Beatles Anecdotes

In this presidential election year, the issue of immigration is certainly a topic of debate in the U.S. these days. In the 1970’s, John Lennon had his own problems with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The Nixon Administration denied him status as an important artist, and a legal battle ensued, finally being resolved on October 9, 1975. Ironically, that day was both John’s thirty-fifth birthday and the day that his son Sean was born.

The following celebrities signed a petition that was sent to the I.N.S. that attested to the value of John Lennon’s artistic achievements:

1. Fred Astaire

2. Saul Bellow

3. Leonard Bernstein

4. Bob Dylan

5. Lawrence Ferlinghetti

6. Allen Ginsberg

7. Jack Lemmon

8. Henry Miller

9. Virgil Thomson

10. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

As is well known, many people have been dubbed “The Fifth Beatle”. Some with this distinction have been George Martin, Brian Epstein, Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe and others. Robert Compton of the Times of London did a great column in March entitled “Who Was the Fifth Beatle?” on the occasion of the death of Neil Aspinall. Here is the link:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3628434.ece

However, today’s post will contrast the term “The Fifth Beatle” to the term “The Sixth Stone”. While many people have been dubbed as the fifth member of the Fab Four, only one person has ever carried the distinction of being labeled the sixth member of The Rolling Stones.

Ian Stewart (1938-1985) was the piano player and founding member of The Rolling Stones. Keith Richards has said that “Stu” was more responsible than anyone for forming the band in the beginning. Richards once said, “He basically hand-picked all of us.”

Not only was he the founding member and piano player, but he also was personally responsible for getting the band their first booking. Many consider Stewart’s hard work in the early days for being responsible for their getting the Stones on the radar screen.

Unfortunately, the Stones’ first manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, was responsible for demoting Ian Stewart out of the band. Oldham felt that Stewart was too ugly and that he spoiled the look of the band. The manager agreed to allow Stewart to appear on records and radio, but not on television or in photos. Oldham also felt that having six members would put the Stones at a disadvantage because no other major band had six members. The Beatles only had four.

Stewart easily could have walked away bitter from the Stones, but instead he stayed on as their road manager, while continuing to play piano for the group on both record albums and in concert. In fact, he was working with the band on their album Dirty Work when he died of a heart attack in 1985. In spite of helping the band on albums and in concert, he was legally not a full member of The Rolling Stones, but rather a salaried employee.

Apart from the group that he founded, Stewart played on two Led Zeppelin albums, as well as albums by artists such as B.B. King and Eric Clapton.

However, when The Rolling Stones were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, Ian Stewart was finally recognized for his contributions and his legacy, as he was inducted posthumously as a full member of the Stones just like his former bandmates were.

To Stones insiders, “The Sixth Stone” was the heart and soul of the group and kept the band together during difficult times over more than two decades. After all, he was responsible for starting the band and picking the members. Furthermore, he was a great pianist and considered by many to be the best friend a person could ever have.

After losing his son John, Freddie Lennon had no reason to stay in Blackpool. He needed to get back out at sea to have time to come to grips with the bitter loss of his son and his wife. The Almanzora was his home from 29 June 1946 until 13 December 1946 for an 18 month tour.

Freddie returned to spend Christmas 1947 in Liverpool with his brother Sydney, who urged him to find out where Julia was living and confront her. Freddie said that he would not feel right doing that on account of Julia making her life with another man.

He left on the maiden voyage of the Andes, the flagship of the Royal Mail Line, on January 11 1948. During a stop in Argentina that summer, Eva Peron came on board in Buenos Aires, and there was such a raucous with spectators that a few of the merchant seamen who were on the dock were arrested, as it was not an uncommon practice for the Buenos Aires police to arrest and jail merchant seamen without charge or reason for a night in jail.

Freddie went through the regular booking procedure. Instead of writing his name as Alfred Lennon, he opted to list himself as “A. Lennon”. He listed his “son John” as next of kin. What happened next was the most horrifying experience of Freddie’s life.

The guards came into the holding cell where he was with a few other crew members and other detainees, and pulled him out. It seems that there was a fugitive wanted for murder in Argentina by the name of “John Alennon”. The prison officials saw the name “John” on the form next to the “A. Lennon” and thought that they had a murderer. To make matters even worse, the picture of the fugitive John Alennon resembled Freddie.

Law enforcement officials wanted to execute Freddie the next day with a batch of criminals that were to be killed by a firing squad.

Freddie’s interrogation with the officials did not go well and they were not convinced that A. Lennon with a son named John was different from their murderer named John Alennon.

