A Beatles Fantasia:

John Lennon In Leather

By

R. E. Prindle

 

Dizzy Dez, a fellow Beatles researcher and internet friend, recently wrote a piece (  https://thenumbernineblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/taking-the-world-by-hurricane/     ) about the strange story of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  Rory Storm led the most popular Liverpool band of the period.  He was more important in Liverpool and Frankfurt than the Beatles.  Yet, as Diz points out, when all the shouting was over and the dust had settled, the Beatles went unto worldwide fame pulling the best of the Liverpool bands after them, Rory Storm was left out in the cold.  He never knew other than Liverpool success.

Just an inconsequential odd fact (except to Rory) that I found interesting but also significant.  It was good of Diz to dig this story up, but then, Diz left me with a thought:  What if the Beatles’ success had nothing to do with their talent; what if the only reason they found success was a fact that had nothing to do with their musical skills; what if their success depended on a queer’s fascination with one John Lennon?

Consider that Liverpool was an English backwater, a tough , gritty town with little sophistication and small hopes.  If you have ever been in the Liverpool/Bristol area you really know what depression is.  I was never so happy to leave an area since.  I had become acquainted with a bottom surpassing Philadelphia and that is saying a lot.

So, in 1960-62 what you had was a city full of louts, what the English call Yobboes, desperately trying to find some distinction for their lives by playing in rock bands.  In 1960 that was a desperate hope indeed.  The hope was so desperate that the bands ended up playing before a bunch of rowdies and prostitutes, the underbelly of civilization, in Hamburg’s red light district on the Reeperbahn.  Not the place for refined cultured manners.  More like changing you from a lout or Yobbo into a super Yobbo.  The indications are that the Beatles became very rough.   What the homosexuals call ‘rough trade.’

In any event the Beatles went to Hamburg where they refined their rock n’ roll skills coming back to Liverpool to take their place in the hierarchy of Liverpool bands where they were a sensation although lower in the hierarchy than Rory Storm and his Hurricanes.  Still in their locality and in their age and social set they were prominent.

Now, the local record store, NEMS, was managed for the family firm by a young homosexual Jew, Brian Epstein.  At the time it was a punishable offence to public morals to be a homosexual so Brian Epstein was quite repressed.  Raised on all the Jewish holocaust nonsense he felt like a powerless oppressed Jew.  Therefore as a homosexual Jew he favored the rough trade.

Probably having heard the Beatles talked about along their outrageous leader John Lennon, dressed all in black leather, Brian made it down to the local rock emporium, the Cavern, to have a look.

What he saw made his dick throb.  There on stage was God’s own Yobbo, John Lennon resplendent in his leather while projecting confidence and totally outrageous.  Rough trade on a stick.  Gimme dat ding.  So, totally smitten Brian has to figure out a way to realize his dream.

It is clear that Brian wasn’t on the make to find a band to promote; for Christ’s sake he had a city full of rock bands to choose from including Liverpool’s number one, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and he made no effort to sign any.  But, suppose he heard of Lennon’s desire to be the toppermost of the poppermost.  Perhaps, Brian thought, I’m in the record business, I know execs at the London labels, perhaps if I gave John what he wants he would let me make him mine.  Sounded good.

Now, let’s be clear, when Brian approached the London labels there was no interest in the Beatles or any other Liverpool band.  There was no reason for any exec to ever even visit Liverpool and perhaps none ever had.  Regardless of any talent, that had not yet been demonstrated, the Beatles were not going anywhere.  The execs even considered the name stupid; what in the hell does beatle mean?  Can’t even spell it right.  Brian persisted and if he hadn’t the Beatles would never have had a shot at the bigtime.  They would have disappeared the way they came in, unnoticed.  The Beatles were going nowhere.

But, and this is the important fact here, Brian had a hard on for John.  Bear this in mind, Brian had a tin ear, he could have cared less about the Beatles as a band; he had a hard on for John. And hopefully by making John the toppermost of the poppermost, and this meant only the small market of England, it was inconceivable that any band, let alone an English band, could become a worldwide phenomenon.  Whatever happened next was totally serendipitous.  Who could have dreamed of worldwide fame and hundreds of millions of dollars.

So Brian signed his Boys, as they say in the managerial parlance, and left for London to put them in a recording contract.  Of course NEMS was a major account in the retail record world so Brian got a polite hearing but no real enthusiasm.  Probably to get rid of a pest who wouldn’t quit he was allowed an audition.  But this was only after making the rounds.

The Beatle’s ended up at EMI’s sub-label Parlophone and had George Martin assigned to them as a producer.  While the Beatles had been all the rage on the  Reeperbahn of ill fame and the backwater burg of Liverpool, what set the four aflame in those two locations was not so evident in the London recording studio.  It was like someone from Poughkeepsie showing up on the Great White Way.  George Martin found their musicianship flimsy but something apparently appealed to him about them.  Everything about them was off, they still had the aroma of the Reeperbahn,  but, the story goes, George was a technical wizard, so somewhat in the way David Seville created Alvin and the Chipmunks George’s wizardry created the Beatles.  This is the legend.

The label thought they were hopeless so perhaps as a joke they allowed the Beatles to make ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ as a first record.  And as with Alvin and the Chipmunks they probably viewed the disc as a novelty record; something along the lines of Mrs. Miller the off key virtuoso.

They were surprised when the record took off.  No less surprised than I was when the record was a success in the US.  Why the hell does anyone like that I wondered.  But I and we were witnessing several seemingly unrelated things:  First the song was the first true teenybopper, bubble gum song that soon inspired groups like the Ohio Express and the Lemon Pipers.  ‘Yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy.’  Remember that inspired tune?  A step up from, I Want To Hold Your Hand.

The social conditions were right for the Beatles innocent, probably tongue in cheek, song.  The Fifties had been tense what with the Cold War and the Bomb and things were getting more tense.  Nerves were frayed.  Perhaps a return to innocent pleasures of the young were in order.  At any rate after becoming the rage in England Brian had actually jockeyed the Beatles and John into the toppermost of the poppermost in that small sceptered island but after a terrific promo campaign in the US when their plane landed, they hit exactly the right insouciant note at the exact right psychological moment in time.  You can’t plan this.  Nobody, nobody, could have forecast that.  Brian and the Beatle’s ship had come in.

