Michael Parkinson: What Was Sad Too Was The Way It Drove A Wedge Between Your Relationship, You And John

Who is the weirdest Beatle?

They all were 💖

I am a big fan of @orphanbeat's analysis. They really all were different types of weird, and I adore them for it.

Ringo is the sort of kooky uncle/grandpa that makes strange mspaint art that stirs up feelings of profound awe and fear and falls asleep in the middle of the family bbq and eats broccoli for breakfast.

George is a strange little gremlin. A gnome living in your garden. The scarecrow on the farm. The philosopher that lives in a cave to recieve visions from God but emerges every other hour for a snack.

Paul is a bizarre man. Throat kissed by an angel. Too much energy stuffed in a human form, and his seams are about to snap at any given moment. He hops onto a stage and you see those threads strain. He's not quite attached to the earth. This is his brain, but it's always in motion.

John is a weird raccoon man. A crazy cat lady. Something a grandmother would knit on a weekday morning. A trembling teacup of emotion. Take the calming painting in your therapist's office and put it inthe microwave... John is the result. He is a gangly puppet that will offer you his strings himself.

the ending of Now and Then is identical to the ending of Wait

I'm going to END MYSELF

there's a story.

it's a sad one, this.

it starts - well, it's hard to say when it starts. maybe it started way before music was even a thing. maybe it started before time itself. maybe it doesn't have a start: suddenly everything just fell into place when those two teenagers sat in front of each other with guitars on their laps and played music for the first time. but, on record, one can say it really starts to be told out loud in the middle, towards the end. that's when it starts to truly be spoken of, sang of, wide open, undeniable. almost a cry for attention, for communication, "look, now i'm going to sing about this", because when everything else fails, they had music - they have always had music.

so it starts right before the big plot twist, before the season finale, before the breakup. or it starts right after that. nobody truly knows, really. real life stories are not divided in seasons, and this one is real. very, very real, very human. either way, this story starts to be told with two of us. it starts towards the end, but cries for the beginning, for the very beginning.

We're on our way home We're going home You and I have memories That stretches out ahead

and then, it goes on, it goes on to plead, to beg, scream, to desperately reach:

Oh! Darling, if you leave me I'll never make it alone Believe me when I beg you Don't ever leave me alone

the story sees confusion, it sees defeat, it sees someone who wants. someone who is trying, but failing because they don't know the way. someone who needs, who desperately needs, but doesn't know how to ask. they were on their way back home, but now, they've lost the way, they can't find the road. or, rather, the road is there, but it's all foggy. where's home? but they're trying. the many ways i've tried.

The wild and windy night That the rain washed away Has left a pool of tears Crying for the day Why leave me standing here? Let me know the way

it sees heartbreak.

I don't believe in Beatles I just believe in me Yoko and me And that's reality The dream is over What can I say?

it sees anger,

That was your first mistake You took your lucky break and broke it in two. Now what can be done for you? You broke it in two.

A pretty face may last a year or two But pretty soon they'll see what you can do The sound you make is muzak to my ears You must have learned something all those years

and desperation, always desperation, a need to know, please tell me why-

Well, I wake up in the morning, I'm still dreaming 'bout you Tell you, pretty baby, I'm blue Wake up in the evening, I'm still screaming out Over you, over you Well, tell me why, why, why do you treat me so bad, so bad When you're the best friend a man ever had?

and questions, a perpetual need to know, followed by a perpetual failure to ask-

Dear friend, throw the wine I'm in love with a friend of mine Really truly, young and newly wed Are you afraid, or are you blue?

and apologies - because they were just lost. lost. and frightened. why? because i was afraid of losing you. am i afraid? yes, i am. are you blue? yes. yes i am.

I was feeling insecure You might not love me anymore I was shivering inside I was shivering inside Oh, I didn't mean to hurt you I'm sorry that I made you cry Oh no, I didn't want to hurt you I'm just a jealous guy

and the story, after all of that, sees understanding. it's because i couldn't speak, and neither could you. but i know now. and it's getting better all the time.

And I know and I'm sorry (yes I am) But I never could speak my mind [...] And I know and I'm guilty (yes I am) But I never could read your mind I know what I was missing But now my eyes can see I put myself in your place As you did for me Today, I love you more than yesterday Right now, I love you more right now

and, after so long, it sees the spring coming after a long winter. a friend that will never fade away, a love that will never disappear.

You want a friend you can rely on One who will never fade away And if you're searching for an answer Stick around, I say It's coming up, it's coming up It's coming up, like a flower

and finally, it goes back to where it first started when they sang it aloud, open and clear, in two of us: there's pleading for the start, for the past, we have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead, let's go back to that road, let's walk it again, let's escape, you and me. we've been through it all, we've been apart for far too long, it's okay now, we're okay now, i miss you, let's get it together, let's walk that road again like we used to. let's get back home. because when i see you, it's like we both are falling in love again.

It's time to spread our wings and fly Don't let another day go by my love It'll be just like starting over Startin' over Why don't we take off alone Take a trip somewhere far, far away We'll be together all alone again Like we used to in the early days

and then there's a bright future ahead. there is. hapiness and promises. for love, for acceptance, for family. i'm okay now, i can handle this, i want to see my kid growing up. and we can start over. it is coming up, like a flower. it's getting better all the time.

Before you go to sleep Say a little prayer Every day in every way It's getting better and better

and there's: i want to spend the rest of my life with you. whatever happens. i want to look you in the eye when we're eighty and make sure you know i love you just as much.

