Beatles vs. Stones (47 page)

“The Beatles’ politics are terrible”
:
Joshua Newton, letter to the editor, (Detroit)
Fifth Estate
(December 11–22), 1969.

The original record sleeve
:
A rumor circulated that the sleeve showed a Chicago police officer brutalizing a demonstrator at that city’s 1968 Democratic National Convention, but the picture was actually taken in Los Angeles, during the Sunset Strip curfew riots in late 1966. Today, the record with the original sleeve is one of the rarest of records; some collectors sell it for around $75,000.

“throwing rocks and having”
:
Jonathon Green, ed.,
Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1967–1971
(London: Heinemann, 1988), 245.

“Everywhere I heard”
:
Amusingly, Tariq Ali threw the original, handwritten lyrics that Jagger had supplied into the wastepaper basket. To hold on to or in any way treasure the lyrics sheet would have contradicted
The Black Dwarf’
s political approach, which opposed the glorification of individuals. It was more important to build group solidarity and create the conditions for collective action.

“I chanted the words myself”
:
Jonah Raskin,
Out of the Whale: Growing Up in the American Left
(New York: Link Books, 1974), 119. Actually, “Street Fighting Man” does not contain the lyric Raskin chanted. It goes, “The time is right for
palace
revolution.” In all likelihood, Raskin is also the author of an article in SDS’s short-lived organ
Fire Next Time
, which lauded the song but similarly misquoted the lyric.

“and what you did here”
:
As quoted in sidebar, (Chicago)
Seed
(November 16, 1969).

Greetings and welcome Rolling Stones
:
As reprinted in Stanley Booth,
The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones
(Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2000), 142–143.

“I don’t really want to”
:
World in Action
television program (July 31, 1967).

“They must think a song”
:
Dave Doggett, (Oxford, MS)
Kudzu
(Feb. 5, 1969), 10.

“America, with its ears turned to its transistors”
:
LNS-London, “Beatles, Stones, on Movement,” (Hawaii)
The Roach
(February 1–15, 1969).

“he grew rather fond of capitalism”
:
Sanchez,
Up and Down
, 121.

“[Jagger] did have a genuine revulsion”
:
As quoted in Doggett,
There’s a Riot Going On
, 168.

Therefore, culture is war
:
As quoted in Miller,
Flowers in the Dustbin
, 272.

In another
:
Godard was apparently interested in filming either the Beatles
or
the Stones, and at first he wasn’t sure which band was most suitable for his purposes. Later, after Godard made a snide comment about the Beatles’ lack of political engagement in
International Times
, Lennon snapped, “That’s sour grapes from a man who couldn’t get us to be in the film. Dear Mr. Godard, just because we didn’t want to be in the film with you, it doesn’t mean to say that we aren’t doing any more than you.” But Mim Scala, a theatrical agent, said that he persuaded Godard to choose the Stones over the Beatles, and that he had to break that news to Lennon over the phone. He “took it on the chin,” Scala said. “I guess he was relieved that this was one more project that the Beatles did not have to worry about.”

“I’m beginning to think he’s”
:
At that point, Lennon did not know that Mao was one of history’s greatest mass murderers, but nor could he possibly have believed that Mao was in any way a peaceful man. “Revolution is not a dinner party,” Mao had famously said. “A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” Interestingly, Mao’s remark isn’t so dissimilar from Hoyland’s line: “In order to change the world, we’ve got to understand what’s wrong with the world. And then—destroy it. Ruthlessly.”

“If I were black, I’d”
:
Wenner,
Lennon Remembers
, 134.

“it’s a very delicate line”
:
Ian MacDonald, “John Lennon:
The John Lennon Anthology
,”
Uncut
(December 1998).

“The lyrics [in ‘Revolution’]”
:
The Beatles Anthology
, 299.

“They could own television”
:
John Sinclair, (Ann Arbor)
Argus
(Jan 25–Feb 7, 1969), 10.

“I think it may be safely”
:
Mayer, “Rock and Revolution” (New York)
WIN
(June 1, 1969), 12.

“For a long time the”
:
Francis Moss, “Disengagement and Retreat: Beatles’
Abbey Road
,” (Houston)
Space City!
(Nov. 7–20, 1969), 19.

“probably an honest statement”
:
As quoted in Mayer, “Rock and Revolution,” 12.

“confirmed institutionalists”
:
Ron Britain, “A View of the Beatles-Stones,” (Milwaukee)
Kaleidoscope
(Feb 14–27, 1969), 21.

