A BREAKTHROUGH: Harold Pinter's A Birthday Party -- Life Deliberately Imitating Art

I was looking into photograper Robert Whitaker's March 25, 1966 photo session with The Beatles that produced the infamous "butcher" photo (see photo below.)  I will comment on this in my next post.

The "butcher" photo appeared in color for the first time on the front page of

Disc and Music Echo (an English music newspaper on June 11, 1966.

Significantly, The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein co-owned that newspaper.  The headline under the photo read:  "Beatles:  What a Carve-up!" (see image left)

I went looking for the definition of carve-up and found:

     -  In The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1984) the definition was:  to cheat, swindle (swindle accomplice out of his share.)

     -  In  A Dictionary of the Underworld by Eric Partridge (London, 1949, 1961 [reprinted, 1964], it gave the definition above and also:  to betray, to "double cross."

 The Oxford English Dictionary gave as an excerpt from English writer Harold Pinter's 1957 play, The Birthday Party, so I read the play and there are so many parallels with Paul's life that I feel that:

     1.) From 1965-on details of the play were used to harass and threaten Paul;

     2.) That Paul fought back using details of the play;

     3.) That John wrote a song reflecting part of the play;

     4.) That the outcome of the play might have been Paul's;

     5.) That the reconstituted Beatles of late 1966-on (real George and Ringo, fake John and Paul) taunted

           Paul (or the memory of Paul) in the same ways that the two characters in the play taunted the main

           (doomed) character.

The first thing to explain is why a play and its contents would be chosen as a running commentary about Paul's life and as a looming threat against Paul.  I think it was because Paul was an intelligent, literate man who could understand and be affected by such a play.

          Details Of The Play And How It Parallels Paul's Life

The Birthday Party's plot involves a man who was hiding away in a boarding house for some unexplained reason, and who was tracked down by two assassins who corner him in the house and after a night of harassment and ruthless interrogation, lead him away to be killed.

The analyses I read about the play reason that Pinter was writing a symbolic play of one man's struggle to resist conforming to the conventions of the establishment and how the forces of conformity embodied in the two assassins succeed in crushing him.

• The central character's name is Stanley WEBBer.  Paul used the name Bernard WEBB as a pseudonym when he wrote the song Woman, released in early 1966.
• Stanley Webber was a musician.

The man is rebelling against an organization.  One of the killers says,  "Why did you leave the organization?" and "You betrayed the organization."

• Paul was making solo efforts in 1965 and 1966 with Michelle (1965), Yesterday (1965), and Eleanor Rigby (1966).
• He rebelled against The Beatles' recording company EMI's pressure to record songs The Beatles didn't like.  An example of this is Paul's trashing of the song, That Means Alot (see my June 25, 2010 post. The Youtube link is no longer available, but I will try to find another link for the song.)
• One reason Brian Epstein was part of the harassment of Paul was because Paul was apparently resisting advances by him.  Paul put his protest is a version of 1965's I'm Down that was finally released on the Past Masters, Volume One cd.  Listen to it on Youtube at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=alPGrT-283o    (Note:  Paul--to use boxing slang--hit below the belt by using Epstein's religion in the song.  Paul knew Epstein was sensitive about this, but I have found no evidence that Paul was anti-semitic.)
• As I outlined in my May 29, 2010 post, Paul was behind putting the "butcher" photo on the U.S. Yesterday and Today album and told the president of Capitol Records that the photo was a protest against "the war".  I believe it was a Paul's (and John's) was against the British power structure.

Paul was saying publicly as early as 1965 that he could see himself as a composer for a long time but could not see himself touring indefinitely.  For example, in the March 21, 1966 edition of Newsweek magazine, Paul said,  "We think in terms of 40 more years of writing."  "I wouldn't mind being a white-haired old man writing songs," adds McCartney, "but I'd hate to be a white-haired Beatle playing at Empress Stadium."

Like the main character in Pinter's play who was blocked by the assassins from leaving the boarding house, I think Paul was blocked from leaving the group in 1964 and 1965.  But in 1966, Paul apparently reached a deal with the "organization" to leave.  John's song, And Your Bird Can Sing (see my January 11, 2011 post) lays out John's exasperation at this.
I think Paul was double-crossed.  Paul wasn't "playing the game" and I think the establishment threatened his freedom or his life.

          Beatles Songs That Paralled Dialog In The Play

     - Nowhere Man (John, 1965)

       He's a real nowhere man,

       Sitting in his nowhere land,

       Making all his nowhere plans

       For nobody.

In The Birthday Party, Stanley has a conversation with Lulu, a neighbor:

    Stanley (abruptly).  How would you like to go away with me?

    Lulu.                      Where.

    Stanley.                  Nowhere.  Still we could go.

              .         .        .

    Lulu.                      We might as well stay here.

    Stanley.                 No, it's no good here.

    Lulu.                      Well, where else is there?

    Stanley.                  Nowhere.

       -  I Am The Walrus (John replacement, 1967)

          Sitting on a cornflake

          Waiting for the van to come.

In the beginning of the play Stanley and another character ate cornflakes for breakfast.  After Stanley learns two men are coming to the boarding house, he talks with Meg, the boarding house owner:

    Stanley.                They're coming in a van.

    Meg.                     Who?

    Stanley.                They've got a wheel barrow in that van.

                 .            .               .

    Stanley. (advancing upon her).   A big wheel barrow and when the van stops they wheel it out, and they

                                 wheel it up the garden path, and then they knock at the front door.

                 .            .               .

    Stanley.                They are looking for someone.  A certain person.

    Meg. (hoarsely).   No, they're not!

    Stanley.                Shall I tell you who they're looking for?

       -  Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da  (Paul? 1966?)

The word "barrow" appears in what some people believe is real Paul's song.  It's in a positive context of Paul leading a quiet life, something Paul was planning.  The barrow reference is a counterpoint to the barrow mentioned in the play.  The barrow in the play would be used like the French tumbrel - a cart that carried political prisoners to their death by beheading  (see photo at right.)   [Note:  There were rumors

that Paul was beheaded in an accident in September or November, 1966 when his car swerved to miss a van.  This theory was reinforced by several images that showed up in later Beatles albums and movies.  In the Magical Mystery Tour movie, for example, there is an image of a headless man shown when George sings Blue Jay Way.

Toward the end of the play, after hours of verbal harassment, both men taunt Stanley by telling him he's dead.  A series of backmasking songs from 1967 until the group split up in 1970 talk about Paul being dead, some in taunting ways like Revolution #9's:  "Turn me on, dead man" and I Am The Walrus's:  "Ha, ha, Paul is dead."  [Note:  for a thorough review of the Paul-is-dead clues check out the website, "Officially Pronounced Dead?" at:  http://homepages.tesco.net/harbfamily/opd/index.html ]

I suggest you read Pinter's play.  As the truth about what happened to Paul starts coming out, the play's details and message will become more and more relevant.