Not quite Picasso's last words, but...
Jan. 11th, 2011 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIf you were ever wondering what George, Paul and Ringo were doing while John was on his April 1963 did-they-or-didn't-they? holidays with Brian Epstein (what do you mean, you don't care?), they hung out with their old Hamburg pals, Astrid Kirchherr, she of the photography and the haircut, and Klaus Voormann in Tenerife. This was after the Beatles had become an English sensation but before the rest of Europe, let alone the world, discovered them, so they were for the very last time tourists like any others. And promptly got massive sunburns. Here's a photo Ringo took of George and Paul with Astrid:
It's from the catalogue of Astrid's 2010 exhibition in Liverpool. (Since the iconic photos she took of herself are of her in the Marais-inspired short hair cut and in black and white, seeing her in colour and with long hair two years later was weird, btw.) Re: this scene, she remarked:
Us in Tenerife again. Paul had a piece of stamp stuck on his nose as he had the worst sunburn. So did Ringo. There was this beautiful blonde Spanish girl who worked in a shop there and George fancied her so much. He went down on his knees and said, ‘Please go out with me! I’m one of The Beatles and we’ve got a hit record!’ She just stared at him and asked ‘A Beetles? What is this Beetles? What is he doing?’ I’ve always wondered if she regretted that.
(Now look at that beautiful pout of George's.) (Paul otoh either makes a lolz-worthy sunburn face, or has a prescient flash that John is currently busy persuading Brian to switch the song credits from McCartney/Lennon to Lennon/McCartney forever more.)
Speaking of the Exis, as John called the Hamburg bunch of students they made life-long friends of, I found out several of Klaus Voorman's drawings and paintings showing them in Hamburg are online.
Klaus Voormann, the original art student to walk into the Kaiserkeller and discover a rock band, bass player for Manfred Mann and a couple of John solo records, famously designed the cover for Revolver, but he also did a lot of sketches and paintings of them from memory. This in one case led to hilarious confusion and last minute adjustment, as when did this painting which was supposed to show young George locked up in a German prison cell (at the Davidswache, in case anyone reading this is from Hamburg):
Proudly presenting the result to George Harrison, Klaus got the following response: "Great picture, but who is it?"
Quoth one crushed artist: "But that's you! Don't you remember, little Georgie, seventeen years old lonely boy, freezing in prison, so far away from home! I felt so sorry for you then!"
Says the Quiet One: "Aw, Klaus, that's so nice of you, you're a true friend... but... I never was in prison."
"What?"
"No, it was Paul!" laughed George. (As indeed it was. Klaus was confusing two different incidents. When the cops found out George was underage and working in a night club, they deported him back to England right away. Paul and Pete Best were busted (and spending the night in a cell) one or two days later supposedly for burning a condom, but more probably because the vengeful Bruno Koschmider didn't like that the Beatles moved from his clubs - the Indra and the Kaiserkeller - to the Top Ten. And had taken his bouncer and his toilet woman with them. Anyway, Klaus Voormann redid the painting so it showed Paul instead of George:
He also asked for and got a sketch from Paul showing the layout of the Bambi cinema (that's where Koschmider let them sleep, since he owned both the Indra and the Bambi and was too cheap to pay for proper rooms) and what happened where:
Armed with this, Klaus did a painting of John and Paul in their "Bambi Suite":
Klaus about John in Hamburg: Those John Days... times when he would act outrageously, just out of sheer frustration, and play jokes which left you torn between laughing and crying would usually leave Paul with having to repair the damage with a thousand apologies and promises.
I always found it interesting that of their German friends, Klaus and Astrid, i.e. middle class students the same age, were closest to John, whereas Horst Fascher the bouncer and Rosa the toilet woman, both older (in Rosa's case old enough to be a parent) and as working class as you could get, were closest to Paul. Klaus did a painting of Paul and Rosa as well and wrote: Rosa, sometimes known as Muttchen, presided over the toilet of the Top Ten. From her drawer she dealt out everything one might need to master life: condoms, handkerchiefs, toilet paper and a good assortment of pills. When Rosa's Pauli came by to get his Prellies she was particularly happy. Rosa would sit in there smiling, with her heart of gold, amongst the kissing lovers and pissing drunks, and they would have a nice little natter.
(John might have been more vocal about his mother issues, but between charming Louise Harrison - "Paul was my mother's favourite Beatle", quoth George - , Julia Lennon when she was still alive, Rosa the toilet woman, and Margaret Asher (mother of Jane), the McCartney tendency to befriend every mother figure in sight is pretty telling. It got him deemed permanently uncool by the Exis then and certain rock critics to this day. But as methods of how to deal with being a semi-orphan go, I always thought it was just a tad more constructive than Primal Scream therapy myself.)
(More of Klaus Voormann's art work is here, if you're interested.)
John's own drawings, far more cartoon-like than Klaus', are pretty well known, especially this one:
He met his first wife, Cynthia, at art college (by borrowing her pens at lettering); in her memoirs Cynthia also included a series of cartoons depicting her life. This is from vacationing with George and Pattie. Note the extra thin George:
And the Maharishi counselling them after Brian's death (see earlier post on the India saga):
Lastly, Paul - who is a Magritte fan; the Apple name and logo came from a Magritte painting he bought in the mid-60s - sometimes paints as well; he had a small exhibition here in Germany ten years ago. It included a portrait of Linda:
And one picture that caused the following exchange with Simon Hattenstone who was interviewing him and reviewing the exhibition:
One of the paintings is called "Is this a self-portrait?" I ask him if it is. "I don't know. It looks just a bit like me in the Beatles." I say it also looks like John Lennon. "Uh huh, well hence the title. 'Is it a self-portrait?' "
Perhaps Lennon was the other great love of his life - but if this was love, it was a tormented, bilious love. Lennon and McCartney the great songwriting team, the great rivals. Even now, 20 years after Lennon's death, the rivalry, the love, both seems to be very much alive.
