emotional support group-wank

Q: When you were recording the album on the island of Montserrat, people got the idea you were putting together a tribute album to John and reporters seemed to invade the place. How distracting was all that?

McCartney: The only real problem was the paparazzi. Newspapers tend to go for the best story whether it’s true or not, and the best “story” on this album seemed to be that it was a tribute to John. So they went after that angle though I tried to tell them it wasn’t true.

Q: Did all the commotion disturb you?

McCartney: Not really. You have to learn to filter yourself from things like that. I’ve been doing it for so long now that I sort of know the rules. If I let a few days of this get to me, you can imagine what the “Paul is dead” fuss would have done to me.

But I do remember these two guys who were following me in a car so ran into them. It was a great feeling.

Q: You ran into them?

McCartney: They were following us, so I stopped and asked them to leave us alone. But they kept following us, so I turned the car around and sort of ran into them, scraping the side of their car. I just had to do it. Usually, you’re the animal and they’re sort of the observers. 

You’ve got to turn it around sometimes and bite back. You can’t live your whole life as this hunted animal.

-Interview for Los Angeles Times • Tuesday, April 20, 1982

Q: When you were recording the album on the island of Montserrat, people got the idea you were putting together a tribute album to John and reporters seemed to invade the place. How distracting was all that?

McCartney: The only real problem was the paparazzi. Newspapers tend to go for the best story whether it’s true or not, and the best “story” on this album seemed to be that it was a tribute to John. So they went after that angle though I tried to tell them it wasn’t true.

Q: Did all the commotion disturb you?

McCartney: Not really. You have to learn to filter yourself from things like that. I’ve been doing it for so long now that I sort of know the rules. If I let a few days of this get to me, you can imagine what the “Paul is dead” fuss would have done to me.

But I do remember these two guys who were following me in a car so ran into them. It was a great feeling.

Q: You ran into them?

McCartney: They were following us, so I stopped and asked them to leave us alone. But they kept following us, so I turned the car around and sort of ran into them, scraping the side of their car. I just had to do it. Usually, you’re the animal and they’re sort of the observers. 

You’ve got to turn it around sometimes and bite back. You can’t live your whole life as this hunted animal.

-Interview for Los Angeles Times • Tuesday, April 20, 1982

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN WINSTON LENNON!

But now, 3 years later, this is just what some white boys look like. This is Kurtis Connor. If some bi girl showed you this photo and said he was her boyfriend you wouldn't blink an eye.

Candid and lovely pictures of Paul McCartney and Mal Evans, a gentle giant. I believe Mal was so important to the Beatles and very loyal to them. And he especially loved Paul.

20 MARCH 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono get married in Gibraltar, a happy occasion immortalized in "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and "The Wedding Album".

The couple's honeymoon became a public event at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel, the first of their of Bed-Ins for Peace. Photographs by David Nutter.

Finally made the plane into Paris

Honey mooning down by the Seine

Peter Brown called to say

"You can make it OK

You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain"

THE BEATLES, The Ballad of John and Yoko (1969)

"So we were in Paris and we were calling Peter Brown, and said, ‘We want to get married. Where can we go?’ And he called back and said, ‘Gibraltar’s the only place.’ So – ‘OK, let’s go!’ And we went there and it was beautiful. It’s the Pillar of Hercules, and also symbolically they called it the End of the World at one period. There’s some name besides Pillar of Hercules – but they thought the world outside was a mystery from there, so it was like the Gateway to the World. So we liked it in the symbolic sense, and the Rock foundation of our relationship."

JOHN LENNON, The Beatles Anthology.

"It was very romantic. It’s all in the song, The Ballad Of John And Yoko. If you want to know how it happened, it’s in there. Gibraltar was like a little sunny dream. I couldn’t find a white suit – I had off-white corduroy trousers and a white jacket. Yoko had all white on."

JOHN LENNON, "Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970" by Jann S. Wenner.

"I was asked to find a location for the secret wedding to take place. John and Yoko were in Paris on vacation when I learned that as a British resident John could get married immediately in Gibraltar if he wished. I chartered a plane for them from Paris and met them at the Gibraltar airport with photographer David Nutter, who had no idea what kind of event he had been hired to photograph. I was honored to be John and Yoko’s best man."