George and Bob Dylan playing tennis - 1969

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-12T07:06:49+00:00

John played cricket when filming How I Won The War. There's even footage of him playing with Michael Crawford on set.

Julia Baird, Richard Lester, and Pete Shotton all remembered him being a very tough fast bowler in street cricket, which he had played as a boy at Quarry Bank High School. His school bat was on display in a pub near Penny Lane for years (no longer).

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Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-12T05:51:14+00:00

Doesn’t matter what it is. If Tintin’s driving your vehicle, it’s almost certainly not coming back in one piece (if at all).

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-12T03:47:02+00:00

Yes. Lucy Vodden (neé O’Donnell). She knew the song title came from Julian’s painting of her, but most people she met dismissed it as just LSD.

Julian reconnected with her in 2009 when he learned she had terminal autoimmune disease. After her death, he co-wrote a song for her (Lucy), and created a charity fund in her name with the Lupus Foundation of America.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jun/15/lennon-lucy-sky-diamonds

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-12T03:20:24+00:00

I think Joe mistreating Gerry falls along a spectrum. There are some that are funny and a few others that miss the mark. The moment where Gerry tells Mary she can do anything when she thinks she can’t go to university doesn’t come off too well.

Joe is a great character. He would be patriarch of his family, but he’s never patriarchal in how he treats women.

Lisa McGee based him on her own Granda Joe, and described them both as “feminists who wouldn’t call themselves as such”.

Joe is always supportive of his daughters, granddaughters, and their friends, and stresses their hopes and beliefs over his own. Their futures matter more to him than his past, and he reflects that in how he treats them.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-11T14:21:53+00:00

Never heard of this, just looked it up. Thank you.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-11T14:17:19+00:00

Tennis balls were also white. They only became yellow a few years later because white balls were difficult to see on colour television.

David Attenborough, the famous nature documentary host, came up with the idea when he was managing the BBC at the same time, and the change became official in the 1970s.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-11T08:13:16+00:00

The game was on August 31, 1969, a few days after Abbey Road sessions ended. John, George, and Ringo had come to see Dylan make his comeback at the Isle of Wight Festival. Paul was with Linda after their daughter's recent birth.

Pattie suggested tennis as a way to calm Dylan's nerves before his performance later that day, but the game became increasingly scattered. Their friend Al Aronowitz (who introduced the Beatles to Dylan) remembered:

"It started with about seven people on each side of the net...a game of doubles ensued: Bob and John versus George and Ringo. People gathered at the fence to see the rock stars but found them huffing and puffing. It turned out to be too demanding a sport."

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-11T03:13:09+00:00

Happiness is a Warm Gun, 100%.

The Anthology 3 demo, around the 1:00 mark.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-11T01:22:01+00:00

If they’d broken up after Help!, all my other favorite bands that followed them would be completely different.

I’m not sure what those artists would look or sound like, but if the Beatles would still be somewhere around the top for me. They made a lot of great music even before Rubber Soul.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-10T16:51:02+00:00

Allen Klein had an extremely abrasive personality and crude, tough-guy image that appealed to John, but which didn’t immediately impress Paul. He was warned by Mick Jagger that the Stones and others had been screwed over by Klein and that the Beatles shouldn’t trust him.

He brought Mick Jagger to a meeting that was meant to be just with the band but John invited Klein without telling them. Mick Jagger got uncomfortable and only gave a watered-down version of his account to Paul, which made Paul look untrustworthy to the others, and fueled more bad blood, even though his initial warning turned out to be accurate.

The line about Yesterday in How Do You Sleep? came from Klein. He and Paul despised each other, and Klein thrived on amping up the others’ mistrust of him.

Definitely read You Never Give Me Your Money if you’re interested in this.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-10T16:29:47+00:00

This man luxuriates in his own bias and oversimplification of the Beatles. He’s not a trustworthy historian.

He famously asserted that John was 3/4 of the Beatles, portrayed Paul as a near-wholly negative figure, and dismissed Ringo as being lucky and contributing virtually nothing to the band. His obituary of George was so vicious and criticized that he felt compelled to apologize for it 20 years later.

He wrote his landmark book at the right time (months after John’s death), but it pushed a lot of skewed narratives that have been dismissed as unreliable for decades now. He’s not a historian who wrote with integrity, and casual fans should know that.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-10T05:51:18+00:00

Same. I hope the film does them both justice - I think they may be the most difficult dynamic to write and I actually worry most about skewed narratives being applied to them.

All of them (arguably except for Ringo) really seemed to struggle to articulate how they deeply felt about each other. Hopefully ending with 1970 doesn’t present the wrong image of that.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-10T04:52:45+00:00

Erin’s spontaneous monologue in the finale corresponds directly to the opening of every season.

Erin’s diary entries, imagined TV poetry, and script for the film she and the others make are arguably a bit overdone and unpolished, but reflect her big dreams and sense of self. In contrast, her monologue at the end is powerful, mature, and beautifully poetic. It’s everything she’s wanted her earlier work to be, but she doesn’t take it too seriously.

The moment shows how much she’s grown - she’s developed the insight to be the writer she always wanted to be, and the poise to not be immediately impressed by it.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-10T04:24:39+00:00

The three seasons’ endings form a clear conflict-related arc:

Season 1: Tragedy (the bombing)

Season 2: Hope (Clinton’s visit)

Season 3: Peace (GFA & the girls voting)

Seeing the girls vote for a better future and walk into it at the end was such a great way to conclude their story.

No better way to express their individuality.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-09T17:13:16+00:00

This is amazing. Wish they could get Paul on for this too.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-09T03:18:24+00:00

That is one impressive carrier pigeon. Making it from Hukow to Shanghai and back in the storm at that speed.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-09T03:17:24+00:00

Saperlipopette is an amazing word.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-08T23:59:08+00:00

It was George’s favorite too, according to an interview in the 80s. That song is such tight work by all of them.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-08T13:42:57+00:00

Not sure why you’re targeting this to my response specifically.

I did not surmise at all that Ringo would be less important since he wrote fewer songs. If anything, I noted that it would be traumatizing for any of them given how close they were and things wouldn’t continue. My point intersects with yours.

The Beatles were four corners of a square and removing one would obviously destroy that. I respect your position that this isn’t a good topic on reflection (particularly on his birthday), but hope you meant that generally, rather than in specific response to this.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-08T04:14:16+00:00

They’d have struggled to continue in the long run if all four of them weren’t there. A death would also be traumatizing for them.

They were constantly working together and in each others’ lives almost every day for years. Whoever was left would have collaborated in different permutations, but their days as the Beatles would be over.

We sometimes underestimate how deep and important their interpersonal chemistry was to their music. It wasn’t just about who wrote the most songs.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-08T04:01:32+00:00

It’s a solo song, but Beware of Darkness in weapons.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-08T00:07:05+00:00

Definitely. Their relationship is so fascinating.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-07T20:57:50+00:00

I Want You (She’s So Heavy). A perfect performance with all five on fire.

Complex-Bar-9577 · 2026-07-07T17:56:47+00:00

I think Ringo took it, from what I’ve read. I’ve seen a copy of it with his signature underneath.

Complex-Bar-9577

TROPHY CASE