The Beatles solo. Paul McCartney: the illustrated chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo after the Beatles 9781937994266, 1937994260

Table of contents :
Exit the one-man band --
Getting high with Wings --
On a roll again --
Back to earth --
Busted, grounded, dragged and tugged --
From Broadway bum to born-again Beatle --
Real everywhere man --
Love that lasted years --
Stumbling to joy.

Citation preview

T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO GeO rG e HarriSOn

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Mat Snow

T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO GeOrGe HarriSO n

The Illustrated Chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo after the Beatles

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Contents Chapter 1

Meet Hari Georgeson

7

Chapter 2

Letting It All out

17

Chapter 3

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Chapter 4

Materially Yours

27 34

Chapter 5

Dark Hoarse

43

Chapter 6

In Sickness and in Health Chapter 7

54

He’s Not the Messiah. He’s a Very Naughty Boy! Chapter 8

Meet Nelson (and Spike) . . . Chapter 9

Shiva Shiva Shankara Mahadeva Index Credits

61 73 83 92 95

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Chapter1 Meet Hari

Georgeson

“Thank God that’s over!” —George Harrison

Left: An autographed promotional photo of George Harrison taken in 1963, during the Beatlemania years.

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J

anuary 10, 1969 was another cold day in the cavernous Twickenham Film Studios, west of London. That lunchtime in the studio canteen, after yet another morning of bickering and bad vibes during the so-called Get Back sessions/live rehearsals that were being filmed for a potential TV documentary, George Harrison could take no more. The Quiet One got up, quietly said to each of the other three Beatles, “See you ’round the clubs,” and walked out. “Got up went to Twickenham rehearsed until lunchtime,” as he wrote in his diary, “left the Beatles . . . had chips later at Klaus and Christines went home.” Five days later, George agreed to rejoin on two conditions. There would be no Beatles concert before a paying audience (Paul’s idea, on which George was never sold, having insisted three years earlier that the Beatles cease the touring that was so destructive to their music-making), and the group would quit the film studios to resume work at their Apple HQ. Paul aside, George was pushing at an open door, but no one doubted his determination to get his way or walk.

Above: A tense-looking George Harrison rehearsing in December 1969—the same year the Beatles broke up.

A Kid No Longer The previous year had done wonders for George’s self-confidence as a musician. Despite having only one song accepted for inclusion on 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (compared to three on its 1966 predecessor, Revolver), that one song, “Within You Without You,” was for millions of young Westerners a hugely influential introduction to the sounds and spirituality of Hindu India. When filmmaker Joe Massot (who years later directed The Song Remains the Same for Led Zeppelin) approached George at the end of 1967 to create the soundtrack for his new movie Wonderwall starring Jane Birkin, George leaped at the chance. He was excited to further explore the fusion of rock and traditional Indian music under his own name, rather than as a Beatle ranked third in the pecking order.

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Above: The album cover for Wonderwall Music. It was designed by American Bob Gill, and Harrison reportedly asked for a brick to be removed from the wall in the illustration so the gentleman at least stood a shot at seeing the ladies bathing!

Left: An Apple promotional poster for Wonderwall Music. It is a fusion of images from the album cover with the photo of Harrison (taken by John Kelly) from The White Album.

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Above: Harrison (far left) is mesmerized by Bob Dylan's performance here at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. Pattie Boyd is next to him, Maureen Starkey and Ringo Starr are in front of Pattie, and a bearded John Lennon and face-painted Yoko Ono are behind them in the crowd.

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Though somewhat fragmentary and oblique, in keeping with the movie footage, George’s Wonderwall music held its own when compared with Paul’s 1966 soundtrack for The Family Way. This made the fight to get even a single B-side (“The Inner Light” on the flip of “Lady Madonna”) and just one song per side on the Beatles’ 1968 double The White Album all the more galling for George. Yet George’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” featuring his friend Eric Clapton on lead guitar (uncredited for contractual reasons), was for many fans the brightest White Album highlight. Likewise uncredited, George cowrote the hit single “Badge” for Eric’s group Cream. Those U.K. recording sessions completed, in the fall of 1968 George flew to the United States, where he worked on the production of Is This What You Want?, the Apple album by Jackie Lomax. George’s old Merseybeat compadre had already recorded a George-produced flop single for the label, “Sour Milk Sea,” a White Album reject George had written in India that spring. On that same trip, in California, George met the electronic music pioneer Bernie Krause, who introduced him to the newly invented Moog synthesizer, which was to feature on the Beatles’ Abbey Road the following summer. George couldn’t wait to play with this new technology and recorded a twentyfive-minute piece then and there called “No Time or Space.” In February 1969, with his newly purchased Moog back home in his Esher bungalow, southwest of London, he would complete an album titled Electronic Sound that was released by Apple that May. If ever George stood condemned out of his own mouth with his curmudgeonly aphorism “Avant garde? ’Aven’t got a clue!” this album was it. All the same, Beatle George was on a bold journey of musical exploration without the three older Beatle brothers to hold his hand. But the biggest boost to George came at Thanksgiving of 1968 when Bob Dylan invited him to Bearsville in upstate New York, also home of The Band, whose down-home, self-titled debut album George revered. The guitars were broken out on the third day of George’s stay, and he and Dylan cowrote “I’d Have You Anytime,” which would be recorded for the first album of George’s solo career after the Beatles. Always able to add harmonic richness and dextrous guitar to the work of the finest songwriters, George found in Dylan a musician of giant stature who, unlike John and Paul, did not look down on him as a kid.

Extreme Personality In the Harrison family, George was the youngest of three boys, a situation he found replicated in the Beatles (the oldest Beatle, Ringo, joined years after George), leaving him forever shuttling between deference to his elders and rebellion. George embodied opposites: on one side the spiritual dimension of the Krishna sect of Hinduism, which he came to via his discovery of traditional Indian music in 1965, and on the other side his cocksure Scouse wit and love of comedy.

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“

The great thing about Delaney

”

ability to get spontaneous.

& Bonnie was that

—Bonnie Bramlett

Above: (left to right) Eric Clapton, Bonnie Bramlett, Delaney Bramlett, and George Harrison relaxing at a Delaney & Bonnie & Friends concert at Birmingham Town Hall on December 4, 1969. Left: George Harrison and Eric Clapton performing on stage with Delaney & Bonnie in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 1969.

Right: An autographed poster for the original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (with Eric Clapton) in Bristol, signed by George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie & Delaney.

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“I find myself torn between those two extremes,” he admitted years later. “It must have something to do with being a Pisces. They draw a Pisces as two fish swimming in opposite directions, and I do have those two sides. I’m very, very serious about things which I personally feel are serious. But most worldly things I’m very unserious about—I take it all with a pinch of salt. I like craziness. I had to, in order to be in the Beatles.” George felt very much at home combining seemingly mismatched styles and attitudes, and that summer of 1969, when everything seemed possible, George produced a three-minute single for release on Apple of the ancient “Hare Krishna Mantra” among a set of tracks released by the London Radha-Krishna Temple. The single, with the mounting intensity of its chant, bells, and percussive contributions by Paul and Linda McCartney, charted in twenty countries. As the Beatles drew to a close with Abbey Road taking residency at the top of charts all over the world, and John’s announcement to the other three in September 1969 that he was quitting the group (a decision kept from the world while their business manager Allen Klein negotiated a new deal with Capitol Records in America), George was on a high. His two songs on Abbey Road, “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something” (written in tribute to his wife Pattie, and quoting from Apple artist James Taylor’s 1968 song “Something in the Way She Moves”) were widely acclaimed as perhaps its two best numbers, with no less an arbiter than Frank Sinatra, who recorded “Something” twice, calling it “the greatest love song ever written.” George’s first and last Beatles single A-side was a worldwide number one. Typically perverse, now that he finally had the spotlight, George’s next move was to retreat into the shade of a bigger set of musical personalities, wishing no more than to play second fiddle. Like him, George’s friend Eric Clapton was inspired by The Band to explore a rootsier, less ego-driven way of making music, putting the song ahead of the guitar solo. So he broke up the blues-rock power trio Cream and founded a new group called Blind Faith, comprising fellow British fans of The Band, including Steve Winwood. When Blind Faith toured the United States in the summer of 1969, among their support acts was Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, a blue-eyed soul and rock ’n’ roll revue fronted by husband-and-wife singer-

Top: George Harrison and his wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison. They are leaving a courthouse after pleading guilty to a drug offense. They were convicted in 1969.

Right: George Harrison sitting among members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness on August 29, 1969.

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songwriters Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. Eric increasingly joined “ them on stage, having lost interest in his own group. Would you When Delaney & Bonnie & Friends toured Europe, Eric stayed mind if l joined with them as a guitarist in the shadows. Inspired by his friend’s Quixotic adventure making music as a humble sideman, George ” the band? impulsively overcame his reluctance to play before live audiences and joined in the fun. “Would you mind if I joined the band?” he asked Delaney. “Would there be too many guitars?” The tour was turning into a circus, but that was the way the free-and-easy musicians liked it. Picking up George at his bungalow in Esher, they all set off for the next date in Bristol. Among the touring party was the Texan gospel-soul organist and singer Billy Preston, who George had first met in 1962 and then hooked up with again in early 1969 when Preston was playing a London date in Ray Charles’s band. Always a soul music fan and now further spurred by his Krishna faith, George was keen to delve into soul’s gospel roots. Having reintroduced Billy to the other Beatles, on whose spring smash-hit single “Get Back” the Texan played electric piano, George produced Billy’s 1969 album for Apple, recruiting heavyweight rock buddies Eric Clapton and Rolling Stone Keith Richards. The title track to That’s the Way God Planned It became a hit single. George also signed and coproduced the self-titled 1970 album by soul diva Doris Troy, whom he met while she sang backing vocals on the Preston album. One night when the Delaney & Bonnie & Friends tour reached Copenhagen, George fell into a musical conversation with Billy Preston and Delaney Bramlett: If you were going to write a gospel song—and he was thinking of “Oh Happy Day” by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, which was a huge worldwide hit single that summer of 1969—how would you do it? The answer would spark George’s greatest yet most burdensome hit.

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Chapter 2 Letting It All

out

“I can be Lennon/McCartney but I’d rather be Harrison.” —George Harrison

Left: George Harrison playing an acoustic guitar circa 1970.

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T

he song “My Sweet Lord” remains George Harrison’s greatest hit, in which, like John Lennon with “Imagine,” he seemed to condense the things he felt most passionate about into an enduring anthem. George initially gave the song to Billy Preston to record. Then, after cutting his own version, the song became the ultimate showcase for so many of George’s trademarks. First was the slide guitar. Unlike such blues-rockers as the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones or Fleetwood Mac’s Jeremy Spencer, George conjured a sweet, sad sound that shared an affinity with the keening of a human voice and the bowed Indian string instrument, the dilruba. Second was the integration of gospel and Krishna in the vocal invocations of the JudeoChristian “Hallelujah” and the Vaisnava Hindu prayer, “Hare Krishna/Hare Krishna/Krishna Krishna/Hare Hare/Hare Rama/Hare Rama.” For George, it was all music in devoted praise to a greater, transcendent god. Third was the nostalgic return to the sweet tunefulness of pop before the era of sex and drugs. George said he modeled the feel of the song on the worldwide pop-gospel smash “Oh Happy Day” by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. However, Delaney Bramlett later recalled playing for Harrison the melody to a different song on guitar backstage in Copenhagen in 1969, by way of illustrating how to write a gospel song: “He’s So Fine,” which the Chiffons girl group took to the upper reaches of both the U.S. and U.K. singles charts in 1963.

Too Close for Comfort In the act of composition, many songwriters draw ideas from existing songs, or use an old song as a starting point in the creation of a new one. When George brought “My Sweet Lord” to Abbey Road in the spring of 1970, none of the seasoned professionals present spoke up to suggest that its likeness to “He’s So Fine” might be too close for comfort. “My Sweet Lord” was just one of several new tunes George brought to the studio. Having been frustrated at how, over the previous three years, John, Paul, and even producer George

Right: George Harrison’s first solo 45, “My Sweet Lord” was also the first solo single by a Beatle to claim over a million units sold. Left: Popular girl group, the Chiffons, had a gospel-style hit with “He’s So Fine” in 1963. It was this song that would plague Harrison’s legal life for years to come.

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Above: George Harrison, hair swinging, is happily listening to the master tape of his first solo album, “All Things Must Pass” in October 1970. He is accompanied by legendary producer, Phil Spector (middle) and Pete Bennett of Apple Records.

Top right: Derek and the Dominoes circa 1970. Members included (left to right) Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon, and Carl Radle. Their biggest hit, “Layla,” was lovingly written for Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, by Eric Clapton.

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Martin had denied him songwriting space on Beatles’ albums, George had a backlog of tunes he was bursting to record under his own name. “I didn’t have many tunes on Beatles’ records, so doing an album like All Things Must Pass was like going to the bathroom and letting it out,” George remarked earthily. Even though George itched to lay down compositions dating back as far as 1966 (“The Art of Dying” and “Isn’t It a Pity” both date from that golden year of pop and rock), he deferred to Phil Spector’s insistence on quality control and auditioning every song in demo form before suggesting and accepting or rejecting changes. George had been mightily impressed by Spector’s salvage job on the Beatles’ Get Back sessions, which the spring of 1970 became a worldwide number-one album as Let It Be. Despite drawing so much inspiration from the intimate, rural atmospheres surrounding the music-making of Dylan, the Band, and Delaney & Bonnie, George wanted to make a big impression with his solo debut and so allowed the Wagner of Pop carte blanche to give All Things Must Pass the Wall of Sound works. Once more a recognized figure thanks to his cameo as a drug dealer in the 1969 counterculture movie smash Easy Rider, Phil Spector supervised a crowd of musicians in numbers to match his glory days producing the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers in the early 1960s. At the time many of the musicians on All Things Must Pass could not be officially acknowledged

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Above: A colorized reissue of the All Things Must Pass album cover in 2001. The original 1970 cover was black and white and taken by Barry Feinstein. In the photo, Harrison, is surrounded by large gnomes at his home in Friar Park. Many have speculated that the gnomes represented the Beatles and Harrison’s place among them.

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without infringing on the terms of their own recording contracts, but subsequently they have been credited to include not only George’s fellow Apple artists Badfinger (on whose album Straight Up George would produce and play guitar fills on the following year) and Billy Preston, but undercover guitarists Dave Mason and Eric Clapton, who had with him most of the players to constitute Derek and the Dominoes; Procol Harum keyboardist Gary Brooker; old Hamburg pal, the bassist Klaus Voormann; and drummers Ringo Starr, Jim Gordon, Alan White Phil Collins, and Ginger Baker. Throw in Bobby Keys and Jim Price, whose signature brass marked the Rolling Stones’ classic records and live shows of the era, plus George’s close friends, Gary Wright of Spooky Tooth, and John Barham, the arranger kept on from Wonderwall, and Spector had to be at the top of his game to maintain focus. Arriving at Abbey Road, turning down the air-conditioning to icy, and moaning about the British studio equipment, Spector nevertheless created an amazing sound, and all went well until George’s mother died suddenly that July, suspending the sessions. Progress was slowed further when George, a perfectionist in his own way, insisted on retake after retake of small instrumental details; Spector, a big-picture visionary, grew bored and, in breach of his long-maintained studio self-discipline, started hitting the brandy bottle, eventually flying home early. It was the start of the producer’s long slide into self-destruction. But he was not alone. Eric Clapton was introduced to heroin during the sessions by a drug dealer who regularly supplied cocaine to musicians at the sessions, including George—perhaps helping explain the project’s runaway self-indulgence. By the time the All Things Must Pass sessions were over, George had no fewer than twenty-three tracks in the can and asked why stop at a single album? Why not a double? In fact, since George and his fellow musicians had found themselves jamming away after hours, Delaney & Bonnie-style, and coming up with loose-knit but funky music that chimed with the marijuanascented, easy-going mood of the times, why even stop at a double? Capitol in America and EMI in the rest of the world were hesitant to release a threedisc box set onto the market, even one by a Beatle. But George insisted and the labels were rewarded with number-one chart positions around the world for the first-ever triple album by a solo artist.

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Above: George Harrison, cap on head and books in hand, walking to record All Things Must Pass.

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Above: George Harrison sitting peacefully in the grounds of his home, Friar Park.

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Ounce for ounce (literally), the first Christmas since the Beatles officially broke up found George by far the most successful former Fab Four. For George, this before Harrison would was added vindication, since so many of his songs had been Beatles’ rejects, including not only the 1966 wax nostalgic about compositions but also the title track, “Hear Me Lord” and “Let It Down.” A song he wrote in fury during his the Beatles. brief flounce from the Beatles in January 1969, “WahWah,” like “I Me Mine” on Let It Be, vented George’s frustration with the group. It would be a long time before he would wax even slightly nostalgic about “When We Was Fab.” Among the more upbeat numbers were the glorious white gospel “Awaiting on You All,” which rejects the Catholicism of his Liverpool upbringing, and “What Is Life,” a Motown/ rock hybrid like “Keep on Running,” a hit four years earlier for the Spencer Davis Group, of which Steve Winwood, later of Blind Faith, had been singer. It was an era of borrowings. And then there was the hauntingly beautiful “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll),” a cryptic song unless one happened to know that George and Pattie had just moved to Friar Park, a magnificent Gothic pile near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, which had been built by the Victorian eccentric lawyer, horticulturalist, and “microscopist” Sir Frankie Crisp, who would become a posthumous inspiration to George. Featuring a formal garden of twelve acres surrounded by twenty more acres, the grounds boasted secret passageways, two lakes connected by a series of grottoes, an alpine garden, and a maze. The house had twenty-five bedrooms, a ballroom, and a library. Its electric light switches made in the form of smiling friars’ faces were just one oddball touch that thrilled the new owner. Others included lounging supersized garden gnomes with which George was photographed on the album cover, heavily bearded and dressed to do the yard work. The second track on the album was “My Sweet Lord,” which, released as a single, shot to the top of charts all over the world. One of those songs that define an era, it was not only a worldwide smash but a legal time bomb. But when it went off, George would not allow himself to be distracted for long. He had a matter of life and death with which to contend. lt would be a long time

Right: Released in 1971, “What Is Life/ Apple Scruffs” was the second U.S. single from All Things Must Pass. You can just make out George on the cover, playing his guitar in the tower window of Friar Park.

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Chapter 3 No Good Deed Goes

Unpunished

“It was nerve-wracking. I had always been one of the back-room boys.” —George Harrison

Left: George Harrison with close friend and confidante, Ravi Shankar, privately consulting at a press conference promoting the Festival of Indian Arts held in London.

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Above: A sight in white! George Harrison performing live at the Concert for Bangla Desh in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Right: (left) The single album cover for Bangla Desh and (right) the cover for the The Concert for Bangla Desh recorded in New York City at the Madison Square Garden concert.

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T

wo weeks before the release of All Things Must Pass, on November 12, 1970, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded struck the Ganges Delta. As many as half a million people lost their lives in the storm surge and subsequent starvation as crops were lost to the floodwaters. West Bengal in India was badly affected, but its neighbor, East Pakistan, was devastated. A province of Pakistan, it was geographically separated from that country by a thousand miles of Indian territory—twice the distance separating Alaska and Washington state. When, after decades of neglecting East Pakistan, the Pakistani government bungled the relief effort, what had been a separatist movement went for broke, triggering what became known as the Bangladesh Liberation War. During 1971, the Pakistani Army compounded the disaster when their atrocities against civilians added to the vast crowds of refugees. Although an Indian, Ravi Shankar, the master sitarist and mentor to George Harrison, was a native of the Ganges and desperately wanted to help his fellow Bengalis on the other side of the border. The need for relief was enormous and urgent, and Shankar knew that any money he and his fellow classical Indian musicians could raise in a benefit concert would make little difference, so he asked his friend George, the former Beatle flying high on the back of “My Sweet Lord” and All Things Must Pass, for help. “Really, it was Ravi Shankar’s idea,” George told a press conference in July 1971. “He was telling me about his concern and asking me if I had any suggestions. Then after an hour he talked me into being on the show. It was a question of phoning the friends that I knew and seeing who was available to turn up. I spent June and half of July just telephoning people.” George also recorded a benefit single, “Bangla Desh,” which climbed charts around the world as part of a groundbreaking event: the first-ever all-star rock ’n’ roll benefit concert, with its spinoff album and concert film. Actually, The Concert for Bangla Desh comprised two shows taking place at noon and in the evening on Sunday, August 1, 1971, before a total audience of 40,000 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Among the first friends George called were his fellow former Beatles. Ringo agreed right away, but, nervous about playing an entire set before a live audience for the first time in five years, he asked to double up with another drummer, so Jim Keltner, go-to guy for a generation of superstar

Above: An advertisement in Billboard magazine for Harrison’s Bangla Desh.

Overleaf: George Harrison and Bob Dylan performing live in front of 20,000 people at the Concert for Bangla Desh held in New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971.

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rockers, sat alongside him. Paul declined because he was trying to put some distance between himself and the other former Fabs, while John claimed that he could not juggle his other commitments to make it work (years later it emerged that John pulled out when George vetoed Yoko appearing alongside him; John subsequently made cutting public remarks about George’s narrow-mindedness and keen interest in money despite his antimaterialistic songs and pronouncements). Even so, Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, and Leon Russell (hugely popular, thanks to his tour with Joe Cocker the previous year) were charismatic costars. But George’s trump card was his friend Bob Dylan, who treated the crowd to powerful performances of some of his most popular songs, with George memorably playing electric guitar fills on a superb “Just Like a Woman.” It was George’s show, though, and he adroitly mixed songs from All Things Must Pass with his highlights from the Beatles’ last years: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Here Comes the Sun,” and “Something.” Dapper in white suit, boots, and orange Western shirt, yet furrow-browed with an untamed beard and the prophetic intensity of a medieval saint, he pulled off the difficult task of wowing the crowd while never losing sight of the reason they were all there in the first place. A superstar in deadly earnest, his exuberant costars and sensational band making up for his limitations as a singer (he had, after all, only the third-best voice in the Beatles), George set the template for how the public would think of him from thereon in.

Show Me the Money It was a triumph with a bitter aftermath. All the musicians had played for free, some even canceling paying gigs to be there. Their generosity would not be matched by the record distributors and retailers, the taxman, or even Apple boss and George’s business manager Allen Klein (though this only came to light later). Just as the Bangla Desh benefit brought out the best in the musicians, it brought out the worst in the music industry and the money men. The concert raised $243,418.50, which was given to UNICEF to administer, but that amount was expected to be dwarfed by revenue from boxed triple live album (as recorded by Phil Spector) and movie ticket sales. First, the distributors, chiefly Capitol in the United States, wanted a big slice of every sale; George went public with the issue to embarrass them into climbing down a little. Then record

Right: George Harrison and Ravi Shankar appeared on The Dick Cavett Show on January 1, 1972 in an effort to hasten the album release of The Concert for Bangla Desh.

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retailers were reluctant to stock a live triple album on which they’d earn only $1.50 per sale. Again George overcame his distaste for publicity and found himself on The Dick Cavett Show “to try and speed the release of the album because people were arguing over nickels. And so I had to go and shout on TV. And the next day the album was ready to go—they all solved the problem.” Finally, when Apple Corps was accused of skimming off a profit, they were only recovering their advertising and production costs, according to Klein, who also managed George’s business affairs, as well as John’s and Ringo’s (but not Paul’s, with an acrimonious legal dispute the result). Sharp-eyed accountant though he was, Klein failed in one vital duty: to claim taxexempt status for the benefit and its spinoffs. As a result, millions of dollars were tied up in escrow for eleven years while the dispute raged between George and the IRS; in the U.K., after two years of fighting his corner, George had no choice but to write a personal check for a million pounds to Her Majesty’s Inland Revenue on income he’d donated straight to charity. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, Klein outdid himself when he was jailed in 1979 for income tax evasion after illegally selling $216,000 worth of promotional copies of the album. For George, the whole experience was proof of the maxim that no good deed goes unpunished. Nor was the fallout from The Concert for Bangla Desh the worst that the material world would throw at him, as 1971 turned into 1972.

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Chapter 4 Materially Yours

“Fame is not the goal. Money is not the goal. Peace of mind you don’t just stumble across. You’ve got to search.” —George Harrison

Right: George Harrison with close friend and confidante, Ravi Shankar, privately consulting at a press conference promoting the Festival of Indian Arts held in London.

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George withdrew into a dark and uncommunicative mood.

S

ince February 1971, Paul had been fighting in court for release from the Beatles’ business partnership, effectively suing the other three. Public remarks and courtroom testimony grew increasingly acrimonious, with John and Paul in particular waging a vicious propaganda war against each other. But as 1972 dawned, both John and George came to realize that Allen Klein was not all that he seemed. George had been disaffected by the tax fiasco surrounding the proceeds from The Concert for Bangla Desh, and, worse still, suggestions that Klein’s management company, ABKCO, had been skimming the profits. That May, when Klein’s management contract came up for renewal, George—like John and Ringo—would only renew for three months at a time. In response to Paul’s court case against his partners in Apple and the Beatles, George had coined the phrase “sue me, sue you blues” and now had written a song with that title, grafting bottleneck blues guitar onto a gloomily wry do-si-do structure.

Dark Times George was also fighting on another legal front. Shortly after “My Sweet Lord” hit the top of the charts, Bright Tunes, the company that controlled the copyright of “He’s So Fine,” written by the late Ronnie Mack, filed a suit against George, his English and American publishing companies (Harrisongs), Apple Records, BMI, and the publishers that released sheet music for “My Sweet Lord.” In response, Allen Klein met with Bright Tunes’ president and major stockholder to try to resolve the dispute. After negotiations broke down, Bright Tunes went bust and George dropped Klein from his management. But it was not over. It was, in fact, very, very far from over. George, of course, did not know in early 1972 that the copyright infringement case would drag on for twenty years and that he would be betrayed by his ex-manager, that disentangling the Beatles would continue to prove such a legal ordeal, or that so much of the money raised by The Left: Album cover and promotional advertisement for Living in the Material World. The bottom ad features photographs of the auras of George’s hands. The album cover features (left to right) Ringo Starr, Jim Horn, Klaus Voormann, George Harrison, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, and Gary Wright’s face pasted over the body of attorney, Abe Sommers. Abe stepped in for Gary, who couldn’t make the photo session.

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“

Once l chanted the Hare Krishna mantra all the way from France to Portugal,

nonstop.

”

—George Harrison

Concert for Bangla Desh would not go to disaster relief rather to the taxman, the record industry, and his manager. But it was as if he felt a presentiment. Distracted on three legal fronts from both his music and his spiritual growth, George despaired of the material world and withdrew into a dark and uncommunicative mood in which he did little but mutter his mantra “Gopala Krishna, Om Hari Om” for comfort. “Once I chanted the Hare Krishna mantra all the way from France to Portugal, nonstop,” he said in 1982. “I drove for twenty-three hours and chanted all the way. It gets you feeling a bit invincible. The word ‘Hare’ is the word that calls upon the energy that’s around the Lord. If you say the mantra enough, you build up an identification with God. God’s all happiness, all bliss, and by chanting His names we connect with Him.” At last, George’s muse stirred, and in October 1972 George set to work on the follow-up to All Things Must Pass. It would be an even more Krishnasuffused record than its predecessor, but otherwise gathered together many of the same musicians, including drummers Ringo and Jim Keltner, bassist Klaus Voormann, and pianists Gary Wright and Nicky Hopkins (on whose album, The Tin Man Was a Dreamer, George played guitar during weekend sessions while cutting his own album during the week). John Barham again crafted subtly lush arrangements, but Phil Spector’s only credit came for production on the backing track of “Try Some Buy Some,” written by George for Spector’s wife Ronnie of the Ronettes’ fame. Recorded in 1971, it was exhumed for 1973 release minus Ronnie but with George dubbing in his vocal.

Holding His Own Spector’s near absence wasn’t the only downsizing since All Things Must Pass. “Try Some Buy Some” aside, George had no backlog to draw upon, and so with only ten compositions written since 1971 making the cut, it

Above: Nicky Hopkins circa 1970. Hopkins was a frequent contributor to Harrison’s albums, and George, in turn, played guitar on his album The Tin Man Was a Dreamer.

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was clear that he would not match John or Paul for productivity. Mostly recorded at George’s home studio in Friar Park, the new album, entitled Living in the Material World, was a treat for the ears, with the melodies and musicianship upstaging George the lead singer and lyricist. Unlike John and Paul, George’s voice was always reedy and often indistinct, so it was easy to ignore the verses even if George, an old-school pop tunesmith to his marrow, worked hard to ensure the choruses of “Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long,” “The Day the World Gets ’Round,” and “Who Can See It” caught the ear with their deep and delicious emotion. The single that preceded the album, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” was sprightly but lightweight, and it went to number one in America, knocking Paul’s “My Love” from the summit (the only time two ex-Beatles occupied the top two places on the singles chart). Though an attentive listen revealed how preachy George could be on the album, he caught a public mood that craved an echo of 1960s idealism as America was gripped by the cynicism revealed in the Watergate hearings. Its title track, nodding almost nostalgically to “John and Paul” and “Richie” (who, with George, had “got caught up in the material world”), Living in the Material World went to number one in the U.S. and did well in other charts. Unlike All Things Must Pass, though, it soon slipped from the charts and enduring public favor until its 2006 reissue. Even so, three years into his solo career, George was more than holding his own as the commercial equal of his old rivals John and Paul and, without qualification, was perhaps more loved and respected as a human being than either of the others. Pictured on the inner sleeve of Living in the Material World enjoying an alfresco vegetarian banquet with his bandmates on the lawn of Friar Park (with his mansion, Mercedes 600 Pullman, and chauffeur in the background), George looked like he had reconciled the fruits of the material world with his deeper spiritual quest. But behind the scenes, all was not well.

Above: Klaus Voorman playing bass in the recording studio on “BB King In London” album. Voorman lived briefly with Harrison and Starr in their London flat, played bass on several albums from George, John, and Ringo during their solo careers, and he designed the Beatles’ Anthology albums in the 1990s, having designed the cover of Revolver in 1966.

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Chapter 5 Dark Hoarse

“I’m a grain of dirt, and I feel great.” —George Harrison

Left: Harrison performing on stage during his North American tour at Maryland’s Capitol Center on December 13, 1974.

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G

eorge’s friend Eric Clapton had been nursing a growing obsession with George’s wife, Pattie, since he was struck by her beauty upon their first meeting in 1968. For all the musical and spiritual freedom George craved, he was an oldfashioned husband who quashed Pattie’s modeling career. And despite the balm of meditation into which he increasingly withdrew after 1968, he could be a moody and distant partner. One, too, with a roving eye, justified in his own mind, according to Pattie’s memoirs, “by the god Krishna who was always surrounded by young maidens.” After his return from India in 1968, Pattie wrote that, George yearned to be “some kind of Krishna figure, a spiritual being with lots of concubines. He actually said so.”

Below: While his marriage was falling apart, George threw himself into his work and started his Dark Horse Records label so he could record and produce.

Friends and Lovers Despite the love George expressed for Pattie in “Something,” his first and only Beatles’ A-side single, by the following year of 1970, Pattie felt free to respond to Eric’s flirtations, inspiring the guitar legend to write his own classic rock hit in her honor, “Layla.” Eric confessed all to George, whose response was to half laugh it off, then encourage Eric to clear his path to Pattie’s younger sister, Paula. George was not to get his wicked way with Paula, however; that privilege fell to Eric. To Pattie, the whole situation was intolerable, but while she set off determined to remain true to George, over time her resolve was melted by Eric’s unflagging attentions, despite his long lapse into alcohol and heroin addiction. After all, her own lifestyle with George in the early 1970s was on the slide. Friar Park was a “madhouse,” she confessed in her memoirs, with their lives “fueled by alcohol and cocaine.” George, she wrote, used cocaine “excessively and I think it changed him.” By the summer of 1974, Eric was relatively clean and, hearing that George and Pattie no longer kept up the pretense of togetherness—not

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Above: Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd. While married to Harrison, Boyd was the inspiration for Clapton’s “Layla” and, later, “Wonderful Tonight.”

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"’

l d rather she was with him

"

than some dope.

—George Harrison

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least thanks to George’s open affair with Ringo’s wife, Maureen, which, after the shock to the drummer wore off, did not end the two former Fabs’ friendship—he made his move. Pattie moved in with Eric, divorcing George. (Clapton’s subsequent marriage to Pattie inspired yet another classic, “Wonderful Tonight.”)

Full Speed Ahead While all this was going on in the background, George was throwing himself into his work. As far as he was concerned, Apple was over, and he was itching to leave EMI/Capitol. He was eager to set out not only as a recording artist but as a producer of other artists’ records on a new label he would call Dark Horse Records, the moniker often used to describe his place in the Beatles’ line-up. His old mentor Ravi Shankar was the first artist to benefit, when George produced his album Shankar Family and Friends, a fusion work of Krishna bhajans, jazz (featuring hotshot L.A. saxophonist Tom Scott), gospel (Billy Preston also guested), and rock (as did Ringo). “I Am Missing You,” featuring all three plus George, Ravi, and the Indian classical vocalist Lakshmi Shankar (no relation), was a glorious highlight. While recording Shankar Family and Friends in Los Angeles, George also negotiated a distribution deal for his Dark Horse label with Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss’s A&M Records, who hired as George’s secretary a superefficient and pretty twenty-seven-year-old Mexican-American named Olivia Arias. In L.A. George had time to visit Ringo in the studio, where the drummer was cutting his self-titled album. George wrote three songs for Ringo, including the sumptuous “Photograph,” which would give George the songwriter his second U.S. number one of 1973. Back home in the U.K., George got wind of a soft-rock duo called Splinter managed by former Beatles’ roadie Mal Evans. Hearing them as a new Badfinger, George signed them to

Below: (Top) This advertisement ran in Billboard magazine in 1974 for Dark Horse Records. (Bottom) The album cover for Dark Horse which released in December 1974.

Left: Eric Clapton and girlfriend, Pattie Boyd, in April 1975 at the premiere of the rock musical film, “Tommy,” in London’s Leicester Square.

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Dark Horse, brought them to London, and threw “ After l split up from himself wholeheartedly into arranging, producing, and playing guitar on their album, The Place I Love. Pattie, l went on a bit Painstakingly recorded over a period of months at " Friar Park, the album is a lost minor classic of the era, of a bender. full of Beatleslike touches such as the “Hey Jude”–style fade-out to “Somebody’s City.” —George Harrison All the activity getting Dark Horse Records and its artists off to a flying start left George little time to write, let alone record, his own music. Worse, he had given himself a deadline by agreeing to join Ravi Shankar and his Indian classical orchestra in a full-blown North American tour scheduled for the late fall of 1974. Though they had been growing apart for years, George could not help but respond to the end of his ten-year relationship with Pattie, singing of his loneliness and lack of tenderness in the disheartening song, “So Sad.” The words here were typical of the disheartened–and –disheartening– lyrics. Conversely, George was in a cringingly comic mood for his rewrite of the Everly Brothers’ 1957 classic “Bye Bye Love,” when he describes “our lady” going by with “you-know-who.” Bizarrely, perhaps, Eric played on the sessions that were rushed through in September and October 1974 for release as Dark Horse during George’s first and last solo North American tour scheduled to start that November. “Eric Clapton’s been a close friend for years,” George explained when questioned about his wife leaving him for the guitarist. “I’m very happy about it. I’m still very friendly with him. I’d rather she was with him than with some dope.” Indeed, the two would remain friends and, years later, even tour together. In his memoirs, Eric described their “competitive and edgy” relationship as “a cagey brotherliness,” with George “the elder brother” who usually had “the last word.” On the eve of the sessions for his new album, a stressed-out George caught laryngitis, a situation compounded by songs that were of a rushed and patchy quality, uncharacteristically self-revealing about his personal life. “After I split up from Pattie,” George explained, “I went on a bit of a bender. If you listen to ‘Simply Shady’ on Dark Horse, it’s all in there . . . I could put back a bottle of brandy occasionally, plus all the other naughty things that fly around.” But the songs were sour-sounding, too. This was not what George’s fans wanted.

Right: Harrison performing live on stage during the Dark Horse tour.

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Nor did they want the Ravi Shankar Orchestra providing not only ’ George s the opening set but also interlude music during George’s headline set when he hit the road “already exhausted,” as he later admitted, honeymoon from the year’s workload. Worse, though propped up onstage by Billy Preston’s energy and good humor, George was not a with the public commanding front man. His voice, shot from laryngitis and abuse, almost vanished some nights. Dubbing it the “Dark Hoarse” tour, was over. critics were not kind. And when the crowds grew sullen, restive, and reluctant to chant “Hare, hare” on demand, George would lecture them from the stage. Dark Horse failed to sell anything like Living in the Material World, much less All Things Must Pass, and not every house was full, even though by the tour’s end on December 20 at Madison Square Garden, it had grossed a respectable $4 million. Like his marriage, George’s 1970s honeymoon with the public was over. He returned to Friar Park with his new girlfriend, Olivia Arias, to work out his next move. At the start of 1975, George was in worse shape than he realized. He was also making no attempt to curb the excesses that had helped knock the halo off his public standing via their negative impact on the Dark Horse album and tour. While the tour, if not that album, had been undertaken for noble reasons, what George did next smacked of expediency contrary to his talent and dismissive of his fans. He knew that A&M would only get their full marketing and distribution muscle behind Dark Horse Records once George started to release his own records on the label, but he was still under contract to Apple (released by EMI/Capitol) for one more album. When Dark Horse Records’ duo Splinter had to pull out of recording sessions at A&M’s L.A. studios due to illness, rather than pay cancellation fees, George booked himself into the studios in their stead to fulfill his final contractual obligation to Apple. What emerged was a typical mid-1970s L.A. album: mellow, self-indulgent, and as uninspired as most coke-fueled projects. Even the joke of the album title, Extra Texture (Read All About It), and sleeve (textured cardstock) were fussy rather than funny; the chewed apple core logo on the album’s label at least had the ring of bitter truth. Though the sound is consistent, with George utilizing synthesizers with far greater proficiency than in 1969, the songs are a mixed bag: the self-pity of “This Guitar (Can’t Keep from Crying)”; the affectingly sincere synth-soul tribute to Left: George Harrison and future wife, Olivia Arias.

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Motown singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson, “Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)”; another Sir Frankie Crisp–inspired song, “The Answer’s at the End” (which got its title from a legend Crisp had left on a wall at Friar Park ); “You” (another 1971 backing track intended for Ronnie Spector, disinterred here with a fresh George vocal); and the wry ennui of “Tired of Midnight Blue.” Notably absent were songs that reflected George’s Krishna faith.

A Big Joke At the end of an album that George himself later described as his worst is a throwaway among throwaways: “His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)” features the vocal japes of “Legs” Larry Smith of the surreal English comedyrock Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who had appeared in the Beatles’ TV movie Magical Mystery Tour. Smith’s fellow Bonzo, Neil Innes, had gone on to link up in the British TV comedy series “Rutland Weekend Television” with Eric Idle of the hugely successful (as well as surreal and satirical) TV and movie team Monty Python’s Flying Circus. “After the Beatles, Monty Python was my favorite thing,” said George, who shared his love of the show with Elvis Presley and John Lennon. “[T]hey were the only ones who could see that everything was a big joke.” That December of 1975, George surprised “Rutland Weekend Television” viewers (and obliged his friend Eric Idle) by appearing peg-legged and parrot-shouldered to sing “The Pirate Song.” Shading even John as the wittiest Moptop at mid-1960s press conferences, George was never so down that joking failed to cheer him up. What not even George could have foreseen back in 1975 was that surreal English comedy would provide him with a new career.

Right: From left to right, Olivia Arias, George Harrison, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam at the premiere of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in July of 1975. Left: Album cover and promotional postcard for Harrison’s album, Extra Texture. Though the album’s performance was a disappointment, it still sold over 500,000 units.

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Chapter 6 In Sickness and in Health

“Between rock ‘n’ roll and the straight life, I think I’ve found the balance.” —George Harrison

Right: George Harrison performing with Paul Simon on Saturday Night Live in 1976.

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I

n 1976, five years after the original suit, “He’s So Fine” copyright-holder Bright Tunes was reconstituted to fight its case against George for copyright infringement with “My Sweet Lord.” Shortly before the case went to court, George made a settlement offer that Bright Tunes accepted. Then, mysteriously, Bright Tunes changed its mind, and made a counter-demand for 75 percent of the worldwide receipts and surrender of copyright. What George did not know was that Allen Klein, no longer representing him or any other former Beatle, had secretly entered into negotiations to buy Bright Tunes and furnished them with inside information about earnings from “My Sweet Lord.” Klein stood to gain hugely if George lost the case or was pressured into making a large settlement before going to trial. Reeling from the injustice of Bright Tunes’ outrageous new demand, George chose to go to trial—a “nightmarish” week-long ordeal in New York for the Quiet One who had to stand in the witness box with his guitar to explain and demonstrate how he wrote the song. The trial became a battle of rival musicologists. The essence of Bright Tunes’ case was that two key melodic phrases in “He’s So Fine,” which recurred in “My Sweet Lord,” were so unusual that there could be no argument that George did not plagiarize them, at least subconsciously. The judge agreed, and found in favor of Bright Tunes. Then things got really complicated. The judge had to decide how much money to award Bright Tunes. Bright Tunes not only claimed damages based on what “My Sweet Lord” earned as a single, but also as the most popular track on the hugely successful All Things Must Pass and on the EMI/Capitol compilation album The Best of George Harrison. The judge, having decided that one-quarter of the success of “My Sweet Lord” could be attributed to George’s Beatle- appeal and lyrics, after much toing and froing with various sets of accounts, arrived at a very precise figure: $1,599,987.

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At which point Bright Tunes sold its rights to “He’s So Fine” to Allen Klein’s ABKCO. The blinders fell from George’s eyes about what had been going on. Having initially been inclined to accept the judge’s decision, he changed his mind on the grounds that the decision amounted to an ill-gotten gain. By then, the case had dragged on to February 1981—a decade after Bright Tunes originally filed the suit. The district judge agreed with George that Klein was not entitled to profit from his purchase of Bright Tunes’ rights in “He’s So Fine” and ordered him to hold those rights in trust for George, to be transferred to him upon payment of $587,000—the sum Klein had paid for the song’s rights. It wasn’t over, however. Lawyers wrangled about exactly what rights Klein had bought, as well as various accounting issues. The case went back to court in 1991—twenty years after the suit was first filed—where the deal was tweaked, but not by much. Back in 1976, when George knew he’d lost the case but had no idea what a long legal road lay ahead, he rued whatever mental block had got him into this expensive, stressful, and timeconsuming mess. In his 1980 memoirs, I Me Mine, he reflected that only when “My Sweet Lord” was released as a single, provoking comment on its likeness to “He’s So Fine,” did the similarity occur to him. “Why didn’t I realize?” he wrote. “It would have been very easy to change a note here or there, and not affect the feeling of the record.”

Laughter and Love In response to losing the case, George wrote “This Song” as “a bit of light comedy relief ” and to “exorcize the paranoia about songwriting that had started to build up in me.” Brassy and upbeat like an updated “Savoy Truffle,” the track featured Eric Idle on vocal interjections. The Python stalwart also directed the promotional video, set in a courtroom and featuring several of George’s cronies in cameo roles, including drummer Jim Keltner as the gavelbeating judge and, in drag, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood (who’d had an affair with Pattie in 1973). Equally good-humored and even zanier, “Crackerbox Palace” was inspired by Lord Buckley’s L.A. mansion, but, as was made clear in Eric Idle’s promo video, George was really Right: George had no idea that when the lawsuit was filed against him for “My Sweet Lord,” the case would continue for the next twenty years. Left: George promoting his album, Thirty-Three & 1/3 at Henley-onThames, inside his Berkshire home.

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thinking of Friar Park peopled by buddies and friends goofing off, including his soon-to-be wife Olivia in black basque, stockings, and garters. George had his groove back. Seeing him having so much fun in these videos and enjoying his confident, if not quite classic, new album Thirty-Three & 1/3 (after both the number of revolutions per minute of vinyl long-players and his age when he recorded it), one would never suspect that after starting work on it in the humiliating aftermath of the Bright Tunes court case, things had only gotten worse for George. Due to deliver his debut Dark Horse album to A&M on June 25, 1976, George’s chronic ill health, after months of failed alternative remedies, was diagnosed as hepatitis, and he was only able to start recording sessions in late May. George would not be rushed, but he failed to explain his problem to A&M. Tired of waiting, and by no means convinced that a new George Harrison album would add up to a goldmine, A&M prepared in September to sue him for late delivery. The recording deal was abruptly terminated on both sides, and George promptly signed both himself and Dark Horse Records (which George was winding down, disillusioned by the demands of some of its artists who were “never satisfied”) over to the supercool Warner Bros. Records, which was headed up by the visionary Mo Ostin and his team of producers devoted to bringing out the best in maverick artists. Even though Thirty-Three & 1/3 did not chart as highly as its two predecessors, it sold more copies over the long term. Like Extra Texture, a Krishna-free zone, Thirty-Three & 1/3’s standouts included Cole Porter’s “True Love,” which swung deliciously, showcasing George’s slinkiest slide playing and foreshadowing the Traveling Wilburys, while “Pure Smokey” was the soul fan George’s second and best tribute to the Motown legend. But perhaps best of all was “Learning How to Love You,” a delicately serpentine melody full of tender yearning. It was a song from the heart. Early in 1978 Olivia Arias confirmed she was pregnant and on August 1 gave birth to a boy, Dhani (Sanskrit for “wealthy”). The couple married one month later in a small, private ceremony, keeping with the sadness the family still felt after the smoking-related death of George’s father that May. These were huge changes for George. And professionally his focus was changing, too. For almost the next decade music would come second to movies. Right: George gets playful promoting Thirty-Three & 1/3 (with the help of Python, Eric Idle) at Henley-onThames, near his Berkshire home. Left: Album cover for Thirty-Three & 1/3, though not a chart-topper, it sold more copies over the long term than his previous two albums.

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Chapter 7 He’s Not the Messiah. He’s a

Very Naughty Boy!

“Sometimes I feel like I’m on the wrong planet. What the hell am I doing here?” —George Harrison

Left: A photo still from Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979). George Harrison had an uncredited cameo in the film as Mr. Papadopoulos. John Cleese is on the right; Eric Idle is on the left.

