The Beatles by Steve Turner Page B

second section begins ‘I need a fix’ and came out of his relationship with Yoko who played a motherly, and some might say superior, role in his life. For most of their relationship he would refer to her as ‘Mother’. This was also a time when he was dabbling in heroin, a drug that was later to get a grip on him.
    The final section was inspired by something in an American gun magazine that George Martin had pointed out to him. There was a line on the cover reading ‘Happiness is a warm gun in your hand…’, an obvious play on Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz’s 1962 book Happiness is a Warm Puppy. The apparently bizarre juxtaposition of killing and pleasure stimulated John’s imagination at a time. “I thought, what a fantastic thing to say,” said John. “A warm gun means that you’ve just shot something.”
    The music and vocal delivery of this section emulated ‘ Angel Baby’ by Rosie and the Originals (1960) a track that John loved. Rolling Stone writer Jonathan Cott interviewed John on September 18, 1968 and noted that, “John played Rosie and the Originals’ version of ‘Give Me Love’.” This was the B side of ‘Angel Baby’. Five days later, John began recording ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’.
    On his copy of the lyric sheet John wrote ‘dirty old man’ by the first section, ‘the junkie’ by the second and ‘ the gunman (satire of 50’s R + R)’ by the third. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll!.

MARTHA MY DEAR
    The name Martha came from Paul’s two-year-old Old English Sheepdog, but this song is a plea to a girl who has always been the singer’s muse: he asks her to remember him because he still believes that they were meant for each other. In January 1968, Paul and Jane Asher had announced that they were going to get married during the year but Paul began dating other girls while Jane was away acting and in July she called off the engagement.
    “We still see each other and love each other, but it hasn’t worked out,” Jane said. “Perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we’re about 70.”
    The song began as a two-handed piano excercise, something designed to stretch him musically. Explaining the genesis of the song in 1968 he said; “Mainly I come up with a tune and some words come into my head. In this case these happened to be ‘Martha my dear’. They don’t mean anything. I don’t ever try to make serious social comment. You can read anything you like into it but really it’s just a song. It’s me singing to my dog!”
    ‘Martha My Dear’ was recorded in October 1968 – by which time Linda Eastman had become Paul’s girl-friend. Jane began a relationship with cartoonist Gerald Scarfe in the early Seventies and they married in 1981.

I’M SO TIRED
    During the Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh, there were two 90-minute lectures each day and much of the rest of the time was taken up with meditating. Students were expected to build up their periods of meditation slowly as their technique improved. One person on the course reportedly claimed to have clocked up a 42-hour session. John found that this life of stillness and inner absorption meant that he couldn’t sleep at night and consequently he began feeling tired during the day.
    ‘I’m So Tired’, written after three weeks in India, was also about the things he was beginning to miss. The Academy of Meditation was alcohol- and drug- free and John’s mind was turning to his beloved cigarettes and the possibility of a drink. Sometimes a friend of his would smuggle some wine in.
    Most of all he was missing Yoko Ono. The couple had not yet begun an actual affair because John wasn’t sure how to end his marriage. He had briefly entertained the idea of inviting her to India but realized that the complications of having Cynthia and Yoko under the same roof would be too great.

BLACKBIRD
    There are a number of stories surrounding the creation of ‘Blackbird’. One has it that Paul woke