#beatles asks

Thank you, you're very kind to say so ❤️ I have every intention of finishing and posting more stories in the INYD universe (and Ringo is in at least 3 of them, at last check). I know I've been saying this for the past year or so and it probably sounds a bit hollow at this point, but I continue to slowly chip away at it every day, even if it's just to add a line or two. It's been a bit of a crap year for me personally. I lost my beloved dad last October after a very short and unexpected illness, and that + some general (non-serious) health things + just the daily grind of work and the commute has made things more of a struggle than they were before. But nothing is abandoned, I promise.

Since it's the first anniversary of losing him today, here is me and my silly, funny, staunch-socialist and trade unionist father for you to enjoy. He loved Monty Python, fishing, politics, gardening and scifi of all forms. Not a big Beatles fan though, sadly. He was a 70s teen and he once referred to the Bugs as a 'nice little pop group'. He also assumed the Lennon Remembered narrative was all true at the time and bought the single of John's Working Class Hero because he 'really lived his values' 👀 But two years ago I made him watch A Hard Day's Night and he was shocked to discover it was both clever and funny 😊

Eating food is AMAZING. It’s one of the most delicious things you MUST eat more!!!! Food is healthy. Even if it’s biscuits ❤️🥹Eating food is healthier than not eating food or eating little 🥹🥹🤧 Georgie loves you take care of yourself 🥹

hi!!!! :)

11. Favorite Beatles fan fic writer/artist?

writers: @monkberries @blobmiffies @rufusrant @javelinbk @zilabee @good-to-drive @menlove @measuredoutinyears @celeste-fitzgerald

artists: @groovegalz @taurus-spacecraft @applescruffing @gojisaurus @ribcagebonemeal @yangleeeh @1amth3walrus @beetle-baguette of the beatle daily art blog accounts <33

ty ty for the ask anon let’s fuckin jump in 🫶

7. John Lennon’s Silver Hammer

Pretty sure i’ve listened to this version more than the original at this point

I'm gonna do these separately because it's a lot.

3. What’s your opinion on The Beatles wives?

This is a very broad topic.

Cynthia: I read Cynthia’s book John: A Biography. Of course, any book like this has to be take with a grain of salt, assuming some level of self-interest and faulty memories. Even so, my heart really goes out to her after reading this. I believe she and John were truly in love. The pics of them together are always really cute. But I kind of doubt they would have married if she hadn’t gotten pregnant. Either John fell out of love or was too fucked up in general, or his mental issues were exacerbated by Beatlemania and later, heavy drug use, for the marriage to last long. He neglected Cyn and Julian horribly and was a gigantic asshole. For example, he hounded her to take acid and then, when she finally did and had a bad trip, he completely neglected her and left her alone to suffer. She says she even considered suicide during that trip. And don’t even get me started on the divorce. He really mistreated her. Granted, he was probably emotionally incapable of treating her with humanity, given his mental health issues. But he was just horrible and acted unforgivably.

Pattie: I also read the George part of Pattie’s book, Wonderful Tonight. She seems fine. I don’t have any feelings about her one way or another. They’re cute together. Both she and George were so young then. George was a shit near the end, of course.

Yoko: You know, who really knows what was going on between her and John? I do think they were genuinely in love. But I also think, in May 1968 when they got together, the relationship offered transactional benefits to both of them. She obviously wanted to snag a Beatle and become famous. She’d been stalking John for a pretty long time. And John desperately needed a “guru” to give he life structure and focus. He was really flailing after India, clearly in mental distress after losing Brian (and Whatever Happened In India™ which may have involved John feeling like he’d lost Paul somehow) and doing huge amounts of acid again. (Enter my theory that he had borderline personality disorder where you latch on to an Important Person to provide your identity.) Both of them were all on board with a codependent, all-consuming relationship. She doesn't seem like a particularly nice person, what with the stories about her ordering around Apple employees like they were her personal servants. She also seems very manipulative, but then again, so was John. Personally, I cannot stand her "singing" (I study classical singing, so...it's just painful to listen to.)

