Was I Right, Or Was I Right?

In my post of February 7, 2013 I was talking about an L.A. radio station fanzine's story that The Beatles were contemplating recording--what became--the Revolver album at Stax record studio in Memphis.

The line was that Brian Epstein was worried about security if The Beatles stayed in Memphis.  That was bull, of course, because the 1966 touring Beatles played in Memphis after our John created a storm of anger in America with his comments that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" and his opinion that Christianity would fade.  There were boycotts and threats but the 1966 touring Beatles still played there.  So much for security concerns.

In a May 30, 2015 article at www.beatlesarchive.net they reproduce and talk about a May 6, 1966 letter George wrote to Paul Drew, an Atlanta DJ at radio station WQXI.

Harrison describes recording Revolver and says in a postscript:
     "Did you hear that we nearly recorded in Memphis with Jim Stuart.  We would all like it a lot, but too many people get insane with money ideas at the mention of the word Beatles', so it fell through!"

So there's the real reason.  But . . . .  In an interview with John and Ringo published in Melody Maker magazine July 9, 1966, Ringo talked about taking about 10 weeks to complete Revolver:
     "But we've spent so long on it because we insisted on having the time to do what we wanted to.  As we're quite big with EMI at the moment, they don't argue." (my emphasis.)

Because The Beatles were at the top of their game, and when, for instance, The Rolling Stones recorded several albums in the U.S., you wonder if the real reason was money.

But it wasn't because of security.

More To Come

Sorry for the delay in new posts. I'm doing research that will take time to pan out . . . BUT there is much more to come.

What Bob Dylan Knew

In May, 1966, Bob Dylan shared a ride with our John to a hotel where Dylan was staying.  Their ride was filmed and showed up with other 1966 footage of Dylan in England in the documentary, Eat The Document.  The part of the documentary that concerns this post I found on Youtube at:  https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5YLdHG83UD  .

From 0:51-1:18 in the Youtube video, Dylan, with a little help from our John, says this:

     Dylan:  Tom?  [the driver]  I think I'm going to turn you into Tyrone Power!  As a matter of fact---
     John:  Say that again, will you, Bob?
     Dylan:  Tom?
     Driver:  Yeah?
     Dylan:  I think I'm going to turn you into Ronald Coleman.
     John:  That's better---
     Dylan:  Reginald Young---
     John:  Much better, much better---
     Dylan:  Sleepy P. Weedsrom or Sleepy John Estes.  Oh, that's right.  Robert Johnson.  Would go
                  to medical school like J. Carrol Naish!

J. Carrol Naish was a Hollywood actor.  I read some internet biographies of him, with no mention of his ever going to medical school.  What was Dylan talking about?

I Googled "J. Carrol Naish"+"medical school" and the result was the mention of a 1942 movie called Dr. Renault's Secret.  The tale begins as a young doctor arrives in a French village to marry the niece of Dr. Renault, a prominent local physician.  The name of the niece-fiancee is MADELON.

In past posts I've talked about the French film, Masculin Feminin with the main character named MADELEINE and the 1966 Denny Laine song, Rue de la MADELEINE.

I definitely think there is a connection between the real Paul and a French girl named Madeleine.

There is a theory described in the website:  diglander.libero.it/p_truth that a Paul traveled to France for some reason and died there.  Although I don't subscribe to the entire theory, if the real Paul did go to France, it could have been because he was romantically involved with a girl named Madeleine.

Finding More Information In 1960's Songs and Why I Look There

The whole Paul-Is-Dead controversy began in October, 1969 in Detroit.  As I say in the introduction to my blog, I was a kid Beatles' fan among thousands of kid Beatles' fans in Detroit.  We heard "Penny Lane" in 1967 (although I swear I heard that song in the fall of 1966.  But that can't be, right?)  We Beatles' fans knew something was wrong with that song.  Paul's voice was not the same.

When Sgt. Pepper came out, alot of us did not like the music and the vibe that The Beatles were projecting,  It was off, it was not right.  So most of us kissed off Beatle fandom and became Monkees' fans.

So when the Paul-Is-Dead backmasked clues started surfacing, many of us thought it was a publicity stunt that The Beatles were using to--as they say in Detroit--"goose up" their sagging popularity.

As I started researching the changes in the members of the group, it occurred to me that--if  there were heavy duty  machinations with The Beatles--whoever surfaced among them would want some way to talk about it.  Blurting it out publicly would have gotten band members replaced--and whatever consequences followed from that.  So they hid their information in their songs.

The music industry is a fluid situation:  musicians quit bands and join new ones; musicians hang out together; they listen to each others' music and the gossip they hear in recording studios.  So I reasoned that other groups would want to share their information and gossip.

The results from testing songs backwards were 'way more than I expected:  pop and rock musicians had bits of information about behind the scenes problems with The Beatles, and they shared their knowledge and gossip in backmasked songs.

Other Voices, Part 17: The 1967 Yardbirds' Song, "Dazed and Confused"

The Yardbirds were a British invasion group who, in 1967, consisted of Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarty.

