Beatles vs. Stones (46 page)

“In his right-hand breast pocket”
:
Wells,
Butterfly on a Wheel
, 118.

All of this was confiscated
:
Snyderman was finally discovered many years later in Los Angeles, working as a small-time television and experimental film producer under the name David Jove. In the early 1980s, he created the show
Night Flight
, hosted by musician Peter Ivers on the then-fledgling USA network. When Ivers was murdered in 1983 (someone bashed his skull with a hammer), Jove was a suspect, but he was never charged. He died of pancreatic cancer in 2004. (Incidentally, his daughter is Lili Haydn, the celebrated violinist.)

“That’s what I feel most bitter”
:
As quoted in Norman,
The Stones
, 239.

“First they don’t like”
:
As quoted in Hotchner,
Blown Away
, 251. Of course, the Stones never were offered MBEs. In 2003, however, Mick Jagger received the British establishment’s ultimate nod of approval: he was knighted at Buckingham Palace. Keith was angry about it. “I told Mick it’s a paltry honor. . . . It’s not what the Stones is about, is it?”

“Free the Stones”
:
Paytress,
Off the Record
, 132.

“vicious”
:
As quoted in Dalton,
The First Twenty Years
, 101.

They promptly announced
:
Wells,
Butterfly on a Wheel
, photo insert between 210 and 211.

“The Rolling Stones are”
:
As quoted in Paytress,
Off the Record
, 136.

In Britain, it is an
:
William Rees-Mogg, “Who Breaks a Butterfly on a Wheel?”
The Times
(London) (July 1, 1967).

“monstrously out of proportion”
:
Carey Schofield,
Jagger
(London: Methuen, 1983), 134.

After the
News of the World:
“A Monstrous Charge,”
News of the World
(July 2, 1967).

“Are we expected to accept”
:
As quoted in Wells,
Butterfly on a Wheel
, 218.

“We weren’t thinking of the Beatles”
:
Spitz,
Jagger
, 106.

“they got twenty billion irresponsible”
:
As quoted in Miller,
Flowers in the Dustbin
, 263.

“In each city where I stopped”
:
As quoted in Greil Marcus, “Another Version of the Chair,” in June Sinner Sawyers, ed.,
Read the Beatles: Classic New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter
(New York: Penguin, 2006), 81.

“Everywhere one went”
:
Miller,
Flowers in the Dustbin
, 257–58.

“a decisive moment in the history”
:
As quoted in Norman,
Shout!
, 331.

“Mick said he’d come”
:
Tony Bramwell,
Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996), 195.

“Olympic became the nightclub”
:
As quoted in Oldham,
2Stoned
, 354.

“Prior to their arrival the”
:
Oldham,
2Stoned
, 344.

“Lennon said, ‘Set the mike up’ ”
:
As quoted in Oldham,
2Stoned
, 354.

The two Beatles didn’t listen to
:
Oldham,
2Stoned
, 344.

Lennon and McCartney’s high harmonies
:
Because they were signed to different labels, the Beatles and the Stones were not supposed to sing on each other’s records. The Stones knew that Lennon and McCartney’s appearance on “We Love You” would help sales, however, so they let it circulate as a rumor. In August 1967, when an
NME
journalist asked Jagger point-blank whether John and Paul had sung backup on the song, Mick craftily managed to affirm the rumor while technically denying it. “Don’t ask me a question like that—you know we could not do things like that when we work for different labels. That’s Keith and I singing—listen . . .” (at which point Jagger humorously tried, and failed, to reach the high harmonies on the record).

“It’s just a bit of fun”
:
Paytress,
Off the Record
, 140.

“fairies, goblins and elves”
:
Norman,
The Stones
, 284.

Their sojourn was cut short
:
Beginning in mid-February 1968, the Beatles, their wives and their assistants all got together for an extended stay in the Maharishi’s idyllic ashram in Rishikesh, India, where their days were drug-free and devoted to peaceful contemplation. But Ringo couldn’t stomach the food, and Paul was put off by the Maharishi’s tendency to drench the Beatles in buttery, over-the-top praise—calling them “the saviors of mankind” and so forth. So they both left, with polite regrets, before the course was over. John and George, however, claimed they were getting profound (even life-changing) results from practicing Transcendental Meditation. So it was surprising when they abruptly fled the retreat and angrily severed their ties with their spiritual mentor on April 12. To this day, it has never been
precisely
clear what their objection was, but it had something to do with the Maharishi’s alleged sexual hypocrisy. After claiming to be celibate, he supposedly made a pass at one of his young female students or was otherwise caught in a compromising position. But Mick Jagger—who was not there—circulated an alternative account of what transpired. In his recently published diaries, Christopher Isherwood recalls meeting Mick on the set of
Ned Kelly
, a motion picture that was filmed in the Australian outback in 1969. “[Mick] told me with amusement that the real reason why the Beatles left the Maharishi was that he made a pass at one of them: ‘They’re simple north-country lads; they’re terribly uptight about all that.’ Am still not sure if I believe this story.”

