LITMIR.BIZ

       We’re going to Germany, America and Japan this year. It’s an accident that we’re not working now. We should have just had two weeks holiday after Christmas and then started on the next film, but it isn’t ready and won’t be for months. We want to work and we’ve got plenty to do - writing songs, taping things and so on. … I feel we’ve only just finished ‘Rubber Soul’ and I keep looking for the reviews - then I realize we did it months ago. We’re obviously not going to work harder than we want to now, but you get a bit fed up of doing nothing. … I thought about this a while back and decided I’d been a bit extravagant and bought too many cars, so I put the Ferrari and the Mini up for sale. Then one of the accountants said I was all right, so I got the cars back. It’s the old story of never knowing how much we’ve got. I’ve tried to find out but with income tax to be deducted and the money coming in from all over the place, the sums get too complicated for me … The thing I’ve learned is that if I’m spending 10,000 Pounds I say to myself: ‘You’ve had to earn 30,000 Pounds before tax to get that. … I’m dying to move into town but I’m waiting to see how Paul gets on when he goes into his town house. If he gets by alright then I’ll sell the place at Weybridge. Probably to some American who’ll pay a fortune for it. I was thinking the other night though that it might not be easy to find a buyer. How do you sell somebody a pink, green and purple house? We’ve had purple velvet put up on the dining room walls. It sets off the old scrubbed table we eat on. Then there’s the ‘funny’ room upstairs. I painted that all colors changing from one to another. … The next LP is going to be very different. We wanted to have it so that there was no space between the tracks, just continuous. But they wouldn’t wear it. Paul and I are very keen on this electronic music. You make it clinking a couple of glasses together or with bleeps from the radio, then you loop the tape to repeat the noises at intervals. Some people build up whole symphonies from it. It would have been better than the background music we had for the last film.

       If I thought I’d got to go through the rest of my life being pointed and stared at, I’d give up The Beatles now. It’s only the thought that one day it will all come to an end which keeps me going. … There are only about 100 people in the world who understand our music: George, Ringo, and a few friends around the world. Some of the artists who recorded our numbers have no idea how to interpret them. Keely Smith added nothing to our compositions but a couple trumpets. I loathed Matt Monro’s version of ‘Yesterday’ and liked Marianne Faithfull’s … When Paul and I write a song we try and take hold of something we believe in, a truth. We can never communicate 100 per cent of what we feel but if we can convey just a fraction we have achieved something. We try to give people a feeling, they don’t have to understand the music if they can just feel the emotion. This is half the reason the fans don’t understand but they experience what we are trying to tell them. … Lack of feeling in an emotional sense is responsible for the way some singers do our songs. They don’t understand and are too old to grasp the feeling. Beatles are really the only people who can play Beatle music.

       You can spot the good ones even in a crowded reception hall. You’ll be saying something which no one else is writing down but just one or two reporters. I’ve seen enough journalists to recognize those who know what we’re all about.

       Better to watch singing than wrestling, anyway.

       There’s probably more wind from the press than from us.

       We’re trying to change that image of England.

       Well, we think about it everyday (an den Krieg in Vietnam), and we don’t agree with it and we think it’s wrong. That’s how much interest we take. That’s all we can do about it, and say that we don’t like it.

       We’re not on holiday. We don’t expect to see any sights or have any fun. And if we get fun as well while we happen to be touring, well then it’s okay, you know. But it’s our job as well.

       There’s no excuses or reasons for seeing us. People keep asking questions about why they come and see us. They come and see us because they like us. That’s all. There’s nothing else to it, you know. And they don’t have to let off steam at our concerts: They can go and let off steam anywhere.

       If he doesn’t think we’re adult, then you know, that’s his opinion. But we are adult, and if the question was a joke it wasn’t funny. We’re as adult as he is, and probably moreso. … you look adult enough to not ask questions like that.