review of riding so high - beatles and drugs by joe goodden - a response to review erin weber

Riding So High, The Beatles and Drugs by Joe Goodden (2017)

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Goodden, Joe (2017). Riding So High, The Beatles and Drugs. Pepper & Pearl ISBN (ebook) 978-1-9998033-1-5.

‘Riding so High, The Beatles and Drugs’ tells the story of John, Paul, George and Ringo and drugs and booze from the pre-Beatles 1950’s, thru the band’s drug induced breakup and then follows each up until they are great grand-dads. The Beatles' use/misuse/ abuse of substances had an undeniable influence on the way they created music, on how they lived, their health, their business-decisions, how they destroyed personal relationships and got in prison. This book is a must read, because up until 2017 there was no book out there that devotes its full content to the topic ‘The Beatles and drugs’. Is this book a pleasure to read? Yes, it is! The mark of an engaging work of nonfiction is the ability to personalize the subject for the reader. This narrative has that quality in spades, in a straightforward and non-judgmental fashion.1

The Beatles Review of Books

Drugs, so what? Review of ‘Riding so High – The Beatles and Drugs’ by Joe Goodden (2017).

Review by Life is a Coconut, November 2017. © Rob Geurtsen, 2017.

Republish this article for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons licence. For any changes please contact Rob Geurtsen: [email protected].

Publishing history: Goodreads, November … not yet. Latest version: November 29th 2017.

mailto:[email protected]

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/


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Comparative analysis, of what happened, how is it similar how is it different… Joe Goodden’s ‘Riding So High’ is a book about ‘The Beatles and Drugs’, from a fan’s perspective I did not expect much more than a description of drug related events in the life of the Beatles, as a group or individually. As a researcher, I hoped for depth and width at least to a level of quantity and quality like John McMillian achieved in ‘Beatles vs Stones’. In the area of drugs, the Beatles, their artistic endeavours and social environment. Robert Fraser was the lynchpin of the scene, he should play a major role in the book, he was mentioned ~30 times, but the real meat would

be in describing He was the lynchpin of the scene Or Beatles and drugs Serious exploration, analysis and subsequent discussion of the Beatles

~ 10 Brown and Gaines

~ 30 Robert Fraser

1. Intro …

2. What about drugs… in the historiography…

3. the Beatles Historiography (1) a comment about the original analysis and ‘True Story’

4. The Beatles Historiography (2) a comment about biographies and the problem with books for the general public and specialists

5. The Beatles Historiography (3) How does it fit into Erin’s analysis

6. Beatles and drugs Including the break-up – Instant Karma – McCartney solo-album etc.

7. Online Conversation and fans

5. So what do I think of the book?


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Intro

Once upon a time, Abdul Kassem Ismael (A.D. 938 to 995) became

Grand Vizier of Persia. Legend has it that he was an avid reader, so

enthralled with literature and learning that he never left home

without his personal library. A 400-camel caravan carried 117,000

scrolls and codices. Ismael’s camel-drivers were also librarians, each

responsible for the books on his camel, and could locate any book

almost immediately because the animals were trained to walk in

alphabetical order.

The actual event upon which this legend is based of course is

different. In the British Museum, there is a story in an original

manuscript from a thousand years ago about a great scholar and

literary patron Sahib Isma'il b 'Abbad. Supposedly he loved his books

so much that he excused himself from an invitation by King Nuh II to

become prime minister, in part on the grounds that four hundred

camels and personnel would be required for the transport of his

library.2

Without love for the people, all this knowledge, wisdom and all these

facts and concepts aren’t worth a dime for humanity. I like books on

the shelves in a library, at home or in the office, but without a few

harddisks full of documents, images and sounds I’ll probably feel


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naked and poor, deprived and disadvantaged. I don’t want to be

without my files just like Abdul Kassem Ismael couldn’t be without

his scriptures and scrolls.

2. Riding so High is part of the Beatles narrative… Drugs what does Erin Torkelson Weber say about it……

3.

I am still struggling with Erin Torkelson Weber’s position about which

sources and media shaped and currently shape the Beatles narrative.

The subtitle of her very important and magnificent book on

historiography ‘The Beatles and the Historians’ (2016) is ‘An Analysis

of Writings About the Fab Four’ and she mainly targets the printed

media. Erin briefly mentions the music press in the UK, with their

weekly tabloid newspapers in the sixties and early seventies, the

underground press in both America and the UK is apart from a few


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exceptions is not evaluated and its influence remains

underestimated, undetermined if not ignored. This can be easily

corrected in future new editions of the book, new articles to be

published or her blog. A correction is an academic obligation

because:

a. for a lot of people the coverage of popular music publications in

the US and the UK, they shaped the Beatles story probably more

than anything else in the sixties and seventies.

b. A first exploration and evaluation could have been done with ‘The

Beatles Press Reports’ by Sandercombe. This book presents a

collection of historical media pieces and interviews chronicling

the lives and careers of the Beatles as seen through the lens of

popular British music publications such as Disc and Music Echo,

Mersey Beat, Melody Maker, NME and the Record Mirror.

Plus … For one reason or the other Erin Torkelson Weber almost

neglects the daily newspapers, commercial ‘fan magazines’ like

‘Teenbeat’ and the ‘fanzines’, Brian Epstein and the Beatles decided

to support or sponsor in various ways.

It also is striking ‘Maureen Cleave’ is mentioned in the index, but her

four 1966 articles on ‘How does a Beatle live?’ are missing from the


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‘Newspaper and magazine articles’ section of the bibliography, yet

their magnitude in the Beatles story can only be underestimated.

