The Beatles by Steve Turner Read Free Book Online

Road’s Studio One by inviting Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Eric Clapton and Keith Moon to hold balloons, wave placards and join in on the chorus. George Martin accentuated the message of international unity by opening the song with bars from La Marseillaise (France), and closing it with snatches from ‘In The Mood’ (America) the Brandenburg concerto (Germany) and ‘Greensleeves’ (England).
    The single was released on July 7, and became the anthem of the Summer of Love, a paean to peace, love and understanding. “We had been told that we’d be seen recording it by the whole world at the same time,” said Paul. “So we had one message for the world – love. We need more love in the world.”

    BABY YOU’RE A RICH MAN
    As with ‘ A Day In The Life’, two unfinished songs were sewn together to create ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, which opens with John’s section, originally titled ‘One Of The Beautiful People’, and then moves up a gear for Paul’s ‘rich man’ chorus.
    â€˜The beautiful people’ was a term applied to the hip in-crowd who, with their long hair, free love and dope, created an alternative to ‘straight’ society. They used the word ‘beautiful’ freely in their conversations to describe anything of which they approved. “At the back of my mind somewhere…there is something which tells me that everything is beautiful,” said Paul in a stoned interview with International Times in January 1967. “Instead of opposing things like ‘Oh, I don’t like that television show’ or ‘No, I don’t like the theatre’ I know really that it’s all great and that everything’s great and there’s no bad ever if I can think of it all as great.”
    In 1967, San Francisco was regarded as the city of the beautiful people because it was here that the hippy movement was first spotted by the media and where the first psychedelic ‘happenings’ and open-air ‘tribal gatherings’ had taken place. Although the Beatles played San Francisco in 1964, 1965 and 1966, they didn’t really get to explore the city until 1967. Paul was the first to visit, on April 4, when he dropped in on a Jefferson Airplane rehearsal and jammed on guitar. George was next, on August 7, when he came to Haight Ashbury, the San Francisco district that had given birth to underground newspapers, psychedelic poster art, communes, crash pads, head shops, free clinics and legions of exotic street people. Pattie’s sister Jenny was living in the area. “You are our leader, George,” one hippy shouted as he set off walking from the cornerof Haight and Masonic with Pattie, Neil Aspinall and Derek Taylor beside him. “You know where it’s at.”
    George was taken aback at the drug-glazed adoration of those who pushed flowers, poems, posters and drugs at him. “It’s you who should be leading yourself,” he told his would-be followers. “You don’t want to be following leaders – me or anyone else.” When he arrived at a park, George sat on the grass, listened to other people’s songs and then started to sing ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’.
    The rich man in Paul’s section is reputed to be manager Brian Epstein and in a demo version of the song, John maligns him by singing ‘Baby, you’re a rich fag Jew’. “The point was,” said John, “stop moaning. You’re a rich man and we’re all rich men.”

    HELLO GOODBYE
    Alistair Taylor, Brian Epstein’s assistant, remembered once asking Paul how he wrote his songs, and Paul took him into his dining room to give a demonstration on a hand-carved harmonium. He told Taylor to shout out the opposite of whatever he sang as he struck the keys. And so it went – black and white, yes and no, stop and go, hello and goodbye. “I’ve no