#Barry Miles

[got-ticket-to-ride]

'We’d often get in the little glass-panelled porch on the front door looking out onto the front garden and Menlove Avenue. There was a good acoustic there, like a bathroom acoustic, and also it was the only place Mimi would let us make noise. We were relegated to the vestibule. I remember singing ‘Blue Moon’ in there, the Elvis version, trying to figure out the chords. We spent a lot of time like that. Then we’d go up to John’s room and we’d sit on the bed and play records, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry. It’s a wonderful memory: I don’t often get nostalgic, but the memory of sitting listening to records in John’s bedroom is so lovely, a nice nostalgic feeling, because I realise just how close I was to John. It’s a lovely thought to think of a friend’s bedroom then. A young boy’s bedroom is such a comfortable place, like my son’s bedroom is now; he’s got all his stuff that he needs: a candle, a guitar, a book. John’s room was very like that. James reminds me very much of John in many ways: he’s got beautiful hands. John had beautiful hands." - Paul (Source: Barry Miles, Many Years From Now, 1997)

I've slept in friends bedrooms before. Looking back on those memories personally, I had lots of laughs and fun, but I have never really cherished their bedrooms like how Paul is talking about John's room?

Queue end of 1970s when John was singing Blue Moon all alone in his New York apartment, reminiscining on his Elvis looking pal, Paul. (Blue Moon starts around the 1:52)

#Quote #Barry Miles #paul mccartney #Mclennon #John Lennon #John and Paul #Beautiful Hands #Blue Moon #gttr-beatles

[ludmilachaibemachado]

Maggie McGivern, Paul McCartney and Barry Miles at the Indica Gallery🥀

Via Instagram.com🍁

#60s icons #girlsofthesixties #maggie mcgivern #paul mccartney #beatles girls #beatles women #barry miles #indica gallery

[eppysboys]

Paul had first tried out his disguise on the other Beatles, with complete success, during their July 1964 visit to Stockholm.

PAUL: We'd arrived in the afternoon and everyone was just settling in. I put on this disguise and picked up a camera and went around and knocked on the guys' doors. I knocked on George's and he came to the door, quite grumpy, you know, 'Yeah?' and I'd never seen him like that before. I said, 'Peresi, yea? Peresi?' A made-up foreign language, like someone who couldn't speak English. And he said, 'What d'you want? What d'you want?' He was quite curt with me, he was getting quite nasty actually, so I just changed the accent, 'Paresi, George, paresi, can't you tell, it's Paul speaking. It's me!' and I went into my real accent. And he goes, 'Fuckin' hell!'

Brian Epstein was in the bath with his door open when Paul wandered in.

PAUL: I had a camera round my neck so I looked like a guy pestering people for photos and I had a little card I was flashing. It was one I'd been given by Wesley Rose of Acuff and Rose, the music publishers, and I was impressed by it because it was see-through red plastic. So I pulled this out and said, 'Paresi, paresi?' Brian said, 'Yes, can I help you?' I said, 'Paresi? Mr Epsteini? Photo?' He said, 'No, no, no, not now. Look, can't you see I'm in the -' 'No, no, no, Brian, can't you tell it's me?' Freaked him out.

(Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles)

#Paul McCartney #Brian Epstein #Many Years From Now #Barry Miles #Paul #Brian #eppy and Paul #'he was getting quite nasty actually' Um? Yeah? Duh? 😂 #'Freaked him out' #goofball #George #George and Paul #quotes

[jt1674]

#al di meola #casino #dark eye tango #steve gadd #barry miles #anthony jackson #mingo lewis

[ceofjohnlennon]

John Lennon talking about his childhood, from the book "John Lennon: In His Own Word" by Barry Miles.