John Lennon had realized his dream in a Spade Royal Flush.  The Beatles, words fail me, were on top of the world.  The planet’s first globally successful band.  They were bigger than Jesus.  Oops, when John said that all hell broke loose.  Abashed, John announced they would tour no more.  When it came to business sense John was lacking but he and the band were only musicians, a ‘hot little band’ as McCartney recently characterized them.

But what about Brian?’  What about Brians’s reward.  He had little business sense too and hadn’t been working for the success that came or was prepared for it.  Of course John and the rest knew Brian was a poof.  Who didn’t except for those who chose not to see.  Brian had always been attentive to John in that peculiar way, certainly that hadn’t escaped he leader of the band.  He joked about how Brian and the whole record industry was Jewish and queer.

According to Peter Brown in his ‘The Love You Make:  An Insider’s Story Of The Beatles’, Brian did get his reward.  Brown says that Brian invited John on a holiday in Spain and there John gave him the reward he wanted.

What if the story of the Beatles success had nothing to do with their musicianship, their songwriting, their personalities or anything else but Brian Epstein getting a hard on  for a bit of rough trade:  John Lennon in leather.

Wouldn’t that make a fabulous movie?  Wouldn’t that be as ironical as all get out?  It might not be literally true but it can’t be too far from the truth.  Forget about poor old Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, history’s forgotten band.  Once again, what a movie.

A Review: Allen Klein by Fred Goodman

A Review:

Allen Klein:

The Man Who Bailed Out The Beatles, Made The Stones,

And Transformed Rock And Roll

 

Goodman, Fred:  Allen Klein, The Man Who Bailed…etc., 2015, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Loewenstein, Prince Rupert:   A Prince Among Stones, 2013, Bloomsbury

Oldham, Andrew Loog:  Stoned, 2000, 2001 Vintage Edition

Oldham, Andrew Loog:  2Stoned, 2002, 2003 Vintage Edition

Oldham, Andrew Loog:  Stone Free, 2012, Escargot Books

 

Allen Klein:  This Is A Real Orphanage Face

I anticipated what I hoped would be a revealing account of the infamous Allen Klein.  I have been sorely disappointed by this hagiography.  Bailed out the Beatles, made the Stones and transformed rock and roll?  Whew!  Where’s his statue so I can reverence it.  Since Allen died in 2009, his son, Jody, has shaken up his father’s empire.  Jody has dipped into the archives to let out the two Stones’ movies Charley Is My Darling and Rock and Roll Circus to his credit.  They can now be seen and appreciated.  He probably has done much else that I am not aware of but would undoubtedly approve.

Fred Goodman’s white wash of Allen is disappointing.  Jody did call Fred and offer him the job so this must be a work of hire.  Perhaps Jody wanted a hagiography of sorts which is what he got or perhaps Fred was so daunted by the job he swallowed his teeth.  Having accepted the assignment Jody led Fred out to the warehouse and showed him several pallets of documents.  That would make me shiver too.

 

When Rupert Loewenstein accepted Jagger and the Stones as clients after the Stones rejected Allen he spent two or three years studying all their contracts and documents which were voluminous although not several pallets.  And he did it without pay.

Something tells me that Fred never touched those pallets.  If he didn’t study the documents one thing is certain:  he read the three books of the Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham carefully.  It was Oldham who sold the Stones to Klein.  Apparently none of these people understood the nature of intellectual properties because, if we are to believe, none of them realized that the developing rock catalogs would be worth anything down the road.  Even Oldham who is billed as prescient let the Stones’ masters that belonged to him as the producer go to Klein for less than a peanut.

The president of Decca Records, Edward Lewis, sensing the Oldham was having difficulties offered to buy the masters for 800K, K as in thousands, much less than even a million that would be a low ball.  Oldham didn’t want to sell to Decca but needing money offered to them to Klein for 750K.  The biggest bastard in the valley snapped them up.  They have since proved to be worth tens and tens of millions of dollars over the years.  Of course, Andrew would have had to wait and his blood was running too hot for that.

A few years later when he realized the masters might be worth a billion or more he has spent his life begging Allen for a larger settlement.

Andrew Oldham’s three books are Stoned, 2Stoned and Stone Free.  They make good reading although 2Stoned is a rehash and expanded version of Stoned.  There is a French condensation of both books into one but the translation is laughable as Andrew was much too colloquial for French.  Fun to have though if you get a thrill out of mere possession.  I’m not exactly guilty but I don’t object.  It’s there on my shelf.

While Fred gives an overly long synopsis of Andrew’s life, probably because he needed a little filler and certainly didn’t have what It took to tackle those pallets, Andrew tells his own life better.  Fred seems to have based his researches on Andrew’s brief life of Allen as contained in Stone Free.  Stone Free might be sub-titled Brief Lives of the Notable Rockers.  A great collection and grand background.  Fred follows Klein’s Life closely.

Fred’s book was obviously written after Rupert’s: A Prince Among Stones. Published in 2013 but Fred shows no evidence of having read it and he didn’t use it.  To read Fred’s account Allen was a greater prince than Rupert even though the facts as we know them read differently.

Allen who was Jewish, was born in 1931 in the city of Newark, New Jersey, a city that has produced several notable Jews including the novelist Philip Roth.  Allen’s mother died when he was only a few months old so he never knew her.  He briefly lived with his maternal Jewish grandmother but his paternal grandmother objected because his mother’s parents weren’t Jewish enough.  His father unable to care for Allen and his sisters placed them in an orphanage.  This fact explains much about Allen’s adult attitudes.  I was in an orphanage but a municipal orphanage rather than a religious one.  Jewish orphanages seem to have been rather cushy places.  The groupie Catherine James lived in one that appears to have been a ‘country club.’   Allen’s Newark orphanage (often called Children’s Homes) had only thirty inmates and let me tell you that removes a lot of stress.

Mine had a hundred twenty or thirty most of which were bigger bastards then Allen could have been.  The Catholic orphanage down the street that we visited as a group every so often was as close to hell on earth that any kid would want to get.  Still orphans are pariahs in the community so I’m sure Allen’s small place left an indelible impression on him.

When he grew up and entered the record business, notable for the quality of its bastards, Allen billed himself as the biggest bastard in the valley.  He was undoubtedly at war with everyone including himself.

