Link to Paul McCartney at 1999 R'n'R Hall of Fame

Five years ealier ...

Wednesday January 19, 1994
   In New York, at the Waldorf-Astoria, Paul makes the induction speech for John Lennon's entry as a solo artist into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Yoko accepts the award for John. Following the ceremony, in which Paul and Yoko are seen hugging each other for the first time in years, they attend a press conference where he announces that the three surviving Beatles will enter the studio next month to record together. Yoko tells the hundreds of reporters: "Give the three of them a chance!" (Incidentally, John becomes only the second artist to be twice honoured by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, The Beatles, of course, having been inducted on January 20, 1988. The other double inductee is Clyde McPhatter, who entered as a solo artist and as a member of The Drifters.) Viewers in the UK are able to see highlights of the ceremony when the programme Hollywood Report is transmitted in certain ITV regions on February 2.

   During Paul's visit to New York for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame event, Yoko gives him four John Lennon home demos, on which the "Beatles Comeback" recordings will be based. The songs in question are 'Free As A Bird' (from 1977), 'Real Love' (a version previously released in 1988 as 'Girls And Boys' on the soundtrack album Imagine: John Lennon), 'Grow Old With Me' (a version previously released on the 1984 Milk And Honey album) and 'Now And Then', from 1980, which is often referred to as 'Miss You' or 'I Don't Want To Lose You'.

   Yoko reveals that in 1991 George and Neil Aspinall (not Paul) approached her with the idea of adding new instrumentation and vocals to existing John demos. According to Aspinall, she gives Paul "two cassettes of John's songs, containing five or six tracks". (In fact, Yoko gives to Paul three tapes containing the four John Lennon demos.) As Yoko recalls: "It was all settled before then. I just used that occasion (the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame) to hand over the tapes personally to Paul." She continues: "I did not break up The Beatles, but I was there at the time you know? Now, I'm in a position where I could bring them back together and I would not want to hinder that. It was a situation given to me by fate." Just prior to the Hall Of Fame event, Paul had asked Yoko if there was anything of John's that never came out.

Paul: "Yoko was a little surprised to get a phone call from me, because we'd often been a bit adversarial because of the business stuff. She told me she had three tracks, including 'Free As A Bird'. I'd never heard them before, but she explained that they're quite well known to Lennon fans as bootlegs!"

Paul then told Yoko: "Don't impose too many conditions on us, it's really difficult to do this. We don't know, we (George, Ringo and himself) may hate each other after two hours in the studio and just walk out. So don't put any conditions, it's tough enough. If it doesn't work out, you can veto it."

    The fifth "Beatles comeback" song, 'All For Love', later cited by The Beatles as being recorded, is not a Lennon home demo at all. It is, in fact, only the second ever McCartney-Harrison composition, the first being 'In Spite Of All The Danger', originally recorded by The Beatles on a shellac acetate back in 1958. An edited version of the recording will appear on The Beatles Anthology 1 double album in November, 1995.)

    When Paul returns to England from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame event, he gives the audio cassettes to Jeff Lynne who spends a week, in his private studio, working on cleaning them up. He then transfers John's original mono cassettes into analogue 48-track form.

