m1ssunderstanding - Tumblr blog

[m1ssunderstanding]

I'd be curious to hear your Ob-la-di Ob-la-da take lol

I claimed Ob-la-di Ob-la-da as a political song. No, I'm not kidding.

Obviously, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da isn't a protest song. It's a perky ska-style number about the happy, everyday life of an immigrant family. And it was released in 1968, when immigration had just become the most inflammatory topic in British politics.

In spring 1968, the UK government proposed a new Race Relations bill, making it illegal to refuse housing, employment, or public services to anyone on the grounds of race or national origin. It was a response to racism, particularly against recent immigrants, especially those from the Caribbean.

Cue a lot more racism, most notoriously from politician Enoch Powell, who gave what is still commonly referred to today as the "Rivers of blood" speech. Powell ranted about sending "the immigrant and immigrant-descended population" back to the countries they or their families had once come from. He was particularly freaked out by the idea that, having come to Britain, people would settle down and - horrors - have babies, eventually outnumbering the white population. Powell was sacked by his party the next day, but he sparked a horrible wave of racist protest and abuse.

All this was brewing over the summer, as The Beatles worked on the White Album, and on this song. What is Ob-la-di Ob-la-da about? It's an everyday love story. The ska style frames Desmond and Molly as Jamaican - which, in a British context, strongly suggests that they're immigrants. The song builds a happy ending out of exactly the things that racists like Powell were terrified that immigrants would do. They work, get married, and have children, who grow up and help with the family business. Life going on, happy ever after.

The Beatles were certainly aware of the tensions sparked by Powell, immigration and the Race Relations Act; they were still talking about it, and trying to write a protest song about it, in the Get Back sessions in January 1969. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da doesn't talk directly about any of that. Its subjects - work, home, children - are the sort of thing that 1970s rock journalists would put down as Paul's normie bourgeois sensibilities.

But normie is where most people live. The song presents Desmond and Molly as deeply relatable. It assumes that their happy ending is something everyone can root for and sing along with. That is not an apolitical act, particularly not in Britain in 1968.

And people did sing along, in their millions. Ob-la-di was staggeringly popular. The Beatles didn't release it as a single in the UK or the US (though it topped charts in Australia, Japan and Europe). There were multiple competing cover versions. One by the band Marmalade went to No 1 in Britain, and sold about a million copies. Paul's own favourite cover was by The Bedrocks, whose members were all first-generation immigrants from the Caribbean.

(Obviously, there are other questions here about race, music, and appropriation; The Beatles, and most of the artists doing cover versions, are white people singing black music. Hello, history of western popular music.)

As I said, this isn't a protest song. But it has been sung in protest. @beatleshistoryblog found this great footage from a Women's March in London in 1971. Just listen to the first seconds: la la la la life goes on.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Lol tbh I wonder if that guy might've been doing that on purpose as a jab to the folks there. Like, "oh yeah, you say you want a revolution but, well, you know..."

You would hope that was the case for his sake but no, be was definitely a Bernie fan and leaned farther left than the platform. He was talking about being at protests on Wall Street and how his only worry about a potential Sanders presidency was that there might be too much cooperation with Establishment Democrats etc. and then he's like "isn't this the perfect song? John Lennon was such a revolutionary mind." And played it on this megaphone he'd brought and I was just shaking my head. Then one of the campaign workers came and told him to turn it off lol and handed us bumper stickers and shit.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Just remembered, it always annoys me whenever I see people call Revolution "the most political song the Beatles had done" cos like. Does Piggies mean nothing to you.

[m1ssunderstanding]

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr during rehearsals for The Beatles' first appearance on Ready, Steady, Go, 4th October 1963. Part 1 (part 2, part 3, part 4)

With thanks to @i-am-the-oyster for bringing this video to my attention!

[m1ssunderstanding]

I’ve just read the excerpts from Peggy Lipton’s book about Paul and this description of meeting him made me lol

“"Well, move on. Next person," said a dis-embodied voice from hell. I went to the next person who was George Harrison or whomever. I couldn't have cared less.”

Peggy is a Paul girl, she dgaf about anything else. I feel this. 💁🏻‍♀️

Paul excerpt synopsis: Throughout she’s horny for him in a relatable teenage girl way. She pines for him and plans how to meet him for a year. Then she GETS him for a 2 nighter (or let’s just say twice) and is devastated that it’s just sex to him and not going to be love.

