The Beatles Boxed Set (3 page)

            The
days following his mother’s death passed. Paul continued his studies, paying
attention in class and remembering what he was told. But alone in his bedroom,
he would let go of the tears. At first, he tried praying, asking God to fix
everything. He even swore that he’d do anything if He’d send his mother back. Paul
would look back on this day and recalled, “See, the prayers didn’t work! When I
really needed them to, as well.”

            Perhaps,
this was the crucial point in his life that he stopped believing in God. While
he had been baptized as Roman Catholic and was raised non-denominationally, religion
was not emphasized in the McCartney household.

            Life
continued for the McCartneys, although a lot of changes took place. When the
boys got home in the afternoons, they would find an empty, dark and cold house.
Paul would immediately sweep out the ashes from the grate and light a new fire.
Mike would put on the kettle and they would sit for tea together in the dining
room. Afterwards, they would stack the dishes on the drainer, see about their
homework and either read their comic books or watch TV.

            It
would take months before a new kind of normal would settle on their home. Jim
would arrive home in the late afternoon, and then they would settle in for the
night, sometimes sharing a meal of sausages and mash. Despite the lack of a
mother, Paul said, “I had a very nice warm family. There was a lot of security
there.”

While
Paul grew up in a household where music was a normal part of life, his interest
in music, particularly rock ‘n’ roll, came alive sometime after his mother’s
death. Paul came to befriend Ivan Vaughan, a classmate from Woolton who had the
same birthday as Paul. It was not only a birthday that they shared, but poetry,
humor, and rock ‘n’ roll music.

            In
1957, Paul had an awareness of the new sound from America, rock ‘n’ roll, which
was pushed along by the leading figure in skiffle, Lonnie Donegan. Donegan was
responsible for the revival of skiffle in the United Kingdom after his
high-tempo version of Leadbelly’s
Rock Island Line
became a major hit.

            However,
skiffle was merely an echo of rock ‘n’ roll, something that was hard to find
and almost impossible to hear on the airwaves.

Music was part of the McCartney
household, and it was not a surprise when Paul became interested in music,
particularly rock ‘n’ roll

            Nevertheless,
Paul became enamored with rock ‘n’ roll music, enjoying listening to
Tutti
Frutti
and
Long Tall Sally.
He thought this was more fun than jazz
and ragtime 78s that he came to know while growing up in the McCartney
household. And in Elvis Presley’s heyday, Paul was one of those who idolized
the King. He and Mike would look at magazine covers of Presley, awed by the
motorcycle leathers and piled-up hair.

            But
during those times, BBC, Britain’s sole broadcaster, was restricted from
playing much recorded music, so it only played big bands and light jazz combos.
The BBC executives were not keen on playing rock ‘n’ roll at that time.

            So
those who came to love rock ‘n’ roll had to find it for themselves. Paul soon
found himself waiting for the night when he could listen to Radio Luxembourg.
The English-language broadcasts of popular music were only played at night. Paul
and Mike became obsessed with these broadcasts, listening even after their
father told them to go to bed. Eventually, Jim set rudimentary headphones for
them, with extension cords leading to their bedrooms so that they could listen
beneath the covers. Paul remembered, “It was music that I loved. If we were
feeling lousy, we’d go back and play
Don’t Be Cruel
, and we’d be right
up there again. It could cure any blues.”

            But
Paul had wanted more than to listen. He wanted to make music as well. This was
where the guitar he got for his birthday came in. It was a Framus Zenith (model
17) acoustic guitar with a high-strung bridge and a rickety neck. At first he
found it difficult to play the instrument, what with him being left-handed. But
then Paul saw a picture of country musician Slim Whitman, and realized that
Whitman played left-handed with his right-handed guitar strung the opposite
way.

            Of
course, he could do that, too! Paul restrung his guitar in opposite order and
flipped it over so that he could form chords with his right hand. After some
adjustments, he found his Zenith easier to play.

            His
guitar became the center of his life from that moment. Wherever he was, he was
with it. Mike said, “He was lost. He didn’t have to eat or think about anything
else.”

            One
afternoon, Paul was again hunched over his guitar, strumming some chords over
and over. He would think of words to accompany the tune. He recalled,
“Something was making me make it up, whether I knew how to do it or not.”

            Paul
kept at it until he came up with something.

            “It’s
a funny, corny little song,” he said years later. But
I Lost My Little Girl
,
his very first song he wrote when he was 14, marked Paul McCartney’s
songwriting career.