Grow old along with me Whatever fate decrees We will see it through For our love is true

and then. well.

then the story sees tragedy. unexplicable, cruel, devastating tragedy. unjustifiable loss. it sees, for the first time, not music but silence for a while, silence.

just silence and hidden-away, chest-aching sobs.

and then it sees music again. this time to mourn. it's not two of us, it's the one who remains. the one who wishes the other was here. always, always reaching for the start.

But as for me I still remember how it was before And I am holding back the tears no more I love you

now, music is still desperate, still trying to reach. but, now, it will never be able to get to the other side. or is it?

in real life, we don't have happy endings all the time. most of the time we don't. we're left with what ifs. what if. what if i had been braver. what if i was born a girl. what if. what if. could we have been together? could i have saved you?

What opportunities did we allow to flow by Feeling like like the timing wasn't quite right? What kind of magic might have worked if we had stayed calm, Couldn't I have given you a better life?

it's a story of what if. what if whatever fate decrees had been different? was it fate who decreed it? could i have given you a better life? because you deserved a better life. you did.

and it keeps coming back to it: the past, the desire to still be on that road going back home. going back home. we'll be together all alone again like we used to in the early days / i live through those early days

And they can't take it from me, if they try I live through those early days So many times I had to change the pain to laughter Just to keep from getting crazy

and then, and then, the story sees magic, sees love, as it has always done. so much love. it keeps seeing love. after sorrow, after darkness, love. even though fate was mean, even though it's sad: the love is still here. the love never left. a love so true it endures. it endures in song and it endures in the way paul keeps talking about john to this day, reafirming it, making sure people know. whatever fate decrees, our love is true. will forever be.

there's a story.

it's one that is so real. so painstakingly human. as beautiful as it is sad. it's all there, in the music, in the silence, in the words and in the what ifs. music speaks when they don't. music reaches. it reaches. it has always done so. always for them. they changed the world just with how much their music reached each other. and you’re in my song.

And if I say I really loved you And was glad you came along Then you were here today For you were in my song

there's a story, the story of a love so strong it changed the world.

it's like you and me are lovers.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1978)

With apologies to Fleetwood Mac fans, who probably knew all this: I was just thinking about how Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is one of the greatest albums of the 20th century and yet I somehow consume Fleetwood Mac like normal people presumably consume media, ie I have listened to them to death but know nothing about them. Ten minutes later was in a deep dive about how apparently their early guitarist, Jeremy Spencer, left the band to join mad cult The Family/Children of God — like, okay?? — and found this ASTONISHING piece of fanfiction (at least it seems a complete departure from reality) he apparently wrote in the early 90s: https://www.xfamily.org/images/a/a8/TSM2_Jeremy_Spencer-s_Traumatic_Testimony.pdf

The salient bit:

"I encountered one of the most shocking examples of gross Sodomy when I was in Fleetwood Mac. Mick Fleetwood's wife & the woman who was George Harrison's wife at that time were sisters. (George Harrison was the guitarist of the Beatles.) Often these sisters would go together to the big parties that the Beatles threw. One morning while I was talking to Mick, his wife came into the room & was bragging about the party she had gone to the night before & how groovy it was & said that Eric & Paul & George were having a "scene" on the couch. (A "scene" meant having sex together.) That meant that Eric Clapton, George Harrison & Paul McCartney (famous rock singers) were having a homosexual threesome on the couch! I was shocked! I looked at Mick Fleetwood & he said, "What's wrong with you? What's the matter with you?" I said, "That's disgusting! I don't think that's right!" He said, "Come on! I wouldn't mind having a 'scene' with Eric, George & Paul!"

Absolute scenes tbh. It’s the COMBINATION which gets me. McClapison. WHY

Three camera angle set-up of John singing “and if somebody love me like she does” while looking at Paul because why not?

Happy B-Day, George!

(and happy super late b-day to yoko too ig)

Martha spent a lot of her time snuffling after Thisbe the cat. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a group of Athenian workmen - the 'mechanicals' - led by Bottom the weaver, attempt to stage a play called Pyramus and Thisbe. The Beatles performed a short extract from this play within a play for the Jack Good TV show Around the Beatles in May 1964. John played Thisbe, Paul played Pyramus, George was Moonshine and Ringo appeared as Lion. Thisbe was to feature in a number of Paul's home movies, peering round doors and jumping down steps; she was soon joined by three more of her kind.

PAUL: I had a litter of cats called Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Jesus ran off, Joseph stuck around for a long time, and Mary had kittens. We put the kittens in this little box and I remember me and Brian Jones stayed up all night, looking at the kittens. I got the word 'God' from three symbols on the side of the box: one of them was a moon, the G; О was the sun, and the star was like the D. And somehow it read, 'God'. I had this live-in couple called the Kellys who would wake you up early in the morning like everything was just going normally and we had just stayed up all night and it was like, 'Go away please!' It was just amazing because we were actually watching what went on. Instead of saying, 'Oh yes, we've got kittens, ain't they marvellous? There they are, cuddly cuddly, now I'm going to go and do something important,' we took five hours with these kittens. Now they call it 'Stop and smell the flowers'. They say you should do more things like that in a stressful life.

— paul mccartney: many years from now, by barry miles

(in the Little Girl Tape starting from around 7:40 you can hear Paul talking about the kittens - who were born in May '67 - and their mom Thisbe)

Paul: When you told me John: When you told me Paul: You didn't need me anymore John: You'll never leave me Paul: You know, I nearly broke down and die

John and Paul: we did not have this conversation before. This song is totally fictional and not about us breaking up at all.

This soulful jamming reminds me of their "Oh Johnny, Johnny" "improvisations". Also John proceeds to talk about Yoko's divorce, sticking it in where it hurts. (Chap really knows how to rub it in).

THE JAMES PAUL MCCARTNEY SHOW (1973)