The Beatles - 1966 U. S. Tour (Press Conferences & Interviews)

which john lennon made to a london columnist more than three months ago has been quoted and represented entirely out of context lenin is deeply interested in religion and was at the time having serious talks with maureen cleave who was both a friend of the beatles and a representative for the london evening standard the talks were concerning religion uh what he said and meant was that he was astonished that in the last 50 years the church in england and therefore christ had suffered a decline in interest he did not mean to boast about the beatles fame he meant to point out the beatles effect appeared to be to him a more immediate one upon certainly the younger generation the article which was in depth was highly complementary to lennon as a person and was understood by him and myself to be exclusive to the evening standard it was not anticipated that it would be displayed out of context and in such a manner as it was in an american teenage magazine and in these circumstances john is deeply concerned and regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way whatsoever i've spoken to many of the promoters this morning and when i leave here i have a meeting with several of the promoters who are not anxious any of the concerts should be cancelled at all actually if any of the promoters were so concerned and it was their wish that a concert should be cancelled i wouldn't in fact stand in their way um as a matter of fact the memphis concert which is nearest to the um to the place where this broke out apparently sold more tickets yesterday than they have done up until that date john lennon open bar excuse me it was a long time ago i just didn't mean what everybody thinks i meant you know i'm not antichrist or anti-religion or anti-god it said we're more television is more popular than jesus i might have got away with it i pointed out that fact in reference to england that we meant more to kids than jesus did all religion at that time i wasn't knocking it or putting it down i was just saying it as a fact and it sort of it is true especially more for england than here you know i'm not saying that we're better or greater or comparing us with jesus christ as a person or god as a thing or whatever it is you know i just said what i said and it was wrong or was taken wrong and now it's all this so to raise flagging popularity i don't know you can think of stunts we don't do stunts i think we've done one in our lives that's been completely stunned but anyway that's what are you saying i am yes you know even though it's it's not i never meant what people think i meant by i'm still sorry i opened my mouth that the beatles are more popular than christ when i was talking about it was very close and intimate with this person that i know who happens to be a reporter and i was using expressions on things that i just read and derived from about christianity only i was saying it in the simplest form that i know which is the natural way i talk but more popular than jesus and so on so so but she took them and people that know me took them exactly as it was because they know that's how i talk you know can we talk about your music a little bit you've gone a long way from i want to hold your hand to uh eleanor rigby what and the rag what direction are you trying to move your music i think we're just trying to move it in a forward direction and this is the point you know this is why we're getting in all these messes with saying things because you know we're just trying to move forward and people seem to be trying to just sort of hold us back and not want us to say anything that's vaguely sort of you know inflammatory i mean we won't if really if people don't want that you know then we won't do it we sort of just do it privately but i think it's better for everyone if we're just honest about the whole thing how are you going to respond after tonight you're going to try and tell them explain yourselves every time somebody asks someone well i'll try to keep asking me you know i'll try it i'll go on and on try and say well get it straight you know because i just don't like to be sort of thought of as what i'm really not you know it's nothing nothing like me is the the sort of the thing they're putting around is nothing to do with me as a person yeah what am i do what was your reaction to what he said in the reaction to what he said what the context it was meant was the fact that christianity is declining and everybody knows about that and that was the fact that was going to be made did somebody did they come up and start physically threatening you yeah we've gotten there we got to the airport and our road managers had a lot of trouble trying to get the equipment in because the escalator's been turned off so we got there and we got uh put into the transit lounge and then we got pushed around from one corner of the lounge to another you know you treat like ordinary passengers he doesn't get kicked and so they started knocking over our road managers and things and everyone was falling all over they're slightly worrying you when the road manager got knocked over yeah and i swear there was 30 of them what do you say well i saw five in sort of outfits you know that were sort of doing the actual kicking and booing and shouting did you get kicked in no i was very delicate and moved every time he touched me would you go to manila again george i know i didn't even want to go that time no because we'd heard that it was a terrible place anyway and when we got there it was proved john what exactly happened at manila airport uh we got kicked and pushed about by some monkeys and uh were very frightened well how frightened were you george um terrified i'd say yeah it was you know it was very bad that there was about five sort of real big sort of funny looking fellas with guns and all the rest of the gear who did all the kicking yeah and you know they