“a lovely puddle of psychedelic”
:
Steve Appleford,
The Rolling Stones: Rip This Joint
:
The Story Behind Every Song
(New York: Da Capo, 2001), 55.

“the prototype of junk”
:
Keith Altham, “Rolling Stones: Year of the Stones’ New Heart,”
NME Annual
(1969).

“I can remember”
:
According to the Rolling Stones
, 114.

“You have lost the plot”
:
Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot,
The Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock ’n’ Roll Rivalry
(Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2010), 19.

“the first psychedelic”
:
Jim DeRogatis,
Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock
(Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2003), 57.

alluded to LSD’s harrowing aspects
:
Consider the orchestral crescendo on “A Day in the Life,” as well as Love’s brilliant 1967 album
Forever Changes
and the Move’s 1966 single “Night of Fear.”

“I’m quite proud that”
:
Jessica Pallington West, ed.,
What Would Keith Richards Do? Daily Affirmations from a Rock and Roll Survivor
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), 155.

“Even beyond the usual hysterical”
:
“Apples for the Beatles,”
Time
(September 6, 1968), 59.

“That’s why I did it”
:
The Beatles Anthology
, 298.

(“When you talk about destruction”)
:
Lennon and the Beatles recorded three versions of “Revolution.” The record described here, which is the public heard first, was actually recorded after “Revolution 1,” which appeared on the so-called
White Album.
On “Revolution 1,” Lennon sings “and you can count me out—
in
,” because he says he was unsure how he felt about revolutionary violence. (The record’s lyric sheet, however, is unambiguous: it says “you can count me out.”) The
White Album
also contained an eight-minute avant-garde montage, “Revolution 9,” which many consider the Beatles’ worst song ever.

“Cistercian Monk”
:
“Uncle Gengis F.,” “The Rock Song as Radical Element,” (Peoria, Illinois)
The Left Out,
n.d. [circa 1969], 14.

“The more political you are”
:
Ralph Gleason, “The Beatles’ Revolution,” Liberation News Service, No. 111 (October 19, 1968), 10.

“The Beatles aren’t just”
:
Ralph Gleason, “The Beatles Are More Potent Than SDS,” LNS No. 111 (October 19, 1968), 10.

“the seed of the new cultural”
:
Roland Muldoon,
The Black Dwarf
(October 13, 1967).

“the inadequacy of [Lennon’s]”
:
John Hoyland, “Power to the People,”
The Guardian
(March 14, 1968).

“Recently your music has”
:
John Hoyland, “A Very Open Letter to John Lennon,” (Seattle)
Helix
(July 17, 1969), 15.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong with”
:
John Lennon, “A Very Open Letter to John Hoyland,” (Seattle)
Helix
(July 17, 1969), 15.

The feeling’s [sic] I’ve gotten
:
John Hoyland, “John Hoyland Replies,” (Seattle)
Helix
(July 17, 1969), 15.

“ate the Beatles alive”
:
No author, “Beatles Revolution: Two Views,” (San Diego)
Teaspoon Door
(November 22, 1968), 8.

Village Voice
writer Robert Christgau
:
See Wiener,
Come Together
, 60.

“lamentable petty bourgeois cry”
:
Richard Merton, “Comment on Chester’s ‘For a Rock Aesthetic,’ ”
New Left Review
59 (Jan–Feb, 1970).

“betrayal”
:
As quoted in Wiener,
Come Together
, 60.

“indifference to politics”
:
As quoted in Peter Doggett,
There’s A Riot Going On
(Edinburgh: Canongate, 2008), 197.

“There is freedom in the”
:
Greil Marcus, “A Singer and a Rock and Roll Band,” in Greil Marcus, ed.,
Rock and Roll Will Stand
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1969), 96.

“However shitty the lyrics”
:
James E. Curry, “Dallas” (Madison, WI)
Connections
(February 5–20, 1969), 3.

“more thought and discussion”
:
Herman Rumper, “The Beatles Below the Surface,”
San Diego Free Press
(Feb 28–March 14, 1969), 7.