The TOPpermost of the POPpermost
Lewisohn ist davon überzeugt, dass die Beatles den NME vom Juli 1960 gelesen haben. Aber muss der Ursprung britisch sein? Der merkwürdige Hinweis Johns, dass er den Spruch mit amerikanischem Akzent sagt und die entsprechenden Tondokumente brachten mich darauf, die Vokabel-Recherche auf die USA auszudehnen. Leider wurde ich nicht fündig. Der Film, von dem John Lennon spricht, kann bislang nicht eindeutig identifiziert werden. Und woher stammt der amerikanische Akzent? Zurecht sagt Lewisohn, dass es gerade diese vielen Geschichten sind, die eine Beschäftigung mit den Beatles so faszinierend machen.
John Lennon hat den Toppermost-Poppermost-Spruch lange nach dem Ende der Beatles, nämlich 1980 beschrieben und dabei akustisch eindrucksvoll nachgeahmt. Populär wurde er aber erst mit Veröffentlichung von „The Beatles Anthology“, worin der Ton – Johns Stimme von 1980 – kombiniert wird mit sehr frühen Aufnahmen der Beatles in Schwarzweiß. Aber wann haben die Beatles diesen Spruch tatsächlich erstmals gesagt? Vielleicht erst nach 1964? Also nach Beginn der BBC Musik-Show „The Top Of The Pops“, die bis 2006 lief? Darin fiel oft der Satz „The Toppermost of the Poppermost“. Und später bürgerte sich sogar die Schreibweise „The TOPpermost of the POPpermost“ein. Stephanie Fremaux sieht das jedenfalls so in ihrem Buch „The Beatles on Screen – From Pop Stars to Musicians“. Vorhang zu und alle Fragen offen.
6 Got a good reason for taking the easy way out: 1965
I’m not very keen on being disciplined. It seems odd being a Beatle, because we’re disciplined, but we don’t feel as though we’re disciplined. I don’t mind being disciplined and not realizing it. … I hardly ever alter anything because I’m selfish about what I write or bigheaded about it. Once I’ve written it, I like it. And the publisher sometimes says, you know, ‘Should we leave this out, or change that?’ And I fight like mad because once I’ve done it, I like to keep it. I might add things when I go over it before it’s published, but I seldom take anything out. So it is spontaneous. … I was ignorant of Lear. I’d heard the name obviously, you know, somewhere. But we didn’t do him at school, and the only sort of classic kind or very highbrow kind of things I’d read were at school. And... what is it? Joyce and Chaucer - I might have read a bit of Chaucer at school, because I think they do that. So I bought all the books that they said it was like. I bought one book on Edward Lear, I bought ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ and a big book on Chaucer. And I couldn’t see any resemblance to any of them. A little bit of ‘Finnegan’s Wake’, but ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ was so way out and so different. Just a few word changes, but anybody who changes words is gonna be - has got to be compared. His stuff is just something else. … I love ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’. But I didn’t even know he’d written anything else. I was that ignorant. I just happened to get those for birthday presents as a child and liked them. And I usually read those two about once a year, because I still like them. … It just so happens that my feelings about colored people, or religion, or anything like that, do happen to work with the way I write. I make fun of colored people in the book, and christians and jews, but really, I’m not against them. … I read most newspapers all the time, you know. Because we’re often in newspapers, and it’s still nice to read about yourself. And then after I’ve looked and seen we’re not in it, then I go through the rest of it. And then I finally end up reading the political bit, when I’ve read everything else. I can’t help being up with the times, because I am part of the times through what we’ve been up with, really. … I draw like I write. I just start and draw, and if it looks like something vaguely to do with a story, I do it.
John Lennon am 16. Juni 1965 in London in einem BBC-Radio-Interview anlässlich des bevorstehenden Erscheinens seines zweiten Buches „A Spaniard In The Works“.
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If I hadn’t been a Beatle I just wouldn’t have thought of having the stuff published because I would’ve been crawling around, broke, and just writing it and throwing it away. I might’ve been a Beat poet. … The longest thing I’ve written is in this book. It’s one about Sherlock Holmes, and it seemed like a novel to me but it turned out to be six pages. … I wrote so many characters in it I forgot who they were. … I started all this writing long before I was a Pop artist, or even a Beatle, or before I had a guitar. The guitars came second. … If I had more time I’d probably write more. The publisher rang up and said, ‘Have you written anything yet?’, and I said, ‘No, I’ve been writing songs’, because I can’t do both at once. You know, I’ve got to concentrate on the book or the songs. So I haven’t written anything since then.
John Lennon am 18. Juni 1965 in London in einem BBC-TV-Interview anlässlich des bevorstehenden Erscheinens seines zweiten Buches „A Spaniard In The Works“.
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I was just tagged chief Beatle. … I don’t do anything extra.
They’re just sort of ordinary sunglasses, only they’ve got mirror on one side, so nobody can see in.
John Lennon bei einer Pressekonferenz am 13. August 1965 in New York City.
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We still like it, or we wouldn’t be touring. … Till people stop coming to see us.
I didn’t read that article, but I think it’s quite funny. No, we’re not.
Yes, because I think I’m under contract now, but I’ve got nothing in mind. It’ll be the same stuff only backwards.
How do you know we can’t hear ourselves think? You weren’t in our minds, were you. We can hear ourselves think or we’d forget what we were doing.
John Lennon auf die Fragen, ob er und Bob Dylan eine Person seien, wie neulich zu lesen war; ob er weiterhin Prosa schreiben werde und ob es nicht frustrierend sei, beim Singen nicht die eigenen Gedanken zu hören. Bei einer Pressekonferenz in Toronto am 17. August 1965.
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They’re so intermingled. I’m no different. I don’t look upon it as two different jobs. I change a bit when I leave home because I’ve got to smile more, or something. I dunno. … But I could only stand being ‘John Lennon at home’ for so long. And I can only stand being ‘John Lennon - Beatle out on tour’ for so long. So either one - there’s no preference. I couldn’t stand living without one or the other. … She (Cynthia) used to see a lot of them. She hasn’t seen us for quite a bit, though. She enjoys them. She gets to see us when we stay somewhere in England and do a show. … Well, she used to come around with us a lot and say, ‘You were lousy tonight’, you know. ‘You’re pulling those faces’. She doesn’t like me fooling around. Clowning, you know. She says: ‘Why are you always pulling them stupid faces?’ on TV. I usually pull some kind of face. She doesn’t like that. She wants me to be straight.
John Lennon auf die Frage von Larry Kane nach den zwei Rollen als Beatle auf Tour und als Vater und Ehemann zu Hause am 20. August 1965 in Chicago.
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We’d never start our own label. It’s too much trouble.
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