Interview for Disc And Music Echo

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Just to put the records straight – the BEATLES are SANE… it’s official!

Interviews John, Paul, and McCartney Junior – Mike McGear. Meditation and fans..eating meat the cranks . John and Paul talking to Ray Coleman

It was a remarkable sight, that Thursday lunchtime in London’s Soho. John Lennon and Paul McCartney walked along two streets. They walked slowly. And they were not attacked. They were not pounced upon by autograph hunters, nor did a policeman creep up and warn them that they should disappear for their own safety’s sake.

John and Paul wandered free. They peered into a shop window. John spotted a calendar which featured thinly-dressed girls. He and Paul chortled.

”Bet you daren’t go in and buy it,” said Lennon. “Okay,” said Paul. He went in alone. A minute later, he rejoined us, waving a large, brown envelope. “Discretion always,” he said. “As you can see, I asked them to give it to me under plain wrapper…“

Freedom to amble and lark about like that has not always been possible for the Beatles. For five years they have been prisoners of fame. Yet that day’s anonymity shouldn’t lull us into thinking that the Beatles’ personal magnetism has lost its strength, glamour or magic.

It means that instead of locking themselves away from the world they can now mingle and be accepted as part of the world’s sights. It is a warming thought. We went to lunch at the Trattoria Terraza — “Oh yes,” said Paul. The swinging Beatles HAVE to eat at the in-place! – and McCartney and Lennon talked about Beatlemania, transcendental meditation. songwriting, politicians, “Hello, Goodbye,” touring, growing older, their responsibility to fans — and more.

Paul spoke enthusiastically about their freedom to move around more easily.

“We never did really like being surrounded by a big team of bodyguards and all that, although it was necessary at times. Now, it’s much more like the old Cavern days — it’s lovely to be able to be friends with fans. If people come and stand at the end of my road, I try to go and talk to them, and the relationship is so normal. They get autographs, if they want them, and I enjoy finding out what they’ve got to say. It’s great. This ‘pop-glamour’ bit — nobody is really like that. People who behave as great big stars are kidding themselves and nobody else.

The thing is, we never believed in Beatlemania. If you’re the Beatles who people everywhere taIk about and write about, you’ve got to be a Beatle for 24 hours a day. And you believe in it for the 24 hours. But we never really believed in it — never took the whole thing that seriously, I suppose. That way, we managed to stay sane.”

“That’s right,” said John. “The Beatles are sane.”

At the height of Beatlemania, then, during their tours, were John, Paul, George and Ringo oblivious to what was going on?

“Oh, we knew a bit of it,” said Paul, “but things moved so fast it was hard to take it all in. We didn’t have time to sit back and consider it. But we knew a lot was going on, and when we had a few months off we started thinking about it a bit more.

“It had gone round in a circle. Today, we’re still doing roughly what we were always doing, only now it’s in other directions. It’s like a zig-zag. And it doesn’t only apply to records. It applies to everything.”

“We think we’re only just starting,” said John. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re starting afresh every day. Who wants to rest on what’s gone? That was then. It’s history. It’s all happened and finished. We’ve got to prove ourselves all the time.”

Paul said they just didn’t want to go through life getting BeatIemania-type reaction.

“We’d like the recognition, of course, but without the scenes that go with it”

“It’s a groove,” said John, “having different kinds of fans now. People who are just interviewed in what we’re producing instead of just who we are.”

While Paul’s lunch was chicken, John ate pancakes. Three of the Beatles — John, Paul and George — lean towards vegetarianism. Ringo is a nonbeliever.

“I occasionally eat meat,” said Paul. “John and George feel more like vegetarians than me, but I’m a sympathiser.”

“It happened way before the Maharishi,” said Lennon. ”I just decided I didn’t fancy the idea of eating meat any more. I occasionally eat meat, but I believe in vegetarianism.”

“If you’ve ever opened an egg,” Paul said, “and seen a little chicken in there, you’ll know what the feeling behind this is. We’ve decided we don’t need meat. There’s no need at all to eat it — and a lot of people say it’s no good for you. I like bacon and eggs and things like that but at least I’m aware of doing without it.”

John: “One day, I just decided that was it. George had been talking about it, and it had been going through my mind, anyway, for a long time. I just started looking at this meat on my plate and I thought: ‘Why?’”

Paul: “Oh, let’s stop talking about it. People already think the Beatles are cranks who get hung up about things. The thing is we’ve got our beliefs, and we’re not saying anybody should follow us. ‘Cranky Beatles don’t eat meal but they meditate’ and all that.”

From here, it was a short conversational step to meditation. The waves of suspicion in certain circles have not killed the Beatles’ Interest in the methods of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and John replied forcefully to critics who said the whole idea was “irresponsible opting-out of society.“

“It’s not opting out — it’s opting IN!” he declared. “You don’t have to go to Wales and do it, or even cut yourself off from society or reality. And you don’t have to get so hung up about it that you go round in a trance. I can’t understand why people are so stubborn, and why they’re not open-minded. I do my meditation in the car on the way back home from work.“

Paul: “People who put these things down, like meditation, don’t listen lo anything. They have closed minds. They always advance some argument against it — and that’s easy to do. It’s so stupid, you see, because they’re not allowing anything fresh or different to get inside their heads. Even if it could possibly be right, or good. THEY’RE the cranks – trying to force the issue. We’re not trying to force any issues or say we’re right, even. We’re just trying, white other people fight against a natural enthusiasm for something.”

John: “If the Maharishi was asking people to devote their lives to meditation, that would be different. But what possible harm can it do anyone to TRY for half-an-hour a day something that could be good?”

Paul: “We’re just trying to find out about things instead of putting them down as a lot of rubbish. Instead of doing what a lot of others do go naturally against things, all suspicious-like, we’re giving it the benefit of the doubt.

“Meditation might be a big ‘con.’ That doesn’t matter either. I don’t think it is a ‘con,’ but if it is, I want to find out why. I don’t believe the Maharishi is a ‘con.’

“I BELIEVE HE’S TELLING THE TRUTH.”

NEXT WEEK: Will the Beatles ever tour again? How do they see their responsibility to fans? What do the words in “Hello, Goodbye” mean? John and Paul answer these and other questions NEXT WEEK… and they talk, too, about growing older greatfully!

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