Freddie came extremely close to being executed in Buenos Aires. If it were not for the last minute intervention of the British embassy on his behalf, the execution might have been carried out. The matter was resolved and Freddie was released to both the British ambassador and Mr. Cartwright, the ship’s captain. Freddie was driven back to the ship in the ambassador’s car. All of his friends on the ship had a huge party on the occasion of his safe return.

Freddie Lennon was never as terrified in his life as when he was told he was to be executed that next day. His only thoughts at that moment were that he would never see his son John again.

Stay tuned for more ………………….

Years ago when I used to listen to a cassette tape of a “bootleg” of the Decca sessions, “The Sheik of Araby” was one of my favorite songs on those audition tapes. Naturally, I was glad that the song was included on Anthology 1 in 1995.

Before 1995, though, I went back to read my favorite novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, after not having read it for many years. I was shocked to read that Fitzgerald included lyrics from the song in his famed novel. This sparked my curiosity in the song.

The novel was published in 1925, but set in the summer of 1922 both on Long Island and in New York City. On page 78 of the novel, Fizgerald wrote, “The sun had gone down behind the tall apartments of the movie stars in the West Fifties, and the clear voices of the little girls, already gathered like critics on the grass, rose through the hot twilight:

I’m the Sheik of Araby
Your love belongs to me.
At night when you’re asleep
Into your tent I’ll creep”

The song was composed in 1921 by Harry Smith, Francis Wheeler and Ted Snyder. It was written to capitalize on the furor created by Rudolph Valentino’s role in the hit movie The Sheik.

The song became a jazz favorite as well as a staple of pop culture of that time period. While it became a New Orleans jazz standard, “Araby” did not refer to the small town of Arabi, Louisiana, but rather the Arabian Peninsula.

The song has been recorded by countless artists. It was part of The Beatles’ stage act prior to their ill-fated audition for Decca records on New Year’s Day in 1962. It is probable that the band was influenced to cover “The Sheik of Araby” by Fats Domino’s 1961 rendition of the tune.

Kudos to George Harrison for brilliant lead vocals. Pete Best provides interesting drumming.

Here is the song on YouTube:

I owe an apology. I promised to continue this story a couple of weeks ago. Here is the latest installment. For new readers, you can go back to read the first three posts on this subject if you wish.

As with the other posts, the primary source is Daddy, Come Home: The True Story of John Lennon and His Father by Pauline Lennon, John’s stepmother. Pauline based her book on Freddie’s never published autobiography that was written specifically to give to John after Freddie’s death so that his son would know the truth.

Back when Freddie Lennon had cordial relations with John’s Aunt Mimi, his wife’s sister, he arrived home from sea and immediately went to Mimi’s house to visit his five year-old son. Mimi told Freddie that John had just gone to bed, and that it was best not to wake him. She said Freddie should spend the night there and visit with John the next morning.

Freddie was awakened in the morning with a jubilant John, who was dancing and shouting and jumping on his bed. He was overjoyed to see his father. Freddie asked John if he would like to go out with him for the day.

“Oh yes, Daddy, just us two,” John said, gleefully hugging his father as they went down the stairs and yelling to his Aunt Mimi over and over again, “Daddy’s taking me out today.”

Freddie had already made up his mind that he was taking John to the beach at Blackpool where they would stay with the family of Billy Hall, Freddie’s friend. The pair spent a joyous first week together and Freddie said over the years that John was totally happy for that entire week. John enjoyed doing things with his father from the moment he woke up in the morning until the moment he went to sleep.

The two would begin each morning with a run together on the beach. It was during one of these runs in the sand that a terrifying incident occurred that stayed with John for his entire life. John ran ahead of Freddie, whose gaze at his son was compromised for a split-second while he lit a cigarette. John fell into a deep gully of sand and totally disappeared from view.

Freddie ran up and down the beach frantically screaming John’s name and stopped when he realized he had to listen for the boy’s response. The cries of “Daddy, Daddy” directed Freddie to where John lay unhurt and most frightened in the gully.

Freddie then had to spend several weeks with Billy Hall in Southampton helping him with his business. John was sent to live with Sydney Lennon, Freddie’s older brother, and his wife Madge. Like Mimi and George Smith, Sydney and Madge Lennon were childless and adored John. When Freddie and John returned to Blackpool, Sydney was under the impression that he and Madge were to fully adopt John.

Freddie and John spent several more carefree weeks at the beach in Blackpool, enjoying each other’s company immensely. Freddie knew that his money would run out and that he wanted to hold onto John. Billy Hall recommended that he and Freddie set sail for New Zealand. Hall’s parents, who adored John, were relocating there and would look after John until Freddie got settled there. The Halls joined Mimi Smith and Sydney Lennon as interested parties in adopting the five year-old John Lennon.