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B Below: The Rutles with their epic hit video, “All You Need is Cash.”

ack on the “Dark Hoarse” tour, George had booked his New York hotel suite in the name of “Jack Lumber” in tribute to “The Lumberjack Song,” a musical skit from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Though the TV show had come to an end, the Python team continued making movies while enjoying solo projects—a semidetached afterlife the Beatles could have had. George was aware of the parallel and felt an affinity. He’d played a cameo in his Python pal Eric Idle’s “Rutland Weekend Television” show, and when that show developed a parody of the Beatles called the Rutles, George not only was far from offended, but eager to help. “I loved the Rutles because the Beatles for the Beatles is just tiresome,” George said. “It needs to be deflated a bit, and I loved . . . the Rutles taking that burden off us.” George supplied Idle with loads of unseen Beatles footage for his guidance in writing a spoof TV documentary, entitled “All You Need Is Cash,” broadcast in the U.S. in March 1978. Among appearances by Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and John Belushi, George happily played a cameo as a TV news interviewer.

The Monty Python Savior George got even deeper into the Python connection when the financial plug was pulled at the last minute for their forthcoming feature film, Monty Python’s Life of Brian. When the backers got around to reading the script they realized the movie, which parodied the biblical life of Jesus, would be too hot to handle. Almost on a whim—“I wanted to see the movie”—George offered to save the project with fresh finance, which he arranged with Denis O’Brien, who had replaced Allen Klein as his business manager. Forming a

Left: The HandMade Films label. Harrison started the label to finance Monty Python’s Life of Brian when the original backers pulled out.

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Above: The music. The drama. The Rutles. (Left to right: Neil Innes (Nasty), Ricky Fataar (Stig), Eric Idle (Dirk), and John Halsey (Barry).

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movie production company called HandMade Films, George mortgaged Friar Park to raise the $6 million production budget. Monty Python’s Life of Brian—in which executive producer George had a line in a crowd scene—was just as controversial as its original backer feared, but the movie returned $20 million on George’s investment. George was thrilled, and over the next dozen years he went on to finance nineteen movies, mostly Python and spinoff projects, but also The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, and Withnail and I, among a run of acclaimed hits. Without the pressure of the spotlight and at one remove, George had found a new outlet for his creativity, one that offered him fresh challenges—unlike music. “The novelty’s worn off,” he told journalist Mick Brown. “Most of my ego desires as far as being famous and successful were fulfilled a long time ago. . . . I still enjoy writing a tune and enjoy in a way making a record . . . but I hate having to compete and promote the thing.” Happy to be surrounded by musician friends and simpatico producers, this period of George’s musical career is often unjustly overlooked. Having not only neglected his songwriting but also cheerfully lost touch with what was going on in the music scene in 1977 (“I was ‘skiving’, as the English say”), George was reinspired indirectly through his new hobby: closely following Formula 1 racing. Chatting to Niki Lauda, the Austrian F1 world champion who had returned to the circuit just six weeks after sustaining severe facial burns in a collision at the 1976 German Grand Prix, George noted that Lauda “was saying how he just likes to go home and relax and play some nice music . . . maybe I can write a song that Niki on his day off may enjoy.” Forfeiting the producer’s chair (“It’s hard for an artist to be in the booth and in the studio”) to Warner Bros. staff producer Russ Titelman, whose work with Ry Cooder George enjoyed, George conjured a set of new songs of a quality to match those on Thirty-Three & 1/3 and revived “Not

Left: Harrison making a music video for his single, “Blow Away,” in 1978.

Right: A beaming George is next to British motorcycle champion Barry Sheene (1950—2003) on April 25, 1978 at Brands Hatch track where he is driving his first Formula One racecar.

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Guilty,” the 1968 Beatles’ reject that rebuked John and Paul. Titelman fashioned a sound at once true to the mostly romantic and reflective songs—“Here Comes the Moon” and the upbeat “Blow Away” and “If You Believe” are highlights—yet tastefully contemporary, too. Stellar guests at the sessions in George’s home studio at Friar Park included Eric Clapton, now married to George’s ex, Pattie, old pal keyboardists Gary Wright and Steve Winwood, and the crack rhythm section of Andy Newmark on drums and Willie Weeks on bass. Though matching its predecessor in quality and instant appeal, the selftitled album George Harrison failed to match its international sales, despite going gold (500,000 sales) in the loyal U.S. Enjoying domestic bliss— gardening was a growing obsession—and fascinated by the learning curve of movie production, George did virtually no promotion—and very few albums go out and sell themselves, even those by ex-Beatles. Where George Harrison was all smooth sailing and a joyful reflection of George’s relaxed peace of mind, its successor would suffer from Warner Bros.’ anxiety to do better commercially. Also affecting the outcome was John’s murder, which occurred during the sessions. At the time, John was spurning George’s efforts to get in touch after the older Beatle admitted to having been hurt when George failed to give him what he felt to be his due in the younger Beatle’s sketchy book of song lyrics and memoirs, I Me Mine (1980).

No Way to Treat a Beatle Retreating yet further from the competitive music industry, George returned to producing his own songs at a measured pace, surrounded by his family, house, garden, and friends, while also becoming popular at The Row Barge pub in Henley-on-Thames and maintaining an active interest in HandMade Films.

Above: Album cover for George Harrison LP. Previous page: George Harrison answers questions during an intense press conference in Los Angeles, California (1980).

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The album that would be titled Somewhere in England lt was the first time took around eleven months to record and once again featured a roster of English musician friends who lived one of his studio albums just a drive away from Friar Park, as well as such flownin U.S. hotshots as Weeks, Newmark, and Tom Scott. failed to go gold. To George’s shock, when he delivered the completed album that fall of 1980, Warner Bros. rejected it. The music industry was changing, and hit singles were once more seen as crucial to marketing albums—and Warners could not hear a hit. They demanded four new songs (which meant four in the existing track list had to be dropped), various tweaks on other songs, and new sleeve artwork. This was no way to treat a Beatle, but George swallowed his pride and complied, recruiting his friend, the ace percussionist Ray Cooper, as an extra pair of ears to coproduce the second version of the album. The discarded tracks and original versions of songs that Warners rejected have since surfaced, and George’s fans have perhaps sanctified the album he wanted to release rather than the one Warners finally accepted. Both are mixed bags, but two songs stand out as deeply felt returns to singing of his spirituality: “Life Itself ” and the gentle, thoughtful “Writing’s on the Wall.” What should have been a moving meditation, “Sat Singing,” was rejected despite its catchiness. Indeed, the songs Warners rejected were just as commercial as the the substitutes they accepted. Just as strangely, they were happy to include two cover versions of songs by the great Hoagy Carmichael despite George, for all his evident love of these oldies, having little vocal feel for the wry jazz Americana of “Baltimore Oriole” and “Hong Kong Blues.” Warners did get their hit. Originally written by George for Ringo to include on his next album, “All Those Years Ago” was partially recorded with Ringo on drums. After John was killed, George rewrote the lyrics as a tribute to John (and a bitter denunciation of his killer and just about anyone who had ever criticized John). In an emotional reunion, Paul and Linda McCartney dropped by to sing backing vocals. Released as the first single from the album in May 1981, “All Those Years Ago” shot to number two in the U.S., George’s biggest hit in eight years, and Somewhere in England followed it to number eleven in June. Then sales just as quickly fell away as word got out that very few songs on the album ranked with George’s best work. It was his first studio album that failed to go gold in the U.S.

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ls Anyone Listening? The downward trend steepened with Gone Troppo, released in November 1982 and again recorded over a period of months with a few big-name U.S. musicians and a great many congenial British players. The result is a good-natured but unessential album that feels like the work of a hobbyist on vacation—its balmy vibe perhaps reflecting the Harrisons’ extended stays at their homes on Maui and in Australia—than a seriously ambitious musician. That the best song and most committed performance is a cover of a 1961 doo-wop hit “I Really Love You” originally recorded by the Stereos and with Ry Cooder regular Willie Greene Jr. on bass vocals speaks volumes. That the second best track is “Circles,” a song George demoed for the Beatles in 1968 but which was never properly recorded on the likely grounds that it was too close for comfort to “Strawberry Fields Forever,” is no less telling. Otherwise, fussy early-1980s production (Exhibit A: the synthesizer-treated vocals of “Baby Don’t Run Away”) does more to obscure the record’s inherent qualities than disguise its weaknesses. Dismayed that radio stations were no longer playing his records—a situation not helped by his refusal to help Warner Bros. promote the album with interviews and other media appearances—George seemed to retire from the music industry altogether. He had a house, a garden, a family, a movie company, and a bunch of good friends (also, it was rumored, a recurrent drug problem). If people were no longer listening, what had he to gain in still wanting to be heard?

Left: Album cover for Gone Troppo. Right: Harrison visiting Olivia Arias and son, Dhani, in the Princess Christian Nursing Home in Windsor.

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Chapter 8 Meet Nelson (and Spike) . . .

“We were going to be The Trembling Wilburys. Then we sobered up.” —George Harrison

Left: George performing at the Prince’s Trust Rock Concert on June 6, 1987.

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hat brought George back to music was, of all things, the third movie in the Porky’s series, Porky’s Revenge!, released in 1985. By one of those movie industry quirks, the job of producing the soundtrack fell to Welsh rocker Dave Edmunds, who called his friends—including George, Jeff Beck, Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson, Robert Plant, Phil Collins, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds— and assembled a far better soundtrack than the movie deserved. George’s singularly ill-fitting contribution was “I Don’t Want to Do It,” a heartfelt song about growing up written but never recorded by Bob Dylan, who showed it to the Beatle when the two hung out in Woodstock back in 1968. George had demoed his own version back in 1970 but never attempted a full-blown version until Dave came calling. It is a great performance of a great song. Dave wasn’t finished with George. He wanted to honor the rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins with a televised all-star tribute. Given that Carl was a formative inspiration to the teenage George as a guitarist and songwriter, George was delighted to join Eric Clapton, Ringo, and other stars for the event. Relaxed and in fine voice and a dove-gray suit, George bopped through “Everybody’s Trying to be my Baby” as if he’d never been away. Reliving his youth with friends and inspirations, he was in his element.

Primadonna? The following year, George contributed to another soundtrack for a dubious movie, but this one was his own: the HandMade production Shanghai Surprise. George contributed two numbers, the title song and, far better, a rooty-tooty Cab Calloway pastiche titled “The Hottest Gong in Town” that captures the feeling he’d failed to nail with his two previous Hoagy Carmichael covers. As the movie’s producer, however, George was horrified by the on-set behavior of its celebrity couple costars, Madonna and Sean Penn. It can hardly be coincidental that after the movie bombed, George renewed his interest in making music seriously and competitively.

Above: Album cover for Cloud Nine. Right: Harrison teams up with Madonna to publicize their movie, Shanghai Surprise.

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Right: From left to right, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Donald “Duck” Dunn (behind), and Eric Clapton performing live onstage at the Prince’s Trust Concert on June 6, 1987.

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This time George had a favor to ask of Dave Edmunds: could he get a message to the publicity-shy songwriter, producer, and leader of Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne? A Beatles nut, Lynne had a very commercial production style that favored texture over clutter, a big beat over complexity, and melody over everything else. Over the course of eighteen months George and Jeff got to know each other before George popped the question of whether he would produce the album with which George was determined to break his silence. Jeff was the producer George had long needed. Though recorded at Friar Park like many of its predecessors, and with many of the usual suspects (Ringo, Eric Clapton, Jim Keltner, Gary Wright), Cloud Nine had a chartbound clarity and sense of purpose that had been lacking to a greater or lesser degree since perhaps even All Things Must Pass.

A Winning Team Breaking George’s five-year virtual silence when released in November 1987, Cloud Nine’s songs were, on average, no better than those on, say, George Harrison, but, as recordings, each had a coherent balance that foregrounded George’s strengths as a singer, guitarist, and melodist. Though his productions never created the awesome sense of space and drive of Phil Spector’s, Jeff Lynne was just as geared to making his client’s songs sound big, bold, and deliciously repeatable on the radio. Months before its release, the sense that George and Jeff had formed a winning team became obvious when they offered a stellar performance at The Prince’s Trust All-Star Rock Concert in London with fellow Cloud Nine sessioneers, including Ringo, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Ray Cooper. The first single from Cloud Nine, released in October 1987, was a cover of James Ray’s “Got My Mind Set on You,” a 1962 R&B record in the Bobby Bland/Sam Cooke style. The original was a great tune but never a hit, so George would never suffer by comparison with Ray’s soulful voice. As in the song’s video, George played it affectionately deadpan—and was rewarded with his first U.S. number-one single since 1973. Throughout the album, Jeff brought out the wry, loving humor in George’s singing, even in up-tempo numbers where his reedy voice might otherwise struggle, such as “This Is Love” and “Devil’s Radio.” The most touching song, “Just for Today,” was inspired by an Alcoholics Right: Album cover for The Traveling Wilburys.

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Anonymous leaflet, perhaps hinting that George was The whole thing emerging from a generally dark time in his life. For many fans, however, Cloud Nine’s outstanding track was “When We Was Fab,” which revealed George started when George coming to terms with his Beatles’ past with typical called Bob Dylan to see gnomishness, his lyrics referring elliptically to police harassment and the microscope of public scrutiny, if they could borrow while Jeff ’s arrangement relished the chance to recreate the swooping harmonies of “I Am the Walrus.” his studio. The album yielded one more single, “This Is Love,” the record that would serendipitously return George to an even higher plane of creativity and popularity. In early 1988 George was hoping a B-side would pop into his head when he went into the studio. In Los Angeles with Jeff and enjoying dinner with Roy Orbison, a friend of the Beatles since 1963, George invited the legendary singer along to the session. Just as casually, and without a studio booked, George phoned Bob Dylan to see if they could use his. On the way, George stopped at Tom Petty’s house, where he’d left a guitar, and Tom found himself along for the ride too. Together, all five improvised a song titled “Handle with Care” after a sticker on a cardboard box lying in Bob’s garage. The session was such a pleasure for all five musicians that, before Dylan headed off on the road that May 1988, they decided to cut a whole album in the kitchen of Eurythmic Dave Stewart’s Malibu house, which was connected to a control booth.

Wilbury Hootenanny Conviviality ruled, and the hootenanny spirit of five ace singer-songwriters with sentimental roots in the 1950s gelled into a special set of songs and performances that were later tidied up and sweetened with overdubs by Jeff Lynne at Friar Park. Though very much a collective effort, certain songs bear the strong imprints of individuals, and “Heading for Light” is pure George in its jaunty tune and personal lyrics of a journey from dark to light. “George had only ever been in one band,” Tom Petty told this author, “but he was the best bandleader I ever saw, really good at organizing things, at knowing who was best at what, delegating what to do. He had a great passion for the band. He was a great record producer and made the process a lot of fun; he instinctively knew when the session’s bogging down and it’s better to forget that problem and go on to another one and keep the energy going. That’s what a lot of what a good producer knows how to do: to keep the session on an up. The smallest things can disrupt a good session and you have to learn to go ’round them.” A summit of talents making music together out of the sheer pleasure of congenial chemistry did indeed require careful handling so as not to disturb the delicate balance of egos—and 79

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George could call upon his experiences with two of the biggest, John and Paul. “We’ll bury ’em in the mix,” George’s catchphrase during the Cloud Nine sessions in response to audible glitches, took on a life of its own as a band name in this least calculated of superstar recording sessions. The five even adopted joke aliases (a la Sgt. Pepper’s in 1967) to ease the burden of living up to their own legends, with George ’ becoming Nelson Wilbury on the lt wasn t the first album of songs attributed to same without Roy. the Traveling Wilburys, and Spike Wilbury on the second. Upon its release in October 1988, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 rocketed up album charts all over the world and sold by the million over the course of the next year. Fortunately, Roy Orbison was able to enjoy the start of that successful run before he suffered a sudden fatal heart attack in December. The four surviving members reconvened in April 1990 to cut the mischievously titled follow-up, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, dedicated to the memory of “Lefty Wilbury.” But without the Texan’s sweet inspirational presence, it wasn’t quite the same, with the songs chugging down the highway rather than beating warmly, five hearts as one. Even so, when both albums were rereleased as a single package to huge new sales in 2007, listeners could appreciate the sequel without the sense of mild disappointment that greeted its release at the end of 1990. Nor did Nelson/Spike offer the only glimpses of a reborn George. To complete his Warner Bros. contract, George rounded out the compilation album The Best of Dark Horse with a few orphan songs, the best being “Cheer Down” (which first appeared, weirdly enough for a pacifist, on the soundtrack of Lethal Weapon 2) and the wry satire “Cockamamie Business.” George entered the 1990s on a high—no longer a hasbeen but a legend with not only a much-loved history but also the promise that there was a lot more to come. 80

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Above: The Traveling Wilburys (left to right: Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and George Harrison).

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Chapter 9 Shiva Shiva Shankara

Mahadeva

“Death is just where your suit falls off and now you’re in your other suit. It’s all right. Don’t worry.” —George Harrison

Left: Harrison performing with Ravi Shankar, who passed away in December 2012.

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F

riendship determined George’s next emergence from behind the gates of Friar Park. In the wake of the tragic accident that took the life of his four-year-old son, Conor, in March 1991, Eric Clapton was consoled by the kindness shown by his old friend George and wife Olivia. George was there for him when, after months of dazed grief, Eric threw himself into work by touring Japan in December. The twist was that Eric would be barely more than a sideman while George and his songs took most of the spotlight. With Eric’s band of crack pros, the performances were superlatively slick, as befitted the stadium-rock era. But what was missing was much sense that the backing band was inhabiting the songs. So when the tour was released for posterity on 1992’s Live in Japan album, credited to George Harrison, with Eric Clapton and His Band, what the public was treated to was a collection of deluxe singalongs. Only “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” catches fire, as Eric, perhaps accessing his grief, unleashes three solos of a harrowing intensity to equal the 1968 original.

Friends and Legends George would play before audiences twice more, both times in 1992 and both in tribute to influences and inspirations from his past: first in London in support of the Maharishi Mehesh Yogi’s Natural Law Party, and next in New York for the thirtieth anniversary of Bob Dylan’s first album. A confluence of events was pushing George, after twenty-five years, full circle. In Japan with Eric he had played a lot of his Beatles’ songs—“I’ve found that I quite like them,” he said. “A few years ago I might not have, but now I’m proud of them”— and he was finding himself ever more reconciled to the idea of revisiting his Moptop past by participating in the long-mooted project to create an official TV documentary telling the story of the Beatles from the inside, with spinoff projects including a book and freshly exhumed material consisting of live radio performances and studio outtakes, demos, and fully recorded songs that

Left: Album cover for Rock Legends: George Harrison with Eric Clapton and His Band.

Right: Reunited! Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison in 1995, together to publicize the single “Free as a Bird” and the first volume of the Anthology rarities compilations.

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never made the cut. The chief marketing tool for the Anthology project would be the reunion of the surviving Beatles—waggishly styling themselves the Threetles—to record the first new Fab Four singles in a generation using two song sketches demoed by John in the 1970s called “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” Always the holdout, George laid down strict conditions for his participation. First, Jeff Lynne would produce, and second, he would contribute not only slide guitar but, in the coda of “Free as a Bird,” his new passion, the ukulele, as popularized by mid-century northern English music hall and movie star George Formby. At last, George could be the alpha-male Beatle, though he remained careful to maintain the group’s legendary image, only telling the documentary crew “what really happened” once they’d turned off their equipment. Part of the reason George finally relented to celebrate the Beatles was that he needed the money. HandMade Films had run into problems, and George found himself suing his business partner, Denis O’Brien, for mismanagement. The court duly awarded George $11 million in 1996, though he was typically downbeat about his chances of actually “getting the money.”

“’

l ve found that l quite like them

”

...

—George Harrison (on playing Beatles’ songs decades later)

Right: Harrison performing at the Bob Dylan thirtieth anniversary tribute concert in 1992.

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Above: Friends and Legends: George Harrision and Eric Clapton in 1991.

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“

Olivia and l are overwhelmed by the concern expressed by so many people. We thank

”

everyone for their prayers and kindness.



—George Harrison

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Left: Michael Abram, the schizophrenic who broke into Friar Park and stabbed George on December 30, 1999.

Enduring Love As if to cleanse himself of this immersion in lawyers and money, George’s next project was producing and playing on another album with Ravi Shankar. Released in May 1997, Chants of India is perhaps the very best introduction to the enduring creative friendship between the Bengali classical master and the scruff from Liverpool’s back streets. That year, though, George, who had quit smoking in 1992 after thirty-five years, was diagnosed with cancer, and underwent two operations to remove growths from his neck and lung. The next year, 1998, he was treated for cancer in his throat. Then, while still recovering, on December 30, 1999, George was nearly stabbed to death by a young schizophrenic, Michael Abram, who broke into Friar Park. Only prompt action by Olivia, who was herself injured in the attack, saved her husband’s life. Who knows whether the cancer would have recurred had George not suffered this life-threatening trauma. He joked that the album he had been quietly making at Friar Park for years would be titled The World Is Doomed Vol. 1, but his notes show that it was always intended to be called Brainwashed. Left: George Harrison with wife, Olivia, on January 15, 2000 in Ireland.

Above: George Harrison and son, Dhani, at a guitar auction at Christie’s in London, 1999.

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When George succumbed to tumors in both his lung and brain on November 29, 2001, he had, unlike John, made his peace with the world and said farewell to his old friends Paul and Ringo, each of whom had lost wives to cancer. Also, like John, he left behind an album’s worth of unfinished recordings, which fell to his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne to complete, with the help of George’s detailed notes.

George had made his peace with the world and said farewell to his old friends Paul and Ringo.

Life Goes on Within You Released a year after his death, Brainwashed was classic George, happily embracing the paradoxes of his personality as crystallized in the track “Pisces Fish,” which yearns for spiritual nirvana amid a gentle mockery of the material world that fast-forwards from his teenage motorcycle to the riverside idyll of the countryside around Friar Park. George never wrote more acidly witty lyrics, even though devout Roman Catholics might have been very offended by “P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night),” in which George took the faith of his Liverpool Irish upbringing severely to task. Yet his guitar, autoharp, and ukulele on the instrumental “Marwa Blues” attain a serene spirituality without equal in his recordings. “Stuck Inside a Cloud” may well be George’s best rock-pop song since “My Sweet Lord,” while his cover of Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” confirms not only his love of pre-rock popular song but his hard-won feel for how to perform it. Among many treasures, the title track seems to sum up the man and his music: a Dylanesque rap that kicks lumps out of Western culture, yet presents the heavenly alternative in the invocations to God and Krishna, the whole song dissolving into the Namah Parvati prayer, chanted in unison by George and Dhani. One generation hands over to the next, and as George’s final musical testament comes to a close, we are left with the serene acceptance that in death is life, and life goes on within you and without you.

Right: George Harrison’s parents, Harold and Louise, sorting through his twenty-first birthday mail at his childhood home.

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Index Page numbers in italics indicate photographs.

Barham, John 22, 38 Bearsville, New York 11 Beatles 8, 10, 14, 15, 21, 25, 29, 32, 33, 36, 39, 44, 47, 52, 62, 64, 68, 78, 84, 85, 86 Beck, Jeff 72 Bennett, Pete 20 The Best of Dark Horse 80 “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” (Arlen/Koehler) 90 Blind Faith 14, 25 “Blow Away” (Harrison) 64, 65 BMI 36 Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band 52 Boyd, Pattie 10, 14, 14, 21, 25, 44, 45, 45, 46, 47, 48, 57 Boyd, Paula 44 Brainwashed (Harrison) 89, 90 Bramlett, Bonnie 13, 13, 15 Bramlett, Delaney 13, 13, 15, 19 Bright Tunes 36, 56, 57, 58 Brooker, Gary 22 Brown, Mick 64 Buckley, Lord 57 “Bye Bye Love” (Everly Brothers) 48

A A&M Records 47, 51, 58 Abbey Road (Beatles) 11, 14 Abbey Road Studios 19, 21, 22 ABKCO 36, 57 Abram, Michael 89, 89 All Things Must Pass (Harrison) 20, 21–23, 21, 22–23, 25, 29, 32, 38, 39, 51, 56, 78 “All Those Years Ago” (Harrison) 69 “All You Need Is Cash” (Rutles) 62, 62 Alpert, Herb 47 “The Answer’s at the End” (Harrison) 52 Apple Records 8, 11, 14, 15, 20, 22, 32, 33, 36, 47, 51 “Apple Scruffs” (Harrison) 25, 25 Arias, Olivia 47, 50, 51, 58, 88, 89 “The Art of Dying” (Harrison) 21 “Awaiting on You All” (Harrison) 25

C

B “Baby Don’t Run Away” (Harrison) 70 Badfinger 22, 47 “Badge” (Cream) 11 Baker, Ginger 22 “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)” (Harrison) 25 “Baltimore Oriole” (Carmichael) 69 Band, The 11, 14, 21 “Bangla Desh” (Harrison) 28, 28, 29

Calloway, Cab 72 Capitol Records 14, 22, 32, 47, 51, 56 Carmichael, Hoagy 69, 74 Chants of India (Shankar) 89 “Cheer Down” (Harrison) 80 Chiffons 18, 19, 36 “Circles” (Harrison) 69 Clapton, Conor 84 Clapton, Eric 11, 12, 13, 13, 14, 21, 22, 32, 44, 45, 45, 46, 47, 48, 68, 72, 78, 84, 84, 87 Cleese, John 61

Cloud Nine (Harrison) 74, 78–79, 80 “Cockamamie Business” (Harrison) 80 Collins, Phil 22, 72 Concert for Bangla Desh 28, 28, 29, 29, 30–31, 32–33, 32, 36, 38 Cooder, Ry 64, 69 Cooper, Ray 69, 78 “Crackerbox Palace” (Harrison) 57 Cream 11, 14 Crisp, Sir Frankie 25, 52

D Dark Horse (Harrison) 16, 48, 49, 51, 62 Dark Horse Records 44, 44, 47, 48, 51, 58, 80 “The Day the World Gets ‘Round” (Harrison) 39 Delaney & Bonnie 13, 13, 14–15, 21 Derek and the Dominos 21, 22 “Devil’s Radio” (Harrison) 78 Dick Cavett Show, The 33, 33 “Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long” (Harrison) 39 Dylan, Bob 10, 11, 30–31, 32, 77, 79, 80–81, 84, 86, 90

E Easy Rider (movie) 21 Eddy, Duane 77 Edmunds, Dave 74, 76, 78 Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) 78 Electronic Sound (Harrison) 11 EMI 22, 47, 51, 56 Evans, Mal 47 Extra Texture (Read All About It) (Harrison) 51–52, 52, 58

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F

l

Festival of Indian Arts, London 34–35 Fleetwood Mac 19 Formula 1 64, 65 “Free as a Bird” (Beatles) 86 Friar Park 24, 25, 38, 44, 48, 51, 52, 58, 64, 68, 78, 79, 84, 89, 90

“I Don’t Want to Do It” (Dylan) 72 I Me Mine (Harrison memoirs) 57, 68 “I Me Mine” (Harrison) 25 “I Really Love You” (Stereos) 69 “I’d Have You Anytime” (Dylan/ Harrison) 11 Idle, Eric 52, 57, 59, 62, 63 “If You Believe” (Harrison) 64 India 8, 11, 19, 27, 29, 34, 44, 47, 48 “The Inner Light” (Harrison) 11 Innes, Neil 52, 63 International Society for Krishna Consciousness 15 Is This What You Want? (Lomax) 11 Isle of Wight Festival, 1969 10 “Isn’t It a Pity” (Harrison) 21

G George Harrison (Harrison) 68, 68, 78 “Get Back” Sessions (Beatles) 8, 15 Gill, Bob 9 “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” (Harrison) 39 Gone Troppo (Harrison) 69–70, 70 Gordon, Jim 21, 22 “Got My Mind Set on You” (Traveling Wilburys) 78

H “Handle with Care” (Traveling Wilburys) 79 HandMade Films 62, 64, 68, 72, 86 “Hare Krishna Mantra” (Harrison) 14, 19 Harrison, Dhani (son) 58, 89, 90 Hawkins, Edwin 15, 19 “Heading for Light” (Traveling Wilburys) 79 “Hear Me Lord” (Harrison) 25 “Here Comes the Moon” (Harrison) 64 “Here Comes the Sun” (Harrison) 14, 32 “He’s So Fine” (Chiffons) 18, 19, 36, 56, 57 “His Name Is Legs (Ladies and Gentlemen)” (Harrison) 52 “Hong Kong Blues” (Carmichael) 69 Hopkins, Nicky 36, 38, 38 Horn, Jim 36 “The Hottest Gong in Town” (Harrison) 72

J John, Elton 78 Jones, Brian 19 “Just for Today” (Harrison) 78–79

K “Keep on Running” (Spencer Davis Group) 25 Keltner, Jim 29–30, 36, 38, 57, 78 Keys, Bobby 22 Klein, Allen 14, 32, 33, 36, 56, 57, 62 Krause, Bernie 11 Krishna sect of Hinduism 11, 14, 15, 19, 38, 44, 52, 58, 90

L Lauda, Niki 64 “Layla” (Derek and the Dominos) 21, 22, 44, 45 “Learning How to Love You” (Harrison) 58 Lennon, John 10, 14, 19, 32, 33, 36, 39, 52, 68, 69 “Let It Be” (Beatles) 21, 25 “Let It Down” (Harrison) 25

Lethal Weapon 2 (movie) 80 “Life Itself ” (Harrison) 69 Living in the Material World (Harrison) 36, 38–39, 40–41, 51 Lomax, Jackie 11 London Radha-Krishna Temple 14 Lynne, Jeff 77, 78, 79, 81, 86, 90

M Mack, Ronnie 36 Madonna 72, 73 Magical Mystery Tour (movie) 52 Martin, George 19, 21 “Marwa Blues” (Harrison) 90 Mason, Dave 22 Massot, Joe 8 McCartney, Linda 14, 69 McCartney, Paul 8, 11, 14, 32, 33, 36, 39, 69, 85, 90 “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” 52, 53, 57, 60–61, 62, 64 Monty Python’s Life of Brian 60–61, 62, 64 Moog synthesizer 11 Moss, Jerry 47 Motown 25, 52, 58 “My Sweet Lord” (Harrison) 18, 19, 25, 29, 36, 56, 57, 57

N Namah Parvati prayer 90 Natural Law Yoga Party 84 Nelson, Willie 72 “No Time or Space” (Harrison) 11 “Not Guilty” (Harrison) 64

O O’Brien, Denis 62, 86 “Oh Happy Day” (Edwin Hawkins Singers) 15, 19 Ono, Yoko 10, 32 “Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)” (Harrison) 52 Orbison, Roy 79, 80 Ostin, Mo 58

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P “P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night)” (Harrison) 90 Penn, Sean 72 Perkins, Carl 72 Petty, Tom 79, 81 “Photograph” (Harrison) 47 “Pisces Fish” (Harrison) 90 The Place I Love (Splinter) 48 Plant, Robert 72 Porky’s Revenge (movie) 74 Presley, Elvis 52 Preston, Billy 15, 19, 22, 47, 51 Price, Jim 22 Prince’s Trust All-Star Rock Concert, 1987 72, 78 Procol Harum 22 “Pure Smokey” (Harrison) 58

R Radle, Carl 21 Ravi Shankar Orchestra 51 “Real Love” (Beatles) 86 Richards, Keith 15 Righteous Brothers 21 Ringo (Ringo Starr) 47 Robinson, Smokey 52 Rock Legends: George Harrison with Eric Clapton and His Band 84, 84 “Rocky” (Fender Stratocaster) 16 Rolling Stones 19, 22, 57 Ronettes 21, 38 Russell, Leon 32 Rutland Weekend Television 52, 62 Rutles 62, 63, 63

S “Sat Singing” (Harrison) 69 Saturday Night Live 54–55 Scott, Tom 47, 68 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles) 8 Shanghai Surprise (movie) 72, 73 “Shanghai Surprise” (Harrison) 72 Shankar Family and Friends (Shankar) 47 Shankar, Lakshmi 47 Shankar, Ravi 26, 29, 32, 34–35, 47, 48, 51, 82–83, 89

Sheene, Barry 65 Simon, Paul 54–55 “Simply Shady” (Harrison) 48 Sinatra, Frank 14 Smith, “Legs” Larry 52 “So Sad” (Harrison) 48 “Something” (Beatles) 14, 32, 44 Somewhere in England (Harrison) 68–69 Sommers, Abe 36 “Sour Milk Sea” (Lomax) 11 Spector, Phil 20, 21, 32, 38, 78 Spector, Ronnie 38, 52 Spencer Davis Group 25 Spencer, Jeremy 19 Splinter 47–48, 51 Spooky Tooth 22 Starkey, Maureen 10, 47 Starr, Ringo 10, 11, 22, 33, 36, 38, 39, 47, 69, 72, 78, 85, 90 Stewart, Dave 79 Straight Up (Badfinger) 22 Stray Cats 76 “Stuck Inside a Cloud” (Harrison) 90

T “Taxman” (Harrison) 33 Taylor, James 14 That’s the Way God Planned It (Preston) 15 Thirty-Three & 1/3 (Harrison) 56, 57–58, 58, 59, 64 “This Guitar (Can’t Keep from Crying)” (Harrison) 51–52 “This Is Love” (Harrison) 78, 79 “This Song” (Harrison) 57 The Tin Man Was a Dreamer (Hopkins) 38 “Tired of Midnight Blue” (Harrison) 52 Titelman, Russ 64 Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (Traveling Wilburys) 80 Traveling Wilburys 58, 78–80, 80–81 Troy, Doris 15 “True Love” (Porter) 58 “Try Some Buy Some” (Harrison) 38

U UNICEF 32

V Voormann, Klaus 22, 36, 38, 39

W “Wah-Wah” (Harrison) 25 Wall of Sound 21 Warner Bros. Records 58, 64, 68, 69, 70, 80 “What Is Life” (Harrison) 25, 25 “When We Was Fab” (Harrison) 25, 79 “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Harrison) 11, 32, 84 White, Alan 22 White Album, The (Beatles) 9, 11 Whitlock, Bobby 21 “Who Can See It” (Harrison) 39 Winwood, Steve 14, 25, 68 “Within You Without You” (Harrison) 8 “Wonderful Tonight” (Clapton) 45, 47 Wonderwall (movie) 8, 9, 9, 11, 22 Wood, Ronnie 57 Wright, Gary 22, 36, 38, 68, 78 “Writing’s on the Wall” (Harrison) 69

Y Yogi, Maharishi Mehesh 84 “You” (Harrison) 52

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Picture Credits Special thanks to Bruce Spizer (www.beatle.net), author of The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, for use of the following images: P9, Wonderwall poster P9, Wonderwall album P11, Electronic Sound album P19, Solo 45 of “My Sweet Lord” P21, All Things Must Pass album (colorized re-issue) P25, What is Life / Apple Scruffs album P28, Single album cover for Bangla Desh and The Concert for Bangla Desh album P29, Promotional poster for Bangla Desh P36, Album and promotional advertisement for Living in the Material World P47, Dark Horse promotional advertisement and album Special thanks also to Happy Nat of TheBeatlesRarity.com for use of the following image: P40, Living in the Material World inner sleeve

Alamy

P8, George rehearsing © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P13, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Bramlett, Delaney Bramlett, and George © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P18, The Chiffons © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy P45, Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy P50, George Harrison and Olivia Arias © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P53, George, Olivia Arias, Eric Idle, and Terry Gilliam at the premiere of Monty Python © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P60, Monty Python’s Life of Brian © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy P64, George making video for “Blow Away” © John Henshall / Alamy P87, George and Eric Clapton © Geoff A. Howard / Alamy

Associated Press

P30, Madison Square Garden during the Concert for Bangladesh © Jim Wells / Associated Press P37, George Harrison © Associated Press P75, George Harrison and Madonna © Peter Kemp / Associated Press P88, George and Olivia Arias © Associated Press

CameraPress

P56, George promoting Thirty-Three & 1/3 at his Berkshire home © Camera Press / Roger DiVito 1976 P59, George gets playful promoting Thirty-Three & 1/3 © Camera Press / Roger DiVito 1976

Collection Herbert Hauke /www.rockmuseum.de

P6, Autographed promotional photo of George P32, Bangladesh / Deep Blue album (Italian)

Corbis Images

P14, George and Pattie Boyd leaving court © Bettman / Corbis P20, George Harrison, Phil Spector, and Pete Bennett © Bettman / Corbis P28, George performing at the Concert for Bangladesh © Henry Diltz / Corbis P81, The Traveling Wilburys performing © Neal Preston / Corbis P82, George Harrison with Ravi Shankar © Marc Bryan-Brown / Corbis

Getty Images

P12, George and Eric Clapton performing © Jan Persson / Redferns P15, George with Krishnas © Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images P16, George playing guitar circa 1970 © GAB Archive / Redferns P21, Derek and the Dominoes © Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer / Getty Images P24, George on the grounds of Friar Park © Terry O’Neill / Getty Images P26, Ravi Shankar whispering to George Harrison © Popperfoto / Getty Images

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P31, George Harrison and Bob Dylan © Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer / Getty Images P33, George on the Dick Cavett show © Ann Limongello / ABC via Getty Images P35, George, Ravi Shankar, and Allen Klein © Evening Standard / Getty Images P38, Nicky Hopkins © Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer / Getty Images P39, Klaus Voorman © Estate of Keith Morris / Redferns / Getty Images P42, George performing in 1974 © David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images P46, Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd © Evening Standard / Stringer / Getty Images P49, George on the Dark Horse tour © Steve Morley / Redferns P55, George Harrison and Paul Simon © Richard E. Aaron / Redferns P62, The Rutles dancing © GAB Archive / Redferns P63, The Rutles © GAB Archive / Redferns P65, George at Formula One race © Roger Lings / Stringer / Getty Images P66, George at a press conference © Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer P72, George performing at the Prince’s Trust © Peter Still / Redferns P77, George performing at Prince’s Trust with Jeff Lynne, Eric Clapton, and Donald “Duck” Dunn © Peter Still / Redferns P85, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney © Tommy Hanley / Redferns / Getty Images P86, George Harrison at Bob Dylan tribute concert © KMazur / WireImage P91, George Harrison’s parents sorting through his mail at home © Manchester Daily Express / SSPL via Getty Images

Idols Picture Library / Photoshot

P4, George Harrison © S.S. Archives/Idols/ Photoshot

Rex USA

P10, George and Beatles at Bob Dylan performance © Daily Mail / Rex USA P71, George visiting Olivia and Dhani © Associated Newspapers / Rex USA P89, Michael Abrams © Mercury Press Agency / Rex USA P89, George Harrison and son, Dhani © Richard Young / Rex USA

Tracks (Memorabilia)

P13, autographed poster for Delaney & Bonnie & Friends in Bristol P23, George Harrison walking to record All Things Must Pass © Tracks Limited P44, Dark Horse label and stickers P52, Extra Texture album and promotional postcard P57, “My Sweet Lord” flyer P58, Thirty-Three & 1/3 album P62, Handmade Films label P68, George Harrison LP P70, Gone Troppo album P74, Cloud Nine album P78, Traveling Wilburys album P84, Autographed program for George Harrison with Eric Clapton and his Band All reasonable attempts have been made to contact the copyright holders of all images.

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A division of Book Sales, Inc. 276 Fifth Avenue, Suite 206 New York, New York 10001 RACE POINT PUBLISHING and the distinctive Race Point Publishing logo are trademarks of Book Sales, Inc. © Mat Snow 2013 All photographs from the publisher’s collection, unless otherwise noted on page 95. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by Apple Corps Ltd. or the estate of George Harrison or any of its assignees. This is not an official publication. We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. ISBN (4-volume set): 978-1-5526-7936-4 Author: Mat Snow Project editor: Jeannine Dillon Copyeditor: Steve Burdett Interior designer: Rosamund Saunders Cover designer: Brad Norr/bradnorrdesign.com Front and back cover illustration: Brad Norr Printed in China 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.racepointpub.com

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T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO JO hn LennOn

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Mat Snow

T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO JO hn LennOn

The Illustrated Chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo after the Beatles

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Contents Chapter 1

From Fab Four to Flying Solo

6

Chapter 2

On the Run, but Shining on

18

Chapter 3

Not Dreaming but Screaming

28

Chapter 4

Sweetness, Light—and a Sting

36

Chapter 5

Que Pasa, New York?

46

Chapter 6

Ambassador or Guerilla? Chapter 7

58

Lost and Found on the Lost Weekend Chapter 8

The Vanishing

66 76

Chapter 9

Into the Sky

86

Index Credits

92 95

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Chapter 1 From Fab

Four to Flying Solo

“As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.” —John Lennon

Left: John Lennon in 1967 at work in his home recording studio in Weybridge, U.K.

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T

he last year of the 1960s was the last year of the Beatles. It was also the first year of John Lennon’s career as a solo artist— an artist abandoning the safety net of the group, even though the world did not yet know it. And it was perhaps not until the summer of 1969 was fading that he even knew it himself for sure. There was no single crisis moment that caused John to step away from the band he had founded as a sixteen-year-old back in 1957. Instead, a series of crises had grown steadily more intense since the suicide of Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein in August of 1967, at the zenith of Sgt. Pepper mania and the Summer of Love. Brian was not the most astute dealmaker, as the group had learned to their cost. But with Brian protecting them from business pressures and helping resolve tensions in the pressure-cooker environment of phenomenal worldwide fame, the Beatles ran smoothly even when heading into completely uncharted territory—which they had been doing almost exclusively as musicians, superstars, and cultural icons since their global breakthrough in 1964. But without Brian, who would take care of business? The Beatles launched Apple Corps, initially conceived as a Beatles’ holding company and investment vehicle to minimize their tax exposure. However, Apple soon turned into a money pit through various financially hemorrhaging enterprises, ranging from experimental electronics to a fashion boutique to (and this is the one that actually made a lot of money) a record label.

The Beginning of the End In May of 1968 John flew to New York with Paul McCartney to tell the world how Apple would reinvent capitalism for the hippie generation. In those heady days anything seemed possible, and for the two old friends and songwriting partners, the future together was still very bright. But within three months, recording sessions for what would be the double-length eponymous album (known more commonly as the White Album) had become so tense that Above: The Please Please Me sleeve early in early 1963, the Beatles’ first U.K. number one.

Left: Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil! John Lennon on the cover of Bravo magazine’s German edition. Right: John Lennon talking with Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein on set. Epstein committed suicide in August of 1967—at the height of Sgt. Pepper mania.

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Ringo Starr walked out of the group and had to be coaxed back. The Beatles had disagreed among themselves before, but nothing like this. George Harrison was on a songwriting streak but was frustrated that his efforts were sidelined by John and Paul’s determination to dominate the writing credits. And both George and Ringo felt increasingly patronized by Paul— no mean guitarist and drummer himself—telling them exactly how to play their parts on his songs. But above all, there was Yoko Ono.

About a Girl The term “dysfunctional family” had yet to be invented, but John’s background was a classic case. As an only child abandoned by both parents, he had been raised by his mother’s respectable older sister, his aunt Mimi. John’s mother, Julia, had reappeared when he was a teenager, and he was

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reconciled with her free spirit, falling in love with her as if she were a sexy older sister. When she was knocked down by an out-of-control car and killed instantly in 1958, the off-duty police officer at the wheel was officially exonerated. John was a rebel before, but now it was personal. John was a sexual rover, but at the age of twenty-two he married his long-suffering girlfriend, Cynthia, when she became pregnant. His mid-twenties, at the height of Beatlemania, were what John was to call his “Fat Elvis” phase, when bouts of depression, overeating, and lethargy were interspersed with bursts of furious creativity. By the end of 1966 he had slimmed down, but that was because he had switched to an LSD diet, spending most of the year under its influence. Then Yoko Ono appeared on the Swinging London scene. She was an avant-garde artist from Japan—via New York—whose conceptual and performance art were by turns provocative, enigmatic, and witty. John was charmed, while she saw in him a rich potential patron. Mutual intrigue turned into a love affair as they discovered they had much in common: a troubled childhood, a failed marriage (John would eventually divorce from Cynthia in 1968), and a deep commitment to stirring up the world with art. Suddenly, John had the female soul mate he’d pined for since his mother’s death. He and Yoko jointly documented their first eighteen months together in the medium John knew best. The albums Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (with the couple controversially photographed naked on the sleeve), Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions, and Wedding Album are scrapbooks of snapshots in sound whose merits are strictly as historical artifacts; as Lennon side projects, they offer far less than his two highly inventive mid-1960s books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. But the album trilogy told the world what Paul, George, Ringo, and the unfortunate Cynthia found out out in the summer of 1968: John and Yoko were inseparable. Right: A young John Lennon with his wife, Cynthia. Above: John Lennon on the September 1968 cover of Eye magazine. The photo was taken by Linda Eastman, who would later go on to marry Paul McCartney in 1969. Left: A tense John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr rehearsing for the “Night of 100 Stars” at the London Palladium in 1964. Judy Garland was also on the bill.

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Left: Inseparable . . . John Lennon holds Japanese-born artist and musician Yoko Ono in his arms in December of 1968. Above: Two Virgins album cover and sleeve, which was a source of controversy in 1968.

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e... olds n cian s ber

gins nd

f 1968.

Above: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Paul McCartney at the premiere of the new Beatles’ film “Yellow Submarine” on July 18, 1968. Thousands of Beatles’ fans brought traffic to a halt in Piccadilly Circus as they waited to see the band arrive at the premiere. John and Paul hold apples, the symbol of their newly formed company, Apple Corps. Right: Wedding Album cover. John and Yoko were married in 1969.

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When Yoko arrived with John at Abbey Road Studios to sit in on the White Album sessions, the four-way working chemistry that they’d all taken for granted since 1962 abruptly broke down. Only Ringo accepted Yoko’s presence. George was downright rude to her, while Paul, sensing John’s dependence on her approval rather than on his own instincts, began to dominate proceedings, which infuriated everyone. Almost miraculously, the White Album emerged as another masterpiece. What came next, at Paul’s behest, did not. Inspired by the spontaneous, organic sound of the Band—on both their album Music from Big Pink and the “Basement Tapes” collection of songs they’d recorded with Bob Dylan, which were circulating among rock insiders—Paul cajoled the Beatles into writing and recording songs on the roof, documenting the whole process for a movie release and finishing the whole shebang with a secret gig, their first since quitting the road in August of 1966.

