Quotes From The Fab Four

I declare that the Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.

--Timothy Leary


When you get to the top, there is nowhere to go but down. But the Beatles could not get down.

--Philip Larkin


If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of the Beatles.

--Aaron Copland


We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.

--Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962


The guitar's all right, John, but you'll never make a living by it.

--Aunt Mimi


I'm dead am I? Why does nobody ever tell me anything?

--Paul


On a campaign in Detroit to stamp out the Beatles:

We're starting a campaign to stamp out Detroit.

--Paul


At the Royal Variety Show in London:

Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellry....

--John


In response to the uproar over the Beatles being awarded the M.B.E.:

We got ours for entertaining, not killing people. On the balance, I'd say we deserve ours more.

--John


In an interview with Maureen Cleave:

Christianity will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll, or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were think and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

--John


I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was a dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40.

--John


I think people who truly can live a life in music are telling the world, "You can have my love, you can have my smiles. Forget the bad parts, you don't need them. Just take the music, the goodness, because it's the very best, and it's the part I give most willingly.

--George


Reporter: Are you a mod or a rocker?
Ringo: I'm a mocker.


Reporter: Are you afraid military service might break up your careers?
John: No. There's no draft in England now. We're going to let you do our fighting for us.


Reporter: Aren't you tired of all the hocus-pocus? Wouldn't you rather sit on your fat wallets?
Paul: When we get tired we take fat vacations on our fat wallets.


Reporter: Can we look forward to any more Beatle movies?
John: Well, there'll be many more but I don't know whether you can look forward to them or not.


Reporter: Did you really use four letter words on the tourists in the Bahamas?
John: What we actually said was "Gosh".
Paul: We may have also said "Heavens!".
John: Couldn't have said that, Paul. More than four letters.


Reporter: Do you fight amongst yourselves?
John: Only in the mornings.


Reporter: Do you have any special message for Dutch youth?
John: Tell them to buy Beatle records.


Reporter: Do you like topless bathing suits?
Ringo: We've been wearing them for years.


Reporter: Do you plan to record any anti-war songs?
John: All our songs are anti-war.


Reporter: Do you speak french?
Paul: Non.


Reporter: Do you wear wigs?
John: If we do, they must be the only ones with real dandruff.


Reporter: Do you worry about smoking in public? Do you think it might set a bad example for your younger fans?
George: We don't set examples. We smoke because we've always smoked. Kids don't smoke because we do. They smoke because they want to. If we changed we'd be putting on an act.
Ringo (whispering): We even drink.


Reporter: Does all the adulation from teenage girls affect you?
John: When I feel my head start to swell, I look at Ringo and know perfectly well we're not supermen.


Reporter: Does it bother you that you can't hear what you sing during concerts?
John: No, we don't mind. We've got the records at home.


Reporter: Does your hair require any special attention?
John: Inattention is the main thing.


Reporter: Do you get much fan mail?
Ringo: We get 2,000 letters a day.
John: We answer every one of them personally.


Reporter: Girls rushed toward my car because it has press identfication, and they thought I met you. How do you explain this phenomenon?
John: You're lovely to look at.


Reporter: How do you feel about teenagers imitating you with Beatle wigs?
John: They're not imitating us because we don't wear Beatle wigs.


Reporter: How do you add up success?
All four: Money!
Reporter: What will you do when Beatlemania subsides?
John: Count the money.


Reporter: How does it feel to be putting on the whole world?
Ringo: We enjoy it.
Paul: We aren't really putting you on.
George: Just a bit of it.
John: How does it feel to be put on?


Reporter: How tall are you, Ringo?
Ringo: Two feet, nine inches.


Reporter: Is it true none of you can read or write music?
Paul: None of us can read or write music. The way we work is like, we just whistle. John will whistle at me and I'll whistle back at him.


Reporter: Is it true you can't sing?
John (pointing to George): Not me. Him.


Reporter: Is your wife expensive?
John: Quite, quite...
Paul: How much did she cost when you bought her?
John: Er, she was about fifty pounds in Nairobi.
George: But she was second hand, wasn't she?
Reporter: Was she second hand??
John: How dare you!