Skipping to the seventies, my impression is John wanted Yoko to control his life and she did,         although they also seemed to enjoy playing power games with each other. I don’t know why he went back to her after the Lost Weekend, but I assume part of it was a need to give up control to another person. It’s hard to tell if they were still in love in the seventies. I would love to find out what was really going on between them in this period because there’s such a drastic difference in opinions, like “happy, bread baking house husband” narrative vs. “depressed, in bed getting high and watching TV” all the time narrative.

Linda: I do think there was a bit of the starfucker in her but she and Paul were obviously in love and devoted to each other, as far as we can tell. No other thoughts. I don't really know much about her. I’m grateful for all her photos of Paul. :)

Later Paul wives: no opinion, I don’t know enough.

♡ ♡ ♡

Do you remember the first song by The Beatles that you heard? How did it make you feel?

2. What is your favourite moment in any of the Beatles films?

3. If I could offer you the use of a time machine, would you see The Beatles perform in Hamburg in 1962, or on the rooftop in 1969?

Ooooh. These are good ones- you go next @the-paper-apricot

1. Love Me Do- my dad had a cassette of the ‘red album’ that was released in the 70s. I remember making a rude remark on a road trip about my dad’s ‘old music’. Amazing how these boys consume my mind on a daily basis since I was 12 years old.

2. I recall getting that butterfly feeling in my belly watching John sing “I Should Have Known Better” to Pattie Boyd and the other school girls in AHDN. From that point on, I was a John girl.

3. Hamburg. No comparison. -The real rock n’ roll, the sweat, the sex, the leather, the art, the fighting. Oof, I’d do anything to be a bar fly at the Kaiserkeller watching these feral boys scream into the microphone night after night on pills and beer. It’s probably the thirsty cougar in me, but I’d absolutely let them all hit it.

1. Unpopular John opinion?

This is one of those questions where I can't quite land on what is a *popular* John opinion to go against. Popular with the jean jackets? Popular with the Tumblr crowd (which one?)? Popular with the Lennon Industrial Complex?

I don't think John should be cancelled.

I do think we should be able to talk about the good and bad of our heroes/public figures with nuance and respect and that you can discuss complicated people with compassion.

I actually... Don't enjoy most of his solo work, which frankly is one of the most shocking and upsetting things about finally becoming a Beatles fan.

I guess that's enough for now. ;)

10. If you were going to blame a single person for the Beatles' break-up, who would it be?

I don't love reducing such a complex dynamic to this question, but that's why it's here, isn't it? Ha.

Can I blame John and Paul equally? At its root, I believe the breakup was caused by a fundamental breakdown in communication (or really, possibly a failure to establish actual, sustainable communication strategies from the beginning). Everything and everyone else is an accessory to that central tension. Now, I think I understand (as well as anyone can) why that happened and I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, this breakdown. It's not like MOST people would know how to handle this. But blaming Klein or Yoko or the Eastmans ignores the actual problem.

And I don't think it's a cop-out to say John and Paul were equally responsible for their relationship and equally deficient--in various ways, mostly unintentional IMO. They each got hurt and each blamed the other and I actually think both were right and wrong. And that's what is so tragic about it.

But feel free to try to pin me down, if you have to.

19. Was John's activism pure narcissism or simply misguided?

Leading question innit?

I think it's a mixture of real enthusiasm/idealism, the zeal of the high he and Yoko were riding, and an ability they both had to self-promote. And there's nothing wrong with that, and I think there's value in much of what they did. But I also think it was terribly naive and born of an interesting need John had to back away from what he'd been while remaining in the spot light.

I guess I think he believed it, but he intensely believed so many things, and in part this was powered by the narcissism of falling for his own line.

At the same time, I also kind of feel like they were laughing the whole time, well aware of the limitations of their stances (while still believing, don't get me wrong), and I'm not entirely sure how to square both of these thoughts.