Once in the record business he saw the easy marks and they were English.  The American record people were uncommonly intense bastards while the British were mannerly bastards so someone like Allen, the biggest bastard, pretty much reversed the British Invasion traveling to England and scooping up some impressive bands and artists.  I mean, Mickie Most!  He was already a legend to anyone who read the record covers.

He cut his teeth on Sam Cooke as the first artist he bilked- that is robbed.  Somehow he managed to steal Cooke’s face, that is his whole musical career and hence life, lock, stock and barrel.  Sam Cooke died under mysterious circumstances.  As might be expected Fred clears Allen of any suspicions accepting the story that a hooker he was with did the deed.  Well, maybe, she caught with his pants around his ankles unable to maneuver properly; on the other hand Andrew Oldham who is fairly reliable at calling spades spades says that Cooke was badly beaten and the hooker couldn’t have done that.  That doesn’t implicate Allen necessarily, him being in the record business.  Sam certainly knew a few bastards, may have been one himself, who could make Allen look like a crass beginner.

Nevertheless Allen got all the goodies bar none and for perpetuity.  After having viewed Cooke’s body he was satisfied the hooker did it.  Those intellectual properties just keep on paying and paying.  Poor Sam.  Allen probably could have stopped there but the biggest bastard wanted the biggest bands- the Stones and the Beatles and he did realize that orphan’s dream.

Allen had the typical manager’s attitude toward his clients’ money, pp. 57-58:

Theatrical producer, Lawrence Myers, a British business manager and an accountant by training, met Klein several months before Cooke’s death and credited Allen with altering the course of his own career.  “Allen taught me something without which I wouldn’t have the lifestyle I do today,” said Myers.  “Don’t take twenty percent of an artist’s income- give them eighty percent of yours.  The difference between Allen and I is that I actually told them what was going to happen.  And Allen certainly didn’t.  They found out sometime later.”

Obviously being a ‘business manager’ was a license to steal.  If Allen gave all his artists 80% of 20% son Jody has inherited well.  As a ‘business manager’ all checks were collected by Allen and once in his pocket were the devil to get out.  However after all was said and done, after taxes, fees, expenses and commissions there wasn’t that much left over to be divided five ways.  Even if the manager was honest, and few are, he, as an individual was taking a minimum of one fifth.  In the case or Colonel Parker and Tony Defries nearly all.  There wasn’t that much left over to be divided five ways.

Consider:  The tax rate in England for ordinary income was 90%.  That means that after all expenses were deducted, perhaps fifty percent or more out of a million, a half million at best might be left over.  Ninety percent of half million is four hundred fifty thousand dollars leaving fifty thousand dollars to be split five ways.  That is at most ten thousand dollars each.  While the Stones minds were confused because they were earning millions and getting peanuts.  Didn’t compute in their minds.

So while from 1963 to 1968 if the group earned ten million dollars and that’s a lot of money they were only entitled to a mere good living in after tax dollars.  Not flush at all.  At the time I don’t think the Stones realized that.

Without knowing the exact amount of money Klein was handling perhaps the Stones were making unreasonable demands for cash.  For Klein it was a stroke of good luck when the drug addled Andrew sold him the Stones masters from 1963-71 for what to him was pocket change.  Those masters are the basis of what Klein made from the Stones.  And it was a legitimate purchase.  They have no complaints against Klein on that score as Andrew owned the rights and could sell them to who he chose.

Nevertheless Klein did not deal openly with Jagger and the group so Jagger, by far the businessman of the group, began to look for help elsewhere.  A Hippie about town he knew named Chrissie Gibbs had a passing acquaintance with the investment banker Rupert Loewenstein, introduced him to Jagger, then he inexplicably agreed to represent an uncouth rock group of whom he says he had never heard.  This is even more remarkable in that the Stones had been arrested and convicted on drug charges in 1967 the year before the staid and respectable Rupert took them on.  It was on the front pages with pictures.

Reminded of William Rees-Moggs editorial in the London Times that Rupert had read, he writes in his memoirs that, oh yes, he did remember that but endorsed the conviction entirely.  He still agreed to represent them.  What do you think of that?

Analyzing a mountain of paperwork Rupert probably came to the conclusion that the Stones’ past was a lost cause and only the future earnings counted.  The only hope for big money lay in performing.  As the way touring was conducted at the time was less than cost effective Rupert had to reinvent it.  He had to eliminate as much of the thieving and inefficiency as possible.  This is actually pretty strange.

Why he felt equal to this with absolutely no guarantees is beyond me; according to his memoirs at this time the Stones were not only broke but in debt to the Inland Revenue for more than they could ever hope to pay as matters stood.  Well, OK, Rupert was super prescient.   You have no idea how criminal the record business is or was at the time.  Think about leopards.  The business is a shadow of itself today since the internet recreated the single while destroying the LP market.

Rupert was lucky in that Jagger was essentially a performance artist who would make Yoko Oko turn several shades of green.  But that is part of the Stones’ story.

Rupert and Klein got into a twenty year legal battle that as the saying goes made the lawyers rich.

However as the Stones left Klein’s stable Allen’s dream of managing the Beatles, at least three of them, came true.  Allen got John, Ringo and George while Lee Eastman got McCartney.

Once Klein got the money it was very difficult to get it out of him although he took a sort of paternal interest in the artists.  Of course if you are robbing them it is only proper to give then an allowance now and then.  Fred goes out of his way to demonstrate, or at least claim, Klein’s honesty, white washing him entirely although as one evidence of dishonesty Klein actually went to jail for a couple of months for failure to report income.

In the record business in order to get their records exposure, companies have to allow for so many demonstration albums- promos or demos as they were called.  I owned a small chain of stores back in the day so I would be given sets of albums of a new release for in store play.  The promo men had boxes of copies for all the radio stations and other uses.  As should be obvious there is a certain play in there to sell demos.

George Harrison, a client of Klein’s put together the charity play, The Concert For Bangladesh.  That was a charity release, box set of three records, for relief of the starving of Bangladesh.  Any of them starving at the time of the concert were dead by the any money reached Bangladesh.  Klein’s deal was that he pressed the records and packaged them, obviously he had the masters, sending the completed copies to the companies for distribution.  He then pressed, according to Andrew in Stone Free, literally truckloads of copies that he disposed of as promos.  Now these were sixty foot semis were talking about.