The fateful day of Saturday, 22 June 1946 brought a shock to Freddie. That day he was finalizing John’s passage to New Zealand with Mr. and Mrs. Hall when a knock on the door brought surprise visitors: Julia Lennon, accompanied by boyfriend Bobby Dykins.

Julia said that she wanted John back. Freddie refused to allow Julia to take him back to Mimi.

Julia said that she and her boyfriend were settling down and that she did not think that Freddie could provide a good home for him while he was at sea.

Freddie was astonished when Julia did not object to his plans to take John to New Zealand. She said, “You must love him then”, and asked to see him one more time.

John said, “Hello, Mummy.” He had not seen her in over two months and his time with his father made her seem like a stranger. He climbed on Freddie’s knee and put his arms around his neck to signal to Julia that he was well cared for.

Julia got up and walked to the door, saying, “It looks as if he’s decided to stay.”

However when Freddie opened the door for Julia, John leaped up after his mother.

“Don’t go, Mummy, please,’ he sobbed, burying his head in her skirt and making as if to stop her from leaving.

Freddie did not want John to come from a broken home. “Look, Julia, for John’s sake let’s have another go,” he pleaded, hoping to mend the broken marriage so that he could give John a stable family life.

Julia flatly refused. He asked John if he wanted to come back with her or go to New Zealand with his father.

He promptly took Freddie’s hand and said, “I’m staying with Daddy.”

Julia silently walked out the door. She had not gone fifty yards when John, confused and not understanding what was happening, wrenched his hand away from Freddie and ran after Julia, calling back to his father, “Come on, Daddy.”

It was clear to Freddie that John had made his choice and he felt obligated not to fight it. He sadly asked Mrs. Hall to pack John’s things. John and Julia disappeared around the corner. Freddie would spend the next days walking on the beach remembering the great times he had there with John for nearly two months.

The day that Freddie lost John to his estranged wife, Julia brought John to stay with his Aunt Mimi, which turned into a permanent arrangement. June 22, 1946 was the day that five year-old John Lennon lost both of his parents.

Even nearly ten years after the death of Linda Eastman McCartney from cancer in 1998, there still persists the myth or “urban legend” that the late Mrs. McCartney was from the Eastmans of Eastman-Kodak fame. This is false.

Linda Eastman was definitely from a wealthy family named Eastman. Her father, Lee Eastman, who changed his name from Epstein to Eastman, graduated from Harvard Law School and was a jet-set tax attorney in New York. Linda’s mother, Louise Linder Eastman, was the heiress to the Linder Department Store fortune and died in an American Airlines crash in Queens, New York in 1962.

The myth about Eastman-Kodak followed Linda from her 1969 marriage to Paul to her 1998 tragic death, and still continues to this day.

The late Mrs. McCartney would even joke about this false myth in interviews on occasion.

A new falsehood was circulating a little while ago. No, it is not that Paul is dead. It is much more original than that.

The rumor is that Paul and some established rock heavyweights are going to unite as a supergroup and do an album, much like The Traveling Wilburys did in 1988. Some of the names floating around as other members of this phantom group are Jeff Lynne, Eric Clapton, Paul Carrick and Bob Dylan – just to falsely name a few.

Paul being a member of such a novelty group is not far-fetched, but the rumor is that he will be playing drums in the band in addition to vocals. After all, Paul has much experience on the drums. He filled in as drummer many times during the early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. Later, he would play drums on three Beatles songs – “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “The Ballad of John & Yoko” and “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road”; this happened when Ringo briefly quit the group during the recording of The White Album. As is well known, Paul handled the drumming chores on the 1973 Wings album Band on the Run.

This is a fascinating rumor, but it is complete rubbish.

This comes from page 296 of Chet Flippo’s 1988 unauthorized biography:

“And Abbey Road, which was recorded over the course of the last Beatle summer, the summer of 1969, remains in many ways the purest expression of Beatles music. John didn’t much like it, mainly because it was really Paul’s album. John would later dismiss it as “folk songs for grannies”. His own contributions, however, were minimal compared to Paul’s. John was more interested in the work he was doing with Yoko. Paul, though, poured his heart into it and turned side two, most of which he wrote, into an elegant little pop symphony, each exquisite song flowing into the next jewel-like song with no break in between: “Here Comes the Sun” (which George wrote on a brilliant sunny afternoon in Eric Clapton’s garden, the same Eric Clapton to whom George was best friend and “husband-in-law”), “Because” (another of John’s songs about Yoko), “You Never Give Me Your Money” (Paul’s lament about Allen Klein and the situation at Apple), John’s “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard” (by John and left over from the White Album sessions), “Polythene Pam” (also by John and written in India, it is about a Liverpool “scrubber”), “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” (by Paul, about an Apple Scruff who got into his house via that method), “Golden Slumbers” (by Paul, inspired by a traditional song of the same name), and Paul finishes the album with his songs “Carry That Weight”, “The End” and “Her Majesty”. The album went immediately to number one on the British charts and sold four million copies in the first two months it was out.