#john lennon #40s #1946 ? #barry miles #in his own words #my:read

[mydaroga]

With Jane no longer even nominally resident, Cavendish Avenue rapidly collapsed. In the living room a big jar of pot sat on the mantelpiece, books and records piled up all over the floor and the plywood model of the meditation dome became chipped and scarred with cigarette burns, tiny tangles of dog hair sprouting from the corners where Martha had pushed past. Miles recorded a visit some time in 1968 in his journals. He and Paul had been discussing Zapple, the proposed spoken-word label that Apple Records were going to launch. At one point he and Paul were laughing loudly:  

A beautiful girl looked in to see what the laughter was about, but Paul said we were talking business and she left. There were several semi-clad girls walking about the house. 'It's terrible,' he said, gesturing. 'The birds are always quarrelling about something. There's three living here at the moment.' The jostling for position must have been something to see. 'And there's another one, an American groupie, flying in this evening. I've thrown her out once, had to throw her suitcase over the wall, but it's no good, she keeps coming back.' He gave a resigned look and laughed.

Barry Miles, Many Years From Now

#oh my god #this is a lot to unpack #what can you do? #paul mccartney #Barry Miles #many years from now #kris reads myfn #kris talks a lot

[sounwise]

Though Dick Lester obviously tried to organise it [filming for Help! on location at Cliveden] so that the Beatles could just arrive and do their stuff, there was still a huge amount of waiting around on set. To pass the time, the crew organised a relay race to be held on the huge lawn at Cliveden one lunch break. It began as five 60-yard dashes between the production staff, electricians and actors, but then the Beatles decided to join in. The crew thought there was no contest; the Beatles all smoked, they took no exercise and were wearing their ordinary street shoes. Mal Evans and their driver Alf Bicknell were recruited to make up the numbers. To everyone’s surprise, the Beatles’ team won, with Alf just scraping home in bare feet against one of the film crew professionally attired in spiked running shoes. Ringo’s speed was particularly commented upon. People had forgotten how adept the Beatles were at escaping from fans and how necessary that extra burst of speed was in potentially life-threatening situations. Lord and Lady Astor presented the winning team with a bottle of vintage champagne and formal photographs were taken.

[—from Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Barry Miles]

#my favorite beatles anecdote forever #chain-smoking pop stars who hate sports have the absolute most hardcore sprinting skills due to years of booking it from the fans!!! #the beatles #paul mccartney: many years from now #many years from now #barry miles #paul mccartney #ringo starr #john lennon #george harrison #1965

[reflectismo]

In the Asher basement Paul helped Peter and his friend Barry Miles assemble the stock for a bookshop, one that Miles eventually started with John Dunbar, a boyfriend of Marianne Faithful. Miles, recently the biographer of Allen Ginsberg, helped introduce Paul around to a young, literary set.

Miles does not remember seeing John Lennon visit Paul at the Ashers'. Though the two had known each other since their teens and were best friends, there was a strain.

Miles says, "I think Jane was always a bit irritated by John. Because he was so acerbic and difficult to get on with. And paranoid. He didn't make life easy. I suppose it's a sort of rapier wit, but it was usually just plain ordinary rudeness. There was nothing special about it."

The Asher house, meantime, was constantly abuzz with society and very unlike the world of the three other Beatles. The Ashers were the kind of people who were booked all day long. They had engagements," Paul says incredulously, still very impressed.

— Paul McCartney profile for FAME Magazine (March 1990)

#Paul McCartney #The Beatles #Barry Miles #Jane Asher #John Lennon #(I’m going to need more info on the Jane & John relationship because it seems they mutually just never got along with each other lol) #1990 #Fame Magazine

[ljblueteak]

Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Allen Ginsberg

“After [Allen Ginsberg’s] reading...we took the tube to St. John’s Wood to visit Paul at Cavendish Avenue. On the train, Allen was absorbed in his own thoughts then he suddenly asked in a loud voice, ‘Does Mick Jagger make it with men?’ The carriage went deathly silent, everyone straining to hear my reply. I took the easy way out and said I really didn’t know. Sue backed me up. Allen obviously sensed that some peculiar British convention was being broken and didn’t pursue the matter any further.

We found Paul swatting up on Tantra from Ajit Mockerjee’s Tantra Art when we arrived. He had invited Mick Jagger and Marianne over, they lived close by at Harley House on the Marylebone Road. Mick had his biggest, most arrogant, rude and loveable smile on and was leaning back in a rocking chair in front of the French windows, a long white silk scarf trailing from his neck down the back of the chair to the carpet. He had one of Eliphas Levi’s books on magic with him and some of the discussion was about comparative religion and Western mysticism as a more usable and culturally understandable alternative to Eastern mysticism. Allen told us about the Western Gnostic traditions but maintained that there was no Western mysticism being practised and that only in the East could one find actual gurus and teachers. Mick revealed that he had optioned the rights to Frank Herbert’s Dune: ‘I quite fancy meself as a mad old monk with me cloak flappin’ abaht in the desert,’ he said. 

