“If you say that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison or Ritchie Starkey said these words, they better damn well be words a Beatle said.”
A BEATLE DIDN’T SAY THAT! Lewisohn’s lab-created quotes
*REPOST OF THE ORIGINAL TROUBLE-STARTER.* “My personal standard is that If someone represents, ‘A Beatle said this,’ it better damn well be something a Beatle said.”
Jane Austen: Mockingbird
Austen took the skills of an expert impersonator and moved them to the written page.
We find ourselves at a crossroads: The Mark Lewisohn Disaster
“The only obligation we owe to history is to rewrite it.” —Oscar Wilde
A TENDENCY TO FABRICATE HISTORY
The reason all historical associations put so much emphasis on historians being transparent is that they fully comprehend the power of the inherent trust—“the implicit assumption of honesty”—that we are forced to place in a historian. We have to trust that a relator of history is representing sources honestly and transparently because if readers cannot take that on faith historians cease to have value. The discipline of relating history collapses if we cannot trust The Historian.
Virginia Woolf on Jane Austen
“…even if the pangs of outraged vanity, or the heat of moral wrath, urged us to improve away a world so full of spite, pettiness, and folly, the task is beyond our powers. … No touch of pettiness, no hint of spite, rouse us from our contemplation. Delight strangely mingles with our amusement. Beauty illumines these fools.”
DESIGNING LEWISOHN: Where was Paul when John needed him? Who could know?
Mrs. Harrison is saying that she sent George to get John out of his house so they could all play together “in their group.” Not, where was Paul? “It could be they didn’t see much of each other”—but could it? It could be that Paul went ice skating in Sweden, EXCEPT HE FUCKING DIDN’T. Why are you lying to me in legalese in a Beatles biography?
The Evolving Story of Kim Bennett, Pt. 1: Before Lewisohn
Part I of Sharon’s deep investigation into the star witness of Tune In, and Mark Lewisohn’s seeming determination to pretend Kim Bennett’s previous stories away.
Explaining what I’ve uncovered in Jane Austen’s “Emma”
❧ Between Chapter 1 and Chapter 32 there are a total of 4 exceptions to the Miss Bates Rule.
❧ How “Miss Bates”—the device—commonly works.
❧ Finding Frank on those walks with Mr. Dixon, Miss Campbell, and Jane.
❧ The piano scene is romantic?
If Frank Churchill believed Emma knew the truth…
He’d almost confessed, and suddenly Emma asks Jane to dinner. And then after talking about Jane’s walk to the post office Emma says how nice Frank’s handwriting is, and then she takes Jane’s arm to escort her into the dining room? That’s it, Emma must know.
Why was Ringo trying to sabotage Brian?? (Could it be because of Stu?) 🤔
“Inevitably, this wouldn’t be the only dispute to arise between Brian and a Beatle …but it is one of the few to be known, and its timing is telling. Brian devoted more than a page to it in his autobiography…”
One of the few to be known except the other two on the very next pages??
What did the Campbells know when they hoped a few months of Highbury air would ‘entirely cure’ Jane?
Wait, did Mr. Dixon and Miss Campbell fall in love at Weymouth, too? And was Frank on those walks with Jane, Miss Campbell and Mr. Dixon? Of course he was!
The Piano Scene: through Jane’s eyes
Which, no Frank did not just tell a beautiful woman that he would have “given worlds —all the worlds one ever has to give—” for anything, let alone another half hour to dance, because he wanted to get away from Miss Bates!
And Jane responds with maybe the most magical sentence of the novel, because it’s all right there.
“She played.”
The Miss Bates Traveling, Talking Circus: Chapter by chapter
It wasn’t until later—once the unmistakable pattern was clear—that I went, “OH MY GOD, THE LETTER! Of course! That little minx has been toying with us all along!”
Miss Bates is a circus. Miss Bates is a blind.
Like, I know Jane Austen didn’t literally say, “I will write a circus, and I will call her Miss Bates,” but I am going to pretend that she did, and you can’t stop me.
Austen’s Insidious Poisoners – Mr. Collins: the spider
Can anyone believe that he meant the nice things wrapped up in knives early in the book, but not the ones later in it? That his cruelty is a new affliction?
