Timeline
More from year 1966
Other interviews of The Beatles
October 2000 • From MOJO
October 1999 • From MOJO
“The Beatles Anthology 1” press conference
Nov 20, 1995
Calm down! It's The Beatles. Their only interview!
December 1995 • From Q Magazine
Andy Gray talks to the Beatles, 1968
Jul 13, 1968 • From New Musical Express
Interview for The Kenny Everett Show
Jun 09, 1968 • From BBC Radio 1
Interview for The Village Voice
May 16, 1968 • From The Village Voice
Interview for The Tonight Show
May 14, 1968 • From NBC
May 14, 1968 • From WNDT
NYC Press Conference Announcing Apple
May 14, 1968
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Interview
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The Beatles flew to New York City on August 22, 1966, after their concert in St. Louis the previous day. They arrived at 3:50 AM and were taken to the Warwick Hotel, where they gave a press conference for journalists. Later that day, they held a second press conference for young fans, which was known as the “Junior Press Conference.“
On August 23, a little over a year after their first triumphant appearance at New York’s Shea Stadium, The Beatles returned to Shea Stadium for a single concert.
We landed at La Guardia and limousined into New York to the Warwick. All those tall buildings… and all those aggressive teenagers. Avenue of the Americas was cordoned off, as were all streets surrounding the Warwick. Not just the hotel was guarded, but all points leading to it! Even so, our car was attacked. We barely made it to the front entrance without a bloody incident. And, then the guards wouldn’t let us in! Wendy Hanson, Brian Epstein’s personal assistant, summed it up by saying, “Well, that’s it. We’re once again secure against ourselves.” After several minutes of looking harried and helpless, the guards were informed that we really were the tour party.
There was a press conference in New York — a very crowded, noisy, hectic affair held in the Warwick. It was immediately followed by a junior press conference, the first of its kind. The reporters were fans who had been selected at random by The Beatles Fan Club U.S.A, and WMCA radio.
Judith Sims – From TeenSet Magazine – Quoted in “Ticket To ride – The Extraordinary Diary of The Beatles’ Last Tour” by Barry Tashian
Q: “Would any of you care to comment on any aspect of the war in Vietnam?”
JOHN: “We don’t like it.”
Q: “Could you elaborate any?”
JOHN: “No. I’ve elaborated enough, you know. We just don’t like it. We don’t like war.”
GEORGE: “It’s, you know… It’s just war is wrong, and it’s obvious it’s wrong. And that’s all that needs to be said about it.”
(applause)
PAUL: “We can elaborate in England.”
Q: “I have a question for Paul. I don’t know if you know about it yet, but two young ladies threatened to jump to their death from the twenty-second floor of the hotel here in Manhatten if they could see you. How do you feel about young girls acting this way?”
PAUL: “If they could see me?”
Q: “They wanted to see you– If you would come over they wouldn’t jump. The police finally rescued them. They threatened to jump unless you came over.”
PAUL: “Good god, you know… Phew! I don’t understand it. I don’t know. Umm… silly, that. I’ll see ’em, you know.”
(laughter)
Q: “Will the Beatles be inactive when John goes on movie location for the (How I Won The War) motion picture?”
RINGO: “Yes.”
JOHN: “I’m only doing it because we’ve got a holiday, you know. I wouldn’t do it if we had any work. (pause) We’re not out of work, mind you.”
(laughter)
Q: “When you arrived at the airport and there were only nine girls waiting to meet you, were you disappointed, and do you think that’s a reflection of a loss of popularity in this country?”
JOHN: (jokingly) “Yeah, we’re real brought down by it.”
PAUL: “Really disappointed!”
(laughter)
PAUL: “Three o’clock in the morning they expected millions.”
(laughter)
Q: “Now that Paul is the only bachelor Beatle, do you find that the girls gravitate more to him than they do to the rest of you fellas? How do you feel about that?”
JOHN: “They always did!”
RINGO: “Yeah.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “Well, the thing that we found… We found after all this business, of all the buttons that say ‘I love Ringo,’ “I love John,’ John’s were outselling everyone’s.”
JOHN: “A rather distinctive Beatle.”
PAUL: “A distinctive Beatle.”
Q: “This is for Paul and John. Do you think that happiness is really egg-shaped, or is it just a rumor from the egg marketing magazine?”
PAUL: “Hooo-hooo-hooo.”
JOHN: “Ho, ho.”
