<B>Were you there for the mixing of "Revolution 9"? And if so, what was that like?</B>
Yes, I was there for one session (think Victor Munoz shows two or three "Mix" Sessions from the EMI books) on a lovely summer's day, not down in the huge basement studio, but on the ground floor, in a tiny studio room with a reel-to-reel tape recorder (can't recall if it was a Nagra or what. Maybe a good ol' Ampex, yes, that's the ticket!) on the table, a standard portable record player within arm's reach... Yoko there, too. There was just room for me to slip into the session. John was making the loops. At the board, George Martin.
John put a glass milk bottle above and between the tape reels, and I honestly think he was having fun, lots of it, J&Y were working together, and they used pieces of tape Yoko had made while sitting off in the far corner while the boys worked. "You become naked," one of my faves that was included in the final glorious mix. I can also hear young Francie, shooshing some Beatle who wasn't quiet for the beginning of the takes on "Revolution" (Take Two). We must have been stoned that night. Paul walked over to me at some point and said close your eyes and open your mouth and he stuck a huge piece of hash into my mouth and said "Take a bite." I did - I ended up reading the palms of a dozen people in the restaurant that was below my apartment, after the chauffeur dropped P off at the gates of Cavendish Avenue. Groupies wrote interesting graffiti on the posts at either side. Anyway, Revolution #9 is one of my favorite John&Yoko things. But I also own and love "Two Virgins". Every couple of years I take it out and play it straight through. It's amazing for what it was...
<B>A burning question, since you were there: Did Paul use a metronome for "Blackbird", or did he merely record his foot tapping? Or was that beat something else?</B><SMILE>You got it, Rob. There were three mikes, one for his voice, one for the guitar, and one for the foot tapping on the parquet floor (he was wearing two tone leather shoes that night). Pretty cool. Got it in three or four live takes, too. The bird sound was the only afterthought.</SMILE>
<B>How did Chet Flippo allegedly "plagiarize" your accounts?</B>
In his book "Yesterday: An Unauthorized Biography of Paul McCartney" Flippo copied the McCartney chapter of "Body Count" almost word for word. Even worse, he made changes that suggested Paul hit me, or wanted to try hitting me as a sexual turn-on. He sold the stolen chapter to the tabloid STAR magazine. What goes around comes around, Chet!
<B>How did you and Paul recover from the "Juden Raus!" falling out?</B> [Paul hadallegedly asked Francie to leave the studio by saying "Juden Raus!" -- German for "Jews leave!"]
T'wasn't a falling out. I showed up in the control room. Paul was on his back doing bass tracks for some song or other (Helter Skelter would be my guess), it was a tea break so nobody else heard it - I was so saddened, I slunk out of there and went back to Cavendish Avenue and smoked a j. We never discussed it. I think he was ashamed of himself afterward.
<B>What would you say are a few misconceptions about Beatles songs that you might be able to clear up (if any)?</B>
I want to quote John Lennon, from a 1971 interview with CRAWDADDY magazine about who wrote what ("Hey Jude"), John said: "Paul - that's his best song. It started off as a song about my son, Julian, because Paul was going to see him. Then he turned it into 'Hey Jude.' I always thought it was about me and Yoko but he said it was about him and his."
"Hey Jude" was "our song", written and rewritten while I lived with Paul. I know it, he knows it, and now, you do.