Above: John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Beatles’ manager Allen Klein in 1969. Klein convinced Lennon to let him manage the Beatles’ business, and it was this decision that caused a major rift between John and Paul, since McCartney never trusted Klein. Left: On January 30, 1969, the Beatles performed their last live public concert on the rooftop of the Apple Organization building for director Michael Lindsey-Hogg’s film documentary, “Let It Be,” on Sevile Row in London. Drummer Ringo Starr sits behind his kit. Paul McCartney and John Lennon perform at their microphones, and guitarist George Harrison (1943–2001) stands behind them. Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, is sitting on the right.

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Above: John Lennon doodled a self-portrait of Bed Peace.

John and Paul were at war with who was going to run the show . . .

Tempers ran high in a virtually unheated movie studio in January 1969, in what would later become known as the “Let It Be” sessions. Few really good songs came out of those weeks, though the show the band gave on the rooftop of the Apple HQ in London had a rough-and-ready charm. Depressed by the whole experience, the Beatles could not bear to review the hours of movie footage and recording tape—plus there was a more immediate crisis to contend with. Apple Corps was in chaos, as were all the Beatles’ complex business affairs. Enter Allen Klein, a canny and aggressive music-business accountant from New Jersey who, with some justification, claimed to be able to screw back every cent the record companies had originally screwed out of the artists. He’d done it for the Beatles’ buddies the Rolling Stones, and now he could do it for the biggest band on the planet. Paul, on the verge of marrying New Yorker Linda Eastman, had been warned by his future in-laws that Klein was not to be trusted, but John was seduced by Klein’s approach, which blended no-bullshit abrasiveness with flattery of John’s artistry and personal empathy (Klein had lost his mother at a young age). John impulsively appointed Klein to look after his business affairs. At John’s urging, George and Ringo followed suit. Paul had been lobbying for his future in-laws to take care of the Beatles’ business, but the other three, already resentful of the way Paul had treated them in the studio, refused. Suddenly, John and Paul were at war over who was to run the show; though George and Ringo sided with John, Paul held out. It is a measure of the enduring Lennon-McCartney partnership that, on John’s first Beatles’ A-side in two years, a bouncy song all about him and Yoko, Paul was happy to play drums, piano, and bass during George and Ringo’s absence on other business. “The Ballad of John and Yoko” tells the story of the first modern rock ’n’ roll celebrity event: how the newly married couple cheerfully exploited their fame and controversy (Yoko was widely seen as an inscrutable Oriental home-wrecker) to stage oddball happenings—sitting enigmatically in a giant bag, conducting press conferences from a hotel bed—to attract the world’s media and, in John’s words, to “advertise peace.” John’s publicity campaign for peace (even as tensions with Paul escalated) gave him a sense of a mission—that he was taking his biggest step out of the comfort zone the Beatles had afforded him. Even though he was still officially a Beatle and in the midst of recording sessions for their final masterpiece, Abbey Road, that big step would be the first statement of his solo musical career: the worldwide anthem “Give Peace a Chance.”

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Above: John Lennon and Yoko Ono conducting a press conference from a hotel bed in 1969 to advertise peace.

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Chapter 2 On the Run,

but Shining

on

“I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that.”—John Lennon

Left: John Lennon playing the guitar in Rishikesh, India, where he was following a transcendental course in 1968. All the Beatles attended the Transcendental Meditation training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

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Above: John Lennon and Yoko Ono stage a pop concert in aid of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on December 16, 1969.

Right: The original handwritten lyrics for John Lennon’s hit song, “Give Peace a Chance.” The lyrics were sold at Christie’s auction house in 2008 for $833,654. Lennon had given the lyrics to sixteen-year old Gail Renard when he wrote them at the infamous 1969 Montreal “bed-In.”

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A

ll over the world, “The Ballad of John and Yoko” had gone to number one–but not in the United States, where it only scraped into the top ten. The lines “Christ, you know it ain’t easy,” and especially “They’re going to crucify me,” crimped radio play and sales in many states, especially with John’s 1966 “bigger than Jesus” controversy far from forgotten. It was as a cartoon messiah—little round Gandhi glasses, white suit, long hair, and full beard—that John presented himself to the world that summer of 1969. Was he for real? Was it a put-on? John instinctively stoked the intrigue.

Off the Cuff In March, on a honeymoon that doubled as a publicity stunt in support of peace, John and Yoko had staged a “bed-in” at the Amsterdam Hilton, as mentioned in “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” To help promote that record and intensify their peace campaign, John and Yoko staged a second “bed-in” in Montreal in May (he was banned from the United States due to a marijuana conviction the previous November). The Montreal event was an even bigger media circus than Amsterdam, and, with Yoko’s help, John wrote an impromptu peace anthem whose chorus was based on a phrase he’d recently coined: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” John moved fast, pinning the lyrics on the hotel bedroom wall so everyone could read them, and he led the whole room full of media, visiting celebrities, a Montreal rabbi, and a group from the local Radha Krishna Temple in an unrehearsed, tape-recorded sing-along. Five weeks later “Give Peace a Chance” was released as a single, credited to the Plastic Ono Band (“The Plastic Ono Band is you,” John later told the world). It would become both a worldwide hit and an enduring peace anthem.

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John had proved to himself that he could make music—using the inspiration of the moment, with whomever or whatever came to hand—that the world would listen to and love. He didn’t need the same old team, the same old working methods, the same old support structures, and the same old problems that were getting worse and sucking all the joy out of music-making for him. He didn’t need the Beatles. On August 22, the Beatles were photographed together for the last time, in the grounds of John’s new mansion, Tittenhurst Park, outside London. Post-production was completed on Abbey Road three days later, and then fate played its hand. The Toronto Rock ’n’ Roll Revival on September 13 was set to capitalize on a resurgent interest in the music’s founding heroes, including Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, and Fats Domino, all of whom John revered. Ticket sales were slow, so the promoters hatched the idea of inviting John over as a superstar master of ceremonies. John told them that he’d come over and play instead. But who would be in his band?

Above: (left to right) Star Power: Eric Clapton, John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards performing live onstage as The Dirty Mac on The Rolling Stones’ “Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus” in 1968.

Right: Album covers for Happy Xmas (War is Over) and Give Peace a Chance from the Plastic Ono Band.

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And by the Way . . . In December of 1968, for the Rolling Stones’ mooted Rock ’n’ Roll Circus TV special, John had performed his White Album song “Yer Blues,” using the moniker Winston Leg-Thigh and the Dirty Mac, with Keith Richards on bass, Jimi Hendrix’s drummer Mitch Mitchell, and Eric Clapton on guitar. The latter had also played a solo on George Harrison’s White Album track “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and so was in the Beatles’ inner circle of musician buddies. John called Eric and invited him to catch a plane with him from London to Canada; also onboard was the Beatles’ old Hamburg pal Klaus Voormann, playing bass, future Yes drummer Alan White, and Yoko. The Plastic Ono Band was formed. And by the way, John told them, though there hadn’t been time to break the news to Paul, George, and Ringo, he was leaving the Beatles. Allen Klein was thunderstruck. He was in the midst of negotiating a new deal for the Beatles with Capitol Records in the United States, but with John leaving the band his hand would be critically weakened. They agreed to keep John’s resignation under wraps. On the flight over, to the bemusement of the other first-class passengers, including a senior executive from Schick razors, the bearded, long-haired musicians sat rehearsing a set of rock ’n’ roll standards on acoustic guitars that John hadn’t played since the Cavern Club, plus “Yer Blues,” and a new song that he’d wanted the Beatles to record but they hadn’t liked—“Cold Turkey”—which described John’s withdrawal from a brief dalliance with heroin earlier that year. Before the show, John was so apprehensive about his first concert before a paying audience in three years that, after drugging himself before the show with Eric, he threw up and had to lie down. In the event, he and the band passed the audition even if they never quite caught fire—and the fans hated Yoko’s lengthy screaming performances of her songs “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)” and “John John (Let’s Hope for Peace),” as can be witnessed in the D. A. Pennebaker documentary “Sweet Toronto” and on the live album Live Peace in Toronto 1969. “I enjoyed it like mad,” John told his friend Barry Miles upon his return, “even if I did have to sing ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ and ‘Money’ again, because they’re the only things I know!” Two weeks later in London, John reconvened the band, with Ringo replacing Alan White, to record “Cold Turkey” for release as a single by the Plastic Ono Band. It was the first song for which John took sole songwriting credit. Also, though it was

John was so apprehensive that he drugged himself before the show and had to lie down.

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“

”

The Plastic Ono Band is you.

—John Lennon

Above: Album covers for the Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace in Toronto and Cold Turkey. Right: Difference of opinion . . . (left to right) Alan White, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono expressing the different ways to say “peace.” This picture was taken in September of 1969, the day after the Plastic Ono Band headlined the Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival show at Varsity Stadium.

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less noticed at the time, Yoko had the B-side (“Don’t Worry Kyoko”), but unlike the Toronto performance of “Cold Turkey,” she was not heard on the A-side at all; for all his devotion to Yoko, John knew the recorded performance would be better off without her. Love may have been blind, but it was not deaf. The release was John’s loudest statement yet of solo intent. Though its controversial subject matter limited radio play, and consequently sales, Cold Turkey remains a searingly powerful record, the punchy and uncluttered blueprint for John’s best solo work.

lnstant Karma, lnstant Hit That December, John, Yoko, Clapton, Voormann, George Harrison, and friends played a benefit show in London for UNICEF. It was the last time John would share a stage with a fellow Beatle. The following month, January 1970, he called George with an invitation to play on a new kind of record that had come to him in a brainwave: an instant single about seizing the moment and joining in something called “Instant Karma!” John told the press he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.” And that is more or less what happened. Phil Spector, who was in London trying to salvage a commercial album out of the “Let It Be“ session tapes from the previous year, produced the record. Whereas the much older George Martin was a meticulous producer, bringing out the myriad harmonies, textures, and depths in the Beatles’ records, Spector was an eccentric man of John’s age, more focused on sonic impact and emotional intensity—the essences of the hit records that John admired. Reproducing the “Wall of Sound” he’d created on early 1960s classics by the Ronettes and others, Spector had John, George, Voormann, Billy Preston, and drummer Alan White hammer away on pianos simultaneously. The whole thing was done in three takes. A top-five single all over the world, “Instant Karma!” was the first solo Beatle record to sell more than a million copies. It was a blast of joy and positive thinking from a man hailed as one of the defining figures of the 1960s, who was starting the new decade with the cropped hair and unshaven face of an escaped convict—a desperado who meant business. But if John had a plan, it would soon be undone by something arriving in the mail. Left: Yoko Ono and John Lennon at the UNICEF gala at Ile de France, Paris 1968.

Right: Album cover for Instant Karma!

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Chapter 3 Not Dreaming

but Screaming

“When you’re drowning, you just go, Aaaaaaargh!!!”—John Lennon

Left: John Lennon sitting pensively in London Airport smoking a cigarette. At the time of the picture, he and wife Yoko Ono were involved in a messy custody battle over Yoko’s daughter from a previous marriage.

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I

n 1967, a Californian psychotherapist named Dr. Arthur Janov had a eureka moment when, during a therapy session, his patient curled up on the floor and started screaming from the very depths of his soul. What Dr. Janov witnessed inspired the belief that adult neuroses and self-destructiveness stem from repressed reactions to childhood trauma; if the therapist can help the patient bring those repressed feelings to the surface and release them as screams of pain, over time the patient will be relieved of anxiety, pain, and extreme behavior. Janov’s first book, The Primal Scream, was published in early 1970. John Lennon was one of the prominent people to whom the publisher mailed a copy to drum up interest.

Help Wanted Screaming, of course, was what Yoko did on stage, and this coincidence piqued John’s interest. What he read was like a message directed solely at him, because in that early spring John needed help. His new home, Tittenhurst Park, was overrun with builders. His relationship with Paul— his creative other half and the close friend who, having also lost his mother as a teenager, shared a deep bond of pain with John—was growing rancorous over business differences. The lithographs John had made of him and Yoko on their honeymoon were the subject of a police prosecution for obscenity. In short, John barely felt able to get out of bed. John got in touch with Janov, who, at his children’s urging, flew to London. Janov had no doubt that John was in “the kind of pain that would knock a patient off the floor, it was so catastrophic . . . agony beyond description,” as he told British music journalist Gavin Martin. Initial sessions took place at Tittenhurst Park, then at Janov’s temporary clinic in London, and finally, when Janov complained he could no longer stay away from his Californian Left: Police detectives are taking down and seizing eight of the erotic pictures displayed at “Bag One.” The exhibition featured a series of erotic pictures depicting him and Yoko on their honeymoon. Right: An invitation to attend “Bag One,” where John and Yoko displayed the lithographs made on their honeymoon. These lithographs became the source of police prosecution for obscenity.

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patients, in Los Angeles at his Primal Institute. John was granted leave to enter the United States while appealing his U.K. drug conviction. Encouraged by Janov over the course of that spring and summer (the Beatles’ final studio album, Let It Be, was released in May) to get in touch with his deepest feelings about everything from his mother and father abandoning him to life with his strict aunt Mimi, his fellow Beatles’ reactions to Yoko, and much more besides. John regressed to childhood. After each session of howling agony and purgation, he went for a swim in the pool of his rented Bel Air mansion and further consoled himself with a diet of chocolate, ice cream, and Dr. Pepper, putting on thirty pounds. When his visa ran out, John flew home with Yoko, even though Janov felt that the therapy needed another year to run its course.

A Portrait of Vulnerability Did it work? For a short while, yes. John was creatively re-energized, and he at once channeled into his songs the past he had confronted and the person he could now see unflinchingly in the mirror. Among the phrases John coined during his sessions with Janov, “God is the concept by which we measure our pain” became a key lyric in the album simply called John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which was recorded at Abbey Road with Ringo on drums and Klaus Voormann on bass (Yoko’s Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band album was recorded at the same time with the same core musicians). John regressed Though he played old Elvis and Chuck Berry records in the studio and ran through a few rock ’n’ roll standards to warm up, John was not after to childhood and a joyous sound of release but rather a simplicity of playing to give the songs space to speak for themselves. The lyrics were pinned conspicuously consoled himself to the studio walls so that Ringo and Klaus knew just what was at stake personally for John. Nor could they fail to notice how John had changed with chocolate, from the tough nut he’d always seemed. Now he was openly fragile, and on ice cream, and several occasions he wept in the studio. The album’s songs to Yoko—“Hold On,” “Look at Me,” and “Love”—are Dr. Pepper . . . among the most touching John ever wrote, but they are not what stunned his fans on first hearing the album. The album starts with the slowed

Right: A troubled-looking John Lennon, circa 1970.

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He was openly fragile and on several occasions wept in the studio . . .

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down tolling of funeral church bells sampled from a horror movie soundtrack, with John’s voice over a stark arrangement of piano, bass, and drums: “Mother, you had me, but I never had you.” “Mother,” which ends in howls of grief, would be the album’s only single. As the album unfolded, other shocks followed: the savagery of “I Found Out”; the explosive joke ending of “Remember” (in 1997 Phil Spector, who worked with John and Yoko on the record’s production, said that John had wanted him to source the sound of a genuine IRA bomb going off in Northern Ireland, but he had to make do with a sound library effect); the four-letter words and bitter self-denunciation of “Working Class Hero”; the litany of failed faiths in “God,” concluding with the dream being over as he no longer believed in the Beatles—he just believed in himself. But the album wasn’t over—not quite. Recorded as if on a child’s cassette player, “My Mummy’s Dead” is almost unbearably sad, no matter how often it’s heard.

The Outsider Released in December of 1970, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was not the usual Christmas family album. With George Harrison’s Spector-produced triple-album debut All Things Must Pass, the must-have post-Beatle record of the season, few fans wanted John to spoil the party, and his album sales were far from fab. But listeners soon began to recognize the record for what it was: an intensely felt and expressed masterpiece in which anyone could hear something of themselves in John’s unsparing yet vulnerable self-portrait. John had made his stand against wishful thinking about the Beatles, religion, the 1960s, and much else, and he went even further in a long, shockingly candid interview he gave Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone magazine that December. In the eyes of the millions who loved the Beatles, John was turning into an angry outsider, and only so many wanted to follow him out to the edge—far fewer than were singing along with George to “My Sweet Lord.” Always competitive, always populist as he was, John was rankled by this. Could he remain true to his determination to tell the truth while making music for the masses, not just the hardcore? That was his challenge for 1971. Left: John Lennon at the E.M gallery party promoting his album, Power to the People.

Right: John Lennon on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

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Chapter 4 Sweetness, Light —and a Sting

“Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace . . . we just need to declare it.” —John Lennon

Left: A reflective John Lennon at his Tittenhurst Park home during the making of the “Imagine” film on July 23, 1971.

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J Being photographed in a Japanese riot helmet with a clenched fist salute

’

didn t help sales.

ohn usually acted on instinct rather than by methodically working through an agenda. Now in his fourth year with Yoko, his horizons and mind continued to broaden. Visiting New York with her, he saw the city from the perspective of her former bohemian life there; visiting Japan to meet her family, he was charmed and intrigued by the quiet delicacy of domestic life. Though raised by women, John was an alpha male in a man’s world— unthinkingly so, until he met Yoko. At the dawn of the 1970s, the F-word was on everyone’s lips—feminism. Yoko had been a feminist long before it went mainstream, and John happily embraced both women’s rights and his own softer side. Even in the fight for workers’ rights and the challenge to war-mongering capitalism that was by then spinning off from the peace moment and coming from the streets, women were the underdog, and John was determined to tell the world the news. Inspired by a long and supportive interview he gave to the British radical political newspaper Red Mole, John wrote a new song around the slogan “Power to the People.” A call to arms for workers, the song challenged “comrades and brothers” to let “your own woman . . . free herself.” Echoing “Instant Karma!” in its raucous sing-along style—and likewise quickly written and recorded to seize the moment—“Power to the People” was, as John said, “something for the people to sing. I make singles like broadsheets.” Credited to the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and again featuring the studio talents of Klaus Voormann, Alan White, Billy Preston, and Phil Spector, it was a hit—but not as big a hit in that spring of 1971 as the singles released by each of the other three former Beatles. Being photographed in a Japanese riot police helmet and giving the clenched fist salute on the single’s sleeve didn’t help. This, perhaps, was the critical moment when John realized that to get his message across to the world, as well as to compete even with Ringo for the public’s affections, never mind Paul or George, he needed to coat his songs, as he said, with sugar. Left: Sleeve of Power To The People single. Right: John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their home in Tittenhurst Park in 1970. They lived here from 1969–1971.

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Above: John Lennon playing a gorgeous white piano at Tittenhurst Park during the making of the film “Imagine.” The same piano was used to record the song “Imagine.” Above: The album cover of Imagine (released in 1971), featuring John with his head in the clouds.

A Spoonful of Sugar In September 1971, Imagine was the album—and the title song—that gave John not only the worldwide hit he craved but proved that his artistic and moral vision had survived the smoking ruins of the Beatles, and that he could offer the way forward in the 1970s. The basic tracks were recorded in a week in John’s home studio at Tittenhurst Park with a broad cast of musicians, including George (but not Ringo), ace pianist Nicky Hopkins, and, on massed acoustic guitars in the streamlined 1970s version of coproducer Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound,” members of the Apple-signed pop-rock group Badfinger. With communal meals around the kitchen table and John sneaking off with Hopkins for a joint behind the back of a disapproving Yoko, the atmosphere was convivial but always disciplined. John’s focus and work ethic in the studio only slackened two years later, when he was off Yoko’s leash. Some of Imagine’s songs completed previously sketched ideas, such as “Gimme Some Truth,” which was started two years before to protest “Tricky Dick” Nixon’s election as U.S. president. Likewise, “Jealous Guy” was a new lyric added to the exquisite tune of John’s unrecorded 1968 song “Child of Nature.” “Jealous Guy” is a love song of startling insecurity and neediness that fleshes out “Look at Me” (from the previous year) both lyrically and musically. “Crippled Inside,” too, not only offered some verbal fun but invited listeners to dance along to a jug-band tune that would have done the Lovin’ Spoonful proud. Yet the song’s meaning was no more than what John had learned from Dr. Janov’s therapy sessions. The beautiful “How?” was, again, therapy-inspired but delicately sugar-coated with strings. As a result, millions more fans swallowed the pill of John’s doubt-ridden psyche. But if John gave fans a shock with his renunciation of the Beatles in the previous year’s song, “God,” in 1971 he made it personal, targeting Paul in “How Do You Sleep?” Played out in public via newspaper reports that aired the former Beatles’ financial and legal differences, the spat between Paul and his former bandmates—especially the group’s founder and his former songwriting partner—was getting nastier. Like a rejected lover reverting in anger and grief to a razor-tongued Liverpool teenager, John relished putting the knife, the boot, and whatever else he had into Paul in “How Do You Sleep?” He would have put in a highly libelous comment, too, about authorship of the song “Yesterday” had he not heeded Allen Klein’s advice not to.

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Above: John Lennon and Yoko Ono posing in their Tittenhurst Park home during the making of the “Imagine” film on July 23, 1971.

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Overleaf: Tensions between John Lennon and Paul McCartney were beginning to show signs of strain in 1968, when this press conference photograph was taken. By 1971, they were launching personal attacks on each other through their albums. Lennon’s How Do You Sleep? caused a sensation.

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And just in case anyone missed the point, John included in the album package a photo of him clutching a pig in parody of the cover of Paul’s album Ram, which had come out that May and infuriated John with the couple of mild digs aimed at him. A song so unpleasantly powerful would usually have stolen the show in albums by most other artists, but “How Do You Sleep?” was instead upstaged by the opening title track.

A Fresh Start Since the start of her relationship with John, Yoko had miscarried at least twice. Both John and Yoko were each already parents with their children living in the custody of their previous partners—Julian with Cynthia, and Kyoko with Yoko’s second husband, Tony Cox. For John and Yoko, a baby together would mean a fresh start at family life. A month before

Above: An autgraphed copy of Grapefruit from Yoko Ono and John Lennon.

Right: Yoko Ono launches her new book Grapefruit in 1971. John Lennon signed copies of the new release at Selfridges in July of 1971.

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the “Imagine” sessions started, John told the U.K.’s Daily Mirror, “Yoko and I still hope for children of our own. If not, we’ll adopt. We’ll cop all sorts of children, Jews and Arabs, blacks and whites and polka-dot kids too if there are any going.” John and Yoko were also dreaming of the world in which the child they longed for would be born. That summer of 1971, the couple toured bookstores to promote Yoko’s expanded edition of “instruction pieces,” Grapefruit. In it, readers were invited to “imagine” the “clouds dripping” or “one thousand suns in the sky at the same time.” What John (and Yoko) imagined was a world for their child without divisions of nation, wealth, or faith. Sung over a gently inquiring yet serenely authoritative piano figure, John conceded that people might say he was a dreamer—and on the album sleeve, his head was in the clouds—but he wasn’t the only one. Join us, he hoped, and the world would live as one. The enduring image of Imagine is of John playing a white grand piano in the white music room at Tittenhurst Park. But the appearance of unruffled peace is deceptive. John was plagued by fans knocking on the door, looking for enlightenment. And just a few miles away, the law courts of London were grinding away at the Beatles’ fortune and reputation. John and Yoko had paid brief visits to New York after John was allowed back into the United States, but now, on the eve of Imagine’s release, the world city of “Jews and Arabs, blacks and whites and polka-dot kids” looked like a place of escape and rebirth for both. On Tuesday, August 31, the couple flew from London to New York. John would never return. Top right: January 28, 1968, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr with old Liverpool friend, singer Cilla Black, and pop singer Donovan (far left) at the reception to welcome the group Grapefruit to the Beatles’ Apple record label. Just a few short years later, John had turned into a family man.

Above: John and Yoko with Julian (son to John and Cynthia) and Kyoko (daughter to Yoko Ono and Tony Cox) in Edinburgh, 1971.

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Chapter 5 Que Pasa, New

York?

“I like New Yorkers. They don’t believe in wasting time.”—John Lennon

Left: John Lennon, dressed in a military jacket and sunglasses, sings into a microphone as he performs onstage at the “One to One” concert in Madison Square Garden, New York on August 30, 1972. The charity concert was to benefit developmentally disabled people.

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J John felt that he and Frank Zappa had a lot in common . . .

ohn and Yoko’s most pressing reason for taking up residence in New York was to pursue Yoko’s custody battle with her previous husband, Tony Cox, for their daughter, Kyoko. But for John, now aged thirty-one, the city instantly offered not just a welcome but a ticket back to the feeling he last had when he was the coolest, hippest, and most sarcastic art-school student in the tough seaport of Liverpool, grooving to unfettered rock ’n’ roll hot off the boat from America.

The City that Never Sleeps Making their base on the seventeenth floor of the St. Regis Hotel, and then later at a Greenwich Village loft, John and Yoko bicycled everywhere in cheerful imitation of their fellow Villager, John’s old friend Bob Dylan. Excited and delighted by the open-minded, risk-taking New York art scene (a welcome contrast to the conservatism he’d left behind in Britain), John soundtracked his new 24/7, street-level lifestyle with old Elvis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Link Wray records, plus albums by the scabrously satirical comedian Lenny Bruce and the entire back catalog of the group with whom John had put in a cameo performance at New York’s Fillmore East that summer: Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. John felt that he and Zappa had a lot in common (despite Zappa’s tendency toward musical virtuosity and his utter disdain for social and political idealism).

Right: A posed group portrait of Frank Zappa with the Mothers of Invention.

Opposite: John Lennon and Yoko Ono stroll around their neighborhood, near Bank Street in Greenwich Village in October of 1972.

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There were others, too, with whom John quickly struck up friendships, notably the political activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies (Youth International Party) and the street musician David Peel, who introduced John to the group he would invite to be his backing band, Elephant’s Memory.

Christmas in New York But first, Christmas: a time for children, a time for nostalgia, and a time for John’s friend and latter-day studio coconspirator, Phil Spector, whose 1963 all-star album A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records was by now very unfashionable but still close to John’s heart. As the two convened to record Lennon’s next single, John found himself utterly in his element among a bevy of superb musicians, including Nicky Hopkins and drummer Jim Keltner, who’d also played on the “Imagine” sessions. For the non-album “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” Spector supervised a sound that didn’t stint on sleigh bells or caroling kids (some thirty-plus were recruited from the Harlem Community Choir). The song harked back to more innocent days, yoking melody lines that evoked everything from the folk ballad “Stewball,” the Paris Sisters, and Johnny Ace to John’s 1969 Christmas message: WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It). Though “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is one of the best-loved solo Beatle songs today, in 1971 it was released too late to make an impact on the Christmas singles market and was not a hit. Back in London, John had made the benefit record Do the Oz in support of the owners of the underground magazine Oz, who were being threatened with jail for obscenity. In the United States, he also hastened to help those oppressed by the state, most notably Detroit White Panther leader John Sinclair, the political dissident who had been sentenced to a ten-year jail stretch after he was entrapped in a marijuana bust, and Black Panther activist Angela Davis.

Left: John Lennon sitting on a windowsill, probably at the Dakota in New York City in 1980.

Phil Spector supervised a holiday sound full of sleigh bells and caroling kids . . .

Right: Album cover for Happy Xmas (War is Over).

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ln January of

1972,

the FBl

opened a file on John Lennon.

Making live appearances in support of Sinclair as well as the families of the thirty-nine killed in the Attica prison riot, John was inspired by the rapturous reception he received. What he did not know was that the U.S. government was also watching his support of these anti-establishment causes, but with mounting alarm rather than applause. In January of 1972, the FBI opened a file on John; it was a presidential election year and the incumbent Richard Nixon wanted to thwart by means fair or foul any opposition to his re-election (most notable among these means was the illegal break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.). The voting age was to drop to eighteen prior to the November elections, and Nixon’s regime feared that the new youth vote could tip the election in favor of the Democrats if they were mobilized by the likes of Lennon. Had he known that Uncle Sam was assembling a case for his deportation, John might have thought twice about his next album. Where the Christmas single had been an old-fashioned production number compared to the “instant” stand-alone singles that preceded it, on the album John and Yoko hoped to release within months of Imagine, John reverted to writing and recording in the heat of the moment, with Phil Spector once again supervising the studio sessions. Most tracks championed John and Yoko’s pet causes, as John said, “in a tradition of minstrels—singing reporters— who sang about their times and what was happening.” Songs included, in various musical styles, “John Sinclair,” “Attica State,” and “Angela.”

Champion of a Cause Around the same period, John had met up with Paul for the first time in two years when he and his wife Linda were in New York. The ex-partners found themselves, as Brits of Irish descent, agreeing that British troops should get out of Northern Ireland; each would write songs to that effect, of which “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and the catchy “The Luck of the Irish” would feature on the album Some Time in New York City. Back in 1968, Yoko had given John a crash course in feminism, and in “Power to the People” he had alluded to the cause. Now he had a new slogan song with which to spread the word: quoting a magazine interview Yoko had given in 1969, John penned “Woman Is the Nigger of the World.” Few radio stations would play the song when it was released as a single, though it was one of the strongest tracks on the new album. But the best 52

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Above: Yin and yang . . . John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Bank Street home in the West Village.

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Overleaf: John Lennon and Yoko Ono performing at a charity concert in New York, August 1972.

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song—and best performance both from John in voice and from his raucous new backing band, Elephant’s Memory—was “New York City”, which updated “The Ballad of John and Yoko” from three years before, joyously relating the recent uplift in the couple’s lives and tipping its hat to John’s early inspiration, Chuck Berry, both musically and lyrically. It should have been the single. It wasn’t, but that was hardly John’s worst decision. First was the second disk of the double album, which collected live numbers from John’s appearances at the London Lyceum in 1969 and with the Mothers of Invention the previous summer at the Fillmore East. John sang well, but the backing musicians were either under-rehearsed or, in the case of the Mothers, a stylistic misfit. Far worse for most listeners was that there was a lot of Yoko, just as there was on the album’s studio sides, where John, true to his feminist commitment, gave her equal billing and a near-equal share of the album’s listening time. Muse to John she may have been, but she was hardly in his class as a singer or songwriter. Most put their fingers in their ears and walked away.

Dark Shadows Meanwhile, John’s U.S. visa ran out in February of 1972. As long as he did not leave and then try to re-enter the country, he was reasonably safe. A forced deportation would have made the government look provocatively heavy-handed. But that meant John would be trapped in the land of the free, so he hired a lawyer whose early advice was to cut down on controversial causes and try harder to endear himself to broader U.S. public opinion. John was always moved by the plight of children, and when a fundraiser was proposed to improve conditions at Staten Island’s overcrowded Willowbrook State School for special needs children, John and Yoko volunteered to join a bill that included Stevie Wonder. The “One to One” matinee and evening shows on August 30 at New York’s 20,000-capacity Madison Square Garden turned out to be John’s final stage appearances as a billed act, and these shows were recorded and filmed. Finally released in 1986, “Live in New York City” is fine, but the live footage, warts and all, is a revelation. A great party band dominated by Stan Bronstein’s Left: An Apple promotional ad touting John’s brand new release, “Mother.” The photos at the top are of a young John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

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bellowing saxophone, Elephant’s Memory trampled all over the songs that needed musical restraint: “Mother” and “Imagine.” But when it came to rock, the band inspired an initially tense, gumchewing John to cut loose on great renditions of “Come Together,” “New York City,” “Instant Karma!,” and “Hound Dog.” The last bleeds, via a Yoko rap, into “Give Peace a Chance,” the stage filled with chanting revelers. The show was a triumph, inspiring John to start dreaming of a tour. But the shadows were gathering: repeated miscarriages, heroin and methadone habits that were kicked only to return, the dawning realization that Paul had been correct in his suspicions about Allen Klein’s integrity, and conspicuous U.S. government surveillance (including phone tapping) all put John and Yoko’s marriage under strain. By the time of Nixon’s landslide election victory that November, something had to give.

Below: Album cover for Woman Is The Nigger of the World.

Repeated miscarriages and a recurring drug habit put a strain on the marriage . . .

Left: Ready for battle . . . John Lennon and Yoko Ono in matching berets.

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Chapter 6 Ambassador or Guerilla?

“If there’s such a thing as genius—I am one. And if there isn’t, I don’t care.” —John Lennon

Right: John Lennon working on his album, Mind Games, at the Record Plant in 1972.

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W

hat gave out was John’s self-control. A party that was started to celebrate Nixon’s hoped-for defeat turned into a wake, when TV coverage began to report the opposite. The causes John had supported were roundly rejected by American voters before his eyes. John turned on his radical guests and then made things far worse by getting drunk and having sex with another guest, to the horror of Yoko and to the embarrassment of everyone else in the apartment. There had been rumors of tension between the couple in previous months, and as Yoko approached her fortieth birthday, she began to entertain the idea that letting her husband, nearly eight years her junior, off the leash might save rather than destroy their marriage. Dependent on the dominating Yoko, yet intrigued by the thought of playing the field, John was torn. In April of 1973, as if to deny the shakiness in their relationship, the couple fled the Village to move uptown to a spacious apartment overlooking Central Park, which had been just vacated by the movie actor Robert Ryan. The Dakota, John liked to tell people, was where “they made Rosemary’s Baby,” as if its setting for the classic horror movie added to its charm. On the kitchen door John affixed a plaque announcing it as the “Nutopian Embassy.” That April Fool’s Day he had announced “the birth of a conceptual country, NUTOPIA. Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of NUTOPIA. NUTOPIA has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people. NUTOPIA has no laws other than cosmic. All people of NUTOPIA are ambassadors of the country. As two ambassadors of

Left: There’s a storm brewing . . . John Lennon on the roof of the Dakota on February 25, 1975. Central Park, the Manhattan skyline, and dark clouds loom behind him. Right: John Lennon in the kitchen of his apartment in the Dakota on West 72nd Street in New York City.

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NUTOPIA, we ask for diplomatic immunity and recognition in the United Nations of our country and its people.” As a way to beat his deportation order, it was never going to work, but the Nutopia concept had charm; its flag was a white tissue, and its anthem, to be featured on John’s next album, Mind Games, was a few seconds of silence.

Trouble Brewing A fresh bout of writer’s block gnawing at John was made all the more frustrating by Yoko, who was prolifically writing her fourth album, the tellingly titled Feeling the Space. Unlike her previous three, it would not feature musicians chosen by John but her own pick of crack sessioneers. With independence clearly a two-way street, what was John to do? He decided to cut Mind Games immediately after Feeling the Space in the same studio and with the same core musicians Yoko had picked for hers (with the help of the couple’s young assistant, May Pang). These included drummer Jim Keltner, keyboardist Ken Ascher, saxophonist Michael Brecker, pedal-steel player “Sneaky Pete” Kleinow, and—with the twist that he’d also played on Paul’s recent album, Red Rose Speedway, as well as Ram, which had so irritated John two years before—guitarist David Spinozza. Recollections differ as to whether John had the songs already fully formed when he went into the studio, or if he relied on the musicians to give rough drafts a fuller musical shape. Yoko kicked John out of the nest, and he traveled across the country with a new girl on his arm . . .

Right: John Lennon and May Pang during the Jim Stacey Benefit at Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California on March 23, 1974.

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What is significant is that the title track, which also leads off the album and was to be the first single release, had its origins in a song John had vaguely started working on in January 1969; by 1973 its slogan chorus of “make love, not war” seemed a relic of another age. The rest of the song compressed the latest stage in the development of John’s personal philosophy— a blend of mysticism and mental and spiritual exploration half-digested from a book he’d read when it came out in 1972: Mind Games by Robert Masters and Jean Houston. The listener hopes that lines referring to druid dudes doing the mind guerilla are John being wacky and Walruslike, but the music is so sincere and anthemic that they have to be taken at face value. Whereas the clunkier songs on Some Time in New York City could be forgiven as aberrations, sincere but failed experiments in Dylan-esque protest songwriting, every element of Mind Games— the track sequencing, the excellent musicianship, and its slick production and varied arrangements combining elements of girl pop, country, exotica, and updated rockabilly— indicated that John was trying his best to win back his huge Imagine audience. Upon its release that November, Mind Games was a hit, though no blockbuster—selling around half a million copies in the United States, compared to Imagine’s two million plus. With the benefit of hindsight, Mind Games offers some very good tracks. “Bring on the Lucie (Freda Peeple)” is an antigovernment, self-empowerment anthem with its widescreen slide guitar echoing George’s version of Dylan’s “If Not for You” three years before—clearly, the old boss was admitting the kid might have some tricks worth learning after all. Of the love songs, “One Day (At a Time),” “You Are Here,” and especially “Out the Blue” (in parts echoing the Beatles’ “Sexy Sadie”) are gently catchy and sweetly textured—easy on the ear but sincere and very public statements of John’s continued need for and devotion to Yoko. But by the time listeners heard the beautiful “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry),” with its promise not to cause any more pain to his darlin’, it was too late: Yoko had kicked John out of the nest and he was on the other side of the country in Los Angeles—“Lost Arseholes,” as he put it—with a new girl on his arm: May Pang.

Right: Album covers for Some Time in NYC and Mind Games. Overleaf: May Pang and John Lennon at the Beacon Theater in New York City for the opening of “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club.”

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Chapter 7 Lost and Found on the

Lost Weekend

“I am scared a lot of the time. I think we all are.” —John Lennon

Left: Rock musicians John Lennon (left) and Chuck Berry (right) perform on The Mike Douglas Show in 1971.

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hen John touched down in Los Angeles on September 18, 1973, he had a cover story: he was there to put the finishing touches on Mind Games and then go straight back into the studio to record a new album of golden-oldie covers for fun—and to wriggle off an awkward legal hook. Between his deportation battle and the Beatles’ fallout with each other, as well as with Allen Klein—reluctantly the other three ex-Beatles had accepted Paul’s view that Klein was in business for himself, and at the expense of his formerly fab clients—John was beset by lawyers. The last thing John needed was another legal fight, so when one arose, his instinct was to do whatever it took to make it go away. The problem was this: John’s last hit single with the Beatles was “Come Together,” the funky anthem of sexual liberation that blended John’s love of comical English wordplay with Chuck Berry’s brilliantly witty celebrations of the 1950s American teenage dream. The trouble was, in his tribute to Chuck, John lifted the line “here come ol’ flat top” from the Berry song “You Can’t Catch Me.” Chuck didn’t mind, but the song’s publisher, the notorious mob-connected Mo Levy (the model for “The Sopranos” character Hesh Rabkin) sued. Legally, John had no defense, so he agreed to record and release three songs for which Levy controlled the publishing, thereby providing a very big payday for Levy, also known as Octopus. John decided to see this requirement as a positive—he was, after all, an unreconstructed rocker and had sung rock ’n’ roll numbers on records and in studio warmups with the Beatles. Even though most of the early Beatles’ albums contained rock ’n’ roll covers, including John’s 1964 belting account of Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music,” he was reluctant to insert three covers

Left: Legendary producer Phil Spector (middle) in 1964 directs a recording session at Gold Star Studios with engineer Larry Levine (left) and musician Nino Tempo (right) in Los Angeles, California.

Right: John Lennon is held back from attacking a photographer by his friend, American singersongwriter-musician Harry Nilsson, (left) and an unidentified friend, on March 12, 1974, in the parking lot of the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. Lennon, along with Nilsson had just been kicked out of the club for drunkenly heckling the comedy duo, the Smothers Brothers.

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into his next solo album of otherwise original songs. So, enjoying a wave of nostalgia for the golden age of rock ’n’ roll stirred by the likes of the George Lucas movie American Graffiti and, in Britain, That’ll Be the Day (costarring Ringo), John decided to go for broke and record a whole album of oldies. And who better to team up with on such an album than Phil Spector, who was based in L.A.? In reality, the main reason that brought John to L.A. was that only by getting as far as he could from New York without leaving the United States could he distance himself from the guilt of separating from Yoko and living with another woman, the pretty twenty-twoyear-old Chinese-American May Pang. John and May had been having (so she later wrote) a surreptitious fling back in New York. Perhaps Yoko had wind of this when she suggested that May accompany John to L.A. as his personal assistant; that way, John’s need for release stayed in-house and under Yoko’s loose supervision.

Lost and Found That fall, John was utterly conflicted. The sessions with Spector immediately collapsed into a round-the-clock He lost control and partying, with cocaine, Librium, booze, and general succumbed to rage and mayhem. When John lost control and succumbed to drunken rage and self-pity, as he did almost every self-pity . . . night in some of L.A.’s most high-profile watering holes (to the embarrassment of his fans), it was Yoko he cried for. For fourteen months, he had what he would later call his “Lost Weekend”—losing himself in vodka, Brandy Alexanders, and marching powder, yet clearly having no fun at all. Keeping John company was a cast of fellow talents who had also lost their way at a time when the 1960s dream of a new society had soured into self-indulgence born of frustrated ideals. Chief among them was Spector himself, whose studio eccentricity had begun scaling new heights. Then there was singer-songwriter, charmer, and Beatles favorite since the late 1960s Harry Nilsson, famous for the hit “Without You” and now spiraling into self-destruction. As many as twenty-seven musicians would roll up to A&M Studios as the night wore on, all carousing, all charging top-dollar session fees. It was chaos, with John picking up the tab. Then it got even worse. With his paranoia already tweaked, Spector then refused to leave the tapes securely locked at the studio after each night’s session, instead loading them into the trunk of his car for the drive home. One night, at the end of the 1973 Christmas holidays, Spector never returned. Later there were rumors of a car accident. Whatever the case, he wasn’t picking up the phone. While John waited for Spector to resurface, he continued to carouse with old buddies, such as Ringo, Jim Keltner, the Who’s Keith Moon, and Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. Fortunately, 70

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it wasn’t all party time—John’s production of Jagger’s slick but funky Willie Dixon cover “Too Many Cooks” was finally released in 2007, and in the spring of 1973 Harry Nilsson, charmed John into producing his tenth album, Pussy Cats, which was heavily promoted on the back of the ex-Beatle’s involvement. Despite the quality of songs like “Don’t Forget Me” and John’s lush, nostalgic sound, Nilsson’s drinking, which had grown worse, had audibly damaged his once pristine voice. During recording, John had grown concerned, and it brought home to him the fact that the party lifestyle came at a cost. In an effort to solve the immediate problem, John insisted that Pussy Cats be finished away from L.A.’s temptations, in the more businesslike environment of New York. It was the excuse John needed to return east in April of 1974.

Words Unleashed The writer’s block that had partly precipitated John’s crisis with Yoko was now over, and he had a cache of new songs that reflected the recent months: about his bouts of fear and depression there were “Scared,” “Old Dirt Road” (cowritten with Nilsson), and “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)”; about hedonism as survival there was “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” (a phrase he’d heard on a latenight televangelist broadcast); about May Pang there was “Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)”; about Yoko there was “Bless You”; recalling the vitriolic yet lush “How Do You Sleep?,” there was “Steel and Glass,” this time about former ally Allen Klein; and, flashing back to such late Beatles’

Left: Album cover for Walls and Bridges. Above: Stickers for Walls and Bridges.

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Above: John Lennon’s last onstage appearance on November 28, 1974. Here, he performs with Elton John after losing a bet about “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” going to number one (it did).

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hypnopompic classics as “I’m Only Sleeping,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “Julia,” there was “#9 Dream,” perhaps the highlight of the album. Featuring many of the same musicians as Mind Games, and again self-produced, Walls and Bridges—a title evoking communication and noncommunication—enjoyed far more success. Despite the first song, “Going Down on Love,” making for a relatively weak start, Walls and Bridges was otherwise a stronger album than its predecessor throughout, with better songs and much more musical variety, as John allowed his players to show off “their chops.”

Elton John predicted that

“

Whatever Gets

You Thru the Night

”

would go to

number one . . .

New Friends Among John’s new friends was the bestselling rock singer of the early and mid-1970s, fellow Brit Elton John. John found himself enjoying his gay buddy’s camp and carefree milieu; Elton sang harmonies and played piano on “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” and, convinced it was a hit, bet John, who was beset by anxiety that he’d lost his popular touch, that it would be a number one hit single. John agreed to appear on stage with him if Elton was proved right. The song fared exactly as Elton predicted, and on November 28, 1974—Thanksgiving night—at New York’s Madison Square Garden, a very nervous John Lennon upstaged all the razzamatazz of a classic Elton show, taking the stage to a massive ovation to perform “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night,” “I Saw Her Standing There” (the 1963 Beatles’ rocker on which Paul sang lead vocals), and the Sgt. Pepper classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” a cover of which had just been released by Elton featuring John as Dr. Winston (his middle name) O’Boogie on guitar and backing vocals; it would go to number one in the Billboard singles chart in January. John was inspired by the audience response and thrilled to be on stage again. It would be his final appearance before a paying audience. Elton’s cover of “Lucy” was not the last number one hit single to which John would contribute, however. He’d met and been fascinated by the innovative English rock star David Bowie, who was in the U.S. making what he would later call his “plastic soul” album, Young Americans. John was intrigued when Bowie told him he was cutting a version of “Across the Universe,” one of John’s Let It Be songs, and so helped out at the session. The pair discussed the experience of stardom, a conversation Bowie distilled into the song “Fame,” on which John helped with a vocal cameo. Bowie gave John a cowriting credit on the track, which was a number one in the summer of 1975. John had rediscovered his Midas touch, but the problem of satisfying Mo Levy had still not gone away. 73

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Above: Album cover for Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Digging Deep On Walls and Bridges, John celebrated his renewed contact with son Julian by cutting a version of Lee Dorsey’s easygoing, gumbo-flavored 1961 hit “Ya Ya” with the eleven-year-old on drums. It was a song whose publishing Levy controlled, and releasing it on a hit album bought John some time. With Levy demanding a full settlement, John managed to retrieve the Spector tapes at a cost of $90,000. Cans and cans of tape were conveyed from JFK Airport to the New York recording studios in a fleet of limos. But listening back to hours of party fun yielded only four songs on which everyone was in tune; John would have to cut the balance of the album from scratch. Digging deep into the Beatles’ live repertoire from their Hamburg and Liverpool days of more than thirteen years earlier, John and his team of eight crack New York sessioneers took just three days to complete a tribute to some of his favorite jukebox hits from when he was a leatherjacketed young greaser. Among them were Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame,” which he associated with his mother, who had bought him the guitar on which he first learned to play the song as a teenager, and Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” a favorite, too, of Paul’s, who also covered it many years later. Compared to the nippy roadsters of the originals, John’s covers on the 1975-released album Rock ’n’ Roll are chrome-trimmed limousines purring with high-octane musicianship from such legends as Steve Cropper, Jesse Ed Davis, Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Nino Tempo, and Bobby Keys. John’s singing has for the most part all the elation, anguish, and thrill of the covers he sang with the Beatles, even though, being insecure as ever about his voice, he submerged it somewhat in the mix (when Yoko supervised the CD remix and remaster in 2004, she raised it to where, from the listener’s viewpoint, it always should have been; this is the version, rather than the 2010 CD re-issue, that packs the punch). Packing a punch in particular are John’s version of Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”—the song that started all the Mo Levy trouble in the first place—and his hit single of Ben E. King’s 1961 chart smash, cowritten with Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, “Stand by Me.” A mighty song about two being stronger than one, this was no mere duty call for John, but a deeply felt truth about him and Yoko. And Yoko was no longer deaf to her husband’s appeals for reconciliation.