The things that happened in the record business is incredible.  When the Kiss solo albums were released Neil Bogart of Casablanca seriously overestimated the demand pressing up two million copies of each in advance.  Supposedly two truckloads, 200,000 copies, where hi-jacked on I-5 on their way North.  As unbelievable as it may sound it was suggested that I was the responsible party.  I’m sure those copies were insured.

It was not a crime for Allen to sell the records but, unfortunately, he failed to report the income and that is an IRS offense.  Bad, bad.

Andrew offers this take on the situation, Stone Free p. 360:

Allen’s karma finally caught up with him in 1979 when he was convicted on charges of US Federal tax evasion.  Klein had sold literally truckloads of albums that were accounted for on the books as “promos” (albums distributed free of charge for radio stations and press for which the label is not obligated to pay artist royalties.  His actual felony was pocketing the income from those sales without reporting it to the Internal Revenue service.  But Let’s tote up who Klein screwed in the affair, his country, which was entitled to tax him; the Beatles, both collectively and individually…UNICEF…and thousands of starving children…

 

Perhaps this was a sensitive issue for Jody because Fred carefully steps around the issue claiming a penny ante sharing between himself and his hapless promotion man.  The jail sentence says something else.

Actually it got Klein into more hot water than two months for a tax dodging charge. By the time of Bangladesh Klein was one of the most hated men in records by fans.  His reputation was just terrible.  Calling him a mere crook wouldn’t begin to cover what the fans thought.

A.J. Weberman got wind of the scam.  For those who don’t know, Alan J. Weberman was the first ‘garbologist.’  He was so interested in what Bob Dylan was doing he used to collect his garbage from the cans set out on the sidewalks of New York and sort through it carefully.  He was trying to prove Dylan was a heroin addict among other things.  So, he was a self-styled policeman of the industry.

Having got wind of the sale of the promos, he not only arranged picketing of Klein’s office but actually invaded it.  By the time he got through, Klein’s battered reputation was beyond repair.  Fred avoids all that even though a great story.

Allen also failed to back Harrison in his lawsuit over his supposed plagiarizing the song He’s So Fine with his song My Sweet Lord.

Andrew Oldham handles that story well in his biography of Allen in Stone Free p. 361:

A falling out with Lennon followed (John would vent many of his feelings towards Klein in his song “Steel and Glass”).  but the ultimate betrayal came when Allen sued his own former client, Harrison for copyright infringement.  To Allen, this was probably as simple as getting the attention of an artist he felt was off the reservation- a counter-insurgency- if you will.  Like so many songs before it, George’s “My Sweet Lord” was patently based on the spiritual “Oh Happy Day”, a song long in the public domain and hence not subject to copyright.  Unfortunately, another song derived from “Oh Happy Day”, the Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine’ was protected, prompting the publisher, Bright Tunes, to launch proceedings against Harrison.

 

Klein, naturally, was enraged, and happily assisted Harrison in preparing his defense.  But as his relationship with the former Beatles crumbled, Klein looked for ways of bringing George back in line.  He took himself out and purchased Bright Tunes for himself- and kept the lawsuit alive.  A degree of justice prevailed as the Judge slammed Klein for switching sides…

 

That’s a perfect example of the record business.  If Harrison had employed the same solution, buying Bright Tunes, Klein would have howled foul.  Artists are supposed to function with a different morality.  That’s the record business.

The thing is there are no original songs, every song is derived from another or several. I don’t know why the Courts accept the suits.  There is no way the Judges can make an informed decision unless they happen to be musicologists.

As Fred obviously read Andrew as above and had other information or could get it from his employer Jody, there is no reason to shield Allen’s terrible reputation.  The guy was totally unscrupulous.  Probably better than his counterpart Morris Levy of Roulette or Tony Defries who managed David Bowie or the king of con men himself, Colonel Parker who robbed the King himself- Elvis.

To conclude:  I can only recommend the book to the dedicated Stones or Beatles enthusiast.  There is no depth or breadth to the book.  Allen’s roster of clients, most of whom are still living do not seen to have been interviewed by Fred.  He doesn’t even seem to have talked to Andrew who knew and was intimate with Allen the longest.  Heck, Fred didn’t even bother to interview his own employer, Jody Klein.

I mean Jody must have had something to say about his father.  Even the pictures ae somewhat limited.  Fred could have gotten a picture of the orphanage that created the ‘biggest bastard in the valley.’  Allen’s whole career can be placed in the context of his life in the orphanage.  Four years old to nine, whew!- the most formative years of a boy’s life.

I was in from eight to ten and that was bad enough.  You learn a lot about bastards in the orphanage so when Allen Klein bills himself as the biggest bastard in the valley he is saying a little more than something.

1964- The Beatles Have Landed

1964- The Beatles Have Landed

by

R.E. Prindle

Beatles At Idlewild

　

The mystery of the Sixties explosion is a troubling one. Why would a simplistic musical group touch off the post-war changing of the guard and why at that time? How could a mere recording group of four very young men have such a profound effect on culture for, really, the century?

The detonators of the Sixties bomb came from a narrow time span of two or three years on either side of 1942-43. And they happened in England. The fuse was in that country while the explosion took place in the United States.

The English age cohort born in the center of the world war missed the war but grew up in the privations of 1945 to 1954 and the slow recovery of the fifties. This had a profound effect on their psyches.

The extreme Cold War tensions of the period from 1945 to 1960 also had their effect. The ending of the draft or what the English called National Service in 1960 meant that those born in ‘42 and ‘43 were relieved of duty. The could get on with their lives.

In the US the use of the Atomic Bomb against ‘the little yellow people’ of Japan had a racially devastating effect. Never mind that the Japanese started the war with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The big bad White Americans had used the ultimate weapon against the defenseless little colored people. It wasn’t an act of war; it has been characterized as racist.

Then in 1949 the Soviet Union got the Bomb. This fact alone touched off a low grade hysteria. Americans were in panic mode for the next ten years. School kids were taught to get under their desks and cover their heads as though that were some sort of defense against atomic annihilation. Imagine the lesson that entered their minds. Everyone’s nerves were quivering constantly. The great panic, the persistent latent hysteria was epitomized by the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. By some strange trick of memory I am convinced I saw the movie in 1958 when I was in the Navy. I can ‘remember’ the guys I saw it with and I have to convince myself that imdB isn’t wrong.

