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 Holabird AdvocateProviding all the news we see fit to print since 2002!Saturday, December 29, 2012 Sun Makes Public Appearance
Whenever our Publisher wore socks without shoes, someone would comment, "Your toes must feel good, because they're out". Those of us here in Mitchell can say the same thing about the Sun. It has been a while since anyone in these parts has felt the warmth of the Sun, and all of us here at the Holabird Advocate are so grateful to see and feel the Sun once again!
Yoko Fires Back After 42 Years by Chris Willman
Was the Beatles’ breakup partly due to the fact that the semi-democratic band was on the verge of turning into “Paul McCartney and the Beatles”?
“John, in fact, was not the first one who wanted to leave the Beatles,” says Yoko Ono in a newly released interview. “Ringo one night with Maureen (Starkey, his first wife) came to John and me and said, well, he wanted to leave. And George was the next, and then John. Paul was the only one who was trying to hold the Beatles together. But then again, the other three felt that Paul was going to hold the Beatles together as "his" band. They were getting to be like Paul's band, which they didn't like.”If John Lennon’s widow sounds a little less conciliatory and political about this than she has lately, that’s because this is the still slightly bristling Yoko Ono of 1987, who has come to us in a time machine to offer some thoughts less filtered by the passage of time. Her lengthy take on the breakup is a big chunk of a previously unpublished conversation with record industry mogul Joe Smith. At one point in the chat, Smith says that he and a lot of people in the music industry had been rooting in the 1970s against the Beatles getting back together, lest they come back with substandard material and tarnish their brilliant ‘60s legacy. Ono agrees and, after flatly declaring “I did not break up the Beatles,” adds: “You can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to blame me for breaking the Beatles up, you should be thankful that I made them into myth rather than a crumbling group.” She also maintains that the resentment Ringo Starr and especially George Harrison may have felt about being second-class citizens in the supposed democracy may have fed into the breakup. “In the early days Paul and John wrote the songs. Rather, John and Paul,” she said, correcting the order with a chuckle. “George didn’t write much, and Ringo especially didn’t write at all. When George started to write a lot of songs in the end, it was like, who’s gonna get the space? John was really trying to protect George and not ignore him and put (in) as many songs of George’s as possible. But frankly there wasn’t much space for that on one album, and they can’t keep on making double albums. So in a way all three of them were outgrowing the Beatles. I think Ringo was getting interested in film, and George was more interested in playing with Ravi Shankar. “That was very, very logical, because in the group George is still George and Ringo is Ringo, but when they go outside, George is the Beatle and Ringo is the Beatle and they’re treated differently,” Ono continued. “And in fact George did mention that ‘I feel more comfortable playing with those (other) guys because they understand me and this and that, and here I’m treated like the backing group for Paul.’ And that was the complaint that was expressed may times. “So in the beginning,” Ono went on, “when all four of them were more insecure, there was compromising and just uniting to make it. Then when they made it, of course, they blossomed and each one of them became the king. So it was very difficult to unite and do something together.” Ono sounds like she considers herself Lennon’s second wife—with the Beatles, not Cynthia Lennon, as the spouse she replaced. “For John it was like a divorce,” Ono is heard telling Smith. “I think he was feeling very good about it, as if a big weight was off him. At the same time, he was very proud of the group. He had an extremely high opinion about each one, which might be surprising. He used to say, ‘Well, they're very intelligent kids, you know. The fact that they come from Liverpool, you'd think they wouldn't understand these things; they do.’ That sort of attitude. He was always very protective of them in that sense. I don't really think he had voiced anything that he really missed about the Beatles, maybe because I was the other party that he got the divorce for. At the same time, that's a very bad thing I said, that he ‘got a divorce’ for marrying me. I fell into the trap right away about the whole ‘Does that mean you broke up the Beatles?’ Um—I didn't break up the Beatles. Each one of them were getting very independent.” Publisher's Notes by Jerry Hinkle
The year is coming swiftly to a close, so I feel I must take a little time to thank all of you for your support in bringing back the Holabird Advocate. These last two months have been busy, but I'm glad I took on the second job of Publisher of this Newsblog. As much as I love this job, I also love the job that pays the rent, which as it happens has given me double shifts tomorrow, Monday, and on Tuesday, which just happens to be our 11th anniversary. With God's help, I'll have something put together sometime on January 2! Of course, it world events demand it, I'll break in earlier if need be!
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