Q: “Do you think happiness is real, or just a fantasy?”
JOHN: “It’s real, alright.”
RINGO: (jokingly) “Depends how the eggs are cooked.”
(laughter)
PAUL: (laughs) “That was about as good as anything.”
Q: “Ringo, now that George has joined John and Paul in writing songs are you going to start writing your own songs?”
RINGO: “Umm, no.”
Q: “Why not?”
RINGO: “I can’t write them. I try, you know, but… alot of rubbish.”
Q: “On your new album, ‘Revolver,’ I noticed alot of violins and even trumpets.”
GEORGE: “Very observant.”
(laughter)
Q: “How come you decided to use violins and trumpets?”
PAUL: “There were, uhh… I think there were three violins on the whole album, and three trumpets. So we’re not exactly going overboard on ’em, you know. We don’t use them all that much, but it was just that those tracks sounded better with violins and with trumpets than with us, you know. That’s the only reason we use them.”
Q: “This one to John, please. Any remarks whatsoever on some of the recent remarks attributed to you and the Beatles concerning religion?”
JOHN: “Well, I think I’ve said enough about that. I can’t say anymore, and just sort of going over the same thing over again. You know, alot of it just is alot of rubbish and alot of hysteria.”
Q: “Uhh, to John and Paul– It’s been said that Lennon and McCartney may someday replace the names Rogers and Hammerstein. Have you ever considered discontinuing performing and instead just keep on writing?”
JOHN: “No.”
Q: “Would you rather perform, then?”
PAUL: “I mean, you know… When we’re eighty we won’t be performing. We may be writing.”
JOHN: “And we don’t want to be Rogers and Hart, either.”
(laughter)
Q: “This is to all of you. You seem to be doing a Bob Dylan in reverse. That is, you became popular playing rock and roll and now you seem to be doing alot more folk rock. Would you care to comment on that?”
RINGO: “Folk rock.”
PAUL: “It’s not folk rock. Honest. Yeah, somebody said that the other day.”
Q: “Songs like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and…”
PAUL: “No, the thing is that– That thing about Bob Dylan is probably right, in reverse, because we’re getting more interested now in the content of the songs, whereas Bob Dylan is getting more interested in rock and roll. It’s just, we’re both going towards the same thing, I think.”
Q: “Paul, I believe you have just recently purchased a farm in Scotland. Have you any intention of purchasing any further, being in the United States?”
PAUL: “No. I just bought that farm because it was very cheap. And, uhh, I always wanted a farm. And it’s a nice place. But that’s as far as it goes.”
Q: “This is for John. There have been reports from Europe about too much reaction to your christianity remark. They say it represents a possibility of immaturity in American society. Do you think so?”
JOHN: “Uhh.. Who says so?”
Q: “It was said in overseas press.”
JOHN: “Well, I mean… It’s an opinion. That’s all, you know. I don’t… They’re entitled to their opinion.”
PAUL: “I think the thing about that is that, uhh, there are more people in America, so there are more biggots… just by head of population.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “No, well… There are, you know.”
JOHN: “What about Scotland?”
PAUL: “Well, you know… but I mean, you hear more from American biggots than you do from Russian biggots.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “That doesn’t mean the whole country’s biggoted, you know. Does it?”
Q: “This question is to John and Paul. Is there any special significance in the use of the term, ‘Yellow Submarine’?”
PAUL: “It’s a happy place, that’s all. You know, it was just… We were trying to write a children’s song. That was the basic idea. And there’s nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children’s song. ‘Sparky,’ you know, it’s the same kind of thing.”
JOHN: “Sparky?”
PAUL: “Sparky. Correct.”
(laughter)
Q: “Two years ago I traveled with you as a group, and this time you seem to be much more quiet, much more restrained. Do you think you’re getting older, or are the tours getting to you?”
JOHN: “I think we’re probably getting older, you know, each year.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “I’ve got older.”
Q: “How do you think Prime Minister (Harold) Wilson’s austerity program is going to affect London as the capital of rock and roll, and what’s it going to do to you financially if the pounds devalue?”
JOHN: “We don’t know. You know, we don’t know what he’s done, yet, because we’ve been away. I mean, we’ve seen a bit of it, you know. If it affects us, that’s alright.”
Q: (female) “I must say you’re a cute looking bunch.”
PAUL: “Gee, thanks, Ma’am.”
(laughter)
Q: “I’d like to ask you sort of a personal question. Do you bring your own barber with you when you travel abroad?”
