#nurk twins

[underthecitysky]

From @mccartneyist on Twitter

[takeasadsongandanalyzeit]

In Spite of All the Danger

You've probably heard the song before, but in case you haven't:

Inspiration

Though the song is an original, it's very influenced by "Trying to Get You" made famous by Elvis:

the first recorded version was made by "The Eagles" (not those Eagles, a 1950s do-wop group)

As you can hear, the lyrics and the melody are both pretty similar. "Trying to Get You" even includes the lyric "in spite of all we went through."

Lyrics

In spite of all the danger In spite of all that may be I'll do anything for you, anything you want me to If you'll be true to me

In spite of all the heartache that you may cause me I'll do anything for you, anything you want me to If you'll be true to me

I'll look after you like I've never done before I'll keep all the others from knocking at your door

Didn't realize how short a song it was until seeing it laid out like that.

In The Lyrics Paul says:

The most important thing to know about In Spite Of All The Danger is that this is the only McCartney/Harrison writing credit on record.

and

George made up the solo, but some of it did come from John.

This song is also noteworthy for being the only Paul composition that John sings lead on. This could be because they were still thinking of John as the 'lead singer'.

Interpretations

We have found many different ways to break down this song. These are all the things we've considered:

Gay Theories

We're both of the opinion that Paul likely had a crush on John at the time this was written. He has mentioned spotting him around Liverpool before The Fete, and the way he describes early meetings sounds like attraction.

"I'd seen him a couple of times and thought, 'Wow, you know, he's an interesting looking guy,' And then I once also saw him in a queue for fish and chips and I said, 'Oh, that's that guy off the bus, I'm talking to myself, in my mind I thought, 'I saw that guy off the bus, oh he's pretty cool-looking. Yeah, you know, he's a cool guy. I knew nothing about him except that he looked pretty cool. He had long sideboards and greased back hair and everything… it was the Teddy Boy look. All of us were trying to do a bit of that at that point, so if you ever noticed someone who was trying to do it you thought, 'I'll probably get on well with him, But I didn't know anything about him. And I didn't know who he was except that I'd seen him on the bus and I'd seen him in the fish and chip shop." - Paul to Sean on the Lennon 80th Birthday podcast series

So the song could be about wanting a relationship with John, and being willing to brave the dangers of being in a same-sex relationship in 1950s Liverpool.

While it is likely Paul wrote it about John, we had a few other theories as well.

We discussed the possibility that Paul had a crush on George, and wrote the song about him, but we concluded that Paul thought of George as much younger than him, and this was unlikely. However, it's possible that Paul believed George had a crush on him and wrote the song from George's perspective.

Julia

Hunter Davies (in his book The Beatles Lyrics) speculates that the 'danger' in question could be loving "an older woman" (HM the Queen?). Jokes aside, could the older woman be Mary or Julia??

Both John and Paul wrote love songs about their dead mothers. However, given when the song was likely written, it's unlikely Paul was writing about Mary. That said, Julia was very much a fixture in their lives when the song was written. Paul mentioned things about Julia in a handful of stories that suggest an attraction. So did John. Ruth McCartney spoke about this once:

"The Nurk Twins, live without the aid of a net - ably backed up by their band The Oedipus Guilt Complex" - Ruth McCartney

but John didn't write this song so we can avoid that topic for a while.

And not going down the incestual romantic rabbit hole, it was not unusual for the Beatles to write songs that were apparently about romantic love, but actually about other relationships (we'll get to more examples of that later.) Mimi was obstructive about John spending time with Julia, so the danger could have been from Mimi. In this context the "I'll look after you" recalls Paul's later song "Teddy Boy".

We can't know for sure what the song is about because we don't know when the song was written. If the song was written at the Harrison household, which is what many have speculated, it's possible it was before John came into the picture. But most historians put the writing in 1958, the same year the song was recorded.

1958 Recording

The two songs (this and "That'll Be The Day") were recorded very close to Julia's death (two days prior) on the 12th of July 1958 at Percy Phillips' home studio. That may be why the Beatles never revisited the song, even when they were going back to their earliest compositions in early 1969.

Paul often tells the story of what happened to the shellac recording . To the point that you probably know this story by heart. But if not, or if you want to hear it again now that you have context, here's an example from the 2022 Got Back tour:

Phillips didn't give the disc to the Quarrymen straight away though, because they hadn't paid the full amount. This implies that they collected the disc after Julia had died, and it's possible that John never took his turn with the disc. Could this be the real reason Duff kept it so long? Each member of the band in turn being unwilling to approach John about the disc, maybe even concerned about what he might do to it?

And if John never had it, that means he never heard it after it was recorded. Which is just a little factoid that made us think.