Keith Relf took a song called "I'm Confused (Dazed and Confused)" by Jake Holmes and reworked some of the lyrics.  The Yardbirds did live versions of the song, two of which showed up in two releases:   Live Yardbirds:  Featuring Jimmy Page, released in 1971 and Cumular Limit, released in 2000.

The lyrics suggest a man who is abused, tense, and not knowing if--for instance--he is going to be dumped from his band.

Think of Paul in April, 1966 with a publicly visible chipped tooth. 

Listen to the song at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDhx_DgDxE  .

Here are the lyrics:

     I'm dazed and confused,
     Is it stay, is it go?
     Give me a clue,
     'Cos I just want to know.
     Give me a clue as to where I am at.
     Feel like a mouse, and you act like a cat.
     Yeah I'm
     Yeah I'm
     Yeah I'm
     Yeah I'm,

     I'm dazed and confused,
     Hangin' on by a thread.
     I've been abused,
     I'd be better off dead.
     Can't stand the heat,
     And I'm starting to crack,
     If you're out to get me,
     You're on the right track.
     Hey, hey!
     Hey, hey!
     Hey, hey!

     I'm dazed and confused.
     Is it stay, is it go?
     I still love you,
     But I still want to know.
     Secrets are fun to a certain degree,
     This one's now fun 'cause the secret's on me.
     Yeah, yeah,
     Hey, hey!

     I'm dazed and confused,
     Is it stay, is it go?
     I've been abused,
     And I sure wanna know.
     Give me a clue as to where I am at,
     Feel like a mouse, and you act like a cat.
     Yeah!
     Hey, hey, hey, hey!

Reversed, you can hear them say PAUL--I count--TEN times, beginning at 1:19 in the reversed track.

Other Voices, Part 16: "Good Vibrations"

I was reading a 2001 book, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds:  The Greatest Album of the Twentieth Century by Kingsley Abbot.  It chronicles The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's gargantuan effort to, basically, out-Beatle The Beatles.

The Beach Boys recorded for Capitol records.  Capitol was owned by EMI, the record company The Beatles recorded for.  Capitol--after a few fumbles--released The Beatles' recordings.  The Beatles made massive inroads on the American pop scene from 1964-on, so you can imagine that Brian Wilson would have been curious as to what The Beatles would be planning for future music, and--with a little poking around Capitol's Los Angeles headquarters--would have gotten some advance knowledge.

It's also more than possible that Brian Wilson was "tuning into" the gossip about The Beatles that was floating around Capitol records.  The Beach Boys also hired Derek Taylor, fresh from being The Beatles publicist, as their publicist, so Brian Wilson had more insider knowledge about The Beatles.

While the other Beach Boys were off touring, Brian with an English advertising man turned lyricist, Tony Asher [!], and a heavy contingent of studio musicians, put together the album, Pet Sounds.

They had three hits from the album:  "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B", and "God Only Knows".  Brian worked on the album from the fall of 1965 through the spring of 1966.

On May 16, 1966, Pet Sounds was released in the U.S.  The album and the single "Sloop John B" sold better in Europe than it did in the U.S.

Given all the efforts Brian Wilson made to outdo The Beatles, I thought he might have slipped in a few comments on the state of The Beatles, late 1965 and 1966.

He did.

I'll talk about the Pet Sounds hints in a coming post.  (I still have to do a little more research on them.)

But, a track that Brian considered for Pet Sounds and held off the album for "more work" was the song, "Good Vibrations."  Brian, according to the Pet Sounds book, "proceeded to experiment with different feels and arrangements for some 90 hours of tape, in four different studios, before finally constructing a finished master from many separate, quite disparate fragments."  This sounded, to me, like it had backmasking written all over it.  I thought the backmasked song would directly mention our Paul.  Instead--and, remember, the song was released in November, 1966, a month before the new, new Beatles were beginning to record what would become the Sgt. Pepper album--the main backmasked words throughout the song are:  "she's . . . shear", as in "the one and only Billy Shears" mentioned in the first track on Sgt. Pepper.

People have interpreted the Billy Shears passage as, "Billy's here":  a new Beatle OR "Billy Shears" as in the real name of the new Beatle Paul.  It follows that "she's shear" would mean "she's here" by the first interpretation.

But "Good Vibrations" preceded Sgt. Pepper.  How did Brian Wilson know?

Denny Laine's "Boulevard de la Madeleine"

In my October 18, 2012 post, I detailed the connections between the characters and incidents in the 1966 French movie, Masculin Feminin and a Paul's--I believe the real, original Paul's--life.  The main female character's name was Madeleine.

In a song by Denny Laine--who later was in the last Paul's group, Wings--released in October, 1966--called "Boulevard de la Madeleine", Laine describes a young man who waits in Paris, in love, for a girl who never comes.

Our Paul might have had a place in Paris according to hints from the Los Angeles fanzine, KRLA Beat.  But I think Masculin Feminin was about the real Paul and I believe that is why the movie's director Jean Luc Godard waited for the denouement of Paul's life before he released the film.

Interesting!  Paul's song, "Michelle" was, I think, written by the real Paul.  If there was a real Madeleine, who is (or was) she?