the-paper-apricot - Tumblr blog

[the-paper-apricot]

John Lennon Paper Doll (patterns)

We intended to print these patterns in the paper zine so that anyone who wanted to make their own John Lennon paper doll could photocopy them onto card, to cut them out and colour them in.

Instead here are the printables for you. They should ideally be printed onto A4 lightweight/medium weight card so that it can stand.

If you do take part and make your own John Lennon paper doll, please share a pic and tag us is, so we can reblog!

We're sharing these templates under the Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial, Non-derivative licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (this means you have permission to use the templates to make your own doll, but not for commercial purposes.)

[the-paper-apricot]

[the-paper-apricot]

Tagged by @crepesuzette2023 Thank you 🙂

Rules: answer and tag people you want to get to know better and/or catch up with!

Favourite colour: All colours except for neon/fluo. (My favourite palette is dark blue, mustard, and old rose.)

Last song: 'Winedark Open Sea' by Paul McCartney

Last movie: really can't remember, sorry.

Currently reading: An audiobook of The Glass Pearls by Emeric Pressburger

Currently watching: 30 Years of Arena (BBC documentary)

Currently craving: a happy future

Tea or coffee: Decaf Earl Grey, no milk, no sugar

I tag @whirlwindav if you'd like to take part. 💌

[the-paper-apricot]

John Lennon paper doll - Fur Coat

Our paper doll of John Lennon wearing a tab-on version of the fur coat he wore to the launch of Apple Tailoring in 1968.

[the-paper-apricot]

mtv week in rock      — august 25th, 1989

[the-paper-apricot]

Gratuitous arty photo of my drawing board today.

[the-paper-apricot]

A couple of details from my drawing, Winter in the Bedford. <3

[the-paper-apricot]

Press Conference 1991 [x]

[the-paper-apricot]

Sensitivity and understanding cost nothing imho. Most of us are fairly anonymous on here, but the high-profile people we post about don't have that luxury.

[the-paper-apricot]

[the-paper-apricot]

Venus and Mars are alright tonight 🖤

Paper doll of Paul McCartney wearing a tab-on version of his stage clothes: here it's the 'Venus and Mars' jacket with a black Wings T-shirt. 🟡 🔴

[the-paper-apricot]

This photograph of Paul always reminds me of the picture, Une Crise (1881) by the Belgian painter, Fernand Khnopff. The figure has been interpreted as Hamlet, or Werther, but is I think most convincingly seen as a self-portrait, of the artist in crisis.

[the-paper-apricot]

I think about miniaturized Paul a lot. I think he relapsed in 1982 and became mini again when they made the 'Ebony and Ivory' video.

"Get Eleanor Bron on the phone, love. It's happened again!"

Mini Paul in the ashtray is my favorite part of HELP! (surprise)

[the-paper-apricot]

Incidental Illustrations: George

These were made by @the-paper-apricot for the zine. Each is a stylised drawing made in three minutes, with charcoal and a wet brush.

[the-paper-apricot]

Yay, I pre-ordered my Wings One Hand Clapping set. 💖 👐

[the-paper-apricot]

Paul, Porter and "I love you"

The accepted explanation of the writing of the Wings hit 'Silly Love Songs', including that offered several times over the years by Paul McCartney himself, is that it was a riposte to criticism of his more sentimental love songs as light and insignificant.

I was getting slagged off for writing luv songs. You see, I’m looking at love not from the perspective of ‘boring old love’, I’m looking at it like when you get married and have a baby. That’s pretty strong: it’s something deeper.

Paul McCartney, from Club Sandwich N°47/48, Spring 1988 (cited here)

Although I've never seen this discussed anywhere, it's long seemed to me that there's another possible influence on the song. To my knowledge no one has ever asked Paul directly about this, so what follows remains just my headcanon. (If anyone knows something to the contrary, please let me know!)

Cole Porter, another preternaturally talented Gemini lefty.

While writing the songs destined for the musical Mexican Hayride (1944), Cole Porter was presented with a challenge by his close friend Monty Woolley. (Woolley was an American actor who you may remember in the delicious role of the Professor in the Christmassy classic film The Bishop's Wife.) Woolley reasoned that because Porter's songwriting mastery came in part from his unhackneyed, fresh lyrical ideas, he wouldn't be able to write a hit song with the simple, rather too obvious, repeated refrain of "I love you".

Monty Woolley with Cole Porter

It became a $25 wager, and Woolley also stipulated that his friend include reheated stale lines about spring and "birds on the wing". Porter duly wrote 'I Love You', which was the only standout in the show and in time topped the U.S. Hit Parade for several weeks, so he won his bet.

I would quite like to have been sort of a nineteen-twenties writer, 'cause I like that thing, you know. You know, up in top hat and tails and sort of coming on ... so, this kind of number, I like that thing. But, so this is just me doing it, and pretending I'm living in 1925.

Paul McCartney, talking about 'Honey Pie', interview with Radio Luxembourg, 1968

Melvyn Bragg: What's the longest you've ever worked over a song? 'Cause a lot of the lyrics, the more you read them, the more - and then they always read very straightforwardly and seamlessly, but when you read them again and again they're very complicated, and a lot of internal rhyming going on and a lot of extremely clever play. Does that - do you work on them quite hard? Do you go over them again and again? Paul: Well, you know I'm a fan of all that, the old-fashioned writing. You know, sort of Sammy Cahn's era, you know, Cole Porter, and I do like all that, when it comes off! I mean, I hate just silly rhymes, just, you know - but when it really comes off those are great little things in songwriting. So I was always aware of that from people like Cole Porter. So I'd always try and put something like that kinda thing in, sorta little internal rhymes, you were always going for that kinda thing. ... I can't explain it, you know, I've never been able to explain it, but it's like it comes in out of the blue. It sort of comes at you, you know, and - I'm sure the funnel that it's coming through's a lot to do with it, 'cause your little computer in here - my computer's sort of heard Billy Cotton Band Show going back there, you know and Cole Porter there, and this there and it's heard millions of influences through to Chuck Berry ...

from 'Paul McCartney: Songsmith' (The South Bank Show) January 1978

George Eells' book The Life That Late He Led: A Biography of Cole Porter was published in 1967 and remained the definitive life for about a decade. It mentions the 'I Love You' wager (p212), which became one of the better-known song origin anecdotes.

I have no idea if Paul McCartney knew this story. But I can imagine the professional challenge appealing to him, and perhaps especially tempting is the playful pairing of commercial reward with artistic defiance. 'Silly Love Songs', like 'I Love You' before it, was a big hit: Number 2 in the UK chart, and top of the Billboard chart in the States.

Did he dare himself to write a pop chorus that repeated the refrain "I love you", because Porter had done so? I dunno.* For what it's worth, I think the three melodic lines in the chorus of 'Silly Love Songs' exceed Porter's tune in both beauty and memorability.** (Although I do enjoy this sultry version recorded by Julie London.)

(*Just like I don't know if 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' found any precedent in Porter's celebrated and racy-for-its-day song, 'Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love'.)

(**But I mean, you'd expect me to say that, you know I've made paper dolls of him in his little Wings outfits tbf.)