just had arranged you know it was so obvious they'd arranged to give us the worst time possible you know before we arrived at the airport so we just got hustled about and just you know personally i just kept dodging these people because they were the ones trying to cause them just about the five of them because the others weren't bothering did you in fact have to carry your own luggage and make your own way across the airport only our hand baggage you know our road managers take the big luggage they turn the escalator off on them and they have to carry them off the escalator all the answers are that's how intelligent they are how many how many people were involved in this demonstration well i thought there was 30. i've been telling everyone 30 and george says there was five like a little army to beat us off and there was about another 10 at the back of the crowd of ordinary people going boo boo and you look around as he was bullying they're just little kids that was smiling about 18 and all these sort of fellas in the back like this stuff oh was one of those places where you sort of knew they were waiting for a fight you know and they were pushing you and if you'd done anything they would have and i saw that yeah and apart from the philippines did you enjoy the trip yeah it was a great car one morning in fact japan's fantastic very nice and the delhi was great yeah great people in japan you know just nearly everybody knows don't even fly over and do you think they'll go well um i like mini skirts i think they're fine the thing is you know at the moment it's mini skirts but in victorian times people were ashamed to show their ankles you know it's just got a bit higher now may go even higher george yes do you have a cousin named maggie no you don't know i'm bored from brooklyn and i'd like to know what you think of the boys that followed you from the airport last night two years ago i traveled with you as a group and this time around you seem to be much more quiet much more restrained do you think you're getting older or exciting and send it back here right here we have a question i've got older [Music] there appear to be a much smaller number of fans outside the hotel in the uk concert tomorrow night at shea stadium is far below a sellout how do you feel about very rich not being not being quite as popular as you would it doesn't matter money well i don't know the thing is you know do you expect us just to go on forever you know making more and more money got making more and more different figures bigger and bigger you can't describe and if if certain people have decided they don't like the statement then you know we don't like us and really like us rather [Music] like that second house was wild you know we thought that would be the place that the children show any sort of real doubt about what was going on the thing is it doesn't work matter though because the only thing that we've ever based our success arms uh compared with other other people who are doing the same thing and compared with other people who have recently done the same thing as we've done this tour has outsold their tours so you know i mean yeah we're unsuccessful you know i don't believe it yeah they're not the actual numbers of people um recepting or whatever the word is is bigger so i here who knows yeah oh brian knows you know we're playing to more people on this trip than we have on the last two so you know when you arrived at the airport and there were only nine girls waiting to meet you were you disappointed and do you think that's a reflection of a loss of popularity really disappointed three o'clock in the morning the expected million sorry do any of you have plans to record on your own we do at home we might in fact we haven't done i think well eleanor rigby was paul on his own and we were just drinking tea no the thing what i'm trying to get at is um do you have any plans like anything definite at all not for sing uh not for separate recording careers and that's what you mean uh well if it makes other people feel better it'll make me feel better well it's not over nothing now because it is something there weren't as many people upset as i was led to believe and not so seriously upset do you figure that this is one of the reasons you haven't been drawing as well nothing to do with it i don't think it's anything to do with it i don't think we're drawing any less than we expected whether this has started or not yes not really yeah well that that is the one of the most stupid versions of it is that i mean that's not a publicity stunt at all don't need that publicity not like that can i add to that that that uh article was originally published in england last march so it's nothing to do with the you know creator at the beatles press conference the questioning was friendly the young people here were fan club officials and school magazine reporters the only man to raise the religious issue was shouted down all the same the beatles had been worried about their memphis date in their dressing room i talked to them about it what difference has all this round made to this tour do you think any at all paul um i don't think it's made monster it's made it more hectic it's made all the press conferences mean a bit more people said to us you know last time we came all our answers were a bit flippant and they said why isn't it this time the thing is the questions are a bit more serious this time it hasn't affected any of the bookings the bookings have been i mean the people coming to the concerts have been the same except for the first show in memphis which was a bit down you know but uh the disc jockey tommy charles who started this row off has said that he won't play your records until you've grown up a little how do you feel about that well i don't mind if he never plays them again you see this is the thing you know everyone seems to think and when they hear us say things like this that we're so childish you