Beatles vs. Stones (41 page)

“In the end I just gestured into”
:
George Melly,
Revolt into Style: The Pop Arts
(New York: Anchor Books, 1971), 73.

“reached the threshold of pain”
:
“POPS for Everyone,”
Radio Times
(May 2, 1963), 39. Incidentally, a posed photo accompanying the
Radio Times
piece showed a delicately featured blonde teenager clenching her fists and screaming feverishly. It was Jane Asher, the beautiful London debutante and
Juke Box Jury
panelist to whom Paul McCartney would later become engaged but never marry. She was just seventeen.

“And there’s a bunch of girls”
:
As quoted in Strausbaugh,
Rock Til You Drop
, 45.

“This is what we
like
”
:
As quoted in Wyman,
Stone Alone
,128.

According to a rumor, for years
:
See
MOJO’s The Beatles,
32.

“Nobody had
ever
played the Philharmonic”
:
Harrison was correct to say that the Philharmonic wasn’t in the business of hosting rock acts. But he was mistaken when he said that
no
rock act ever played there. Buddy Holly and the Crickets had performed at the Royal Albert Hall on March 20, 1958, when George was just fifteen. Though none of the future Beatles attended, biographer Jonathan Gould says Lennon and McCartney both “became completely caught up in the enthusiasm generated by Holly’s appearance.”

“At the height of ’Pool mania”
:
Melly,
Revolt into Style
, 82.

The Liverpool scene had been
:
Performers at the Lancashire and Cheshire Beat Group Contest played under the apprehension that the winner would receive a Decca recording contract. After it was over, though, the winners—a group called the Escorts—were informed that the prize was merely a Decca
audition
. The Escorts never made a proper album during their four-year career, though in 1983 (supposedly at the behest of Elvis Costello), Edsel Records reissued the twelve songs the group recorded as singles before they split up in 1967, on the LP
From the Blue Angel.
On one of the tracks, Paul McCartney played tambourine.

“I’d really had my backside”
:
Dick Rowe, audio recording, “The Rolling Stones Past and Present,” Mutual Broadcast System, Broadcast dates: September 30–October 3, 1988. Hour one.

“When George turned around”
:
Norman,
The Stones,
95.

“He took the next train to London”
:
Spitz,
The Beatles
, 407.

“drove
all day to be at the”
:
Davis,
Old Gods
, 56. Emphasis added.

“Upon his return [from Liverpool]”
:
Email to author, 2/14/2011.

“When we arrived”
:
Email to author, 2/14/2011.

“There wasn’t a girl to be seen”
:
Dick Rowe, audio recording, “The Rolling Stones Past and Present,” Mutual Broadcast System, Broadcast dates: September 30–October 3, 1988. Hour one.

“crowds of boys, rising”
:
Norman,
The Stones
, 207.

“the most logical place”
:
Oldham,
Stoned
, 210.

“I remember taking [the Stones’ audition tape]”
:
Rowe, audio recording, “The Rolling Stones Past and Present,” Mutual Broadcast System, Broadcast dates: September 30–October 3, 1988. Hour one.

“He had us totally beaten there”
:
As quoted in Oldham,
Stoned
, 212.

“Who has been most helpful”
:
As quoted in
Rolling Stones Book,
No. 1, June 1964, 11.

“Giorgio, Giorgio,
that’s
what I want”
:
Strausbaugh,
Rock Til You Drop
, 45.

“In these hectic days of Liverpool”
:
As quoted in George Tremlett,
The Rolling Stones Story
(London: Futura Publications, 1974), 61.

“It’s good, punchy, and commercial”
:
As quoted in Nicholas Schaffner,
The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982), 60.

“would sit for hours composing letters”
:
As quoted in
According to the Rolling Stones
, 43.

“When we left the club scene”
:
As quoted in Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 171.

“was the most uneasy of all”
:
Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 171.

“From the moment I joined”
:
Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 172.

“You’re on the road 350 days”
:
As quoted in
According to the Rolling Stones
, 101. Richards was of course exaggerating about the extent of the Stones’ touring schedule.

“Brian could be sweet—he was intelligent”
:
Rob Chapman, “Brian Jones,”
MOJO
(July 1999).

