QUESTION: How do you compare movie work to concert tours or recording sessions?
JOHN: We don't.
QUESTION: Would you rather play the Hollywood Bowl again instead of Dodger Stadium?
GEORGE: We don't really mind.
QUESTION: Maybe we can start another controversy here. One of your countrymen said on his arrival in England that he thought American women were out of style for not wearing miniskirts and as they didn't wear them their legs were ugly. I'd like to ask you what you think of American women's legs.
RINGO: Well, if they don't wear miniskirts, how does he know that their legs are ugly?
QUESTION: Reguarding your album jacket which was banned here, whose idea was it and what was it supposed to mean?
JOHN: Ask the photographer who took it.
QUESTION: John, how did you decide to make How I Won the War?
JOHN: Because he [Richard Lester] asked me and I just said yes.
QUESTION: Do you consider that now, since you've been in the United States for almost a week, that this religious issue is answered once and for all?
JOHN: I hope so.
QUESTION: Would you clarify and repeat the answer you gave in Chicago?
JOHN: I can't repeat it because I don't know what I said.
QUESTION: Well, would you clarify the remarks that were attributed to you?
JOHN: You tell me what you think I meant and I'll tell you if I agree.
QUESTION: Some of the remarks attributed to you compared the relative popularity of the Beatles with Jesus Christ and intimated that the Beatles were more popular. This created such a furor in this country, as you are aware.
PAUL: Did you know that, John? You created a furor!
QUESTION: Now would you clarify the remark?
JOHN: I've clarified it about eight hundred times. I could have said TV or something. And that's just as clear as it can be. I used the Beatles because I know about them a bit more than TV. I could have said any number of things, but it wouldn't have gotten as much publicity.
QUESTION: Do you think the controversy has hurt your careers or helped?
GEORGE: It hasn't helped or hindered, I don't think. I think most sensible people took it for what it was. It was only the bigots that thought it was on their side. They thought, "Ha-ha, there's something to get them for." But when they read it they saw there was nothing wrong with it really. They thought by John saying we were more popular then Jesus that he must be arrogant.
QUESTION: John, what stimulates you in your work?
JOHN: Just anything, you know.
QUESTION: What is your favorite group in the U.S.?
JOHN: I've got a few. The Byrds, The Lovin' Spoonful, Mamas and Papas, I suppose.
PAUL: Beach Boys.
JOHN: The Miracles are on the other side of it.
QUESTION: I was wondering if you still have an arrangement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to pay your taxes to England? How much money have you grossed on your current U.S. tour?
GEORGE: Money's got nothing to do with us.
PAUL: Brian does that.
GEORGE: And we don't particularly care about it.
JOHN: They tell us what we get in the end, you know.
GEORGE: We pay tax, but we don't know how much we've made, because if we worried about that, we'd be nervous wrecks by now.
QUESTION: I'd like to direct this question to Messrs. Lennon and McCartney. A recent article in Time magazine put down pop music and referred to "Day Tripper" as being about a prostitute and "Norwegian Woood" as about a lesbian. I want to know what your intent was when you wrote about them and what your feeling is about Time's criticism of the music that is being written today?
GEORGE: We were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians, that's all.
QUESTION: Do you have any plans to work seperately in the future?
GEORGE: All together probably.
QUESTION: Mr. Lennon, aren't you doing a picture alone?
JOHN: Yeah, but that;s only in the holiday bit, in between Beatles.
QUESTION: I'd like to ask a question you've never been asked before.
JOHN: Go ahead, Fred.
QUESTION: What are you going to do when the bubble bursts?
JOHN: That's a personal "in" joke. He used to ask it at every press conference just to keep the party going.
QUESTION: Do you think we'll have another tour next year?
GEORGE: Could be, Fred, Brian does that.
QUESTION: In Hollywood tonight, you had to arrived in an armored truck, which was swarmed by adoring fans. Do you ever have an opportunity to walk out on the streets without being recognized? Can you walk into a theater to see a movie by yourself?
JOHN: If you go in when the lights are down.
PAUL: We can do that in England. It's easier than it is here because we know England.
RINGO: And it would be easier to do it if we weren't on tour. Because when we're on tour people know where we are and that's why we have a crowd.
QUESTION: Paul, many of the top artists in the pop field have said the Beatles have a major influence on their music. Are there any artists who have had an important influence on you?
PAUL: Oh yes, nearly everyone. We pinch as much from pther people as much as they pinch from us.
QUESTION: Ringo, do you carry wallet pictures of your baby with you?
RINGO: I don't carry photos of anything.
QUESTION: May I ask about the song "Eleanor Rigby"? What was the inspiration for that?
JOHN: Two queers.
QUESTION: John, did you ever meet Cass of the Mamas and the Papas?
JOHN: Yes and she's great. I'm seeing her tonight.
QUESTION: Have you ever tried Beatle doubles as decoys?
PAUL: No, we tried to get Brian Epstein to do it, but he wouldn't.
QUESTION: Ringo, how much did you contribute to "What Goes On"? And are you contributing to any other Lennon/McCartney compositions?
RINGO: About five words to "What Goes On." I haven't done a thing since.
QUESTION: I'd like to address this to John and Paul. You write a lot of stuff that other people steal from you as with Ella Fitzgerald and the Boston Pops. How do you feel about your pieces being changed around?
JOHN: It depnds how they do it.
PAUL: Once we've done a song and it's published anyone can do it. So whether we like it or not depends on if they've done it to our taste.
QUESTION: Then let's ask it this way; who do you think does it best?
RINGO: Us!
