Read Online When They Were Boys by Larry Kane - Free Book Online

let me cover ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand.’ I think it was a stretch. This was during a meeting at Abbey Road. He smiled and said, ‘I think, Billy, we are going to save that for ourselves, if you know what I mean.’ I laughed, too.”
    To put the caring, unselfish side of Lennon in perspective, consider this: Billy J. Kramer was a competitor, yet Lennon went out of his way to help Kramer’scareer. In one of the early Mersey Beat polls, Kramer finished third behind the first-place Beatles. Although they shared a manager, Brian Epstein, for a while, Kramer was a genuine, viable contender. Still, the song “Bad to Me” was written by John, for Billy, during a vacation in Spain. John’s generosity for people he genuinely respected was unlimited. “Bad to Me” became a number-one hit for Kramer in England in 1963, and hit the top ten in America. It was the first hit penned by Lennon (although “Lennon-McCartney” is on the credits, as was their agreement) for another artist to make it in America.
    Much has been said about the style and substance of John Lennon. My own work has been criticized by people who never met the man as much too soft and sometimes patronizing. From his youthful womanizing to his violent temper, the view of John is complex, but the facts and the testimony of the living and dead, speaking of John’s lifelong musical philanthropy, are the truth.
    Billy J. Kramer views John’s musical offerings as proof of the nature of the man, even as a young and aspiring entertainer.
    â€œThis was a complete man, a person who really cared about people, but real people. I guess we hit it off. I know everybody says how he and the guys changed life and entertainment, but in this case, he really changed one life: mine.”
    Another Billy, Billy Kinsley, founder of the band the Merseybeats, remembers the generous nature of the boys during so many concerts at the Cavern, Tower Ballroom, and Litherland Town Hall. Kinsley has vivid memories of John:
    H E WAS THE LEADER, EVEN AT TWENTY OR TWENTY-ONE . H E DID IT WITH HIS BODY LANGUAGE . H E COULD BE A BIT CAUSTIC . P AUL WAS VERY PLEASANT AND COURTEOUS, AS WAS HIS STYLE . G EORGE WAS QUIET THEN . A ND P ETE, MY FRIEND TO THIS DAY, WAS SUBDUED BUT [WAS], AND IS TODAY, A KIND AND SENSITIVE PERSON . I THINK J OHN SET AN EXAMPLE FOR COURTESY ; J OHN WOULD DO ANYTHING TO MAKE YOU COMFORTABLE, AND HE DID IT WITH HUMOR AND A SMILE . H E ALMOST, AT TIMES—AND SOMETIMES WITH HIS HANDS AND HIS SMILE—CHEERED ON THE OTHER BANDS, ESPECIALLY B ILLY J. AND OUR BAND . I KNOW HE HAD HIS ISSUES IN THE TIME, BUT HE WAS A REAL MAN, KIND AND GIVING .
    â€œKind and giving.” Did his teachers know that John had the potential to be a giver as well as a taker?
    It is amazing in life, isn’t it, that the real potential of people is often overlooked in the standards set by the people who guide us through the early years. And remember the famous quote by a teacher, “This boy is bound to fail.” It’s an easy one to remember, isn’t it? How many fine teachers may have missed the potential of their students?
    As you look at the infancy and maturation in the life of John Lennon, you may think of a question: Was the teacher talking about a grade, a course, a test, or the triumphs and travails of a life itself?
    â€œGrading” John Lennon? Try it at your own risk, but know one certainty: whether it was the period when he was a “boy,” or his budding success and fame in 1963, John was closer to that complete man that Billy J. talks about—brooding, triumphant, confused, indignant, determined, soothing, unselfish, irresponsible, sensitive, and giving.
    From the boys at Strawberry Fields, to the kids chasing him at an early Quarrymen gig, to the invitation to Paul to join his band, and to his magnanimous gestures to fellow artists like Billy J. Kramer and Billy Kinsley, even during his own struggle to