Sometimes when the Stones performed
:
“For Charlie I think that was the most frustrating time,” Keith remarked. “He was a serious musician, a jazz drummer, and all of a sudden he’s playing to a load of thirteen-year-old girls wetting themselves and Brian’s doing ‘Popeye the Sailor Man.’ ”

“Brian embarrassed himself first”
:
As quoted in David Robson, “As Soon As I Saw the Stones, A Wave Came Over, My Life Was Fulfilled,”
The Express
(May 30, 2000).

“Rubbing shoulders with the Beatles”
:
Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 128.

“idolized the Beatles”
:
Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 173.

Dick Rowe called them “ghastly”
:
Rowe, audio recording, “The Rolling Stones Past and Present,” Mutual Broadcast System, Broadcast dates: September 30–October 3, 1988. Hour two.

“The dialogue,” Oldham said
:
As quoted in Norman,
The Stones
, 90.

“I remember teaching it to them”
:
It was a kind gesture, but not quite an altruistic one. At the time, Lennon and McCartney had more songs than they knew what to do with, and in addition to receiving royalties from each song they donated to other artists—people like Cilla Black, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and Tommy Quickly—they both received a bit of pleasure from seeing their compositions touted in music magazine record advertisements: “Another Smash Hit from the Sensational Song Writing Team John Lennon and Paul McCartney.” (Of course, whoever recorded John and Paul’s material likewise got to wallow in some prestige.)

“So Paul and I went off to”
:
The Beatles Anthology
, 101.

“We liked the song”
:
Richards, audio recording, “The Rolling Stones Past and Present,” Mutual Broadcast System, Broadcast dates: September 30–October 3, 1988. Hour two.

“that John and Paul would be”
:
As quoted in Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 151.

“We weren’t going to give them”
:
As quoted in Keith Badman, ed.,
The Beatles: Off the Record
(London: Omnibus Press, 2008), 66.

“Instead of patting myself”
:
Oldham,
2Stoned
(New York: Vintage, 2003), 66.

“A songwriter, as far as”
:
As quoted in Oldham,
Stoned,
250–251.

“Look at the other boys”
:
According to the Rolling Stones
, 84.

“The Beatles had set this trend”
:
As quoted in Oldham,
Stoned
, 249–250.

“We spent the whole night”
:
Richards,
Life
, 142.

“Keith likes to tell the story”
:
According to the Rolling Stones
, 84.

“I saw an angel”
:
As quoted in Davis,
Old Gods
, 80.

Had Jagger and Richards
:
Arguably, the best Jagger-Richards composition from this period was “So Much in Love.” As recorded by the Mighty Avengers, a Coventry band that Oldham also managed, it was a catchy, twangy pop song, but lyrically it was quite caustic, and in that way it presaged some of what the Stones would do later. It was a very minor hit in the UK.

Jagger-Richards composition
:
Two more original songs appear on the record, however. One is “Now I’ve Got a Witness,” an instrumental that is credited to the group under the pseudonym “Nanker Phelge.” The other, “Little by Little,” was credited to Nanker Phelge and Phil Spector.

“Even though people”
:
Dalton,
The First Twenty Years
, 31.

Others remember him toiling
:
http://www.earcandymag.com/rrcase-brianjones.htm
.

“but out of hand”
:
Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 177.

“quite upset, almost crying”
:
http://www.earcandymag.com/rrcase-brianjones.htm
.

“Now there was no distance”
:
Oldham,
Stoned
, 245.

“Until that time Brian”
:
As quoted in Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 179.

“Brian wasn’t really a writer”
:
As quoted in
According to the Rolling Stones
, 86.

“all in our smart new clothes”
:
As quoted in Miles,
Paul McCartney
, 120.

3: A PARTICULAR FORM OF SNOBBERY

Andrew Oldham recalls puckishly
:
“Would You Let Your Sister Go with A Rolling Stone?”
Melody Maker
, March 14, 1964. See also “But Would You Let Your Daughter Marry One?”
Evening Standard
(April 1964).

“I’ve made sure the Stones”
:
As quoted in Wyman,
Stone Alone
, 192.

“Don’t for heaven’s sake say”
:
As quoted in Braun,
Love Me Do
, 14.