He also did a "normal" John portrait:
And on that note, till the next pic spam!
It's from the catalogue of Astrid's 2010 exhibition in Liverpool. (Since the iconic photos she took of herself are of her in the Marais-inspired short hair cut and in black and white, seeing her in colour and with long hair two years later was weird, btw.) Re: this scene, she remarked:
Us in Tenerife again. Paul had a piece of stamp stuck on his nose as he had the worst sunburn. So did Ringo. There was this beautiful blonde Spanish girl who worked in a shop there and George fancied her so much. He went down on his knees and said, ‘Please go out with me! I’m one of The Beatles and we’ve got a hit record!’ She just stared at him and asked ‘A Beetles? What is this Beetles? What is he doing?’ I’ve always wondered if she regretted that.
(Now look at that beautiful pout of George's.) (Paul otoh either makes a lolz-worthy sunburn face, or has a prescient flash that John is currently busy persuading Brian to switch the song credits from McCartney/Lennon to Lennon/McCartney forever more.)
Speaking of the Exis, as John called the Hamburg bunch of students they made life-long friends of, I found out several of Klaus Voorman's drawings and paintings showing them in Hamburg are online.
Klaus Voormann, the original art student to walk into the Kaiserkeller and discover a rock band, bass player for Manfred Mann and a couple of John solo records, famously designed the cover for Revolver, but he also did a lot of sketches and paintings of them from memory. This in one case led to hilarious confusion and last minute adjustment, as when did this painting which was supposed to show young George locked up in a German prison cell (at the Davidswache, in case anyone reading this is from Hamburg):
Proudly presenting the result to George Harrison, Klaus got the following response: "Great picture, but who is it?"
Quoth one crushed artist: "But that's you! Don't you remember, little Georgie, seventeen years old lonely boy, freezing in prison, so far away from home! I felt so sorry for you then!"
Says the Quiet One: "Aw, Klaus, that's so nice of you, you're a true friend... but... I never was in prison."
"What?"
"No, it was Paul!" laughed George. (As indeed it was. Klaus was confusing two different incidents. When the cops found out George was underage and working in a night club, they deported him back to England right away. Paul and Pete Best were busted (and spending the night in a cell) one or two days later supposedly for burning a condom, but more probably because the vengeful Bruno Koschmider didn't like that the Beatles moved from his clubs - the Indra and the Kaiserkeller - to the Top Ten. And had taken his bouncer and his toilet woman with them. Anyway, Klaus Voormann redid the painting so it showed Paul instead of George:
He also asked for and got a sketch from Paul showing the layout of the Bambi cinema (that's where Koschmider let them sleep, since he owned both the Indra and the Bambi and was too cheap to pay for proper rooms) and what happened where:
Armed with this, Klaus did a painting of John and Paul in their "Bambi Suite":
Klaus about John in Hamburg: Those John Days... times when he would act outrageously, just out of sheer frustration, and play jokes which left you torn between laughing and crying would usually leave Paul with having to repair the damage with a thousand apologies and promises.
I always found it interesting that of their German friends, Klaus and Astrid, i.e. middle class students the same age, were closest to John, whereas Horst Fascher the bouncer and Rosa the toilet woman, both older (in Rosa's case old enough to be a parent) and as working class as you could get, were closest to Paul. Klaus did a painting of Paul and Rosa as well and wrote: Rosa, sometimes known as Muttchen, presided over the toilet of the Top Ten. From her drawer she dealt out everything one might need to master life: condoms, handkerchiefs, toilet paper and a good assortment of pills. When Rosa's Pauli came by to get his Prellies she was particularly happy. Rosa would sit in there smiling, with her heart of gold, amongst the kissing lovers and pissing drunks, and they would have a nice little natter.
(John might have been more vocal about his mother issues, but between charming Louise Harrison - "Paul was my mother's favourite Beatle", quoth George - , Julia Lennon when she was still alive, Rosa the toilet woman, and Margaret Asher (mother of Jane), the McCartney tendency to befriend every mother figure in sight is pretty telling. It got him deemed permanently uncool by the Exis then and certain rock critics to this day. But as methods of how to deal with being a semi-orphan go, I always thought it was just a tad more constructive than Primal Scream therapy myself.)
(More of Klaus Voormann's art work is here, if you're interested.)
John's own drawings, far more cartoon-like than Klaus', are pretty well known, especially this one:
He met his first wife, Cynthia, at art college (by borrowing her pens at lettering); in her memoirs Cynthia also included a series of cartoons depicting her life. This is from vacationing with George and Pattie. Note the extra thin George:
And the Maharishi counselling them after Brian's death (see earlier post on the India saga):
Lastly, Paul - who is a Magritte fan; the Apple name and logo came from a Magritte painting he bought in the mid-60s - sometimes paints as well; he had a small exhibition here in Germany ten years ago. It included a portrait of Linda:
And one picture that caused the following exchange with Simon Hattenstone who was interviewing him and reviewing the exhibition:
One of the paintings is called "Is this a self-portrait?" I ask him if it is. "I don't know. It looks just a bit like me in the Beatles." I say it also looks like John Lennon. "Uh huh, well hence the title. 'Is it a self-portrait?' "
Perhaps Lennon was the other great love of his life - but if this was love, it was a tormented, bilious love. Lennon and McCartney the great songwriting team, the great rivals. Even now, 20 years after Lennon's death, the rivalry, the love, both seems to be very much alive.
He also did a "normal" John portrait:
And on that note, till the next pic spam!