And then one of the biggest disasters ever to hit the United States hit: John F. Kennedy was elected president. Three years of torture followed. Three long years of sitting on the edge of our chairs wondering not if but when the idiot was going to pull the plug. His assassination was almost guaranteed the day he was elected.

Waiting For The Electrician Or Someone Just Like Him

-Firesign Theater

Like some few others I have wondered if the extraordinary success of the blasting cap of the explosion, that is the Beatles, wasn’t some sort of conspiracy. I just couldn’t figure out how such an amazing thing as four dips from Liverpool England could become earth shakers without plotters involved somewhere and making it happen. Then after writing my essay The Beatles: An Attempt To Explain The Paul Is Dead Controversy an explanation occurred to me.

The Beatles were the perfect storm caused by the tense nerve wracking eighteen years from 1955. People were wound too tight and needed release.

All of the storm elements were there waiting to come together. They didn’t have to but if one or two was missing the Beatles would never have happened. It has been said that in life there is a tide that if caught ensures success but if missed all fails. The Beatles caught that tide and rode it before imploding in the late Sixties.

Lennon, McCartney and Harrison were the right age, complementing each other perfectly. Jettisoning Best and Sutcliffe, then replacing Best with Starr was a master move. Ringo did not clash with the front line.

Then the war had created a situation in Hamburg Germany that provided a tough, hard proving ground for aspiring British bands. The Beatles learned to play and please a diverse audience.

Returning to England without direction or management that might lead to a career the perfect manager in the form of Brian Epstein appeared. He himself knew nothing of managing bands but perhaps believing he had a tiger by the tail he threw himself into it battering down the doors until a reluctant EMI sent the group over to their perfect producer who knew what to do with them- George Martin.

Epstein got them touring and the public liked their records. They were a phenom in England but England is a small place. Of course no one realized that Lennon and McCartney would be the greatest song writing team of the century, who could have predicted it? No one could have planned that. The question for Epstein was how to capitalize the English fame.

The final element of the storm fell into place. Epstein booked the band for a Swedish tour. While the girls were storming the boys at the Swedish airport an amazed American TV producer who happened to be in Sweden at that airport watched in amazement. Always on the qui vive for an astonishing new act Ed Sullivan walked over to chat up the boys. He liked what he saw and booked the band for the beginning of 1964. How probable was that?

How probable was it that Kennedy would be assassinated toward the end of 1963 to validate their arrival?

Ed was convinced but in the US if we had heard of the Beatles it was with a shrugged, so what. Big in England? Who cared? The closest the English had come to rock was Tommy Steele and what a laugh he was. Not that funny though. No need for a repeat.

Actually the Beatles had been offered around the US record companies with no takers other than the small obscure VeeJay label. In 1963 the JV record had disappeared without a trace. Nothing there was there? I didn’t think so. I Want To Hold Your Hand? Right. Some sexual revolution, hey?

Ed Sullivan was a master showman no doubt about that. Plus he remembered the sensational ratings Elvis had given him. When the news of the Sullivan booking reached EMI they notified their US subsidiary Capitol Records. Capitol tried to retrieve the VJ recordings but failing that they just rode over them.

Ed And The Boys

Now the big promotion began: The Beatles Are Coming, The Beatles Are Coming. Well, OK, we’re waiting. The big 707 jet plane was still new. There weren’t even docking facilities yet, the plane just parked out on the tarmac and passengers debarked down stairs walking to the terminal.

It is said that Capitol recruited a bunch of girls for the arrival and set them screaming. Probably so. Some genius got the TV cameras to record the Beatles’ arrival on what must have been a slow news day. No English band had ever made it in the US. Even the Rolling Stones arriving a few months after the Beatles flopped on their tour.

The Beatles apparently expected nothing but were greeted by batteries of newsmen with microphones and a thousand screaming girls. Hey ho! Welcome to America boys. You can see the bewildered, amazed, bemused expressions on their faces. Very cool. Just the right effect. Even if you didn’t like their music, it failed to impress me, you did like John, Paul and Ringo, George not so much. General nods of approval next morning.

And the screaming girls on the Sullivan show! What the hell was going on? Who’d ever seen that before? Something was happening here but we didn’t know what it was, did we? And so history was made. The tide was rolling in. the Beatles became the cynosure of the world. The first world wide band. This particular transition to a new world was made. But why?

I think that when Kennedy was assassinated it broke the continuity between the post-WWII world and the new. After Kennedy’s death there was a sort of void, a period of dithering. Quo vadis?

When the Beatles landed it broke the spell, released the pent up hysteria of eighteen years that spilled out all over the Sixties. The tide came in and washed our sins away.

It need never have happened but it could and did. The perfect storm raged. All the elements of the storm had come together in the proper order.

A precursor storm may have been the Twist phenomenon but most of the elements were missing for it to release the pent up emotions although a part of the hysteria yearning for release flashed through.

While the notion of a conspiracy is attractive, we all love a good conspiracy, perhaps even desirable, I don’t think it’s there. It was just the possible that coagulated and happened. No one was prepared it was all improvisation after the Sullivan show.

　

I Want To Hold Your Hand



The Beatles: Resolving The Paul Is Dead Controversy

The Beatles:

Resolving The Paul Is Dead Controversy

by

R.E. Prindle

The Album

Sometime around or after the death of Tara Browne in an automobile accident in 1966 the rumor that Paul McCartney of the Beatles had died being replaced by a double began to circulate. The rumor itself, of course, is a fact that has been a center of controversy since 1966 although it didn‘t bloom in full until 1969 when a Detroit DJ spread the rumor through the colleges via UofM.

For my part I dismiss the notion that Paul did die and can find no solid evidence that the post-accident Paul is a double. Still the rumor calls for explanation especially in connection with the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s that depicts the demise of the whole group while it is reborn as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The reborn group is surrounded by the pictures of, one presumes, the lonely hearts.

Who Can Explain These Things?

I can’t say that I have the solution for the rumor to be sure. What I offer here is a plausible explanation based on an interpretation of the social situation created by the phenomenal success of the Beatles. That success was too great a burden for the band members to bear. If anything caused the breakup of the band that overwhelming success was a principal cause. The success far exceeded the capability of any one of the members, in other words the whole was greater than its parts. But, to recreate the environment to some extent let us consider the members of the whole entourage.