BEATLES: “No.”
Q: “Do you have your hair cut, then, wherever you are?”
RINGO: “Umm, no. Well… We usually have it cut at home, you know. Well, I do.”
Q: “How do you define glamour in a girl?”
RINGO: “Glamour?”
JOHN: “Don’t like glamour.”
PAUL: “You can’t define glamour, really, you know. It’s just there or it isn’t.”
JOHN AND PAUL: “Glamour.”
Q: “There was a rumour carried in the New York press and on radio this past week that you’re all wearing wigs because you were trying to join a London club which is very exclusive. Is it true or false? Are you wearing wigs?”
GEORGE: “No.”
PAUL: “Oh. Do YOU believe that? Do you? No.”
Q: “Your hair looks much more uniform than it did two years ago.”
PAUL: (effeminate) “Thanks, silly.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “No, that’s not true, you know. But thanks all the same.”
JOHN: (giggling) “No comment.”
(laughter)
GEORGE: “To George– Now that you’ve learned to play the sitar, do you expect to learn any more instruments?”
GEORGE: “I haven’t learned to play the sitar. I mean, Ravi Shankar hasn’t LEARNED to play it and he’s been playing it thirty-five years.”
(applause)
PAUL: (excitedly, to George) “Woo!”
Q: “A question to John and Paul. Is there any theme to the ‘Rubber Soul’ and ‘Revolver’ albums…”
PAUL: “Theme?”
Q: “…a general theme with variations on it?
PAUL: “No, not really, you know. (to John) Is there a theme?”
JOHN: “No. The only theme is that you do them at the same period, so they have something in common when they get on the same LP. That’s all.”
Q: “A question to George. Do you feel that Indian music will be more influencial in the future of rock and roll and pop music?”
GEORGE: “Umm, well… I don’t know. I personally hope it will become more– that there’ll be more Indian influences just generally in any music, because it’s worth it. It’s very good music. I’d just like to see it more popular– more people appreciating it.”
Q: “This question is addressed to all of you. Do any of you ever get tired of all this hocus-pocus, the press conferences, the screaming girls, the crowds, and decide that you would like to just sit back on your fat wallets and forget the whole thing?”
PAUL: (laughs)
JOHN: “Well, when we feel like that, we take a fat holiday on our fat wallets…”
(laughter)
JOHN: “…and then you get fed up with that and you feel like coming out and doing this.”
(laughter)
Q: “How would you describe the reception you received on this trip to the States? Has it increased, diminished, or remained the same?”
PAUL: “The actual numbers of people, umm… recepting, or whatever the word is, is bigger… so I hear. Who knows.”
RINGO: “Yeah.”
PAUL: “Well, Brian (Epstein) knows. You know, ask him.”
GEORGE: “We’re playing to more people on this trip than we have on the last tours.”
Q: “You said that you and Dylan are heading towards the same thing. Where do you see your music going? Things have changed.”
PAUL: “Well, it’s going… I don’t know. The thing is, uhh… It’s going forwards. I don’t know toward what, but it’s gonna go forward. We’re trying to take it forward, and Dylan’s trying to take his forward, but it just looks as though it’s going backwards.”
(laughter)
PAUL: “You know, I’m not trying to be funny, but it does… It’s gone from very complicated to less complicated.”
Q: “But certainly it’s changed since your advent. I’m wondering where you consider yourself to be now, music-wise.”
JOHN: (jokingly) “On Decca Records.”
Q: “Do any of you have plans to record on your own?”
JOHN: “We do at home, you know. We might.”
GEORGE: “In fact, we have done, I think.”
JOHN: “I think so.”
GEORGE: “‘Eleanor Rigby’ was Paul on his own.”
JOHN: “We were just drinking tea.”
(laughter)
Q: “No, the thing that I’m trying to get at is, do you have plans like anything definite at all?”
PAUL: “Not for separate recording careers, if that’s what you mean.”
Q: “Have you written any good books lately, John?”
PAUL: (misunderstanding) “Blues?”
JOHN: “Books?”
PAUL: “Books?”
JOHN: “Books or Blues, I haven’t written anything, you know.”
(laughter)
Q: “Paul, according to wire reports you became a little ill after you got off the plane last night. What happened? Air sickness?”
PAUL: Yeah, something. You know, I haven’t been too well on the tour. I just felt a bit ill, that’s all, and I was sick.”
