A Study in Cleanliness
According to Brian Epstein, the first meeting between The Beatles and himself took place on December 3, 1961. It was scheduled for 4:30pm. Paul didn’t show up. Brian said, “I asked George to ring Paul and find out why he was late.”1 The rest of this story is pretty well known, but I find it interesting to pay attention to some of the specific wording. Brian went on to say, “George returned from the phone with a half-smile which annoyed me a little and said, ‘Paul’s just got up and he is having a bath.’ I said, ‘This is disgraceful, he’s very late,’ and George, with his slow, lop-sided smile said, ‘and very clean.’”1
That passage was published in Brian Epstein’s A Cellarful of Noise in 1964. It is important to note that though it is widely known that the book was actually written by Derek Taylor, the source of the information is still Brian. The next telling of the story that I could find came in 1968 in The Beatles: The Real Story by Julius Fast. There was no alternative source credited, yet the story changed in a couple of ways. First, it was Brian himself who phoned Paul. It goes on: “He scowled at the three Beatles who were watching him innocently. ‘It’s disgraceful. He’s going to be very late.’ ‘But he’ll also be very clean,’ George pointed out with a straight face.”2
Suddenly the situation was somewhat more tense. Brian is described as angry, and the description by Brian that George was kind of joking is completely lost. To me, it almost reads as if George is sincerely and innocently trying to convey that it is a good thing Paul will be clean.
Also, in 1968, Anthony Scaduto went back to Brian’s telling of the story. He uses basically the same quotes as from Brian’s book and maintains that George was smiling. He then went so far as to suggest that this interaction “set the tempo of their relationship. Epstein would put up with their eccentricities on the minor points but they would accept his lead on the major decisions…”3 Seems a bit of a stretch to me, but okay.
These two ways of telling the story went on for years, many books focusing on Brian’s anger while others focus on George’s sense of humor. Howard Sounes, in 2010, chose to take an opportunity for a back-handed compliment: “‘And very clean,’ quipped George, who though not academically bright possessed a lively wit.”4
But Why, Paul, Why?
As many times as the story was told, one element always seemed missing to me. Why did Paul do it? Was it just a prank? Did he not understand how important this meeting was? Was Brian the only one who thought the meeting was a big deal? Mark Lewisohn went into this a bit in 2013. He started with the basic story, and quotes Brian from an interview with Bill Grundy: “I shouted a bit and I thought ‘this is very disgraceful indeed!’…[George] just simply replied – it was very typical of them – ‘well, he may be late but he’s very clean.’” Lewisohn concluded: “Brian blew…but ended up being charmed and laughing, the usual Beatle mix.5
There is a suggestion, basically coming from John, that Paul’s attitude came from not wanting Brian to be their manager, that he “presented obstacles to destabilize him, to make his job difficult, like turning up late for meetings.”6 John said in 1975, “[Paul] wasn’t that keen [on Brian] – he’s more conservative, the way he approaches things. He even says that. It’s nothing he denies.”7 Indeed, Paul said in a 1990 interview with Mark Lewisohn and Ken Howlett:
“John said to me once, ‘Look, imagine you’re on a cliff-top and you’re thinking about diving off. Dive! Try it!’ I said, ‘Like bloody hell I’m going to dive. You dive and give us a shout and tell me how it is, and then if it’s great I’ll dive.’ John always had a strong instinct to do that, but it’s not my personality.”8
I want to get some of your input here. I know plenty of people who would say that this difference in the personalities of John and Paul was something that helped make them such a great team. But others say that these same differences were a major contributing factor to the ultimate break up of The Beatles. What do you think? Leave some comments!
As always, thanks for being here and reading. I really do appreciate it. Please leave comments to let me know what you think and to add any relevant information to the discussion. Please follow or subscribe to
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Next up: Allan Williams Visits Hamburg. Looking forward to that.
- Adamson
Photo: The house that contained the bath, by Andrew Martin Adamson, 27th June 2017.
Quotes:
1) A Cellarful of Noise, by Brian Epstein (Souvenir Press, London, 1964), p. 41.
2) The Beatles: The Real Story, by Julius Fast (Berkley, New York, 1968), p. 59.
3) The Beatles: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, by Anthony Scaduto (Signet, New York, 1968) p. 70.
4) Fab, by Howard Sounes (Da Capo Press, Cambridge MA, 2010), p. 51.
5) All These Years, Volume One: Tune In, Special Extended Edition, by Mark Lewisohn (Little, Brown; London; 2013), p. 1016.
6) Ibid., p. 1017.
7) Interview with Lisa Robinson, Hit Parader Magazine, December 1975.
8) Lewisohn, p. 1017.