and Paul playing together at that age than pictures of me and dad.”
“I’ve never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was and how he was with me,” Julian admits. “I kept my mouth shut. There was some very negative stuff talked about me – like when he said that I’d come out of a whisky bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. That’s tough to deal with. You think, where’s the love in that? It was very psychologically damaging and for years that affected me. I used to think, how could he say that about his own bloody son!”
Julian hasn’t studied the words of ‘Hey Jude’ for some time but finds it hard to get away from the song. He’ll be in a restaurant when he’ll hear it played, or it’ll come on the car radio when he’s driving. “It surprises me whenever I hear it,” he says. “It’s very strange to think that someone has written a song about you. It still touches me.”
‘Hey Jude’ was the most successful Beatles’ single ever. It topped the charts around the world and, before the end of 1967, over five million copies had been sold.
THE BEATLES
The Beatles , or The White Album as it is commonly referred to,, confounded expectations because of its simplicity. It was as if the group had decided to produce the exact opposite of Sgt Pepper. Long album title? Let’s just call it The Beatles. Multi-coloured cover? Let’s go white. Clever overdubs and mixes? Let’s use acoustic guitars on a lot of the tracks. Other-worldly subject matter? Let’s sing about cowboys, pigs, chocolates and doing it in the road.
The change was in part due to the Beatles’ interest in the teachings of Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Pattie Harrison had attended a lecture given by him in February 1967 and six months later she encouraged George and the rest of the Beatles to hear him speak at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London. As a result of this meeting, they all embarked on a ten-day course on Transcendental Meditation, at University College, Bangor, in North Wales.
While in Bangor, on Sunday, August 27, 1967, they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead at his Belgravia flat. The loss of Epstein, who had managed their career since early 1962 and had become something of a father figure, may well have made the Beatles even more open to the guidance of the Maharishi, whom they visited in India in February 1968.
The trip to India not only brought calm and self-reflection to their fraught lives but also rekindled their musical friendships. Paul Horn, an American flautist who was there at the same time, believes that meditation was a great stimulus for them. “You find out more about yourself on deeper levels when you’re meditating,” he said. “Look how prolific they were in such a relatively short time. They were in the Himalayas away from the pressures and away from thetelephone. When you get too involved with life, it suppresses your creativity. When you’re able to be quiet, it starts coming up.”
On their return from India, the Beatles claimed that they had brought back 30 songs which they would be using on their next album. There were indeed 30 new songs on The Beatles but not all of them were written in India, and some of the Indian songs (like George’s ‘Sour Milk Sea’ and ‘Circles’) were never recorded by the Beatles. It’s probably fairer to say that about half of the album was written or at least started while they were away. Because they had no access to electric guitars or keyboards, many of these songs were acoustic.
John would later refer to The Beatles as being the first unself-conscious album after the Beatles’ great period of self-consciousness beginning with Rubber Soul and ending with Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. The Beatles was released as a double album in November 1968 and rose to the Number 1 spot on both sides of the Atlantic.
BACK IN THE USSR
Friendly rivalry existed between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and between
“I’ve never really wanted to know the truth about how dad was and how he was with me,” Julian admits. “I kept my mouth shut. There was some very negative stuff talked about me – like when he said that I’d come out of a whisky bottle on a Saturday night. Stuff like that. That’s tough to deal with. You think, where’s the love in that? It was very psychologically damaging and for years that affected me. I used to think, how could he say that about his own bloody son!”
Julian hasn’t studied the words of ‘Hey Jude’ for some time but finds it hard to get away from the song. He’ll be in a restaurant when he’ll hear it played, or it’ll come on the car radio when he’s driving. “It surprises me whenever I hear it,” he says. “It’s very strange to think that someone has written a song about you. It still touches me.”
‘Hey Jude’ was the most successful Beatles’ single ever. It topped the charts around the world and, before the end of 1967, over five million copies had been sold.
THE BEATLES
The Beatles , or The White Album as it is commonly referred to,, confounded expectations because of its simplicity. It was as if the group had decided to produce the exact opposite of Sgt Pepper. Long album title? Let’s just call it The Beatles. Multi-coloured cover? Let’s go white. Clever overdubs and mixes? Let’s use acoustic guitars on a lot of the tracks. Other-worldly subject matter? Let’s sing about cowboys, pigs, chocolates and doing it in the road.
The change was in part due to the Beatles’ interest in the teachings of Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Pattie Harrison had attended a lecture given by him in February 1967 and six months later she encouraged George and the rest of the Beatles to hear him speak at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London. As a result of this meeting, they all embarked on a ten-day course on Transcendental Meditation, at University College, Bangor, in North Wales.
While in Bangor, on Sunday, August 27, 1967, they learned that Brian Epstein had been found dead at his Belgravia flat. The loss of Epstein, who had managed their career since early 1962 and had become something of a father figure, may well have made the Beatles even more open to the guidance of the Maharishi, whom they visited in India in February 1968.
The trip to India not only brought calm and self-reflection to their fraught lives but also rekindled their musical friendships. Paul Horn, an American flautist who was there at the same time, believes that meditation was a great stimulus for them. “You find out more about yourself on deeper levels when you’re meditating,” he said. “Look how prolific they were in such a relatively short time. They were in the Himalayas away from the pressures and away from thetelephone. When you get too involved with life, it suppresses your creativity. When you’re able to be quiet, it starts coming up.”
On their return from India, the Beatles claimed that they had brought back 30 songs which they would be using on their next album. There were indeed 30 new songs on The Beatles but not all of them were written in India, and some of the Indian songs (like George’s ‘Sour Milk Sea’ and ‘Circles’) were never recorded by the Beatles. It’s probably fairer to say that about half of the album was written or at least started while they were away. Because they had no access to electric guitars or keyboards, many of these songs were acoustic.
John would later refer to The Beatles as being the first unself-conscious album after the Beatles’ great period of self-consciousness beginning with Rubber Soul and ending with Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. The Beatles was released as a double album in November 1968 and rose to the Number 1 spot on both sides of the Atlantic.
BACK IN THE USSR
Friendly rivalry existed between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and between
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