These articles were input for… in Datebook… Unger’s…. that

subsequently lead to the pandemonium in the belly of christian

conservatives. The publication of Datebook was a direct outcome of

an intervention of the Epstein pr machine. According to… Epstein

was highly appreciative of the Cleave’s articles. After that it was Tony

Barrow who brought the Maureen Cleave’s series to the attention of

the editors of Datebook when they requested current up to date

material fitting for their magazine.3 As such this major publication

seems to be incompatible with Erin’s argument about a strictly

controlled and Epstein directed public image, and her hypothesis

that the official Beatles narrative only changed significantly with the

break-up of the band and was wiped out with John Lennon’s 1970

interviews.

“The official mythology of the Beatles was both deliberately

engineered (…). This powerful official mythology is the first major

narrative in Beatles historiography. From 1962 until their public

dissolution in 1970, the Beatles promoted a singular version of

their story which consisted of three major themes. First, they

depicted themselves as an indivisible unit of four best friends. (…)

Second, during the official era, the group whitewashed certain

aspects of its story (…) (e.g.) the very real frustration associated


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with their fans and unparalleled fame (…) (suppressing) the more

negative aspects of their lives. The third component the

promotion of the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership.

(…) The initial version presented Lennon and McCartney as a unit

of equally talented, collaborative songwriters who worked

together to create a catalog attributed to both men.”4

A commentary…

Ringo was less close, more of a loner in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. The

group unity and closeness that was riding high in the media-coverage

had a lot to do with a few phenomena, that together were typical for

The Beatles in the sixties. Ian Inglis concludes that The Beatles until

their last concert in 1966 conformed themselves to the traditional

concept of a pop group, which was:

“typically perceived in largely mechanical terms as a unit

composed of a number of interrelated components any of which

might be replaced. Similarities in dress, appearance, and musical

competence helped to emphasize this sense of cohesion and

continuity. Personnel changes were relatively uncommon but

when they did occur were predictable and unremarkable. The

Shadows, the Hollies, Manfred Mann, and the Searchers were

among those who had demonstrated that the career of a pop


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group could accommodate such potential disruptions with a

minimum of inconvenience.”5

Everyone remembers the story Ringo had to shave off his beard

and comb his hair forward when he became group-member. Paul

McCartney in 20116:

“We were an entity. Mick used to call us the Four-headed

Monster. We would show up at places all dressed the same.”

On April 14th 1963, shortly after the Stones started their second set

at the Crawdaddy Club, in Southwest London, bassist Bill Wyman

recalls7:

“When we looked up and saw four shadowy figures facing us in

the audience. They weren’t dancing, just standing there in their

leather coats. ‘Shit that’s the Beatles!!’ ”

The four Beatles were dressed in matching black suede overcoats

and leather caps, standing in intimidating shadowy unity shoulder-

to-shoulder in the audience. About this first meeting Jagger said in


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1989 during his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech for

the Beatles:

“The Four Headed Monster – they never went anywhere alone at

this point. They had on these long black leather trench coats.”8

Keith Richards tells the story similarly9:

“We’re playing a pub … and we’re whacking out our show and

everybody’s having a good time, ya know? I suddenly turn

around: there’s these four guys in black leather overcoats

standing there. Oh fuck me! Look who’s here!”

What most contributors to historical literature on the Beatles agree

on is that the group, at that time, possessed characteristics that were

not typically associated with British pop stars. The Beatles were the

first beat group and later pop-group that had no main guitarist or

singer as a front man, they came from Liverpool and they had their

local accent. With his typical10 wide-legged dominant male stance on

stage, John may have been the most aggressive and impressive, with

“an upper lip which is brutal in a devastating way”11, but visibly not

leading the pack.


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“The four of us were unusual. (…) I talked to Keith Richards (…) a

couple of years ago, and his take on it was: ‘Man, you were

lucky, you guys, you had four lead singers’, whereas the Rolling

Stones only had one. I could sing, John could sing, George could

sing and Ringo did numbers that he could sing. So it wasn’t just

the front man and the back-up band.”12

The other factor amplifying the impression of unity was the way all

four of them made fun of or with moderators during radio-programs,

tv-shows, and especially during their press-conferences they

exhibited a collective perky, witty and sharp acuteness. Ian Inglis

claims:

“the responses to routine and unimaginative questions at press

conferences were interpreted as good-humoured Liverpudlian

spontaneity rather than crassness or rudeness.”13

A sample14 of typical Beatles’ press conference banter:

“Q. Are you going to have a haircut while you're in America?

A. We had one yesterday.

Q. Will you sing something for us?

A. We need money first.


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Q. Was your family in show business?

A. Well, my Dad used to say my Mother was a great performer.

Q. What do you think of Beethoven?

A. I love him, especially his poems.

Q. Why don't you smile?

A. I'll hurt my lips.”15

D.A. Pennebaker, the film-maker who was with Dylan on tour in

the UK in 1966, expressed annoyance about this conversational

style he saw exploited in a meeting of the Beatles and Bob Dylan

May 1966:

“When all four of them were together they had this

conversational attack mode that they used on anyone who was

not part of that group.”

Steve Turner description of this Beatles’ phenomenon:

“The Beatles (…) were easy to talk to individually, but together

relied on a style of banter built up over the years of being in close

proximity to each other that was superficial yet powerful enough

to keep outsiders at a distance.”


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As such she should have given more attention to Derek Taylor’s press

coverage in late 1969 and early 1970.

The book’s sub-title ‘An Analysis of Writings About the Fab Four’

suggests every written word matters, and every Beatles bio-story

writing author is to viewed as an ‘historian’. From this perspective, I

can only conclude, Hunter Davies and Philip Norman were as

important as Billy Shepherd—who?

Philip Norman had a big budget and staff for his research to produce

‘Shout!’16, of which the first edition appeared in 1981, quite a few

years and edited editions later, he publishes ‘John Lennon: The Life’

(2008) and more recently ‘Paul McCartney: the Life’ (2016). Norman

knows how to shape and articulate a story, but his writing is also full

of …, let’s put it mildly, ‘bias and opinions’. Hunter Davies spent time

with The Beatles in 1967, was giving extensive access and he

interviewed the Beatles and many associates, walked home with

Paul after a day of recording activities, and observed ‘Getting Better’

(1967) into shape. His biography ‘The Beatles’ (1968) was a big first.