At the base we find, I think, the notorious London criminals the Kray Twins,. Ronnie and Reggie. Their gang that they called The Firm terrorized the London of the Sixties.

David Bailey Portrait Of Reggie And Ronnie Kray

 

The Kray twins were born in 1933 making them seven to twelve during the war years. They experienced all the bombing and hardship of the war years as well as the post-war deprivation of rationing through 1954. They came from London’s East End rising through the crime ranks in the fifties to finally come into their own from 1960 to 1968. A short reign but one that coincided with the golden age of English rock and roll. The rockers were born mainly in 1942-43 making them nine or ten years younger than the Krays but still close enough in age. The rockers missed the war but faced the deprivations of the post-war years. These were character forming years for both the Krays and the rockers, primarily for us the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

The Krays were heavy handed protection racketeers moving into gambling. They, especially Ronnie, were enamored of the NYC and Philadelphia Mafia families. The Mafia families had many singers and performers under their control most notably at this time Judy Garland. When Garland performed in England the Mafia used the Krays for protection. Thus the Krays got used to associating with certain celebrities which they found exhilarating.

It was suggested to Ronnie by the Mafia that the Krays suborn English acts much as the Mafia had done with the US performers. For a good visualization of the process the 1958 film The Girl Can’t Help It is an accurate fictionalized account. The movie even features a couple of Mafia groups such as Teddy Randazzo And The Gumdrops. Right! We’d never heard of them either. Even the Mafia couldn’t promote them to fame.

Who better for the Krays to begin to build their stable than the premier English group, the Beatles?

The front line protecting the performers is always their management. The groups or singers themselves are artists not businessmen. As artists their concern is their art. They have to concentrate on their art to be successful. To realize the benefits of their art is a business. Hence managers who are businessmen enter in. The artists must trust the businessmen who are nearly all crooks so the artists were born to be fleeced. In the case of the Beatles producing all those millions and millions, they were a manager’s dream. Plus the hangers on.

Enter Brian Epstein, the manager and Robert Fraser, art dealer and hanger on.

Just as background the English managerial caste, as well as the US, were with very few exceptions Jewish and homosexual. In the late fifties and early sixties there were no groups, there were solo singer acts. These guys in most cases were not artists they were just kids off the street. Managers like Larry Parnes cast their eyes over good looking guys on the street and selected the ones that appealed to them such as Cliff Richard and the various Furys and Storms. They taught them a little stage presence, got them a good song, usually from a Jewish homosexual songwriter, put a band behind them and ballyhooed them into stardom.

Being Jewish they looked at the goi boys as so many cash cows and so they were. As Bob Dylan famously sang in Ballad Of Thin Man, ‘Give me some milk or go home.‘ However much was made from the singers efforts most went to the managers and pittances to the boys. But, then they were only created creatures, mere employees anyway.

The Beatles were dedicated artists who had a fairly long apprenticeship learning their craft in a tough environment in the red light district of Hamburg Germany. They not only developed a sound but Lennon and McCartney became a most prolifically successful songwriting team. That’s where the real money in records is and that’s where the Beatles got skinned the worst.

So they had talent but without management the talent would die on the vine. Enter manager Brian Epstein who saw their potential and acted. He was a Jewish homosexual flake but without him the Beatles would probably have become unemployed layabouts rather than wealthy rock and rollers. Brian Epstein’s rock and roll empire was born on the Beatles backs.

Brian had a couple weaknesses, drugs and gambling, other than his homosexuality that was then illegal, a crime, hence to be carefully concealed. Combined with the temptation of all those millions, there’s a recipe you’ll never find again.

Another character in the story is the avant garde art dealer Robert Fraser, also known as Groovy Bob, impeccably English but homosexual and a drug addict and, sure enough, an inveterate gambler. Fraser spent the first couple of years of the Sixties in the NYC art scene. There he was heavily influenced by Andy Warhol, less impeccably American, homosexual, but as far as we know free of the vices of gambling and drugs.

Fraser was also involved in the burgeoning Satanist scene that would take prominence beginning in 1966. He was involved with the American Satanist Kenneth Anger and through Anger the literary influence of the English Satanist Aleister Crowley and San Francisco’s Anton La Vey.

Wanting to be with it, Groovy Bob created a sort of salon for the young rock and rollers. Apparently the whole crowd, Beatles, Stones, Marianne Faithfull, Jimmy Page and the rest all hung out at Groovy Bob Fraser’s. Bob always had a plentiful supply of the best drugs.

To supply him with those drugs enter the young ambitious criminal, Spanish Tony Sanchez. Tony worked the gambling joints of the West End for the early fifties criminal Albert Dimes, an Italian. Dimes was a huge man, a fearsome enforcer, who successfully weathered his times until he died in his nineties. Either no or little jail time too.

Spanish Tony recorded his life in the Sixties in his two books, Up And Down With The Rolling Stones and I Was Keith Richards’ Drug Dealer. The latter is an updated edition of the former with additional material so the two are similar but not identical.

Tony met Groovy Bob in a bar before going to work his shift. The friendship developed and Tony began to hang at Fraser’s becoming acquainted with the Beatles, Stones and Marianne. Tony had access to drug suppliers.

Groovy Bob Fraser was the frivolous sort who found the minor details irrelevant. Thus while losing heavily in the Kray’s West End gambling joint, Esmeralda’s Barn, he paid for his losses with checks drawn on air. Any check may bounce once but Groovy Bob’s were the super balls of checks, they just kept bouncing.

I don’t have to tell you this irritated the Krays. They threatened grievous bodily harm. Bob appealed to the incipient criminal Spanish Tony to try to straighten things out. Dimes was Tony’s introduction to the Krays and according to him he worked out an agreement but Groovy Bob, well, honestly, just couldn’t find the money.

At the same time Brian Epstein had gambled and lost, gambled and lost, gambled and lost. One surmises that he made inroads into those Beatles millions that would have been difficult to explain in court. His contract with the group would expire in 1967 at which time it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for the Boys to call for an audit of the books. Not being businessmen and trusting Brian implicitly they probably wouldn’t have but the guilty Brian couldn’t count on it. Under pressure from the Krays to turn the Beatles over to them, probably suffering the pangs of guilt and befuddled by drugs, Brian either committed suicide in the summer of ‘67 or he was erased by other interested parties.

