is putting it lithely when he says / Quobble in the Grass / Strab he down the soddieflays / Amo amat amass / Amonk, amink, a minibus / Amarmylaidie Moon / Amikky mendip multiplus / Amighty midgey spoon / And so I traddled onward / Caring not a care / Onward, Onward, Onward. / Onward my friends, and glory for the fifty-ninth.
John Lennon im Gespräch für die BBC in London am 19. März 1964.
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I don’t drive anything. I don’t need a car. … Well I mean, I’d never get a chance to use it. I’ll get one when I’m older.
John Lennon im Gespräch mit Gene Loving in der Wembley Sports Arena am 26. April 1964 kurz vor dem Auftritt.
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No, we just sort of behave as normally as we can. We don’t feel as though we should preach this and tell them that. Let them do what they like.
It’s usually adults who don’t hear. Like in Hong Kong in the paper, it said, ‘The Beatles fought a losing battle against the screams’. Now, compared with other people they were quite quiet, you know. They still shouted, and most of the kids could hear but adults point out, ‚I couldn’t hear a thing’.
Not really, because most of the top groups out there are friends of ours, so there’s none of that. The jealousy is only something they make up in the papers. You know, obviously they gotta keep a sort of thing going. All the groups or anything over there are sort of best mates.
We don’t get money from him (Brian Epstein), we get money from our accountant. We don’t hardly need anything because most things are sort of paid through the company. We just hardly spend anything in cash. Just cigarettes, and even that: they’re bought by our road managers.
John Lennon auf die Fragen, ob er sich Teenagern gegenüber verantwortlich fühle, ob das Kreischen der Mädchen frustrierend sei und ob es Neid unter den britischen Bands gebe, bei einer Pressekonferenz in Sydney am 11. Juni 1964.
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I think you’ve got to be, you know. You might get shot.
We’d already made ‘My Bonnie’ and all those other rubbishy records for Polydor. And kids from the Cavern, ‘round about Liverpool, were going into his record shop and saying ‘Have you got My Bonnie by The Beatles?’ So he got interested and he asked one of the kids who were we. He thought we were German. And he came ‘round. We were playing at the Cavern, which is about a hundred yards away.
John Lennon auf die Fragen, ob er sich bewusst sei, was um ihn herum geschehe und wie Brian Epstein zum Manager wurde bei einer Pressekonferenz in Australien in Adelaide am 12. Juni 1964.
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I’d probably would have been in prison.
If the people who read it are sick, it’s sick. You know, it depends on your mind. You can read it and feel sick.
John Lennon auf die Fragen, was aus ihm geworden wäre, hätte es die Beatles nicht gegeben und warum manche Kritiker sein Buch schräg und krank fänden, bei einer Pressekonferenz in Melbourne am 14. Juni 1964.
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It’s about nothing. If you like it, you like it; if you don’t, you don’t. That’s all there is to it. There’s nothing deep or anything in it. It’s just meant to be funny. I’m just writing now when I feel like it. I only do it when I feel in a funny mood. … I did the drawings for the book. That’s the most amount of drawing I’ve done since I left college (John Lennon über „In His Own Write“).
I went to art school because there didn’t seem to be any hope for me in any other field. It was about the only thing I could do, possibly, but I didn’t do very well there either because I’m lazy.
I had a group before I met the others called The Quarrymen, and then Paul joined it, and then George joined it, then we began to change the names for different bookings, and then we finally hit upon The Beatles.
They just make it up about the hair now, but it was something sort of happened between Hamburg and Paris.
Gespräch mit Doreen Kelso in Wellington, Neuseeland, 21. Juni 1964
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Das dritte Studioalbum der Beatles „A Hard Day’s Night“ erscheint im Juni 1964.
I should realized a lot