Derek and Dave's turn with John

Beatles Rumors Ended!

KRLA Beat Magazine

April 14, 1965

Derek:  John Lennon, in dark glasses, white trousers, blue Plimsolis, black socks, lilac shirt and multi-colored jacket.  Lovely to see you again, John, after about 3 months.

John:  Good to see you, Derek, in your grey shirt, blue tie, grey trousers and tweedy thing.

Derek:  How many songs have you written for the film, John?

John:  Altogether we’ve written fourteen but only seven will be in the film, Derek.

Derek:  could I have a few titles?

John:  Uh, no.

Derek:  Why?

John:  Because they don’t’ like giving title out until they’re published.  People might write songs with the same title and confuse the market. 

Derek:  How many songs were there in “A Hard Day’s Night,” how many originals?

John:  I can’t remember.  They were all originals.

Derek:  What I mean by originals was how many were created especially for the film?

John:  Oh, I don’t know how many of them were --Say eight out of ten., if it was ten.  But all of these are for the film in this one.

Derek:  Are you taking the same plans to introduce the songs naturally as part of the plot?

John:  I think it’s very easy in this film.  A lot of them are going to be behind-the-scenes, like the running the in the field in “Hard Day’s night.”

Derek:  Sort of background music?

John:  Yeah, and a lot of them are going to be just potty.  We’ve done a lot of mad stuff.

Derek:  The script, which I had a look at this morning, looks rather eccentric.  The end of the operation, I pressure is to get a different sort of film from “Hard Day’s Night.”

John:   Yeah and we’ve done it, haven’t we?

Derek:  Well, from the look at the set you have—sitting on the beach in holes in the sand and people in khaki uniforms, red sashes and red turbans---some of them carrying guns and some of them carrying shovels.  Over by the water’s edge Leo McKern, the British actor, is standing looking like a Polynesian high priest.  The whole scene is pretty wild.  John hasn’t’ been doing too much this morning.    I presume you got up later than Ringo?

John:  Ringo got up about 7:00, I got up at about 9:00, which is late for a film.  It’s early for me.

Derek:  How do you come to terms with getting up so early when normally you are late risers and late to bed?

John:  Well, we just go to bed about 12:00 every night.  We go out at 6:00 and pretend it’s 11:00 and night, and come in at 12:00, you see.

Derek:  Are you finding it fairly easy to move around in the Bahamas?

John:  Oh yeah, it’s not bad at all.  Just the usual tourists.  Aside from that it’s not bad.

Derek:  Did you have a big send-off at London Airport?

John:  Yes.  It was very big because it was a half day for the schools.  There were about eight or ten thousand there.  It was like the crowd we had when we got back from America.  It was very good.

Derek:  That’s probably the biggest send off. Well you have had huge crowds going in.  Normally you don’t get a big crowd to see you out. 

John:  No, that’s right.  That’s probably the biggest send-off we’ve had.

Derek:  The Beatlemania level in England, if you forgive the phrase, I know you don’t like the phrase, is still pretty high.  It’s very high in America, too.

John:  Good.

Derek:  When are you due back in America?

John:  I think it’s about the autumn or fall, as they call it, I think.

Derek:  There are a few other things I would like to talk to you about, John.  Like killing a few rumors.  Is it still true that you have only one child?

John:  I have the only one child and none on the way.

Derek:  There are an awful lot of rumors about you having been in Hollywood recently, with Cyn, and that wasn’t true either?

John:  No, I  haven’t been in America seen we were last there.

Derek:  When you leave here where will you be going?

John:  To England for two days and then to Austria for a week, and then back to England for the rest of the film.

Derek:  That you very much, John.  I’ll turn you over to Dave now.

Dave:  How  are you John?

John:  Fine, Dave, how are you?

Dave: How’s Cynthia?

John:  She’s great.

Dave:  Good, good.  How do you like the weather down here?  I understand you’re not too happy with it.

John:  It’s too humid for me.    It’s not bad.  It’s better than rain, I suppose.

Dave:  The weather’s quite different back in England right now.  Rather grey, isn’t it?

John:  I think they’re having a bit of snow here and there.

Dave:  What about the movie.  How do you feel about it compared to “Hard Day’s Night.”  Is it somewhat the same for you?  Are you having less work to do?

John:  So far we’ve had less to do but it’s only in the first week.  But you know, it’s okay.

Dave:  What about your part in “Hard Day’s Night.”  You know a lot of it was spontaneous.  The part in the bathtub, you recall you talked to me last time…are you doing the same here or are you sticking to the script?

John:  We’re sticking to the script until there’s an opportunity of, you know, going away form it.  We’ve done a bit that has nothing to do with the script.  Filmed little bits that the director thought might come in handy for something or other.  Whenever a situation arises we do it.

Dave:  Are you thinking of a great deal of things yourself, John?

John:  Well, we’ve hardly done anything on it.  It’s mainly been people chasing Ringo.  So far we haven’t done much at all.

Dave:  What about your new book?  “A Spaniard in the Works” is the title. It’s being published by whom?

John:  Simon & Schuster, I presume.

Dave:  They’re the ones who published your other one.  Is it almost the same as your other one?

John:  Well, it’s pretty similar, yeah.  Better, I think, because it’s developed a bit bigger.  The drawings are better and it’s longer…there’s more of it. 

Dave:  Well that’s good.  I know it will make your fans happy.   Your other one was a very successful book.  Is this one done on short stories again?

John:  Yeah, but the stories…but there are none that are really short.  They’re all about four or five pages long.

Dave:  Are these new stories or are they ones you did a long time ago?

John:  They’re brand new.

Dave:  The title is “A Spaniard in the Works.”  Now, you’ve made a play off the word spanner.

