IMAGINE THERE'S NO BEATLES  




POP GROUP KILLED IN RIOT
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (REUTERS) JULY 4, 1966— All four members of The Beatles, an internationally famous pop combo with a string of hit records extending over three years, were killed when an uncontrolled mob of fans crushed a car in which they were riding.
The group included guitarists John Lennon, 25, George Harrison, 23, Paul McCartney, 24, and 25-year-old Ringo Starr, a drummer.
The incident occurred in the late afternoon, after the band had played two concerts at Rezal Memorial Football Stadium, to a combined crowd of 80,000 people.
According to Malcom Evans,the group’s 31-year-old road manager, the band had been invited to meet Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos at a pre-concert reception, but had declined.
This alleged message did not reach the palace, resulting in Mrs. Marcos feeling slighted. She allegedly then dismissed The Beatles’ security detail, and put out the word that the band had insulted the president and first lady,
After the concert the group piled into a Mini-Cooper, with Lennon driving, and attempted to get to the airport.
They lost their way and came face-to-face with a group of 10,000 people evenly divided as fans of the group and youths who were angry about the perceived insult.
While the incident is under investigation relations have chilled considerably between Great Britain and the Philippines.
Elsewhere there has occurred a tremendous outpouring of emotion is similar to the response to United States President John F. Kennedy’s assassination nearly three years ago.
“Many parents have thought of the Beatles as frivolous and annoying,” said Emma Reichert, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Health in London. “But a lot if kids are taking this loss very personally, and in several girls have tried to take their own lives.
“Thankfully none have succeeded but we are asking parents to watch their teenagers carefully for radical mood changes, especially with girls who seem obsessed with the Beatles.”
As news of the incident has traveled around the world fans have held large, loud public memorials.
Some Beatles fans do not accept the news and believe the group will re-emerge with another album and tour.
“I can’t believe they are really gone,” said Hillary Rodham, a fan from Chicago who was on holiday in London. “I know they are still alive and will wash up on a beach somewhere.”
This is not possible, as the bodies of all four Beatles were identified by their manager, Brian Epstein.
In their four years of fame the quartet from Liverpool had 14 number one singles and released six albums in the United Kingdom.
A final album completed before the tour began was scheduled for release in August but has now been postponed indefinitely.


Final Beatles Album Poised for Release
By Carl Connors
Special to the New York Times
January 20, 1967
LOS ANGELES—The final album by the British pop group the Beatles will be released next month, the last recordings made before the singing group was killed by a mob in the Philippines on July 4.
Since the incident, Capitol Records has released two albums, each featuring 11 of the band’s best known and most popular songs, assembled from their four-year recording career. Both albums topped the music sales lists for the 1966 holiday season, and fell out of the top ten lists only last week.
The two albums angered Beatles fans, since the label has repeatedly postponed the release of the album the band had completed at the time of its demise. This situation was exacerbated by the fact that its most recent album at that time, “Yesterday and Today,” was itself a collection of previously released songs and those intended for its upcoming album.
Due to what was described as “emotional stress” Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein was not involved in the preparation of the two greatest hits albums.
The new album is a more careful package than the two hastily assembled greatest hits albums, as Beatles manager Brian Epstein supervised its release.
For the new album Epstein considered several lavish designs and presentations before settling on a simple format, a plain white cover with the lowercase words “the beatles” embossed on front of the album.
Even with this simplicity the album is one of the most expensive to produce in history, since the jackets are made with thick paper that simulates a linen finish.
There are two other Beatles albums prepared, taped live during various stages of their short career. Their release is uncertain, depending on how well the ‘the beatles’ does on the pop charts.
“It took me a long time to prepare this album and I apologize to the fans who were anxiously awaiting its release,” Epstein said in a prepared statement.
“But I think the new album is what the boys would have wanted.”

Actor Remarks Prompt Film Boycott, Actress Quits
Beatty apologizes to church, Kennedy family