John: No more unscheduled public appearances. We've had enough. We're going to stay in our hotel except for concerts.
Reporter: Won't this make you feel like caged animals?
John: No. We feed ourselves.


Reporter: Paul, you look like my son.
Paul: You don't look a bit like my mother.


Reporter: Recently there has been an article published in Rolling Stone magazine stating that Day Tripper was about a prostitute, and Norwegian Wood was about a lesbian. What was your intent when writing these songs?
Paul: We were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians.


In the same interview about three minutes later:
Reporter: What was the inspiration behind Eleanor Rigby?
John: That one's about a couple o' queers!


Reporter: Ringo, how do you manage to find all those parties?
Ringo: I don't know. I just end up at them.
Paul: On tour we don't get out much. Ringo's always out though.
John: Ringo freelances.


Reporter: Ringo, what started your practice of wearing four rings at once?
Ringo: Six got to be too heavy.


Reporter: Do you think these haircuts have come to stay?
Ringo: Well, this one has. You know, it's stuck on good and proper now.


Reporter: What do you call that haircut of yours?
George: Arthur.


Reporter: Are you going to have a haircut while you're in America?
John: We had one yesterday.


Reporter: Will you sing something for us?
John: We need money first.


Reporter: What do you think your music does for these people?
Ringo: Well, it pleases them, I think. It must be, because they're buying it.
Reporter: Why does it excite them so much?
Paul: We don't know, really.
John: If we knew, we'd form another group and be managers.


Reporter: Hi, you're not married.
George: No, I'm George.


Reporter: Did you write "Ringo's Theme"?
George: No, did you? You haven't been reading the little bits of paper, have you, that says who writes "Ringo's Theme"?


Reporter: Ringo, why do you wear two rings on each hand?
Ringo: 'Cause I can't get them through my nose.


Reporter: Do you think it's wrong to set such a bad example to teenagers smoking the way you do?
Ringo: It's better than being alcoholics.


Reporter: What do you think of the American girls, opposed to the British girls?
George: They're the same, only they speak with an accent.


Reporter: What's the secret of your success?
John: We have a press agent.


Reporter: What do you do when you're cooped up in a hotel room between shows?
George: We ice skate.


Reporter: You and the snow came to Washington at the same time today. Which do you think will have the greater impact?
Ringo: The snow. We're going tomorrow.


Reporter: How many of you are bald, that you have to wear those wigs?
George: I'm bald.
Reporter: You're bald?
George: Yeah.
Paul: Don't tell anyone, please.
John: We're all bald. And deaf and dumb too.


Reporter: What would you do if the fans broke through the police barriers?
George: We'd die laughing.


Reporter: Why do you think you get more fan mail than the other Beatles?
Ringo: I don't know. I suppose it's because more people write to me.


Reporter: What did you think when the pilot got on the intercom, before you landed at Kennedy (possible engine problems)?
Ringo: Beatles, women, and children first!


Reporter: What do you think of the Playboy Club?
Paul: The Playboy and I are just good friends.


Reporter: Where's your home town, John?
John: Huddersfield.


Reporter: Some people have been calling your work "unAmerican". How do you respond to this?
John: Well, that's very observant of them.


Reporter: The French have not made up their minds about the Beatles. What do you think of them?
John: Oh, we like the Beatles. They're gear.


Reporter: Were you worried about the oversized roughnecks who tried to infiltrate the airport crowd on your arrival?
Ringo: That was us.


Reporter: What about the recent criticism of your lyrics?
Paul: If you start reading things into them you might as well start singing hymns.


Reporter: What are some of your favorite programs on American television?
Paul: News in Espanol from Miami. Popeye. Bullwinkle. All the cultural stuff.
John: I like American TV because you can get eighteen stations, but you can't get a good picture on any of them.


Reporter: What careers would you individually have chosen had you not become entertainers?
Paul: I dunno. Maybe something with art in it?
Ringo: A hairdresser.
George: I had a short go at being an electrician's apprentice. But I kept blowing things up, so I got dumped.
John: No comment.


Reporter: What do you think of the pamphlet calling you four communists?
Paul: Us, communists? Why, we can't be communists. We're the world's number one capitalists. Imagine us, communists!