A year later, the Beatles are back in LA and they get high and sleep together again but she’s sad (again) that it’s just sex to him. Also John’s pattern of being horrible to women that Paul is sleeping with continues with Peggy. 👀

Then 2 years later he gives her a booty call when he’s in LA and she sneaks out of the house she’s living in with her boyfriend to make it over to Paul’s bungalow (bc she wanted “to feel his kisses and burn in the very hot, unpredictable cauldron of love” 👀) .. but the road manager won’t let her in because “he’s sleeping” (with Linda). She can’t let it go so talks up the road manager who tells her they’re going to go sailing in the morning and invites her so she SITS ON THE STEPS OUTSIDE for 4 hours (from 4am-8am) until Paul comes out with Linda and then they run away from her. She writes in lipstick on a mirror in the bungalow “you’ve made your choice!”

Another version to add to the version of events pile. Why have one reality when you can have six or seven??

And then! 18 years later (lol) Paul’s doing the girl is mine single with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones is producing and keeps asking her to come say hello, they (Paul and Linda) want to see her and she has full on breakdown, has to smoke a joint to be able to face him, thinks Quincy believes she’s not over him. She seems unsure, if she is.

Paul kisses her on the cheek and says “Oh hello Mrs Jones” and Linda says “it’s nice to see you again” and Peggy is panicking that she’s referencing seeing her standing there when they ran away from her. She’s overhwhelmed and cries her eyes out that night ..but she comes to like Linda and spends time with her and the kids ..and seems to have had some talks with her about Paul 👀.

Anyway, that’s it but it was a full meal. Thanks Peggy!

[m1ssunderstanding]

[m1ssunderstanding]

I'm so glad there are other people that like to draw connections between taylor swift and the beatles I love it sm

Me too! I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on it. If you like Taylor+Beatles, you should follow @a-queen-of-the-clouds if you aren't already.

I personally find Taylor so fascinating to compare with the Beatles because I think her writing style is more like John's for the most part but her personality is more like Paul's for the most part. A lot of her songs I'm like "oh this is like if Paul was capable of directly expressing his feelings".

[m1ssunderstanding]

Raincloudstories 👌Graphic designer

Rocky Raccoon 🦝 🎶 🦝 The Beatles

👋 Bel après-midi

[m1ssunderstanding]

I honestly didn’t expect him to find a way to mention John while answering a question about »Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey«, but he proved me wrong.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Hey has anyone noticed that the opening lines of Broad Street are

"I know. I know."

[m1ssunderstanding]

NEVER SEEN BEFORE PHOTOS OF JOHN LENNON AND RINGO STARR released by John Lennon Estate. At Capitol Studio, March 9, 1973.

[m1ssunderstanding]

my apologies for the terrible editing or whatever but Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney are the same people sometimes and I'm going to make that everyone's problem.

[m1ssunderstanding]

love it when he gets political

"how come the Scottish people haven't got that much money, and yet they make whisky? You'd think they'd be sorta kinda one of the richest nations going, but I understand they don't get all the money from it or something. And oil's another. But let's not get into that!"

[m1ssunderstanding]

Bug things. Insect material.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Corporal Punishment

There are numerous accounts of how Jim occasionally walloped his sons when provoked—Mike McCartney even claims they were “duly bashed”—but his sister-in-law maintains they are untrue. “Jim and Mary never smacked the boys,” she says. “They took them to their room and gave them a good talking-to, but they never hit them. Never.”

— In Bob Spitz’s The Beatles (2005).

-

‘I was once hitting Michael for doing something,’ says Jim. ‘Paul stood by shouting at Mike, “Tell him you didn’t do it and he’ll stop.” Mike admitted he had done it, whatever it was. But Paul was always able to get out of most things.’ ‘I was pretty sneaky,’ says Paul. ‘If I ever got bashed for being bad, I used to go into their bedroom when they were out and rip the lace curtains at the bottom, just a little bit, then I’d think, that’s got them.’

— In Hunter Davies’s The Beatles (1968).

