According to The Beatles Bible, “Lennon was a notoriously bad driver.” On July 1, 1969, the day that recording was to begin for Abbey Road, Lennon, Yoko Ono, her daughter Kyoko and his son Julian were involved in a car accident, as Lennon drove into a ditch in Scotland. He would have probably been better off had he (1) been a better driver or (2) had a better work ethic, such that he’d show up in the studio, which is located in London, on July 1.
He did make it to the studio on July 9. As Yoko sustained more injuries than John, a double bed was ordered from Harrods and delivered to the studio, so she could be on hand in order to provide her insights into the music. Their first bed-in protest against the Vietnam War had occurred a few months earlier, in March, in Amsterdam. May 26-June 1 they had their second, in Montreal. Perhaps this bed was a protest about something else.
The first day Lennon was in the studio the band did takes 1 to 21 of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” The following day they did overdubbing and mixing of the tune.
Lennon, evidently, missed Ringo’s 29th birthday, which was on the 7th.
The song in question is about a serial killer. That Macca is quite the crack-up.
Apparently John was completely dismissive of the song, reportedly not participating. George and Ringo didn’t much like it, either, but they performed on it.
One of the reasons they weren’t chuffed about it was that it took three days to complete. A three-minute, 27-second ditty. Three days.
Paul must have really been invested in it.
Bang! Bang!
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“The movie business as before is finished and will never come back.”
“I used to be in the movie business where you made something really because you cared about it.”
“These streaming services have been making something that they call ‘movies.’ They ain’t movies. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so.”
Those are quotes from an interview with Barry Diller had with NPR, presented on July 8, 2021. Diller knows about the movies, as he ran Paramount from the mid-‘70s to mid-‘80s, during which time there were movies including Saturday Night Fever, Raiders of the Lost Arc and Beverley Hills Cop released. Paramount also produced TV series including Laverne & Shirley and Cheers.
He ran 20th Century Fox for after that, and launched the Fox network. The Simpsons came to public airwaves during Diller’s period at the proverbial helm.
Diller now runs a company named “IAC.”
Evidently he can’t be anti-tech: “IAC is home to dozens of popular online brands and services used by millions of consumers each day.” So it describes itself.
Looking for a contractor to fix that dripping faucet on HomeAdvisor? IAC.
Want to get some snarky news via The Daily Beast? IAC.
Here’s something to think about.
Take those quotes and replace “movies” with “music.”
As in:
“The music business as before is finished and will never come back.”
“I used to be in the music business where you made something really because you cared about it.”
“These streaming services have been making something that they call ‘music.’ They ain’t music. They are some weird algorithmic process that has created things that last 100 minutes or so.”
And then think about The Beatles.
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Although the numbers are certainly in flux, the general sense remains the same.
The top-selling Beatles’ album in the U.S. was not Abbey Road. It was The Beatles. The White Album.
Which is at fifth, overall, behind The Eagles Greatest Hits, 1971-1975; Thriller by Michael Jackson; Hotel California by The Eagles; and Back in Black by AC/DC.
Abbey Road makes it on the list at 56, sandwiched between the soundtrack to Forrest Gump and Hot Rocks by the Rolling Stones. For a soundtrack, the Forrest Gump album does have a wonderful selection of music including cuts by Elvis, Dylan, Creedence, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors, Seger, Jackson Browne, and Jackie DeShannon.
Hot Rocks is a “compilation album” with the complied being music from 1964-71, with the 20 tracks ranging from “Time Is on My Side” to “Brown Sugar,” with things like “Paint It Black” and “Sympathy for the Devil” in between.
It is remarkable to think that it is so low, comparatively speaking, on the list, because looking at greatest hits albums, it is behind Elton John (17), Journey (24), The Beatles (28), Simon & Garfunkel (34), Steve Miller Band (35), and Kenny Rogers (49).
Kenny Rogers.
On July 11, 1967, he formed 1st Edition.
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On July 10, 1964, the album A Hard Day’s Night was released in the UK, as was the single of the title song.
“A Hard Day’s Night” was to replace the Stone’s “It’s All Over Now” from the top of the UK singles’ chart. “It’s All Over Now”–written by Bobby Womack and his sister-in-law Shirley Womack and originally recorded by The Valentinos, previously known as the Womack Brothers, in early 1964, before it was recorded in the more well-known cover version—was the Rolling Stones’ first number-one single in the UK.
The song had been recommended to the Stones by Murray the K, a disc jockey who was dubbed “the fifth Beatle” due to his accompanying the band on their first tour of the U.S.
“It’s All Over Now” is not on Hot Rocks.
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On July 5, 1963, the first Lennon-McCartney composition appeared on the U.S. charts, “From Me to You.”
It was 87.
It was a cover by Del Shannon.
The Beatles’ version didn’t hit the U.S. until January 1964, as the B-side to “Please, Please Me.”
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On July 15, 1958, Julia Lennon, John’s mother, died.
She was involved in an auto accident.