Dunaway bails, Beatty flails: A movie that might not ever be made.
Variety, March 27, 1967
NEW YORK—Reaction to an admittedly “flip” comment by actor Warren Beatty on the Tonight Show last week threw the funding for his most recent film into jeopardy when financial support was withdrawn.
The actor is now looking for alternatives to finance the film, Bonnie and Clyde,” which is based on the real-life exploits of Roaring 20s era gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
Beatty’s remarks shocked many in Hollywood, with one prominent producer saying, “I really wonder what-or if-Warren was thinking.”
“The Beatles’ deaths hit a lot of people I know very hard,” Beatty said on the show. “And for them, they felt a larger loss after that happened than after the assassination of President Kennedy.”
After Beatty’s remarks his co-star, Faye Dunaway, left the project to appear as the female lead in Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Beatty reacted to Dunaway’s action with the announcement that he hired Carly Simon, a 21-year-old actress with no film experience to play Bonnie.
Beatty called a press conference on Thursday that was attended by about 40 reporters, where he explained that the remarks were “taken out of context.”
According to Beatty his segment was running long, cutting into a scheduled appearance by comedian Buddy Hackett, who then refused to appear on the show. Beatty and host Johnny Carson were forced to improvise, and Carson asked about the Beatles to fill time.
Beatty said that the show ended in the middle of his answer to Carson, and that the context was not heard over the orchestra,
“I did say that kids felt more about the Beatles than President Kennedy,” he said. “But I added how that was really misguided because Kennedy will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents, and the Beatles will most likely be forgotten in a year or two.”
Beatty acknowledged that his original comment “was a bit too flip.”
Beatty’s intention was to defuse criticism of his earlier remarks, but he made it worse with his clarifying statement.
After about twenty minutes Beatty’s manager ended the press conference. But Beatty “had one more thing” to say, quoting one of the last interviews given by the late John Lennon in which he said the Beatles “were more popular than Jesus.”
“John Lennon knew about the power of fame and how it skews public perception,” Beatty said. “His statement about how the band had become more popular than Jesus was not a boast but a lament.”
A few hours after the press conference Beatty’s agent announced that he has apologized to the Kennedy family for his original statement, and is reportedly preparing an additional apology to Catholic leaders.

CRAWDADDY!/The Rock Magazine
What the Boys Would Have Wanted?
By Nels Paulson
In order to appreciate the mixed masterpiece that is The Beatles’ final album we have to first understand what it is not, then what it could have possibly become.
While the songs on the album were already recorded when a mad Filipino mob took their lives, the group was absent when the album was prepared for release. So while this is their own music, and was not tinkered with after their deaths, the group had nothing to do with the song order, album cover, album title or promotion. All of these responsibilities were assumed by people who didn’t necessarily have the group’s best interests or their legacy in mind.
We will never know for certain how this music would have appeared, only that it would have emerged in the summertime, when its optimistic sounds would have been synchronized with the season. As they arrive in the dead of winter, this cold mood has exaggerated the sense of sadness when you listen to what you know will be their last album for the first time.
It does not have all the songs that The Beatles had recorded when they did not know it would be their last. Missing is “Here, There and Everywhere,” last summer’s melancholy hit record which was plucked from the finished tracks and released as a single (backed by the equally melodic and just a little cheerier “If I Needed Someone” from “Yesterday and Today”).
While many of the songs explore and expand the experiments taken on “Rubber Soul” and “Yesterday and Today” the session’s most experimental track is also missing. Untitled, it reportedly features a repetitive drone over which Lennon chants obscure lyrics about turning on, tuning in and dropping off the face of the earth. Ringo’s drumming is, as always, steadfast and inspired.
There are those who swear that it does not exist, because if it did and really was so extraordinary then Capitol would have no other choice but to include it on the album.
But it does exist, and is already available in many New York record stores-although sold under the counter in a plain white sleeve and with no text on the label.