Q: “One of you, I beleive it was George, said that you couldn’t comment on Vietnam in this country but you could in England. Could you elaborate on that a little bit?”
GEORGE: “I didn’t say that. Maybe one of us said that, but I didn’t.”
PAUL: “It was me. I mean, you know about that, anyway, you know. I mean, we could say a thing about… like John’s religious thing in England and it wouldn’t be taken up and misinterpreted quite as much as it tends to get here. I mean, you know it does. The thing is that, I think you can say things like that in England and people will listen a bit more than they do in America, because in America somebody will take it up and use it completely against you and won’t have many scruples about doing that. You know, I’m probably putting my foot in it saying that, but…”
JOHN: “You’ll be explaining to the next bunch.”
PAUL: “Yeah, I know.”
(laughter)
PAUL: (jokingly, in American accent) “Oh well, it’s just wonderful here.”
(laughter)
Q: “There appear to be a much smaller number of fans outside the hotel, and the…”
JOHN: “Yip yip.”
Q: “…concert tomorrow night at Shea Stadium is far below a sellout. How do you feel about this…”
JOHN: “Very rich.”
(laughter)
Q: “…not being quite as popular as you were?”
JOHN: “It doesn’t matter, you know.”
Q: “Do you make the same money?”
PAUL: “Well, I don’t know, but the thing is– Do you expect us just to go on forever making more and more money, making more and more figures, bigger and bigger? You can’t just go forever!”
GEORGE: “And if certain people have decided they don’t like us after John’s statement then, you know, we don’t want…”
JOHN: “We’ll have to get rid of them.”
GEORGE: “We’d rather just have people who like us, and really like us, rather than pretend to like us because we’re the in-thing.”
(applause)
JOHN: “The first house in Memphis– two-hundred didn’t turn up who were meant to, or something like that, but the second house was wild, you know, and we thought that would be the place that would show any sort of real doubt about what was going on.”
Q: “Do you think that with the new mini-skirts and wild fashions that young women are exposing too much these days?”
BEATLES: “No!”
(laughter)
JOHN: “You get quite used to it. It’s not as wild as you think it is, when it’s sort of, everybody’s wearing clothes like that. It just looks sort of normal and you get used to it, the same as people got used to long hair.”
Q: “When you go to San Francisco then, will you visit some of the topless restaurants?”
GEORGE: “No, we’ll only be there long enough to do the concert and then fly back to Los Angeles.”
JOHN: “Well, they could come to the show– we’ll get ’em a couple of tickets.”
GEORGE: “Yeah.”
(laughter)
GEORGE: “They could dance on stage while we do our act.”
JOHN: “Nah, we wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Q: “What music do you listen to for relaxation?”
RINGO: “Uhh, all sorts, you know.”
PAUL: “All kinds of music. I don’t think any one of us has got…”
JOHN: “Except for him.”
PAUL: “Well, George is mainly interested in Indian music, and we all share the interest, and like all other kinds of music as well. Good music, you know.”
Q: “Here’s a question for the entire group. I noticed that Brian Epstein is sitting up on the platform with you gentlemen. After all these years how are the Beatles and Brian getting along, aside from the financial considerations?”
JOHN: “We get on just fine.”
PAUL: “Good friends.”
GEORGE: “He wouldn’t be sitting on the stage with us now if we didn’t.”
JOHN: “He’d be sitting on his fat wallet somewhere.”
(laughter)
Q: “If it could be arranged would you like to include, in your ’67 or ’68 European concert itinerary, concerts in the satellite capital countries such as Warsaw, Moscow, and Budapest? Can you answer that, please?”
JOHN: “We can’t, you know. We’d like…”
GEORGE: “Personally, I wouldn’t like to play there because I just don’t fancy going there at the moment. There’s lots of other places I’d rather see first. But that’s a personal whim, you know.”
M.C: “These are now the last three questions.”
Q: “I got a tough question for Ringo. Your boy is a year old next month, right? September?”
RINGO: “Yeah.”
Q: “What kind of gifts does he want for his birthday?”
RINGO: “Well, how do I know. He’s not talking yet.”
(laughter)
PAUL: (giggles)
Q: “Do you feel responsible for the Mod fashion revolution in the United States?”
BEATLES: “No.”
JOHN: “We haven’t noticed it.”
GEORGE: “We’re not responsible for ourselves, nevermind fashions.”
JOHN: “Mental as well, eh?”