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Above: John Lennon and David Bowie at the Uris Theater in New York on February 28, 1975, for the 17th Annual Grammy Awards.

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Chapter 8 The Vanishing

“I still get recognized. I think it’s me nose.” —John Lennon

Left: John Lennon and Yoko Ono outside of the Times Square recording studio, The Hit Factory, before a recording session of his final album Double Fantasy in August of 1980.

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Y

oko had attended John’s Thanksgiving 1974 performance with Elton at Madison Square Garden to give him a gardenia, her favorite flower, as a token of her continuing love. It was all going right for John. His realization that Paul had been correct all along about Allen Klein settled the essence of the dispute with his former songwriting partner that had raged since 1969, and now John and Paul were back on very friendly terms. And with “Whatever Gets You T-hru the Night” going to number one in the States, John had at last joined the other ex-Beatles in planting his flag at the summit of the U.S. singles chart as a solo artist. None of the four had anything more to prove of their viability as musicians outside of the Fab Four’s comfort zone. Still, in 1975, the possibility of a Beatles reunion amounted to slightly more than the world’s wishful thinking. It never happened.

Above: A bunch of suits . . . David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon at the Uris Theater in New York City for the 17th Annual Grammy Awards on February 28, 1975.

Right: John Lennon playing the guitar for a tribute to Sir Lew Grade in 1975.

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No Place Like Home John had nothing more to prove. He’d moved back to the Dakota with Yoko that January, telling New York radio listeners the following month that “our separation was a failure.” And, turning forty-two, Yoko had again become pregnant. But at her age, and after so many draining disappointments, she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue with the pregnancy; she agreed on the condition that John give his unconditional support by becoming a househusband. This he did, but the degree to which he settled into this role depends on which of the numerous eyewitnesses to the so-called Dakota years are to be believed. Though John publicly repented for the Lost Weekend of 1973 and 1974, toward the end of those months away from Yoko he was busy rebuilding the bridges to family in Liverpool. He was also reconnecting to Paul McCartney and old friends going back to his childhood—such as Pete Shotton—and the Beatles’ days—such as Mick Jagger. But those contacts virtually ceased when John returned to Yoko. Rumors abounded of his return to complete emotional and psychological dependency on his wife and her curious decision-making processes, including numerology. In April of 1975, a month after Yoko learned that she was pregnant, John discharged a final professional obligation when he performed “Imagine” and a cover of Little Richard’s “Slippin’ and Slidin’”—a track on the just-

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released album Rock ’n’ Roll—on a TV tribute to British showbiz impresario Sir Lew Grade. John had been locked in legal dispute for the previous four years with Grade’s music publishing company, ATV. The fact that John wore impenetrable little round dark glasses, chewed gum unsmilingly, and outfitted his eight-piece band with masks that they wore on the backs of their heads (to give them all two faces) told the audience all they needed to know about his real feelings for the man to whom he was supposedly paying tribute. John exhibited three other telling eccentricities: he wore a red jumpsuit, showing he’d absorbed some of Elton John and David Bowie’s lessons in modern rock showmanship; his hair was long and worn pulled back almost samurai-style, as if to confirm his Japanese affinity; and on “Imagine” he invited the all-star audience to “imagine no immigration,” a bitter reference “ to the one dispute that still dogged him. lf bringing up a But by now Nixon was gone, and with him any political will ’ to throw John out of America. On October 7, recognizing his child isn t work, desire to live in and contribute positively to the United States, ” John was granted his residency visa, allowing him to leave the what is? country without fear of being denied re-entry. Two days later, on John’s thirty-fifth birthday, Yoko gave birth to their son, —John Lennon Sean Tara Ono Lennon.

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Proud Papa It has been sweepingly generalized that for five years John baked bread, boiled brown rice, and saw to Sean’s needs as he grew from baby to young boy. “He didn’t come out of my belly but, by God, I made his bones,” said John. “I’ve attended to every meal, and to how he sleeps, and to the fact that he swims like a fish.” Yoko, meanwhile, the scion of a wealthy Japanese banking family, devoted her time to building the couple’s personal fortune, which included a herd of prize dairy cattle—an investment that echoed John’s delight as a small child in his uncle George’s Liverpool dairy farm. “Our press-clipping service . . . is full of the most bizarre stories,” John noted to himself in 1978 (posthumously published in the book Skywriting by Word of Mouth). “Amongst my favorites is the one that I’ve gone bald and become a recluse ‘locked in my penthouse’—a cross between Elvis Presley, Greta Garbo, and Howard Hughes—occasionally making cryptic statements like ‘I’ve made my contribution to society and don’t intend to work again.’ If bringing up a child isn’t work, what is? The reality behind the mystery is simply that we are doing what we want to do. Period.” For a five-year period, John’s professional résumé reveals very little. But in 1980, as Sean approached his fifth birthday and school age, and John neared the symbolic watershed of his fortieth, his long banked-up creativity began to itch. In the last summer vacation of John’s life, he was inspired to scratch it. For almost five years John devoted himself to Sean, the hearth, and the home. The family had also traveled, mostly to Japan to visit the Ono family. But as a child, John had loved vacationing outdoors with his beloved uncle George, and he was determined to give Sean the very best childhood (as if to help purge the worst memories of his own), which meant sun and sea vacations. John also craved a midlife adventure and was gripped by the idea of yachting from Rhode Island to Bermuda. Leaving Sean safely on dry land, that June he and his crew set sail for a week. Paul McCartney’s current hits “Silly Love Songs” and “Coming Up” were playing on the radio like a challenge to his old partner, who had barely completed a song since making one contribution to Ringo’s Rotogravure album in 1976. But what broke through John’s six-year Left: John Lennon strumming a tune for son, Sean Lennon, in the Imagine documentary in 1988. Yoko Ono is laughing and filming in the background.

Right: Album cover for Double Fantasy.

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songwriter’s block was a far bigger adventure than John had anticipated when he first set sail. A storm blew up in Bermudan waters, and John—afterward claiming that quitting heroin cold turkey had stress-proofed him against seasickness—was the only crewmember apart from the captain well enough to pilot the yacht safely to harbor. The experience hugely invigorated John and filled him with fresh self-confidence. In Bermuda, fully formed songs started pouring out of him. John had brought along cassettes of fragmentary home demos (recorded at the Dakota) to get him going, and some of these recordings showed his sarcastic side, unblunted by domesticity, never mind loyalty to old friends. “The Rishi Kesh Song” spoofs George Harrison’s mantra dependency, while the even more withering “Serve Yourself ” roasts Bob Dylan’s 1979 bornagain Christian sermon-song, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” as well as sending himself up as a comically and cosmically furious Liverpudlian. Both of these fascinating gems can be found on 1998’s revelatory John Lennon Anthology, which features home demos, studio outtakes, and other previously unreleased material. Mostly John wrote songs of love and need, home, and hope for the future . . .

Left: Rock star John Lennon signing an autograph in 1980.

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Mostly John wrote songs of love and need, home, and hopes for the future, but not quite every song highlights the domestic serenity he had finally found in raising Sean and resolving tensions with Yoko. Tracks from Anthology bearing this out include “I’m Losing You,” which recalled his Lost Weekend with so much raw anguish, it seemed as if it were still happening. In fact, he started the song as “Stranger’s Room” in 1978, completing it that summer of 1980 when, unable to reach Yoko by telephone from Bermuda, John again plunged into the terror of abandonment and the need for reassurance that had gripped him since childhood. Likewise, “Nobody Told Me” was started in 1976 as a song for Ringo, the everyman bemused by the mad, mad world. John recorded a version in August of 1980 at New York’s Hit Factory, the studio sessions from which his next two albums would be drawn.

Ready for Yoko Very early on, John and Yoko—playfully casting themselves as the Victorian poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, who had married despite her being some years his senior, at last conceiving a son after several miscarriages—had decided that they would break the silence with their first joint album since Some Time in New York City. Double Fantasy (named after a species of freesia John had seen in Bermuda), with a subtitle of “A Heart Play,” mostly alternated between songs written and sung by each spouse, with John starting each side and Yoko having the final two songs. Whereas in 1972 John and Yoko had pictured themselves as artistic urban guerillas firing bullets from the front line of the struggle against “The Man,” in 1980 they made their marriage and son the focus of their message to the world: that peace ripples out from the healing influence and mutual support of a loving family. Noting the chart success of the New Wave single “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s, which featured quirky female vocals, John felt that for the first time the mainstream public had the ears to enjoy Yoko’s voice. To aid the mainstream listener, the couple wanted a contemporary sound, so they hired producer Jack Douglas, who had engineered Imagine and gone on to become one of the decade’s heavyweight rock producers, credited with hit records by the likes of Aerosmith. Among his favorite clients were Beatles’ Right: Photo taken the summer of 1980 of John Lennon standing with Yoko Ono outside the Dakota Apartments in New York City. This photo appears on Lennon’s last album Double Fantasy.

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fans Cheap Trick, so Douglas recruited their guitarist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos for the Double Fantasy sessions, where they cut “I’m Losing You” in a searing performance to echo “Cold Turkey” and “I Found Out” a decade before. But the result was simply too heavy. The decision was taken—it’s said by Yoko and supported by John—to stick to the radio-friendly, adult-oriented rock sound of the day: no rough edges, but rather the airiness of a spacious, modern luxury kitchen.

Personal Truth In contrast to the production’s dawn-of-the-1980s sheen was John’s songcraft, rooted in his formative pre-Beatles’ rock years, with few of the outré harmonic, melodic, and verbal touches he’d developed in the 1980s. Over the years, and especially since 1970, John had come to distrust imagery, wordplay, and storytelling as evasions of what was most important to him as a songwriter: telling his personal truth. But where the songs of 1970 have the impact of catharsis, ten years later the buoyancy of John’s life and mood as reflected in such songs as “(Just Like) Starting Over” (the first single released from the album and the last hit of his lifetime), “Watching the Wheels,” and “Woman” instantly appeal but, perhaps, don’t sink so deeply into the listener’s psyche; it’s the difference in emotional impact between the tolling funeral bells announcing John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band in 1970 and the tinkle of the Tibetan wishing bell that opened Double Fantasy ten years later. Double Fantasy met with a mixed reception upon its release on November 17. Selling solidly in its first three weeks, the album included, everyone could agree, one indisputable classic to rank among John’s very best work: “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” is irresistibly and lastingly meaningful to anyone who loves children. It also offers John’s last great quotable verse: “Life is what happens to you/While you’re busy making other plans.” The night of December 8, 1980, revealed the awful prophecy of those lines. Right: John Lennon posing with fan Paul Goresh in the last picture of him taken on the day of his death, December 8, 1980.

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Chapter 9 Into the

Sky

“Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.” —John Lennon

Left: Yoko Ono kisses her son on the head at the dedication of the Strawberry Fields garden in Central Park.

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’

Overnight, John s voice and music filled the airwaves . . .

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F

or anyone who had grown up with the music of the Beatles and John Lennon, John’s murder at the hands of the mentally unstable fan Mark Chapman outside the Dakota the night of December 8, 1980, was a shock on par with that of the murder of President Kennedy seventeen years earlier. Not until the death of Princess Diana seventeen years later would the world see another similar outpouring of grief. Overnight, John’s voice and music filled the airwaves, his image filling screens and printed pages. An ocean of ink assessed John’s life, times, talent, and significance. Liverpool renamed its airport after him (its motto: “Above us only sky”), and Yoko continues to memorialize her husband and his ideals. Decades later, conspiracy theories about his murder have not wholly faded. Nor have the what-ifs. What if Chapman had missed? What if John had dodged the bullets? With a life as unpredictable as John’s, it is impossible to speculate too confidently. One can only extrapolate from the evidence of his final work: Milk and Honey (1984); the Anthology box set (1998); and, almost as revealingly, Double Fantasy Stripped (2010), which removed most of the musical decoration and treatments of John’s voice to reveal, quite simply, the man and his songs. If the glossy production with the help of Jack Douglas had started Double Fantasy’s climb up album charts around the world, John’s murder kept it at the top for months afterward. But what has taken the world decades to hear is that when he restarted his career in 1980, John Lennon really was undimmed as a musical force. Always ambivalent about the sound of his singing voice, John often double-tracked it, swathed it in reverb, and buried it in the mix. As she shared none of John’s insecurities about his voice, which sometimes clouded his production judgment, Yoko remixed Rock ’n’ Roll in 2004 (as distinct from John’s original 1974 mix), confirming that he really was the greatest rock singer of all—not Elvis, nor Little Richard, could quite match his vocal intensity and charisma.

Left: Front page of the Daily Mirror on December 10, 1980.

Not since the death of President Kennedy had the world shown such an outpouring of grief . . .

Left inset: John Lennon fans gather to pay their last respects outside the Dakota Apartments in New York on December 9, 1980, the spot where the former Beatle was shot dead by Mark Chapman.

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John left behind a body of work that has not dimmed over the decades . . .

Gone but Never Forgotten Without John’s studio “jiggery-pokery” (a term he used to condemn George Martin’s Beatles’ production back in 1969), Double Fantasy Stripped and Anthology’s fourth CD, Dakota, reveal Lennon singing his last songs with the utmost subtlety and feeling. They show a talent that had remained undiminished since 1965 or 1970, albeit one expressing itself differently, evolving in step with the singer and songwriter. Milk and Honey includes three of John’s very best late songs: “Nobody Told Me,” “Borrowed Time,” and “Grow Old with Me.” Cherry-picking from Double Fantasy and its Stripped version, Milk and Honey, and Anthology’s Dakota would yield an album’s worth of material to match the quality and lasting appeal of Imagine. Who knows whether John would have sung as much of the soundtrack to the 1980s as he had the 1960s and 1970s. What is certain is that he had made a start, and in doing so he fulfilled the ambition of every performing artist, be they playing to local church halls or to packed stadiums: when he exited the stage, he left the audience wanting more. He also left behind a body of work that has not dimmed over the decades. As the most revealingly human of the great artists and icons of our time, John Lennon will remain an inspiration for generations to come.

Near right: Yoko Ono, with her son Sean, in London, on April 14, 1986. Far right: John Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, and their 17-year-old son, Julian, leaving their home on December 9.

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Left: John Lennon (1940–1980) as a child in elementary school.

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Index Page numbers in italics indicate photographs.

A Abbey Road studios 15, 16, 22, 32 “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)” 63 All Things Must Pass (Harrison) 35 “Angela” (Lennon) 52 Apple Corps 8, 13, 15, 16, 40, 45, 56 Ascher, Ken 62 “Attica State” (Lennon) 52 ATV 80

B Badfinger 40 Bag One (Exhibition) 30, 31, 31 “The Ballad of John and Yoko” (Lennon) 16, 21, 56 Band, the 15 Beatles, the 8, 10, 13, 14, 16, 22, 40, 62, 70, 71–72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 83, 90 albums and songs see under individual album or song name business affairs 8, 13, 15, 15, 16, 23, 40, 45, 56, 57, 68, 78 split 8–9, 15, 22, 23, 35, 68 “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” (Lennon) 84 bed-ins 16, 16, 17, 20, 21 Berry, Chuck 22, 32, 48, 56, 66, 68, 74 Black Panthers 51 Black, Cilla 45 Blaine, Hal 74 “Bless You” (Lennon) 71 “Borrowed Time” (Lennon) 90 Bowie, David 73, 75, 75, 78, 80 Bravo magazine 8 Brecker, Michael 62

“Bring on the Lucie (Freda People)” (Lennon) 63 Browning, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett 83 Bruce, Lenny 48

Douglas, Jack 83–84, 89 Dylan, Bob 15, 48, 63, 82

C

Elephant’s Memory 51, 56, 57 Epstein, Brian 8, 9 Eye magazine 11

Capitol Records 23 Carlos, Bun E. 84 Chapman, Mark 89 Cheap Trick 84 “Child of Nature” (Lennon) 40 A Christmas Gift for You (all-star album) 51 Clapton, Eric 22, 23, 25, 27 “Cold Turkey” (Lennon) 23, 24, 27, 84 “Come Together” (LennonMcCartney) 57, 68 Cox, Kyoko Chan (son of Yoko Ono and Tony Cox) 23, 27, 44, 45, 48 Cox, Tony 44, 45, 48 “Crippled Inside” (Lennon) 40 Cropper, Steve 74

D Dakota, the, New York City 51, 61– 62, 60, 61, 79, 82, 83, 88, 89, 90 Davis, Angela 51 Davis, Jesse Ed 74 Diddley, Bo 48 Dirty Mac, the 22, 23 Do the Oz (Lennon) (benefit record) 51 Donovan 45 Double Fantasy (Lennon/Ono) 76, 81, 83–84 Double Fantasy Stripped (Lennon/ Ono) 89, 90

E F “Fame” (Bowie) 73 Fats Domino 22, 74 FBI 52 feminism 38, 52, 56 Fillmore East, New York 49, 56

G Garfunkel, Art 78 “Gimme Some Truth” (Lennon) 40 “Give Peace a Chance” (Lennon) 16, 21, 57 “God” (Lennon) 35, 40 Gold Star studios 68 Goresh, Paul 85 Grade, Sir Lew 78, 80 Grapefruit (book) 44, 45 Greenwich Village, New York 48, 49, 53, 61 “Grow Old with Me” (Lennon) 90

H Happy Xmas (War is Over) (Lennon/Ono) (album) 23, 51, 51 “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” (Lennon/Ono) (single) 51 Harrison, George 10, 10, 14, 15, 16, 23, 25, 26, 27, 35, 38, 40, 63, 82

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Hendrix, Jimi 23 Hit Factory, the 76, 83 Hoffman, Abbie 51 “Hold On” (Lennon) 32 Hopkins, Nicky 40, 51 “Hound Dog” (Presley) 57 “How Do You Sleep?” (Lennon) 40, 41, 44, 71

I “I Found Out” (Lennon) 35, 84 “I’m Losing You” (Lennon) 83, 84 “If Not for You” (Dylan) 63 Imagine (Lennon) (album) 40, 40, 45–46, 51, 52, 63 Imagine (Lennon) (film) 36, 40, 41, 80 “Imagine” (Lennon) (song) 37, 40, 41, 45, 56, 57, 79, 80 In His Own Write (Lennon) 11 India 18, 19 Instant Karma! (Lennon) (album) 27 “Instant Karma!” (Lennon) (song) 27, 38, 57 IRA 35

J Jagger, Mick 70, 71, 79 Janov, Dr. Arthur 31–32, 40 Japan 11, 38, 80, 81 “Jealous Guy” (Lennon) 40 Jim Stacey Benefit, Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, 1974 62 John Lennon Anthology (Lennon) 82, 83, 90 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Lennon) 32, 35 “John Sinclair” (Lennon) 52 John, Elton 72, 73, 78, 80 “Just Like (Starting Over)” (Lennon) 84

K Keltner, Jim 51, 62, 70 Keys, Bobby 74 Klein, Allen 15, 16, 23, 40, 57, 68, 71, 78 Kleinow, “Sneaky Pete” 62

L

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (Lennon-McCartney) 73

Lennon, Cynthia (wife) 11, 11, 44, 45, 90 Lennon, John: albums see under individual album name appearance 11, 21 background 10–11 “bigger than Jesus” comment 21 childhood 10–11, 79, 83, 91 depression 11, 71 drug taking 11, 23, 32, 57, 82 genius 58 honeymoon 21, 31 househusband 79, 80, 81 houses see under individual area or house name marriages see Lennon, Cynthia and Ono, Yoko overeating 11 sexuality 11 shooting 88, 89–90 singing 89 songs see under individual song name weight 11, 32 writer’s block 62, 71, 82 Lennon, Julia (mother) 10–11 Lennon, Julian (son) 44, 45, 45, 90 Lennon, Mimi (aunt) 10, 32 Lennon, Sean (son) 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 87, 90 Let It Be (Beatles) (album) 16, 27, 32, 73 Let It Be (film) 14, 15 Levine, Larry 68 Levy, Mo 68, 73, 74 Lewis, Jerry Lee 22 Lindsey-Hogg, Michael 15 Link Wray records 48 Little Richard 79–80, 89 Live in New York City (Lennon) 56–57 Live Peace in Toronto (Lennon) 23, 24 Liverpool 40, 48, 74, 79, 81, 89 London Lyceum 56 “Look at Me” (Lennon) 32, 40 “Lost Weekend” 70, 79, 83 “Love” (Lennon) 32 Lovin’ Spoonful 40 “The Luck of the Irish” (Lennon) 52

M Madison Square Garden 56, 72, 73, 78 Martin, Gavin 31 Martin, George 27, 90 McCartney, Linda 16, 52 McCartney, Paul 8, 10, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 31, 38, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 52, 57, 62, 68, 78, 79, 81 Mike Douglas Show 68 Miles, Barry 23 Milk and Honey (Lennon) 89, 90 Mind Games (Lennon) 58, 62–63, 63, 68, 73 Mind Games (Masters/Huston) 63 Mitchell, Mitch 22, 23 Moon, Keith 70 Mothers of Invention 48, 48, 56 “Mother” (Lennon) 35, 56, 57 “My Mummy’s Dead” (Lennon) 35 “My Sweet Lord” (Harrison) 35

N New York 8, 11, 16, 38, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 54–55, 56, 57, 60, 70, 71, 73, 74, 78, 79, 83, 83, 85, 89, 89 “New York City” (Lennon) 56, 57 Nielsen, Rick 84 Night of 100 Stars, London Palladium, 1964 10, 11 Nilsson, Harry 69, 70, 71 Nixon, Richard 40, 52, 57, 61, 80 “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)” (Lennon) 71 “Nobody Told Me” (Lennon) 83, 90 Northern Ireland 52 Nutopia 61–62

O “Old Dirt Road” (Lennon) 71 “One Day (at a Time)” (Lennon) 63 “One to One” concert, New York 46, 47, 56 “Out the Blue” (Lennon) 63 Oz 51

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P Pang, May 62, 62, 63, 64, 70, 71 peace, campaign for 16, 17 Peel, David 51 Pennebaker, D. A. 23 Philles Records 51 Plastic Ono Band 21, 23, 23, 24, 24–25, 27, 32, 35, 38, 84 Please Please Me (Beatles) 8 Power to the People (Lennon) (album) 35 “Power to the People” (Lennon) (single) 38, 38, 52 Presley, Elvis 11, 32, 48, 89 Preston, Billy 27, 38 primal scream therapy 31, 32 Pussy Cats (Nilssen) 71

R Radha Krishna Temple 21 Ram (McCartney) 44, 62 Red Mole 38 Red Rose Speedway (McCartney) 62 “Remember” (Lennon) 35 Renard, Gail 20 Richards, Keith 22, 23 “The Rishi Kesh Song” (Lennon) 82 Rock ‘n’ Roll (Lennon) 74, 74, 80, 89 “Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus” concert 22, 23 “Rock Lobster” (B–52s) 83 Rolling Stone magazine 35, 35 Rolling Stones, the 16, 22, 23, 70 Rubin, Jerry 51 Russell, Leon 74 Ryan, Robert 61

Some Time in New York City (Lennon) 52, 56, 63, 63, 83 A Spaniard in the Works (Lennon) 11 Spector, Phil 27, 35, 38, 40, 51, 52, 68, 70, 74 Spinozza, David 62 St. Regis Hotel, New York 48 “Stand by Me” (Lieber and Stoller) 74 Starr, Ringo 10, 10, 14, 15, 16, 32, 38, 40, 45, 70 “Steel and Glass” (Lennon) 71, 73 Summer of Love 8 “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (Lennon) 52 “Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)” 71 Sweet Toronto (documentary) 23

T Tempo, Nino 68, 74 Tittenhurst Park 22, 31, 39, 40, 40, 41, 45 “Too Many Cooks” (Dixon) 71 Toronto Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival 22–23, 24 transcendental meditation 19 Troubadour, Los Angeles 68, 69

U U.S. government 52, 57 Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins (Lennon/Ono) 11, 12 Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions (Lennon/Ono) 11 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 20, 27

S

V

“Scared” (Lennon) 71 “Serve Yourself ” (Lennon) 82 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles) 8 Shotton, Pete 79 Simon, Paul 78 Sinclair, John 51, 52 “Slippin and Slidin’” (Little Richard) 79–80 Smothers Brothers, the 68

Voorman, Klaus 23, 25, 27, 32, 38

Wenner, Jann 35 “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” (Lennon) 71, 72, 73, 78 “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Harrison) 23 White, Alan 23, 24, 27, 38 Who, the 70 Willowbrook State School 56 “Woman” (Lennon) 84 “Woman Is the Nigger of the World” (Lennon) 52 Wonder, Stevie 56 “Working Class Hero” (Lennon) 35

Y “Ya Ya” (Dorsey) 74 Yellow Submarine (film) 15 “Yer Blues” (Beatles) 23 Yes 23 Yippies 51 Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh 19 Yoko Ono 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 16, 23, 25, 27, 31, 32, 35, 38, 39, 40, 44, 45, 45, 48, 52, 53, 56, 56, 61, 62, 70, 71, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 83, 84, 89 “You Are Here” (Lennon) 63 “You Can’t Catch Me” (Berry) 68, 74

Z Zappa, Frank 48, 48

W Walls and Bridges (Lennon) 71, 73, 74 “Watching the Wheels” (Lennon) 84 Wedding Album (Lennon/Ono) 11, 13

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Picture Credits Special thanks to Bruce Spizer (www.beatle.net), author of The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, for use of the following images: P11, Eye magazine cover featuring John Lennon P13, Wedding album P35, Rolling Stone magazine cover featuring John Lennon P38, Power to the People album P40, Imagine promotional poster P51, Happy Xmas (War is Over) album P56, Apple promotional advertisement for “Mother” P57, Woman is the Nigger of the World album P63, Some Time in NYC and Mind Games albums P74, Rock ‘n’ Roll album Special thanks also to Happy Nat of TheBeatlesRarity. com for use of the following images: P23, Give Peace a Chance album P23, Happy Xmas (War is Over) album P24, Live Peace in Toronto album P24, Cold Turkey album P27, Instant Karma! album

Alamy

P9, John Lennon and Brian Epstein © Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy P11, John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P15, Allen Klein, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy P17, John Lennon and Yoko Ono promoting bed peace in 1971 © Marka / Alamy P33, John Lennon smoking © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P44, John and Yoko at Grapefruit launch © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P45, Beatles with Cilla Black and Donovan © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P54-55, John and Yoko performing at a charity concert in NY © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P71, Walls and Bridges album © EPA/ epa european pressphoto agency b.v. / Alamy P90, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon © INTERFOTO / Alamy

Associated Press

P86, Yoko Ono comforting Sean Lennon © Bettmann / Corbis / AP Images P90, Julian Lennon and Cynthia Lennon © Bettmann / Corbis / AP Images

Collection Herbert Hauke /www.rockmuseum.de

P8, Please Please Me album P8, John Lennon on the cover of Bravo magazine

Corbis

P28, John smoking © Bettman / Corbis P42, John and Paul McCartney at a press conference © Elliott Landy / Corbis P66, John Lennon and Chuck Berry © Jeff Albertson/Corbis

Getty Images

P4, John Lennon singing at Madison Square Garden © Brian Hamill / Getty Images P12, John embracing Yoko Ono © Susan Wood / Getty Images P12, Two Virgins album cover © Hulton Archive / Getty Images P12, Two Virgins album cover (back) © Hulton Archive / Getty Images P13, Yoko, John, and Paul © Michael Webb / Getty Images P14, Beatles on rooftop of Apple © Express / Stringer / Getty Images P18, John playing the guitar in India © KeystoneFrance / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images P21, Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for “Give Peace a Chance” © Don Emmert / AFP / Getty Images P22, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus © Andrew Maclear / Redferns P25, Alan White, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono © Mark and Colleen Hayward / Getty Images P26, John Lennon and Yoko Ono at UNICEF show © Cummings Archives / Redferns P36, John Lennon singing with hand under his chin © Getty Images P40, Imagine album cover © Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images

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P41, John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Tittenhurst © Tom Hanley / Redferns / Getty Images P46, John Lennon singing at Madison Square Garden © Brian Hamill / Getty Images P48, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention © RB / Redferns P49, John Lennon and Yoko Ono walking © Brian Hamill / Getty Images P53, John and Yoko, back to back © NY Daily News via Getty Images P59, John Lennon working on Mind Games © David McGough / Time & Life Pictures /Getty Images P60, John Lennon on the roof of the Dakota © Brian Hamill / Getty Images P61, John Lennon in the kitchen of his apartment at the Dakota © Brian Hamill / Getty Images P62, John Lennon and May Pang © Ron Galella / WireImage P64, John Lennon and May Pang © Ron Galella / WireImage P68, Phil Spector in a recording studio © Ray Avery / Getty Images P69, John Lennon being restrained by Harry Nilsson © Fotos International / Getty Images P72, John Lennon and Elton John © Steve Morley / Redferns P75, John Lennon and David Bowie © Ron Galella / WireImage P76, John Lennon and Yoko Ono outside of a recording studio © Michael Ochs Archive / Stringer / Getty Images P78, David Bowie, Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon © Ron Galella / WireImage P79, John Lennon at tribute for Sir Lew Grade © Ron Gallela / WireImage P82, John Lennon signing autographs outside the Dakota © David McGough / Time & Life Pictures P83, John and Yoko standing outside the Dakota ©AFP / Getty Images P91, John Lennon as a schoolboy © Gems / Contributor / Redferns

The Image Works

P6, John at the piano © UPPA / TopFoto / The Image Works P16, John Lennon drawing of “Bed Peace” © Press Association / The Image Works P20, Yoko Ono and John Lennon performing for UNICEF © TopFoto / The Image Works P50, John Lennon sitting on a windowsill © Bunk / ullstein bld / The Image Works P57, John and Yoko in military gear © UPPA / TopFoto / The Image Works P80, John Lennon playing guitar for Sean Lennon while Yoko films © Mary Evans / Ronald Grant Archive / The Image Works

Mirrorpix

P10, The Beatles rehearsing in 1964 © Mirrorpix P45, John, Yoko, Julian, and Kyoko © Mirrorpix P88, Front cover of The Daily Mirror © Daily Mirror / Mirrorpix P88, Fans standing outside the Dakota after Lennon’s death © G Major / Mirrorpix

Rex USA

P30, Police seizing art at the Bag One exhibition © Daily Sketch / Rex USA P34, John Lennon promoting Power to the People © Associated Newspapers / Rex USA P39, John Lennon looking at Yoko Ono © George Konig / Rex USA P85, last photo taken of John Lennon (with a fan) © Everett Collection / Rex USA

Tracks (Memorabilia)

P31, Bag One invitation P44, Autographed copy of Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit P71, Stickers for Walls and Bridges P81, Double Fantasy album All reasonable attempts have been made to contact the copyright holders of all images.

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A division of Book Sales, Inc. 276 Fifth Avenue, Suite 206 New York, New York 10001 RACE POINT PUBLISHING and the distinctive Race Point Publishing logo are trademarks of Book Sales, Inc. © Mat Snow 2013 All photographs from the publisher’s collection, unless otherwise noted on page 95. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by Apple Corps Ltd. or the estate of John Lennon or any of its assignees. This is not an official publication. We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. ISBN (4-volume set): 978-1-5526-7936-4 Author: Mat Snow Project editor: Jeannine Dillon Copyeditor: Steve Burdett Interior designer: Rosamund Saunders Cover designer: Brad Norr/bradnorrdesign.com Front and back cover illustration: Brad Norr Printed in China 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.racepointpub.com

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T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO PauL McCartney

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Mat Snow

T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO PauL McCartney

The Illustrated Chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo After the Beatles

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Contents Chapter 1

Exit the One-Man Band

6

Chapter 2

Getting High with Wings

18

Chapter 3

On a Roll Again

26

Chapter 4

Back to Earth

38

Chapter 5

Busted, Grounded, Dragged, and Tugged Chapter 6

From Broadway Bum to Born-Again Beatle Chapter 7

A Real Everywhere Man Chapter 8

A Love That Lasted Years Chapter 9

Stumbling to Joy

46 56 66 74 82

Index Credits

94 95

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Chapter 1 Exit the

One-Man Band

“I like to work. Sit me down with a guitar and let me go.” —Paul McCartney

Left: Paul McCartney in 1967 being interviewed after the BBC televised the Beatles’ new movie, Magical Mystery Tour. Critics had been harsh in their criticism of the movie, and McCartney defends it, claiming that the title should have informed people that there would be no plot or form.

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I

f ever the world of music gave proof for the maxims “you always hurt the one you love” and “the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” it would be Paul McCartney and the Beatles. Though John was the Fab Four’s leader and founder, from 1966 it was Paul whose ambition, focus, and creativity increasingly drove and shaped the group. When John surrendered to his 1966–1967 LSD reverie, it was Paul whose songs filled the gaps left by John’s falling productivity. When the group, urged by George, stopped touring in 1966, it was Paul who came up with Sgt. Pepper as a project to give them a new world to conquer. When the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, took his own life in August of 1967, it was Paul who insisted that making an unscripted road movie, Magical Mystery Tour, would cure them of the blues and confirm that the Beatles were still very much in business. When John fell headlong in love with Yoko Ono, installed her in the hitherto sacred space of the recording studio, and yet remained open to what the Beatles could do for his songs, it was Paul who asserted himself even more forcefully to have McCartney compositions performed the way he wanted in order to push the group to even greater heights.

Right: A groovy Paul McCartney posed by the coast at Newquay, U.K.,on the Magical Mystery Tour, on September 14, 1967. Opposite: A PR photo for the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour movie in 1967. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are on the left.

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'

Paul s perfectionism became even more overbearing to the other three as their doubts grew about his plans . . .

This was Paul’s great mistake. Though there is no greater lover of harmony in music, Paul, paradoxically, had little gift for fostering harmony among his fellow musicians in the sessions for the so-called White Album. And despite the fact that the Beatles emerged with a masterpiece from those tense months in 1968, Paul was hardly wise to pressure the other three into the even more ambitious “Get Back” project, the back-to-basics movie/recording/ live-show rehearsals, where his perfectionism became even more overbearing to the other three as their doubts grew about Paul’s plans. “After Brian died . . . Paul took over and supposedly led us. But what is leading us, when we went round in circles?” John said in 1970. A very capable guitarist and drummer himself, Paul bruised the feelings of both Ringo and George in the way that he demanded adjustments to their playing, as if suddenly they were no longer quite good enough. (“We got fed up of being sidemen for Paul,” John added.) Paul, in short, was a control freak and, in another paradox for a musician with such a perfect ear, was surprisingly poor at listening to his friends. Just as John had Yoko, Paul had another New York bohemian black sheep of a wealthy family, Linda Eastman. Whereas Linda never interfered in Paul’s music or his commitment to the Beatles, her family connections unwittingly created the circumstances by which the background tensions between Paul and the other three escalated into an acrimonious split. New Jersey music-business accountant Allen Klein had flattered and seduced John Lennon into making him his business manager, with promises of vastly increasing the Beatles’ revenues. George and Ringo followed suit. They also voted to have him take charge of the running of their business, Apple Corps, which was out of control and hemorrhaging funds. Linda’s father and brother, John and Lee Eastman, were wealthy New York businessmen who had heard on the grapevine that Klein was not all that he seemed, and they counseled Paul to steer clear. Paul opposed the involvement of Klein in the Beatles’ affairs and urged the other three to let his new in-laws, the Eastmans, take charge instead. Seeing this suggestion as no more than a move by Paul to control every aspect of the group, they refused and got even more solidly behind their man Klein. 9

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Below: A rare Beatles’ letter sent to Paul McCartney’s lawyer and father-in-law, Lee Eastman, on April 18, 1969. Signed by John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, it explained that Eastman would no longer represent the band. Allen Klein at ABKCO would represent the remaining three Beatles. It has been referred to as the “breakup” letter since the decision over who to manage the Beatles caused a major rift between the Fab Four.

Above: Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman at the Marylebone Register Office on March 12, 1969. Linda’s daughter, Heather, attended the civil ceremony.

Left: Paul McCartney, bearded and gruff, getting into a car in 1969.

11

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Above: The back cover of Paul McCartney’s first solo album, McCartney. At a quick glance, you might accidentally miss Paul’s baby daughter, Mary, peeking out of Paul’s leather jacket.

It turns out Paul’s judgment was right on target; however, his diplomacy was disastrous. Happily distracted by his marriage to the pregnant Linda in March of 1969, Paul could not finesse the feelings of his fellow Fabs. By that summer it was clear that, at the very least, the Beatles would be taking a break from each other while they tried to sort out their differences. In that spirit, the group recorded their final album proper, Abbey Road. Knowing that it may be their last for a while, the four pulled together one final time. But no one, at that point, was saying that it was definitively over. Until two weeks before Abbey Road’s release, that is, when John announced to the other three that he was leaving. At that time, Klein was negotiating an enormous deal for the Beatles with Capitol Records, and he persuaded the four Beatles to keep John’s departure a secret until further notice. Paul was distraught. At a draining time with the birth of his first child, Mary, that August, Paul found himself emotionally unprepared for the disintegration of the group he had poured himself into for years, as well as the fraying of friendships with all three, especially John, whom he continued to look up to even though he no longer understood what was going on in his old partner’s mind. Depressed and directionless, Paul later admitted that he hit the bottle at that time, and that only with Linda’s support did he recover the urge to make music. For years the studio

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perfectionist, now Paul was no longer trying to go bigger and better (and match the songs and productions of his friendly rival, Beach Boy Brian Wilson). Now, so roundly rejected by the other three Beatles, he would prove he didn’t need them. He would not only make a solo album, he would make it all by himself: writing, singing, playing, and recording every note. Only Linda would help him out with vocal harmonies—the controversial sound of things to come. With no single, it would be an album of mostly casual, undercooked music making—just as Bob Dylan was also doing on the cusp between the 1960s and 1970s—entitled, in a stark declaration of self-sufficiency and independence, McCartney. The fuss surrounding the album’s release upstaged the music itself. Paul wanted to release the album that spring of 1970, but the other three objected. Not only would it clash with the release of Ringo’s debut, Sentimental Journey, that March, but also with Let It Be, the Beatles album salvaged from the 1969 “Get Back” sessions by Wall of Sound producer Phil Spector, whose schmaltzy orchestration of his song “The Long and Winding Road” Paul loathed but could not veto. When John and George sent Ringo to Paul’s London home to ask him to delay the release of McCartney, Paul lost his temper and threw the drummer out. It was all-out war now, which escalated when McCartney’s release was preceded by Paul’s wounded and coldly angry press release announcing to the world that he had left the Beatles, which made front-page news worldwide. Later, John remarked how smart Paul was to reveal the secret that the group was finished when he had a solo record to promote. When the world heard the music behind the bombshell, they were underwhelmed—as were John and George, who voiced their disappointment Left: A touching moment . . . Paul and Linda McCartney in a New York recording studio in 1971 polishing his singles “Another Day” and “Oh Woman, Oh Why.”

Depressed and directionless

,

Paul later admitted he hit the bottle at that time . . .

Above: Album cover for Ram

Right: Album cover for Thrillington, released in 1977 by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Percy “Thrills” Thrillington

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Right: Paul McCartney singing with his new band, Wings, in 1972. Linda is pictured beside him.

Opposite: A detail from an advertisement in Billboard magazine hyping Paul McCartney’s solo album, McCartney. Below: Front of the album cover for McCartney.

in public. To most fans, only one song, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” sounded finished and a worthy addition to Paul’s songbook; the rest remained home-made sketches, or perhaps superior demos, as if Paul felt they weren’t worth any further work. But “Every Night,” which moves from angst to fulfillment in love, and the sadly nostalgic “Junk” are fine songs, and the remaining numbers, which include lo-fi instrumentals, are charming. Such was the power of the Beatles’ brand that McCartney, with its backcover photo of Paul with baby Mary, topped the U.S. album charts. Paul had gotten back on the horse, but he had a long way to go to meet public expectations. He spent much of 1970 and 1971 in a legal dispute with Allen Klein and the other Beatles as he tried to leave the partnership, exposing their commercial affairs and mutual grievances to a dismayed public, with many fans seeing Paul as the villain by suing his fellow former Beatles. By way of escape from the London High Court and lawyers’ offices, Paul and his family loved to retreat to his remote High Park Farm on the Mull of Kintyre, where he wrote a brand-new batch of songs. The bitterness of the Beatles’ fallout, his rejuvenation at his spartan Scottish idyll, and his determination to make a proper, polished record now that he’d gotten over his depression, took Paul and Linda to her old apartment in New York. There they recorded, in semi-secrecy, a new album and stand-alone single that reflected the mixed picture of Paul’s life at the start of the 1970s. Cut with a handful of excellent session players, Ram is a wonderful suite of singable, hummable McCartney melodies and sumptuous chord progressions. Though none cohere into classic, self-contained songs to

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Paul secretly rerecorded the tunes on

“

”

Ram

at Abbey Road at great personal expense.

Above: The cover of Life magazine on November 7, 1969, featuring Paul McCartney and his family in Scotland. The Life magazine correspondent, Dorothy Bacon, reportedly trudged through a Scottish bog to find Paul and put the “Paul is dead” rumors to rest. Right: Paul McCartney, Linda, and dog Ringo at their farm near Campbeltown in Scotland on January 1, 1971

match “Maybe I’m Amazed,” never mind “Yesterday,” in mood and flow, Ram gets quite close to the bitty yet irresistible medley on the second side of Abbey Road. Though a vast overall improvement on Paul’s solo debut, Ram disappointed in two respects. First, Linda, who was pushed into the job of harmony singer by Paul, was no John or George, and from then on her often shrill and unsupple singing offered a poor substitute for the harmonic richness Paul’s fans had come to expect from his Beatles’ songs. (Linda was also cocredited as a songwriter on Ram, a legal fiction devised to help Paul earn royalties on a better publishing deal than that which he was tied into with the Lennon– McCartney partnership.) Second, without the friendly competition with the verbally exacting John to push wordsmith Paul the to memorable heights of wit and pathos, Paul’s lyric writing settled for glibness, whimsy, dippiness, and an occasionally carping tone that infuriated John when he rightly detected a finger-wagging criticism within the words of the album’s opener, “Too Many People.” John reacted by overreacting on his Imagine song “How Do You Sleep?”, which, nasty though it was, was written in blood and acid in contrast to the vanilla essence that flowed through Paul’s writing. (And just in case anyone missed the point: whereas Paul was photographed on the sleeve of Ram shearing a sheep at his Scottish farm, John had himself pictured straddling a pig on Imagine.) Paul had written more good songs than would fit in one album, so “Another Day” was released as a stand-alone single; it’s a slice of an everywoman’s life that Paul had felt able to express beautifully before in “Eleanor Rigby” and “She’s Leaving Home.” Like Ram, it was catchy and attractive; also like Ram, the single did not reach his highest standards— far more a “Your Mother Should Know” than a “Hey Jude.” Commercially, Paul hit the jackpot with both records, but then he had come to expect that as a matter of course over the years. But for Paul, without John there to test how far the public could be pushed before they stopped buying your records, big sales meant that he was pleasing people, and he was always eager to please the people. Indeed, in June of 1971, just after Ram’s release, he secretly (and expensively) rerecorded its tunes back at Abbey Road in middle-of-the-road big band and choir arrangements of the kind Paul felt his dad would enjoy. Titled Thrillington and credited to a fictional Percy “Thrills” Thrillington, this album of enjoyably undemanding light music was shelved until a belated release in 1977. Why? That summer of 1971 Paul had decided to form a new band.

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Chapter 2 Getting High with Wings

“If you can play in a pub, you’re in a good band.” —Paul McCartney

Right: Paul McCartney smoking a cigarette and cuddling with his wife, Linda McCartney, at a 1972 party in Oxford, England.

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W

hen he was recording Ram in New York with session players, Paul had a rather unpleasant surprise: unlike his fellow Beatles, who would work with him on his songs over the course of months, top session players are booked far in advance, and the best will have very few blanks in their diaries. So if Paul, who was used to enjoying a smoke, taking his time, and changing his mind, wanted later to revisit a recording to change something or recut it altogether with the same musicians, he might not have been able to do it, because they’d have moved on to other jobs. With his own band, however, that would not be a problem. And with his own band, Paul would also be able to realize his dream, which had been resisted by the other Beatles in their final year, when he urged it as a way of recovering their founding rock ’n’ roll spirit and lost camaraderie: going on the road without any fuss or hype as traveling players, just turning up and performing unannounced to the people at modest venues, like college halls. Paul and Linda loved reggae and craved its sunny, unfussy, and youthful exuberance in their own music. The new group would be a rebirth of what had put Paul on the path to being a professional musician in the first place. As he later admitted, having joined rather than founded the Beatles 15 years previously, Paul had never formed a group before and “didn’t have a clue” how to do it. But rather than form a supergroup of established stars, with all the baggage and potential for conflicting egos that he’d escaped from in the Beatles, he decided to pick like-minded musicians so they could “grow together.” From the Ram sessions, drummer Denny Seiwell was picked, and Paul welcomed a former member of the Moody Blues whom he’d known since his Beatlemania days, Denny Laine, to take the place as Paul’s foil on vocals and various instruments. Banging away uncertainly on keyboard and vocal harmonies, Linda was also in the group.

Above: A 1975 Wings tour program. Left: Paul and Linda McCartney with fellow Wings’ members, Denny Seiwell (left) and Denny Laine (right) on November 30, 1972. Right: Paul and Linda McCartney are pictured with their two-year-old daughter, Stella McCartney, at The Piccadilly headquarters of the Toy for a Sick Child Fund in 1973. Stella donated her teddy bear, “Fruity.”

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Above: Album cover for Wild Life.

