Lost Beatles tape airs on BBC radio
12 comments Jul. 1, 2008 01:38 PM
Associated Press
LONDON - A Beatles interview from the 1960s in which John Lennon and
Paul McCartney discussed the way they composed songs together was
broadcast on British radio Tuesday after it was found in a film can in
a damp garage in south London.
The Beatles were at the height of their immense popularity when the
tape was recorded at Scottish Television studios on April 30, 1964.
The band had recently toured America, winning huge audiences on the Ed
Sullivan show and shooting to the top of the charts on both sides of
the Atlantic.
The interview was only broadcast in Scotland and sat in a film
canister until it was discovered by film historian Richard Jeffs, who
was astonished to find the familiar Liverpudlian accents of the
Beatles on the tape. It was not immediately clear who owned the garage
or why the film was there.
The audio ****tion of the tape was found to be still usable for radio
broadcast, allowing the British Broadcasting Corp. to showcase its
interview 44 years after it was recorded.
On the nine-minute tape, Lennon describes the fateful day in rock-and-
roll history when he first encountered McCartney. Both were unknown
teenagers at the time.
"I was playing at a garden fete in the ... village where I lived just
outside Liverpool, playing with a group, and he came along and we
met," said Lennon, who was a member of a soon-to-be-forgotten skiffle
band at the time.
McCartney said they were introduced by a mutual friend called Ivan.
Lennon and McCartney became fast friends =97 once they found out they
had skills in common, and a shared taste for American stars like Fats
Domino and Little Richard =97 and they soon joined up with teenage
guitarist George Harrison to form the nucleus of what would become the
Beatles.
Drummer Ringo Starr would come much later, just before the group
started its string of unforgettable No. 1 hits.
On the tape, Lennon and McCartney =97 hailed by many as the finest
British songwriters of the 20th century =97 discussed the haphazard way
they composed together during the Beatles' early days, when they were
under intense pressure to generate hits while keeping up a bone-
cru****ng touring schedule.
McCartney said that the two usually worked on songs together but that
sometimes Lennon wrote songs completely on his own.
"Normally we sit down and try and bash one out," said McCartney. "But
then again, there's no formula, because he (Lennon) can come up with
one one day completely finished. We still say we both wrote it,
though."
The two principal songwriters, who would later have a falling-out as
the band was breaking up, sounded extremely relaxed and affectionate
with each other.
McCartney said they used whatever instrument was available when
composing.
"Well, you know, it depends," he said. "Sometimes we write them on old
pianos, anything that's lying around."
McCartney, who would later pen classics such as "Eleanor Rigby" and
"Let It Be," told the interviewers that he and Lennon started off
writing comical songs, including his first effort, the largely
forgotten, "I Lost My Little Girl."
While the Beatles eventually wearied of the pressures of live
performances, when they couldn't hear their own songs because of the
noise from the fans, McCartney said in 1964 that they adored the
attention they received from their screaming, fainting female fans.
"We love that," he said. "The atmosphere in the theaters. It's
marvelous."
The BBC posted a notice on its Web site indicating that the precious
tape, and a number of others found at the same time, are now being
kept in a temperature-controlled warehouse to protect them from the
ravages of time.
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