Beatles Biography by Mark Lewisohn (6th edition)- plus Lewisohn news. *

Good detective work. Yes, there is a good chance that some other type of entity could continue once Paul is gone. It will get very complicated in the future (especially if the family does not want to do this any longer, or if there are different factions within the family that have differing ideas on what to do), so it is good to set the ground rules now.

 

I really would love to just see a list of the Beatles memorabilia that Paul has purchased.

I really really would love it if he published a photo book -- both personal photos he took and pics he's "hoovered up" (great phrase, by the way!) that other people shot.

I agree. I think he'll probably split it all up between different archives/museums. Some of it will go to Liverpool. Some will go to the British museum. And some will go to the U.S. Library of Congress -- where all the stuff Paul has about the band's history in America should go. (He certainly shouldn't give it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which took its "f--king time" in honoring him.) Plus Paul has the bass from Elvis' bass player and that, too, should go to some place in the U.S.

 

I see

 

Yes but you only know the Mark he lets you see. He's not going to share his dirty laundry and tawdry secrets with you.

 

You should see us on a night out in Soho

 

Well, I certainly hope Lennon's copy sounded better than the vinyl boot I got in 1973.
Definitely low low-fi!

 

Paul's seen what has been done to John - people taking some of John's bad aspects/events and making that out to be all John was about in the tabloids and '10 nasty things about John' lists. I don't blame Paul for living in the now (for the most part). No need to wallow back to the times of the bog constantly. Personally, these guys don't owe us the story of their lives.

Would I like to read their diaries? I can't even get through Lennon's book of letters. And sometimes the body of work produced (the Beatles' ouevre) is far more interesting than the actual hindsight point of views that its creators can muster up. If there's one band that anyone would want to know every detail about, of course it's the Beatles, but I'd imagine that Paul and Ringo are going to be taking their fair share of personal knowledges and 'secrets' with them. It's the only modicum of privacy they have left.

 

All they need is ABCKO?

 

The bootleg version that Lennon got was in late 1971. And John couldn't remember exactly what the material was. He thought it was the Decca Audition (as opposed to BBC radio recordings):

 

I have never seen this before and it's such a site to see.
December 1971 John sent a warm and meaningful Christmas present to Paul and didn't us in the the BeatleFandomWorld think that at that time these two would kill each other on sight?
It's a shame that Lennon isn't alive today, would love to have seen how these two would have waltzed their way out.

 

Yes: Literally by the time that How Do You Sleep was released (or shortly thereafter), John and Paul had pretty much made up. Sure, they likely did not always see eye to eye, but any disagreements would be private, between the two behind closed doors..

 

As it probably should be (as much as I'd be perfectly happy to read all about it).

 

Is there any way to hear these without having to download them?

 

I don't think there is, no.
The one big tantalizing quote from Mark at the end of part four is "I think when people read volume two, when it comes out... people will be pretty shocked, I think, pretty shocked, yeah"

 

The Harrison and McCartney families seemed to be on friendly terms. They even let Stella sit in George's car:

 

Who conducted the podcast? I find it very odd that a podcast can only be downloaded via a blog website.

 

SHOCKING!!!

 

Yes, I certainly will be shocked because most people don't think that he ever will complete Volume Two!

 

That might be your perception of him, but I don't think that's true. Like John, George wasn't the one who created the image of this quiet spiritual man. He flatout said he was a poor example of a spiritual person, that he was just an ordinary man, and was uncomfortable with the media trying to paint him as a saint. Olivia has said multiple times that he was actually very hard on himself and always described himself as a sinner. George simply wanted his privacy which is perfectly reasonable considering what The Beatles went through and continue to go through. I'm not sure what you mean by "exposed" either because for years George has been described as a grump who didn't suffer fools gladly and was a womaniser, and his talents are often put down -- look at Geoff Emerick's book. Even when he died there were extremely nasty things written about him. I think it's safe to say Olivia and Dhani of all people are not concerned with how George compared to John and Paul or whether or not he had enough talent.