The name? Wings. Linda had just given birth to the couple’s second child, Stella, and it had been touch and go for a while. But a guardian angel saw Stella safe and sound, and the vision of angel’s wings seemed propitious to Paul and Linda. Released in time for Christmas 1971, the group’s debut, Wild Life, sounded flimsy and lightweight, as if Paul thought charm, enthusiasm, and stoned humor were enough. Compared to his two solo albums—and especially compared to John’s recently released Imagine album—it was thin. And compared, it was. Singing his first cover since 1964, Paul’s reggaefied version of Mickey & Sylvia’s 1957 hit “Love Is Strange” sounded like Wings was winging it from writing to recording; indeed, most of the tracks were first takes of songs that had arisen from band jams. But then, at the very end of the album, Paul pulled out all the stops. Simple, stark, and sad, “Dear Friend” was sung to John (never named, but who else could it be?) in sorrow rather than anger, mourning the friendship lost in a publicly acrimonious business dispute. The album sold—it was by a Beatle—but nowhere near made number one. Nor was Paul’s next move likely to make up for lost ground; less than three weeks after “Bloody Sunday,” when 13 unarmed protesters were shot dead by the British Army in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Wings released the rousing singalong single “Give Ireland Back to the Irish.” Paul, like John and George was of Irish descent and normally an instinctive crowd pleaser and controversy-dodger. He was the first former Beatle to put his art on the line in defiance of public opinion in Great Britain, which was bitterly split on the issues of army conduct and Great Britain’s right to remain in Northern Ireland. Banned on British airwaves, it was only a moderate U.K. hit but went to number one in the Republic of Ireland.

Right: IRA terrorist suspects are rounded up by British soldiers on “Bloody Sunday” in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, when 13 Roman Catholics were killed on January 30,1972. Despite his usual crowd-pleasing behavior, Paul tapped into his Irish heritage and Wings released “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” after the tragedy.

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The High Life Four months later, Wings’ next single was controversial in an entirely different way: as a devoted, hands-on family man who had written songs for children since “Yellow Submarine,” Paul released a version of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Rock fans were appalled. Contending with a press and public underwhelmed and divided over Paul’s post-Fab Four career, Wings hit the road, piling children, dogs, and musicians— including another guitarist, Henry McCullough, from Ireland and of Joe Cocker’s band—into a truck and driving north out of London. There was no itinerary; they would turn up at a college town, ask to see the social secretary, enquire if they could play that night, and if the answer was yes (and it always was), put on the show there and then. The surprise and novelty of a Beatle turning up to play more than made up for any technical shortcomings—the pressure sat on Linda in particular. On the road, the band got to know each other as well as the live repertoire, which mixed Wings and rock ’n’ roll favorites with no Beatles tunes whatsoever. Heartened by their reception, Wings took to Europe that summer of 1972 to combine work with play as they sunbathed in their open-top tour bus between gigs. As he hadn’t toured since 1966, Paul was unprepared for the attention rock bands were getting from police and customs officials the world over looking to make highprofile busts. Nor had he heeded the fact that John and George’s drug possession convictions demonstrated that Beatledom no longer conveyed legal immunity, if it ever did. Paul was busted in Sweden for marijuana possession and got off with a fine and a warning, but back home in Scotland he was arrested to face the more serious charge of marijuana cultivation. It required an expensive legal defense to get Paul off with another

Above: Paul McCartney and wife Linda on tour in their open-top, psychedelic tour bus in July of 1972.

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'

That was Paul s biggest problem . . . how could he escape his own giant shadow?

fine. Against this background, Paul hardly played it safe with Wings’ next single, “Hi, Hi, Hi,” which celebrated getting high and having sex and was just as crass but a lot less fun than it sounds. The flip of this double A-side hit, “C Moon,” was reggaeed bubblegum pop that boasted a catchy tune, nifty trumpet and xylophone arrangement, and absolutely nothing to challenge the growing consensus that Paul needed John to shake him out of his comfort zone. Yet, as Elton John’s gigantic sales of the era showed, there was a huge market for attractive, undemanding rock with hummable tunes, even if many people felt the Beatles had unbeatably supplied all this and a whole lot more in the previous decade. But that was then. In their next move, Paul McCartney and Wings (as he now restyled the band’s name in the hope of more sales than had been garnered by their first album) would revert to the polish of Ram rather than the casual feel of McCartney or Wild Life. Recorded on either side of the 1972 European tour, Red Rose Speedway followed Beatles’ practice in containing none of the immediately preceding singles when it was released in the spring of 1973, as well as in its dazzling practice in its surface detail and subtler touches that reveal themselves with each listen. But unlike Beatles’ practice, the songs themselves flattered to deceive; the best of them, “Single Pigeon,” lacked the compelling tunefulness of even so minor a Fab-era McCartney moment as “All Together Now.” Amazingly, Paul had thought that they had recorded enough good songs to make up a double album until he was talked out of it, though the record’s sumptuous packaging suggested the level of his confidence. The album spun off a U.S. number-one slow-dance single, “My Love,” which might have been better remembered were it not for the fact that the mega-selling release that spring of the Beatles’ Red 1962–1966 and Blue 1967–1970 compilation albums reminded everyone of just how good Paul’s old band was. And that was Paul’s big problem: commercial catnip though he remained, and only just having turned 30, how could he escape his own giant shadow?

Above: Album cover for Red Rose Speedway.

Right: Paul McCartney rehearsing with his band, Wings, before their British tour, on April 7, 1973.

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Chapter 3 On a Roll

Again

“Beatles’ songs? Some of the younger kids like the new songs better.” —Paul McCartney

Left: Paul McCartney playing the piano with Beatles’ producer George Martin in the 1960s. McCartney teamed up with Martin again in 1973 to create the smash hit “Live and Let Die” for the James Bond movie of the same name.

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I

n the summer of 1973, Paul McCartney was not the only made-in-Britain world-beater who needed a reboot. The other was James Bond. After the 1971 movie Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery, the original big screen 007, hung up his Walther PPK and the franchise’s producers recruited the far more selfmockingly suave Roger Moore. With a new star came a new approach to the signature song; for the first time the title sequence of a Bond movie would rock—to “Live and Let Die.” “I always have seen myself as a hack. That’s why I did the Bond theme,” Paul cheerfully explained. One of Paul’s live set-pieces ever since, “Live and Let Die” pumps just enough adrenaline to offset the Linda-composed reggae break and the recurring lyrical clunker of “this ever-changing world in which we live in.” But, not least thanks to Paul turning to the Beatles’ old producer, George Martin, for help for the first time in three years, the song had blockbuster bombast and excitement; Paul was raising his game.

A Sense of Unfolding Though recorded during the “Red Rose Speedway” sessions, “Live and Let Die” anticipated the mood that would follow months later in Wings’ next album—a sense of unfolding, thrillerish drama. But it would happen without drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough. Simmering discontents about their roles within the band and less than princely wages (in stark contrast to Paul’s growing wealth, which allowed him to invest in property, art, and song catalogs, including that of his hero Buddy Holly) saw them quit on the eve of Wings’ departure to Nigeria. To extend the “Live and Let Die” mood of tropical adventure, Paul booked his U.K. record company EMI’s Lagos studio for the band’s next album. When Paul, Linda, Denny Laine, and the seasoned Abbey Road recording engineer Geoff Emerick arrived, they found it was monsoon season, with the studio only half-built. Worse still, a very aggrieved Fela Kuti—

Left: Ginger Baker (Cream) and Fela Kuti, the father of Afrobeat, in 1972. Kuti became enraged when he thought McCartney had come to Nigeria to steal his people’s music. Right: Paul and Linda McCartney at the Live and Let Die film premiere in London on July 5, 1973.

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Dustin Hoffman chose Pablo Picasso as the

'

subject for McCartney s off the cuff tune.

-

-

Above: Actor Dustin Hoffman on February 20, 1975. Paul wrote “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” after Hoffman challenged him to create a spontaneous song on a subject he suggested. Right: Award winners of the Daily Mirror Pop Club Readers’ Poll posing at a special concert at Bingley Hall, Staffordshire on January 8, 1977. The bottom row (left to right) is Paul Miles, David Essex, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCullough, and Joe English. The top row are members of the Rubettes and the Real Thing.

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the father of Afrobeat and Nigerian equivalent of James Brown—turned up accusing them of coming to his country to steal his people’s music. Only when they played him some of their own songs were his anxieties allayed. And then, out for a stroll one day, Paul and Linda were mugged, losing not only her cameras but the cassettes of song demos recorded at their Scotland home’s “Rude Studios,” which they were using as templates for the Lagos recording sessions. It should have been a disaster, but the music the three made (with Paul playing drums, guitar, and keyboard as well as his usual bass) in these trying circumstances never hinted at the difficulties. Instead, it was suffused by a mood of youthful, carefree escape—from “Jet,” which refined the key elements of “Live and Let Die” while being actually named after the McCartneys’ black Labrador, thru “Helen Wheels” (the family’s Land Rover), to the song that would give the album its title, “Band on the Run,” with its cast of kids’ cartoon characters. This was superb music for teenagers on a spree, and by far the most instantly attractive album made by a Beatle since Abbey Road. One of its more grown-up numbers, “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me),” was written when the movie star Dustin Hoffman, whom the McCartneys met in Jamaica where he was filming Papillon, challenged Paul to write a song off the cuff based on a subject he suggested. This happened to be a news story about the final days of Pablo Picasso. The last track, the widescreen pulse-racer “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five,” then segued into a reprise of the title track, much as Sgt. Pepper had done six years previously. Even the sleeve carried a faint echo of Sgt. Pepper, peopled as it was with celebrity pals of Paul with the

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band, pinioned by a searchlight mid-jailbreak. Most of these celebrities meant nothing outside the U.K.; unlike John and contemporaries such as Rod Stewart, Paul’s heart remained at home in Great Britain. The whole album was a self-confident triumph and hogged the upper reaches of album charts worldwide for much of 1974, the year of the oil crisis and recession, and a time when the West badly needed some cheerful escapism.

A Reunion of Sorts The McCartneys took the opportunity to kick back for a while, enjoying family life. For Paul, now that he was able enter the U.S. again after the ban from his drug conviction had expired, it was also time to heal an old wound. He went to visit John in Los Angeles, where he was spending his “Lost Weekend” away from Yoko, and they rekindled their friendship. Ringo had been the catalyst for the rapprochement. Though he was the oldest Beatle, Ringo played something of the needy kid brother role, shaped by the fact that, unlike the other three, he wasn’t much of a singer or songwriter, and so would always struggle to maintain a recording career. A likable, genuinely nice man, since the breakup of the Beatles, Ringo had gotten by with a little help from his friends, culminating in 1973’s hit album Ringo, on which all three of his former fellow Fabs helped out with songs and playing without any fuss or personal politics. By then the legal issues dividing the band and their money were close to being settled, and had John, George, and Ringo accepted Paul’s view that Allen Klein was a less than trustworthy custodian of their partnership and business empire. The heat of the disputes that had made relations between John and Paul so hateful three years previously had cooled, and though the two would never resume their creative intimacy of the early 1960s, they would make up and learn to be on friendly terms again.

Left: Going green . . . Paul and Linda McCartney out riding bicycles in February of 1973. Right: Album cover for Band on the Run.

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While he was in the U.S., Paul also took the opportunity to “break in” the two replacement members of Wings. On drums came the seasoned rocker Geoff Britton, while on guitar entered 20-year-old Jimmy McCulloch, who had enjoyed a U.K. number-one hit single as a member of Thunderclap Newman with “Something in the Air” when he was just 16. While staying on the Nashville ranch of Curly Putman, Jr., songwriter of such country classics as “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and “Green, Green Grass of Home,” Wings wrote and recorded a new single, titled “Junior’s Farm” in honor of their location. A catchy, carefree rocker like “Helen Wheels,” it maintained momentum and cemented the impression that Paul had found his postBeatles musical identity.

Running on Empty The momentum generated by Band on the Run was not be stalled, even if the next album could be said to show Paul running dangerously close to empty. Mostly recorded in New Orleans in early 1975, Venus and Mars suffered an interruption partway through the recording sessions when Geoff Britton, who’d failed to fit in, had to be replaced by the more simpatico American drummer, Joe English. But the problem with Venus and Mars was the audible drop in the standard of song set so sky high by its predecessor. Echoes of better work abounded, from “You Gave Me the Answer”’s reprise of the Beatles’ tea-dance pastiche “Honey Pie” to “Magneto and Titanium Man”’s litany of cartoon character capers that recalled catchier songs starring Rocky Raccoon, Uncle Albert, Admiral Halsey, Sailor Sam, and so on. Picked as the first spin-off single, the best song was “Listen to What the Man Said,” a brighteyed and bushy-tailed gallop around the sentiment of love conquering all, with session-star Tom Scott’s happy-go-lucky saxophone dancing lightly over one of Paul’s most contagious pop melodies. A radio staple and a U.S. number one that spring of 1975, it helped Venus and Mars amass huge sales, though not on the sustained scale of Band on the Run. Just 10 months later Wings released another album, Wings at the Speed of Sound, which reprised, in even more diluted form, its predecessor’s formula. The new album, however, boasted two great pop songs rather than one, though the filler, on which each band member got to write and sing, lacked even the substance of Venus and Mars. Paul’s “Beware My Love” features his most shredded vocal performance since the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” eight years before, but the mood of heavy emotional outpouring feels forced. In utter contrast, the two Right: Paul and Linda performing on the Wings’ 1976 U.K. tour.

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Paul was happily supplying the

'

world s demand for heart shaped

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great pop songs—“Silly Love Songs” and “Let ’Em In” (both of them top three U.S. hits)—are McCartney at his most seemingly effortless, demanding little of himself save his facility for bouncing ear candy, nor anything of the listener save their willingness to let the top down, tune in, and enjoy the ride. “Let ’Em In” is by far the better song, based on a piano figure where a nagging sense of anxiety resolves into martial drumbeats then a fullblown major key litany of names to be let in, ranging from the historic (Martin Luther) to family (Auntie Gin). Perhaps very much in Paul’s mind at the time of its writing—with its poignant brass arrangement—was his father Jim, a 73-year-old former semi-professional trumpeter and lifelong smoker, who was now dying. Recorded, like the rest of the album, at Abbey Road, “Let ’Em In” has an elusive but enduring melancholic undertow— young and old, famous and obscure, cool and uncool, no one was excluded from the warmth—let ’em all in to heaven, perhaps. Contrastingly one-dimensional, “Silly Love Songs” could almost have been Paul’s mission statement. Defying not only his former writing partner’s program of emotional self-revelation in song, but also his own poignant explorations of human feeling back in the 1960s, he was now happily supplying the world’s demand for heart-shaped tunes in the 1970s. Say it loud, Paul was fluffy and proud. A string of airy pop hits, one undeniable classic pop-rock album, and a few near misses were more than enough to assist the launch of Wings on a world tour to surpass that of Paul’s old band. But as Paul was to find while playing huge stadiums in America’s Bicentennial summer of 1976, on the year-long Wings Over the World tour, the Beatles remained a subject on everybody’s lips. The word was out that the divisions had been healed, and with Wings’ tour schedule including

Left: The Wings Over America Live Album.

Left: Paul McCartney with his father in 1973. Jim McCartney, a lifelong smoker, was dying during the time that Paul was writing the song “Let ‘Em In.”

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the vast sports venues that the Beatles had pioneered with stage rock shows 10 years before, what better setting could be imagined for a reunion? The media rumor-mills hummed with speculation that John, George, and Ringo would turn up one night to turn back the clock, with a multimillion-dollar payday offered by an American promoter to make it happen. That Paul strenuously deflected such speculation only fueled it further. In the event, Paul met the demand for Fabness partway, performing five Beatles’ numbers that were his sole, unassisted compositions: “Yesterday,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Lady Madonna,” “Blackbird,” and “The Long and Winding Road.” Fans went crazy, but so slick and punchy was the live act—both Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch performed cameo songs to make Wings feel more like a band rather than just Paul-plus-sidemen—that the two-hour show scarcely dipped from the mood-setting opener, “Venus and Mars,” to the encore, “Soily,” an unreleased song from 1973. With Linda blooming in confidence on stage, and the tour arranged to be family-friendly, right down to the disco area set aside in Wings’ chartered BAC 1-11 jet for the little McCartneys, Paul could honestly say he had achieved everything and more that he had set out to do four years previously: he had conquered the world all over again, but this time accompanied not by his buddies but by his loved ones. The vast sales of the souvenir triplelive-album Wings Over America, released for Christmas of 1976, sealed the success of the man who was now, indisputably, the biggest Beatle.

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Chapter 4 Back to Earth

“Hell, how much credit do you want in a lifetime?” —Paul McCartney

Left: Country living . . . Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, with their daughters, Heather, Stella, and Mary, in Rye, East Sussex, U.K. on April 4, 1976.

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he term “work-life balance” had yet to be coined in the late 1970s, but that balance is exactly what Paul McCartney seemed to be accomplishing as 1976 turned to 1977. Linda became pregnant with what would be her fourth child—her third with Paul—and that winter, following a record-breaking hot summer in the U.K. during which punk rock took root in London, Paul planned to record a new album celebrating the city. Returning to EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London, the weather got him down after a few weeks, so he upped sticks with the band, technicians, and family to go to the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. They set up recording facilities on board a yacht, the Fair Carol, with everyone berthed in boats alongside for a month of music-making, drinking, smoking (with yet another warning from local law-enforcement officers), and swimming, thus giving the album the working title of Water Wings. Linda’s advanced pregnancy ended that phase of recording, and the McCartneys returned to High Park Farm in Scotland with Wings members Denny, Jimmy, and Joe. There, during the summer of Her Majesty the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, Paul and Denny were suitably moved by the views of romantic wilderness around the expanding McCartney homestead to write together “a love song to where we lived, a Scottish waltz.” It was to join such anthems as “Scotland the Brave” and “Loch Lomond” as a Caledonian classic to bring a tear to the eye and a swirl to the kilt. Featuring seven pipers and seven drummers of the Campbeltown Pipe Band, the song “Mull of Kintyre” had one absentee, unnoticed at the time: Jimmy McCulloch. After a drunken spat with Paul and Linda, he had run off to join Steve Marriott in a new lineup of the Small Faces, who were originally contemporaries of the Beatles back in the 1960s. Two years later, Jimmy would die of a heroin overdose at the age of 26. American drummer Joe English wasn’t to continue much longer in Wings, either, bailing out due to homesickness or a gnawing dissatisfaction about his remuneration, depending on whom you believe. Released in November of 1977 with the semi-salacious rocker “Girls’ School” on the flipside, “Mull of Kintyre” sold and sold in Great Britain, staying at number one for weeks that Christmas, notching up more than two million U.K. sales and outselling even the Beatles’ biggest single, 1963’s “She Loves You.” A huge hit also in Europe and Australia, “Mull

Above: Guitarists Jimmy McCulloch (left) and Steve Marriott (right) of Small Faces performing in Manchester, England on September 14, 1977.

Right: It’s a boy! Paul and Linda McCartney with their son, James, on September 21, 1977.

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of Kintyre” did not, however, perform well commercially in Japan or, more worryingly, in the world’s biggest and most Beatlemaniac record market, the U.S. Meanwhile, without the inclusion of either side of this single on its track listing, London Town was released in 1978, an event somewhat upstaged for the McCartneys by the arrival the previous September of their son James, the third generation of McCartney boy to bear the name (Paul’s given name is James, like his father before him). Unlike Band on the Run, which had been focused by the adversity of its making, the diffuse writing and recording history of London Town was audible to fans. From the lyrical bum notes of the folksy soft-rock title-track ode to London (the Americanism “barker” when he meant “busker,” the antiquated slang term for a policeman, “rozzer” used at all), through the Kinksesque “Famous Groupies” and the prog-rocking sea shanty “Morse Moose and the Grey Goose,” to the exciting but ill-timed Sun-style rocker “Name and Address,” which Paul wrote for Elvis, who died before getting to hear it, London Town sounds less like a coherent album than a bunch of B-sides. Enjoyable though it was, the albums then selling in their multimillions by Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles were unified by the three Cs of California, Cocaine, and Creative intensity—a combination that was a world away from the easy-going, backward-looking London Town. One song, however, did look to the future: Paul liked Michael Jackson, back then a child star coming into maturity but not yet the icon he was to become, and wrote “Girlfriend” for him. Paul’s falsetto vocal performance acted as a guide for Michael’s own performance on his huge hit album Off the Wall the following year. Held aloft by a U.S. number-one single, the heartwarming Macca-by-numbers “With a Little Luck,” London Town sold well over a million copies in the U.S., but, as in the rest of the 42

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world, it fell from the charts relatively quickly. While Paul’s army of loyalists added it to their collection, the album made few converts. Paul felt his U.S. record company’s sales force had failed to do London Town justice, so he left Capitol to sign a huge deal with Columbia Records. But Paul also knew that, in the mainstream rock-pop market, times and tastes had changed since his all-conquering mid-1970s period. Disco, New Wave, and a growing vogue for shiny electronic keyboard sounds were making the warm, bluesy, funky feel that had held sway over so much bestselling music since the late 1960s sound oldfashioned, though what became known as AOR (adult-oriented rock) kept faith with its aging market’s tastes in the musical palette they’d grown up with. And, two years before the launch of MTV, elaborately theatrical promotional videos were taking over from a filmed live performance as the cool currency of how rock should market itself on television. Other giant acts who’d erupted in the wake of the Beatles, such as the Who, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin, were responding to these changing tastes, and it felt like a gathering of the clans rallying to the flag of their generation when, on October 3, 1978, at the suggestion of the Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, Paul called in pals from these groups, plus other British so-called Old Wave rock luminaries, to record an all-star session at Abbey Road. The sessions would yield two future tracks, “Rockestra Theme” and “So Glad to See You Here,” though Moon himself was sadly missing. He’d died the month before from an accidental prescription-pharmaceutical overdose after a dinner thrown by Paul to mark what would have been his hero Buddy Holly’s birthday.

Left: Paul McCartney performing on stage with Wings at the Empire Pool, Wembley, U.K., in October of 1976. The three shows at Wembley marked the end of the group’s first complete world tour, which included the U.S. Above: Album cover for London Town.

Right: Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson on December 19, 1983.

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The Dawn of Disco Before these songs saw the light of day, along with the rest of the album for which they were recorded, a stand-alone single, “Goodnight Tonight,” was released. This introduced a fourth incarnation of Wings, with new drummer Steve Holley and a new lead guitarist, Laurence Juber, to get the band back up to a five-piece again. They recalled that their auditions had been perfunctory; “The enthusiasm had peaked,” Paul admitted later. Clearly modeled on the pioneering hits by New York’s disco band Chic, “Goodnight Tonight” was a wisp, but the percolating groove of elegantly strummed guitars, Latin percussion, and Paul’s throbbing bass defied you not to hit the dancefloor—and, indeed, it was also released in extended 12 inch vinyl form specifically for DJs. Reaching number five in the U.S., “Goodnight Tonight” appalled many old fans who objected to disco in principle for being plastic, populist, and manufactured, as distinct from rock, which they saw as “real” music. But while “Goodnight Tonight” told the world that Paul was keeping up with modern trends, it also announced that he was no longer setting them. Such would be the impression confirmed by what was intended as a Wings’ rebirth—or rehatch—album, but would in fact prove to be their swansong, Back to the Egg. Far from justifying Columbia Records’ record-breaking advance payment, the new album sold fewer than any Wings’ studio album since the first, with reviews ranging from “overegged” to “scrambled.” Yet listening to it now reveals a compelling oddity closer to the sophisticated blue-eyed, soul-blues grooves of Boz Scaggs and Steely Dan, or the avantgarde whimsy of David Bowie, than anything Paul had done since his greatest period as a singer, songwriter, and experimental stylist in the Beatles from 1966 to 1968. “To You,” for example, is sung red-raw, and were it not loaded with all the expectations and connotations of a McCartney composition, would be acclaimed today as a minor New Wave rock classic. As if retreating from making such demands on his audience, Paul then released the solo hit single “Wonderful Christmastime,” the third dose of seasonal cheer by an ex-Beatle (John had celebrated “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” in 1971, and George rang in the New Year with “Ding Dong, Ding Dong” in 1974), and the most eagerly lightweight. So, for Paul, the 1970s had ended in much the same way as the 1960s, with a band on its last legs and questions being asked as to whether he could stay creative and compete with new talents, techniques, and tastes. For Paul, 1980 would start with this challenge but also end in tragedy. Right: Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney, and the Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, in 1977. Moon died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose after a dinner party thrown by Paul.

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Chapter 5 Busted, Grounded, Dragged, and Tugged

“It was just too crazy, blurred, horrific. You can’t take it in.”—Paul McCartney

Right: Paul McCartney, cigarette in hand, expressing his opinion in the mid-1970s.

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T

hough launched off the back of a relative flop album in a group that Paul increasingly felt had run its course, the new year of the new decade was to see Wings take off on a world tour. Going into the winter of 1979, they’d warmed up on over 20 U.K. dates, nostalgically playing the sorts of venues where Beatlemania had broken out back in 1963—with three entirely Paul-penned Fabs' hits on the set list—culminating in an all-star benefit “Concert for the People of Kampuchea” in London on December 29. No one knew, least of all the band, that it would be Wings’ final performance. The following month, January of 1980, they flew to Japan, where Paul was to perform for the first time since the Beatles’ last tour in 1966. Though only the most delicate legal diplomacy permitted him into the country, which had banned him for his drug convictions, Paul seemed not to have taken note of the obvious: Japan was tough on drug possession. Years later, he told British journalist Chris Salewicz what happened as they cleared customs and immigration at Tokyo’s Narita Airport: “We got some good grass in America and no one could face putting it down the toilet. We knew we weren’t going to get any in Japan. It was lying on top of the bloody suitcase. I’ll never forget the guy’s face as he pulled it out. He almost put it back. He just did not want the embarrassment.” Embarrassment is what sprang Paul from his shared prison cell after 10 days. The Japanese didn’t want to have to prosecute such a high-profile foreigner, so, after negotiations with the U.K. consulate and Paul’s legal team from his father-in-law’s firm in New York, he was deported back to the U.K. Paul had gotten away with it, but he seemed unchastened by such a close shave with a grueling trial and possible prison sentence of seven years’ hard labor in a foreign land. Nor

“

We got some good grass in America and no one could face putting it



”

down the toilet.

—Paul

McCartney

Left: Paul McCartney being arrested in Japan on January 19, 1980 for drug possession.

Above: Album cover for McCartney II.

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were his fellow Wings' musicians and crew compensated for the loss of earnings they’d been due to make on a world tour. Indeed, he mocked the country that had let him off the hook with the face-pulling sleeve art and instrumental title “Frozen Jap” on his new album. That it was a do-it-yourself solo album, significantly entitled McCartney II exactly a decade after his first, self-titled do-it-yourself solo album, suggested that, while Wings still officially existed, their dissolution would only be a matter of time. But Paul had not intended to make so pointed a statement. He had recorded the songs in the summer of 1979, soon after the "Back to the Egg" sessions, in the home studio attached to his Scottish farmhouse, experimenting with new sequencers and other electronic instruments that were entering the musical marketplace. Paul had been an early synthesizer enthusiast since filling the Abbey Road studio with “a roomful of Moog” for the recording of the Beatles' song “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” in 1969, but over the course of the following decade he had returned to more conventional guitar-rock arrangements while, musicians like Stevie Wonder surged to huge acclaim and popularity with a string of hit albums marrying great songs to synthesizer technology. With Paul uncertain about Wings after their return from the aborted world tour, these home recordings filled a gap; the album was a respectable million-seller, though no Band on the Run-scale blockbuster. They also, by not trying so hard and allowing himself to indulge his playful side, made a far more sparkling job of remodeling Paul’s music for the New Wave generation than had Back to the Egg. Of the songs, “Temporary Secretary” upgraded the sly comedy of his 1966 Beatles number one “Paperback Writer” for the age of electronica, while “Coming Up” was a U.S. number one hit single in Paul’s perkiest style, the vocals varispeeded for an intriguingly synthetic effect. When John Lennon heard it on the radio on a yachting trip in the Caribbean that June, it inspired him to get back to making music for release for the first time in over five years. The pick of the bunch, though, were two sublime ballads, “One of These Days” and “Waterfalls,” which was named after the rural property near England’s south coast where the McCartney family

Right: Paul reunited with former Beatles' producer, George Martin, to record songs for the animated feature of Rupert the Bear, the British children's comic strip.

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was increasingly spending their time. So beautiful were their melodies that critics were almost embarrassed to point out that the lyrics were as lame as ever from the man who had previously written such poetic masterpieces as “Eleanor Rigby” and “Blackbird.”

The fate of Wings was driven

'

from everyone s

The Phone Call minds when Paul While McCartney II seemed to look to the future, Paul spent the months following the Japanese bust back in his comfort zone of nostalgia. He was received a tragic once more working with the Beatles’ old producer, George Martin, to record songs for a projected animated feature based on the cozy British phone call. children’s comic strip, Rupert Bear, which debuted in 1920 and stayed true to that era. Paul has always had an intense attachment to the world of his happy Liverpool childhood before the death of his mother when he was 14. Enjoying being with Martin once more, Paul continued the sessions with songs for a new album, initially slated to be a Wings' record. But between them they were eager to have greater freedom of choice in the musicians they used to fulfill a broad range of styles, which included the likes of drummers Ringo Starr, Hal Blaine, and Dave Mattacks. With only Denny Laine a fixture on most of the tracks, this could hardly be passed off as a Wings' album, especially as the song “Get It” guest-starred the rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins—who’d been an early inspiration to the Beatles—and “Ebony and Ivory” guest-starred Stevie Wonder who, alongside Paul and Elton John, had commercially dominated pop-rock over the previous decade. But, just a few weeks into rehearsals for the recording sessions, the fate of Wings was driven from everybody’s minds by the events of December 9, 1980. At home that morning, Paul received a phone call from his manager with terrible news: John Lennon had been shot dead in New York by a deranged fan. Paul was shocked and grief-stricken—and also had to contend with the world’s media demanding instant, measured comment. Paul made the fatal error of facing the press pack in person that evening while his feelings were in turmoil, and the confused words that slipped out were to rebound Above: Rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins at the Country instantly and haunt him for years to come: “It’s a drag, isn’t it?” Music Festival in Wembley, Suddenly, if John was the martyred saint, Paul was the unfeeling, U.K., 1981. An inspiration to superficial, so-called best friend who couldn’t muster even the semblance the Beatles and McCartney, of a show of grief—a lightweight talent and human being compared to he guest-starred on Paul's song, "Get It." the moral and musical heavyweight that was John. The truth, of course, 51

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was and is far more nuanced and complex, but every time Paul suggested that this was the case, it looked as if he was trying to maximize his input into the Beatles at the expense of his erstwhile partner and friend who, of course, could no longer answer back.

Wings No More From a musical viewpoint, John had been the listener whom Paul had always tried to please back in the 1960s, and without him, with only the need to please himself and perhaps the unseen public, Paul ceased pushing himself, especially as a lyricist. Never a credible substitute for John, Denny Laine had neither quite enough talent nor the self-confident forthrightness to demand better of Paul, and upon his resignation from Wings in 1981, thus formally ending the group, his replacement as Paul’s musical foil was to fare scarcely better. Eric Stewart was from Manchester, less than 40 miles from Liverpool. He had been the main songwriter in the Beatles’ beat-group contemporaries the Mindbenders and had gone on in the 1970s, as one quarter of 10cc, to score more big hits, most notably the 1975 worldwide smash “I’m Not in Love.” When he was seriously injured in a car crash in 1979, Paul had phoned with words of support, and when Eric recovered, they joined up to make music. A fresh face who was also an old friend and a proven hitmaker in his own right helped infuse Paul with new creativity, while George Martin, who, being a World War II veteran and of an older generation, had never been in awe of the Beatles, helped him craft the finest record he could. On a roll and enjoying themselves, they amassed far more songs they judged to be worthy of commercial release than would fit onto a single album. The cream were released in 1982 on Tug of War, a slick, tuneful, and modishly funk-lite album that revealed Stewart’s influence in intricate storytelling songs that lent themselves to promotional videos, such as “Take It Away.” Heralding the album’s release, the duet with Stevie Wonder, “Ebony and Ivory,” suggesting that the musical harmony of the black and white keys on a keyboard should inspire the world to racial harmony, had the upbeat Above: Eric Stewart of 10cc in 1979. Stewart teamed up with McCartney to make new music after he recovered from a serious car crash in 1979.

Left: A stricken Paul McCartney being interviewed while leaving AIR studio, Oxford Street, London in 1980, shortly after the murder of John Lennon.

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Paul would sometimes choke up on stage when he performed

"

"

Here Today.

He admitted it was about losing John . . .

Above: Album cover for Tug of War.

message, melody, and genre-bridging star power to hit number one all over the world. But the album’s most enduring song, “Here Today,” echoed his 1966 Beatles' classic “For No One” in its poignant evocation of love lost; that “Here Today” could also be interpreted as a song of regret at the lost friendship with John, never to be fully healed, touched many listeners more deeply than any McCartney song had for years. “There were many things left unsaid,” Paul told American TV viewers. “I would have liked to have straightened everything out.” Years later, Paul would sometimes choke up when he performed it on stage, admitting it was about losing John. Tug of War was by far Paul’s biggest hit album since London Town. Released18 months later, its successor, Pipes of Peace, included many tracks left over from those George Martin sessions, and its second-best selection of songs sold correspondingly less well. Moving on from duetting with Stevie Wonder, Paul was now sparring with another Motown child prodigy who’d grown to adult superstardom: Michael Jackson. Promoted by a video casting Paul as a 1920s snake oil salesman and Michael as his young accomplice—Mac & Jack—the U.S. number one “Say Say Say” saw both artists coasting creatively, but hitting big nonetheless in the commercial slipstream of another Mac & Jack duet, “The Girl is Mine,” which was the first hit single to be released on what quickly became the bestselling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s 1982 classic Thriller. As the Beatles had been to the 1960s, Michael Jackson would be to the 1980s: a phenomenon who not only created brand-new artistic styles and turbocharged the entertainment industry but also shaped the feelings and lives of an entire generation. It came as a bitter irony to Paul when, upon the advice he’d given Michael about investing his wealth in music publishing, the new megastar promptly bought the company that owned the Beatles’ songwriting catalog, a treasure trove of Paul’s own best work that the former Beatle had been trying to acquire for years. This moment marked the changing of the guard. Paul would always be music royalty, but now he would have to fight to stay in contention as a bestselling artist of new songs. Right: A still from the filming of a video for "So Bad," the B-side of Paul McCartney's number-one single, "Pipes of Peace" on January 13, 1984. The clip features (from left to right) Ringo Starr, Linda McCartney, Eric Stewart, and Paul McCartney.

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Chapter 6 From Broadway Bum to Born-Again Beatle

“The public will be the judges.” —Paul McCartney

Right: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in period costume for a scene in the movie, Give My Regards to Broad Street, in 1984. McCartney also penned the script.

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t’s hard to say what Paul should have done at this point to maintain his status as a 1960s icon who could still sell new records by the bucketful. Contemporaries like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd, and the survivors of the wreck of Led Zeppelin struggled with this challenge, as did Paul’s fellow surviving Beatles, George and Ringo. Indeed, Ringo could now release an album as good as Stop and Smell the Roses and still only just scrape into the U.S. Top 100. But when invited to come on board for Paul’s latest project, Ringo had his doubts even at this low ebb in his own career. For what Paul chose to do next was make a movie that almost everyone except the man himself foresaw as an absolute car crash. Given his experience of appearing in the Beatles’ movies and his own appreciation of the art form as a fan—and being a movie fan is what attracted him to the project in the first place— Paul should have paid more attention to the fundamental component of any movie: the script. Investing millions of dollars of his own money in the movie, entitled Give My Regards to Broad Street, permitted Paul to ignore all the safeguards the professional movie industry has in place to ensure a basic level of commercial appeal. The cameras started rolling on what would turn out to be a near two-hour movie based on a 23-page script. And it was a script that, updating the Fab Four premise of A Hard Day’s Night two decades before, would star our solitary hero—Fab Paul—charming and bantering his way through a narrative very loosely based on his actual working life as a pop star, with outbreaks of song along the way. But whereas the 1964 movie was handled by solid professionals who gave John, Paul, George, and Ringo just enough space to display their winning personalities in witty repartee, in 1984 Paul was the paymaster who expected the whole thing to fly on his personal charm and improvised gift for story and characters. He was mistaken. In shot for almost the entire film, Paul played himself as complacent yet caring, decisive yet overwhelmed by events, friendly yet enigmatic.

Right: Looking a bit pale . . . Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, and Louis Johnson all dressed up for the movie, Give My Regards to Broad Street.

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Lavishing a small fortune and the talents of numerous high-quality actors and movie technicians on a storyline and script that would be disappointing as a 14-year-old’s school project made the movie, and by extension Paul himself, the object of ridicule when the reviews came out. People stayed away in droves, and those of Paul’s hardcore loyalists who braved it were often embarrassed to see the legend making such a fool of himself and, by another extension, of his faithful fans, too. To see a 40-year-old musical genius and father of three abase himself in humiliating pursuit of a new teen audience in the movie’s set-piece performance of “Silly Love Songs,” with Paul, Linda, and the band clothed, coiffed, and made up in the New Romantic style that had peaked two years previously, was a very low point. The high points were Paul’s unadorned solo performances of his Beatles’ classics “Yesterday” and “For No One.” These were also the crown jewels of a soundtrack that supplied some adequate new songs, including the hit single “No More Lonely Nights,” with an inspired guitar solo by Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour. The soundtrack album sold no more than respectably in the U.S. but went to number one in the U.K., despite Paul’s reputation having been battered earlier in 1984 when Denny Laine told British tabloid readers of Paul’s prodigious dope-smoking, which by then had not only led to six busts in six countries but also slowed his work rate and fogged his judgment. Laine further argued that Paul was tightfisted, overbearing, and “a mummy’s boy.”

High Turnover Taking over the producer’s chair from George Martin, who needed a break from working with Paul after three albums in succession, Hugh Padgham, whose track record by then included huge hit albums for the Police and Phil Collins, was called in to give Paul’s music a contemporary, synthheavy sheen. Padgham discovered over many frustrating months the fundamental truth of Laine’s tabloid revelations. Indeed, old friend Eric Stewart bailed out of the sessions, finding them slack yet bad-tempered because they were so unconstructive, chiefly because Paul had fallen into the routine of spending an eternity to write and record on autopilot, to the frustration of the producer and fellow musicians, rather than focusing intensely on doing his very best. Written quickly at the start of the sessions, only “Footprints” had a spark of inspiration.

Above (top): Album cover for Paul McCartney Unplugged. Above (bottom): Album cover for Press to Play.

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Upon its release in 1986, the album, Press to Play, underperformed everywhere and bombed in America, selling around 250,000 copies. By Paul’s standards, this was lamentable, and his response was to set the pattern for the way his career has developed in subsequent decades. One of the many interruptions to the “Press to Play” sessions was Paul’s performance at Live Aid in London’s Wembley Stadium on July 13, 1985, the biggest music event of all time, to raise money for victims of the Ethiopian famine. Nearly two billion people worldwide watched it live on TV. Very few major stars declined to perform when asked, and for some, like U2 and Queen, it was the springboard to the highest level of popularity. The rapturous reception Paul got for his performance of “Let It Be” at the piano, unaccompanied but for a ragged chorus of supporting stars like David Bowie, confirmed the former Beatle as untouchable just as long as he tapped into his 1960s songbook and evoked memories of that golden age. Nor was Paul immune to personal nostalgia. Whereas back in the 1970s he seldom reminisced about the Beatles and considered it bad form to bring up the subject in conversation, now he could hardly leave it alone. And just as the Beatles’ catalog was released for the first time on CD to huge sales, especially of the early material and Sgt. Pepper, which was celebrating its 20th anniversary, so too did Paul delve back into his past in search of freshness, fun, and, perhaps, the spark of inspiration that got him songwriting in the first place, back in the 1950s. The first time this author met Paul McCartney, he was delighted to find himself an audience of one to the former Beatle hammering out the 1952 Leiber and Stoller R&B classic

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“Kansas City,” one of a huge repertoire of good-time standards that had stayed at the core of his affections. In July of 1987 Paul was toying with the idea of hitting the road and had invited a bunch of seasoned British rock ’n’ roll musicians to audition for the live band at his Sussex farm. Over two days, they rehearsed and ran through a selection of 22 well-known hits, stretching from Elvis to hot-rodded versions of Gershwin and Ellington jazz classics, routinely recording them for review as they went. When Paul played back the tapes, he was thrilled to hear what amounted to a terrific offthe-cuff rock ’n’ roll covers album to complement his late partner John’s 1975 album Rock ’n’ Roll, right down to the inclusion of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame.” The only problem is what such an album would say by way of a subtext at this perilous moment in Paul’s career: that he could no longer write good new songs of his own? That he could no longer face the future so had fallen back on the past? Paul’s management, tasked with making his wishes come true, supplied an ingenious solution. For years in the U.S.S.R., illicitly traded home-recorded cassettes of the Beatles had soundtracked the lives of young Soviets as they struggled under an overbearing, overcontrolling state, and east of the Iron Curtain the Fab Four were accorded the status of standard-bearers of freedom. But now, under Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union was relaxing censorship and lifting bans on such Western subversion as rock music. Where better, then, to release Paul’s album—titled Choba B CCCP, as in Back in the USSR—than the Soviet Union, turning what would otherwise look like a backward step into a historically pioneering move in the new era of perestroika?

A Fresh Phase So it was that Paul’s seventh solo album was not officially for sale in the West until 1991, three years after its release on the Soviet record label Melodiya. Imaginative and newsworthy though this release was, it was only a holding operation. Paul put off his return to the stage while he recorded an album of original material with a new collaborator. Also on London’s Live Aid bill, the Liverpool-born New Wave songwriter Elvis Costello had tapped into the communal mood of the day and wowed the crowd by inviting them to help him sing “this old Northern English folk song,” which was in fact a cover of the Beatles’ Lennon-penned numberone hit “All You Need Is Love.” Highly intelligent, verbally adroit, and sarcastic, Costello had something of Lennon about him, and Paul’s management had high hopes that, put together in Left: Paul McCartney and George Martin in a recording studio for the “South Bank Show” in January of 1984.

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Nearly two billion people worldwide watched the star studded charity show.

-

Above: Bono, Paul McCartney, and Freddie Mercury were among the all-star ensemble to join the Live Aid show on July 13, 1985.

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a songwriting collaboration, the younger man would inspire the veteran to rediscover his best form. In the event, the pair failed to find a compatible songwriting method, but some good material did come out of it, and the songs Paul wrote alone at this time showed a marked improvement on almost everything he’d written since 1979. “Put It There” and “We Got Married” also had elements of personal reminiscence that gave them an emotional dimension beyond the mere display of superior seasoned songcraft. Though long accustomed to the art of the personal cover-up—in contrast to John Lennon’s habitual self-revelation in song—over the course of the troubles of his middle age, Paul would find that admitting inspiration from his own life into his songs would strengthen his art after decades of coasting on craft and whimsy. Paul would open up in song only slowly, but 1989’s Flowers in the Dirt felt like the start of a fresh phase, and it was rewarded with acclaim: a number one U.K. chart position and strong sales in the U.S. spread out over a year. The reason for the sustained American sales was that, for the first time since 1976, Paul toured the U.S. as part of an 11-month, 104-date world tour that stretched into 1990. And this time, with low ticket prices thanks to a sponsorship deal with a credit-card company, he was playing the stadiums. But there was an even bigger reason why tens of thousands of paying fans—and in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Stadium, a recordbreaking 184,000—cheered him to the echo every night: with more than half the set consisting of songs he’d written in the 1960s, Paul had finally, as a solo performer, re-embraced Beatlemania. But there was a twist.

A record breaking

-

crowd cheered on Paul in Rio de Janeiro . . .

Above: Album cover for Tripping the Live Fantastic.

Setting the Record Straight By now, following Linda’s lead, Paul was a committed vegetarian and member of the environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth; every member of the audience received on entry a free lavishly illustrated and produced souvenir program highlighting this aspect of his life. But inside, Paul also looked back on his career, correcting, as he saw it, some common misconceptions of his and John’s roles within the Beatles. Stung by years of comparison to his disadvantage, especially in the decade since John’s murder and virtual canonization, Paul wanted to set the record straight that, far from being the bland conservative of popular reputation, it was he, not John, who had first investigated the musical and artistic avant garde back in the 1960s. This was a point to which Paul would return again and 63

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again in the following years, backing it up with a number of releases dabbling in rave music, sampling, and mash-up techniques. As for the tour, backed by Linda (keyboard and percussion), former Average White Band member Hamish Stuart (bass and guitars), former Pretender Robbie McIntosh (guitar), Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), and Chris Whitten (drums and percussion)—each of whom had proved themselves on the “Flowers in the Dirt” sessions—some of its best performances were captured for posterity in both a live album, Tripping the Live Fantastic, and a concert movie, Get Back, which reunited Paul with Richard Lester, the American director of the Beatles’ movies Help! and A Hard Day’s Night. From hereon in, the world-tour souvenir live album would become a staple of Paul’s commercial output. By way of a postscript, Paul’s next release was also a live album, but one documenting a show at the other end of the scale to that of the Maracana. The MTV music channel had recently launched a new slot called Unplugged, where musicians usually more used to playing an electric set would play an acoustic one. By its second series, bigger acts were being tempted to perform this way, despite the risk of the naked format exposing technical weaknesses. Paul McCartney was never going to shirk such a challenge, and in January of 1991, after two weeks of diligent rehearsal with his band, featuring new drummer Blair Cunningham, he played a set before a small invited audience, mixing covers ranging from Guy Mitchell’s 1956 “Singing the Blues” to Bill Withers’ soul classic “Ain’t No Sunshine,” with solo songs mostly from his McCartney debut, and, of course, Beatles’ numbers, of which the best, “And I Love Her,” perhaps even bettered the 1964 original. The show was a huge success, and so pleased was Paul with the performance that he released most of it as a 16-track album entitled Unplugged (The Official Bootleg), meeting with further acclaim and strong sales. By mixing his musical roots, Beatles’ career, and solo work in his set list and performing it all so wholeheartedly, Paul rekindled the fullest popular affection for who he was and what he represented. With that affirmation, Paul entered the 1990s with renewed artistic ambition. Left: Band tour photo in Rotterdam, Holland on November 7, 1989. From left to right, Hamish Stuart, Paul “Wix” Wickens, Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney, Robbie McIntosh, and Chris Whitten. Right: Paul McCartney performing on his U.S. tour in 1990.