know i mean you can't say things like that unless you're a little child and if he was grown up he wouldn't have done the thing because he only did it for a stunt anyway so i mean who's he to say about growing up who is he who is this apart girl that it's great having a swinging tour do you feel that americans are out to get you that this is all developing into something of a witch hunt no we thought it might be that kind of thing i think a lot of people in england did because there's this thing about you know when america gets violent it gets very hung up on a thing it tends to have this sort of glucose clan thing around it it sees we've always been successful because you've been outspoken and direct and forthright and all this sort of thing does seem a bit hard to you that people are now knocking you for this very thing yes richard it seems hard it seems hard you know free speech but is it possible just to say what you think all the time what about 14 year old teenagers who think you're absolutely marvelous and can't bear to be hurt you see we're not when we say anything like that we don't say it as older people seem to think uh to be offensive that we mean it helpfully you know and if it's wrong what we say okay it's wrong and people can say you know you're wrong about that one but in many cases we believe it's right you know we're quite serious about it but do you mind being asked questions for example in america people keep asking a question about vietnam does this seem useful well i don't know you know if you can say that war is not good and a few people believe you then it may be good i don't know you can't say it too much though that's the trouble it seems a bit silly to be in america and for none of them to mention vietnam as if nothing was happening but why should they ask you about it you're successful because americans always ask showbiz people what they think about they're sort of the british you know showbiz you know how it is but i mean you've just gotta you can't just keep quiet about anything that's going on in the world unless you're a monk sorry monks i didn't mean it i meant actually it doesn't matter about people not liking our records or not liking the way they look or what we say you know they're entitled to not like us we're entitled not to have anything to do with them if we don't want to or not to regard them you know we've all got our rights you know harold my father hi what's your name suzanne and where are you from now tell me the truth are you really a beatles fan or you're here because it's the right thing to do i love the beatles i bet there's a group you like better now no i don't like any group better than the beatles honestly aren't the beatles on their way out i don't think so i think they're still strong tell me what do you feel when you hear the beatles singing oh i think i'm gonna drop dead what what thoughts run through your mind i wish i could have one of them to myself which one oh he's the one who wasn't married would you settle for one of the others yeah uh do you think you might do some screaming tonight i'm gonna lose my voice i know i am because i'm going to screech in christ aloud uh could you give us a sample [Music] [Applause] hello what's your name karen where are you from north belmont long island and uh were you at the beatles concert last year no i didn't have a chance to get there this is your first are you excited yes very tell me what do you think of when you see the beatles or hear them i go well i can't help myself i love them do you have a favorite yes john why i just love them honestly do you think the beatles are out of style never they'll never go out of style tell me the truth now which group do you like better than the beatles the beatles all the time i love them okay thank you all right now where's the boys [Music] you're pretty brave to be out here with all these girls well i'm just glad i'm not one of the beatles don't you think this whole beetle craze is sort of silly and strictly for girls no not really i think they're very talented musicians and talented songwriters an excellent showman you like them yeah how long do you think that can last as long as they keep playing they'll last i'm writing songs and making pictures okay thank you thank you alright hello what's your name fran where are you from france brooklyn coney island section tell me when you hear a beatles record what thoughts run through your mind beauty sheer beauty the sounds are so mellow and sweet and as his jaw and this ring on his jaws they're all singing they're my second favorite group really oh really what are your favorite the animals but they're breaking up i always love them but the beatles really stars me off and you know the beatles bring joy into the world the happiness we forget our kids when we hear beetle records they're fun tell me this how long do you think the beetle's gonna last well i wish they'd last forever they could bring happiest to everybody but they're pretty much on their way out aren't they i don't really think so look at this tell me they're on their way out and look at this a lot of empty seats here tonight well majority's phil look okay thanks brad most everybody's down here even if they don't belong here all right hi what's your name and where are you from sheryl campanelli new high park do you like the beatles i love them are you out here just because your friends came or because you really liked it because i really like them i love them have all their records yes what what sort of feeling do you get when you listen to them i don't know it's a great feeling you think you're going to scream much tonight yeah do you scream when you listen to the records at home sometimes uh what do you suppose one of your screams might sound like well it looks like the bloom is off the beatles last year not an empty seat in shea stadium this year thousands perhaps 15 or 20 000 empty seats in this arena that holds 56 000 which