All four Beatles married British women but the marriages would not last. The boys all seemed to find their true loves with foreign women.

George Harrison married Pattie Boyd in 1966 and was officially divorced from her in 1977.

Ringo married the former Maureen Cox in 1965 and was divorced in 1975.

John Lennon was married to the former Cynthia Powell from 1962-1968.

Paul married Heather Mills in 2002 and received a prelimnary divorce decree ten weeks ago. The divorce should be finalized by November 2008.

As is well known, George was married to Olivia Arias, a native of Mexico raised in the U.S., from 1978 until his tragic death in 2001.

John was married to Yoko Ono, who was born and raised in Tokyo, from 1969 until his 1980 murder.

Ringo has been happily married to American actress Barbara Bach since 1981.

Of course, Paul was married to the former Linda Eastman, a New York native, from 1969 until her tragic death from breast cancer in 1998; it is said that Paul and Linda spent only twelve nights apart during their marriage.

Last night I was fortunate enough to score a second row center ticket to The Eagles. The show was noteworthy in that one former member of Ringo’s All-Starr band sang the praises of another former Ringo All-Starr. Timothy B. Schmit praised Paul Carrack; of course, another former All-Starr, Joe Walsh, is lead guitarist of The Eagles and was on stage.

Timothy B. Schmit, the Eagles’ bass player, was a member of the 1992 configuration of the All-Starr band. Joe Walsh was on the 1989 tour as well as the 1992 tour. In 1992 when Peter Cetera, former bassist for Chicago, canceled out at the last minute and Ringo needed a bass player, Walsh recommended his friend and former bandmate Schmit.

Anyway, singer/keyboardist Paul Carrack was a member of the 2003 version of the All-Starr band. Last night at the concert, Timothy B. Schmit praised Carrack before singing the song “Love Will Keep Us Alive”, which appeared on the 1994 Hell Freezes Over CD. Carrack, along with Jim Capaldi, wrote the song and later gave it to Schmit for the Eagles reunion album. It is one of two songs that Schmit has sang at Eagles concerts since their reunion in 1994 after a tenuous 14 year hiatus along with “I Can’t Tell You Why” from their 1979 The Long Run album, which was Schmit’s first album with the band.

Schmit said last night, “Sometimes the band accepts songs from other people and this song was given to me by Paul Carrack. You may remember him……” Then Schmit went on to mention that in the 1970’s Carrack did a song with his band Ace called “How Long”, and sang a few of the lyrics. He then mentioned Carrack’s worked with Squeeze in the 1980’s and sang the refrain of “Tempted”. However, despite the fact that this concert tour features new songs from the new CD, Schmit did not mention that Carrack also wrote the song “ I Don’t Want to Hear Anymore”, sung by Schmit on Long Road Out of Eden, which is also included on this tour.

On the 1992 Ringo tour, Schmit sang “I Can’t Tell You Why”, his signature song with The Eagles, as well as “Keep on Tryin’” from his Poco days. In the 2003 tour with Ringo, Paul Carrack sang “How Long”, “Tempted” as well as “The Living Years”, his # 1 hit with Mike + The Mechanics.

When Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit were touring with Ringo in 1992, I bet that in their wildest dreams they did not think that two years later they would be back with a reunited Eagles and launch the start of several high-grossing world tours. I guess Ringo brings good luck to people!

Kudos to Timothy B. Schmit for taking the time to give Paul Carrack such high praise on stage during this tour.

Timothy B. Schmit joined the Eagles for their sixth album, 1979’s The Long Run, after original bassist Randy Meisner quit the band. Ironically, Schmit also took Meisner’s place in Poco when Meisner left that band in 1969. The 1994 reunited configuration of The Eagles consisted of the exact same line-up from the time of their 1980 break-up. Prior to the 1994 Eagles reunion, it was widely rumored that Schmit, Carrack and Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder were going to start their own group.

For more information on Timothy B. Schmit, please check out these two great sites:

http://hometown.aol.com/klmeps/Keepontryin.html

http://geocities.com/tbsfans/

I will leave you with two videos featuring the only rock star to use his middle initial…..