Was it? Billy Shepherd’s ‘The True Story of The Beatles – the first

complete account’17, was published in 1964, and sold tens of

thousands in various languages all around Europe. In the early

seventies Bantam was still selling a small English paperback version

all over Europe as well as in bookstores all over America. This title


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should have been part of ‘the Beatlemania era books’, but Billy

Shepherd and his book are completely missing from Erin’s evaluation

of the Beatles historiography.18 She does mention a partially report

by American journalist Michael Braun, the now famous ‘Love me Do.

The Beatles’ Progress’. A ‘very good used’ copy might cost over a 150

euros and a ‘new’ (mint) version either roughly $ 350.- and shipping

is free, or over $2,500.-, but then you would have add $ 3.99 for

shipping. At the time Erin hadn’t read it, quote from the book or

blog so probably it is only included because John Lennon told Jann

Wenner late 1970: “that was a true book. He wrote how we were,

which was bastards”19 and others who evaluate the Beatles

bibliography rate it highly. The book is indeed a very good read. If

you want to pay for it, but not fully own it: buy the kindle version for

a little less than ten euros. Billy Shepherd’s book though, most likely

has more contributed to the Beatles narrative in the mid-sixties, than

Michael Braun’s ‘Love Me Do’ did at the time and ever will. It’s a

mystery to me, why Erin Torkelson Weber left Shepherd’s ‘The True

Story…’ left out of the Beatles historiography.

My understanding is that Billy Shepherd was hired by Sean

O'Mahoney, editor and publisher of ‘Beatles Book’, a commercial

fanzine venture with a contract with Epstein for accessibility. It was a

competently executed professional writing assignment. ‘The True

Story of The Beatles’ was probably one of the first books to cash-in

with the new fad – the Beatles. Surely at the time everybody


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believed the fad and mania were expected to die before long. Who

would have imagined at the time this fad would grow bigger and

bigger, so big that over fifty years later, during a half time show in

American football, the ‘Ohio State Marching Band’ would put on a

beautiful, amazing, lovely show of a marching band of musicians

performing carefully choreographed and arranged Sgt. Pepper era

songs and ‘Yellow Submarine’?20

‘Manya Marshall’ writes about Billy Shepherd’s ‘True Story’ on

amazon.com21:

“The writing is worthy of a professional in any time, by no means

true of all exploitation books. Clearly his job was to write a

positive book, but also clearly he became personally interested

and liked the lads—I'm not so sure he really liked their music.

There are many errors of fact in this book—most of them

concerning things we now know the Beatles and/or Brian Epstein

didn't mean to be made public so I'm not faulting him for that...

…Given these limitations on the writer, he did a very good job.

You do get a real feeling of their lives right before and as they

became prisoners of their fame. It's not a "great" book and it's

not running over with all the lists of facts and corrections that

now seem to overburden new books on the fabs. And it's not,

thank goodness, a collector’s item so you should be able to find it


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costing less than the postage to mail it! It quite simply lets you

step back in time and see the Beatles as they were seen by a

sympathetic adult just as the world was gathering at their feet.”

4. Importance and meaning of most Beatles’ biographies are distorted by marketing claims about ‘true’, ‘real’ or ‘complete’ stories and ‘new facts’, made on their behalf, and all the fame, gossip and discussion fans attach to these books, titles and authors. This reduces the writing to fact finding missions and narratives from a specific angle. I love the combination of great storytelling and historical research, explorations, analysis and discussion. Biographers, historians and their publishers make marketing choices, but it is sad when books, as artistic and intellectual output of creative processes and hard work, don’t get a chance to grow and glow. The superb publication ‘Beatles vs. Stones’ was aimed at serious scholars, studying the sixties era, and ‘the general public’, being fans of the sixties, of the Beatles or the Stones and overs of classic rock. ‘Beatles vs. Stones’ is an engaging book for experts and fans, which was the result of comprehensive research using sources that had so far been overlooked (McMillian’s specialty: the underground papers of the late sixties) in Beatles-land, the book conveyed interesting, original and actually good ideas, and it was written lively and accessible. McMillian said in an interview that

“marketing is different to a general audience or specialists—but not the writing process”22.

The writing and research is indeed slightly different for a general audience or specialist scholars, because it is a challenge to present topics and opinions topics that are not generally understood well.23 Writing accessible for both Beatles fans and scholars about the song publishing, copyright infringements, snatchings songs, legal affairs concerning tax-evasion constructions, touring, immigration affairs—requires pen capabilities of authors like Peter Doggett24 and Clinton Heylin25, or Stan Soocher26,27, whose research and writing I like. Serious historical analysis and discussion, includes: comparative analysis, references to other discussions within and outside the field, finding out how some phenomena are similar to others in history and how they are different or even unique, and contextual information is essential, as it often more revealing than easy to read and entertaining juicy anecdotes or mere facts. But let’s not forget content may matter, but as Tom Gunn once said about poetry:


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“deep feeling doesn't make for good poetry. A way with language would be a bit of help”28 (Thom Gunn)

and for non-fiction truth, facts and proper content matter, but writing lively and accessible, in an engaging way matters more. For an author to find a balance is a matter of staying alive as a writer, or to fall down flat on your face, and hurt your back and be sick.