means that not every 15 year old in this area woke up this morning had breakfast put on a special outfit and came out to shea stadium but the thousands that did more than made up in enthusiasm for their lack of numbers standing milling around sporting signs placards buttons banners mostly just screaming what many consider to be that liverpool pain may be mainly on the wane but one thing is sure if the beatles reign is ending it is ending not with a whimper but with a roar this is leonard harris wcbs tv news at shea stadium [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] can i have a rotation of photographers please all you people [Music] oh and can we please have constant uh sound level on these microphones we're not getting it at the moment they're dying in between can you keep the the yeah that's it can you keep it all the mics constantly at this level please [Music] gentlemen everybody in front here let's start rotating now well somebody's given us an idea and he's working on the script and if the script's nice then we may do it one question we like in hollywood like to know how you compare movie working to say the concert tour or recording sessions you know mine will work and stuff like that we don't compare it much uh would you rather play the hollywood bowl again in dodger stadium we don't really mind maybe we can um start another controversy here one of your countrymen was here yesterday or the day before before he returned to england or on his arrival in england he said he thought uh american women were out of style for not wearing mini skirts and that they're because they didn't wear many skirts their legs were ugly uh i'd like to ask you what you think about american women's legs well if they don't wear mini skirts how does he know the legs are ugly you know on your uh album cover that was banned here first of all whose idea was it and second of all what was it supposed to mean from your standpoint what's he say can you say that again no the album cover that was banned here you know along with the dolls and the whose idea was it and the photographer took it and what was it i mean was there anything behind it john why did you decide to make how i won the war minus the other b um because he just asked me you know and i just said yes it was just like that do you uh consider that now uh since you've been in the united states here for almost a week that this religious issue has answered once and for all would you clarify and repeat uh the answer that you gave in chicago i can't repeat it again because i don't know what to say you know well would you clarify the remarks that were attributed to you you tell me what you think i meant and i'll tell you whether i agree or well some of the remarks attributed to you and some of the newspapers the press here uh said that uh concerning the remark that you made comparing the relative popularity of the beatles with jesus christ and that the beatles were more popular this created quite a controversy in a furore in this country as you are obviously aware you know that john you created now uh would you uh clarify the remark well i've clarified it about 800 times you know i could have said tv or something else you know and that's as clear as it can be i just use beetles because i know about them a bit more than tv i could have said any number of things wouldn't have got as much publicity though my question my question is directed at all of you do you think this uh this controversy has hurt your careers or has helped you professionally obviously you're quite aware of it it hasn't helped or hindered it i don't think i think most sensible people took it for what it was and it was only the um bigots that took it up and thought it was you know on their side they thought haha here's something to get them for but when they read it they saw that you know there was nothing wrong with it really it's just that they thought that bios saying uh by john saying that we were more popular than jesus they thought ah you know he's bound to be arrogant did you see the fella on telly last night he said it tonight sure i'd just like to simplify things a little by suggesting that the two gentlemen with the roving mic select the questions rather than me because they can move around faster so if you want to ask a question please draw the attention of one of the two roving microphone men uh my question concerns money here i was wondering if you still have an arrangement with the us internal revenue department to pay your taxes to england through them another part of uh the question is how much money have you grossed in your current us tour and is it true that you lost we don't know we don't know about that we don't do the money side of it you know brian does that and we don't particularly tell us what we get in the end [Music] the uh thing we pay tax on things but we don't know how much or how much we've made or anything you know because that if we were gonna worry about that we'd be nervous rex by now i'd like to direct this question to mrs lennon and uh mccartney in uh a recent article time magazine put down pop music and they referred to uh daytripper as being about a prostitute and norwegian wood about as being about a lesbian no i just wanted to know what what your intent was when you wrote it and what's what you're feeling is about the time magazine criticism of the music that is being written today we're just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians that's here do you have any plans [Music] do you have any plans we don't use it separately in the future can you repeat that question please will you be working separately in the future or together john lennon aren't you doing a picture alone yeah about me that's only in the holiday bit no i think in between beetle fred paul from ksk first of all i'd like to say hi to you all again it's really good to see you and i like to ask a question that you've never been asked before what are