Fact #166161
When:
Short story:
When The Beatles start work on what will become the double album, The Beatles, better known as The White Album, there is a new figure in the studio, John Lennon's new lover, Yoko Ono.
Full article:
Yoko Ono : Before we got together, I was invited to Abbey Road Studios by John. At the time I was going in, Lulu was going in or back out or something. I really thought that, 'Okay, she's part of the beautiful people of England', but they were friends who just went to them and said, 'Hi'. I didn't think it was like nobody was there.
At that point he would say, "Okay, let's go, are you ready?" Every moment we were together. If I go to the bathroom, he was upset that I closed the bathroom. Is anything going on in there that he should not know? [laughs] We were that close, always holding hands. So, he didn't have to explain, "You are coming to the studio."
If I'd said, "I'm not gonna go, I'm gonna stay," that would have been a scene.
George Martin (producer) : The disruption really came with the women.
When you have very close personal relationships between two men, and one of them goes off and gets a girl, and the other one goes off and gets another girl, and the two women don't particularly like each other … then there's a divergence.
I don't think Paul minded Yoko. Yoko's fine. Nothing wrong with Yoko, except that she was always there. When she wasn't well, she had a bed in the studio, and the other boys got fed up with that. I think that was the beginning of it. And, almost in self-defence, Paul got Linda. There you go.
Yoko Ono : I didn't think, "You are now in the world of British rock'n'roll," I didn't think that way. [pause] Well, I was trying to be polite, sitting there. You know, somebody else is making music, I'm a composer, I want to make to make my own music and I'm just sitting there. It's very hard for any composer to just be sitting there politely while these four people are trying to make... I mean, the public think, Okay so they were making music, there were many times - just like when you make films -when the engineer's trying to adjust something, we're waiting and music is not going on. Preparation time, everything. I mean, I'm just politely sitting there.
I was writing poetry and I had a little cassette tape and I was recording some ideas I had, and this and that. Later, John told me he was thinking, "Oh oh oh, what is she recording onto the tape?" I never thought they would look at it that way. I thought I'd better do this work like this, just noting things on a tape. Those tapes were stolen or something, I don't know where they are. I was thinking I should use this time, it's great that I have to be sitting somewhere, I'll use this time to do my work.
Up to then, I was doing a concert a month, even in London, so I was missing doing my own thing, of course. And I was saying [to John], "Do you think I could do concerts?" And he was saying, "How you gonna do this. Look, I can get you some musicians to do that," you know, like, "you're not gonna bring your ex-friends here. My friends, they're pretty good, you think they're just Liverpool and don't know anything, but they're pretty hip. They can really understand what you're doing and they can do it for you. It's a good band." And I'm thinking, Okay. [makes doubtful face]. But I didn't think they could do the kind of avant-garde thing that I was doing. So, that was my snobbery, John with his precious three friends who are doing pop songs? I said, "maybe even they don't want to do it, it's not their stuff." I realise Paul and John were hip to the avant-garde, Stockhausen and Cage all that, but I was just 'the girlfriend'.
But then I started thinking, "Why am I such a conservative mind?" I should use the suggestions that are arriving in front of me. If I say that you think, "Oh, she was going to use The Beatles situation," it's not that. I used to go to lectures and say, "You, you, you, come on the stage and I'll tell you exactly what you're gonna do." In other words, without rehearsal, I would have professors and students of that college come and help me with making music. I did that, so why am I objecting to this idea about the three guys? I thought, well that's because I think they think they're hot, so I don't want to know about that. I don't mind if it's a professor or students or something, it was the pride in me, you know.
(Source : not known)
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At that point he would say, "Okay, let's go, are you ready?" Every moment we were together. If I go to the bathroom, he was upset that I closed the bathroom. Is anything going on in there that he should not know? [laughs] We were that close, always holding hands. So, he didn't have to explain, "You are coming to the studio."
If I'd said, "I'm not gonna go, I'm gonna stay," that would have been a scene.
George Martin (producer) : The disruption really came with the women.
When you have very close personal relationships between two men, and one of them goes off and gets a girl, and the other one goes off and gets another girl, and the two women don't particularly like each other … then there's a divergence.
I don't think Paul minded Yoko. Yoko's fine. Nothing wrong with Yoko, except that she was always there. When she wasn't well, she had a bed in the studio, and the other boys got fed up with that. I think that was the beginning of it. And, almost in self-defence, Paul got Linda. There you go.
Yoko Ono : I didn't think, "You are now in the world of British rock'n'roll," I didn't think that way. [pause] Well, I was trying to be polite, sitting there. You know, somebody else is making music, I'm a composer, I want to make to make my own music and I'm just sitting there. It's very hard for any composer to just be sitting there politely while these four people are trying to make... I mean, the public think, Okay so they were making music, there were many times - just like when you make films -when the engineer's trying to adjust something, we're waiting and music is not going on. Preparation time, everything. I mean, I'm just politely sitting there.
I was writing poetry and I had a little cassette tape and I was recording some ideas I had, and this and that. Later, John told me he was thinking, "Oh oh oh, what is she recording onto the tape?" I never thought they would look at it that way. I thought I'd better do this work like this, just noting things on a tape. Those tapes were stolen or something, I don't know where they are. I was thinking I should use this time, it's great that I have to be sitting somewhere, I'll use this time to do my work.
Up to then, I was doing a concert a month, even in London, so I was missing doing my own thing, of course. And I was saying [to John], "Do you think I could do concerts?" And he was saying, "How you gonna do this. Look, I can get you some musicians to do that," you know, like, "you're not gonna bring your ex-friends here. My friends, they're pretty good, you think they're just Liverpool and don't know anything, but they're pretty hip. They can really understand what you're doing and they can do it for you. It's a good band." And I'm thinking, Okay. [makes doubtful face]. But I didn't think they could do the kind of avant-garde thing that I was doing. So, that was my snobbery, John with his precious three friends who are doing pop songs? I said, "maybe even they don't want to do it, it's not their stuff." I realise Paul and John were hip to the avant-garde, Stockhausen and Cage all that, but I was just 'the girlfriend'.
But then I started thinking, "Why am I such a conservative mind?" I should use the suggestions that are arriving in front of me. If I say that you think, "Oh, she was going to use The Beatles situation," it's not that. I used to go to lectures and say, "You, you, you, come on the stage and I'll tell you exactly what you're gonna do." In other words, without rehearsal, I would have professors and students of that college come and help me with making music. I did that, so why am I objecting to this idea about the three guys? I thought, well that's because I think they think they're hot, so I don't want to know about that. I don't mind if it's a professor or students or something, it was the pride in me, you know.
(Source : not known)