Ivan Vaughan

Born:

Jun 18, 1942

Died:

Aug 16, 1993

About

From Wikipedia:

Ivan Vaughan (18 June 1942 – 16 August 1993) was a boyhood friend of John Lennon, and later schoolmate of Paul McCartney at the Liverpool Institute, both commencing school there in September 1953. He was born on the same day as McCartney in Liverpool. He played tea-chest bass part-time in Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, and was responsible for introducing Lennon to McCartney at a community event (the Woolton village fête) on 6 July 1957, where The Quarrymen were performing. McCartney impressed Lennon, who invited McCartney to join the band, which he did a day later. This led to the formation of Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting partnership, and later of The Beatles.

Personal life

Vaughan studied Classics at University College, London, married in 1966 and settled down to family life with a son and daughter, and became a teacher.

Lennon and McCartney never forgot the friend who brought them together. For a time they put Vaughan on the payroll of their Apple company, in charge of a plan that never took off to set up a school with a Sixties, hippie-style education ethos. Vaughan’s wife Jan, a language teacher, was hired to sit down with Lennon and McCartney and help with the French lyrics to the 1965 song “Michelle“.

Autobiographic and documentary

In 1977 Vaughan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His book, Ivan: Living with Parkinson’s Disease was published in 1986 and he also featured in a documentary produced for the BBC in 1984 by Jonathan Miller about his search for a cure. He died of pneumonia in 1993.

Vaughan’s death touched Paul McCartney so deeply that he began to write poetry for the first time since he was a child. He wrote the poem “Ivan” about him after his death, which was published in McCartney’s book, Blackbird Singing.

THE day responsible for a life-long friendship between PAUL MCCARTNEY and Ivan Vaughn started on the 18th June, 1942-the day they were born. They didn’t actually meet until eleven years afterwards – both grammar school pupils at Liverpool Institute. There the “twin” friendship between Paul and Ivan was struck up and has lasted ever since.

“One reason which has helped the friendship to last,” said Paul, “is the fact that I’ve now lived in London, so we can see each other fairly often.

“He has introduced me to several things over the years, the most important being The Beatles. Ive used to play bass in a group himself, but he’s given it all up now.

“Ive was always a great one for hitchhiking. He introduced us (Beatles) to the idea of going to Spain, Greece and so on. When he got married, Ive and his wife hitchhiked all over America for their honeymoon, which was pretty good.

“We took up the idea, only we used to go to Harwich, cross the Channel by boat, and then we’d fly back from wherever we’d hitched to.

“When I joined the group, Ive went to London University to read classics. But we still kept in touch – and we even celebrated our twenty-first birthdays together in Liverpool.

“His work nowadays has nothing to do with mine. Ive is a programmed education researcher. Sounds complicated, but it means a new way of teaching children languages.” Paul obviously knew all about Ive’s job and described it lengthily.

“What do Ive and I talk about? Well, anything. What do you talk to your friends about?”

Hey, I said, who’s asking the questions?

“Ah, well, there you are,” said Paul. “We just talk about the things any friends talk about….” Well, I don’t suppose Paul is ever at loss for words – nor Ivan, either, with a job like his.

From Fabulous208 – June 25, 1966

Last updated on August 24, 2023