5. The Beatles and drugs is a topic that is discussed from time to time among fans and experts. The problem is that the conversation is dominated, (or should I say contaminated?) by non-expert opinions and N=1 experiences from a past, superintended by strange, arbitrary spells of amnesia, and cultural dynamics in which we tell each other what to remember. The dominant delusion I see is the suggestion that use of drugs and alcohol has bonding power and a positive influence on creativity. The causal effects of too much drugs, in the brain and the consequent neurological effects are a negative distortion of normal, read average, human/mammal empathy, initiating and perceiving of, and responding to bonding behaviours. Relatively too much intake of LSD or alcohol destroys both cognitive and emotional capacities and that includes feelings (as defined by Damasio) of bonding. The suggestion that use of LSD brought the Beatles closer together is a baseless non-starter. In an interview in 1987 George Harrison gave Creem about the use of LSD in the sixties. After talking extensively how he used LSD, and still drive his ‘Ferrari around Hyde Park in peak hour traffic on acid and LSD wasn’t working anymore’; how he and John wanted to get others on to this stuff, using a sick argument even twenty years later:

“‘we thought—since there’s no way you can describe it–how are we ever gonna tell Paul and Ringo and the rest of our direct entourage? (…) ’Cause, you know, there’s no way back after that. It’s like you can never return to being who you were before, thankfully. I think if you come out of it in one piece, then—well, it’s individual reactions… .”29

I find it quite odd that, without a side note or any additional comment, Joe Goodden quotes from the 1987 Creem interview about the efforts of Lennon and Harrison to have others hooked on LSD as well. Did Goodden not see crankiness in Harrison’s remarks twenty years


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later, implying Harrison never ever had any moral doubts or remorse about the attempts to bring LSD on to others? Not that anybody had at the time, but ten to twenty years later a more nuanced view would make sense. Peter Brown wrote in The Creem interview of 1987 also gives some proof that otherwise quite normal people can incidentally suffer from ‘psychosis’. Psychosis as like being in love and think that the best partner in the world lives a block away, while knowing there are at least another six billion folks around. Harrison seems to believe his hallucinations:

“I can’t imagine, if I hadn’t had it, how many years of normal life it would have taken to get me to the realisations: I might’ve never got them in this life. It just opened the door and I experienced really good things. I mean, I never doubted God after that. Before, I was a cynic. I didn’t even say the word God; I thought ‘bullshit to all that stuff’. But after that, I knew. It was not even a question of ‘Is there possibly a God?’ – I knew absolutely. It’s just that big light that goes off in your head.”30

It is quite common that in discussion of drugs, among non-experts or ideologists, alcohol is being separated from marihuana, and opiates like heroin, or artificial stuff as LSD and amphetamines yesterday, and XTC today. Most fans involved in the discussion of ‘The Beatles and drugs’ are non-experts in the field of mental, emotional and cognitive processes and how these are stimulated, diminished or distorted by drugs, other substances and physical activity. I do not know of any valid research or indications that Beatles’ fans, obsessed or not, are living a more conscious and healthy life than average citizens, therefore we can assume that those involved in discussions about the Beatles and drugs have a hard time acknowledging that their core habits in their life-style are fundamentally unhealthy, and that includes regularly use of drugs in various forms (caffeine, alcohol).31 So much of the life style choices of The Beatles haven been and still are excused or explained away from any negative consequences, even fans and journalists that present themselves as reasonable, decent and intelligent often imply what David Hicks suggests openly, drugs are fine:

‘If you don’t believe drugs can be a positive thing—if you don’t believe it, take all your Beatles albums and cd’s burn’m cos when they made that music which has enhanced your lives, they were rrrreeeeaaalll high… The Beatles were so high, they let Ringo sing a couple of tunes.’32

There is however ample testimony that drugs and alcohol are ‘stimulants’, not always stimulating the good creative stuff, but bad, ugly volatile and most of the time slightly or big time embarrassing and stupid and hurtful to others. Writers, painters, musicians and composers know, and most of them acknowledge, that judgement and craft are gone under the bridge when alcohol, cocaine, xtc or whatever stuff is contaminating your brain. Joe Goodden’s book gets it all down, in statements and biographical detail where the Beatles


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opened up, and confused and vague where they choose to hide their habits in private and professional life. About the problems substance use causes in the process of composing McCartney puts it very well:

“In songwriting, the amount of times I have got stuck on a word that really didn’t matter… It was absolutely inconsequential what the word was – it could’ve been “boot” or “chump”. It did not matter, y’know. And you just totally come to a grinding halt, so the song never gets finished. I had a lot of that through substance misuse.”33

“When I look back at some of the work I’ve done which I don’t like, maybe some of that was written when I was stoned. ‘That’s the problem with being high – everything seems great. You think anything can be turned into a song. (…) By the time you’re finished, you think you’ve got your next single. Only next morning you realise it’s a load of old tripe. Personally, I’m much happier being straight and writing straight. I’ve tried the other way. Been there, done it. Never again.”34

The closing chapters on use of drugs by the four individuals Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Ringo after the break up are revealing in many ways. Joe’s reporting on drugs use and abuse by the four Beatles illustrates a vast gap between the honesty and openness of Paul and Ringo, and the closedness, the lies and secrecy by John & Yoko, and George too. The most impressive moving piece of testimony is the closing chapter of the book. ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ is an impressive and touching story of honesty and clarity about what people can go thru in their lives. It shows famous people and famous groupies are not heroes but humbling people too, they can be annoying and stupid like you and me. The Beatles are capable of kindness and gentleness and be fiercely violent in other circumstances. Joe Goodden created a closing chapter that has a message, not in the least because Ringo and Barbara Bach seems to have stick together and got out of that mess together. A love that is beyond believe, and it is wonderful to realize, though the health care system tried to break couples in despair, or when they are old and suffering from Alzheimer. There are ways to grow old together and stay with each other. The addiction of Ringo and his wife is an intense and moving story and a testimony to the humanistic values the Beatles willingly and unwillingly tried to convey. Done well, Joe this is a relief amidst all silly discussions about the role of drugs in the Beatles story. In Beatles’ heartland most discussions of drugs have a depth similar to the average online social media conversations, or a night with beer and friends in a sophomore dormitory. It is tribal territory, and hardly a place for a balanced conversation. The condemnation of alleged debauchery on social media, by many including Barack Obama35, is quite similar to the criticism on the early printed media. The filter-bubble, as defined in 2011 by Eli Pariser36, and in relation to the last POTUS elections revived by Cass R.