from here: http://wingspan.ru/bookseng/diary2/b27_1994.html

PAUL McCARTNEY'S SPEECH

"Dear John,
            I remember when we first met, at Woolton, at the village fete. It was a beautiful summer day and I walked in there and saw you on stage. And you were singing "Come Go With Me," by the Dell Vikings, But you didn't know the words so you made them up. "Come go with me to the penitentiary." It's not in the lyrics.
             I remember writing our first songs together. We used to go to my house, my Dad's home, and we used to smoke Ty-Phoo tea with the pipe my dad kept in a drawer. It didn't do much for us but it got us on the road.
             We wanted to be famous.
             I remember the visits to your mum's house. Julia was a very handsome woman, very beautiful woman. She had long, red hair and she played a ukulele. I'd never seen a woman that could do that. And I remember to having to tell you the guitar chords because you used to play the ukulele chords.
             And then on your 21st birthday you got 100 pounds off one of your rich relatives up in Edinburgh, so we decided we'd go to Spain. So we hitch-hiked out of Liverpool, got as far as Paris, and decided to stop there, for a week. And eventually got our haircut, by a fellow named Jurgen, and that ended up being the "Beatle haircut."
             I remember introducing you to my mate George, my schoolmate, and getting him into the band by playing "Raunchy" on the top deck of a bus. You were impressed. And we met Ringo who'd been working the whole season at Butlin's camp - he was a seasoned professional - but the beard had to go, and it did.
             Later on we got a gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool which was officially a blues club. We didn't really know any blues numbers. We loved the blues but we didn't know any blues numbers, so we had announcements like "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great Big Bill Broonzy number called "Wake Up Little Suzie." And they kept passing up little notes - "This is not the blues, this is not the blues. This is pop." But we kept going.
             And then we ended up touring. It was a bloke called Larry Parnes who gave us our first tour. I remember we all changed names for that tour. I changed mine to Paul Ramon, George became Carl Harrison and, although people think you didn't really change your name, I seem to remember you were Long John Silver for the duration of that tour. (Bang goes another myth.)
             We'd been on a van touring later and we'd have the kind of night where the windsceen would break. We would be on the motorway going back up to Liverpool. It was freezing so we had to lie on top of each other in the back of the van creating a Beatle sandwich. We got to know each other. These were the ways we got to know each other.
             We got to Hamburg and met the likes of Little Richard, Gene Vincent...I remember Little Richard inviting us back to his hotel. He was looking at Ringo's ring and said, "I love that ring." He said, "I've got a ring like that. I could give you a ring like that." So we all went back to the hotel with him. (We never got a ring.)
             We went back with Gene Vincent to his hotel room once. It was all going fine until he reached in his bedside drawer and pulled out a gun. We' said "Er, we've got to go, Gene, we've got to go..." We got out quick!
             And then came the USA -- New York City -- where we met up with Phil Spector, the Ronettes, Supremes, our heroes, our heroines. And then later in L.A., we met up with Elvis Presley for one great evening. We saw the boy on his home territory. He was the first person I ever saw with a remote control on a TV. Boy! He was a hero, man.
             And then later, Ed Sullivan. We'd wanted to be famous, now we were getting really famous. I mean imagine meeting Mitzi Gaynor in Miami!
             Later, after that, recording at Abbey Road. I still remember doing "Love Me Do." You officially had the vocal "love me do" but because you played the harmonica, George Martin suddenly said in the middle is the session, "Will Paul sing the line "love me do?", the crucial line. I can still hear it to this day - you would go "Whaaa whaa," and I'd go "loove me doo-oo." Nerves, man.
             I remember doing the vocal to "Kansas City" -- well I couldn't quite get it, because it's hard to do that stuff. You know, screaming out the top of your head. You came down from the control room and took me to one side and said "You can do it, you've just got to scream, you can do it." So, thank you. Thank you for that. I did it.
             I remember writing "A Day in the Life" with you, and the little look we gave each other when we wrote the line "I'd love to turn you on." We kinda knew what we were doing, you know. A sneaky little look.
             After that there was this girl called Yoko. Yoko Ono. She showed up at my house one day. It was John Cage's birthday and she said she wanted to get hold of manuscripts of various composers to give to him, and she wanted one from me and you. So I said," Well it's ok by me. but you'll have to go to John."
             And she did...
             After that I set up a couple of Brennell recording machines we used to have and you stayed up all night and recorded "Two Virgins." But you took the cover yourselves -- nothing to do with me.
             And then, after that there were the phone calls to you. The joy for me after all the business mess that we'd gone through was that we were actually getting back together and communicating once again. And the joy as you told me about how you were baking bread now. And how you were playing with your little baby, Sean. That was great for me because it gave me something to hold on to.
             So now, years on, here we are. All these people. Here we are, assembled, to thank you for everything that you mean to all of us.
             This letter comes with love, from your friend Paul.
             John Lennon, you've made it. Tonight you are in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.
             God bless you.
             Paul"

from here: http://wingspan.ru/intereng/letter94.html