you going to do when the bubble bursts go to keep the party going do you think we'll have another tour again next year it could be fred could be brian does that thank you very much outside in hollywood tonight you had to arrive in an armored truck and the truck was swarmed by adoring fans what is the situation wherever you go do you ever have a uh an opportunity to walk out in the street without being recognized or can you walk into a theater to see a movie by yourself if you go when the lights are down we can do that in england it's easier in england than it is here and it's mainly because we know england better it would also be easier to do it if we were on tour you know because we're on tour people know where we are that's why we have a crowd many of the top artists and musicians in the pop field today i said the beatles have been a major influence in their music are there any other artists who have an important influence on you let me create oh yes nearly everyone you know we we pinch as much from other people as they pinch from us you know is it possible to raise the level on both of the roving microphones please the boy's a little deaf bingo ringo ringo you carry wild pictures of your baby with you oh no no why why not i don't carry cultures of anything you know you can remember yeah i may ask about the song eleanor rigby what was the motivation or inspiration for that too queers oh this is getting disgusting what john did you ever meet cast of the mamas and papa's yes since he's great as a knight he's good yes he's good uh have you ever trained or used beetle double as decoys no no no no we tried to get brian epstein to do he wouldn't do it uh ringo uh one question uh how much did you contribute to what goes on and are you contributing to any other lennon mccarthy competition i um about five words to what goes on and not i've done a thing since like the dresses to john and paul uh you write a lot of stuff that other people steal from you and also purchase from you and different arrangements uh ella fitzgerald and the a lot of these boston pots and stuff like that when you listen to this on the radio or records and stuff how do you feel about them using your pieces and changing them around to suit their styles it depends how they do it you know the thing is they don't steal it no i know that well that you just said they did well sometimes i mean you know once we've done a song and it's published anyone can do it so you know the whether we like it or not depends on whether they've done it to our taste you know then let's ask it this way who do you think does it the best the beatles songs both who oh [Music] for those of us that have followed your career from the early days of liverpool and hamburg and the pride in you've been awarded the mbe and the dismay of the unwarranted adverse publicity of late the question is individually what has been your most memorable occasions and what has been the most disappointing well i did you know there's so many i think manila was the most disappointing man yeah um the most exciting just to come a gentleman may be the most disappointed gentleman uh there was quite a laugh when you went uh on the stock market with your stock how was your stock doing well it went down but it's coming up again it's the same as any other stuff you know it goes down every time the lps drop out they all think they're buying it's a record [Applause] i love you bernie bernstein likes your music how do you like when it burns him very good he's you know great one of the great i'd like to direct his question to george harrison if i may what is george uh before you left england you made a statement that um uh you were going now to america to be beaten up by americans uh do you do you mean to say in so many words that you feel that the american fan is more a hostile fan no not at all or more enthusiastic actually i did i said that when we arrived back from manila they said what are you gonna do next and i said we're gonna rest up before we go and get beaten up over there merely beaten up is just really we just got sort of shoved around a bit jostled around in cars and playing so you know that's all it is well you think that's more an enthusiastic fan than a hostile fan would you say i think uh there's definitely more enthusiastic fans we have beat us up it's not the fans yeah the fan thing i think they proved it themselves you know after this we found out that there are a lot of fans who are great and all the ones we lost i think we don't really mind anyway because if they can't make up the minds who needs them thank you yeah i wanted to ask about the uh your image the image scrimmage and i'll direct this to anybody uh how has your image changed since uh 63 is it uh a little more is it the same an image is how you feel so you know you can only answer that you're the only one that knows who's that oh oh well no i want to get your opinion it's a little tarnish now is it more realistic or what would you say it is i know i have my opinion but i think thanks for our opinion we can't tell you our image you know we can only our image is what we read in the newspapers and that's the same as you read you know we know our real image which is nothing like our image i get it and what i meant to say was i like take two bricks who is the young man with the lengthy haircut to your right rear right it's good old days isn't it where is it ahoy mateys shy are you ever planning to record in the united states and why haven't you yet we tried uh actually but it was a financial matter a bit of trouble over that one no we tried but uh internal politics no comment mr lennon is it true you're planning to give up music for a career in the field of comparative religion is that another of the jokes going on i'm sure you've all heard of the many beetle burnings in beetle bonfires and i was wondering do you think american girls are fickle all girls are pickled well the posters we saw of them