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Sunstein37, fits the Beatles-related online communities. Instead of activism, awareness of contexts that include others and being interactive with them, in Beatles land we see isolation and exclusion, similar to the world of politics. John McMillian, an academic historian with a keen interest in the sixties era, who studied the New Left in America, has published about the underground press, sees commonalities between underground journalism of the sixties and early seventies and current web based activists.

“Circulate opposing viewpoints very rapidly throughout a sub-culture community, you can galvanize the mainstream press to take up an issue that they would otherwise perhaps ignore, and you can build communities of likeminded people. With the rise of the web - never before has it been possible for so many people to get their voice out there and to put across iconoclastic positions and challenge what is coming down from the mainstream media”,

or those with the power to shape the narratives, the power of the numbers, and that includes the power of money and promises and access.

“On the other hand it means there is a lot of noise and a lot of garbage on the web and a lot of information that is not reliable. So… it is sort of a double edged sword.”

and the risk is still that filter bubble. Epistemological bubble… you simply don’t know what is happening on the other side of the fence I think the value of Joe Goodden’s Riding So High’ has the potential to provide Beatles fans, publicists, marketers, historians and other academics with a common set of information. Now with his book and website Beatlesbible available, we can share the facts, which we then can discuss freely, and explore to find new perspectives, interpretations and understanding of the Beatles lives, their art, creative processes, business affairs and personal relationships, with all the ups and downs, the love and the hassle or even animosity. For that, Joe might have done us all a big favour, but for that to happen at least, if it is complete and reliable in its basic facts, Historians who writes about the sixties and The Beatles without having lived through the era themselves, meaning not the veterans, are just as relevant to the historiography of The Beatles. ??????? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8OERf5piA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8OERf5piA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8OERf5piA



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The Laker Sentinel sits down with author, historian and professor John McMillian to discuss the Sixties and the book Beatles vs. Stones. The Laker Sentinel sits down with author, historian and professor John McMillian to discuss the Sixties and the book Beatles vs. Stones. From: Laker Sentinel (2013). John McMillian Interview. On YouTube. Assessed November 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8OERf5piA

McMillian News culture aficionados Soft hippies Stones militant new left… Silly debate “Joint biography of their relationship” as go back to as many primary sources as I could tabloid newspapers from England fanmagazines teenbeat and tiger fanzines the group put out newspaper are particularly interesting the underground newspapers. Not considered yet by other historian he found juicy anecdotes and quotes he was proud he was able to tell some people some news about the beatles and rolling tones. As if… writes as lively and accessible… great research and good ideas then write in an engaging and lively style “marketing is different a general audience or specialist -- but not the writing process” any writing project is difficult fun and frustrating



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challenge to present stuff and opinions that people are not yet familiar with underground press beatles were seen as generational heroes as spokeperson… beatles fans are usually terribly obsessed and project on to them shamanic powers… … … the rolling stones shot themselves in the foot… they started their stadium tours… high prices and security personnel and that didn’t go down well with the younger generation… Lennon and politics the new left…


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_ _ _ - - - - Political losses and voters’ frustrations can be explained away by the argument that people in small towns, that had lost manufacturing jobs, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them”, imprudent, but, with a crucial proviso added, true: we all are clinging to something, if no more than an app at our Beatle-loving fingertips, even to the not-entirely-obsessed.38 Quite a few online-platforms dedicated to the Beatles is like a barren, deserted, almost dead desert, but as Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of ‘Le Petit Prince’ (1943) suggested, also a place of beauty as they hide, somewhere, a well—full of knowledge or wisdom.

“Ce qui embellit le désert, dit le petit prince, c'est qu'il cache un puits quelque part...”39

In politics having a good idea or the most effective technocratic policy, and share these with the New York Times editorial board is not going to prevent you from losing elections. You got to be active on the ground. Internet doesn’t help here, meeting and talking to people face-to-face does it well. Any discussion, of drugs use by the Beatles, that wants to be taken seriously, should include the use of drugs by other artists in their days; understand addiction; understand the process of creating and recording music; but also should include a contribution that shows a keen understanding of well-known abuse of drugs in the jazz-scene or classical music, people in similar situations, like Ellington, and other folks artistically prominent during the 19th centuries earlier decades, before the pop and rock music gained its standing during the late sixties. Consideration of research-literature about the destruction of love relations, social fabric and business relations caused by overuse of drugs should be the norm and more appreciated among the more serious Beatles’ fans who claim to offer useful and valid speculations as hypotheses. We have seen how Goldman and his ‘Lives of John Lennon’ were treated, because first and foremost he concluded that Lennon and Ono had severe drug addiction problems and none of the glamour, media-manipulation and marketing reflected their real life. Lennon sang he didn’t believe in ‘Beatles’. That was tough, but fans granted him the right to do so. When Goldman scrupulously destroyed the shamanic powers that fans and not so critical devotees among media professionals projected on the avatar prophet called John Lennon, a coalition of Wenner’s pet boys at Rolling Stone, Yoko Ono and Elliot Mintz, and many others assailed Goldman’s book and work ethics. To have a better understanding of the life the Beatles lived, their creative processes, and the way they conducted business, Beatles’ fans and historians with more serious than fan-like attitudes, need to include academic research of behaviours by drug addicts in various contexts to understand the music, and the lives and loves of the Beatles. MURPHY 40 Just in case Beatles’ fans feel attacked; rest assured, amnesia in similar situations is not uncommon. Gopnik recently compared amnesia of Beatles’ fans with that of experts, media and screaming conservative nationalists (my depiction) in relation to minor terrorism events


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in the western-world. Terrorism in the USA today is rare, and mostly dominated by christian conservatives and nationalists. The oddest thing however to be ignored today is the history of anarchist terrorism a century ago and similar anarchist attacks in the 19-seventies, and the lessons learned from these periods.