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Chapter 7 Real Everywhere Man A

“I love a choir, real people devoting themselves to music. The teamwork makes me optimistic about the human race.” —Paul McCartney

Left: Paul McCartney saying hello to Princess Diana after a performance in Lille, France in November of 1992.

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I

f Paul McCartney’s trumpet-playing father was at the back of his mind when he wrote “Let ’Em In,” he positively haunted the Liverpool Oratorio, which Paul wrote, in collaboration with composer and conductor Carl Davis, to mark the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 150th anniversary, for performance in the majestic setting of his home city’s Anglican Cathedral in June of 1991. Over two years in the writing, the narrative very loosely followed what might have been Paul’s own story had he never become a star and left Liverpool, its reflective, even memorial mood evoking the parents and best friend whose loss he mourned. As long in duration and on as large a scale as Handel’s “Messiah” or any of the other great classical oratorios with orchestra, chorus, and solo singers, Paul’s Liverpool Oratorio lacked variety of pace, recurrent themes, and clear structure, but had passages of great emotional power, thanks not least to such solo voices as Kiri Te Kanawa and Willard White. The premiere was acclaimed as a triumph, however, and the recording topped the classical charts; Paul would be drawn out of his comfort zone in rock music to such ambitious projects again. In the meantime, it was back to the comfort zone of a world tour planned to start in February of 1993, taking in Australasia, where he had not played as intended in 1989–1990. Preceding the start of the so-called New World Tour, Paul took his live band into Hog Hill Mill, a windmill he owned on his southern England property that had been converted into a recording studio, where they quickly cut a new album, Off the Ground. That some of its songs were Flowers in the Dirt leftovers reflected the second-best nature of most of the material. While the antivivisection, antipolitician, and pro-ecological sentiments he voiced in some songs got the album talked about, they upstaged two very beautiful but uncontroversial numbers, “I Owe It All to You” and “Golden Earth Girl,” clearly songs for Linda. Written with huge

Left: The program cover for the Liverpool Oratario.

Right: Paul and Linda McCartney performing on April 1, 1993.

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Above: Paul donned Shakespearean attire for his first starring role in a TV & film commercial on November 30, 1994. He was working to promote the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, a school for which he is a patron.

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crowds in mind, the swaying anthem “C’mon People” closed the album in grand if slightly predictable style, an echo of Wings’ “Let ’Em In.” Paul’s confidence was high, and, though now 50 years old, he imagined getting involved in the dance-remix culture packing clubs and warehouses in the U.K., Europe, and increasingly the U.S. Constantly demanding new sounds and textures to keep it fresh, the music’s dominant mood was spacy and disembodied, despite being rooted in a solid 4/4 beat. This was not a foreign language to a musician who’d been fascinated by the avant garde and mind-expansion since 1966 (even before John Lennon, as he liked to point out), so Paul had the idea of having some of Off the Ground’s tracks remixed by one of the leaders in the field, Youth, aka Martin Glover, who had played bass in the New Wave rock band Killing Joke before reinventing himself as a stoned-dance-remix guru. But Youth had other, bigger ideas; rather than remix some songs for the dance market, he wanted to be able to sample any snippet from Paul’s recorded work as raw material to build a brand-new set of tracks. So taken was Paul by the concept that he actively collaborated in the process, and, in November of 1993, the 77-minute album entitled, intriguingly all in the lower case, strawberries oceans ships forest was released, credited to the Fireman and with no mention of its makers’ real identities. Rumor eventually revealed all, with the Fireman being, of course, the one who rushed in from the pouring rain in the Beatles’ “Penny Lane,” another tribute to Paul’s father who had been a firewatcher in Liverpool during World War II.

The album was credited to the

"

"

Fireman,

which

was another

'

tribute to Paul s father . . .

’

Always Leave Em Wanting More Off the Ground sold respectably, while strawberries oceans ships forest did far more for Paul’s credibility as a musical risk-taker than it did for his bank balance. By the time Paul surreptitiously released his ambient house debut, he was already nearing the end of 1993’s 78-date New World Tour, which again wowed fans with its blend of faithfully rendered Beatles’ (including “Penny Lane”), Wings’, and solo songs. That the souvenir live album that followed, Paul Is Live, attracted more attention for its sleeve, referencing Abbey Road, “Martha My Dear,” and the 1969 “Paul is dead” rumor, than for the music within, with only moderate sales its reward, suggested that Paul had broken one of the golden rules of showbiz: always leave them wanting more. 71

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Paul decided to reassume the role in which the world loved him best: as a Beatle.

Above: Paul McCartney and Steve Miller (above) worked together in the late 1960s when Paul collaborated on his third album, and they wrote songs together again in the 1990s.

Once again discovering that while public affection may be boundless, public investment in his every last release was not, Paul decided it was a good moment to remove himself from his own career to reassume the role for which the world loved him best: as a Beatle. Back in the late 1980s, inter-Fab hostilities had renewed when George, Ringo, and Yoko discovered that, as part of the deal to return him from Columbia Records to Capitol in the U.S., Paul had negotiated an extra percentage-point royalty over the other three on the sale of Beatles’ records, and they sued him. Thus, in 1988, when the Beatles were inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Paul made his excuses and did not attend. Two years later this issue had been resolved, and the three survivors were talking again, though no substantial decision would be made concerning Beatles’ business without each insisting on expensive and time-consuming management, legal, and financial representation. But there was now a substantial new Beatles’ project to be discussed: a television series based on archive footage collected over the years by the former Beatles’ roadie and trusted Apple Corps boss Neil Aspinall. The often prickly George might have been expected to resist revisiting the past, but his 1987 hit “When We Was Fab” suggested he was now reconciled with his Beatles’ years. Besides, after a failed film investment, he needed the money. Ringo would always go with the flow, and Yoko was amenable, too. The idea grew, with each of the three being interviewed for the series, which produced a spin-off book and three albums of outtakes and hitherto unreleased material, all under the umbrella title of Anthology (George having vetoed Paul’s somewhat self-serving proposal of The Long and Winding Road). To give the project a sense of Beatles’ renewal rather than just memorial, the three survivors asked Yoko for any demo tapes John might have left unfinished, and she found two songs sketched on tape from the late 1970s, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” for them to complete. During the long process of editing before network broadcast and album release, all heralded by the nicknamed Threetles’ “Free as a Bird” single, Paul recorded an off-the-wall U.S. radio series, Oobu Joobu; painted colorful abstracts with the encouragement of the elderly Willem de Kooning; and wrote songs, including with the Dallas-born blueser-turned-hitmaker Steve Miller, on whose third album Paul had helped out during an idle moment in 1969. But suddenly, what should have been yet another victory lap in the career of Paul McCartney turned to ashes. Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer, the condition that had killed Paul’s mother when he was a teenager.

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Paul did not attend the ceremony since he was being sued by the other Beatles over royalties.

Above: George Harrison, Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Julian Lennon, and Sean Lennon attending the Beatles’ induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame on January 20, 1988.

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Chapter 8 A Love that Lasted Years

“I balance every sad moment with a happy moment.” —Paul McCartney

Right: Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney smile at each other on October 15, 1997 during the presentation of the French fashion house Chloe’s spring/summer 1998 ready-to-wear collection designed by their daughter, Stella McCartney.

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T

he years to come were some of the worst, and the most tumultuous, in Paul’s life. Yet he never stopped working, making music. And some of it, perhaps because of the emotional crises he had to overcome, was among the best of his career. With their youngest child, James, now 18, Paul had time on his hands while Linda underwent grueling cancer treatment. As well as the Steve Miller collaborations, Paul already had other songs in the bag, such as “Calico Skies,” its quick but inspired composition and recording prompted by 1991’s Hurricane Bob, which Paul had witnessed while staying on Long Island. Other songs were written against a background of anxiety about Linda, most heartrendingly “Little Willow,” Paul’s memorial to Ringo’s first wife and mother of his children, Maureen, who had died of leukemia in December of 1994. “Somedays” reveals a vulnerability that Paul had always kept hidden in his music, and throughout the album, which would be titled Flaming Pie after a goofy comment John Lennon had made decades before about the founding of the Beatles, had an emotional depth that belied the façade of thumbs-aloft chumminess behind which “Macca” had long hidden.

“

”

Somedays

reveals a vulnerability that Paul had always kept hidden . . .

Not Enough Time Flaming Pie only just missed the top spot in the U.S. and U.K. album charts, and registered by far Paul’s best sales and reviews since Tug of War 15 years before, suggesting a creative rebirth such as that enjoyed the same year by Paul’s contemporary, Bob Dylan, with Time Out of Mind. Coinciding with the knighthood he received from Queen Elizabeth to make him Sir Paul McCartney, the spring of 1997 should have been a time of joy. But Linda—now Lady McCartney—had been too ill to attend the ceremony at Buckingham Palace. By October, however, she felt well enough to attend the premiere performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall of her husband’s second major classical work, Standing Stone, released on

Left: Sir Paul McCartney at Buckingham Palace after receiving his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in the spring of1997.

Right: Album cover for Flaming Pie.

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CD that May. Of Irish ancestry, Paul is fascinated by Celtic history, archeology, and myth. The Celtic standing stone that inspired the 75-minute orchestral and choral tone poem was located on the McCartneys’ Scottish property; its sleeve photo was taken some 27 years earlier by Linda. The album’s genesis was a commission by Paul’s U.K. label EMI’s classical division to celebrate their centenary, and its starting point a long poem Paul had written, which can be found in the CD sleeve booklet. Standing Stone evokes such masters as Mahler, Sibelius, and Vaughan Williams, and it combines lyricism with not only epic scale but emotional weight. When, that summer of 1997, Youth was once more summoned to work with Paul on another ambient dance album as the Fireman, he picked up on the mood of unspoken sadness that surrounded Paul, and the album Rushes hauntingly evokes water, landscape, and memory. The track “Palo Alto” even samples the sound of Linda horse riding, her favorite pastime. Like on its predecessor, Paul’s voice is only heard as a flitting background shadow, and the music was as unlike the mainstream’s understanding of what he was all about as it was possible to get. Indeed, Paul recently told this author that, but for George Harrison’s intransigent attitude to what he derided as “the avant garde? ’Aven’t got a clue,” the second Anthology compilation of Beatles’ outtakes would have included their fabled 1967 psychedelic jam “Carnival of Light.” Only now, in middle age, had Paul dared go public with his experimental side. By the end of 1997, all of Linda’s cancer treatments had failed, and she and Paul knew that time was now short. Retreating to the clear air and sunshine of their ranch in Arizona, they enjoyed the companionship of family and her beloved animals until the end came in April of 1998. Paul and their children retreated into grief. But, after a while, just as good old rock ’n’ roll had offered the 14-year-old Paul an escape from misery with the death of his mother from breast cancer back in 1956, so it did, 43 years later, upon the death of his wife. Convening musicians he liked and trusted, including Pink Floyd’s guitarist Dave Gilmour, Paul went into Abbey Road studios in March of 1999 and quickly cut an album of 1950s rock classics made famous by the likes of Elvis, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, and Carl

Left: Linda McCartney arrives at Carnegie Hall for the North American premiere of Paul McCartney’s Standing Stone on November 19, 1997. It was at the end of that year that the McCartneys had to accept that all of Linda’s cancer treatments had failed and time was short.

Above: Album cover for Standing Stone. The photo on the cover had been taken by Linda years earlier.

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Above: Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour performing on TV’s “Later with Jools Holland” show in November of 1999.

That friends and relatives failed to take to Heather

'

didn t faze Paul at all . . .

Perkins, plus three self-penned pastiches, including what would become the resulting hit album’s title track, “Run Devil Run.” There was nothing tired, sad, or faked about this collection; it sizzled and rocked from start to finish. Released as a single, the most powerful performance was of singing cowboy Bobby Helms’s 1958 hit “No Other Baby,” with its heartfelt chorus of “I don’t want no other baby but you.”

A New Love Soon after the album’s completion, and at virtually his first public appearance since the death of his first wife 13 months before, Paul was to set eyes on his second; very soon the news broke that the recent widower Sir Paul McCartney had another baby after all. Heather Mills was a 31-year-old former topless model, socialite, and high-profile charity worker who just a few years earlier had lost her leg below the knee when hit by a motorcycle. Her looks, confident manner, and Northern roots appealed to Paul as soon as her saw her on an awards ceremony stage, and he wasted little time in courting her. The fact that friends and relatives failed to take to Heather didn’t faze Paul at all; many of them hadn’t liked Linda at rst, either. Of course, even in the flush of new romance, Paul had not forgotten Linda. Released just a month after Run Devil Run, his album Working Classical arranged familiar and new songs about Linda for the London Symphony Orchestra and Loma Mar Quartet. As album followed album and Heather followed Linda, it would appear that, as the next millennium dawned, Paul was rushing headlong into a new life.

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Above: Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills outside of Nobu restaurant on July 31, 2000.

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Chapter 9 Stumbling to

Joy

“I’ve got to do something. I could help with morale.” —Paul McCartney

Right: Sir Paul McCartney performing onstage at the Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The concert was to benefit the victims of the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11.

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A

clear pattern was emerging as to the type of musician Paul wanted to be in public. There was Paul the singer-songwriter, who would also play bass and other instruments in arrangements of his songs that stretched from solo to rock group, making music squarely aimed to sell records as well as to please himself; this was how it had been since the Beatles. Then there was Paul the avant-gardist, playing with structure and textures, samples and loops, often with a like-minded collaborator or two, such as the Fireman. Then there was Paul the classicist, the influence of George Martin’s arrangements of Paul’s Beatles’ songs “Yesterday,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “For No One,” and “Penny Lane” now finding full-blown expression in works of a scale even Beethoven seldom attempted. Finally, back to the very start of his life as a musician, there was Paul the cover artist, reconnecting to his roots in 1950s rock and even further back. All but the last of these Pauls had gelled in the Beatles’ song of which Paul remains the most proud, cowritten with John Lennon, Sgt. Pepper’s climactic “A Day in the Life.” But that was the magic time of 1967 when anything seemed possible; since then, Paul is more comfortable wearing one hat at a time. When Sgt. Pepper’s sleeve designer, the British pop artist Peter Blake, mounted an exhibition of his work in Liverpool, he asked Paul to create the soundscape. In collaboration with Youth and Welsh neo-psychedelic rock band Super Furry Animals, Paul the avant-gardist looped Beatles’ samples and studio chat and field recordings from Liverpool’s Mersey Tunnel into 2000’s Liverpool Sound Collage album.

The Power of Tragedy It was fun, but a fringe activity. The next album would be Paul the singer-songwriter’s first ever without Linda by his side, and the first with Heather. The songs on Driving Rain are remarkably personal, one is even entitled “Heather.” They are also, for the most part, tightly crafted and, in the spirit of Run Devil Run, played with seat-of-the-pants enthusiasm by a new band including drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. and guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray. Yet they are also resonant with emotion on the cusp of grief, besottedness, and bemusement at how he has come to this. “I Do,” “Your Loving Flame,” “Spinning on an Axis,” and “From a Lover to a Friend” are all fine additions to Paul’s catalog. Above: Paul McCartney presents artist Peter Blake, who designed the sleeve of the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, with a set of platinum recordings of the album at a 20th anniversary party at Abbey Road on June 1, 1987. Blake would later ask Paul to create the soundscape in 2000 for his Liverpool exhibition.

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Right: Paul McCartney and Heather Mills McCartney watching Keane perform on July 2, 2005.

On the verge of the album’s release, Paul and Heather, who had gotten engaged that summer, were awaiting a flight at JFK Airport on September 11, 2001 and saw from there the horror and tragedy that would unfold in Manhattan. As a gut response, he wrote a new song, an air-punching but unmemorable anthem entitled “Freedom,” which was hurriedly tacked onto the end of the album. Driving Rain was released three weeks after Paul headlined the benefit concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden above a who’s who of music legends and public gures, from Jagger and Richards thru Jay-Z to Rudy Giuliani. That the previous year’s Beatles’ singles compilation 1 had sold 29 million copies to become the biggest-selling album of the new millennium only made it more mystifying that in its slipstream Paul’s new album didn’t sell better, though the lack of a hit single to publicize it on air must not have helped. Paradoxically, when Paul released several of the album’s songs in live form on the album Back in the U.S. (retitled Back in the World outside America), documenting the 88-date world tours of 2002 and 2003 with a new band and Heather by his side as his fiancée (and, from July 2002, his wife), the public lapped it up. But with well over half the set consisting of beautifully recreated Beatles’ songs, Paul was consciously giving the world exactly what it wanted. Of those songs, the most poignant would be George’s “Something.” Paul’s younger friend—whom he’d introduced to John as a hot guitarist for their group and who since then had often bridled at the older, more knowing Paul—had succumbed to lung cancer in November 2001. It was a loss Paul felt deeply. In October 2003 Paul became a father again, to Beatrice, his fourth child. But relations between he and Heather became strained. With many of Paul’s friends and associates concerned by her behavior, rumors began

Above: Album cover for Back in the US.

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Above: Paul McCartney (center) with Rusty Anderson (left) and Brian Ray (right) performing at Rock in Rio IV on May 28, 2004. Right: Autographed album cover for Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

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appearing in the media about the marriage and the many discrepancies between her account of her past and what many witnesses alleged to be a less saintly truth. Even so, Paul’s stage career went from triumph to triumph, including two Super Bowl appearances, playing to 150,000 fans at the U.K.’s premier music festival, Glastonbury, and in 2005, in front of 200,000 fans in London’s Hyde Park, headlining the Live 8 day of events to publicize world poverty in a 20th anniversary reboot of 1985’s Live Aid. The summer of 2005 saw the release of Paul’s mash-up collaboration, a 25-minute set of dance remixes with DJ and producer Freelance Hellraiser (Roy Kerr), the warm-up act for Paul’s live performances that summer on a 37-date U.S. tour (and on a short European tour the previous year). Encouraged by how well this had gone down with fans, the two had set to work remixing “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Temporary Secretary,” and other solo songs for a limitededition album entitled Twin Freaks, with Paul’s painting forming the sleeve artwork. Provided you don’t feel Paul was vandalizing the sacred turf of his own songs to woo the dance crowd, it’s a fun, lighthearted complement to his more pensive, ambient work with the Fireman. As Paul entered his 64th year, he could, like his Sgt. Pepper song prophesized, dandle three grandchildren on his knee, but he was also wrestling with a second wife half his age who, far from consoling Paul for the loss of his first, provoked anger and dismay. During this crisis in his life, Paul had been in and out of the studio for two years making an album of new songs, playing most of the instruments himself and working with Radiohead’s producer, Nigel Godrich, who saw his job as providing quality control. Beatle or not, Paul would not be cut any slack. There were arguments and dark moments, but Paul knew the results were well worth what he admitted were moments of “humiliation.” If Band on the Run was Paul’s masterpiece as a craftsman of pop escapism, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is his masterpiece as a singer-songwriter who reaches into his own life for inspiration. Full of songs to and about a female “other,” the album invited speculation as to whether Paul was singing about Heather or Linda, or even his continuing sense of Linda as a living presence in his life. Paul was not, however, in the business of confessing, kissing, and telling. Love had always lain in the heart of his songs, but its demands and drawbacks had never pressed upon his life as much as now, at an age when he might have hoped it would offer nothing but comfort and ease. There was not a dud among the 14 songs on Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, of which the very best, “Riding to Vanity Fair,” was typical of how Godrich had forced Paul to go the extra mile in the way it twisted what one might imagine was a stock McCartney melody into new, emotionally ambiguous territory, suitable for a song of bitter regret over a one-sided relationship. There were no prizes for guessing who Paul was thinking about. Whether it was the intriguing back story, as ugly rumors about the McCartneys circulated in the media and on the Internet, or the sheer quality of the music, which was upliftingly terrific despite an absence of Paul’s customary jolliness, sales were excellent. Though he would never be as big as the Beatles again, Paul could still count on millions wanting to hear his new songs. 87

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Above: Paul McCartney arrives at the High Court on February 13, 2008 in London, England. It is the third day of a hearing to reach a financial settlement in his divorce from Heather Mills.

In May of 2006, the McCartneys separated, and divorce proceedings and tabloid follow-ups revealed details not only of Paul’s vast wealth but also of bad behavior on both sides, as well as a far seedier career before she came to prominence than Heather had ever admitted to. Both in court and in the wider world, Paul emerged with far more credibility and dignity, mindful that this was still the mother of his fourth child he was ghting with. Heather appeared to have no such qualms. Against this background, Paul’s third major classical work, Ecce Cor Meum (Latin for “Behold My Heart”), some nine years in the making, was released. Like Chaos and Creation in the Backyard the year before, it repaid the hard work of composition, in this case consisting of revisions to a work that had been premiered in Oxford, England in 2001 (it had been commissioned by an Oxford University college). A four-movement oratorio, it could be said to be a requiem for Paul’s undying love for Linda. In one form or another, against a backdrop of personal turmoil, a fascinating new McCartney album was coming out every year. In 2007, on a label launched by the Starbucks coffee-shop chain, which would get his music heard in the hitherto untapped market of China, Paul released an album of new songs entitled Memory Almost Full to even more impressive sales than Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. In fact, some of these songs predated those of Chaos, including “See Your Sunshine,” a love song to Heather too good to excise despite that love having been so publicly dashed on the rocks. However, the album’s closing song, “Nod Your Head,” is a furiously bitter and discordant address to a lover. Again, there were no prizes for guessing who Paul was thinking about. Where Chaos has a density and unity of feel, Memory Almost Full is both poppier and more rocking, more playful and lighter-hearted, even “The End of the End,” where Paul contemplates the day he will die if needs be. He was, after all, now 65; his father had died at 73. With 70 the next big birthday in view, Paul kept up the pace of creativity, linking back up with Youth for the third Fireman album. But rather than the two-chord ambient dance music of the previous two collaborations, Left: Autographed album cover for Memory Almost Full.

Right: Paul McCartney performs “Jet” in concert as his second number at Citi Field in New York on July 17, 2009. This was the first of three McCartney concerts at Citi Field.

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Electric Arguments had Paul singing songs. “We fancied a change in mood,” Paul told this author upon its 2008 release. “First we thought we might add another chord to take it somewhere else, and that opened the whole project—we could do anything. Youth suggested to me, ‘How about a bit of vocal?’ Well, I haven’t got any songs, no ideas. ‘Well, want to try a bit?’ It’s the Fireman, and anything goes, so I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ So I got on mike and goofed around, ad-libbing, then suddenly started to find words. I looked in poetry books—Burroughs, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg—to choose a couple of words and eventually a song came out of it. So that’s how the Fireman found his voice, through experimentation. It’s a very random process, but very liberating. And very quick. Each track got done in a day.” Though just as tuneful as the previous two McCartney albums (“Sun is Shining” and the Spectoresque “Dance ’til We’re High” are insanely catchy), the sense that this was a fringe project rather than the main event condemned Electric Arguments to sell far less well, and so remains a pleasure yet to be discovered by many fans. Yet Paul’s popularity remained undented. The Beatles had pioneered stadium rock at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1965, and 44 years later, on a 10-date North American tour, Paul played three nights before 180,000 fans at the opening of its replacement, Citi Field, yielding the live album and DVD Good Evening New York City. Two years later, he sold out Yankee Stadium

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Above: Autographed album cover for Ecce Cor Meum.

twice. These were the years Paul devoted to breaking his own attendance records. The tours were shorter—he was, after all, playing a two-hour rock ’n’ roll set that would have taken its toll on performers decades younger than the soon-to-be septuagenarian Paul—but the gigs were bigger than ever, including a quarter of a million each in Quebec and Mexico City and 350,000 in Kiev. With two-thirds of the set consisting of Beatles’ songs, this was the nearest one could get to seeing the greatest band of all time, and Paul would further evoke the 1960s with a Jimi Hendrix riff to close Wings’ “Let Me Roll It.” As Paul once told this author, if he could have chosen any other musician to be, it would have been Jimi. As Paul hit 70 in the summer of 2012, it seemed no huge public event was complete without him knocking out a few numbers—in London he closed both Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee Concert outside of Buckingham Palace and the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. If these were victory laps, Paul was not done yet. His love affair with America was consummated in 2011 with his third marriage, and second to an American, to the wealthy businesswoman Nancy Shevell. Indeed, the boy from the transatlantic port of Liverpool now felt very much at home in America, releasing the ballet score Ocean’s Kingdom in collaboration with Peter Martins for the New York City Ballet (Paul with his classical hat on still very much a lover of the surging romantic string section), followed three months later by his first covers album since 1999, Kisses on the Bottom, a collection of lighthearted romantic standards by such geniuses of Broadway song as Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser, Harold Arlen, and Johnny Mercer. Released just in time for Valentine’s Day of 2012, of the three McCartney originals he included in the set, “My Valentine” both lovingly pastiches the American popular ballad of the pre-rock era and serenades his new wife. Yet another hit album, Kisses on the Bottom was also his rst to make the Billboard jazz album charts, where it hit number one. The top is where Paul McCartney lives. Now in the unusual territory of being a working global rock star in his 70s, who would bet against him staying there for as long as he chooses? Right: Joy up to the maximum . . . Sir Paul McCartney raising his arms and singing at the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games on July 27, 2012.

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“

Nothing pleases me more than to go into a room and

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come out with a piece of music.

—Paul McCartney 91

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Index Page numbers in italics indicate photographs.

A “A Day in the Life” (LennonMcCartney) 84 Abbey Road (the Beatles) 12, 16, 32, 71 Abbey Road studios 16, 28, 36, 40, 43, 50, 79, 84 ABKCO 11 “All Together Now” (LennonMcCartney) 24 “All You Need Is Love” (Lennon-McCartney) 61 Anderson, Rusty 84, 86 “Another Day” (McCartney) 13, 16 Anthology (the Beatles) 72, 79 Apple Corps 9, 72 Aspinall, Neil 72

B Back in the U.S. (McCartney) 85, 85 Back to the Egg (Wings) 44, 50 Bacon, Dorothy 16 Baker, Ginger 28 Band on the Run (Wings) 28, 30, 32–33, 33, 34, 42, 50, 87 “Band on the Run” (Wings) 32 Beach Boys, the 13 Beatles, the: McCartney sues 14 McCartney’s role in 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 21 reunion rumors 36–37 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction, 1988 72, 73 split 12, 13, 14, 21, 33

sue McCartney 72 see also under individual album or song title “Beware My Love” (Wings) 34 “Blackbird” (LennonMcCartney) 37, 51 Blaine, Hal 51 Blake, Peter 84, 84 Bond, James 27, 28 Bowie, David 44, 60 Britton, Geoff 34

C “C Moon” (McCartney) 24 “C’mon People” (McCartney) 71 “Calico Skies” (McCartney) 77 Campbeltown, Scotland 17, 40 Capitol Records 12, 43, 72 “Carnival of Light” (the Beatles) 79 Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (McCartney) 86, 87, 88 Chic 44 Chloe 74 Choba B CCCP (McCartney) 61 Citi Field, New York 89, 89 Columbia Records 43, 44, 72 “Coming Up” (McCartney) 50 Concert for New York City 82–83, 85 Concert for the People of Kampuchea 49 Costello, Elvis 61–62 Cunningham, Blair 64

D Daily Mirror Pop Club Readers’ Poll 30–31

Davis, Carl 68 de Kooning, Willem 72 “Dear Friend” (Wings) 22 Diamond Jubilee Concert 90 Diana, Princess 66 Driving Rain (McCartney) 85 Dylan, Bob 13, 58, 77

“Free as a Bird” (the Beatles) 72 “Freedom” (McCartney) 85 Freelance Hellraiser 87 Friends of the Earth 63 “From a Lover to a Friend” (McCartney) 84 “Frozen Jap” (McCartney) 50

E

G

Eastman, John 9 Eastman, Lee 9, 11 “Ebony and Ivory” (McCartney—Wonder) 51, 53–54 Ecce Cor Meum (McCartney) 88, 90 “Eleanor Rigby” (McCartney) 16, 51, 84 Electric Arguments (Fireman) 89 Emerick, Geoff 28 EMI Records 79 “The End of the End” (McCartney) 88 English, Joe 34, 40 Epstein, Brian 8, 9 “Every Night” (McCartney) 14

Get Back (concert movie) 64 “Get Back” project 9, 13 “Get It” (McCartney) 51 Gilmour, Dave 59, 79, 80 “The Girl Is Mine” (McCartney—Jackson) 54 “Girlfriend” (McCartney) 42 “Girls’ School” (Wings) 40 “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” (Wings) 22 Give My Regards to Broad Street (movie) 56–57, 58–59, 58 Glastonbury Festival 87 Godrich, Nigel 87 “Golden Earth Girl” (McCartney) 68 Good Evening New York City (McCartney) 89 “Goodnight Tonight” (Wings) 44

F Fair Carol (yacht) 40 “Famous Groupies” (McCartney) 42 Fireman 71, 79, 84, 87, 88–89 Flaming Pie (McCartney) 77, 77 Flowers in the Dirt (McCartney) 63, 64, 68 “Footprints” (McCartney) 59 “For No One” (LennonMcCartney) 54, 59, 84

H A Hard Day’s Night (the Beatles) 58 Harrison, George 9, 11, 13–14, 71, 73, 79, 85 “Helen’s Wheels” (Wings) 32, 34 Hendrix, Jimi 90 “Here Today” (McCartney) 54 “Hey Jude” (LennonMcCartney) 16

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“Hi, Hi, Hi” (McCartney) 24 High Park Farm, Mull of Kintyre 14, 40 Hoffman, Dustin 30, 32 Hog Hill Mill 68 Holley, Steve 44 Holly, Buddy 43 “How Do You Sleep?” (Lennon) 16 Hurricane Bob 77 Hyde Park 87

I “I Do” (McCartney) 84 “I Owe It All to You” (McCartney) 68 Imagine (Lennon) 16, 22 “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (Lennon-McCartney) 37

J Jackson, Michael 42, 43, 54 Japan 42, 48, 49, 51 “Jet” (Wings) 32, 88 John, Elton 24, 51 Johnson, Louis 58 Juber, Laurence 44 “Junior’s Farm” (Wings) 34 “Junk” (McCartney) 14

K Kisses on the Bottom (McCartney) 90 Klein, Allen 9, 11, 12, 14, 33 Kuti, Fela 28, 28, 32

L Laboriel, Jr., Abe 84 “Lady Madonna” (LennonMcCartney) 37 Laine, Denny 21, 21, 28, 31, 37, 40, 51, 53, 59 “Later with Jools Holland” (TV show) 80 Lennon, John 77 avant garde and 63, 71 Beatles and 8, 9, 12, 16, 61, 77, 84

inspired by McCartney 50 Klein and 9, 11 leaves Beatles 12 “Lost Weekend” 33 LSD and 8 lyric writing 16, 36, 63 McCartney visits in Los Angeles and re-establishes relationship with 33 murder of 51, 53, 54 on McCartney 9, 13–14 self-revelation in songwriting 36, 63 Lennon, Julian 73 Lennon, Sean 73 Lester, Richard 64 “Let ‘Em In” (Wings) 36, 37, 68, 71 Let It Be (the Beatles) 13 “Let It Be” (LennonMcCartney) 60 “Let Me Roll It” (Wings) 90 Life 16 “Listen to What the Man Said” (Wings) 34 “Little Willow” (McCartney) 77 Live Aid 60, 61, 62, 87 Live and Let Die (movie) 27, 28, 29 “Live and Let Die” (McCartney) 27, 28 Live 8 87 Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts 70 Liverpool Oratorio (McCartney) 68, 68 Liverpool Sound Collage (McCartney) 84 London Town (Wings) 42–43, 43, 54 “The Long and Winding Road” (LennonMcCartney) 13, 37 “Love is Strange” (Wings) 22 Lukather, Steve 58

M Magical Mystery Tour (the Beatles) 8, 8, 9 “Magneto and Titanium Man” (Wings) 34 Maracana Stadium concert, 1990 63, 64 Marriott, Steve 40, 40

“Martha My Dear” (LennonMcCartney) 71 Martin, George 26, 27, 28, 50, 51, 53, 54, 59, 60, 84 Martins, Peter 90 “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (McCartney) 23 Mattacks, Dave 51 “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (Lennon-McCartney) 50 “Maybe I’m Amazed” (McCartney) 14, 87 McCartney (McCartney) 12, 13–14, 14 McCartney II (McCartney) 49, 50–51 McCartney, Beatrice (daughter) 85, 88 McCartney, Heather (daughter) 11, 38 McCartney, James (son) 41, 42, 77 McCartney, Jim (father) 36, 37, 68, 71 McCartney, Linda (wife) 9, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 14, 16, 19, 20, 28, 31, 32, 38, 45, 55, 58, 59, 64, 69, 74 breast cancer and death 72, 77, 78, 79, 80, 84, 87, 88 children and 38, 39, 40 McCartney marries 11, 12 vegetarianism 63 Wings and 20, 21, 22, 23, 23, 28, 31, 32, 35, 37, 69 McCartney, Mary (daughter) 12, 12, 14, 38 McCartney, Paul: avant garde and 63–64, 71, 79, 84 Beatles and see the Beatles Celtic history, interest in 79 childhood 51, 72, 79 choirs, on 67 commercials 70 depression 12, 13, 14 drugs busts 23–24, 33, 48, 49–50, 51, 59 eager to please 16, 22, 53 family and see under individual family member name knighthood 76, 77 Lennon and see Lennon, John love life see under individual lover name

lyric writing 16, 42, 89 perfectionist 9, 13 record sales 16, 24, 34, 37, 40–41, 42–43, 44, 50, 54, 59, 60, 61, 71, 72, 77, 87, 89, 90 songwriting see under individual album and song title touring 16, 21, 23, 23, 24, 34, 35, 36–37, 36, 40, 42, 49–50, 60, 63–64, 64, 68, 71, 87, 88, 89–90, 89 vegetarianism 63 wealth 28 Wings and see Wings McCartney, Stella (daughter) 21, 22, 38, 74 McCulloch, Jimmy 34, 37, 40 McCullough, Henry 23, 28, 31 McIntosh, Robbie 64, 64 Melodiya 61 Memory Almost Full (McCartney) 88, 88 Mercury, Freddie 62 Miller, Steve 72, 72, 77 Mills, Heather (wife) 80, 81, 84, 85, 87, 88 Mindbenders 53 Mitchell, Guy 64 Moody Blues, the 20, 21 Moon, Keith 43, 45 “Morse Moose and the Grey Goose” (McCartney) 42 MTV 43, 64 “Mull of Kintyre” (Wings) 40–41 “My Love” (Wings) 24

N “Name and Address” (Wings) 42 New Wave 43, 44, 50, 61, 71 New World Tour 68, 71 New York City Ballet 90 Nigeria 28–29 9/11 82, 85 “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” (Wings) 32 “No More Lonely Nights” (McCartney) 59 “Nod Your Head” (McCartney) 88

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O Ocean’s Kingdom (McCartney) 90 Off the Ground (McCartney) 68, 71 Off the Wall (Jackson) 42 “Oh Woman, Oh Why” (McCartney) 13 Olympics, 2012 90, 91 1 (the Beatles) 85 “One of These Days” (McCartney) 50 Ono, Yoko 8, 9, 33, 71, 73 Oobu Joobu (McCartney) 72

P Padgham, Hugh 59 “Palo Alto” (McCartney) 79 “Paperback Writer” (LennonMcCartney) 50 “Paul is dead” 16, 71 Paul Is Live (McCartney) 71 Paul McCartney Unplugged (McCartney) 59, 64 “Penny Lane” (LennonMcCartney) 71, 84 Perkins, Carl 51, 51, 80 “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)” (McCartney) 30, 32 “Pipes of Peace” (McCartney) 55 Porcaro, Jeff 58 Presley, Elvis 42, 61, 79 Press to Play (McCartney) 59, 60 “Put it There” (McCartney) 63 Putman, Jr., Curly 34

R Ram (McCartney) 13, 13, 14, 16, 21, 24 Ray, Brian 84, 86 “Real Love” (the Beatles) 72 “Red” and “Blue” compilation albums (the Beatles) 24 Red Rose Speedway (Wings) 24, 24, 28 “Riding to Vanity Fair” (McCartney) 87 Rock in Rio IV, 2004 86 Rock ‘n’ Roll (Lennon) 61

“Rockestra Theme” (McCartney) 43 Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 68 Rude Studios 32 Run Devil Run 79–80, 84 Rupert the Bear 50, 50, 51 Rushes (Fireman) 79

S Salewicz, Chris 49 “Say Say Say” (McCartneyJackson) 54 Scott, Tom 34 “See Your Sunshine” (McCartney) 88 Seiwell, Denny 20, 21, 28 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (the Beatles) 8, 32–33, 60, 84, 87 “She’s Leaving Home” (Lennon-McCartney) 16 Shevell, Nancy (wife) 90 “Silly Love Songs” (Wings) 36, 59 “Single Pigeon” (Wings) 24 Small Faces 40, 40 Smart, Hamish 64, 64 “So Bad” (McCartney) 55 “So Glad to See You Here” (McCartney) 43 “Soily” (Wings) 37 “Somedays” (McCartney) 77 “Something” (Harrison) 85 “South Bank Show” (TV show) 60 Spector, Phil 13 “Spinning on an Axis” (McCartney) 84 Standing Stone (McCartney) 77, 78, 79, 79 Starbucks 88 Starr, Maureen 77 Starr, Ringo 9, 9, 11, 13, 33, 37, 51, 55, 56–57, 71, 72, 73, 77 Give My Regards to Broad Street, role in 56–57, 58 Ringo 33 Sentimental Journey 13 Stop and Smell the Roses 58 Stewart, Eric 53, 53, 55, 59

strawberries oceans ships forest (Fireman) 71 Super Bowl 87 Super Furry Animals 84

T “Take it Away” (McCartney) 53 Te Kanawa, Kiri 68 “Temporary Secretary” (McCartney) 50, 87 10cc 53 Thriller (Jackson) 54 Thrillington (Thrillington) 13, 13, 16 “To You” (Wings) 44 “Too Many People” (McCartney) 16 Toy for a Sick Child Fund 21 Tripping the Live Fantastic (McCartney) 63, 64 Tug of War (McCartney) 53, 54, 54, 77 Twin Freaks (McCartney) 87

V

see also under individual album or song title Wings at the Speed of Sound (Wings) 34, 36 Wings Over America (Wings) 36, 37 Wings Over the World tour (Wings) 36–37 “With a Little Luck” (McCartney) 42 Withers, Bill 64 Wonder, Stevie 50, 51, 54 “Wonderful Christmastime” (McCartney) 44 Working Classical (McCartney) 80 Yankee Stadium 90 “Yesterday” (LennonMcCartney) 14, 37, 59, 84 “You Gave Me the Answer” (Wings) 34 “Your Loving Flame” (McCartney) 84 “Your Mother Should Know” (Lennon-McCartney) 16 Youth 71, 79, 84

Venus and Mars (Wings) 34 “Venus and Mars” (Wings) 37

W “Waterfalls” (McCartney) 50–51 “We Got Married” (McCartney) 63 “When We Was Fab” (Harrison) 72 White Album (the Beatles) 9 White, Willard 68 Whitten, Chris 64, 64 Who, the 43, 45, 58 Wickens, Paul “Wix” 64, 64 Wild Life (Wings) 22, 22, 24 Wilson, Brian 13 Wings 14, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 22, 23–24, 25 birth of 21–22 end of 49, 51, 53 touring 21, 23, 23, 24, 35, 36–37, 36, 42, 49–50

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Picture Credits Special Thanks to Bruce Spizer (www.beatle.net), author of The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, for use of the following images: P13, Ram album P13, Thrillington album P15, Advertisement for McCartney album P16, Life magazine cover P22, Wild Life album P33, Band on the Run album P43, London Town album P54, Tug of War album P59, Press to Play album P63, Tripping the Live Fantastic album P77, Flaming Pie album P79, Standing Stone album P85, Back in the U.S. album P86, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard album Special thanks also to Happy Nat of TheBeatlesRarity. com for use of the following images: P12, McCartney album (back) P49, McCartney II album

Alamy

P9, promotional photo of Magical Mystery Tour © INTERFOTO / Alamy P17, Paul and Linda on a hillside © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P23, Paul and Linda in front of tour bus © TrinityMirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P26, Paul playing piano with George Martin © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P30, Dustin Hoffman © Lewton Cole / Alamy P32, Paul and Linda riding bikes © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy P36, Wings over America live album © CBW / Alamy P48, Paul getting arrested © Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy P50, Rupert the Bear books © Jack Sullivan / Alamy P58, Costumes for Give My Regards to Broad Street © AF archive / Alamy P66, Paul with Princess Diana © Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy

Corbis

P11, Letter to Eastman and Eastman © Momentsintime.com/Splash News/Corbis P55, So Bad video © Bettmann/CORBIS

Getty

P8, Paul on the Magical Mystery Tour © David Redfern / Redferns P12, Linda resting her head on Paul’s shoulder © Hulton Archive / Stringer / Getty Images P19, Paul and Linda at a party © Anwar Hussein / Getty Images P20, Wings members (four) © Evening Standard / Stringer / Getty Images P22, Bloody Sunday © Popperfoto / Getty Images P25, Paul rehearsing before his tour © Jack Kay / Stringer / Getty Images P28, Ginger Baker and Fela Kuti © Echoes / Redferns P38, McCartney family with animals © David Montgomery / Getty Images P40, Jimmy McCulloch and Steve Marriot © Kevin Cummins / Getty Images P41, Paul, Linda, and baby James © Keystone France / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images P43, Paul with Michael Jackson © AFP / Stringer / Getty Images P51, Carl Perkins © David Redfern / Redferns P57, Paul and Ringo laughing in period costume © 2011 Richard Blanshard P64, Paul and band tour photo © Rob Verhorst / Redferns P65, Paul playing guitar on US tour © Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images P69, Paul and Linda performing in 1993 © P72, Steve Miller © Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer / Getty Images P73, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction of the Beatles © Ebert Roberts / Redferns P75, Paul and Linda smiling at each other © Jack Guez / Stringer / AFP / Getty Images P78, Linda ©New York Daily News Archive / NY Daily News via Getty Images P83, Paul performing in NYC for 9/11 © Frank Micelotta / Stringer / Getty Images

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P86, Paul performing with Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray © Alfredo Rocha / WireImage P88, Paul arrives at High Court for divorce proceedings © Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images P91, Paul at the piano © Christophe Simon / AFP / Getty Images

The Image Works

P11, Paul and Linda’s wedding © SSPL / Manchester Daily Express / The Image Works P42, Paul with guitar pointing at crowd © TopFoto / The Image Works P62, Live Aid show with Paul, Bono, Freddie Mercury © Press Association / The Image Works P70, Paul in Shakespearian attire © Press Association / The Image Works P84, Paul with artist Peter Blake © Press Association / The Image Works P85, Paul and Heather Mills © Press Association / The Image Works P89, Paul performing at Citifield in NY © The Star Ledger / Saed Hindash / The Image Works

Mirrorpix

P31, Award winners of Mirror poll © Mirrorpix

Rex

P4, Paul singing © Aylott / Daily Mail / Rex USA P6, Paul getting interviewed © Daily Mail / Rex USA P10, Paul with a full beard © Daily Mail / Rex USA P14, Paul and Linda singing at the piano © Bob Aylott / Daily Mail / Rex USA

P21, Paul and family at charity event © Evening News / Rex USA P29, Paul and Linda at the James Bond premiere © Harry Myers / Rex USA P37, Paul with his father © David Dagley / Rex USA P45, Paul, Linda, and Keith Moon © James Fortune / Rex / Rex USA P47, Paul smoking and talking © Harry Goodwin / Rex USA P52, Paul after Lennon’s death © Paul Fievez / Associated Newspapers / Rex / Rex USA P53, Eric Stewart © Steve Joester / Rex USA P60, Paul and George Martin © ITV / Rex USA P76, Paul getting knighted © Associated Newspapers / Rex / Rex USA P80, Paul and David Gilmour © Andre Csillag / Rex USA P81, Paul and Heather Mills © NIKOS / Rex USA

Tracks (Memorabilia)

P14, McCartney album (front) P21, Wings tour program P24, Red Rose Speedway album P35, Paul with Linda on 1976 UK tour P59, Paul McCartney Unplugged album P68, program cover for Liverpool Oratorio P88, Memory Almost Full album P90, Ecce Cor Meum album All reasonable attempts have been made to contact the copyright holders of all images.

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A division of Book Sales, Inc. 276 Fifth Avenue, Suite 206 New York, New York 10001 RACE POINT PUBLISHING and the distinctive Race Point Publishing logo are trademarks of Book Sales, Inc. © Mat Snow 2013 All photographs from the publisher’s collection, unless otherwise noted on page 95. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by Apple Corps Ltd. or Paul McCartney or his representatives. This is not an official publication. We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. ISBN (4-volume set): 978-1-5526-7936-4 Author: Mat Snow Project editor: Jeannine Dillon Copyeditor: Steve Burdett Interior designer: Rosamund Saunders Cover designer: Brad Norr/bradnorrdesign.com Front and back cover illustration: Brad Norr Printed in China 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.racepointpub.com

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T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO RingO StaRR

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Mat Snow

T H E B E AT L E S

SOLO RingO StaRR

The Illustrated Chronicles of John, Paul, George, and Ringo after the Beatles

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Contents Chapter 1

From Octopus to Whale Chapter 2

7

The Good, the Bad, and the Country Chapter 3

Frank, Larry, and Easy Chapter 4

Starr and Moon

14 24 32

Chapter 5

Hello Superstar, Goodbye Marriage, and Goodnight Vienna Chapter 6

A Large Fly

42 50

Chapter 7

From Stone Age to Steam Age Chapter 8

Back in the Swing of Things Chapter 9

The Wilbury Effect

56 68 80

Index Credits

92 95

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Chapter1 From Octopus to Whale

“It was over, and I didn’t feel qualified to do anything else.” —Ringo Starr

Right: A solemn-looking Ringo Starr during the filming of the Magical Mystery Tour on September 14, 1967.

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Above: A very early shot of the Beatles in 1963 at Austin Reed, a men’s clothing store on Regent Street in London, England. Ringo confessed years later that he felt left out, believing the other three men were closer.