“What do you think about”
:
Rolling Stones Press Conference, 1969; You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLC39AfB0Yw
.

“I don’t dig hero cults”
:
Dave Doggett, (Oxford, MS)
Kudzu
(Feb. 5, 1969), 10.

“strive for realism in”
:
Jon Landau, “Doing It in the Road,” (Atlanta)
Great Speckled Bird
(Feb. 24, 1969), 14–15.

“When you hear a Stones”
:
Jon Landau, “If I Thought It Would Do Any Good, I’d Write My Congressman,”
Extra!
(December 10–24, 1968) 12.

“The Stones sing to and”
:
Mike Kerman, “Class Clash—the Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones,” (Detroit)
Fifth Estate
(Feb. 6–19, 1969), 13. Probably the young writer would have been apoplectic if he knew that around the same time, the Beatles had briefly considered buying a remote Greek island, where they planned to build four hi-tech homes, connected by underground tunnels to a central glass dome with iron tracery.

But the Stones’ bloom was
:
According to promoters, the steep ticket prices were necessary because the Stones demanded so much money upfront. Most tickets ranged from $4.50 to $6.50, which would amount to between $20 and $33 today. By contrast, tickets for the band’s 2005 US tour were $134, and at some shows, prime seats went for $377. Asked about this, Jagger said the band didn’t control the ticket prices. He also suggested the question was uninteresting. “We’re not really not into that sort of economic scene.” On the Stones’ 2012 American tour, tickets ranged from $85 to $2,000. “If you really can’t afford a ticket, it’s sad,” Jagger told a journalist. “I feel bad about that. We have some cheap ones that are quite good too. There’s a price for everybody, I think.”

This was a new thing
:
The Beatles’ huge outdoor shows in 1966 were the exception. Usually their music was piped through the stadiums’ existing PA systems; to the extent that anyone could hear them play, they must have sounded terrible.

“Promoters in almost every city”
:
Norman,
The Stones
, 290.

“Unlike the Beatles and”
:
“Angry on the Stones,” (Chicago)
Rising Up Angry
(July 1969), 6.

To give an example, when the Stones
:
“Angry on the Stones,” (Chicago)
Rising Up Angry
(July 1969), 6. Abbie Hoffman was one of the “Chicago Seven” (or Chicago Eight) defendants who were charged with plotting to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He had been trying for days to get through to the Stones, even going so far as to call the Ambassador West Hotel and impersonating Elvis. (“Yassuh, I jes’ wanted to see how Mick an’ the boys were doing.”) Although Abbie was one of the most visible antiwar activists in the country, a reporter observed that while he was backstage, Mick was the only one to spend time with him. None of the others seemed to know, or care, who he was.

“If the Rolling Stones”
:
As quoted in Abe Peck,
Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press
(New York: Citadel Press, 1991), 226.

“[C]lapping hands, cutting up”
:
LNS, (Ann Arbor)
Argus
(October 3–17, 1969), 2.

“It would take a little while longer”
:
Sanchez,
Up and Down
, 185.

“Just a few decades ago rock”
:
Fred Goodman,
The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-On Collision of Rock and Commerce
(New York: Vintage, 1998), xi.

“Why does it cost $50,000”
:
At the time, most LPs were priced between $5 and $6. The Beatles, however, had negotiated an increase in their royalty rate to 69 cents per album. Before long, record prices went up across the industry.

Why can’t rock groups who
:
Letter to editor, (Seattle)
Helix
(October 30. 1969), 14.

6: WHEEL-DEALING IN THE POP JUNGLE

“
It was simply terrible how lost”
:
As quoted in
MOJO’s The Beatles
, 293.

“Meditation gives you comfort”
:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhNcGdLyvw0
.

“I
knew
that we were in trouble”
:
Lennon interview with Jann Wenner,
Lennon Remembers
(audio version).

“In fact, Brian’s answer”
:
As quoted in Coleman,
The Man Who Made the Beatles
, 263.

“John may have been”
:
Tony Barrow,
John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me
(New York: Da Capo, 2006), 49.

“We’re going into Decca”
:
Richards,
Life
, 179.

(“A contract is just a piece”)
:
As quoted in Klein,
Playboy
(November 1971). Klein continues: “Two parties sign [a contract] in good faith, hoping it indicates what they both want out of a relationship. But situations change, so contracts get renegotiated.”

(“I mean not over us, he was”)
:
Richards,
Life
, 179.

“They crumbled and we”
:
Richards,
Life
, 179.

“Klein said that”
:
Peter Brown,
The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles
(New York: NAL Trade, 2002), 227.