Jane, Jane! What’s in a name? Mrs. Elton’s most unpardonable sin.
What Mr. Knightley cannot fathom is that anyone—even Mrs. Elton—could address someone with the dignity and pride of Jane Fairfax like an inferior to her face. And by calling Miss Fairfax “Jane,” Mrs. Elton is indeed “continually insulting” her.
AKOM “Fine Tuning” Episode 6: A prolonged jealousy
Another really excellent episode that I will have to listen to at least two more times to fully ingest, despite having lots of diffuse, unconnected notes where I ranted about most of the same text. They really backed up and gave it context and meaning, including adding a lot of things that I didn’t have…
John in the Star Club Tapes: No Mr. Lewisohn, he is not charming
“John— we need to talk about John Lennon on this recording. These recordings. Because he’s uh— he’s- he’s- he’s belligerent. Um, he’s under the influence of— I’m sure he’s under the influence of Prellies. Probably drink, as well. Um, he’s beguiling, he’s rude. He’s still charming. He’s— I mean he’s not horrible. He’s just —yeah— he’s just edgy!” -Mark Lewisohn
The story of Paul McCartney and Martha the dog. Lots of pictures.
The huge tangled ball of wool named Martha was born June 16, 1966 and a few weeks later Paul picked his pup up at breeder Ann Arch’s High Wycombe home and took her back to his new house in St. John’s Wood.
“And you can tuck your pants in.” George and Paul and those groovy boots (with audio)
George sings “I Me Mine” to Paul after a beautiful Beatles bonding moment.
“You want boots of those?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got boots of them.”
“You know where you can get ’em?”
“Yeah, you get ’em off me… I’ll give you ’em. I never wear ’em.”
“You wanna hear a song I wrote?”
THE BEATLES “Get Back” Helper
Get Back… context
Ninety Years Ago Today My Father Was Born
Then turned on one toe, hopped off the huge wooden table and started off, head high, when I heard him slap the table hard with his big hand – the way everyone who knew him remembers he did in his constant, big-ness that encompassed all sight, movement, and certainly sound – and laughed his ass off.
Who told Lady Catherine??
Who sent Lady Catherine on her wild ride to Longbourn? I always say that Jane Austen never plants a question in our heads without giving us the answer, and she continues to prove me right.
“Is this,” thought Elizabeth, “meant for me?” – Rereading the Turning Point Conversation between Elizabeth Bennet and Colonel Fitzwilliam
Elizabeth’s blush when she says that distance isn’t a problem if money is no object. Even her feigned coolness when she tells Col Fitzwilliam that she’s surprised Darcy doesn’t marry for the convenience of a built-in travel buddy, all take on new shape.
Mrs Weston is pretty. Don’t add that into Frank’s lies (audio with rough transcript)
I’ve now read two people casting shade on what I will admit is Frank’s somewhat greasy way of saying “I didn’t expect to see a young pretty woman” about Mrs. Weston to Emma at first. But I get a little offended at that. I– She’s not that old, and I bet she is pretty. Like, are you telling me you don’t think Mrs. Weston’s pretty?
Emma: “she sends back the arrowroot” (audio with rough transcript)
“If Emma doesn’t know, then her flirting with Frank isn’t something to get that mad about, even with what she said to Miss Bates. Because by the time Emma starts, like, trying to be nice to her and invite her along in the carriage and just– I mean, she sends back the arrowroot. She sends it back. She’s sending a message. She could have just– she could have just been like, even– I mean, sending it back? It’s arrowroot.”
Emma: in on the secret
“But is it possible that you had no suspicion? — I mean of late. Early, I know, you had none.”
“I never had the smallest, I assure you.”
“That appears quite wonderful.”
Branch of the United States League of Gileadites. Adopted Jan. 15, 1851
“Whereas slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States, is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens upon another portion—the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment and hopeless servitude or absolute extermination—in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth…
“My dear Fanny”
Mary is all, “I’m so glad we’re going to be sisters!” and Fanny writes back, “Thank you for the honour of your note. Here is an icicle.’
Exact Words 