The Most Frequently Asked Questions in Rec.music.beatles
Written and researched by saki (dmac@math.ucla.edu)
 with contributors as noted.
Copyright 1993---no unauthorized use permitted
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Last Update: 15 December 1993

1. Are the Beatles really getting back together?

The remaining three ex-Beatles---Paul, George and Ringo---will be
contributing to a multi-part television documentary being assembled
in England, which is due for release sometime in the next year
or two. This documentary draws upon many sources, so it's only
sensible to suggest that these fellows participate. But this does
not constitute a Beatles reunion. Although Paul has hinted that
the three "may" play music in the course of the taping, and George,
recently interviewed in Australia, seems to corroborate this, there
there is no hint what form this music will take. The forthcoming
documentary, to be released by Apple, promises to be a thorough 
and well researched piece of work, and should be worth the wait.
Tentative release has been set for Fall 1994. Tentative title:
"The Beatles: An Anthology" (former title: The Long and Winding
Road).

2. I heard that rare "lost" Beatles songs were found in EMI/Abbey
Road Studios and will soon be released on a CD/LP called "Sessions".

"Sessions" actually existed once, legitimately. It included a
large number of unreleased and alternate tracks from the Abbey
Road Studio tape library, material the Beatles declined to release
during their heyday ("Leave My Kitten Alone", "That Means A Lot",
"If You've Got Trouble", and so on). The LP was pressed, packaged,
and about to be shipped in January 1985 when the project was halted
before any sales could be made, at the request of the Beatles. 

"Sessions" has since shown up as a bootleg (and material from
this LP, as well as much more, has been widely available on
various bootleg packages ever since) but according to EMI will
never again be legitimately released. This does not mean, however,
that there are *no* plans to ever release alternate/vault Beatles
songs. A package of material *may* be prepared to accompany the
above-mentioned "Beatles: An Anthology" video documentary.

The project remains a "potential" one, according to David Hughes,
President of Communications for EMI, and will be up to the Beatles,
who are in charge of the project. These songs are not, however,
actually "lost", having been carefully documented both by EMI
tape librarians and by Mark Lewisohn, whose book "The Beatles
Recording History" talks in detail about them. EMI hopes to release
a CD of songs to accompany the Apple video documentary (see #1 above),
but the Beatles will decide whether the audio package will include
unreleased vault treasures never before officially released, or
instead selections from BBC recordings (live radio performances 
which the Beatles also control). Or perhaps none of the above. :-)

3. Where can I buy the Red and Blue Albums?

Any local record store. :-) These LPs were out of print for years
and have just been reissued in CD format.

4. How about the video of "Let It Be"? Where can I get it?

Another one of those legal tangles, alas---"Let It Be" has not been
licensed for video distribution for some time and although rumors
suggest it will be out soon, there are no apparent plans for its
rerelease by any certain date. "Yellow Submarine" is also temporarily
unavailable.

5. Is Paul really dead? (Alternate: Did the Beatles have anything
to do with the "Paul is dead" scheme?)

Paul is alive and well, and has been since 18 June 1942. He did not
die in a car crash and was not replaced by a surrogate called William
Campbell. The "Paul is dead" controversy began in mid-1969, and can
be traced to origins in the American midwest, possibly a college prank.
The Beatles have always denied having anything to do with it. The "clues"
are either coincidence or not supportable under intense investigation.

6. Is it true that Ringo didn't play the drums on most Beatles
records?

Ringo did indeed play the drums; EMI studio documentation proves he
was present and was paid for sessions in the group. The only exceptions:
he played tambourine to Andy White's drums on one take of "Love Me Do" in
1962 (producer George Martin wasn't sure Ringo was good enough---he'd
just joined the Beatles at that time), and for a week in August 1968
Ringo took off during the White Album sessions, distressed at the
group's animosity. Paul and John filled in for him till he returned.

