Paul McCartney Writing Too Many People And Dear Friend In The Same Year Is Insane I Feel Bad For John

The Beatles wearing a giant sweater, knitted for them by three Swedish fans, backstage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon during Another Beatles Christmas Show, December 1964. Photo: The Beatles Book.

The story behind this sweater: It was knitted for The Beatles by three Swedish fans (Pia Karlander, Ulla Blomquist and Elizabeth Berg, of Stockholm). The Beatles Book’s March 1965 explains…

“[T]hat giant sweater which was sent to The Beatles at the Hammersmith Odeon when they were appearing in their Christmas Show. The boys liked it so much that they wore it almost every night from then on for one of their quick appearances on stage.” (x)

The Beatles in Stirling, Scotland. 30 April 1964

Skåne, Swden

John looking adorably awkward while on stage without the boys, collecting his ‘Runner Up: British Vocal Personality’ prize at the NME Poll Winners All-Star Concert, 11th April 1965

John being incredibly relieved to see Paul again after what feels like an hour, and finally able to read that his trophy says ‘Runner Up’

George Harrison photographed by Paul McCartney in August 1959, during their hitchhiking trip. Located outside the Hare and Hounds public house in Churchdown, Gloucestershire.

“It was widely believed that Lennon’s relationship with McCartney was at its lowest point at this time, but Van Scyoc {Gary Van Scyoc, bassist on Some time in NYC, 1972} saw ample evidence that this simply wasn’t the case. “You would read in the New York Post that they were at each other’s throats. I had a copy of the paper in my kit bag, and as I walk into the session, John is on the phone with Paul in Scotland for an hour-and-a-half and they’re yakking it up. That doesn’t really sound like two people who are at each others throats, does it?”

Richard White, Come Together : Lennon and McCartney In The Seventies

I’m sorry I usually rag on Beatles Reddit but this tale of Paul in the wild is sending me

I finally watched the Rupert and the Frog song (We all Stand Together). I still see people (mostly older, mostly on Facebook) dunking on “the frog chorus” and it’s just so clearly an outdated notion for it to be lame for a musician to make content explicitly for children. It’s so common now for artists who’ve become parents to make something their kids will enjoy. Jack White sang a song with the muppets on Sesame Street because he loves his fucking kids. It’s so normal now.

I get where Mary Had a Little Lamb released as single by a rock band went down wrong .. but this is creative, whimsical content explicitly *for* kids. The SONG, in particular, is beautifully composed, imaginative. Lovely! I keep listening to it.

He was 20 years into his career. The Beatles were never Led Zeppelin. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around people still being so weird about this. He such a well rounded musician; it’s all like an exploration in another part of his creativity. There are elements of the classical composing that would come later… and the playful, experimenter who made Robber’s Ball (my beloved), McCartney II, the Fireman records.

But anyway, watching this today reminded me of this moment from Behind the Scenes of BBC Radio where someone presented Paul and Mike with their childhood Rupert book. The title page filled in by their parents reads “This book belongs to Paul McCartney and Michael McCartney”.

It was either Paul or Mike who said they didn’t get many gifts as kids and for Christmas they’d usually get one toy addressed to Paul and Michael from Father Christmas. It makes me really consider why this Rupert project was so important for him that he held onto it for 15 years, always sort of considering ideas for it. There were those RAM era songs that were specifically for the “Rupert project”. It comes up so much in the McCartney legacy book.

Then there’s the element of the frogs and his history with frogs, from growing the tadpoles in his own hand made frog pond in the backyard and checking on them every day until one day they were frogs that hopped away. Then there was the dark, frog killing episode that shocked his brother and he probably felt some shame about.

But here, in this story, there are guard frogs on duty protecting their mostly undisturbed world. Happy and content, it’s the frogs that create this magical chorus.

There’s even a father and son frog pair who’ve come to see this event that only happens every couple of hundred years.

The father is rather Jim McCartney-esque with his pipe and 1940s style hat and manner. There’s a moment where the son inadvertently annoys his father and instantly recoils like he’s about to get hit and momentarily it looks like the father is considering it but gets a hold of himself.

But later, wrapped up in the music together, the father hugs his son.

I don’t know what I’m saying exactly but I think there’s some exploration of his childhood here and something about Rupert and the frog chorus that’s particularly meaningful to him.

Maybe he’s reconciling the dark, frog killing episode of childhood with the vegetarian, animal lover he’d become by giving the frogs their own hero’s story. Rupert, Jim, the threat of violence, the presence of love, the frogs he loved but also was violent toward.. and music at the center of everything. Unifying, healing. We all stand together.

For anyone interested, the full BBC clip is here

The full Rupert short is here

PAUL and LINDA McCARTNEY during WINGS' recording of LONDON TOWN. 1977. Photos taken by HENRY DILTZ. (x)

imagine being heather mills trying to sleep in and your older gay husband wakes you up like hey babe i made fruit mandalas