“In a time when terrorism is on everyone’s lips and the prime subject of popular, if hyperbolic, worry, you would think that its history would be available: in fact, almost no one now recalls, without an effort, that terrorists a century ago managed to assassinate an American President, a French President, the Czar of all the Russians, and many a secondary figure along the way. What would become of us, and our civil liberties, if the same score were run up now? As Bill James points out in his good recent history, “Popular Crime”41, the violence of that period has gotten tucked away in the vaults. This is true even though the lessons—both that terrorism is a general and probably permanent apparition of modernity, and that it tends to get defeated not by military acts but by police work and its own exhaustion—would be worth relearning.”42

I like Joe Goodden’s ‘Riding So High’ for reasons, beyond what we already discussed: 1. A minor argument, the title ‘Riding so High – The Beatles and drugs’ is not a reference to any Beatles album, song, lyric, quote or even event, at least that I know of. It is not that books that use song titles, or phrases from lyrics are better or worse, it is one of those impediments that marketers cause, and limit a free reign by a book. ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ as a title is so embarrassingly meaningless in relation to the story the book summons, whereas ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ puts the subject of the Doggett’s book right into our face, we can even assume McCartney was referring to the same subject. Too bad Joe Goodden’s discipline pertains only to the cover. All eleven chapter-titles have mostly erroneous song titles, and in the introductory seduction part of the book Joe quotes from ‘Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey’ (1968):

“The deeper you go, the higher you fly”43 He is not an exception, but all of these marketers look much like high school students who had to write an essay about a popular cultural topic. As a European I haven’t yet figured out what the group thinking is going on that makes this happens. It looks so similar silly as the many titles of books that suggest that what happened with the Beatles in the USA changed the world. ‘How the Beatles Changed the World’ ‘The Beatles: Six Days that Changed the World’ by Bill Eppridge. 2. Joe Goodden gathers evidence of drugs use from the available primary but mostly secondary sources. Up until now, I have seen no external appraisal of its completeness on Beatles’ affairs.


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3. The most important reason why I appreciate the book, is that it has the potential, if it is evaluated well (fact-checked, source-checking, evaluation of bias, etc.), to fill in the gap, the rejection of Goldman’s book left in understanding the Beatles’ story.

4. Goodden’s writing comes across as quite unbiased, as if he is ‘merely’ giving the facts. Yet there is unflinching impression, this book is about more than just reporting about The Beatles and drugs.

5. Sometimes I wish he had included a bit more contextual information, to better understand the social environment, to get an idea of the lifestyle customs the Beatles were acting out of, both influencing the world and being influenced by it. Contextual information is often hidden in non-essential parts of a story. E.g. Peter Brown and Steven Gaines’ ‘The Love You Make’ provides intimations about London’s artist and jet-set life that should be part of this contextual investigation:

“A never-ending round of cocktail parties, crowded Chelsea ‘happenings’, psychedelic club openings, or literary parties in basement Hampstead flats. That fall was also the beginning of his (Lennon) heavy experimentation with psychedelics. Swinging London was just as much about acid as it was about anything else that year. Acid was the perfect drug for the moment; it gave the already shimmering world just the right effervescence. Naturally, John went overboard and took acid almost every day—by his own admission he experienced thousands of trips. (…) Drugs were laid on John wherever he went, like laurel wreaths thrown in his path, for to say that you had turned on John Lennon was a badge of honor.”44

Before Brown and Gaines turn their attention to Yoko, as in a scripted story they need to lead us to the next scene

“John gravitated not so much to the fast crowd in Chelsea as he did the struggling Bohemian artists, a fringe element always in pursuit of the next buck, the next lay, and the next drug. Somewhere in the ever-changing crowd he was intro”

What follows is description of the in-crowd, with name-dropping and a social-network that we all are familiar with, we arrive on the scene at the ‘Indica Gallery, an avant-garde art gallery in Mason’s Yard’. Facts, fantasies, red herrings, conjecture or indications? These are the sort of leads historians, with a Sherlock Holmes kind of mind, could and should explore. Peter Brown has suggestions that may or may not be true, he could be biased, have a grudge or whatever, but he depicts a social environment, and provides specific clues that make sense and to understand drugs use or abuse by The Beatles these better be investigated.


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Joe Goodden tells a quite innocent story about narcotics-consumption at Tittenhurst Park. it was Dan Richter who supplied John and Yoko with the heroin he bought from an addicted friend. A moral corruptness that is not unusual around people with a substance addictedness and a position of power from money, charisma and fame. There are more people than Dan Richter who were witness on the scene. I hope Mark Lewisohn digs deeper into this essential contextual part of Beatles’ history, and that should include who sold what to whom, and who bought what for the Beatles, their management, and their individual behaviours in private. To understand The Beatles’ drugs use we need to understand London’s club scene and drug market, who were the dealers, which groups of people were convicted, for use or dealing with drugs, what kind of drugs and what was the quality of the stuff that they were dealing with? Living in or around London the Beatles were not buying drugs in backdoor alleys, which they probably did in Hamburg, so information is still available from the old elite. Books like ‘Riding So High’ deserve lots of publicity and a review by Erin Torkelson Weber, who is an important and seemingly impartial voice in Beatles’ land. In my head, this book whispers for attention, and I cherish it, I will give it careful consideration and give it time to sink in. I read reviews, hear discussions, maybe give a contribution now and then, study similar books, and talk to people with relevant expertise. It is an impressive witness of the badness of alcohol and drugs.