-

I once saved Paul’s life, viewers (but we’re quits, he later saved mine)! He was ten at the time and I was about eight. One day we found a lime pit which had filled with rain and turned into a small pond. Some workmen had left a plank balanced across it and, needless to say, we had to walk across it. […] In the end we decided we’d both go together. That meant disaster. We were about halfway across when the plank began to sway dangerously and suddenly Paul lost his balance and fell in. The plank then wobbled so much that I fell in after him. We might have drowned - really! […] I remember digging my fingers into the soft, slippery earth and getting a grip on a big stone or something and then starting to haul myself out. But when I turned to see how Paul was doing, I saw that he had fallen back, spluttering and gasping, and his head was going under. I grabbed him by the collar and held on. He caught hold of my arm and clung to it. We stayed like that until a neighbour, hearing our cries, rescued us.  That night, by way of reward, Dad gave us the hiding of our lives. We went to bed crying and lay with our heads on the pillows sobbing bitterly. I was prepared to regard the hiding as just punishment. But not Paul. He dried his eyes and began to think out ways of getting revenge on Dad. Some of them sounded like ideas out of a Chinese torture book, only dafter. Finally, he said: “If I could, I’d take Dad up to 15,000 feet in a plane, dig a hole, fill it with water, and drop him in!”

— Mike McCartney, in ‘Portrait of Paul’ for Woman Magazine (21 August 1965).

-

I never much liked authority. I didn’t like school teachers or critics telling me what I should do. Or myself telling me. I’m alive – do it!

— Paul McCartney, interviewed by Nicci Gerrard for the Observer: The long and winding ode (11 March 2001).

-

PAUL: I always had ambitions to be something good. I didn’t know what it would be. You know, I was always quite ambitious but I wouldn’t buckle down at school like a lot of people. The teachers just didn’t help. We had some right perverts as teachers. PARKINSON: In what way? PAUL: Well they used to beat the shit out of you! There was this one guy with a plimsoll that he used to take it out on us with. You know, bend over, whop!

— Paul McCartney, on ITV’s Parkinson Show (17 December 2005).

-

HARTY: Did you ever get caned for being naughty? PAUL: I did occasionally, yes; I must admit, your honor. There were a couple of occasions. HARTY: And your mates were caned as well, sometimes? PAUL: Mates were caned, yes. We did— They used to cane us, “six of the best” kind of thing. But I remember this time George got caned — George Harrison, because we were mates at school — and I mean, we never really did anything wrong, but we might have like tight trousers and Ted hairdos. So that pointed you out as someone— “Here’s a troublemaker.” So George got done once, and the teacher missed him and got him here [mimics getting caned on the inner wrist]. So he had— a couple of big wheels came up here, you know those rash things. And he went home and he’s having his tea with his dad and they’re all chatting about how it went at school. His dad said, “What’s that?” He saw these things [on his inner wrist]. And George told him, “You know, the teacher did it.” So the next day they were in class and someone popped their head around the door of the class, “Hm, Mister—” whoever the teacher was that caned George, “come out here for a moment, please.” He came out, and it was George’s dad there! He said, “Did you do that to my son?”, across the— “Yes, I did.” [mimics Harry Harrison punching the teacher in the face] Oh! Right there! Honest, honest! HARTY: And what happened after that? PAUL: Oh, he was a hero! He was— he was just the school hero, George’s dad. That was it, you know. But I used to tell my dad, “I got caned, dad.” “Well, you probably did something wrong.” HARTY: No help from there at all. PAUL: “Dad, you know, dad, hit him!”

— Paul McCartney, on BBC’s Harty Show (23 November 1984).

-

Mike McCartney was once knocked unconscious by a master; when he told his dad […] Jim merely said, “Don’t be silly son, the masters are always right,” and went back to his crossword.

— In Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In (2013).

-

I nearly did very well at grammar school but I started to get interested in art instead of academic subjects. […] The words they used in their end-of-term reports: ‘If he would only buckle down…’ and you’d go, ‘No! No! Get out of my life! I hate you. You should say I’m great. I’ve got to take this home, you know.’

— Paul McCartney, in Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now (1997).

-

I don’t like criticism whatever. I don’t think I ever liked it when my Dad said, ‘I don’t like your trousers’.

— Paul McCartney, in Paul Gambaccini’s In His Own Words (1976).

-

And his dad was the whole thing. Just simple things: he wouldn’t go against his dad and wear drainpipe trousers. And his dad was always trying to get me out of the group behind me back, I found out later. He’d say to George: “Why don’t you get rid of John, he’s just a lot of trouble. Cut your hair nice and wear baggy trousers,” like I was the bad influence because I was the eldest, so I had all the gear first usually. So Paul was always like that. And I was always saying, “Face up to your dad, tell him to fuck off. He can’t hit you. You can kill him [laughs], he’s an old man.” I used to say, “Don’t take that shit off him.” Because I was always brought up by a woman, so maybe it was different. But I wouldn’t let the old man treat me like that. He treated Paul like a child all the time, cut his hair and telling him what to wear, at seventeen, eighteen. But Paul would always give in to his dad. His dad told him to get a job, he fucking dropped the group and started working on the fucking lorries, saying, “I need a steady career.” We couldn’t believe it. So I said to him—my Aunt Mimi reminded me of this the other night—he rang up and said he’d got this job and couldn’t come to the group. So I told him on the phone, “Either come or you’re out.” So he had to make a decision between me and his dad then, and in the end he chose me.