Beatles fans waiting for the logical follow—up to “Rubber Soul,” which is now an inconceivable 14 months old, will be disappointed by this lower—case effort. But it could have been much different and a whole lot worse.
The two posthumous Beatles albums have been hit repackages, one featuring singles and the most popular album tracks from 1962 to 1964 and another from 1965 and 1966. Both feature the same cover picture, you can only tell the difference between the two because one has a red border and the other blue.
Were they alive, one thinks The Beatles would never have agreed to such a cheap device.
Last year they were the one remaining British band of significance to resist the impulse to release “greatest hits” albums. By comparison, Herman’s Hermits (which has enjoyed a bump in popularity due perhaps to fans craving anything that sounds remotely like The Beatles) has three such records.
This album is not, as Brian Epstein said, “what the boys would have wanted.” Were they alive, the Beatles would not have put out an album with only two songs performed by John Lennon. And if there were only two Lennon songs, one would not have been a stray B-side to a year-old single.
“Rain” is still pretty good, and its presence here will placate those who want all of the Beatles songs to be on an album whether they fit or not. And the other Lennon song, “I Know What it’s Like to Be Dead,” kicks off the album, and sets the mood.
So even if there are only two Lennon songs here they are two of the best. John still casts the biggest shadow. It would have been different this shortage had occurred when they were alive, and he would have written a few more tunes to balance things out.
Or it would have been different if Capitol Records hadn’t pulled three unfinished Lennon songs. “I’m Only Sleeping,” “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Dr. Robert,” for “Yesterday and Today.” (The three songs are included on the British version of the new album, making it as much Lennon’s as McCartney’s.)
Even so, you don’t notice the Lennon deficit right away, since the first four songs feature the four in sequence. “I Know What it’s Like to Be Dead” is followed by “Good Day Sunshine,” “I Want to Tell You” and “Yellow Submarine. John, Paul, George and Ringo. The album’s first real statement is that the band, despite all else, was a demonstration of how the band’s whole exceeded its four parts.
The first side finishes with a pair of McCartney songs, very different from each other. “Got to Get You Into My Life” is horn-driven pop with a great hook, the kind of stuff the Beatles could do in their sleep but amazes every time. “I’m Down” is a great song, but again you wonder why it’s here. It’s even older than “Rain” and was the b-side of “Help” back in Summer 1965.
But “I’m Down” pays tribute to the songs by Little Richard and Chuck Berry that filled out their early albums before they learned to write all their old songs. For their last album it makes sense to include something that acknowledges their roots.
Side two begins with another retread, “Paperback Writer,” followed by Harrison’s “Taxman” and McCartney’s “Eleanor Rigby.” This song was released for the Christmas season as a McCartney solo single, for that reason it sticks out here. “For No One,” another soft Paul song, is next.
“Rain” follows and then a surprise. Even if Lennon and McCartney were the group’s leaders Harrison’s “Make Love All Day Long” has the last word. “Love me while you can,” he intones over the drone of several sitars. “Before I’m a dead old man.” Harrison played the sitar on “Norwegian Wood” on “Rubber Soul,” as if it were an atonal acoustic guitar. Here it becomes a wall of subcontinent sound, grim and hypnotic.
It also serves as the Beatles’ valediction, the last notes of an illustrious musical career cut short.
And what would they have done, had they lived? Recording artists of today both established to emerging are bursting with ideas. Some, like Brian Wilson’s brilliant sunny “Smile” was doubly liberating: as Wilson declared independence from the Beach Boy straightjacket and did this one all on his own.
Others, like the Dave Clark Five’s “John Barleycorn’s Roaming Pub Crawl Orchestra,” are well-intentioned but ultimately fall short.
The Beatles would have been at the forefront of this renaissance, but the revolution has gone on without them. Is this album what “the boys” would have wanted? Not likely. But it’s good enough that we will probably still be listening to it, and all the Beatles had done in their short lives, and it won’t be a surprise if we are still listening to this music when we grow into our 30s.
Which is, unfortunately, something the Beatles never got the chance to do.
March 1967
PO Box 1850
New York, NY 10013 