With Erin Torkelson Weber’s ‘The Beatles and the Historians’, Kenneth Womack’s ‘Maximum Volume’, ‘Truant Boy’ by Martin Shough, and Joe Hagan’s biography of Jann Wenner ‘Sticky Fingers’, Joe Goodden’s ‘Riding So High’ is one of the Beatles’ related books I spent a lot of time with in 2017.


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Front. Integr. Neurosci., 07 November 2012 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00101

The detrimental effects of emotional process dysregulation on decision-making in substance dependence

Anna Murphy*, Eleanor Taylor and Rebecca Elliott Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Murphy, Anna et al (2012). The detrimental effects of emotional process dysregulation on decision-making in substance dependence. In: Frontiers In Integrative Neuroscience Vol. 6. DOI=10.3389/fnint.2012.00101. Assessed November 2017: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnint.2012.00101

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00101

http://www.frontiersin.org/Community/WhosWhoActivity.aspx?sname=AnnaMurphy&UID=53522

http://www.frontiersin.org/Community/WhosWhoActivity.aspx?sname=EleanorTaylor&UID=54682

http://www.frontiersin.org/Community/WhosWhoActivity.aspx?sname=RebeccaElliott&UID=663

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Nicked

1 Nicked some lines from reviewers ‘FabFan’, ‘Robert Sanders’ and ‘Father Xmas’, changed or threw the words away and added some of my own. Assessed November 2017: https://www.amazon.com/Riding-So-High-Beatles-Drugs/product-reviews/1999803302/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews. 2 Edward G. Browne. Vol. 1, Book IV, "Decline of the Caliphate. A Literary History of Persia." 4 vols., London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1902-24,374-375. Available online at The Packard Humanities Institute, Persian texts in translation. Assessed November 2017: http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001011&ct=0 3 Brian Ward (2012) ‘“The ‘C’ is for Christ”: Arthur Unger, Datebook Magazine and the Beatles’. In Popular Music and Society, Vol. 35, #4, October 2012, pp. 541–560. DOI: 10.1080/03007766.2011.608978. First publication online August 1st 2012. Assessed November 2017: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.608978. 4 Tokelson Weber, Erin (2016). The Beatles and the Historians. An Analysis of Writings About the Fab Four. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9781476662664. pp. 15-16. 5 Inglis, Ian (1995). Conformity, status and innovation: The accumulation and utilization of idiosyncrasy credits in the career of the Beatles. In Popular Music and Society, 19:3, 41-74, DOI: 10.1080/03007769508591599. Assessed November 2017: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007769508591599. 6 Gammell, Caroline (2011). Rolling Stones envied The Beatles' singing prowess - Sir Paul. The Telegraph, May 23rd 2011. Assessed November 2017: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8531033/Rolling-Stones-envied-The-Beatles-singing-prowess-Sir-Paul.html. From a publication in the Radio Times, from the same day (Tuesday?). 7 McMillian, John (2013). The Beatles Meet the Stones. In Slate, April 16th 2013. Assessed November 2017: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/16/when_the_beatles_met_the_rolling_stones_50_years_ago_here_s_what_happened.html. 8 Jagger, Richard (1988). Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction. Assessed November 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rolz1VasS4&feature=youtu.be&t=1m45s . 9 McMillian, John (2013). The Beatles Meet the Stones. In Slate, April 16th 2013. Assessed November 2017: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/16/when_the_beatles_met_the_rolling_stones_50_years_ago_here_s_what_happened.html. 10 According to BeatlesBible.com (Nov. 2017) the Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band recorded an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show on May 5th 1972, this edition of the show was broadcasted on 11 May 1972. They played a.o. ‘Woman is the Nigger of the World’. John Lennon stood there in the same manner fully in charge of himself, great voice, focussed on the music, the singing – the performance. The song didn’t do a thing in the charts. The performance is available on YouTube.com (Nov. 2017). Assessed November 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxoxMuca-2s&t=3042s. 11 Cleave, Maureen (1963). Why The Beatles Create All That Frenzy. ‘Disc Date’ column in the Evening Standard (Since 2009 the ‘London Evening Standard’), February 2nd 1963. On the internet available at ‘is that a flirtation’. Assessed November 2017: http://formermaleprostitute.tumblr.com/post/401659437. 12 Gammell, Caroline (2011). Rolling Stones envied The Beatles' singing prowess - Sir Paul. The Telegraph, May 23rd 2011. Assessed November 2017: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8531033/Rolling-Stones-envied-The-Beatles-singing-prowess-Sir-Paul.html. From a publication in the Radio Times, from the same day (Tuesday?). 13 Inglis, Ian (1995). Conformity, status and innovation: The accumulation and utilization of idiosyncrasy credits in the career of the Beatles. In Popular Music and Society, 19:3, 41-74, DOI: 10.1080/03007769508591599. Assessed November 2017: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007769508591599. 14 Giuliano, Geoffrey (1989). Dark Horse. London: Bloomsbury. 15 Giuliano, Geoffrey (1989). Dark Horse. London: Bloomsbury. 16 Norman, Philip (1981). SHOUT! The Beatles in Their Generation. Fireside/Simon and Schuster. 17 Shepherd, Billy (1964). ‘The True Story of The Beatles – the first complete account’. Bantam Books Inc. ASIN: B0000CM9ES. 18 What is missing from the elucidation in ‘The Beatles and the Historians’ is a review and evaluation of Beatles related pulp paperbacks, some of which sold tens of thousands and others next to nothing, yet a large audience bought and read these books as they were cheap and for many people one of maybe less than a

https://www.amazon.com/Riding-So-High-Beatles-Drugs/product-reviews/1999803302/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews



http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001011&ct=0

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2011.608978

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/8531033/Rolling-Stones-envied-The-Beatles-singing-prowess-Sir-Paul.html


http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/16/when_the_beatles_met_the_rolling_stones_50_years_ago_here_s_what_happened.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rolz1VasS4&feature=youtu.be&t=1m45s