— John Lennon, interviewed by Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfeld (September 1971).

-

PAUL: But you know, it’s funny talking about this sort of parents— the thing was he did use to kind of hit me, occasionally. Like, that was what they did in those days. You’re not allowed to do it so much these days, but— […] You know, I was— [mutters] it was not all great. But I tell you what, what comes to mind — or just the memory — of the one moment when I was about, I don’t know, sixteen, seventeen or something. And he came in with the usual stuff. He’d just sort of slap me. We’re having an argument, he’d slap me. […] So, I just stood there — and it was like an amazing moment in my life — I said, ‘Go ahead. Do it again.’ And he was like [makes descending sound]. And he never did it again. It was, ‘Go ahead’, you know. This was it. [laughs] The record companies would sue him.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed by Howard Stern for the Stern Show (18 October 2001).

-

Children; Up to a certain age, I love all of them. After that, some of them get wrecked, mainly by parents.

— Paul McCartney for Melody Maker: Pop Think-In (1 January 1966).

-

I told you for instance that I didn’t like dogs and cats, until I got a dog and a cat and love them for what they are, just ’cause they’re dogs and cats. I’m quite willing to accept that dogs and cats are dogs and cats. And I still find that there’s a vague little sort-of sadistic thing in me about dogs and cats and if I ever have to punish her [his dog Martha] I can do it quite easily. Which I hate.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed by Barry Miles for International Times: A conversation with Paul McCartney (November 1966).

-

LESLIE: And if my mother only knew! PAUL: [concerned] What would she do? LESLIE: It’s not— I— [unintelligible] No, we’re not supposed to be allowed to— PAUL: [unintelligible] about civil liberties. LESLIE: Oh, that’s interesting. PAUL: Yeah, right? It’s great! LESLIE: In England or in America? PAUL: Well, all over the place, eventually. We’ll get some liberty, you know. [unintelligible] And it’s just about all the kind of things that people clamp down on young people for when they don’t actually know what’s going on! So I’m just trying to give the point of view of the people that, you know, don’t really want to be spanked anymore, thank you, daddy! Just sort of tell us why you don’t want us to do it. Explain it clearly, and maybe we won’t do it. But if you keep spanking us, we’re gonna be naughty. You know, and try to explain that one away.

— Paul McCartney speaks with Leslie Samuels and Donna Stark, two young fans who visited him at his home in 7 Cavendish Avenue (July 1967).

-

[Just a hazy collection of quotes on Paul and corporal punishment. There were some that I wanted to include but just couldn’t locate; for example, Paul talking about how he wouldn’t hit his own kids.

It’s interesting to contrast the two brothers’ response to the same punishment. Mike seems to have no problem talking about it — and in quite explicit terms — from as early as 1965. Paul, on the other hand, would only go deeper into it until almost 50 years after the fact. Mike also recounts how he was ready to accept the punishment, while Paul resented it so much he needed to exact some kind of revenge on his parents, realized or imagined.

I feel like Paul was especially sensitive about this type of punishment for how profoundly unfair it felt. Regardless of what he had done (or what was considered normal for the times), I think Paul always found it unacceptable to be treated in such a way. So he couldn’t make peace with it as easily as his brother. This in turn influenced and was influenced by his general relationship with authority.

I feel it also somehow connects with Paul’s preoccupations with making it clear that John never hit him — as was represented in the movie Nowhere Boy — which he felt the need to state again in The Lyrics.

Essentially, I feel that for a person like Paul — who values control over his own person/personal freedom so much — having his bodily integrity and autonomy violated in such a way was/is a big deal, which shaped how he dealt with other figures of power. (Insert here a whole essay on Paul’s borderline-traumatized reaction to Allen Klein and his forceful advances, and how he argues John took Klein on because he wanted a “daddy”.)]

[m1ssunderstanding]

nothing makes me go "ooooh we are NOT the same" quite like reading some post about how people talk with their parents about their interests. what do you mean you told your father about stevebucky. what do you mean he asked further questions

[m1ssunderstanding]

:)