THE PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: Brian Epstein
July 1967


The loss of the Beatles last year was a devastating blow to the world of popular music, from which it may not recover for some time.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein, however, is well on the way to his own recovery. Last summer, after the Beatles died in an explosion, Epstein was completely traumatized and lost control of the band’s first two posthumous projects.
Even as the rest of the world mourned The Beatles, Epstein’s grief was deeply personal. He did not create the group, nor did he “discover” them in a literal sense. Instead, he sensed their potential to become a phenomenon as soon as he saw them perform in Liverpool.
During the subsequent years The Beatles evolved from a very promising young band to one that changed the world, then they were gone.
Epstein, who was in the middle of the group’s maelstrom from the beginning, went into what he described as “immediate shock” after hearing the news.
Today much has changed. He has not recovered from the loss of his proteges, and his frequent, polite smiles seem quite mournful. He fidgets quite a bit (he recently quit smoking and drinking) and often changes the subject in the middle of a sentence.
He is, however, jettisoned several bad habits such as smoking and drinking. In an unguarded moment he admitted using amphetamines, but there is no doubt that he has cleaned up and is healthier than he’s ever been.
Adding to this is his new sense of peace brought about by his admission here in these pages that some will find startling.
PLAYBOY: What’s your announcement?
EPSTEIN: Some might not find this a surprise, but I am homosexual.
PLAYBOY: Why are you telling us this, and why now?
EPSTEIN: After what happened last summer I was forced to look at myself and what I could possibly do next, keeping in mind that I lost my entire world just months ago. I decided that I couldn’t continue to hide this fact from other people. As for why here, your magazine reaches an enlightened audience, at least when it comes to sexual matters, so I know you aren’t going to take things out of context. That will come later, as your daily press here will focus on the scandalous bits and play up the most sordid aspects.
PLAYBOY: So this changes your life.
EPSTEIN: It is only a small part of what I am, but was actually much
bigger when I was trying to hide it. Now that I have admitted it, “out
of the closet” as is the new popular term, I don’t feel threatened by
its exposure.
PLAYBOY: People threatened you?
EPSTEIN: There was always a fear…while the Beatles were on top
everything was moving so fast, and we often reacted to the situations
in ways that we wouldn’t have when if we had time to think.
PLAYBOY: Which means?
EPSTEIN: You can’t imagine the attention, how the world paid attention
to everything the Beatles did. They were followed everywhere and the
girls would just start screaming. You see it on the television, or in magazines, but being there was quite different.
So The Beatles reacted under stress, and I had to deal with the consequences. Right before we left on the last tour we learned that an interview John had given saying the Beatles were more popular than Jesus was going to be published in America, during the tour. I knew I was going to have to control the damage and I wasn’t looking forward to that.
PLAYBOY:I don’t see the connection between…..
EPSTEIN: There isn’t one, really, except I had to manage the Beatles
and watch my back at the same time, A double life, as it were, so when
I woke up from my long sleep I knew there was a lot of work to be done, and
undone because the last two albums shouldn’t have come out. I needed
to set things straight with the new record, and thought it would be
easier if I didn’t have to lie along the way.
The biggest argument against me telling the truth before, not that it
was really discussed, was that if people knew that I was homosexual it
would have lost fans for the Beatles. Looking back, it wouldn’t have
been a disaster if they had fewer fans, fewer people who were trying
to tear them apart.
PLAYBOY: Or maybe it would have been worse.
EPSTEIN: Truth is, it was never discussed. When I…do you want to
talk about The Beatles at all?
PLAYBOY: I thought we were.
EPSTEIN: (fidgets)
PLAYBOY: So The Beatles left a tremendous void in music, even though there are still a lot of people creating some marvelous stuff. Will that void ever be filled?
EPSTEIN: Eventually, but not in the same way. We can’t force it, as I’ve found.
PLAYBOY: In what respect?
EPSTEIN: One of the groups that I was working with, three brothers from the Isle of Man called The BeeGees, sounded very much like The Beatles to me, so I asked them to record some of the unrecorded songs the Beatles had written, or partially written, for the BeeGees to record, But they refused. The oldest one is just 18, but he had a real mind of his own, and went against me directly, saying “I’m sorry Mr. Epstein but we have our own songs that we wan to record. After we do them if you don’t like them we’ll do it your way.”
This kid-Barry-is just 18 and he was arguing with me. I was put off at first but then I remembered when I first met The Beatles and they were the same way. So I let Barry and his brothers follow their instincts, and their first album is remarkable, Some of it does sound like The Beatles quite a bit. I don’t think you can avoid that right now, consciously or not every group sounds like The Beatles.
PLAYBOY: And you are managing them?
EPSTEIN: Not completely. I was involved with every step of The Bealles lives, something they were beginning to resent, I think. So I’ve decided to let other people do some of the work, ‘delegate,’ if you will. The BeeGees will be handled by my associate Robert Stigwood, and he’ll check in with me regularly. I’ve also signed an American guitarist named Jimmy Hendrix, who is being managed by Chas Chandler, whom I knew when he was in the Animals.
The Beatles took all of my attention, so my second act I’m going to let others handle all the details, and help out from behind the scenes. There is no reason that I have to do everything anymore. I don’t have the energy, and I don’t want to be as personally invoved.
This may sound crass, but if I am not so invested in those I manage, my clients, then I won’t be as hurt when they go away.
PLAYBOY: But none of these groups can take The Beatles’ place.
EPSTEIN: Well, no, but there is a lot of creativity and I can help it come to pass. The BeeGees and Jimmy Hendrix are only two examples. Additionally, there are a several “second generation” musicians who were in good bands and are finding new combinations. Jeff Beck, for one, is a wonderful guitar player who never really found his niche in the Yardbirds, and I’ve paired him with Eric Burdon, who sang for the Animals. They clicked right away in rehearsals and have recorded a few songs but have yet to find the right drummer and bass player.
PLAYBOY: So you’re the matchmaker?
EPSTEIN: The Beatles succeeded because they were four strong personalities that blended into a whole. If I can help a “John” find their “Paul” it will make it worthwhile. Creative people don’t always make the wisest choices. So by pairing up Jeff and Eric, who would never choose each other on their own, I am using my intincts to help them make great music.
PLAYBOY: But music isn’t just business.
EPSTEIN: No, of course not. Jeff and Eric, they wouldn’t argue with me for saying this, are both tremendously egotistical. They each want to be the center of attention. So having a group with two centers I think will be very exciting.
PLAYBOY: Like the Beatles.
EPSTEIN: Not really, The Beatles actually had four centers, People perceived John and Paul as the leaders, but their success came from the blend of all of them, They are all gone now, so we’ll never know, but if one of them left the band they could not have carried on. The Beatles had to end all at once.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 232