In the interim the Krays were increasing the pressure to get the Beatles from him. They had a sit down with Brian in a homosexual bar to force the issue. Brian patiently tried to explain to them that management was no bed of roses; there were a million nagging little details, heartbreaks and frustrations.

Maybe so. The Krays had earlier broached the subject of taking over the Beatles to the UK crime kingpin Arthur Thompson of Glasgow. He had advised them against it pointing out they were criminals who as a caste gave little thought to business details as did Groovy Bob Fraser and besides when it got out that the Beatles were criminally controlled it might kill their popularity. The Krays brushed the latter objection aside but paid attention to the former.

Now, the Krays had an associate named Laurie O’ Leary who had a clean record and could therefore function above ground and obtain licenses to manage clubs and an older brother Charlie who also had a clear record who could learn the management skills and establish a talent agency. That should take care of both of Arthur’s objections.

Bear in mind that part of the deal Tony worked out was that Groovy Bob was to work to bring the Beatles over to the Krays. There was a large homosexual ring recruiting young boys from orphanages for their criminal pleasure. This ring involved some notorious people of the period. One was the homosexual Tom Driberg. Driberg had made himself familiar with Mick Jagger who he tried to recruit as a politician. A fellow called Lord Boothby seemed to be the guiding light of this group. The group also included Ronnie Kray and members of the so-called Music Mafia including disc jockeys and many of those presiding over the music scene. As events have recently shown those involved in the music industry were heavily into pedophilia. How they link up to the Krays’ invasion of group management isn’t clear but I’m sure there is a connection.

A Picture Of Kevin MacDonald, 29 year old advertising executive according to caption.

 



A Beatles fan who wishes to remain anonymous sent me a package of press clippings dealing with Kevin MacDonald.  The interview below appeared in the Evening Standard of 7/28/66.  Kevin MacDonald Associates included himself Terry Howard and Bruce Higham.  The interview gives some idea of the nature of the enterprise.

 

But the ultimate fascination of Sybylla's lies in its interest to the amateur sociologist.  The three founders Terry Howard, Kevin MacDonald and Bruce Higham, all young professional men in their twenties who arranged bankers and backers to support their dream, claim that their club symbolizes a social revolution personified by the linkup between Marshall Field's great grand daughter, Miss Sibylla Edmonstone and Beatle George Harrison whose respective spheres of fashionability assured the club's success.

If the success needs an explanation it gets one from the most eloquent of the founders, 28 year old advertising executive Kevin MacDonald, a great-nephew of Lord Northcliffe, who was lyrically evangelical as what Sibylla's is doing for Britain when he told me using finger clicking for punctuation:  "Sibylla's is the meeting ground for the new aristocracy of Britain  (click)  and by the new aristocracy I mean the current young meritocracy  of style, taste and sensitivity.  (click) We've got everyone here. (click)  The top creative people. (click) The top exporters. (click)  The top brains. (click)  The top artists. (click)  The top social people. (click) and the best of the PYPs (swingingese for pretty young people.)  We're completely classless. (click).  We are completely integrated.  (click)  We dig the spades man.  (click)

Relationships here go off  like firecrackers.  Everyone here's got the message. (click)  Can you read it, man?"

I confess to having originally looked upon the above statements of Mr. MacDonald as complete gibberish.  However, although it may be due to the heady atmosphere of Swallow St., after three nights of Sibylla's I now admit to being converted to something near to Mr. MacDonald's doctrine.

As to MacDonald's death, the newspaper account state simply that it was a suicide from the tenth floor of a building that MacDonald had apparently never visited before.  He was defenestrated.
It was said by finger print experts from Scotland Yard that he had been hanging from a window.  Suicide is possible but defenestration is a favorite murder method of criminals such as the Krays.

MacDonald who was seeing a psychologist is alleged to have been depressed but as I read the above the guy was an A-head and probably on the down side of elation when his psychologist saw him.  We do now have some idea of who MacDonald was.  By the way advertising executive is a generous way of describing someone with no clients.

At this point MacDonald and others decided to open a club for the 'hipoisie' called Sibylla's.  They chose to open on Swallow St. in Piccadilly.  The street was a Kray hangout with three clubs already in existence.  While the choice of street seems strange it may have been deliberate.  In addition to all the other tops MacDonald had the top gangsters.  The scene had a fascination with gangsters.  David Bailey the famous fashion photographers had celebrated the Krays in his photographs so possibly Kevin thought he could play with fire and not get burned.

In addition the three mob clubs on the street a Kray associate, Laurie O' Leary was chose as the manager.  He was fresh from managing the bars at the Krays gambling joint, Esmeralda's Barn.



While O' Leary professes a sort of innocence in regards to his connection to the Krays he quite clearly was operating under their umbrella.  It seems probable that the club was formed and the ownership group was formed to put pressure on the Beatles through Harrison.  MacDonald doesn't seem to have known the Beatles but Brown was very close to both the Beatles and Stones.
 

Probably pressure was put on both to force them to work on Harrison to bring the Beatles in. The two either failed or refused to do so. MacDonald, the first to go, was obviously thrown to his death from a rooftop as a first warning. When that was ignored Tara Browne died in an equally suspicious way in a late night car crash. This is important because Lennon and McCartney wrote A Day In The Life included on their Sgt. Pepper’s album to describe it. It was probably this song that gave some sort of credence for Browne replacing a dead McCartney.

The only witness to the crash was Browne’s companion in the car, a tiny Lotus, a girl named Suki Potier. While there are a plethora of details circulating about the accident such as Browne was racing McCartney down the street at 106 miles an hour, there would have been no witnesses to confirm this save McCartney and Potier and neither have anything substantial to say.

The Lotus is said to have hit a van. The wreck of the Lotus certainly indicates a very high speed yet we have no picture of the van to indicate how the crash occurred. By van is meant I suppose what we USers would call a panel truck or something equivalent to a SUV.

 

While Browne was killed Miss Potier escaped the really horrendous looking crash with nothing but a few bruises. This seems incredible. As the picture shows the roof is torn off the car while the hood or bonnet is driven up. The window on her side is intact. At the very least her head should have broken the windshield. It would seem probable that she would have been thrown through it or over it. The timing of the roof ripping off would have been important there.