7. How did the Beatles get their name and what does it mean?

John Lennon and his friend Stuart Sutcliffe came up with the name
"Beatles", a pun on Buddy Holly's "Crickets", in 1960.

8. What's the chord that begins the song "A Hard Day's Night"?

D7sus4/A is the suggestion most frequently cited. See Question 19
in the Nems II Note for further discussion.

9. What was the last Beatles song?

The last Beatles *release* of new material was the LP, Let It Be, Friday,
May 8, 1970.

The last *mixing* was I Me Mine, Thursday, April 2, 1970.

The last *recording* was with Ringo: Across The Universe, The Long & Winding
Road, and I Me Mine, Wednesday, April 1, 1970.  The other Beatles were not
present on this date.

The last *single release* was Let It Be b/w You Know My Name, Friday, 
March 6, 1970.

The last time *George or Paul were in the studio recording* was Jan. 4, 1970.
Everyone but John was there for this.  Paul and George did vocals, George did
the guitar solo heard on the LP version, Ringo played drums, and Paul shook
maracas.

The last time *John was in the studio* coincided with two other events.
The four Beatles were together in the studio recording for the last time, 
*and* the cover for Abbey Road was shot, on Friday, August 8, 1969.  The
songs recorded were:  Ending (working title for The End) [ironically
appropriate], I Want You, and Oh! Darling.

John wasn't recording anything with the others for nearly 8 months before the
last recordings were made.

10. What is the most-covered Beatles song?

"Yesterday".

11. Where can I buy bootleg records?

Bootleg recordings of Beatles material, which have proliferated
recently, are illegal material. Buying them seems to be illegal, and
selling them certainly is. Thus your local record store is unlikely
to carry them, but you can always ask for them by title, or take your
chances at swap meets or via mailorder. Don't ask publicly on r.m.b.
where specifically you can buy such material--it's considered impolite,
not to mention dangerous, to require people to reveal sources.

12. What does "J'ai guru deva om" mean?

Various interpretations. Depends upon how well you read Sanskrit. The
traditional translations are "Glory to the teacher", "The heavenly teacher
is divine", or "Lift up your spiritual master", followed by the meditative
one-word chant "ommmm", refering to the sound of the universe. It was
a mantra of John's that he decided to incorporate into "Across The
Universe."

13. What does John Lennon really say at the end of "Strawberry Fields
Forever"---"cranberry sauce", "I'm very bored", "I buried Paul"...or
something else?

John Lennon himself claimed he said "cranberry sauce." On outtakes
of SFF, you can quite clearly hear the words. But if that's not
enough, listen to his writing partner, the inimitable Macca:

(From "The Beatles In Their Own Words"): 

Paul:  That wasn't "I buried Paul" at all, that was John saying "cranberry 
sauce".  It was the end of 'Strawberry Fields'.  That's John's humour.
John would say something totally out of synch, like 'cranberry sauce'.
If you don't realise that John's apt to say 'cranberry sauce' when he feels
like it, then you start to hear a funny little word there, and you think
"Aha!"

14. Why do people refer to Paul McCartney as "Macca"?

It was apparently a habit among the Quarrymen, the first appellation
of the Beatles, to call each other by a nickname. Paul was Macca,
George was Hazza, and John was Lennie. Since Ringo wasn't with the
group at this time, he missed out (though of course he was self-named
"Ringo", feeling that it sounded more western and cowboyesque than
Richard, his given name.)

15. I have an old Beatles record. How much is it worth?

Check "The Beatles Price Guide for American Records", by Cox & Lindsay.
If you don't have access to this, you can post your request, but
keep in mind the fact that most original Beatles albums and singles
are judged very strictly in terms of quality. If your LP has had the
normal amount of use, it's probably worth more to you as a sentimental
token than it is to collectors.

16. Is it true that the first letters in the title "Lucy In The Sky
With Diamonds" refer to LSD?

John Lennon maintained that this was an accidental reference, and swore
that he was inspired to name this song from a painting his then-5 year old
son Julian brought home from school, which upon questioning Julian described
as "Lucy in the sky with diamonds." Lucy was Julian's preschool-mate, Lucy
O'Donnell, daughter of a London journalist.