We all sat around on the carpet just inside the door to the living room. Incense was burning from innumerable sticks in a holder. The huge Takis sculpture--’My lights on sticks’ as Paul called it--blinked on and off in the corner by the bookshelves. I was a little surprised at Mick’s and Paul’s attitude to Allen, which was quite deferential. Paul was in a very receptive mood and though I knew he had many reservations about the things Allen said, he did not express them. Both he and Mick treated Allen as a visiting sage, much as I imagine they later treated the Maharishi. They put Allen at ease and wanted to hear what he had to say. Tea was served.

Paul sat close to Allen, cross-legged. Sometimes he would select a few of the packages on a table next to the door--presents from his fans....He found a red satin shirt and began to doodle a psychedelic pattern all over it...

They discussed William Burroughs, whose face Paul had put on the sleeve of Sgt Pepper, but mostly Paul preferred to tell stories about the old days in Liverpool and about his family. He tried to explain to Allen the nature of British eccentricity and said that most of the exploits of the Beat Generation would have been regarded as perfectly normal in Liverpool. There was some talking at cross-purposes, but it was a friendly visit.

As we left, Paul, sensing that this was an occasion, folded up the red shirt, which was now decorated with intricate psychedelic patterns, and placed it in Allen’s hands. ‘A souvenir of Swinging London,’ he said. Allen seemed moved, and carefully stuffed it into his Tibetan hippie shoulder bag before packing up his Indian harmonium. 

Paul’s chief memory of the visit was that Allen had advised him against using concrete to lay the foundations of the geodesic dome he was planning to have built in his garden. ‘What if you ever want to move it?’ asked Allen. 

‘He was right,’ Paul conceded, years later.”

From Barry Miles’s In the Sixties account of July ‘67 meeting between Allen Ginsberg, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful 

#Paul McCartney #Allen Ginsberg #Mick Jagger #Barry Miles #Barry Miles In the Sixties #There's just so much happening in this!

[cries-for-no-one]

Bad Biographies: Linda McCartney (Eastman)

I was listening to a podcast discussing the Beatles and once again an "expert" repeated the myth that Linda Eastman attended Sarah Lawrence College. In the past I have gotten annoyed when I heard biographers and journalists repeating this because they haven't done their research. If they can get this wrong, how can I believe the other things they say.

Personally, I have a memory of Linda saying that this isn't true, although admittedly I cannot remember the source. So, to hear others say it wrong gave me the impression they haven't done much research.

But now I have heard it so often, and read it in otherwise good biographies, that I realize that bad sourcing is endemic among biographers.

The biography of Linda

The mistake doesn't come from Linda McCartney - Wikipedia:

Eastman graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1959. She then attended Vermont College in Montpelier, Vermont, where she received an Associate of Arts in 1961... After graduating from Vermont College, she attended the University of Arizona and majored in fine arts while taking up nature photography as a hobby. While she was studying there, her mother was killed in the 1962 crash of American Airlines Flight 1 in Jamaica Bay, New York. She then left the University of Arizona without graduating, and married Joseph Melville See Jr. (in June 1962) Their daughter Heather was born in December 1962. They divorced in 1965, and Linda resumed using her maiden name.

Nor is the bad bio coming from Biography - LindaMcCartney.com website. Which offers a shorter version of the Wikipedia.

Nor is it coming from Sarah Lawrence College, Noted Alumni | Sarah Lawrence College. The college follows events in the careers of previous alumni such as Yoko Ono. Linda, unlike Yoko, is not mentioned at all and is not listed as an alumna.

Linda McCartney at Vermont College » Mining for Old (archive.org)

In fact, I couldn't find a source on the internet that gave the wrong details. Unless it is an obscure source that I have not thought of I assume the bad source is a book or article (or several).