The question is, was there an accident or was Browne killed and the accident staged. The intent of his death may have been meant as a second warning to the Beatles to surrender. So, now, why was the Paul Is Dead rumor circulated. Perhaps the first two warnings having failed Paul was targeted as next. Of course that would have been counter productive.

But if one connects the Paul Is Dead rumor to the Sgt. Pepper’s cover a possible Kray involvement through Groovy Bob Fraser is possible. The cover of Sgt. Peppers had been assigned to a Dutch commune called The Fool and had actually been completed, but Fraser persuaded the ‘Boys’ to switch to a group of his friends who then came up with a cover depicting the whole group as dead and buried.

The symbolism of the cover had never really engaged my attention till recently. On the lower right corner is a rag doll wearing a Rolling Stones sweater. The aspiring gangster and Fraser friend Spanish Tony Sanchez now indebted to the Krays through his association with Fraser had been hired by Keith Richards of the Stones as his factotum and drug procurer at a salary of 250 pounds a week as recorded in his Up And Down With The Rolling Stones and I Was Keith Richards Drug Dealer thus putting a Kray agent in the Stones. A coincidence perhaps but a mighty good paying job. I have no evidence but it is likely that Tony was forced on Keith by the Krays.

At any rate on this bizarre, less than hip cover, the Beatles are dressed in their Sgt. Pepper’s garb standing looking down at a grave labeled Beatles. Surrounding them are pictures of a band of lonely hearts, mostly dead people. So, what is the message? Join up or your group will be dead for real? In fact Paul’s Mini was involved in a crash but it was being driven by his factotum while bringing drugs to a party Paul was attending. It was likely thought that Paul was driving.

What is clear is that Fraser was unable to pay his gambling debts and had to make some move to show he was cooperating. The cover could be a very discreet attempt to show the Krays he was working on it. As he was involved in the Redlands bust of 1967 and sent to prison that at least got him off the street for a period of time. Then the Krays were busted in May of 1968 perhaps removing an immediate threat. Fraser chose the time after his release to vanish in India perhaps to avoid punishment.

Brian Epstein, dazed and confused, by his drug taking, continuing to rack up gambling debts was making his situation worse. He was probably deep into money that contractually belonged to the Beatles. In other words he had embezzled or misappropriated vast sums.

In a desperate move to generate more cash, perhaps, he had opened a Fillmore type rock emporium that would be competing with the Roundhouse. He also apparently attempted to sell his firm NEMS to RSO the Robert Stigwood Organization. As he was giving NEMS up for the fire sale price of 500,000 pounds it would seem that he was desperate for a way out.

Post-Sgt. Peppers the Krays seem to have been no closer to annexing the Beatles than before. Epstein died on August 27, 1967 from an apparent drug overdose. He intended to spend that weekend with friends at his home but suddenly changed his mind and left to return to London. No one knows what happened in London or who he may have met. It’s possible the Krays called him and commanded a meeting. A sort of now or never thing. He returned home, locked himself in his room and died in bed. Never. The door was broken down the next morning when he was found dead in his bed.

The Krays themselves were arrested in May of 1968 and never released spending the rest of their lives in prison, or, in Ronnie’s case, Bedlam.

Prior to the Krays’ arrest in May the Beatles chose February of that year to visit the Maharishi in India thus out of the country for those months.

Spanish Tony continued with Keith Richards after the Krays were sentenced although his relationship became more strained. The Krays are said to have had influence in the underworld from prison so Keith may not have thought it wise to dismiss Tony at that time. The relationship was ended in 1976 when Tony was refused backstage entry at a concert.

When Reggie Kray died at the end of the century thus leaving Tony without any protection Tony is said to have died in 2000 also.

There is a chance his death was merely rumored. There are people who think he is still alive. I have comments from a T. at the end of my essay Who Is Spanish Tony Sanchez. The email address purports to be from Spanish Tony. My email to the address went unanswered. You may read T.’s comments and see what you think. I think it is likely that Tony is still out there. Maybe actually in Spain where all good English criminals seem to go.

If anyone has definite proof of Tony’s demise don’t hesitate to communicate the fact.

There you have it. To my mind there is no question that the man killed in the car crash was Tara Browne. I find it improbable to impossible that McCartney died somehow or was killed with his being replaced by Browne after plastic surgery while the Paul Is Dead story didn’t actually gain credence until 1969.

The murders of MacDonald and Browne have to be explained. The above is my attempt to do it. More information is certainly a desideratum.

 

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Faithfull, Marianne: An Autobiography with David Dalton: 1994, Cooper Square Press Edition, 2000



Fry, Colin:  The Krays, The Final Countdown, 2001, Starlyte Limited, Reprinted 2006

Fry, Colin:  The Krays, A Violent Business, 2011, Mainstream Publishing Co.

Hodkinson, Mark:  Marianne Faithfull, As Tears Go By, 1991, Omnibus Press.

Hodkinson, Mark:  Marianne Faithfull, As Years Go By, 2013, Omnibus Press

Kray, Charlie with Colin Fray:  Doing The Business, 1993 John Blake Pub. 2011 Edition

Kray, Reggie, with Peter Gerrard:  Reggie Kray's East End Stories, 2010, Sphere

O' Leary, Laurie:  Ronnie Kray, A Man Among Men, 2001, Headline Book Publishing

Oldham, Andrew Loog:  Stoned, 2000, Seeker and Warburg, 2001 Vintage Edition

Oldham, Andrew Loog:  2Stoned, 2002, Seeker and Warburg, 2003, Vintage Edition

Oldham, Andrew Loog:  Stone Free, 2012, Escargot Books

Sanchez, Spanish Tony: Up And Down With The Rolling Stones, 1979, Da Capo Press

Sanchez, Spanish Tony:  I Was Keith Richards' Drug Dealer, 2003, John Blake

Thomas, Donald:  Villain's Paradise, A History Of Britain's Underworld, 2006 Pegasus

Umland, Rebecca and Sam: Donald Cammel, Life On The Wild Side, 2006, FAB Press

Vyner, Harriet:  Groovy Bob, The Life And Times Of Robert Fraser, 1999, Faver and Faber

 

Numerous blogs but most prominently The Beatles, Conspiracy, A Dandy In Aspic, Invanddis and Another Nickel In The Machine, all outstanding blogs.