Q: “A couple of years ago, you said that you were most influenced by people such as Chuck Berry, Laverne Baker, etcetera. Now that they’re more or less over the hill as far as pop music is concerned…”
JOHN: “They were then.”
Q: “…who do you admire now? You mentioned Indian music– Are there any pop stars in the United States today that still influence you?”
JOHN: “We like alot of American groups, still, you know.”
GEORGE: “Elvis.”
JOHN: “We still like Chuck Berry… I haven’t burned his records or anything.”
PAUL: (laughs)
(laughter)
JOHN: “The Lovin Spoonful are nice.”
PAUL: “Beach Boys are great.”
RINGO: “Mamas and the Papas.”
JOHN: “We like alot of things, and are influenced by everything that’s going on.”
PAUL: (jokingly) “Especially Bill Haley.”
(laughter)
Q: “What about the downfall?”
PAUL: “What about it?”
GEORGE: “Well, the downfall won’t be a downfall for us because we won’t really…”
JOHN: “…feel down.”
GEORGE: “If we’ll have a downfall it will only be for all those people who think, ‘Hee hee, the Beatles aren’t making hit records anymore.’ We won’t particularly be worried. So it won’t be a downfall.”
Q: “You’re looking forward to it? Getting out of all this?”
PAUL: “No, we’re not.”
JOHN: “We don’t sort of dread it. It’s just something that’ll happen.”
GEORGE: “When it happens, we’ll accept it.”
Q: “Ringo, do you have any comment on fatherhood?”
RINGO: “Ahh, it’s okay! You know, that’s about all. I like it.”
M.C: “This must be the last question, I’m afraid, time-wise.”
Q: “One of the disc jockeys in the local area said that one of the songs, I believe it was ‘Rain,’ was recorded backwards. Is this true?”
JOHN: “Uhh, it is true. After we’d done the session on that particular song– it ended at about four or five in the morning– I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it. And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards. And I liked it better. So that’s how it happened.”
M.C: “I’m afraid that has to be the last question.”
(applause)
AGAINST VIETNAM – Beatles Hum Hushed Lyrics Opposing War
NEW YORK —UPI— A no-nonsense “amen” affixed to their theological adventures, the Beatles poked timidly into the world of politics yesterday. They spoke out against war.
Whether the shaggy foursome faced a new round of controversy was problematical, since the war they said they opposed was the one in Viet Nam.
Greatly subdued and obviously still smarting from the furor sparked by guitarist John Lennon’s assertion the singing group was “more popular than Jesus,” the Beatles took a wisdom-is-the-better-part-of-valor stand at a press conference here yesterday. They arrived in New York a day early for an open-air performance tonight at Shea Stadium, home of baseball’s Mets.
Two New York teenagers couldn’t wait for the concert to see their idols. The two girls, 16 and 17, climbed out onto a ledge on the 22nd floor of a hotel near where the Beatles were staying and said they wouldn’t come back in until Beatle Paul McCartney came to see them.
“I love Paul. I must see Paul and I want to see him in person,” the girls wailed as emergency squad patrolmen stood by anxiously. When a public relations man promised the hysterical girls McCartney would see them, the girls climbed back in and started repairing their tear-streaked makeup.
When McCartney, who did not know of the incident, failed to turn up, the girls started back toward the ledge. Two policemen tackled them. They were taken to a hospital for observation.
About 150 newsmen — many of them with loaded questions — were on hand for the news conference. No sooner had the Beatles walked into the crowded, smoke-filled room when a newsman wanted to know how they felt about the Viet Nam war. The four exchanged startled glances and after a pause Lennon answered.
“We don’t like it — we’re against it.”The others murmured assent.
Next Lennon was asked about his “more popular than” remark, but the intellectual Beatle wasn’t having any. “I think I’ve said enough about that,” he replied.
John, Paul, George, Ringo: Cool Duel with the Press
A press conference is where photographers jostle for the same shot as the one in the files and reporters ask questions about the subject’s last answer to the same question. It is climaxed by six consecutive words that utterly defy nobody’s imagination – called a lead quote.
“What is your opinion of the war in Vietnam?” was the first question read from a notebook.
“We don’t like it,” said John Lennon, author and leading religious figure.
“War’s wrong and that’s all,” said George Harrison, a visiting student of Indian music.
“Roobish,” said Ringo Starr, a sight act on both side of the Atlantic.
“Would you care to elaborate?”