It
was Ivan Vaughan who offhandly presented an idea to Paul McCartney that would
lead him to a group that would later on become famous. Ivan suggested that Paul
attend a party and check out his friend’s band. It was at the St. Peter’s
Parish Church just around the corner from Ivan’s house.

            Paul
became interested, hearing from Ivan that there would be a lot of girls there,
and music. Ivan also said that a skiffle band fronted by his backyard friend,
John Lennon, would be playing. Paul wasn’t familiar with the Quarrymen, named
after the Quarry Bank grammar school that most of the band’s members attended.
Even Ivan played with the guys, taking up the bass when the regular guy
couldn’t make it.

The Quarrymen: (from left to right), Pete
Best, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Stu Sutcliffe

            As
the Quarrymen were scheduled to play at 4:15, Paul had readied himself by mid-afternoon.
He pedaled down Forthlin Road to Mather Avenue and up the hill to St. Peter’s.
But he was late. The band was already playing on the stage – which was the back
of a flatbed truck – when he arrived.

            Upon
looking closely at the band members, he immediately noted that they were
accomplished musicians. But it was the teenager who stood front and center that
really took his attention.

            As
it turned out, Paul knew John Lennon, though not personally. John was the kid
whom Paul saw around the fringes of Allerton and Woolton, laughing with a
friend while walking down Mather Avenue. And John was the kind of noisy guy
that Paul learned to steer away from during his days in Speke. But since he was
a friend of Ivan’s, that meant he couldn’t be all bad.

            John’s
band mates were competent enough, but it was he who people would certainly turn
their attention to. He wasn’t an excellent guitar player, and Paul thought that
the way he played his guitar was off. Even his singing was a bit off. A song he
was singing veered to a reference to someone named Mimi coming up the path,
seemingly directed to a stern-looking woman that John was grinning at from his perch
on the stage.

            The
band played for about 30 minutes, then gathered their things and left the
stage. Paul heard an announcement about the church-hall dance that night where
the Quarrymen would play two sets. Paul and Ivan met up, the latter leading him
to a little wooden Scout hut where the Quarrymen and other performers stored
their things. When they got inside, the drummer of the band, Colin Hanton,
looked up and acknowledged their presence. Hanton remembered, “I saw Ivan
coming in with this other lad. Just this guy we didn’t know. And then they were
talking to John.

            John
Lennon was at first uninterested. He saw that Paul looked too young (he had
just turned 15 then). Ivan then told John that Paul was great with his guitar
and that he could play songs from memory. The conversation turned to guitars,
and John told them that he kept his guitar in an open-G tuning, just like a
banjo. Then they talked about songs. When Paul mentioned Eddie Cochran’s
Twenty
Flight Rock
, John became interested, especially after Paul confirmed that
he knew the chords and words.

            Paul
took the guitar, readjusted the strings, flipped the instrument around and
began playing though he was playing with the strings wrong-side-up for his
hands.

            Nevertheless,
the band members were impressed with Paul. Eric Griffiths, the other guitar
player, said, “It was uncanny. He had such confidence, he gave a real
performance.”

Paul and John developed a friendship and
a songwriting partnership that would see them throughout the life of the Beatles

            John,
too, seemed impressed. Paul continued, playing
Be-Bop-A-Lula
and then
some Little Richard songs. Griffiths acknowledged that Paul “could play and
sing in a way none of us could, including John. We couldn’t get enough of it.” John
was thrilled, too, laughing and clapping with the guys.

            But
when Paul finished, John was still reluctant to ask him to join the group. He
told Hunter Davis in 1967, “I’d been kingpin up to then. It went through my
head that I’d have to keep him in line if I let him join. But he was good, so
he was worth having.”

            That
evening, they separate ways with no assurance that they’d be seeing each other
again. But John suggested the idea of having Paul in the band to his best
friend Pete Shotton, who quickly agreed that Paul would be a nice addition to
the band.

            A
few days later, Pete saw Paul pedaling up to Ivan’s house. He waved him over
and invited him to join the Quarrymen. Paul shrugged but nodded. Pete asked him
if he could come to practice for the band’s next show, at the Cavern jazz club
on August 8. Paul agreed, though that would mean that he should be home not
long after.

            Paul’s
first public performance was at the Butlin’s holiday camp in North Wales a few
weeks later. One of the highlights of this camp was the talent show, where Paul
signed up and spent hours practicing Little Richard’s
Long Tall Sally.
He
asked his younger brother to join him for the performance of the Everly
Brothers’
Bye Bye Love
, which they had been singing in the family
sitting room for months.