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I

n more ways than one, drummers have time on their hands. Rare is the drummer who does anything else—either writes or sings. In the Beatles, Ringo Starr did a little bit of both . . . but not much. Most of his time was spent waiting for the others to come up with the songs and then, once in the studio, waiting for the other three to do their bits so he could do his bit. It required patience, and Ringo was patient. But in the increasingly toxic atmosphere of the summer of 1968, during the recording of what came to be called the White Album—with Yoko Oko a bizarre and irritating new presence on the scene, and Paul increasingly overbearing—Ringo’s patience snapped while the group was rehearsing “Back in the USSR” (at around 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 22, to be precise). Though already evening, the session had only just started. Ringo had been hanging around the studio all day, reading the newspaper, and waiting for the others to turn up. “It was like madness in my head,” the legendary drummer, born Richard Starkey, told this author in 2008. “I said, ‘I’m leaving the band,’ because I felt that it wasn’t working. I knocked on John’s door, who was living in my apartment, and said, ‘You three are so close and I feel out of it.’ And he said, ‘I thought it was you three!’ And I went to Paul, I said the same thing, and he said, ‘I thought it was you three!’ So I said, ‘Fuck it, I’m off.’ I went to Sardinia. “And then I came back”—to find his drum kit decorated with flowers— “and the atmosphere was great. I didn’t do it to clear the air—I just couldn’t stand it any more—but I think it did.”

“

You three are so close, and

l feel left out of it . . .

”

—Ringo Starr

Jet-Setting Lifestyle In Sardinia, Ringo had stayed on a yacht belonging to his friend, the British comic actor Peter Sellers, then one of the most bankable movie stars in the world. Apart from being inspired while onboard to write “Octopus’s Garden,” Ringo was developing a taste for a lifestyle and set of friendships that lay a world away from his working-class Liverpool roots. It was also a world apart from his own working life as one of the new monarchs of what was being exhalted as not only a cultural but a social revolution. Ringo was joining the international movie jet set. The previous year, Ringo had killed some time playing a cameo role in a movie starring three of the leading lights of that set: Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, and James Coburn. Adapted from Terry Southern’s novel 9

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Above: Ringo Starr cuddling with Peter Sellers in the 1969 movie, The Magic Christian.

Right: Movie poster of the 1968 film Candy starring Ringo Starr.

Opposite: Ringo Starr and Ewa Aulin star in director Christian Marquand’s 1968 movie, Candy.

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Ringo joined pal Peter Sellers in an adaptation of a Terry Southern novel . . .

Above: A movie poster for The Magic Christian starring Ringo Starr and Peter Sellers, in 1969.

Candy was a movie of its period, newly unshackled from the conventions of old Hollywood to hurl at the screen a freewheeling farrago of unremitting zaniness, thumping anti-establishment satire, crazy set pieces, groovy music, and over-the-top performances. Ringo’s performance, as a Mexican gardener seduced into losing his virginity to the beauteous Candy of the title, reinforced his public image as the hangdog jester getting by on charm in a world he didn’t quite understand. For the movie’s producers, Ringo was the Beatle whose name everyone knew, the Beatle who, as their own movies showed, could act a bit. Basic ability and box-office appeal to the younger audience gave Ringo an option outside of music. Ringo’s two weeks’ AWOL time from the Beatles was an aberration, and he returned when the others begged him to in a telegram. While the Beatles got back on track for the rest of 1968, in the new year the atmosphere plunged again. This time it was George who quit in exasperation, while recording the miserable “Get Back” sessions in a wintry movie studio outside London. Like Ringo, George returned to the fold, but the project was suspended. At this point, in the spring of 1969, Ringo took off for another movie break, as sidekick to his pal Peter Sellers in another movie adaptation of a Terry Southern novel, The Magic Christian. It was a far better movie than Candy, though still no masterpiece, and with a star-studded cast of cameos, including Raquel Welch, Yul Brynner (in drag), Roman Polanski, and future Monty Python star John Cleese. Ringo featured as the homeless drifter adopted by Sellers’ plutocrat, who proceeds to educate him (and the audience) throughout a series of set pieces that everyone has their price in life. The fact that the Beatles were trying in vain to sort out their own runaway finances at the time, inspiring Paul McCartney’s magnificently catchy “Come and Get It,” which, recorded by the Applesigning band Badfinger, popped up throughout the movie’s soundtrack. Though fellow Beatles’ pal Harry Nilsson later enjoyed a huge hit with a cover of their song, “Without You,” Badfinger remained in their patrons’ shadows, and tragedy was to blight them. By contrast, of all the acts to be signed to Apple, it was Ringo’s protegé, English avant-garde classical composer John Tavener, who, along with American singer-songwriter James Taylor, was to mature over the long term to greatest eminence, even though Tavener’s major Apple project, The Whale, was to lose money. Ringo was as capable of surprise as his more explicitly creative bandmates. His first two solo albums would be proof of that.

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He’s hooked . . . Ringo Starr can’t seem to escape the clutches of a beautiful slave girl in this scene from The Magic Christian. He costarred with Peter Sellers, who played Sir Guy Grand, the richest man in the world. Grand adopts Youngman (played by Ringo), a homeless boy. The movie, based on Terry Southern’s novel, premiered at the Odeon Theatre in London, on December 11, 1969.

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Chapter 2 The Good, the Bad, and the Country

“Gene Autry was my first musical influence. Go and have a look in my bedroom: it’s covered with Gene Autry posters. ” —Ringo Starr

Left: Ringo Starr on September 14, 1971, at a preview of “Steel” at Liberty, which he designed and developed with Robin Cruikshank in conjunction with British Steel.

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Ringo went back to the studio with George Martin to record his first solo album . . .

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W

hen Ringo sprang a surprise, such as quitting the band or backing an avantgarde composer, it was borne of the surprise that he was acting out of character. Mostly, Ringo went with the flow, such as the time he joined George in support of John’s ill-judged choice of the group’s business manager, Allen Klein, against Paul’s nomination of his new in-laws, the Eastmans. Yet Paul’s marriage to Linda was far less divisive and disruptive than John’s to Yoko. Just as he founded the group, John was the first to quit for real that September of 1969, a resignation kept to just the other three, their intimates, and Klein, who was negotiating an unprecedentedly lucrative new record contract with Capitol in the U.S. Ringo remained on good terms with John, though, playing on many of his post-Beatles’ Plastic Ono Band records. After the final flurry of Beatles’ recording activity at Abbey Road that summer of 1969, and John’s announcement that spelled the end of the band, Ringo went straight back into the Abbey Road studios with Beatles’ producer George Martin to record an album that was as daring in its way as John’s avant-garde efforts with Yoko. It had a working title of “Ringo Starrdust,” but renamed Sentimental Journey for release, after its opening track. The album was full of Ringo’s covers of the Tin Pan Alley songs he’d grown up with before rock ’n’ roll exploded into his teenage years: evergreen songs of the kind sung by his mother and friends at the pub piano. Indeed, his old local pub, the Empress in Liverpool’s Dingle area, was the album’s cover subject.

The Heavy Lifting Foreshadowing Paul’s Tin Pan Alley covers album Kisses on the Bottom by 42 years, it was all a far cry from the likes of the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” or Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” which were flying rock’s rebel flag into the new decade. But what Sentimental Journey did do— apart from providing as easy a listen as you will ever get from a singer with bags of sincerity but only the tiniest vocal range and a timbre rightly rationed to one song per two sides of any given Left: Ringo Starr appearing with George Martin on the Yorkshire TV production “With a Little Help from My Friends” presented by George Martin on December 14, 1969. Ringo also teamed up with Martin that year for his first solo album entitled Sentimental Journey. Right: Album cover for Sentimental Journey.

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Beatles’ LP disk—was confirm Ringo’s artistic modus operandi: he let others do the creative heavy lifting. For song selection, he asked family and old friends back in Liverpool, who nominated such treasures as Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust,” and Johnny Mercer’s “Dream.” For arrangements, Ringo called on not only George Martin but also Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein, Bee Gee Maurice Gibb, and budding super-producer Richard Perry, among others. Of the players, Beatles’ experts think they have spotted John, George, and even the half-estranged Paul, as well as old Hamburg buddy and fellow member of the Plastic Ono Band, bassist Klaus Voormann. But Ringo had come up with the concept, and he sang throughout as charmingly as he had on John’s string-laden White Album closer, “Good Night,” when he made it all sound warm and relaxed in the midst of open warfare between Paul and the other Beatles.

The lntermediary Isolated, hurt, and angry, Paul had made an album the opposite of Ringo’s— entirely self-written and self-played, as if to show he didn’t need anyone else to make a record—and slated it for release in the spring of 1970. The only problem was that this was the time already agreed to see the release of not only Ringo’s debut but the final Beatles’ album, Let It Be, featuring the orchestral overdubs by producer Phil Spector (called in to salvage the “Get Back” sessions that formed this release) on “The Long and Winding Road” that Paul hated but could do nothing to stop, so further estranging him from the other three.

Right: In the early days of his solo career, Ringo teamed up with budding superproducer, Richard Perry (shown here in Los Angeles in 1982), for his album entitled Ringo. During his illustrious career, Perry would produce albums for Harry Nilsson, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Rod Stewart, and Diana Ross.

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Above: Ringo Starr with his wife and son, Maureen and Zak Starkey, at home in England on August 17, 1967.

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John, George, and Ringo felt that, if Paul released his own album as planned, it would clash with and damage the sales of both Let It Be and Sentimental Journey. Rather than send an Apple employee to tell him that they would be delaying its release, Ringo agreed that he would be the personal bearer of this unpalatable news to Paul. As Ringo would later testify in the court case to end the partnership, “When I told Paul that the rest of us wanted to delay his solo album, he went completely out of control. He was shouting at me, prodding his fingers towards my face, saying, ‘I’ll finish you now,’ and, ‘You’ll pay.’” Always eager to avoid confrontation, but having now been thrown out of Paul’s house, Ringo was shaken. He no longer felt able to act as an intermediary as Paul publicly announced his departure from the band and launched legal action. Against the background of an increasingly acrimonious display of dirty laundry in the law courts and press, the three main songwriters pressed ahead with solo work, with Ringo drumming for John and George, but not Paul.

“’

l ll finish you now . . .

”

—Paul McCartney

Right: Ringo and Paul in 1967 at Abbey Road during the “Our World” live TV broadcast. Just a few years later, the two would get into a bitter fight over the release dates of their individual solo albums, an argument that would leave Ringo shaken.

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While playing on George’s “All Things Must Pass” sessions that spring of 1970, Ringo fell into conversation with Nashville veteran pedal-steel guitarist Pete Drake. Like many Liverpudlians of his generation, Ringo was a huge fan of what was then called country and western music (he sang the Buck Owens’ song “Act Naturally” on the Beatles’ Help! album), and he saw his chance to take this love much further. Drake believed he could get his Nashville songwriting buddies to write a whole bunch of tunes for Ringo to take his pick from, so the erstwhile Beatle flew into Tennessee’s country music capital on June 22 raring to go. With most of the songs written by Sorrells Pickard, Chuck Howard, and Larry Kingston, Ringo immersed himself in the world of dimestore heartbreak and tear-stained humor, his manful, unfussy lead vocal sweetened by Elvis’s regular backing singers, the Jordanaires. A wellwritten, appealingly produced album, its weakness lay in two factors: the far higher standard of singer country fans expected to hear on songs of the quality of “Without Her” and “Wine, Women and Loud Happy Songs,” and, conversely, the limited appeal of mainstream Nashville country, compared with hip LA country-rock, to Beatles’ fans.

Above: Album cover for Beaucoups of Blues.

Right: A photo of Elvis’ regular backing singers, the Jordanaires circa 1950. Ringo hired the singers in later years to sweeten his lead vocals on Beaucoups of Blues.

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Whereas Sentimental Journey had sold well in the U.S., and even better in the U.K., this new album, Beaucoups of Blues, flopped more or less everywhere upon its release that September.

Above: Ringo Starr kidnaps Agneta Eckemyr against her will in a scene from the 1972 movie Blindman.

A Cowboy at Heart As if overcorrecting his conservative take on cowboy country—and Ringo had, after all, taken his stage name from a cowboy, John Wayne’s Ringo Kid in John Ford’s 1939 Western classic Stagecoach—the ex-Beatle’s next major project returned him to celluloid, playing against type as the psychotic baddie Candy in the spaghetti western Blindman. Shot in Spain’s Almeria at its bleakest and dustiest in the summer of 1971, and with Allen Klein involved in its financing, Blindman does not improve on the Dollartrilogy originals of the genre made a few years earlier by Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood and received only limited release. By the time Blindman came and went, a new Ringo song—recorded during the “Sentimental Journey” sessions and then set aside for over a year before being released—had put Ringo right back at the top and given him a career anthem. 23

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Chapter 3 Frank, Larry,

and Easy

“They kept putting me on horses. I don’t particularly like horses.” —Ringo Starr

Left: Ringo Starr at his office in Apple Corps in 1972.

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Above: From left to right: Stephen Stills, Dave Crosby, and Graham Nash of the rock group, Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1974. Stephen Stills helped Ringo on his album It Don’t Come Easy, back in 1970.

O

n the night of January 18, 1970, during some studio “dead time” on the “Sentimental Journey” sessions, Ringo made the first tentative recordings of a new song he’d written that would have been out of place on his covers album and would have to wait for a more propitious moment for release. Ringo had help from George, bassist Klaus Voormann, and Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills & Nash—the vocal harmony supergroup whose debut album had been a huge hit in 1969—who was staying in Ringo’s mansion. “It Don’t Come Easy” became a record in thrall to the hippy-blues Americana typified by the likes of Delaney & Bonnie—back then a huge influence on George— and top-hatted singer/songwriter/keyboardist Leon Russell, at the time collaborating with British singer Joe Cocker and providing inspiration for an up-and-coming star by the name of Elton John. In his new composition,

“

’

l just got lucky when l decided to write it. lt just came out. l don t

’

”

think l ve ever written a song that literal since.

—Ringo Starr

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Ringo’s lyrics were about singing the blues and paying his dues, and the melody was a slow- burner with echoes of gospel, which took flight into brass-assisted community singing— very much the sound of the era, as rock ’n’ roll abandoned mind expansion for sanctification. Produced by George, the song took time to coalesce into its final form, undergoing take after take, a title change, and completion away from Abbey Road in Trident studios, before it was ready for release in April of 1971. As swinging a track as Ringo ever recorded—as a drummer he was in confident form—and a top-five hit all over the world, “It Don’t Come Easy” validated Ringo as a recording star in his own right. And if the millions who bought it wanted a more direct connection to his old band, they had only to flip over the single to play “Early 1970,” Ringo’s witty, self-deprecating, and friendly tribute to the other three, escalating in affection from Paul, who was miles away from offering a little help to his old friend, up to George, who did little else. Indeed, George both produced the record and played all the instruments that Ringo didn’t. The song was as much a message to the other three as to the fans, as Ringo told this author: “‘Early 1970 was the space I was in at the time. It was over, and you had to get on and deal with it. We’d all decided that that was enough of that. We’d all grown up. There was a separation going on: Paul had his situation and the three of us were doing ours. I knew John would play with me and I knew George would play with me. And I really wasn’t sure that Paul would play with me—because of the situation—and that’s the tag of the song. I just got lucky when I decided to write it. It just came out. I don’t think I’ve ever written a song that literal since.”

An Unlikely Friendship Ringo and George maintained the closest relationship of any of the former Fab Four, the drummer doing a rapturously received star turn with “It Don’t Come Easy” during George’s Concert for Bangladesh on August 1, 1971, at New York’s Madison Square Garden. John was absent from the show, after George let him know that Yoko would not be welcome as a performer. At that time John was friendly with the Los Angeles solo artist, bandleader of the Mothers of Invention, and counter-culture satirical talisman Frank Zappa. Three years earlier, the Mothers had parodied Sgt. Pepper with their own masterpiece album, We’re Only in it for the Money, a sin against Beatledom that, since the split, John and Ringo had heartily Overleaf: Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Bob Dylan performing at Madison Square Garden in New York on August 1, 1971 at the Concert for Bangladesh, a charity event organized by George to raise money for the children of Bangladesh.

Right: Single sleeve for It Don’t Come Easy.

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forgiven. In early 1971, Zappa was in London, had a studio, and had a budget (in the wake of the success of the Woodstock movie, funding was not hard to find for projects involving rock stars breaking every rule in Hollywood’s book). A stern, intellectual scourge of others’ self-indulgence, Zappa increasingly became a prime offender. He strove to prove himself an even-handed satirist of both hippies and straights, a standard-bearer of both sexual freedom and the conventionally unattractive, a rock-guitar virtuoso and modern classical composer in the tradition of the avant-garde maestro Edgard Varèse, plus bandleader, filmmaker, and a master of every form to which he applied himself. In the movie 200 Motels, Zappa wanted to do all these things at once while choosing not to be on screen himself, opting with paradoxical immodesty to be played by a Beatle—Ringo. “Frank got the message to me, saying they were making this movie 200 Motels and he had this idea,” Ringo told this author. “So I said, ‘Sure, come on up.’ He came to the house and laid out a huge musical manuscript, about 30 pages of written music. I said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘I wanted to show you.’ I said, ‘I don’t read music; I’m a busker.’ We started talking and he wanted me to be him as the person, and he would play himself as the musician. The idea that Ringo, Mr. Nice Guy, was playing Frank Zappa, the wild crazy man, was a lot of fun; it appealed to me. Frank Zappa was very strange, though he was the straightest man I ever met; the man, so far as I know, never took a drug in his life. Everybody else in those days was dabbling in something.” Despite Ringo also playing a character named Larry the Dwarf, the movie required only five days of his time and the trimming of his beard from fullness to Zappa’s imperial style, so he was happy to come on board. So too, and playing a nun, was his fellow drummer and fellow habitué of Swinging London’s clubland, Keith Moon of the Who, with whom a friendship would blossom. When distributors saw the finished movie, they were not impressed. Few Zappa fans then or now would count the movie as anything more than a failed experiment in the man’s vast creative output. Seen only by the committed, Ringo’s big billing but minor role did not tarnish his reputation. By the time 200 Motels found belated release, Ringo was back on a roll.

Left: A movie advertisement for 1971’s 200 Motels in which Ringo Starr plays Frank Zappa.

Right: Ringo Starr in the foreground and Frank Zappa (behind) on the set of the movie 200 Motels, directed by Tony Palmer and featuring music by Frank Zappa in February of 1971.

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“

The idea that Ringo, Mr. Nice

Guy, was playing Frank Zappa, the wild crazy man, was a lot of fun; it appealed

”

to me . . .



—Ringo Starr

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Chapter 4 Starr and Moon

“I’d like to end up sort of . . . unforgettable.” —Ringo Starr

Right: Drummers Ringo Starr and Keith Moon have a powwow in Los Angeles, Callifornia in April of 1974.

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T

he movie 200 Motels rang a bell with Ringo, Zappa’s example inspiring him to attempt a similar but far less ambitious project— with somewhat more successful results. Rather than make a movie about himself, Ringo chose to spotlight the British star provoking the screamiest teenybopper hysteria since his own group the decade before: glam-rock pioneer Marc Bolan of T. Rex. A corkscrew-curled, pouting pixie who blended wittily hippie-dippy lyricism and the Motorvatin’ jukebox rock ’n’ roll of Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran, London-born former model Bolan was flashy, fun, and charismatic. He prowled and stamped around the stage like a combination of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page but wowing a younger, far more female fanbase. Ringo had been messing around with movie equipment in his plentiful downtime since the mid-1960s, having taken a keen interest in filmmaking technique during the shooting of A Hard Day’s Night. He was eager to document the phenomenon of what was called “T. Rexstasy,” and so filmed a show in London’s Empire Pool (since renamed Wembley Arena) in February of 1972, paying almost as much attention to the screaming teens in the audience as to Marc on stage. Concert amplification was far better in 1972 than it had been just a few years before during Beatlemania, and there was a real two-way energy flow between star and fans, but Ringo was not content to let an excellent show speak for itself. Apart from a specially staged studio performance of two more numbers, with Ringo on drums and prematurely balding young piano wizard Elton John, Ringo, and Marc

Left: English singer Marc Bolan of T. Rex using a wah-wah pedal during a concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley, U.K., in March of 1972. Right: Ringo Starr and Marc Bolan of T. Rex, with Ringo Starr filming Born To Boogie in 1972.

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set up scenes in the stoned, goofy spirit of the Beatles’ 1967 TV movie Magical Mystery Tour, right down to animal costumes, a comedy waiter, and an airstrip location. The resulting movie, Born to Boogie, released by Apple Films, was a hit then and still entertains today. Working with Bolan and drawing inspiration from his uncomplicatedly catchy showoff rock ’n’ roll, Ringo aimed straight for the contemporary pop charts with his next single, “Back off Boogaloo,” perhaps the best record Marc Bolan never made. “But subconsciously he wrote it,” Ringo told this author. “He was a really good friend of mine—we went on holiday together. He was at the house one night, we’d finished dinner and were hanging out, but you’d ask a question and he’d say, ‘Back off Boogaloo!’—it was never harsh, being very Marc Bolan. I went to bed and just as I’m dozing I hear this melody, ‘Baaaack off, Boogaloo,’ coming right at me. So I ran downstairs and no tape worked, so I bastardized a couple of tapes and got it down. Though he didn’t know it, he created that song because of the way he spoke. Any man who wrote ‘hips like ships,’ you got to love!” Again produced by George, who played his trademark slide guitar, “Back off Boogaloo” went top ten all over the world in the spring of 1972, its drum-powered ebullience guaranteed to lift any party to its feet. The promotional video costarred, alongside Ringo, a spoof representation of Frankenstein’s monster, as portrayed by Boris Karloff in the 1931 horror classic. Another rock artifact of 1972 that referenced Universal’s horror movie pantheon of the 1930s was Beatles’ pal Harry Nilsson’s follow-up to his hit album of the previous year, Nilsson Schmilsson, entitled Son of Schmilsson. On it the convivially eccentric singer-songwriter allowed the bitterness

Right: Harry Nilsson dressed as Dracula at George Harrison’s house at Henley-on-Thames, U.K. in 1972. Nilsson starred as a rocking vampire, and Ringo had a cameo as Merlin the Magician in the poorly received Son of Dracula.

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Above: Star Power . . . (left to right) Ringo Starr, Lulu, David Bowie, and Edgar Broughton at the Ziggy Stardust retirement party held at the Cafe Royal on July 4, 1973.

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of recent divorce to sour his usual sweetness in songs mocking happilyever-afters. Ringo had played drums on some of the tracks, but it wasn’t until his wife Maureen bought him a copy, with its Dracula-style sleeve, that he realized that Nilsson had been thinking along the same lines as he was when he conjured the idea of an Apple Films comedy vehicle for Harry to star in. It was to be a rock’n’roll vampire picture working-titled “Count Downe.” Despite repeated efforts to rewrite and salvage the mess of footage shot in 1972, it was released to a resounding thud two years later as Son of Dracula, a movie project that exposed Ringo’s lack of organizational rigor, over-reliance on Beatle charm, and the appeal of his gang of old pals in lieu of actual entertainment. Ringo gave himself a cameo role as Count Downe’s courtier Merlin the Magician. He also, in live sequences starring Nilsson in character as a rocking vampire, cast two other drummers with time on their hands and nothing better to do: Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and the Who’s Keith Moon. While Ringo indulged himself in hit-and-miss projects, neither Bonham (Bonzo) nor Moon (the Loon) were inclined to use their spare time and money for much beyond partying as hard as they could, tragically so for both brilliant drummers. Keith, especially, would bond with Ringo in years to come, with Ringo even taking Keith’s old role of the pedophiliac character Uncle Ernie for two songs in the commercially successful, all-star orchestrated version of the Who’s rock opera, Tommy. The next time their paths crossed, the result would make up for 200 Motels and Son of Dracula.

Too Close for Comfort As an actor, Ringo had been at his best when playing himself in the Beatles’ big- and small-screen movies, A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, and Magical Mystery Tour. British journalist Ray Connolly had interviewed the Beatles and had Ringo in mind when, in 1972, he finalized a screenplay. The script looked back some 14 years to the era when Britain’s rock ’n’ roll megastars were teenage tearaways in thrall to American jukebox rock, forming the groups that would mutate into world stars in the following decade. Starring David Essex, who’d played the lead in the Christian rock musical Godspell and who would soon have hits in his own right, That’ll Be the Day took its title from the Buddy Holly classic. Its plot was from a composite of several true-life rags-to-riches rock careers, and its settings came from the unglamorous British workingclass recreational spots of the beach, vacation camp, and amusement park.

Above: The Frankenthemed single sleeve for Back Off Boogaloo.

Left: Ringo Starr dressed in the late-1950s “Teddy boy” style to make the movie That Will Be the Day in October of 1972.

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“

’

l didn t feel competitive with any drummer on the planet. Keith and l were friends . . .

”

—Ringo Starr

Right: Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Micky Dolenz, and Keith Moon hamming it up at Hollywood studio in California, 1977.

Ringo played Mike, the Liverpudlian Teddy Boy—the dandified British equivalent of the greaser—with the regulation quiff, sideburns, and tattooed buttock, who takes the younger hero under his wing. Ringo’s long-ago job as a barman paid off, as did his wider experience in the movie’s setting. In this comfort zone, Ringo ad-libbed much of his dialogue, and though he totals no more than ten minutes of screen time, the character he creates of a lessthan-lovable loser rings true to life, though not necessarily to his own. The movie proved so successful in the U.K. upon its release in the spring of 1973 that a sequel was set into motion, though Ringo decided not to play the role a second time—it went to another British pop star/actor of his generation, Adam Faith—as the plot was getting too close to his own story for comfort. Stealing every scene in which he appeared in both movies was Keith Moon (aka “Moon the Loon”), killing time between Who tours and recording sessions in a life of bit parts, brandy, pills, and, (hence the nickname) “looning.” Less a drummer than a force of nature, beneath Moon’s manic exhibitionism beat a warm heart, endearing himself not only to Ringo but Ringo’s firstborn, Zak Starkey, who was to model his own drumming style on the family friend’s explosiveness rather than his dad’s solid backbeat, persuasively deputizing for the long-lost Moon in the Who from 1996. “I didn’t feel competitive with any drummer on the planet,” Ringo told this author. “Keith and I were friends. He is Uncle Keith to my children. With Keith on his solo albums in the 1970s, if we wanted to get the track finished, we’d send him out of the room; sometimes he could just get in your way. I always say that he had no real sense of timing; that’s how Keith played. I had a friend in the early 1970s who wasn’t in the music business, and we went along to a Who recording session. They had a huge rack of tubular bells, and Keith ran at them from one end of the studio and dived into the bells, which they were recording. My friend said to me, ‘Does everybody record like that?’ I said, ‘No, ha ha ha ha! You don’t run into the instruments.’ Only Keith recorded like that, God bless him.” That Christmas of 1972 Keith Moon paid a surprise visit to Tittenhurst Park, John Lennon’s mansion where Ringo and family were living with its owner absent in New York (Ringo would buy it the following year). Not only was Keith dressed as Santa Claus, but his sleigh was drawn by real reindeer. It seems Moon brought good luck to the Starrs, for 1973 was to mark the peak of Ringo’s solo career.

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Chapter 5 Hello Superstar, Goodbye Marriage, and Goodnight, Vienna

“The Beatles got blasé. Suddenly I had my own Gold record. I wiped all the others off the wall.” —Ringo Starr

Left: Ringo Starr and his wife, Maureen Starkey, on their way to Mick Jagger’s wedding to Bianca Perez-Mora in St. Tropez, France in May of 1971.

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I “

Nothing is real, nothing

is real . . .

”

—Ringo Starr

n 1973, Ringo was movied out. As an actor, he didn’t like the early starts or learning lines; when in charge, as he had been on the Son of Dracula disaster, he couldn’t handle the complexity of movie production. Making records was another matter: the producer would organize everything, and all he needed to do for songs and musicians was to pick up the phone. When a Beatle invited you to the studio, few refused. Harry Nilsson’s producer, Richard Perry, had just cut a hit album with Carly Simon, and he was carving out a reputation for making mainstream artists sound hip and hip artists achieve mainstream sales. With Ringo’s soft spot for ear candy and catchy melodies that the everyman could sing— and, as a singer, Ringo was that everyman—Perry was the ideal choice to help him make his first real outing as an album artist. Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues were exercises in, respectively, nostalgia and genre. The singing drummer’s third album, significantly titled Ringo, would selfconsciously make his first big statement as a solo artist. Yes, there was the jukebox chestnut “You’re Sixteen,” originally a 1960 hit for Johnny Burnette. There was also the hip modern classic, Randy Newman’s “Have You Seen My Baby.” But what really got people excited were the new songs, not only by Ringo, but by John, Paul, and George, too, each of whom played on the album—though not at the same time. John was enjoying his “Lost Weekend” in LA, where Ringo was recorded, while George and Paul were passing through. Even so, this was the nearest thing to a Beatles’ album since the release of Let It Be. With the so-called “Red” and “Blue” Beatles compilation double albums selling millions in 1973, the public appetite for the Fab Four hit a new peak, and, released in time for that year’s Christmas market, Ringo rode the wave to the upper reaches of album charts all over the world. Though Paul’s effort, “Six O’ Clock,” was so weak that Ringo’s rumbustious “Devil Woman” beat it for intrigue and excitement, John and George did their old buddy proud. Opening the album, John’s “I’m the Greatest” would never challenge “Imagine” for melodiousness, but the lyrics, referencing Ringo’s Sgt. Pepper alter-ego Billy Shears, mocked the ex-Beatle’s

Above: Ringo Starr and George Harrison with their first wives, Maureen Starkey and Pattie Boyd. Taken on June 19, 1968, Ringo had no idea that just a few years later George would devastate him by splitting up with Pattie and confessing he was in love with Maureen.

Right: Ringo and Maureen Starkey had grown apart and got divorced in 1975.

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star status even as it boasted about it. “I love that song because it’s very tongue in cheek,” Ringo told this author. “Only he could have written it and only I could have sang it.” Better still, George’s “Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond)” amusingly harked back to Ringo’s songs of life beneath the waves while extolling his yachting lifestyle on the surface. Indeed, while yachting off Cannes, George helped Ringo write perhaps the single best song of his career, a satisfyingly Beatles-esque tune about missing a loved one called “Photograph.” Released as a single, it went to number one in the U.S. and provided the emotional heart of an album dedicated, above all, to a lighthearted party atmosphere, as one would expect on a record with a guest list including such bon vivants as Marc Bolan, Stephen Stills, Harry Nilsson, the Band, and Rolling Stones’ saxophonist Bobby Keys. Thirty years later, following the death of George, “Photograph” would wring tears from fans when Ringo sang it live. But the party atmosphere was the real thing, and it was getting out of hand. Even George, apostle of whole food and meditation, was sliding into booze and cocaine, and Ringo did his best to keep up with his circle of hardpartying pals. Ringo and his wife, Maureen, had grown apart, while George had to endure the pain of appearing to be cool while his wife Pattie conducted a love affair with his best friend, guitarist Eric Clapton. Such was the drunken, coked-up atmosphere of this circle of rock’s aristocrats that George’s response to being so betrayed by a friend was to betray another; he started an affair with Maureen. Pattie realized what was going on, but when she confronted Maureen, Ringo’s wife seemed not to care. So Pattie phoned Ringo to break the news, and according to her recollection, Ringo was devastated. When George told Ringo that he was in love with Maureen, it was as if the ground vanished from beneath his feet. “Nothing is real, nothing is real,” he repeated as if shell-shocked, quoting John Lennon’s Beatles’ classic “Strawberry Fields Forever.” John would once more help out Ringo, with the follow-up, 1974’s Goodnight Vienna. But this time, George would be an absentee.

Left: Ringo Starr with girlfriend, Nancy Andrews. Andrews was cited in the divorce proceedings between Ringo and his wife, Maureen Starkey.

The party atmosphere was the real thing, and it was getting out of hand . . .

Above: American saxophonist Bobby Keys (of the Rolling Stones) in a London recording studio in June of 1971. Keys can be heard on Ringo’s smash hit Photograph on Ringo.

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’ “

Ringo s

”

elegant

gypsy lifestyle was time consuming...

-

Above: Album cover for Goodnight Vienna.

As, indeed, would be Paul. Though very similar in structure and mood to Ringo, and more or less matching it for quality, Goodnight Vienna’s relative lack of Beatle magic was reflected in smaller, though still handsome, sales. The Platters’ hit “Only You” supplied the jukebox nostalgia, while Nilsson’s “Easy for Me” provided the emotional heart. John’s pianopounding title track—an echo of the Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog”—cryptically alluded to the respective marital fractures that both he and Ringo were distracting themselves from in the hard-partying whirl, a lifestyle that “No No Song”—a number-three U.S. hit single— cheekily denied. “When we recorded ‘The No No Song,’ nobody in the studio was saying no,” Ringo admitted to this author in 2008. “They were all saying, yes. We were quite hysterical at the time. Hoyt Axton, who wrote it, was a great guy. Now I do it on tour because I don’t smoke dope, I don’t drink, I don’t do any of that stuff any more; it’s actually truer today than it was then.” Goodnight Vienna, and its spin-off singles, did far better in the U.S. than back home in Britain. With the U.K. taxing high earners like Ringo at what was felt by many to be a punitive rate, and with so many pals based in LA, including a secret new girlfriend, model Nancy Andrews (John had played cupid), and with Maureen, suing him for divorce in London based upon his adultery, Ringo relocated to Santa Monica. He later added properties in Monte Carlo and Amsterdam. He would fly back to the U.K. as and when the tax authorities allowed. “Between the recording studios, movie premieres, promotion tours, traveling nine months a year, and juggling the children, friends, and family, we were gypsies,” Nancy Andrews was to recall—“elegant gypsies.” With his elegant gypsy lifestyle so time-consuming, Ringo slowed down in the second half of the 1970s. In 1975, the wildly inventive but highly controversial British movie director Ken Russell, fresh from filming the Who’s Tommy with an all-star cast, then cast Who singer Roger Daltrey as the title star of his most far-fetched project yet, Lisztomania. The movie postulated that the fame that engulfed the nineteenth-century romantic composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt foreshadowed that of rock stars over a century later, and so a rock ’n’ roll Liszt biopic made perfect sense. Ringo would play the pope in a cameo that has to be seen to be believed. In 1976, Ringo would return to work as a rock star. He would discover over the next few years that, while the public would never grow tired of hearing gossip about a jet-setting former Beatle, not even a former Beatle was immune to the vagaries of changing pop fashion.

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Above: Roger Daltrey of the Who and Ringo Starr (as the pope) in Ken Russell’s Lisztomania in 1975.

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Chapter 6 A Large Fly

“My records go downhill as the medication went up.” —Ringo Starr

Left: Ringo Starr with his band performing on a Dutch TV show in 1976.

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R

Above: Album cover for Ringo’s Rotogravure.

ingo has been accused of dabbling, of lacking committed application. He was, he concedes, uninterested in meetings and the routine of business. Even so, the furniture-design company he formed with Robin Cruikshank was a going concern for six years before being put up for sale in 1976. The year before, as part of the deal that took him to Atlantic Records in the U.S. and Polydor in Europe, he set up his own label, Ring O’ Records, much as George had set up Dark Horse. It fared no better, closing after three years of losses sustained on a range of novelty singles and improbable albums. These included a reissue of John Tavener’s The Whale and, suggesting that Ring O’ Records really was the quintessential vanity label, Startling Music, on which studio-engineer turned synth whiz David Hentschel was commissioned to remake the whole of Ringo’s eponymous hit album as a showcase for the ARP synthesizer. Ringo himself—now one of Atlantic’s roster, alongside such rockers as the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Yes, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who all signed after the label’s successes with John Coltrane, Ray Charles, the Coasters, the Drifters, and Aretha Franklin—permitted himself a musical makeover by the suave in-house producer Arif Mardin. Mardin had never before had to make a silk purse out of a voice like Ringo’s, and mostly he chose to double-track it to smooth out its brays and wobbles and to upholster it in brassy, chorus-heavy arrangements. As a result, 1976’s Ringo’s Rotogravure album is among the easiest on the ear in Ringo’s catalog. Otherwise, it was business as usual, with a song each from John, Paul, and George (none of them their best work, though George’s “I’ll Still Love You” rings gloomily true to the derailed marriages of both the writer and the singer), plus one from Eric Clapton who, of course, had ran off with George’s wife. Then there were three Ringo originals, cowritten with such solid pros as Vini Poncia, as well as girlfriend Nancy, and the jukebox classic, a fun and funky version of Bruce Chanel’s “Hey! Baby.” Though by no means an inferior offering to Goodnight Vienna or even Ringo, Ringo’s Rotogravure barely dented the U.S. top 30, and it didn’t even manage that level of popularity elsewhere. It seemed that even the loyalists already had enough Ringo in their record collections, thank you, and for the rest of the world, luxuriously appointed amiability was not enough. Even so, Ringo was contracted to make another album for Atlantic. Sticking with Mardin, Ringo decided to ride the disco boom for the next album, to be titled Ringo the 4th, counting, as Ringo did, from his 1973 self-titled hit. Even assuming that disco was the way to go artistically and

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Ringo admitted he had no interest in going to meetings or the routine of business. He had even been accused of just dabbling . . .

Above: Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr at the Who’s Tommy premiere in 1975. Clapton would later contribute a song to Ringo’s Rotogravure album.

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commercially, Mardin’s arrangements were ever so slightly dated—right for 1974 but not 1977. And the album’s all-important first track and single, a version of Joe Simon’s 1972 Philly soul smash “Drowning in the Sea of Love,” cruelly contrasted Ringo with someone who could really sing. When the pace changed to “Gave it all Up”, one of the album’s six Ringo-Poncia cowrites, the only thing wrong was that the song deserved a better singer; and there was the rub. In the context of the Beatles, the public would be charmed by one song in 14 sung by the hangdog moptop as proof of the teamwork and friendship so core to their appeal. But 14 out of 14 songs? Ringo would admit in interviews that he had the vocal range of “a fly—a large fly,” but the follow-up question was never asked as to why anyone would pay to listen to a large fly. With Atlantic dropping their fallen star, Ringo and his musical partner Vini Poncia felt they had to get back on the horse as fast as possible, cutting the former Fab’s next album quickly all over the world as his tax exile and jet-set lifestyle allowed. Beatle-free and devoid of hangers-on and party animals, the sleeve of the album Bad Boy nonetheless traded on Ringo’s playboy image. However marketed, the chances of reviving Ringo’s record-selling fortunes were slim, with the market looking for fresh sounds and stars, whether New Wave, disco, or older acts radically rebooting themselves, like Fleetwood Mac or the Rolling Stones. An overbright, synth-driven sound with bolted-on vocal and orchestral sweetening was not going to convert Ringo’s sincere but clumsy attempt on the Supremes’ unmatchable “Where Did Our Love Go” from pointless dross to commercial gold. Despite a TV special with Carrie Fisher, fresh from Star Wars, Angie Dickinson, Vincent Price, and George Harrison, plus a silly doppelganger storyline with Ringo playing both roles while singing some of his best-loved numbers and tunes from his new record, Bad Boy flopped all over the world. It was unloved even in today’s spirit of eager rediscovery. But even at this point, Ringo had not yet touched bottom.

Left: Ringo Starr relaxing with a drink at his home in Los Angeles, California on October 22, 1976.

Above: Album cover for Ringo the 4th.

Right: Arif Mardin at Atlantic Records studios in New York on January 19, 1978. Mardin did the arrangements for Ringo’s disco albums, including Ringo the 4th.

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Chapter 7 From Stone Age

to Steam

Age

“I like kids, I used to be one.” —Ringo Starr

Left: A movie still from Caveman in 1981, starring (from left to right) Dennis Quaid, Ringo Starr, and Shelley Long.

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W

ith an awful instinct by now for taking part in foreseeable flops if there was a party to be had in the process, Ringo made a cameo appearance in screen legend Mae West’s last movie, Sextette. The former mistress of vamping innuendo was by now 84 years old, and this musical sex comedy—in which Tony Curtis, Dom DeLuise, and George Hamilton, as well as the rock stars Alice Cooper and, inevitably, Keith Moon, also appeared—was always intended as an exercise in high camp and knowing bad taste. But while this had been enough to entertain in the Hays Code 1930s, the liberated 1970s needed more to titillate its funny bone. Though proficiently made—Ringo even plays Mae’s “husband number four,” a movie director named Laslo, with aplomb—Sextette failed to amuse, which was all it had needed to do to justify its existence. A no less feeble movie made in Mexico in early 1980 was, however, to give Ringo his first starring role and, more importantly, to introduce him to his second wife. Back in 1966, the movie One Million Years B.C. starred Raquel Welch in an animal-skin bikini and made a lot of money. Fourteen years later, Caveman, a feeble spin on the same gag, starred Ringo in animal skins and made a rather smaller splash: less than $16 million in the U.S. For Ringo, Caveman’s screenplay offered the supreme advantage of having virtually no lines to learn, as the cavemen had a vocabulary of 15 words (such as macha, meaning “monster”) plus ad-libbed grunts. In supporting roles, Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long would be able to put this behind them and go onto stardom later in the decade. But the most significant supporting role was a former James Bond girl, Barbara Bach, who’d played KGB Major Anya Amasovain in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me and who was to confess to being no great fan of the Beatles; she would nonetheless become the second Mrs. Starkey in 1981. Caveman was released in April of 1981. In the opening frames we’re informed that it’s “One Zillion Years B.C.—October 9.” October 9 was John Lennon’s birthday, and this was the movie’s tribute to the Beatle shot dead in the previous December.

Ringo had an awful instinct for taking part in foreseeable flops . . .

Left: A movie poster for Caveman in 1981. Ringo met his future wife, Barbara Bach, on the set of the movie.

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Until then, John and Ringo had been in close touch, with John, who was back to making music for release after his lengthy hiatus, donating two songs for Ringo to sing on his album in the making, with the working title “Can’t Fight Lightning.” Once more, Ringo would enlist the help of his Fab friends in a bid to restore his recording fortunes.

Above: Album cover for Stop and Smell the Roses.

Stopping for Roses Recently returned from ten days’ imprisonment in Tokyo on a dope bust and having restored his dignity with the U.S. number-one hit success of “Coming Up,” Paul was the first to step up to the plate that summer with two original songs—“Private Property” and “Attention”—and he also played on a cover of countrybilly hero Carl Perkins’ “Sure to Fall.” Recording in France took them ten days; no one was in a hurry. After a short break, Ringo resumed recording in August, with Stephen Stills contributing “You’ve Got a Nice Way,” and then in September Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood brought “Dead Giveaway” to the table, a curiously finger-pointing effort for one party animal to give another. In November, a flurry of activity saw Harry Nilsson bring in two of the album’s better songs, then, while Ringo was staying at George’s house, his old Beatle pal penned him another now that all had been forgiven, with both ex-Fabs happily married the second time around. Ringo then went off to New York at the end of November, where John gave him the demos of a pair of terrific new songs that suited Ringo to a T: “Nobody Told Me” and “Life Begins at 40” (the age both men turned that year), with a date to record them together penned in for January of 1981. Less than two weeks later, John was dead. A devastated Ringo flew straight from the Bahamas to comfort Yoko when he heard the news, and he then, like George and Paul, collected himself and resumed recording, but not the songs John had gifted him. Ringo felt it would have been disrespectful and wrong. He finished the album in February, as the airwaves still resounded with to the grieving nostalgia of John and the Beatles, and presented his Right: Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach leave the Dakota Building on December 9, 1980, at the entrance of which John Lennon was killed. Ringo had abandoned his vacation and flew immediately to New York upon hearing of his old friend’s death to comfort John’s widow and young son.

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Right: Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, and Clarence Clemons performing at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California in September of 1989.

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After John died,

’

Ringo didn t feel right recording the songs John had given him . . .

new album to his record label, Portrait, at this sadly newsworthy moment for an ex-Fab’s latest work. Astonishingly, they passed. Another label, Boardwalk, decided to take a chance, conditional upon a new running order, a new sleeve, and a new title, Stop and Smell the Roses, shortened from Harry Nilsson’s stand-out track, “Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses.” A funny, demented hymn to living in the moment, its fade-out rant about how he, the record business, and the listener, all want to quit is both disarmingly honest and depressingly prophetic. And when it came to Ringo’s new album, a work of surprising swagger (if not great song quality), the public let it be known that they did indeed want him to stop. It sadly only sold enough copies to reach number 98 in the U.S., despite heavy promotion, including a 10-minute mini-movie, The Cooler, casting Ringo as a jailbird in solitary, with Paul and Linda as well as Barbara playing cameos. Ringo was dropped like a very cold potato, and this time no record company seemed interested in how he might follow up his third flop album in a row. Perhaps, Ringo reasoned, the problem with Stop and Smell the Roses was too much variety, with his globetrotting pals producing the songs as well as writing them. Next time, he would stick with one main collaborator and record in one place, at John’s old mansion Tittenhurst Park, where Ringo felt safer than he did in the U.S.

Out with the Old (Wave) If the Beatles had been the biggest act of the 1960s, then the Eagles were certainly among the biggest acts of the 1970s. But as they had broken up, too, guitarist Joe Walsh needed no second invitation to fly to England to help salvage Ringo’s recording career, assisted by the Who’s virtuoso bassist John Entwistle and Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker, who was also a member of George’s musical circle. Eric Clapton even cropped up, playing one of the album’s few cameos on “Everybody’s in a Hurry but Me.” However deficient any previous Ringo offerings had been, at least the music swung. Not this time, as Ringo dumbed down his drumming to a fill-free thud in line with the era’s vogue for drum machines. Patchily released in 1983 in various countries but not the U.S., the album, defiantly but belatedly titled Old Wave—New Wave music having peaked four years earlier—sold accordingly. His next effort was so bad that Ringo himself vetoed its release, embroiling himself in a lawsuit with the producer Chips Moman in the process. Like 64

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Ringo, Moman had seen better days back when he had produced some of Elvis’s finest music and written several soul classics. Memphis was Moman’s base, and he had sold Ringo on the idea of making a record in this citadel of rootsy rock and soul, just as the ex-Beatle had done in nearby Nashville back in 1970 with Beaucoups of Blues. The problem was that by then Ringo the party animal had completely overtaken Ringo the recording artist, and the law agreed that he was within his rights to avoid the damage the release of these overlubricated sessions would do to his career by withholding them from public hearing. That said, his unreleased cover of Billy Swann’s country smash “I Can Help” is no disgrace. By this time, in 1987, Ringo was trying to resist his worst impulses, not least because he had, out of the blue, rediscovered his gift as a children’s

Left: In this undated photo (circa 1969) released by Sony Music, Elvis Presley is shown with Chips Moman, right, at American Sound studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Years later, Moman would convince Ringo to make an album in Memphis, too, but the two would get involved in a bitter lawsuit when Ringo refused to let the album go public.