Without asking them directly or scouring through many biographies that I do not own or articles I cannot access, then giving an analysis. I am just going to call it a day on finding the source. But it is strange that it is easy to fact check.

In fact, I would say from 1997 there really is no excuse for getting this wrong.

Many Years From Now

In 1997 Many Years From Now was published. The authorized biography quotes Paul (and Linda) so extensively it is often counted as an autobiography or memoir. Paul had a say over the final edit, so any factual errors are official.

Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. | Miles (barrymiles.co.uk)

Paul and the author Barry Miles use the book to correct multiple myths they perceive as being spread. From how the book is written it seems to be a major motivation behind the book and reviewers criticized the defensive tone.

Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now book review | Miles (barrymiles.co.uk)

Here is the passage related to how Linda reacted to her mother's death...

"Linda moved to Tuscon, where she studied art and history. There is a myth that both Linda and Yoko Ono attended Sarah Lawrence, which was true of Yoko but not of Linda, whose brief academic career was at the University of Arizona. She was not exceptional academically and did not particularly enjoy it. It was an uncertain time in her life, she was mourning her mother and trying to find her place in the world." - Barry Miles, Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Published (My version): Vintage 1998, Chapter: The White Album, Page: 507

Other myths about Linda that persist are mentioned in the book. Such as Linda being related to Eastman-Kodak, this circulates online, and it seems to only be due to her being a photographer with the surname Eastman. But I haven't come across it like I have this rumor, I assume the McCartneys have done enough to combat it, although it may just be due to how obvious it is that her father is actually a lawyer.

There are further rumors, that she slept with various celebrities or wasn't any good as a photographer, the McCartneys seem to just ignore these and just tell the story on their own terms. When gossip is a source, it probably depends on the biographer to how much weight it is given. Being a celebrity probably amplifies this kind of behavior towards you. Perhaps this celebrity drama creation is a factor for the myth.

Although Paul was criticized for being so defensive and feeling the need to set the record straight, somehow it hasn't stopped people getting this wrong. The book is an important source for information on Paul, his background and the band. It talks extensively from Paul's (and Barry and other insider's) point of view. Most biographers and Beatle experts would have this book, it is a heavily used source.

Why is the myth still repeated so often?

Given that it isn't very difficult to fact check, why do people keep getting this wrong?

I have decided not to name and shame the biographers and Beatle authorities I have heard saying this. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't think it was a bigger problem. It seems to be a fact that is commonly believed but not examined enough for a basic fact check. Please take my word for it that this is a problem.

What is most curious to me is that it doesn't even matter. If you do not have a source for where she went to college, then don't mention it. It has nothing to do with the Beatles as a band and reflects little on her relationship with Paul.

Motive

When I have heard it used in discussions about her on Beatle Podcasts it was in relations to:

How her and Yoko attended the same school

Perhaps implying a connection between John and Paul's lives or the women they liked. Maybe a spiritual symmetry that is romantic to authors, but ultimately pointless and unnecessary. They had children the same age, loved art and lived in New York, isn't that enough.

However, perhaps the origin for this myth was mistaking Yoko's biography for Linda's.

Yoko at Sarah Lawrence

Speaking about how Paul liked posh girls

Drawing a parallel to his fiancée Jane Asher, whom he had split with a few months before Linda moved in with him.

I'm not sure how much evidence there is of this as some of his girlfriends and wives were posh, but others weren't.

But again it isn't necessary, just say she came from a nice area with a well-off family.

I have the feeling that there is some sort of shorthand by saying she went to that school. Like it meant Linda was super elite and privileged instead of attending the state schools and ordinary colleges.

Hopefully it isn't related to her background, coming from a Jewish family, sometimes people will project stereotypes in a weird antisemitic way. I have seen people comment (anonymously in comments sections) on her Jewish background as if that is significant.

A more generous analysis would be that as fans, commentators want the Beatles to have married high class ladies because it fits their ideals. The Beatles are special and so they shouldn't marry ordinary girls. This is a bit silly but subconscious biases may have an effect on what they believe to be true.