This story was corroborated by John's close friend Pete Shotton, who
claimed to have witnessed the incident.

17. Which came first, the Byrds' 12-string Rickenbacker or the Beatles'
(George Harrison's)?

George received his 12-string from the makers of Rickenbacker guitars in
early 1964 and began playing it in sessions from 25 February 1964 onward,
most notably on the album "A Hard Day's Night". The Byrds didn't release
their first record till 1965. Undeniably, however, once both groups were
using 12-string guitars, they influenced each other, as Harrison and
Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn have attested.

18. Who yells "I've got blisters on my fingers" at the end of "Helter
Skelter"?

It's Ringo, according to Mark Lewisohn's "The Beatles Recording History".
Many think it sounds like John, but it's not; it's Ringo compaining
about his drumsticks.

19. I've heard that Paul owns the rights to "Happy Birthday" and requires
royalties from anyone who sings it in public!

Not true at all; strictly an urban legend. Paul has never owned "Happy
Birthday", and has no plans to buy it, according to his New York offices
at MPL. Currently a firm called Birch Tree owns the song.

20. Does Paul require all his tour roadies to become vegetarian?

He does not. He provides food for roadies and crew in keeping with
his own current philosophical predilection for vegetarianism (i.e.
no meat products served), and will gently proselytize to crew members
who insist they need to eat meat; but he has no objection to his crew
spending their own money to supplement official road-crew fare.

21. Is Linda Eastman McCartney related to Eastman Kodak?

No relationship at all. Her family name was originally Epstein and
was changed when her grandfather emigrated from Russia in the early
20th century. The Eastmans were involved in law and entertainment
representation in and around Scarsdale, NY, where Linda grew up;
Linda's mother's family had an interest in a clothing store chain 
in Queens for some years, and in that sense one might say that Linda
is partial heir to a department store concern. Linda's professional
dabblings have been in photography, but this is as close as she gets
to Eastman-Kodak.

22. Should I believe some of the more sensationalistic portraits of
John Lennon and Yoko Ono presented in books such as "The Secret 
Lives of John Lennon"?

In a word...no.  Neither John Lennon nor Yoko Ono were perfect  
people, yet both were far from deranged sociopaths.   All of Albert
Goldman's main sources have a serious lack of credibility, mostly due  
to personal grdges against John, Yoko, or both.

Fred Seaman, author of _The Last Days of John Lennon_ and onetime  
Lennon personal assistant, was sued by Yoko Ono after a number of  
missing Lennon personal items were discovered in his posession.  
Although Mr. Seaman acknowledges his bias in his book, and attempts  
to use it as "justification," this does not make his recounting of  
facts any more reliable.    Additionally, Seaman chooses to "forget"  
about documents in his own handwriting, indicating plans to "doctor"  
Lennon's stolen diaries, and also the large amount of recordings and  
pictures which have appeared on bootlegs, traceable directly to  
Fred"eric" Seaman.

The link to Goldman is that Seaman was given an advance for a Lennon 
book before Goldman's publication.   That book was eventually 
rejected by his publishers because they had "serious doubts  
concerning the veracity of Seaman's claims."  That book was sold to  
Albert Goldman, and used in large part as his Lennon attack. I would  
not be surprised if Goldman aided Seaman in obtaining his subsequent  
publishing deal.  (Goldman's books are quickly discredited, but they  
still sell in huge numbers to a muck-loving public)  The current  
rumors are that the two men are working together on a Yoko Ono  
biography, tentatively entitled  _Black Widow_.  Based upon the  
title, the eventual tone of that publication should be no surprise.

(Thanks to Ed Chen for the above.)
------
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Otherwise, do post your query and one of the many r.m.b regulars is
certain to help out.

------
saki (dmac@math.ucla.edu)