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Ringo had rediscovered his

’

gift as a children s entertainer . . .

entertainer. When Beatlemania broke, Ringo was by far the most popular Fab among preteens, a position cemented by the 1966 kids’ singalong classic, “Yellow Submarine.” Eleven years later, Ringo voiced a Liverpoolaccented singing rodent named Scouse the Mouse for a children’s album that would have been animated if it weren’t for a BBC strike. But his luck changed again when, in an inspired moment of casting, Ringo was invited to revisit his role as the voice of exotic transportation. The popular British children’s book series starring Thomas the Tank Engine was being adapted for television, and a narrator (renamed Mr. Conductor when the show was modified for U.S. TV as Shining Time Station) was needed. Having never read the stories as a child, Ringo was charmed to come to them as a new grandfather (his son Zak had just fathered Tatia Jayne Starkey). Children’s fond memories of beloved TV shows are indelible, and Ringo won back a lot of lost popular affection from the mid-1980s when the first two series were broadcast and then repeated as staples all over the world. Behind the playboy shades, there was a lovable moptop after all.

Right: Grandpa Ringo! Ringo Starr holds up a sign reading “Wow!” as he embraces his son, Zak Starkey. Zak is feeding his newborn baby daughter (and Ringo’s granddaughter), Tatia Jayne Starkey, in September of 1985.

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Above: Ringo Starr (circa 1985) with train models and characters from the TV series “Thomas the Tank Engine,” which Ringo narrated.

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Chapter 8 Back in the Swing of Things

“I drank all the way to the clinic and got off the plane totally demented.” —Ringo Starr

Right: Ringo Starr performing at the Greek Theatre on September 4, 1989, in Los Angeles, California.

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“

l came to one Friday afternoon

’

and . . . l d trashed Barbara so badly, they thought she was dead.

”

—Ringo Starr

Right: Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach in 1987 at the AIDS Crisis Trust Charity Auction at Christie’s in London, U.K. The following year, both Ringo and Barbara would be treated for alcoholism at a rehab clinic in Tucson, Arizona.

J

ust as Ringo got by with a little help from his friends, in turn he was, as he told this author, “there for you, brother” when a swinging backbeat sensitive to the nuances of the song was needed. He had played on numerous pals’ recording sessions and had made a wellreceived star-guest appearance at the Band’s 1976 farewell concert, filmed by Martin Scorsese as The Last Waltz, as well as on the 1985 televised tribute to Carl Perkins, at which George made his first live appearance in the U.K. for 19 years. Nor was Ringo slow in coming forward for the various charity benefit shows that his 1960s and 1970s peers, such as George, Jeff Lynne, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Phil Collins were beginning to perform in the 1980s. But, unlike even the audience-shy John in his solo years, Ringo had never shone in the spotlight to a paying crowd in his own right. It would require a detox undertaken with Barbara, who had slipped into her husband’s bad habits with him, before Ringo was ready to contemplate the hard work and routine that going on the road would involve. Ringo was in a bad state, later confessing, “I came to one Friday afternoon and was told by the staff that I had trashed the house so badly they thought there had been burglars, and I’d trashed Barbara so badly, they thought she was dead.” Despite the intrusive and distracting attentions of the press during the six weeks of 1988 that the celebrity couple was treated for alcoholism in a clinic in Tucson, Arizona, they both got sober and stayed sober. Indeed, Barbara threw herself into helping other addicts to recover when, after getting a master’s degree in psychology at UCLA in 1993, she not only started a recovery program but also works with various other charities.

A Clean Start A clean and sober Ringo was open to the suggestion of the promoter David Fishof—who in 1986 had successfully reunited the Monkees for a tour—that Ringo should return to the stage as the big-name backbeat and ringmaster of a band of celebrity musicians helping out on each other’s hits. The show would be a human jukebox of living legends. Having just turned 49 in July of 1989, Ringo Starr debuted with his AllStarr Band in Dallas, Texas, to 10,000 fans. Since then, 12 All-Starr Bands have toured, spinning off ten souvenir live albums and a DVD of their show on Ringo’s seventy-second birthday on July 7, 2012, in the process.

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An All-Starr Band show is all about familiarity, playing the hits of yesteryear, with the common factor of nostalgia for the soundtrack of vanished youth always trumping any seeming mismatches of genre and style. Cream’s virtuoso jazz-rock bassist Jack Bruce (All-Starr Band Marks IV, V, and VI) forming a rhythm section with the drummer whose style least resembles that of his old 1960s sparring partner Ginger Baker? Why not? Musically, theirs may not have been the best version of the 1967 Cream hit “Sunshine of Your Love” ever played, but you couldn’t fault the compromise between authenticity and celebrity as a satisfying attraction for fans of anyone in the line-up. Indeed, playing the Eric Clapton guitar part, Peter Frampton, who had been an enormous live and multimillion record-selling attraction in 1976, was to conjure more than a little of the original’s firepower. The tours also had another dimension: with the first line-up including not only Dr. John but the Band’s Rick Danko and Levon Helm, Ringo was not only inviting old friends to play with him but also musicians who’d struggled with alcohol and substance abuse. Though each line-up boasted many musicians who’d never faced that struggle, there was the sense that Ringo was not the only legend on stage for whom playing on tour offered both occupational therapy and a sense of community in doing well together what each of them had done famously with others in the past. Then there was the simple commercial fact of life that Jack Bruce without Cream or even Ringo without the Beatles might struggle to fill some theaters. But put the two together, plus other legends who’d seen better-selling days—in recent years the rule has been that every guest artist has to be able to perform two number-one records—and the AllStarr Band would have appeal for several fanbases and so aggregate a bigger draw. Beyond such considerations was the simple fact that, one way or another, there is no rock musician who doesn’t owe some of their success to the inspiration of the Beatles; if not directly, then at least in how the Fab Four electrified popular culture worldwide to create a mass audience hungry

Above: English musician Peter Frampton circa 1987. Frampton joined Ringo in his All-Starr Band in the 1980s, and he brought a lot of power and popular appeal to the show.

Left: Musicians gathered at Limehouse studios in London to record the 1985 TV show “Blue Suede Shoes,” spotlighting veteran rockabilly songwriter and guitarist Carl Perkins. In the back row (from left to right), Eric Clapton, Carl Perkins, and George Harrison; in the front row (left to right) are Ringo Starr and Dave Edmunds.

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Ringo was not only inviting old friends to play with him but also musicians

’

who d struggled with alcohol and substance abuse . . .

Right: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band on June 20, 1989. From left to right: Clarence Clemons, Nils Lofgren, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, and Rick Danko.

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for the excitement, adventure, and spiritual and emotional nourishment of rock music. When a Beatle called, people jumped. “I would have done it for nothing. It was a privilege,” said Randy Bachman of the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive fame (All-Starr Band Mark III). “Playing guitar on Ringo’s songs every night and looking back over my shoulder and hearing and seeing him play drums on my songs was the highlight of my career,” Bachman explains. To commemorate the experience and celebrate the great man’s birthday, Randy and his wife named a newly discovered star after him—the Ringo Starr. “There were times when I had to pinch myself,” recalled Eric Carmen, of the Raspberries and later a successful solo artist (All-Starr Band Mark VI), “notably, when we performed on The David Letterman Show, taped in the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Beatles were the first time I saw them [on TV], the 14-year-old sitting on the floor in Lyndhurst, Ohio. Now, here I am, on that very same stage, playing in a band with a Beatle!”

Above: The album cover of the limited-edition release, Ringo Starr and His Third All-Starr Band-Volume 1.

The All-Starr Though Ringo remained rooted in the 1950s rock ’n’ roll of his teens, his tastes were far broader. After all, by 1966 his old band the Beatles were on a voyage of stylistic exploration across numerous genres simultaneously. And if Ringo could play on both “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Yellow Submarine” on the same album that year, then drumming on both Mr. Mister’s 1985 smash “Broken Wings” and Santana’s 1969 hit “Evil Ways,” as he does on tour with his All-Starr Band in 2013, is hardly a challenge at all. Ringo, of course, was the star, typically in the spotlight as singer on 12 songs out of an average of 24 in the All-Starr Band’s set. Performed unfailingly would be his old Rory Storm and the Hurricanes’ (the Liverpool band he was in even before the Beatles) live cameo, a cover of the Shirelles’ “Boys,” and his classic Paul-and-John-penned signature tunes, “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help from My Friends.” Of his solo material, only his biggest hit, “Photograph,” would never drop from the set. Strikingly, on stage the most famous drummer in the world would always share his “riser” platform (this makes drummers on a crowded stage clearly visible to the audience) with another. At 1971’s Concert for Bangladesh, Oklahoman session drummer Jim Keltner—who’d played on George and John’s solo sessions—had already been chosen to play throughout the show, such was his quick-study versatility. In rehearsal, rather than relinquish

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“

’

Playing guitar on Ringo s songs every night . . . and seeing him play drums on my songs was the highlight of

”

my career.

—Randy Bachman

Above: Renowned singer-songwriter Randy Bachman performs at the Songwriter’s Circle as part of the Canadian Music Week on March 12, 2011, in Toronto, Ontario. Bachman has played in Ringo’s All-Starr Band and considers it a privilege.

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his stool for Ringo when it came time for the former Beatle’s skinsman’s spot, the two found that they thoroughly enjoyed doubling up. Consistently unstinting in his praise for the quiet professional as his favorite drummer in the world, Ringo was to invite Keltner to play on several of his solo albums, and in 1989 called up his old friend to sit beside him on the first All-Starr Band tour. Subsequent companions riding shotgun with Ringo include Free and Bad Company’s Simon Kirke, Sheila E of Prince fame, and, most heart-warmingly, Zak Starkey, before he took up the sticks with the Who and Oasis.

Drummers and Friends Since 2008, Ringo’s codrummer has been Gregg Bissonette, who saw the Beatles as a seven-year-old in 1966 when his dad, a jobbing drummer in Detroit, used his music connections to procure tickets for the sold-out show at the city’s Olympia Stadium. Working with his idol has not been a disappointment for the hugely respected and versatile session drummer. Bissonette applauds Ringo as a bandleader who works out and sticks to a vegetarian diet, who sits up straight when playing, who mucks in with everyone on tour rather than remain aloof in a superstar bubble, and who prepares his parts on songs by other stars just as respectfully as if they were his own. “His drumming makes people dance,” says Bissonette, “he has this natural cool Liverpool swing.” And when Paul McCartney called Bissonette to recruit him for a surprise appearance at New York’s Radio City Music Hall to celebrate Ringo’s seventieth birthday with a performance of the Beatles’ “Birthday,” the fan who joined Ringo’s band was moved to tears by “one of the greatest days of my life.” But as Ringo was to continue to find, all the nostalgia and love in the world did not necessarily translate into massive record sales, even when, emboldened by the box-office success of the All-Starr Band, he once again started to make some seriously good records—with a little help from his friends, of course. Left: Is it bright in here? From left to right: Alex Van Halen, Levon Helm, Ringo Starr, and Jim Keltner all sporting shades in a studio shot in the early 1990s.

“

Ringo mucks around with everyone on tour rather than remaining in a superstar

”

bubble . . .

—Gregg Bissonette

Above: A limited edition album of Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band.

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Chapter 9 The Wilbury Effect

“Sometimes you get really tired of being famous. I’ve been famous an awfully long time.”—Ringo Starr

Right: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band perform on stage at Le Zenith in Paris on July 8, 1992.

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T

he death of John had hit Ringo hard. Marking the tenth anniversary of his friend’s death in the fall of 1990, Ringo remembered “the biggest heart of any man I’ve met to this day . . . a giving, loving, caring human being” on a TV special. He then cheered up to sing and drum on John’s “I Call Your Name,” one of his fallen comrade’s first compositions as a teenager but only recorded by the Beatles in 1964. Ringo’s buddy Joe Walsh played a slide-guitar solo ,while part-time Traveling Wilburys Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty (on whose video for the 1989 hit single “I Won’t Back Down” Ringo had appeared to play drums), and Jim Keltner (also Ringo’s sidekick in the All-Starr Band) played rhythm guitar, bass, and cowbell respectively. The success of the Traveling Wilburys at the end of the 1980s confirmed that the 1960s generation of musicians, who’d seemed so lost in a wilderness of self-doubt, falling status, and creativity since the early part of the decade, could recover in a spirit of mutual support and enjoyment and prove themselves once more capable of delivering quality and value, rather than an old guard’s sense of permanent entitlement. There were Wilbury connections as well as their spirit and sound in Ringo’s first solo album release in nine years, 1992’s Time Takes Time. Ringo’s swinging rhythm chug suited the sunny, breezy, top-down, and well-upholstered retro-modern sound, similar to that with which the Wilburys had topped charts worldwide in 1988. And the various producers, Jeff Lynne, Don Was, Peter Asher, and Phil Ramone, ensured a solid package of catchy tunes, radiofriendly hooks, and welcoming familiarity. In collaboration with the former Ring O’ Records’ recording artist Johnny Warman, whom he’d not forgotten in the years since, Ringo cowrote three sturdy songs for his new album, while members of the Beatles-influenced power-pop bands the Posies and Jellyfish helped out with a song from each. The biggest potential hit, “In a Heartbeat,” was written by the songwriter with the Midas touch, Diane Warren, and boasted Beach Boy Brian Wilson on backing vocals.

Above: Album sleeve of Time Takes Time. Right: Ringo Starr and Tom Petty embrace at a special screening of the movie Concert for George at the Steven J. Ross Theater on September 24, 2003, in Burbank, California. The documentary celebrates the music of former Beatle George Harrison through performances by legendary musicians.

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Why Time Takes Time was only a modest hit remains a mystery. Full of the kind of music that sounds perfect wafting out of car radios on a sunny day, getting radio play in the first place was critical, a dark art in which the label that released it, Private Music, might not have been masters. Back in 1992, there was no digital file-sharing or streaming— indeed, there was barely any Internet. CDs were sold by profiteering record companies as “premium-priced” luxuries, so for the music fan, the radio was essential to hearing, familiarizing yourself with, and liking a new record enough to make the investment in buying the CD. Acts initially denied mainstream radio play, such as Nirvana was at the time, would get played on college radio and then on MTV, while word spread in the timehonored organic way with teenage fans excitedly turning on their friends to the amazing new sound in bedrooms and rec rooms all over the country. At the age of 52, Ringo would be wasting his time trying to appeal to the teenage demographic, so he depended on mainstream radio to reach old fans and the generations who’d come to the Beatles after the breakup; if he wasn’t getting played, he wouldn’t be bought. Such an underwhelming public response to what was certainly among his most enjoyable albums was to deter Ringo from trying again unless he had something more than the mere revival of his sense of purpose and popular appeal from touring with the All-Starr Band. Such an opportunity came with the huge surge of interest and recruitment of young fans the Beatles were to enjoy with the Anthology project starting in 1995. Sadness was first to shadow his next few years. Shortly after she divorced Ringo in 1975, Maureen had started living with the Tennesseeborn cofounder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain, Isaac Tigrett, marrying him soon after the birth of their daughter in 1987, her fourth child in total. But in the early 1990s, Maureen was diagnosed with leukemia. Despite Zak donating bone marrow and vital blood elements, she died at the end of 1994 with her family, including first husband Ringo, at her bedside. Maureen had been one of the original working-class Liverpool girlfriends, and Paul was moved to mourn her loss and offer comfort to her family in a lovely song, “Little Willow,” which was to appear on his 1997 hit album Flaming Pie. Ringo played on the album’s big ballad, “Beautiful Night,” and the following day he and Paul worked up their first McCartney-Starkey cowrite to get official release on an album, “Really Love You.” With the three remaining Beatles—the “Threetles,” they jested— reunited during the making of 1995’s Anthology TV documentary series

Below: Ringo’s first wife, Maureen Starkey, at Sticky Fingers restaurant in London in 1992 for a third birthday party. Maureen passed away in 1994 from leukemia.

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and spin-off book and singles, Ringo was to feel inspired by Paul’s revived success as a solo artist, with Flaming Pie riding in the slipstream of the Beatles’ latest popular resurgence. Whereas Time Takes Time was entirely easygoing, Vertical Man had a little more edge. Ringo cowrote most of its songs, with a new collaborator who would last far longer than his short-lived creative partnership with Johnny Warman. From Portland, Oregon, songwriter and producer Mark Hudson had been a middleweight recording and TV star in his own right in the 1970s with the Hudson Brothers Trio (his older brother Bill is father to the actress Kate Hudson), and his solo career had enjoyed an upsurge when he cowrote Aerosmith’s big 1993 hit “Livin’ on the Edge” with Steve Tyler and Joe Perry. Ringo was to enjoy working with Hudson, citing the “fun” he was having as the two cowrote songs and started recording them in a studio above a Thai restaurant. What is notable about the songs of this second wave of solo Ringo recordings, starting with Times Takes Time, is how comfortably he fell in with the emphasis the record industry at the time placed on formula rather than genius. With Diane Warren as the queen of the scene, Los Angeles thronged with song doctors dedicated to helping name acts align their music to the expectations of the radio industry and what was deemed to constitute a hit record. Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the Edge” exemplifies this trend, with Hudson pushing the band toward the softer, Bon Jovi end of hard rock in search of a hit song. At best, such records are immediately attractive, slip down easily, and are as moderately satisfying as a chain-bought burger and fries. But there will never be the quirks or wild originality that can deter conservative listeners yet rivet a record forever as uniquely great. Ringo’s “Goodnight Vienna” is far from the best song John Lennon ever wrote, but it is memorable in a way that the best song on Vertical Man, the Richard Starkey/Mark Hudson/Dean Grakal/Steve Dudas cowrite “La De Da,” fails to manage, for all its rueful warmth and essence of Ringo. Recorded with a core backing band Ringo called the Roundheads, Vertical Man abounds with guest cameo contributions from pals popping by the studio, stellar credits for backing vocals, and the occasional instrumental lick going to Paul and Linda, George, Steve Tyler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Brian Wilson, and, the new kid on the block, Alanis Morissette. All that star power helped hoist Vertical Man to Ringo’s highest U.S. chart position since 1976’s Ringo’s Rotogravure, but still only to number 61. Above: Album cover for Ringo Starr’s Vertical Man.

Right: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at the Earth Day Concert on April 16, 1993.

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In 1998, Ringo gave a well-received VH1: Storytellers live show on VH1, the music channel where he introduced and performed four Vertical Man songs as well as his best-loved hits with a backing band drawn from that album’s band plus All-Star regulars Joe Walsh and codrummer Simon Kirke. His next studio album of brand-new material celebrated the last Christmas of not only the twentieth century, but of the second millennium. As rock ’n’ roll Christmas albums go, I Wanna Be Santa Claus betters Bob Dylan’s effort a decade later, being for the most part a drum-powered party album for the paper-hat, kiss-under-the-mistletoe season, and in singalong, shouty vigor harks back to the glam rock of “Back off Boogaloo.” For fans of Ringo’s swinging rock ’n’ roll drumming, this collection of Yule-themed Starkey/Hudson originals and seasonal standards—including, of course, one of the most stirring versions of “The Little Drummer Boy” you’ll ever hear—may be the best showcase of his career. Relaxing the beat, “Pax Um Biscum” evokes George’s Sgt. Pepper highlight “Within You Without You” with its sitars, tabla, and Mellotron orientalisms, while, digging deeper into 1967’s annus mirabilis, the Beatles’ surprisingly little-known fan club Christmas record “Christmas Time (Is Here Again)” gets a thumping reboot. Despite the push of his record company, Mercury, I Wanna Be Santa Claus stuck to the record store shelves, a sorry fate for the only Christmas album ever made by a Beatle.

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And Then There Were Two In November of 2001, George died. He and Ringo had in recent years found another connection, as Ringo joined the guitarist in a passion for gardening. While Paul had made it to the dying man’s bedside, Ringo had not, as he’d had an even more pressing priority: his youngest child, daughter Lee, had already recovered from a brain tumor in 1995, just months after her mother’s death from leukemia. But in 2001, the tumor returned, and the family rallied around as she underwent further treatment. She made a full recovery and in 2009 gave birth to triplets with her boyfriend, Jay Mehler, bass player in Beady Eye and formerly of the British rock band Kasabian. A year after George died, Ringo performed their cowritten song “Photograph” and a cover of Carl Perkins’ “Honey Don’t” at the Concert for George held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and in tribute to his friend Ringo cowrote a new song, “Never Without You,” which blended sentiment with humor, just as the Beatles always had. With its guitar solo played by Eric Clapton, whose life had been so entwined with George’s since 1968, the song appears on Ringo’s 2003 album Ringo Rama, released by the German label Koch. Mercury had dropped him after none of their three albums succeeded commercially. Ringo Rama reflects a man in his autumn years at peace with himself. “English Garden,” for example, simply celebrates the flowers, the rain, Barbara, and Buster the dog, whose bark is to be heard, as is a quote from Paul’s Wings’ hit “Let ’Em In.” And at the end of the song “Elizabeth Reigns,” the 1965 Member of the British Empire elaborately but affectionately mocks the Queen (as had the Beatles in 1969 with “Her Majesty”), who had a few years before knighted Paul, throwing in the line, “There goes the knighthood.” Though Ringo had never pretended to be deep, he was witty, and that wit was in its fullest bloom on this, his twelfth studio album. References from Ringo’s past abound on an album dense with licks, harmonies, textures, and fills to an almost dizzying degree. Since even universal Beatle love and his status as one of only two survivors seemed not to translate into record sales, was he trying too hard to attract attention? What cannot be denied is that, however workmanlike and self-referential the songs—every one of which was written by Ringo and Mark Hudson with contributions from the other studio Roundheads—the finished record did not stint in energy and detail. As ever, no one could turn down

Above: Ringo Starr and daughter, Lee Starkey, at the Concert for the Natural Law Party at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, in April of 1992. Lee had recovered from a brain tumor by 1995, but it returned in 2001. She went on to make a full recovery with the support of her family.

Left: Old friends . . . Ringo Starr and George Harrison at Heathrow Airport in London, 1990. George Harrison passed away in November of 2001, and Ringo performed “Photograph” at the concert in memory of his old friend.

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an invitation to play on a Beatle’s album, with cameos from country legend Willie Nelson, jazz veteran Charlie Haden, singer-songwriters Shawn Colvin and Van Dyke Parks, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles. Now 62, Ringo the singer was appreciably smoother on the ear than three decades previously. Even so, Ringo Rama failed to crack the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Two years later, Ringo and the Roundheads followed up the album with what had every appearance of being a continuation, albeit a shade less attention-seeking. Again, every song on the album, entitled Choose Love, was a Starkey/Hudson/sundry Roundheads’ composition, and its every drolly, clunky word celebrated nothing more nor less than His Ringoness, the aging rocker baffled by the speed of events and the world’s trickiness, but still clinging to the beat and his innate cheerfulness. He clung to his innate Beatleness, too, which his younger musicians audibly relished in their recreations of signature sounds, licks, and other Fab echoes. There were fewer guest cameos: Ringo’s fellow vegetarian rocker Chrissie Hynde, and, making one of his very last appearances on disk before his death at the end of 2005 after years of ill health, the veteran friend and occasional guest keyboardist of the Beatles both together and apart, Billy Preston. Happily, the song on which he played organ, “Oh My Lord,” is one of the album’s stand-outs, with a simple but irresistible melody to carry its devotional weight.

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Again, the latest Ringo album failed to light up the charts, but it was becoming evident that its maker was not too bothered; he had lost close friends and almost lost his daughter, and as he approached his seventieth birthday he was happy to count his blessings, which included the ability to make new music whenever the spirit moved him. However, whether the records sold or not, he would not slide back into the indifferent quality control that had blighted his wilderness years’ output. But just when Ringo seemed thoroughly settled into a stable creative groove that would make the most of what he had to offer as a recording artist forever in the giant shadow cast by his younger self, he and Mark Hudson—with whom he had cowritten 64 songs and who had coproduced 82 Ringo recordings—parted ways. Whether it was over letting down Ringo at short notice for a promotional tour with the Roundheads or an unbridgeable difference of opinion on how to arrange their next album collaboration, the reason for the split depended on who you believed in the statements each made afterward. Hudson’s latter account is given some credence by the way hit producer Dave Stewart entered the scene to “re-produce” the final Ringo-Hudson project, the 2008 album Liverpool 8. The former Eurythmics star also helped Ringo write the last-minute title song, which compressed the story of Ringo’s life—from his humble origins in probably the most impoverished district of the English port to fame and fortune—into words that wouldn’t tax the comprehension of a nine-year-old. Otherwise, much of Liverpool 8 lacks the easy warmth of its predecessors; the song “Gone Are the Days” has an edgy, anxious drive to reflect (not for the first time) Ringo’s self-quotation in the repeated phrase “It don’t come easy.” Surprisingly thoughtful, “Harry’s Song”—perhaps a tribute to his beloved stepfather Harry Graves—is a nostalgic song about nostalgia itself, and is followed by “Pasadobles,” which wistfully pursues the same feel and theme: a man looking back half a century to a lost world before rock ’n’ roll. Closing the album, “R U Ready?” jokily asks if the listener is “ready to face the final curtain,” offering, camouflaged in humor, a glimpse into Ringo’s spiritual beliefs, which he was happy to concede were “old hippy.” For all the fuss that surrounded its making and release, Liverpool 8 did not trouble the charts. But exactly two years later, just months shy of Ringo’s seventieth birthday, his album Y Not did just that, peaking just outside the U.S. top 50. A feat all the more remarkable for it being a Left: From left to right: Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Dhani Harrison, Olivia Harrison, Heather Mills, and Paul McCartney at the premiere of the “Concert for George,” a documentary film celebrating the music of George Harrison through performances by legendary musicians on September 24, 2003

Above: Album cover for Ringo Rama.

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Ringo always chose to embrace his past . . .

Above: Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart in a live performance of “Liverpool the Musical” at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, on January 12, 2008.

virtual self-production. A return to the little-help-from-his-friends method, Y Not features Dave Stewart, Benmont Tench, Don Was, Edgar Winter, Ben Harper, Richard Marx, and many more names from both the All-Starr Band and the Los Angeles studio scene. Helping out on guitar, Joe Walsh had bonded even tighter with Ringo as his brother-in-law, having married Barbara Bach’s sister, Marjorie (“He’s always been family but now he can’t say no!” jested Ringo when asked if the working relationship had changed). Paul was there to play bass on Ringo’s syrupy tribute to John, “Peace Dream,” but the most entertaining song on what was actually a dip in songwriting form after the long Mark Hudson run, was the duet with Joss Stone that closed the album, “Who’s Your Daddy,” a funny and raunchy addition to the genre of straying-guy/not-standing-for-it-gal soul-style stomper.

Celebrating Yesterday and Today Again almost two years to the day after Y Not ’s release, Ringo 2012, amusingly working-titled “Motel California,” felt like a simple continuation, featuring as it did many of the same personnel and a return of some other familiar figures. Not even half an hour long, and remaking two of the lesser songs from his 1973 eponymous chart-topper as well as wistfully improving on Liverpool 8 in another cowrite with Dave Stewart, “In Liverpool,” Ringo 2012 suggested that the loss of Mark Hudson spelled the end of a warm songwriting streak but not a consistent run of enjoyable if hardly world-beating albums. It made it to number 80 in the U.S. chart. Portraying Ringo on the cover giving what was by then his signature V-for-victory sign, Ringo 2012 started stompingly with “Anthem,” which then, typical of latter-day Ringo, burst into a song of earnest hippy striving before surrendering to a guitar solo quoting the Beatles’ “Day Tripper.” The glowing version of the Buddy Holly classic “Think It Over” added to Ringo’s trove of enjoyable tributes to the golden age of jukebox rock. Ringo himself, of course, is a historical monument, and his has been a struggle to find a working relationship with a past that will forever tower over the present. Ringo always chose to embrace his past, the more so as he has aged and lost friends with whom he’d shared that time. Though Ringo would always leave the deep thinking to others, he would surrender to no man in celebrating the good old days in a way that, rather than casting a shadow over the here and now, bathes it in golden sunshine. To put a smile on your face and a spring in your step, Ringo has always been the daddy.

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“

l naturally have a great

’

time, and that s the rhythm of my heart and

”

my soul.

—Ringo Starr

Left: Ringo celebrates his seventieth birthday in Times Square on July 7, 2010, in New York City.

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Index Page numbers in italics indicate photographs.

Abbey Road studios 17, 20–21, 27 Aerosmith 84 AIDS Crisis Trust Charity Auction, Christie’s, 1987 71 All Things Must Pass (Harrison) 22 Andrews, Nancy 46, 48 Anthology (the Beatles) 83–84 Apple 12, 20, 24 Apple Films 36, 39 Asher, Peter 82 Atlantic Records 52, 55 “Attention” (McCartney) 60 Aulin, Ewa 11 Autry, Gene 15 Axton, Hoyt 48

split 6, 17, 20, 27 see also under individual album and song title Beaucoups of Blues (Starr) 22–23, 22, 44, 65 Bee Gees 18 Bernstein, Elmer 18 Bissonette, Gregg 79 Blindman (movie) 23, 23 “Blue Suede Shoes” (TV show) 72 Boardwalk 64 Bolan, Marc 34, 35, 35, 36, 47 Bon Jovi 84 Bonham, John 39 Born to Boogie (movie) 35–36, 35 Bowie, David 37 Boyd, Pattie 44, 47, 52 British Steel 15 “Broken Wings” (Mr. Mister) 76 Brooker, Gary 64 Brookfield 26 Bruce, Jack 73 Burnette, Johnny 44

B

C

Bach, Barbara (wife) 58, 59, 61, 64, 71, 88, 90 Bach, Marjorie 90 Bachman, Randy 76, 77, 88 Back off Boogaloo (Starr) 36, 39, 85 Bad Boy (Starr) 55 Badfinger 12 Baker, Ginger 73 Band, the 47, 70, 73 Beatles, the: George Harrison quits 12 “Get Back” sessions 12, 18 “Red” and “Blue” compilation albums 44 Ringo feels left out of 8 Ringo leaves 9, 12

Candy (movie) 10, 11, 12 Capitol Records 17 Carmen, Eric 76 Carmichael, Hoagy 18 Caveman (movie) 56, 58, 59 Charles, Ray 52 Choose Love (Starr) 88 Clapton, Eric 47, 52, 53, 64, 72, 73, 87 Clemons, Clarence 74 Cocker, Joe 26 Coltrane, John 52 Colvin, Shawn 88 “Come and Get It” (McCartney) 12 Concert for Bangladesh, 1971 27, 28–29, 76 Concert for George, 2003 82, 87, 88

A

Concert for the Natural Law Party, 1992 87 Connelly, Ray 39 Cooler, The (minimovie) 64 Cooper, Alice 59 Cream 73 Crosby, Stills & Nash 26, 52 Cruikshank, Robin 15, 52

D Daltrey, Roger 48, 49 Danko, Rick 73, 75 Dark Horse 52 “Dead Giveaway” (Wood) 60 Delaney & Bonnie 26 “Devil Woman” (Starr) 44 Dickinson, Angie 55 Dolenz, Micky 41 Dr. John 73 Drake, Pete 22 “Drowning in the Sea of Love” (Simon) 55 Dylan, Bob 29, 85

E Eagles, the 64, 88 Earth Day Concert 85 “Easy for Me” (Nilssen) 48 Eckemyr, Agneta 23 Edmunds, Dave 72 Elton John 27, 35 Entwistle, John 64 Essex, David 39 “Evil Ways” (Santana) 76

F Faith, Adam 40 Fisher, Carrie 55

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Fishof, David 70 Flaming Pie (McCartney) 83, 84 Frampton, Peter 73, 73

G Gibb, Maurice 18 Gilmour, Dave 88 “Give It All Up” (Starr-Poncia) 55 Goodnight Vienna (Starr) 47, 48, 48, 52, 84

H Haden, Charlie 88 A Hard Day’s Night (movie) 35, 39 Harper, Ben 90 Harrison, George 22, 26, 44, 72, 86 Beatles split and 12, 17, 18, 20 confesses love for Ringo’s wife death 82, 87, 88 Maureen 44, 47 Ringo recordings and 26, 27, 36, 44, 47, 52, 60, 87 “Have You Seen My Baby” (Newman) 44 Helm, Levon 73, 78 Hentschel, David 52 “Hey! Baby” (Chanel) 52 “Hey Bulldog” (the Beatles) 48 Howard, Chuck 22 Hudson, Mark 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90 Hynde, Chrissie 88

I “I Call Your Name” (Lennon) 82 “I Can Help” (Swann) 65 I Wanna Be Santa Claus (Starr) 85 “I Won’t Back Down” (Petty) 82 “I’m the Greatest” (Lennon) 44, 47 “In a Heartbeat” (Warren) 82 “It Don’t Come Easy” (Starr) 26–27, 27

J Jagger, Mick 42 Jellyfish 82 Jones, Quincy 18 Jordanaires, the 22, 22

K Keltner, Jim 76, 78, 78, 82 Keys, Bobby 47 Kingston, Larry 22 Kirke, Simon 79, 85 Kisses on the Bottom (McCartney) 17 Klein, Allen 17, 23 Koch 87

L “La De Da” (Starkey/Hudson/ Grakal/Dudas) 84 The Last Waltz (movie) 70 “The Long and Winding Road” (Lennon-McCartney) 18 Led Zeppelin 17, 35, 39, 52 Lennon, John 8, 9, 18, 27, 40, 47, 84 Allen Klein and 17 Beatles split and 17, 20, 27 “Lost Weekend” 44 murder 60, 61, 64, 82, 90 Ringo leaving the Beatles and 9 songwriting for Ringo 44, 47, 48, 52, 60, 76 Let It Be (the Beatles) 18, 20, 44 “Life Begins at 40” (Lennon) 60 Lisztomania (movie) 48, 49 “Little Willow” (McCartney) 83 Liverpool 8 (Starr) 88, 90 “Liverpool the Musical” 90 “Livin’ on the Edge” (Aerosmith) 84 Lofgren, Nils 74 Los Angeles 27, 33, 48, 54, 62–63, 69, 84, 90 Lulu 37 Lynne, Jeff 82

M Magic Christian, The (movie) 10, 12, 12, 13 Magical Mystery Tour (movie) 7, 36, 39 Mardin, Arif 52, 55, 55 Martin, George 16, 16, 17, 18 Marx, Richard 90 McCartney, Linda 64, 84 McCartney, Paul 12, 18, 21, 27, 64, 76, 79

Beatles split and 9, 17, 19, 20, 27 fight with Ringo over release dates of solo albums 20 Harrison death and 87 marriage 17 Maureen Starkey death, reaction to 83 overbearing 9 solo albums 17, 20 songwriting for Ringo 19, 44, 52, 60, 83, 84, 90 Mercer, Johnny 18 Mercury Records 85, 87 Moman, Chips 65, 65 Moon, Keith 30, 33, 39, 40, 41, 59 Morissette, Alanis 84 Mothers of Invention 27–28 MTV 83

N Nashville 22 Nelson, Willie 88 “Never Without You” (Starr) 87 Nilsson, Harry 36, 36, 39, 41, 44, 47, 48, 60, 64 Nirvana 83 “No No Song” (Lennon) 48 “Nobody Told Me” (Lennon) 60

O “Octopus’s Garden” (Starr) 9 “Oh My Lord” (Hudson/Starr) 88 Old Wave (Starr) 64–65 “Only You” (the Platters) 48 Ono, Yoko 9, 17, 27, 60 Osbourne, Ozzy 84 “Our World” (live TV broadcast) 20–21

P Page, Jimmy 35 Parks, Van Dyke 88 “Peace Dream” (Starr) 90 Perkins, Carl 60, 70, 72, 87 Perry, Richard 18, 18, 44 Petty, Tom 82, 82, 84 “Photograph” (Starr) 47, 76, 87 Pickard, Sorrells 22 Plant, Robert 35

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Polydor 52 Poncia, Vini 52, 55 Porter, Cole 18 Portrait 64 Posies, the 82 Presley, Elvis 22, 65, 65 Preston, Billy 74, 88 Price, Vincent 55 Private Music 83 “Private Property” (McCartney) 60

R Ramone, Phil 82 “Really Love You” (McCartney/Starr) 83 Ring O’Records 52, 82 Ringo (Starr) 44, 47, 48 Ringo Rama (Starr) 87, 88, 89 Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band 70, 73, 74–75, 76, 78, 79, 79, 80–81, 82, 83, 85, 90 Ringo the 4th (Starr) 52, 54, 55 Ringo 2012 (Starr) 90 Rolling Stones, the 17, 47, 52, 55 Rory Storm and the Hurricanes 76 Rotogravure (Starr) 52, 52, 53, 84 Roundheads 84, 87, 88, 89 Russell, Leon 26 Russell, Ken 48

S Schmit, Timothy B. 88 Scorcese, Martin 70 Scouse the Mouse 66 Sellers, Peter 9, 10, 12, 13 Sentimental Journey (Starr) 17–18, 17, 20, 23, 26, 44 Sextette (movie) 59 Sheila E 79 Son of Dracula (movie) 36, 39, 42 Son of Schmilsson (Nilsson) 36 Southern, Terry 12, 13 Spector, Phil 18 Starkey, Lee (daughter) 87, 87 Starkey, Maureen (wife) 19, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 83, 83 Starkey, Tatia Jayne (granddaughter) 66, 66 Starkey, Zak (son) 19, 40, 66, 66, 79, 83

Starr, Ringo: acting 9, 10, 11, 12, 23, 30, 38, 39, 40, 44, 48, 49, 56, 58, 59 alcohol and 48, 68, 70, 73 All-Starr Band and 70, 73, 74–75, 76, 78, 79, 79, 80–81, 82, 83, 85, 90 Beatles, feels left out of 8 Beatles, leaves 9, 12 Beatles members and see under individual name Beatles split and 6, 17, 18, 20, 27 childhood 17 divorce 44, 45 family see under individual family member name movie production 36, 36, 39, 42, 44 Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and 76 vocal range 17, 52, 55, 88 see also under individual album and song title Stewart, Dave 89, 90 Stills, Stephen 26, 26, 47, 60 Stone, Joss 90 Stop and Smell the Roses (Starr) 60, 64 “Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses” (Nilssen) 64 “Sunshine Life for Me (Sail Away Raymond)” (Harrison) 47 “Sure to Fall” (Perkins) 60

T T. Rex 35 Tench, Benmont 90 That Will Be the Day (movie) 38, 39, 40 Thomas the Tank Engine 66, 67 Tigrett, Isaac 83 Time Takes Time (Starr) 82, 83, 84 Tittenhurst Park 40, 64 Tommy (movie) 39, 48, 53 Traveling Wilbury’s 82 Trident Studios 27 200 Motels (movie) 30, 31, 35, 39 Tyler, Steve 84

V Van Halen, Alex 78 Varèse, Edgard 30 Vertical Man (Starr) 84, 84, 85 VH1: Storytellers 85 Voorman, Klaus 18, 26

W Walsh, Joe 64, 75, 82, 84, 85, 90 Warman, Johnny 82, 84 Warren, Diane 84 Was, Don 82, 90 West, Mae 59 The Whale (Tavener) 52 “Where Did Our Love Go?” (the Supremes) 55 White Album (The Beatles) 9 Who, the 39, 40, 48 Wilson, Brian 82, 84 “Wine, Women and Loud Happy Songs” (Starr) 22 Winter, Edgar 90 “With a Little Help from My Friends” (LennonMcCartney) 76 “With a Little Help from My Friends” (TV show) 17 “Without Her” (Starr) 22 Woodstock (movie) 30

Y Y Not (Starr) 89–90 “Yellow Submarine” (Lennon-McCartney) 66, 76 Yes 52 “You’re Sixteen” (Starr) 44 “You’ve Got a Nice Way” (Stills) 60

Z Zappa, Frank 27, 28, 30, 31, 35

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Picture Credits Special thanks to Bruce Spizer (www.beatle.net), author of The Beatles Solo on Apple Records for use of the following images: p17, Sentimental Journey album p22, Beaucoups of Blues album p27, “It Don’t Come Easy” single sleeve p39, Back off Boogaloo album p49, Good Night Vienna album p52, Ringo’s Rotogravure album p55, Ringo the 4th album p60, Stop and Smell the Roses album p76, Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band, Volume 1 album p79, Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band, Limited Edition album p82, Time Takes Time album p84, Vertical Man album p89, Ringo Rama album

Alamy

p8, Beatles at men’s store, © Pictorial Press Ltd. / Alamy p11, Ringo Starr and Ewa Aulian, © Interfoto / Alamy p24, Ringo at his office, © Trinity Mirror Pix / Mirrorpix / Alamy p26, Crosby, Stills & Nash, © Pictorial Press Ltd. / Alamy p28-29, Concert for Bangladesh, © Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy p38, Ringo starring in That Will Be the Day, © Trinity Mirro Pix / Mirrorpix / Alamy p42, Ringo Starr and Maureen Starkey, © Daily Mail / Rex / Alamy p46, Ringo Starr and Nancy Andrews, © Daily Mail / Rex / Alamy p49, Ringo playing the Pope in Lisztomania, © AF archive / Alamy p50, Ringo playing drums on Dutch TV, © Pictorial Press Ltd. / Alamy p77, Randy Bachman, © Paul McKinnon / Alamy

Associated Press

p18, Richard Perry, © Lennox McLendon / Associated Press p31, Ringo Starr and Frank Zappa, © Associated Press p45, Ringo and Maureen at the airport, © AP / Associated Press p54, Ringo relaxing at home with a drink, © RRS / Associated Press p65, Elvis Presley and Chips Moman, © Associated Press

Corbis

p61, Ringo and Barbara Bach leaving the Dakota, © Bettmann/CORBIS

Getty

p4, Ringo playing the drums, © Rob Verhorst / Redferns p7, Ringo filming Magical Mystery Tour, © David Redfern/Staff/Redferns p10, Movie poster for Candy, © GAB Archive / Redferns p14, Ringo at preview for “Steel”, © Central Press/ Stringer / Getty Images p16, Ringo Starr and George Martin, © Photoshot / Contributor / Hulton Archive p19, Ringo with Maureen and Zak Starkey, © Keystone-France / Gamma Keystone via Getty Images p22, The Jordanaires, © Michael Ochs Archives/ Stringer p23, Ringo Starr and Agneta Eckemyr in Blindman, © Getty Images / Archive Photos / Stringer p30, Movie poster for 200 Motels, © Redferns p33, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon, © Michael Ochs Archives / Stringer p34, Marc Bolan performing at Empire Pool, © Estate of Keith Morris / Redferns p35, Ringo Starr and Marc Bolan in Born to Boogie, © Estate of Keith Morris / Redferns

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p36, Harry Nilsson, © Michael Putland / Getty Images p37, Ringo Starr, Lulu, David Bowie, and Edgar Broughton, © John Rodgers / Redferns p47, Bobby Keys © Estate of Keith Morris / Redferns p55, Arif Mardin at Atlantic Studios © Bobby Bank / WireImage p66, Ringo Starr, Zak Starkey and daughter, © Terry O’Neill / Getty Images p67, Ringo Starr and Thomas the Tank Engine, © Terry O’Neill / Getty Images p69, Ringo at the Greek Theatre, © Ron Galella / WireImage p72, Ringo, George Harrison, and others at the Carl Perkins benefit, © Terry O’Neill / Getty Images p73, Peter Frampton, © Denis O’Regan / Getty Images p74-75, Ringo with Clarence Clemons, Billy Preston, etc., © Ron Galella / WireImage p78, Ringo with Alex Van Halen, Levon Holm, Jim Keltner, © Robert Knight Archive / Redferns p81, Ringo performing in Paris, © Rob Verhorst / Redferns p82, Ringo Starr with Tom Petty, © Frazer Harrison / Getty Images p85, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney at Earth Day Concert, © Ron Galella / WireImage p88, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Olivia Harrison, etc. © L. Cohen / WireImage p91, Ringo at his 70th birthday party, © Ben Hider / Getty Images

Rex

The Image Works

All reasonable attempts have been made to contact the copyright holders of all images.

P13, The Magic Christian © TopFoto / The Image Works P35, Marc Bolan on a tiger © Ronald Grant Archive / Mary Evans / The Image Works

P10, Ringo and Peter Sellers © Rex USA P21, Ringo and Paul McCartney © David Magnus / Rex USA P41, Ringo, Harry Nilsson, Micky Dolenz, and Keith Moon © James Fortune / Rex / Rex USA P44, Ringo, George Harrison, Maureen Starkey, and Pattie Boyd © Bill Howard / Evening News / Rex USA P53, Ringo and Eric Clapton © Rex USA P56, Ringo, Dennis Quaid, and Shelley Long © c.United / Everett / Rex USA P62-63, Ringo performing at the Greek Theatre © Andre Csillag / Rex USA P71, Ringo with Barbara Bach © Richard Young / Rex USA P83, Maureen Starkey © Richard Young / Rex USA P86, Ringo and George Harrison embrace © Dennis Stone / Rex USA P87, Ringo and daughter, Lee © Richard Young / Rex USA P90, Ringo and Dave Stewart performing © Brian Rasic / Rex USA

Tracks (Memorabilia)

P12, Movie poster for The Magic Christian P58, Movie poster for Caveman

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

P49, Roger Daltrey and Ringo Starr in Lisztomania (Licensed by: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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A division of Book Sales, Inc. 276 Fifth Avenue, Suite 206 New York, New York 10001 RACE POINT PUBLISHING and the distinctive Race Point Publishing logo are trademarks of Book Sales, Inc. © Mat Snow 2013 All photographs from the publisher’s collection, unless otherwise noted on page 95. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by Apple Corps Ltd. or Ringo Starr or his representatives. This is not an official publication. We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. ISBN (4-volume set): 978-1-5526-7936-4 Author: Mat Snow Project editor: Jeannine Dillon Copyeditor: Steve Burdett Interior designer: Rosamund Saunders Cover designer: Brad Norr/bradnorrdesign.com Front and back cover illustration: Brad Norr Printed in China 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.racepointpub.com

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