"John was the boss Beatle" Billy Preston

Was a little surprised by Billy Preston's statement that John was "the boss" since Billy joined the band in 1969 when Paul was more actively involved in the bands day to day affairs.
He did call Paul the "most musically knowledgeable" member of the Beatles.
These can be heard at 3:45 and 7:00 in this Q&A session from 1996.

I remember someone who was around during the Abbey Rd sessions saying he thought the other Beatles were afraid of John.

Great to see Billy Preston again in this clip.

 

I'm not surprised by that contention. Billy could see right in front of his nose that the others were tip-toeing around John & Yoko. Paul may have acted like the producer but John still had the veto power, even if by merely being silent much of the time.

 

Im not sure "boss" is meant in that way. I think its more like "Man, that is *boss*". Meaning John was the hip/coolest Beatle. The one who had the "it" the most.

 

nothing new...we all knew that from the beginning...John in my eyes was always the leader and my fav from day one...as well as my Mom's.

 

I thought he meant that John was cast in the role of Boss Hog on Dukes of Hazard, but was unfortunately murdered before filming started.

 

Maybe he meant John was the "Hoss Beatle"?

 

By gosh, you may have something there.

Me, I was thinking William M. "Boss" Tweed, of Tammany Hall fame. John did later make NYC his adopted home. Coincidence? I think not...

 

John probably was the boss and that's why it fell apart when John was "distracted."

 

Everyone in the Beatles camp could see Paul, George and Ringo were tip toeing around John & Yoko. Except for John & Yoko who either didn't notice or didn't care.

I agree John was the boss of The Beatles. He put the band together. And in 1969 he ended it.

 

Wish he'd exercised it then on 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'.

 

There's a great book I've been reading called "You Never Give Me Your Money" by Peter Doggett about the Beatles breakup.
Gives a lot of insight into just how important John Lennon was to the band. The other 3 were basically in awe of him and he was there leader. So much so that they even tried (especially Paul) to accept Yoko being "in the band."

 

I thought Springsteen was the BOSS?

 

No.

 

From what I have read about this Beatles period, John was more a "primadonna" than a boss.

 

Billy first met them in Hamburg in 1961 or 62, and I'm sure John probably seemed like the boss then, too.

 

This was always my belief as well...

 

That's true in the early days. You can thank "H" and" Oh no ! " for the Lennon that didn't look interested in taking the lead (I'm assuming that's what "bossing" the other Beatles meant) on anything Beatle related the last years.

 

This is what he was talking about, not 1969.

 

Thanks for posting; that was a very interesting interview, and one that I had never seen before.

Billy seemed like such a wonderful and fun person, and he had some interesting insights into the Beatles. I found his story about Paul calling him and saying 'I didn't know that you wrote 'You Are So Beautiful' funny.

 

I think Billy meant that John was the moss Beatle because she sure as heck wasn't a Rolling Stone.

 

Certainly more so than in 1969.

 

John went through a passive, LSD-influenced phase from 1966-1968: he could still create but he became comparatively laid-back and easy-going. This made him 'easier' to work with - a lot of people have commented on how 'together' the Beatles seemed during the recording of Pepper, even though one of them was calling most of the shots.

John 'kicked off' again during the recording of the White Album/Hey Jude/Revolution and it was around this point that the others started 'tiptoeing' around him. Paul has acknowledged that John always had final power of veto over everything, including the fate of the band. I think it was Paul's apparent 'appropriation' of this power of veto (where the public was concerned) that really hurt him.

 

Or, you could instead thank something called "realizing you're a grown-up and no longer want to live in a real-life version of the movie HELP!"

 

Honey Pie, Wild Honey Pie, etc.

 

George had wanted out for years... it wasn't gonna last much longer no matter how much you want to exclusively blame John (and Yoko).

George said he was ready to pack it in after the tour with the Manila concert.

Plus he said once he started hanging with Clapton and Dylan who told him how great they thought he was, he started thinking, "Why do I have to put up with all this 'second-class-citizen' crap" from Paul (and sometimes John).


Frankly -- though I was bummed at the time -- I'm glad it ended when it did.

We never would have gotten all the great Harrison material... plus a lot of John's great (non-"Unfinished Music") solo material.

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