John:  Spanner is a wrench in America.  When you “put a spanner in the works” you louse everything up.  In America you say “put a wrench in the works.”

Dave:  Yes, toss a wrench in the works.  How do you use the play off words for the title of the book?

John:  It’s the title of one of the stories about a Spaniard, who gets a job in Scotland, that’s all.  I thought everybody knew the expression.  I didn’t know they had a different expression in America.

Dave:  Well, we do.  Usually we say, “don’t throw a monkey wrench in the works,” or “don’t throw a monkey wrench in the machine.”  But now we understand.  You use “a spanner” and “a Spaniard “to play off words.  It’s very clever.

John:  Thank you.

Dave:   What about sales?  The book is published?

John:  No, it’s not published yet.   Won’t come out for another month, I don’t think.   It’s finished and everything’s done.   They’re just putting it together in the publishers. 

Dave:  Did Paul get a chance to write the front?

John:  There’s no introduction on this one.  They’re thinking of putting the same introduction again exactly.  They thought it didn’t need one this time or they didn’t want one.  There were enough page as it was. 

Dave:  What about the people here?  Have you have many problems getting around the Bahamas?

John:  No, it’s not bad at all.  There are not many people here.

Dave:  What about your night life.  Are you enjoying any night life here?

John:  We’ve been to a couple of places.  They clubs aren’t sort of wild.  We wouldn’t bother normally with them but they’re the only places to go so we have to go to them.

Dave:  You and Paul and George are more or less protectors during the movie.  You’re trying to keep him from  being chased by these different people?

John:  He comes in possession of this ring and whoever wears it has to be sacrificed by this big mod that Derek described before, and we’re trying to save him and get this ring off his finger.  They’re other people trying to get it off for various reasons.  It’s very complicated.  Basically what it is is to stop him getting sacrificed. 

Dave:  John, there’s been a controversy in the States concerning one tune out of your recent “Beatles for Sale” album.  The tune was also on the “Beatles ‘65” album released in the States.  Most magazines say that it’s Paul doing the tune “Rock n Roll music” and I’ve continued to say it’s you.  Will you please straighten this out for us once and for all?

John:  It’s definitely me.  There’s only one voice on it and it’s me.   On the British album, you see, they explain who sings what exactly, and who sings the harmony.    They seem to miss it off in the American one, which is silly.   It saves all the messing.  I heard one on the radio last night who said George was singing and it was me and Paul.  There were about eight voices on it and it’s all me and Paul.  It’s mad.   They should print it on the album like they do in England and there wouldn’t be any messing.

Dave:  On these trips that take you away from your family don’t you miss Cynthia and Julian a great deal?

John:  Yeah, I miss them like mad.  I was going to bring them out here but they’d just be hanging around all the time because that’s all there is.

Dave:  You kept your son out of the press.  Has that been your own doing or is it that the press is not really interested in your son?

John:  I don’t’ know.  They want pictures, I suppose, but I’m…you know…he’s going to have enough problems as it is being my son without getting pictures in when he’s a kid.  I don’t like family pictures anyway.

Dave:  When you go away for any length of time and return, do you find he’s developed new traits that you weren’t aware of before?

John:  Oh yeah, they change all the time at that age.  He’s only two.  Mainly new words he’s learned.  Quite good fun to see what he’s learned.

Dave:  You made a statement that I understand was more a put-on than anything else.  I thought at the time it was a John Lennon put on, but most of the American press are not aware of your talent of kidding and that was when at the marriage of Ringo and Maureen when you and your wife drove up in your Rolls Royce, and you said that George had driven over on his bicycle.  You were putting on the world, weren’t you?

John:  Yeah.  Did that get around?  I didn’t know.

Dave:  Yes, it made press all across the nation.  Everybody was saying, “which was the Beatles who arrived on a bicycle?”  but he really didn’t, did he?

John:  No.  It was just a joke.  He came with me in the Rolls.  We just said it to a friend of ours, 

Maureen Cleve, on the phone and we thought she’d know.  But it was so early in the morning that she probably didn’t think.  She just wrote it down.  I forgot to apologize to her, but it’s got around the world.

Dave:  Well it was a surprise to everyone, Ringo’s marriage.  I know it wasn’t a surprise to the Beatles because I knew for some time he’s been very much in love with her.  How long as it before they really got married did they plan on it?  Actually the marriage date?

John:  I haven’t a clue.  I knew there was something in the air but I went on holiday so I was way out of touch.   Nobody was in touch.   And I just got back and they suddenly said the date is in two days’ time.  I said, right.  It was quite a shock to us, too because we knew he was going to get married but not exactly when.

Dave:  your last holiday was spent were?

John:  St. Moritz, Switzerland, skiing.

Dave:  the fact of the matter is, I saw a picture of you sitting down in the snow.  You had fallen while skiing.  Did you take your wife?  And Julian?

John:  I didn’t take Julian because he’s too young to learn to ski.  They learn about four.  I’ll take him about four.  I took my wife.  It was great.

Dave:  Was it publicity set up or did you really fall down?

John:  Well I fell down a few times but that actual photograph I couldn’t fall over.  When they waited for the fall, I kept doing it right, so the ski instructor told me I had to downhill and fall over as well.  So I did fall over.  I did fall over a lot.  Obviously everybody does. 

Dave:  Are you really a good skier?  An average skier?  How do you rate yourself?

John:  Well, both my wife and I did well because we had a private instructor, you see.  The people who were in big classes were doing the same stuff at the end of two or three weeks.  And we were going down from the tops, so I suppose we were above average.  It takes a long time if you’re in a big class of forty.  They can’t teach you properly. 

Dave:  Well, I don’t’ want to bug you anymore.  I know you ‘d like to relax for a second.  Thank you so much, John.

John:  Good to see you again, Dave.