“We would elaborate in England, but not here,” elaborated Paul McCartney. “In England, people will listen a bit more to what you say. Here everything you say is picked up and turned against you. There’s more bigotry in America.” Every pencil in the room came down. “There are more people so there are more bigots.”
“Say any more,” snipped Lennon, “and you’ll be explaining all about it on the next tour.”
“Oh I just love it here,” McCartney bounced up and down.
Brian Epstein, in a lemon and lime striped blazer, pink shirt, and mauve tie, was sitting out of the lights, stroking a sideburn with a subdued smile as he examined the BLACK POWER banner on a copy of the East Village Other. For openers, editor John Wilcock had thoroughly leafleted the proceedings.
“Last few feet of colour, Bennie,” a television cameraman howled across the room.
“What no more color?” McCartney threw up his hands.
“We shooting this for the Eleventh Hour News.” The man wheeled in for the last rays from Ringo Starr’s lavender polka dots. “Eighteen million viewers.”
“Goody,” said George Harrison who had been steadily addressing his microphone with a blue-eyed leer. Lennon kept his back half-turned on the assemblage. “When do we do the commercial?”
For a limpid half hour, the Beatles ritually parried the outside world, capping trivia with irrelevance in sullen eclat. Harrison was briefly embarrassed when someone asked him what instrument he would try next now that he had mastered the sitar. “Listen – I haven’t learned how to play the sitar. Ravi Shankar’s been playing it for 35 years and he’s still learning.”
McCartney, who made the only conscientious attempts at civil chat, was aghast when informed that two girls had gotten onto a 22nd-floor ledge at the Americana and threatened to jump unless he came over. “Of course, I’ll go see them. It’s terrible that anybody could even think about doing a thing like that.”
Lennon had moments of elaborate boredom.
Finally, a photographer sitting on the floor told Ringo Starr, “Get ready for a tough one. Your boy is almost a year old now. Can you tell us what he’d like for Christmas?”
“Now how do I know? He can’t talk yet.”
Then the professionals made way for 75 chicklets who had won equal time in a WMCA lottery. The former were enjoined to the bar where Tony Barrow, Beatles’ senior press official, announced the Put-On Pre-emptive: “The boys have specifically requested that only soft drinks be served.” The girls were taking deep breaths while a Good Guy pleaded gloomily. “This is the first time in history the Beatles have come this close to their fans. Let’s show them how grown-up we can all be.” Before assuming civil defense crouch, one cop patted a lissome post-teen, “The Beatles ain’t showing, honey. They’re just gonna roll out four dummies.”
“Bud,” she said, cocking her Kodak, “you should be so dumb.”
John, bounded out first, doing an Eric von Stroheim, “Iff you don’t keep quiet ve haf you shot!”
“Who’s shouting out there?” bellowed Paul, shaking a forefinger at the rising tumult. It quelled abruptly.
The Junior Press Conference opened with the burning question. “Hey, Paul, are you going to marry Jane Asher?”
Before one of the elders had asked him, “What about Jane Asher?”, McCartney had replied, “What do you mean what about Jane Asher?”
“‘What about,’ that’s an American expression, man.” Lennon had leaned over with the Detroit sotto voce.
“Oh,” McCartney had winked, very Liverpool, “you mean what about JANE ASHER?”
Now, he grinned at his interlocutor from Yonkers, “We probably going to get married.” Everybody clapped.
“What about that guy in South America she’s supposed to be engaged to?”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Paul panned.
Everybody razzed and Ringo did a Groucho Marx.
“Hey, Paul, do you know Al Perry? He lives in the Village and he says you met him the last time you were in New York?”
“Nope.”
After a grunt of betrayal, the girl held up a leaf. “Do you recognize this? It’s supposed to come from your front lawn.”
“Sure,” crowed Paul, “I’ve missed it for months!” In the pandemonium George did a John Lennon.
Before Barrow bounced them, they had discovered that John is 20 pages into his next book, Paul does not think he looks like Keith Allison, George is the one who coughs on “Tax Man” and Ringo never buys his own jewelry. Then they threw their inflated plastic offerings up to the dais and trooped out of the Warwick Hotel. The girl had put the leaf back in her pocketbook and, outside, she haunched onto a police barricade of saw horses with the rest of the campers.
“Those are the kind of kids,” bet a female pedestrian, “that never help their mothers in the kitchen.”
From The Village Voice, August 25, 1966
Last updated on September 20, 2023
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