(A @wingsoverlagos footnote find)
At this point I’m tempted to say that the vast majority of the changes Lewisohn feels entitled to make are not nefarious or even particularly interesting. But what almost all of them seem to have in common is that Lewisohn has something he wants to be said for the narrative, and apparently feels licensed to alter anyone’s words in whatever way is most convenient for his story.
Here Lewisohn has added an inexplicable coke (that no one minded), a few requests, a drink after a set, and most importantly, “a rapport with the audience that we never got again.” He has subtracted a fused amp and a Sunblest bread commercial song.
Chapter 20/Footnote 18 – Interview by Chris Charlesworth for Melody Maker, November 20, 1971
TUNE IN – LEWISOHN
“My best playing days were at the Cavern, lunchtime sessions, where we’d just go on stage with a cheese roll and a Coke and a ciggie, and a few requests. And you just sing them in between eating your cheese roll, and no one minded, and afterward you went and had a drink. That was great. We really got something going in that place, in the Cavern, we really got a rapport with an audience that we never got again.”
MELODY MAKER – SOURCE
“My best playing days were at the Cavern lunchtime sessions. We’d go on stage with a cheese roll and a cigarette and we felt we had really something going. The amps used to fuse and we’d stop and sing a Sunblest bread commercial while they were repaired.”
It’s always hard to know how deeply to go in critiquing these Lewisohn rewrites. He shouldn’t change any of the words and should use ellipses to show missing words, but when things are this egregious the changes of “cigarette” to “ciggie” and “had something” to “got something” begin to seem extraneous.
I want to be clear, they’re really not. Quotes need to be exact to be reliable, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, with Lewisohn we must stick to the violent felonies.
“we really got a rapport with an audience that we never got again.”
A Lewisohn invented mini-thesis statement passed off as a Paul McCartney quote in Chapter 20 of “Tune In”
While perhaps not a murder, this rewrite is still a felony and shows many of the hallmarks of both Lewisohn’s worst as well as his more seemingly-innocuous butcheries. Specifically, they usually begin or end with a wholly invented line that Lewisohn uses as a thesis statement. And they all show an unbelievable disregard for truth and a license to insert and represent his own words as those of a historical figure that cannot fail to shock the conscience of a scholar.
While I was combing through individual sections and storylines, @wingsoverlagos on tumblr began going through the footnotes source by source—a way that proved much faster and that began to quickly reveal a problem that I had not realized the depth of—the complete fabrications. This was an early find of hers and I remember her reaction well. It was basically, “Why?? Why add a coke? Why change this?”
Sometimes checking Lewisohn footnotes you feel like you’re losing your mind. It’s impossible not to feel jarred by the changes, and perhaps more by the ones like this that seem so unnecessary. It’s easier to face the alterations that minimize John’s bad behavior or make Paul look bad than the ones that seem frivolous, because at least the ones that can be attributed to bias are somewhat understandable. Just observing someone flippantly changing quotes to suit himself, again and again, is unsettling in a way that defies explanation.
Exact Words 
In “McCartney Legacy”, there is the story of a Wings Wild Life listening party on November 10, 1971 (p. 319-321). Several reporters are invited. The book cites BOTH the Melody Maker and Sounds interviews AND a tape by Charlesworth. So it is one interview told to multiple reporters edited into different periodicals, and Mark definitely cited the tape because he wanted to write exactly what McCartney said.
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Above, you write that Mark fabricated a line. This is a lie. Here are quotes from the website you listed.
Melody Maker November 20, 1971: “My best playing days were at the Cavern lunchtime sessions. We’d go on stage with a cheese roll and a cigarette and we felt we had really something going. The amps used to fuse and we’d stop and sing a Sunblest bread commercial while they were repaired.“
Sounds November 20, 1971: “My best playing days were at the Cavern, lunchtime sessions, when you’d just go on stage with a cheese roll and a coke and a ciggie, and people would give you a few requests, and you’d sing them in between eating your cheese roll. That was great to me, I think we got something great going in those days – we really got a rapport there, which we never got again with an audience. And if an amp blew up or something, it didn’t matter, because we’d just pick up an acoustic and sing the Sunblest commercial or something – and they’d all join in.“
Now, look at this:
Melody Maker: “I like his ‘Imagine’ album, but I didn’t like the others. ‘Imagine’ is what John is really like, but there was too much political stuff on the other albums. You know, I only really listen to them to see if there is something I can pinch,” he laughs.
Sounds: “I liked ‘Imagine’, I didn’t like the others much. But really, there’s so much political shit on at the moment that I tend to play them through once to see if there’s anything I can pinch.”
And this:
Melody maker: “I think it’s silly. So what if I live with straights? I like straights. I have straight babies. It doesn’t affect him. He says the only thing I did was ‘Yesterday’ and he knows that’s wrong. I used to sit down there and play and John would watch me from up here and he’d really dig some of the stuff I played to him. He can’t say all I did was ‘Yesterday’ because he knows and I know it’s not true.”
Sounds: “I think it’s silly. If he was going to do me he could have done me, but he didn’t. That didn’t phase me one bit. ‘You live with straights’. Yeah, so what? Half the f-king world’s straight; I don`t wanna be surrounded by hobnailed boots. I quite like some straight people, I’ve got straight babies. ‘The only thing you did was Yesterday’. That doesn’t bother me. Even if that was the only thing I did, that’s not bad, that’ll do me. But it isn’t, and he bloody knows it isn’t because he’s sat in this very room and watched me do tapes, and he’s dug it.“
There are more similarities. So, what is happening here? Did Paul give one interview to multiple reporters who then edited his words? Did he repeat himself in two separate interviews? Which one is accurate? Is this website accurate? Does Lewisohn have access to tapes or notes we don’t have? Does this plant any seeds of doubt in your mind? And the biggest question is: Why am I doing the research you should have done before writing this?
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The “coke and a ciggie” etc., is from a November 20, 1971 Sounds interview by Steve Peacock. This was an incorrect citation by Mark, not a fabrication. https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/interview/interview-for-sounds/
Please take this down.
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