QUESTION: For those who have followed your career from the early days of Liverpool and Hamburg and the pride in you being awarded the MBE and the dismay over the unwarranteed adverse publicity of late, the question is: individually, what has been your most memorable occassions and what have been the most disappointing?
GEORGE: I think Manila was the most disappointing.
JOHN: And the most exciting is yet to come.
RINGO: Maybe the most disappointing.
QUESTION: Gentlemen, there was quite a ruckus when you went on the stock market with your stock. How is your stock doing?
JOHN: Fine, thank you.
RINGO: It went down, but it's coming up again.
GEORGE: It's gone down.
RINGO: It's the same as any other stock.
JOHN: It goes down every time the LPs drop out. They all think they're buying bits of records.
QUESTION: Leonard Berstein likes your music. How do you like Leonard Bernstein's?
PAUL: Very good. He's great.
JOHN: One of the greatest.
QUESTION: George, before you left England you made a statement that you were going to America to be beaten up by Americans. Do you mean to say you mean the American fan is more hostile than a Britain?
GEORGE: No, not at all. Actually, I said that when we were just back from Manila. They said, "What are you going to do next?" And I said, "We're going to rest up before we go get beaten up over there." Really, we just got shoved around. Jostled in cars ...
QUESTION: Has your image changed since 1963?
GEORGE: An image is how you see us, so you can only answer that.
JOHN: You're the only one that knows.
QUESTION: Oh, I want to get your opinion. Is it a little tarnished now or more realistic? I know I have my opinion.
JOHN: Everybody attacks our opinion.
PAUL: We can't tell you our image. Our image is what we read in the newspapers and that's the same thing you read. We know our real image which is nothing like our image. What I meant to say was ...
RINGO: Take two bricks ...
QUESTION: Who is the young man with the lengthy haircut to your right?
JOHN: That's good old Dave, isn't it? That's Dave Crosby from the Byrds. A mate of ours. Ahoy, maties.
PAUL: He's shy.
QUESTION: Do you ever plan to record in the United States and why haven't you yet?
PAUL: We tried actually, but it's a financial matter. We had a bit of trouble over that one. We tried, but it didn't come out.
RINGO: It's all a bit of politics and dice.
JOHN: No comment.
QUESTION: Mr. Lennon, is it true you're planning to give up music for a career in the field of comparative religion?
JOHN: No. Is that another joke going around?
QUESTION: I'm sure you've heard about the many Beatle burnings and Beatle bonfires. Do you think American girls are fickle?
RINGO: All girls are fickle.
JOHN: The photos we saw of them were of middle-aged DJs and twelve-year-old girls burning a pile of LP covers.
QUESTION: This question is directed to Paul and John. You have written quite a few numbers for Peter and Gordon and I understand they don't like it because they think it's your writing the songs that makes them popular. Do you plan to write any more songs for them?
PAUL: They don't mind it. They like it, but people come up and say, "Ah, we see, you're just getting in on the Lennon/McCartney bandwagon." That's why they did that one with our names not on it, "Woman." Because everyone thinks that's the reason they get hits. It's not true, really.
QUESTION: Gentlemen, what do you think would happen to you if you were to do an appearance without the armored truck and the police?
RINGO: We'd get in a lot easier.
JOHN: We wouldn't make it.
PAUL: It depends. Sometimes we could have made it much better without the armored truck. But today we wouldn't have.
QUESTION: Do you think you'd be phisically harmed?
PAUL: Oh yeah, probably.
JOHN: What do you think?
QUESTION: The New York Times Magazine of Sunday, July third carried an article by Maureen Cleave in which she quotes one of the Beatles, not by name, saying, "Show business is an extension of the Jewish religion." Would you mind amplifying that?
PAUL: Did she say that?
JOHN: I said that to her. No comment.
GEORGE: Ah, come on, John. Tell me what you meant.
JOHN: You can read into it what you like. It's just a little old statement. It's not very serious.
QUESTION: Paul, are you getting married? And if yes, to whom?
PAUL: Yes, but I don't know when. I've got no plans.
QUESTION: John, under what conditions did you write In His Own Write? Those sort of wild, kinky words, how did you piece them together?
JOHN: I don't know.
QUESTION: Do you have any more books coming out?
JOHN: Well, ah, yes and I can't answer that. It's just the way it happens.
PAUL: Any more books coming?
JOHN: I don't think, "Now how can I do this?"
PAUL: Just like an author.
QUESTION: I understand there's a suit pending against the Beatles by Peter Best who claims to be a former member of the group. Is that true?
JOHN: I think he's had a few, but we don't bother with those.
QUESTION: Are all your news conferences like this? I'm talking about all the reporters or would-be reporters or semi-reporters that show up. Are you besieged by these kind of people throughout your travel here in the United States?
JOHN: You can't always tell the would-bes from the real thing. So we never know.
QUESTION: Is it this way when you travel in Europe?
JOHN: Yes.
PAUL: But what's wrong with a crowd?
QUESTION: Nothing, I'm just wondering if you have this many reporters everywhere you go.
PAUL: No, not always.
GEORGE: Some of them are just onlookers.
QUESTION: "Tomorrow Never Comes" is the last cut on the second side of your latest LP, right?
GEORGE: "Tomorrow Never Knows."
QUESTION: Could you give me a vague idea of some of the tape manipulations you used when your voice drops into the track. Is that sung backwards, by any chance, and then recorded forwards?
GEORGE: It would be hard to do that, wouldn't it?
PAUL: It's recorded pretty straight. There's tape loops on it which are a bit different and the words are from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. so there.
GEORGE: There, really.