If anything, Paul and Ringo are more at risk because they're known to be happy-go-lucky types, and Jane and Maureen both stayed quiet about how they were treated.

 

I agree. They've given us more than enough already as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, I'd honestly rather not know everything because I think it's important for there to be a barrier between the artist and fans. As you say, the music they made both as The Beatles and as solo artists is plenty interesting and revealing by itself.

 

Shocked...and stunned.

 

Oh yeah, I've never seen tension outside of the issues George and Paul had. It seems like they have a nice relationship:

"It was a wild New York night at Alice Tully Hall for Lincoln Center’s second annual Corporate Fund gala: designer Stella McCartney was honored with a Q&A by Jerry Seinfeld that she never could have expected, followed by a swanky dinner with vegetarian menu and lots and lots of stars. It was also a weirdly warm Beatles semi-reunion that had Yoko Ono getting hugs and kisses from Paul and Nancy McCartney, Olivia Harrison and her son Dhani, as well as Stella [...] And then a surprise of Dhani Harrison, son of George and Olivia, performing ‘Love of My Life,’ an Everly Brothers song (Stella’s favorite) as well as rocking ‘Live and Let Die’ with his band […] Dhani Harrison summed up the tone for the whole night. On stage he said he [was] there ‘to honor my big sister.’ Afterwards he [said], ‘Stella has looked out for me my whole life.’" - [x] (2014)

STELLA MCCARTNEY: I loved [Living in the Material World]. Martin Scorsese is a genius. Olivia Harrison is a ****ing cool chick. I wanted to cry when Dhani was reading out George's parts. I thought it was really a beautiful tribute to an amazing man. It's really important that people know more about George, because obviously he didn't get as much attention as the others.
[...]
INT: Is there a children-of-The Beatles thing?
STELLA: Yeah, we're all family. We're all related deep down.
INT: And a children-of-children-of-The Beatles thing?
STELLA: I don't know about that. We haven't done that quite yet. They're all too little. But there will be. We just need to all get together. But there's definitely enough children of children of Beatles. Ringo's daughter Lee [Starkey] just had triplets. Jay [Starkey], her brother, has got four boys. Dhani will have children soon, I'm sure. He's like the little brother. (2012)

 

This is from the Let It Be Beatles website:

Since September 1992, Let It Be Beatles has broadcast each week all things Beatles from Melbourne, Australia on Stereo 974. Graeme Dickenson and his panel keep listeners up to date with news and all manner of fascinating recordings from the Beatles, together and solo. It's a pleasure to finally offer the show to folks across the globe as a podcast.

 

Please don't misunderstand what I said - I deliberately did not make any judgemnts at all. When I say "for all we know", that's not a guess about what is, it's a statement about how people watching interviews only ever hear the side that's presented by the person being interviewed. You, me and everyone else will be different depending upon who we are with. In my whole life, only one person gets to see my vulnerable side. Most people think I'm hyper-confident, but I'm extremely shy - and only one person is ever allowed to see the real me. That's my choice. In my whole life only one person has ever earned that right. Everyone else sees a different person. So the point is, when we read about Mark's experience, we're only hearing his interpretation that he presents to us - just like with everyone and all things; that's not specific to Mark. No one is a neutral blank slate, and we can't know the intricacies of personal chemistry that make one person hate us while another person loves us.

When we read about history, we always think things are linear: "Mark was accused of leaking & giving away secrets, so George hated him and Olivia carried that on". That's nice and tidy, but for all we know someone else in Mark's life could've said the wrong thing to the wrong person, and that could've coloured other people's relationships and led to a complicated breakdown of different relationships. It's always far more messy than the clean narratives people present in interviews.

None of this is in any way a negative comment about Mark, as I made clear in my first comment about this.

 

Shocked that it's out? Agree.