Reporter: What do you look like with your hair back on your foreheads?
John: You just don't do that, mate. You feel naked if you do that, like you don't have any trousers on.


Reporter: What do you think of the criticism that you're not very good?
George: We're not.


Reporter: What do you think you've contributed to the musical field?
Ringo: Records.
George: A laugh and a smile.


Reporter: What excuse do you have for your collar-length hair?
John: Well, it just grows out yer head.


Reporter: What is the biggest threat to your careers, the atom bomb or dandruff?
Ringo: The atom bomb. We've already got dandruff.


Reporter: What is this about an annual illness, George?
George: I get cancer every year.


Reporter: What is your favorite food?
Ringo: I'm hung up on hamburgers.
George: All four of us are mad about hero sandwiches.
Paul: I have a yen for grilled cheese sandwiches.
John: George and I usually wait until someone else orders, then say "I'll have that, too".


Reporter: What will you do when the bubble bursts?
George: Take up ice hockey.
Paul: Play basketball.


Reporter: What would happen if you all switched to crewcuts?
John: It would probably be the end of the act.


Reporter: When are you starting your next movie?
Paul: In February.
George: We have no title for it yet.
Ringo: We have no story for it yet.
John: We have no actors for it yet.


Reporter: When you do a new song, how do you decide who sings the lead?
John: We just get together and whoever knows most of the words sings the lead.


Reporter: Where did you get your hair style?
Paul: From Napoleon. And Julius Caesar too. We cut it anytime we feel like it.
Ringo: We may do it now.


Reporter: Where did you think up the hairdos?
Paul: We got them from a German photographer who wore his hair this way.
George: It was while we were in Germany. I went swimming and when I came out I didn't have a comb. So my hair just dried. The others liked it the way it looked, and there we were.
John: We've told so many lies about it we've forgotten.


Reporter: Who in the world would the Beatles like to meet more than anyone else?
Ringo: The real Santa Claus.


Reporter: Who thought up the name Beatles?
Paul: I thought of it.
Reporter: Why?
Paul: Why not?


Reporter: Why are your speaking voices different from your singing voices?
George: We don't have a musical background.


Reporter: Would you ever accept a girl in your group if she could sing, play an instrument, and wear the Beatle haircut?
Ringo: How tall is she?


Reporter: Would you like to walk down the street without being recognized?
John: We used to do this with no money in our pockets. There's no point in it.


Reporter: Why don't you smile, George?
George: I'll hurt my lips.


Female Reporter: Why aren't you wearing a tie?
George: Why aren't you wearing a hat?


Reporter: I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're eating, but what do you think you'll be doing in five years time?
John: Still eating.


Reporter: Have you got a leading lady for your movie?
George: We're trying to get the Queen. She sells.
Reporter: When do you start rehearsing?
John: We don't.
Paul: Oh, yes we do.
John: We don't, Paul does.


Reporter: Who does your hair while you're in Paris?
Paul: Nobody does it when we're in London.
Reporter: But where did those hair-do's....
John: You mean hair-don'ts.
George: We were coming out of a swimming bath in Liverpool and liked the way it looked.


George: Ah, you've got an inferiority complex, you have.
Ringo: I know, that's why I play the drums. It's me active compensatory factor.


Man on train: Don't take that tone with me young man. I fought the war for your sort.
Ringo: I bet you're sorry you won.


Man On Train: I shall call the guard.
Paul: Ah, but what? They don't take kindly to insults you know.


Reporter: How did you find America?
John: Turned left at Greenland.


Reporter: What have you seen that you like about our country?
John: You.


I used to think, I can't be mad, because no one's put me away. Therefore, I must be a genius.

--John


As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead.

--George


John (at 8 years old): I've just seen God.
Aunt Mimi: Well, what was he doing?
John: Just sitting by the fire.
Aunt Mimi: Oh, I expect he was feeling a bit chilly.


A Short Poem By John:

John: Where are we going, fellas?
Chorus: To the top, Johnny, to the TOP!
John: And where is the top, fellas?
Chorus: To the toppermost of the poppermost!


Policeman: I see you have the same limousine that you came in last year. Money getting tight, then, boys?
John: Yeah, and you've got the same bloody uniform on that you wore last year. I recognize it.