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxoxMuca-2s&t=3042s

http://formermaleprostitute.tumblr.com/post/401659437



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handful Beatles’ related books, shaping their understanding of the Beatles’ narrative. Just to get an idea of a late sixties publication that no historian might seems to touch, but is part of the Beatles’ bibliography: - Fast, Julius (1968). ‘The Beatles: The Real Story’. Berkley Medallion Books. 19 Wenner, Jann S. (1970/1). Lennon Remembers - John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interview. Rolling Stone, Issues #74 & #75, 21 Jan & 4 Feb, 1971. Assessed September 2017: http://imaginepeace.com/archives/4385 20 The Ohio State Marching Band celebrates the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, along with other hits by The Beatles from the same era (1966-1967), during Ohio State vs Michigan State, in the Ohio Stadium, November 11th 2017. Drill design: Phillip A. Day; Music arrangers: Ken McCoy, Eric Hubbell (percussion). Program: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; With a Little Help from My Friends; Getting Better; Yellow Submarine; Penny Lane; When I’m Sixty-Four; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise); A Day in the Life. Assessed November 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce40bcDG3Mk. 21 Assessed November 2017: https://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Beatles-Billy-Shepherd. 22 The Laker Sentinel sits down with author, historian and professor John McMillian to discuss the Sixties and the book Beatles vs. Stones. From: - Laker Sentinel (2013). John McMillian Interview. On YouTube. Assessed November 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8OERf5piA. 23 The Laker Sentinel sits down with author, historian and professor John McMillian to discuss the Sixties and the book ‘Beatles vs. Stones’. From: - Laker Sentinel, The (2013). John McMillian Interview. On YouTube. Assessed November 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8OERf5piA. 24 Doggett, Peter (2009). You never give me your money. The Bodley Head – Random House. ISBN 978 1 847 92074 4. 25 Heylin, Clinton (2015). It’s one for the money. Constable, Hachette UK, ISBN 978-1-47211-190-6. 26 Soocher, Stan (2015). Baby You’re a rich man – Suing the Beatles for fun & profit. ForeEdge (www.upne.com) ISBN 978-1-61168-380-6. 27 Soocher, Stan (1998). They Fought the Law: Rock Music Goes to Court. Schirmer Trade Books, ISBN: 978-0028647319. According to Amazon.com this book is published in Chinese, which is a huge compliment and has great potential for a cheque worth a few trips around the world, for Stan. 28 Gunn, Thom. Assessed November 2017: http://izquotes.com/quote/234244. 29 Kordosh, J. (1987/1988) The George Harrison Interview. In Creem, Issues December 1987 and January 1988. Assessed November 2017: http://beatlesnumber9.com/creem.html. 30 Kordosh, J. (1987/1988) The George Harrison Interview. In Creem, Issues December 1987 and January 1988. Assessed November 2017: http://beatlesnumber9.com/creem.html. 31 In our current cultural and judicial climate, there are differences between America and the rest of the western-world, but for our argument I consider these as minor differences. 32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKg0gbCEe7A, thank you, Joe Goodden. 33 “Doyle, Man On The Run” 34 Paul McCartney Uncut, 2004. Goodden, Joe (2017). “Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/nl/book/riding-so-high-the-beatles-and-drugs/id1287754655?l=en&mt=11. 35 Obama: “… it's getting worse. The whole movement away from curated journalism to Facebook pages, in which an article on climate change by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist looks pretty much as credible as an article written by a guy in his underwear in a basement, or worse. Or something written by the Koch brothers. People are no longer talking to each other; they're just occupying their different spheres. And in an Internet era where we still value a free press and we don’t want censorship of the Internet, that's a hard problem to solve.” A quote from: - Wenner, Jann S. (2016). The Day After: Obama on His Legacy, Trump's Win and the Path Forward. In Rolling Stone, December 15th 2017, Issue 1276/1277. Assessed November 2017: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/obama-on-his-legacy-trumps-win-and-the-path-forward-w452527. 36 Known for MoveOn.org of Avaaz.org and Upworthy.com. 37 and recently revived by Cass R. Sunstein http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10871/Sunstein/. 38 Gopnik, Adam (2016). Why We Remember the Beatles and Forget So Much Else. New Yorker, January 7th 2016. Retrieved July 2017: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-we-remember-the-beatles-

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/4385

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https://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Beatles-Billy-Shepherd/dp/B0000CM9ES/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510536096&sr=1-1&dpID=51vItOu%252BzPL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch



http://www.upne.com)/

http://izquotes.com/quote/234244

http://beatlesnumber9.com/creem.html

http://beatlesnumber9.com/creem.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKg0gbCEe7A

https://itunes.apple.com/nl/book/riding-so-high-the-beatles-and-drugs/id1287754655?l=en&mt=11

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/obama-on-his-legacy-trumps-win-and-the-path-forward-w452527

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/obama-on-his-legacy-trumps-win-and-the-path-forward-w452527

http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10871/Sunstein/

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and-forget-so-much-else 39 Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1943). Le Petit Prince. 40 Murphy, Anna et al (2012). The detrimental effects of emotional process dysregulation on decision-making in substance dependence. In: Frontiers In Integrative Neuroscience Vol. 6. DOI=10.3389/fnint.2012.00101. Assessed November 2017: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnint.2012.00101 41 James, Bill (2011). Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence. Scribner, Second Edition ISBN: 1416552731. 42 Gopnik, Adam (2016). Why We Remember the Beatles and Forget So Much Else. New Yorker, January 7th 2016. Retrieved July 2017: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-we-remember-the-beatles-and-forget-so-much-else 43 The quote “The deeper you go, the higher you fly”, makes more sense as reference to: a) meditation; b) metaphorical meaning given to the drug-experiences, than c) the immediate drug experience itself. 44 Peter Brown. “The Love You Make.


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review of riding so high - beatles and drugs by joe goodden - a response to review erin weber

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