Personnel

John Lennon – lead vocal, rhythm guitar Paul McCartney – backing vocal, rhythm guitar George Harrison – lead guitar, backing vocal John "Duff" Lowe – piano Colin Hanton – drums

[zilabee]

this is a little addendum to ‘the wild and windy night’ (pg - john & paul - 25000 words)

This is one of those snippets that was leftover at the end when I was writing and which didn’t really become a proper part of the fic, but which I kind of like anyway so it’s here.

.

Three months later...

"If we... it would have to be just us."

John is peeling potatoes.  He doesn't pretend not to know what Paul's talking about, he’d brought up the idea of recording again just yesterday, having seen the possibility becoming more real in Paul’s mind over the last few weeks.  He nods, keeping it casual.

"Do you think... Would George H do it, do you think?"

John wants to shake him.  "Of course he would."

"You think so?"

John knows for a fact that George Martin would do anything at all to help, would be glad to have a way to show how much he cares.  They all would, anyone from the old gang.  And if that something is as simple as producing a single for them he's going to get on the next bus.

"Yes, I think so," he says, like Paul is an idiot child.  "Geoff too, if you ask."  Paul fucking loved Geoff.  John never really saw the attraction himself.

"You'd play?  You don't mind it being us, together?"

"Rich and Geo would too, if you want.  Might not put their names on it, but they'd like to be there."

John can tell he doesn’t like the idea without even looking.

“Just us, and Lin.  The first time."

John shrugs, warm inside.  If Paul wants his poor man's effort on the drums, he can have it.  

"Who will we be?  Lennon and McCartney?" he asks.

"McCartney and Lennon, maybe."

John sneers. "It'll never catch on, you know.  How about the Two-tles?"

"The Turtles."

"The Tittle Tattles."

"The Tits."  

John snorts.  It's a better double meaning than Beatles ever was.  Triple meaning, really.

"You’d have to break it to Bri, not me."  

"Oh, really boys!" Paul says in a perfect take.  

They've started talking about Brian more than they used to.  John had never realised how much they'd avoided it before.  They'd avoided talking about a lot of things before.    

"The Nurk Twins?" Paul says, casually.

John can't quite control his face, he loves the easy affection when Paul talks about their past like that; loves knowing he never destroyed it, however hard he'd tried.  

He turns back to his potatoes, and shrugs like it would be okay.  If Paul wants.  

"It'd be nice," Paul says.  "Circular.  Be something to tell the press."

John nods again.  Like the press are going to need a hook to sell the first Lennon and McCartney release in five years.  

"S'all we are, really.  A couple of nurks," John says.

"All we ever were."

"We pretended not to be for a while.  Did okay."

"Fooled the world."

John smiles.  Yeah, they did. 

Never fooled each other, though.

x

[sule-skerry]

Can someone with artistic talent PLEASE photoshop a whole bunch of Beatles album covers so that the band name says The Nurk Twins.

[radioprune]

mickeymikey-davypeter, the nurk twins & george

ringo

[what-about-the-beatles]

"John and Paul formed the Nurk Twins through a mutual friendship and desired to become performers in the world of rock'n'roll. It has been said that had Lennon and McCartney never become close friends, had they just remained working associates, then they might never have written such great songs. Evidently as friends they are able to compose on a much better working basis. Their composing sessions are part of their friendship because they enjoy working together..."

[zilabee]

Quotes by Ruth McCartney:  (published in her mum’s book, My Long and Winding Road)

This completely unremarkable set of circumstances [Paul and John’s first meeting] would lead to an alliance, that although in-sanguineous, would ultimately disprove the old adage, “blood’s thicker than water”.  That may be, but shit’s thicker than blood.  And these guys went through their fair share of shit together.

-

“The motherless boys certainly managed to find an anschauung - a way into each other’s souls, bosoms and brains, a way for one to discern the true nature of the other.  Alike, yet different. Compatriots yet adversaries.”

-

“John and Paul were meant to meet, meant to create and one was designed to play sturm and drang to the other’s yin and yang.

One Romulus to the other’s Remus, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Nurk Twins, live without the aid of a net, ably backed up by their band The Oedipus Guilt Complex.”

-

Sturm und Drang, (German: “Storm and Stress”), German literary movement of the late 18th century that exalted nature, feeling, and human individualism and sought to overthrow the Enlightenment cult of Rationalism.

Yin and Yang,(”Dark Bright”) is a complex relational concept in Chinese culture that has developed over thousands of years. Briefly put, the meaning of yin and yang is that the universe is governed by a cosmic duality, sets of two opposing and complementing principles or cosmic energies that can be observed in nature.

Anschauung: the element in knowledge that is directly given in sense awareness, sense perception, or sense presentation : apprehension or immediate perception that involves fewest elements of rational insight.

(Say what you will about Ruth McCartney, but you couldn’t give John and Paul better names than ‘Storm Stress’ and ‘Dark Bright’.  Like if I was writing them into a fantasy novel, that’s straight up their sword names and tells you everything you need to know about them in an instant.)