In my post of March 6, 2013, I talked about our Paul and our John's interview in Japan on June 30, 1966 where Paul talks about seeing Bill Haley and his Comets in England for their 1957 tour. Paul says he was TWELVE when he saw them. This would put his birth year at 1944 (or, possibly, 1945.)
I was curious to see if anyone writing about Bill Haley talked about Paul, and I found a 1990 book by Bill Haley's eldest son, John W. and co-author John von Hoelle called Sound And Glory that did. They mention Paul being at a Bill Haley concert:
"On the 20th. of February, the Comets play to enthusiastic audiences at the Odeon Theater in Liverpool. Among the hand-clapping, foot-stomping kids were two very special young men; sixteen year old John Lennon and his new buddy Paul McCartney." (pages 158-159.)
The official story is that real John and real Paul met for the first time on July 6, 1957. It's possible real Paul and real John went to the concert separately.
But wait! In a July 14, 2014 Rolling Stone interview, the man who took our Paul's place in late 1966--in other words, the current Paul--said he saw Bill Haley at the Liverpool Odeon in 1957 and was "about 13 or something" at the time.
Remember, real Paul McCartney's birthdate was June 18, 1942 and he would have been 14 not 12 or 13 at the time of the concert.
Twelve-year old our Paul saw Bill Haley but not with John Lennon and--very likely--not in Liverpool. And as for the longest-lasting Paul? Who knows?
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
The British Class System: A 1963 Scholarly Look
So's you don't think I'm unduly dwelling on the popular conception of a reordering of the class structure in England in the 1960's and the stiff class stratification that was the reality in England at that time, I started looking at the scholarly writings concerning the English class system and found a very interesting article by Cambridge University sociologists John H. Goldthorpe and David Lockwood that was published in the Sociological Review (new series), Volume 11, No. 2, July, 1963 called "Affluence and the British Class Structure."
They focused mainly on whether the working class was making any headway in pulling themselves up into the middle class--or whether there was a large glass ceiling in place preventing that.
The researchers looked at three studies of working and middle class attitudes and concluded:
1.) "The majority of people have a more or less clearly defined image of their society as being stratified in some way or other; that is to say they are aware of inequalities in the distribution of wealth, prestige and power." (page 146.)
2.) "In particular, there is no firm evidence either that manual workers are consciously aspiring to middle class society, or that this is becoming any more open to them." (my emphasis; page 155.)
On the general values from a working class perspective, Goldthorpe and Lockwood quote working class parents who said that the best job for a son was: "A trade in the hands" and "A good steady job." (page 147.)
Remember that three of the real Beatles had manual jobs when they first started out: George worked as an apprentice electrician; Paul got work from the Labour Exchange coiling cables for an electrical firm; Ringo had an apprenticeship at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer. John did go to art school, but was shifted over into learning lettering which--if he hadn't quit school (or gotten expelled)--would have led to a "good steady" manual office support job.
The article talked about the solidarity of working class people--an "us against them" attitude--that, of course, was expressed clearly by the real John at the Royal Command Performance in November, 1963 and got real Paul and real John ousted from the group.
They focused mainly on whether the working class was making any headway in pulling themselves up into the middle class--or whether there was a large glass ceiling in place preventing that.
The researchers looked at three studies of working and middle class attitudes and concluded:
1.) "The majority of people have a more or less clearly defined image of their society as being stratified in some way or other; that is to say they are aware of inequalities in the distribution of wealth, prestige and power." (page 146.)
2.) "In particular, there is no firm evidence either that manual workers are consciously aspiring to middle class society, or that this is becoming any more open to them." (my emphasis; page 155.)
On the general values from a working class perspective, Goldthorpe and Lockwood quote working class parents who said that the best job for a son was: "A trade in the hands" and "A good steady job." (page 147.)
Remember that three of the real Beatles had manual jobs when they first started out: George worked as an apprentice electrician; Paul got work from the Labour Exchange coiling cables for an electrical firm; Ringo had an apprenticeship at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer. John did go to art school, but was shifted over into learning lettering which--if he hadn't quit school (or gotten expelled)--would have led to a "good steady" manual office support job.
The article talked about the solidarity of working class people--an "us against them" attitude--that, of course, was expressed clearly by the real John at the Royal Command Performance in November, 1963 and got real Paul and real John ousted from the group.