were sort of middle-aged djs and 12 year olds burning a pile of lp couples this question is directed to paul and john you have written uh quite a few numbers for peter and gordon and i understand they don't like it because they think that it's you writing the song that makes it popular do you plan to write any more songs for them they you know if we write songs for they ask us to write songs for them if we would do it i mean they don't mind it they like it but it's people come up and say ah we see you just getting in on the leonard mccartney bandwagon that's that's why um they did that one with with our names not on it woman because everyone sort of thinks that's the reason they get hits it's not true really a gentleman uh what do you think would happen to uh you four if uh you came to an appearance without the armored truck and without police we'd get into trouble we wouldn't make it we couldn't do it it depends you know sometimes we could have easily made it much better without the armature but today probably we wouldn't you think you'd be physically harmed oh [ __ ] probably what do you think yes i think so it could be the new york times magazine of sunday july 3 carried an article by marine cleave in which she quotes the beatles not by name as saying show business is an extension of the jewish religion would you mind himself i said that to her as well no comment come on john you can read into it what you like you know it's just a little old statement that's not very serious tonight paul are you getting married and if so no um they're probably getting married yes but i mean i don't know when i've got no plans and things want to make these the last three questions john i was wondering under what condition did you write in his own right that sort of wild uh those kicky words i mean how did you uh you know put the piece them together i don't know and do you have any more books coming oh well um yes and i can't answer that you know just the way it happened any more books coming i didn't think that how can i do this i understand there's a suit pending against the beatles by peter best who claims to be a former member of the beatles is that true was he once a farmer uh i think he's had a few but we don't bother with those if is this the last question are all of your news conferences like this no well uh yeah that's not the thing i'm talking about all of the uh all of the reporters uh or would be reporters or semi reporters that show up are you besieged by these kind of people throughout the tours that you travel here in the united states you can't always tell the would be from the real thing is it this way when you travel in europe yes but what's wrong with the what's wrong with the crowd nothing i'm just wondering if you have this many reporters everywhere you go not always some of them are just onlookers this is the last question thank you all right tomorrow never comes is the last cut on the second side right tomorrow never knows never knows thank you uh could you give me a vague idea of some of the tape manipulate manipulation you use when your voice drops into the track john is that sung backwards by any chance and then recorded forward no it's not film backwards it's just it's just uh recorded pretty straight you know there's nothing really uh there's tape loops on it which are a bit different and uh the words are from the tibetan book of the dead so there fairly nearly oh well right uh now can we do the presentation that we were going to do slightly earlier from the three president steak branding irons which are made specially for each of the beatles can we have all the photographers across the front okay um georgetown surely the presentation by capitol records is as i said earlier the effective finale for the press conference so far as everyone except the television crews are concerned may i ask for your cooperation now in clearing the room of everyone except the interviewers george this is for where the action is the dick clark probably the accident dick clark was going to be here in person today but unfortunately he wasn't able to attend so we'll just get a few questions and later dub my voices right over here to the left right first of all could you give us some ideas what you like to do in the spare time when you get any time what do you like to do uh just relax nothing more play music and relax and eat what what type of music do you prefer um sort of honky tonk and country and western and uh congo rhythms out of all the country and western american stars uh do you have a favorite uh yeah buddy holly he's pretty good what do you think of the number one country and western singer in this country buck owens oh yeah ringo likes him a lot yeah dick clark out of all the sections of the country you've been in uh do you have a favorite yeah i like uh california naturally because it's nice and sunny sunny and hot and swimming pool very nice what about the girls here in los angeles do you think that they're a little bit different or possibly from other sections of the country i haven't seen any girls in los angeles only at the distance [Music] if you had a night off tonight and had an opportunity to go anywhere you would like to go here in los angeles where do you think he would attend um i don't know i think i'd go to hollywood bowl [Music] out of all the american entertainers if you had a favorite who would you like to see tonight if it were possible at the hollywood bowl glen barry thank you very much that's fine is that the name of a group the world where the action is worthy like worthy of something the worthy actioners can i get just a few just certainly what time of day do you prefer to write your tunes what time of day yes it's certainly daytime anyway or nighttime certainly something like that just anytime really any time

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Length: 45min 58sec (2758 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 14 2021