Other than that, I just don't know. They should know better but they don't. I don't want to pile on or irritatingly correct people. It just puzzles me that this myth persists. It concerns me because, although minor, if this isn't getting fact checked what else isn't.

The Future

One day in the hopefully not distant future this post (2022) will be irrelevant because they will stop, either because fact checking gets better (the dream), or more likely, because online people will correct them and embarrass them into changing.

#linda mccartney #linda eastman #the beatles #paul mccartney #yoko ono #Sarah Lawrence #Vermont college #university of arizona #biography #biographer #many years from now #Barry Miles #fact check #rumors #rumor mill

[theprofessorofdesire]

Peter Asher and Barry Miles behind the counter at the Indica Gallery bookshop.

#peter asher #barry miles #indica gallery #london #60's #swinging sixties #avant garde

[quacka-quacka]

It is often said that Peter Asher and Paul were pretty close. Ironically, Paul's biography Many Years From Now, written by Peter's friend and co-founder of Indica Bookshop Barry Miles not always spoke well of him.

Peter and Gordon spent two years circulating tapes to record companies, trying to make a name for themselves, but to no avail - until Paul began going out with Jane. Then record companies suddenly became very interested indeed.

[...]

Peter and Gordon were to tour America and Japan at the height of the British invasion which followed in the wake of the Beatles' success. Peter became in every respect a famous pop star, with groupies and girls jumping off balconies, a house in the country and a £50 a week allowance from his management, Noel Gay Artists. It was everything he could have wanted except for the tempering effect of having a member of the Most Famous Group on Earth living the next room.

Outside the front door were always a dozen or so Beatles fans, and they were not there for Peter. 'Oh, it's only Peter,' they would mutter as he got out of a cab. It was very galling for him.

That's probably true but I don't think he would allow such thing include in his book if this is about himself or his family. Although topic involved Jane may be sensitive in this book, Ashers are not entirely downplayed or excluded from it. On the contrary, there's a particular section describing Paul's life in Ashers home, which is basically something nice about the family.

None of those commets are directly from Paul himself, though he didn't bother to ask Barry Miles to take it out either. Maybe he agreed with that too or maybe he couldn't care less.

#peter asher #paul mccartney #jane asher #barry miles

[jt1674]

#al di meola #elegant gypsy #midnight tango #anthony jackson #barry miles #mingo lewis #lenny white

[ceofjohnlennon]

John Lennon's text in Mersey Beat Magazine, 1961, taken from the book "John Lennon: In His Own Word" by Barry Miles.

#john lennon #60s #1961 #barry miles #in his own world #my:read

[mydaroga]

Look I know a few of you have pointed out this is Barry Miles' opinion coloring the tone, but this is the type of thing that makes me wonder if we need to throw this much shade to get the point across:

There was no high-profile posturing. He did not sit in a black bag or sing a song about it, just supported a traditional method of lobbying. In this instance quiet and effective work led to a change in the law - from which he himself benefited when police found pot plants growing on his Scottish farm in 1972.

It's a point I don't entirely disagree with, mind you. (Though obviously in my view it's way more complicated than one or the other.) I'm simply pointing out where I think Miles has inserted quite a bit of bias. Obviously that's his and Paul's right, it's their book. But it's worth mentioning, I think, that Miles on more than one occasion brings a contrast with John into a conversation where John hasn't been brought up before. Or see:

John took no part in developing the Apple artist roster, though he did produce a string of Plastic Ono Band records and later acted as William Randoph Hearst to Yoko Ono's Marion Davies, producing a stream of Yoko Ono records, none of which sold in any quantity.

Ouch. Unfair to both Yoko AND Marion. And also,

John later complained that Paul took over and led the Beatles after Brian died, but no doubt if John had come up with some suggestions of his own instead of drifting in a haze of heroin and LSD, then the others would have been equally responsive. As it was, even before Brian's death, virtually everything the Beatles did from Sgt. Pepper onwards was initially proposed by Paul, though Beatles democracy never faltered and all projects had to have approval from all four members of the group.

He is clearly Paul's man, and that's fine. Setting the record straight is necessary especially given what the media had put Paul through. If I have a point, it's to ask why so much had to be at John's expense

#barry miles #many years from now #kris reads myfn #Kris talks a lot