More ✨McLennon✨!!!!

McLennon for sure.

John’s “not that I care” series on Paul’s arrest according to Dakota Days by John Green

Instead of quoting the whole chapter, which i admit, is very tempting, I have decided to just post mini quotes of every time that John tells his psychic that he doesn’t really care about Paul’s arrest in 1980.

Here we go. I’ll start with this introduction from the book:

The Lennons were still maintaining separate living quarters and separate interests when they heard the news of Paul McCartney’s arrest. Paul had been arrested for trying to smuggle marijuana into Japan while visiting there to perform in a concert tour.  

Yoko worried that the news of Paul’s arrest might throw John back into the old depression. But when I talked to him over the phone one afternoon a few days after the incident, his voice held no depression, only righteous indignation and sympathy for Paul. (p, 229)

“It’s lousy, Charles. Typical, but lousy. Some petty official probably needed a promotion and set Paul up to get it. Not that I have great love for the man, you understand. (…) If he wanted his smoke, you know he wouldn’t have had to carry it on his own person” (p. 229 - 230)

“Paul’s been busted before, you know. Ths is only going to make life more difficult for him. Not that I care, but it’s just the meanness of the thing that irks me. “ (p. 230)

“So what are they holding him for? That’s just the work of some power-mad little creep showing off to the world, knowing that the longer he holds Paul the longer he is important”

“For someone you claime not to care about you seem awfully upset”

“It’s the injustice of the thing that upsets me. (…) Maybe it affects me a little more because it’s Paul, and I know him, and he’s a musician, but I doubt it. It would bother me no matter who they got”. (P. 231)

“You don’t think they are mistreating him, do you, Charles?”

“Aside from the fact that they are holding him in a jail cell, I doubt that there is any mistreatment”

“That’s good. Not that I really care, you understand, but I wouldn’t want to think they are abusing him in any way”

“You keep telling me how much you don’t care. I begin to wonder if it’s true”

“Of course I care! Not that I want to, but you can’t know a person as intimately as I’ve known Paul and not care. I’m pissed at him, and have been for years, but that’s my private war with him” (p, 234)

Two days later Paul was released. The concert had been canceled and he and Linda left Japan immediately. John greeted the news with a great sigh of relief. 

“I’m glad that’s over. I feel like I’ve been keeping a vigil for him. Not that I care, you understand” (p. 238)

And that is the series of Not That I Care by John Lennon. I just find it amusing and endearing, and thought i’d share. 

Please keep in mind that this has been sourced from Dakota Days by John Green. Many people consider him an unreliable source. Others, like myself, stand in the middle. There is no arguing that when it comes to insiders, he could be considered one. I believe his insight could be valuable, but at the same time I completely understand why people might feel differently. That said, enjoy! Bwahahahahaha 

McLennon

John & Paul , 1964

I just love this one

Get Back Narrative

I’ve received a couple of asks seeking clarification regarding my earlier post about how the Get Back documentary was redefining the Beatle narrative.

I’ll try to summarize. 

1. Media articles like this, this and this regarding Ono’s presence. While it’s obvious that the band was heading toward dissolution with or without Ono’s presence, Ono’s continued presence in the studio, her unsolicited participation in band business (no, she didn’t just sit there and read, as some would claim), and her willingness to speak on John’s behalf is hardly exculpatory. Even Time magazine, which at least attempted a more considered analysis of the Beatle break-up era, claimed, after watching Get Back, that ‘Yoko’s presence was not a huge negative factor, and that none of the band members appear much bothered by her constant presence; they joke and talk with her comfortably”.  This is a shocking claim, given that a) the documentary clearly depicts the deleterious effect of Yoko’s presence upon band members during the failed meeting at George’s house, and b) George, Paul, and Ringo have all gone on record regarding their discomfort in Ono’s presence and the disruptive nature of her involvement in band business. 

(As an aside, I would also like to know in what workplace, no matter how creative or unorthodox, it would be acceptable to bring your lover or spouse to work everyday and insist that the presence of that person was absolutely benign.)  

2. The exclusion of information which would provide context to behaviour, such as John and Yoko’s heroin addiction. “By the advent of the “Get Back” sessions, Ono openly joked about taking heroin being the couple’s form of exercise”).  This was excluded in the Get Back documentary and, as a consequence, from mainstream media. Obviously the inclusion of this information would more accurately contexualize John’s behaviour in the band, including his insistence on Yoko’s presence.  

Another compelling piece of information that was not included in the documentary was that Patti Harrison briefly left George around the time of George’s departure from the band.  Since there was no mention of this event during filming, Peter Jackson decided not to share it, claiming he didn’t want to make any “moral judgements.” To whatever extent his brief estrangement from Patti affected George’s judgement we’ll never know (George didn’t even mention it in his diary of that day), but its exclusion in the documentary is regrettable. 

3.  Editorial Choices by the filmmaker.  Peter Jackson has gone on record that he was not influenced by Ringo or Paul, and nor by Olivia or Yoko at any point in the making of the Get Back Documentary. And there’s no reason not to believe him.  But:  the Get Back documentary reflects his editorial choices–what he believed was important to leave in, and what he believed was acceptable to leave out.  As Erin Torkelson Weber indicated in this earlier post, “the reality is that, without unrestricted access to the hundreds of hours of actual audio and visual tapes Hogg and Jackson used to make their films, fans are still being offered only someone else’s interpretation/vision/translation of the primary source material…so we have to rely on evidence that has already been framed and filtered.” 

And that reality–that we are watching someone’s else’s version of the truth, has escaped mainstream media and a certain cohort of Beatle fans who either find the Get Back version of the Beatle break-up era more commensurate with their own beliefs, or simply don’t know any better. 

What wsa the objection to this hairstyle? I just don't get it.

the look

Nice

Paul McCartney | September 1962 © Les Chadwick

Cute

Referring to the Liverpool Institute’s February, 1960, production of Saint Joan:

Fred Bilson (L.I. teacher): “Macca was in the jury in the trial scene. For reasons too tedious and shaming to repeat, he had to wear a 'cozzie' which was a black dressing gown covered in gold cut-out suns and moons—a magician’s outfit. He thought it was cool.”

— “Tales from the Inny” Beatlology Magazine (Vol 4 No. 1, Sept/Oct 2001)

nobody can deny that there's something there (mclennon modern AU fanfic)

Summary: On the cusp of their popularity, John and Paul are caught in a compromising position.

Chapter 1: look at you all see the love there that’s sleeping (George POV)

Chapter 2: all I gotta do is act naturally (Ringo POV)

Chapter 3: When I think of things we did it makes me wanna cry (Paul POV)

Chapter 4: Hey you've got to hide your love away (John POV)

It’s such a feelin’ that my love                                   I can’t hide…