BYRDS DROPPING
Rolling Stone
Volume One, Number 1
November 9, 1967

By JAN WEINNER
David Crosby is in a very good mood.
After a rocky year when the Byrds were fractured by internal dissent he has emerged victorious and is now leading the group into what may be its most fertile and creative time.
“This is what’s gonna happen,” he said, biting into a huge Granny Smith. “We’ll make an album with just the four of us (himself, Chris Hillman, Mike Clarke and newly added guitarist Stephen Stills) and then invite some other people in to jam.”
Among those he mentions are Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton although none of them have been contacted about the opportunity.
Crosby is also excited about a lesser known singer, whom he is attempting to lure away from The Hollies.
“There is a guy that no one’s heard over here named Allan Clarke,” Crosby said. “He’s great at harmony and when he sings with Steve and me it goes into a whole other thing. I’d like to see him in the Byrds.”
Crosby picks up his guitar and plays a newly written but untitled song, about King’s Arthur’s Court called “Guinevere had Green Eyes Like Yours.” He stops singing after two verses and starts talking about the Beatles.
“It was hard for everyone when that happened but it was harder for us,” he said. “People were looking to us for answers, to pick up where the Beatles left off. We started playing a few Beatles
songs onstage just out of respect, but pretty soon that’s all some people wanted to hear. “And some other people,” he said with a visible sneer, “wanted to give it to them.”
Crosby is referring to Roger McGuinn, once a key part of the Byrds, all afternoon but this is the first time he’s mentioned his former friend by name.
“McGuinn took it really hard,” he said. “We all did, but he lost his way. First thing he wanted to do a few Beatles songs onstage and we did that. ‘If I Needed Someone’ sounded really good.
“Except he wanted to put it out as a single, and follow it up with a whole album of their songs. I pushed back.”
The straw that broke the sparrows backs was McGuinn’s surprise onstage appearance playing guitar in a makeshift band assembled by Brian Wilson to perform at this summer’s Monterey Pop Festival.
“I didn’t care that he was playing with Brian, man, Crosby said. “It was the sneaking around, and the fact that we didn’t know he was playing until he was already up there.”
Crosby’s full control of the Byrds will become clear this month when their new album, “Notorious,’ hits the streets. The album was mostly complete when McGuinn was fired, and Crosby went into the studio and replaced all of McGuinn’s vocals with his own.
The capper is the cover, which shows the outside of a stable with a band member in each stall—except McGuinn’s stall is occupied by a Clydesdales’ rear end. “Jimmy acted like a horse’s ass,” Crosby said. “And right now we don’t feel like forgiving him.”
But McGuinn is one happy horse’s ass. He may have lost a gig in one of the scene’s brightest bands, but playing with Brian Wilson is a pretty fair consolation prize.
He put a lot of effort into the Byrds, but after the Beatles’ demise it wasn’t fun anymore.
Playing his own songs wasn’t as rewarding as something by Lennon and McCartney. And Harrison, too. The McGuinn-led Byrds rendition of “If I Needed Someone” sounded better than the original, to some ears.
“Byrds songs were descended from Beach Boys songs as much as Beatles songs,” he said about his old band. “We listened to a lot of other people’s music, but recorded what we heard in our own heads.”
With the Beatles gone, McGuinn felt the balance between them, the Byrds and the Beach Boys was way off kilter. Playing with Brian Wilson seemed to be an obvious solution. He said he knew Crosby would be upset but chose to “ask for forgiveness rather than permission.”
What began as an adventure soon turned difficult. “The thing about Brian is that he needs to rehearse everything a hundred times,” McGuinn said. “There were some incredible new songs but very precise. It became hard for me to keep up two faces and the whole thing almost came crashing down when I accidentally played part of “Good Vibrations” on one of David’s songs.”
While McGuinn’s presence onstage with Wilson visibly annoyed Crosby the resulting music was extraordinary enough to offset the fact that McGuinn knew he was going to get a talking to. And while Crosby is eager to call McGuinn names this does not go both ways. When asked whether Crosby was too controlling McGuinn answers “David is doing his thing, and I’m doing mine.”
When we ask about Crosby again we get nothing but a silent glare. But the next time Brian Wilson’s name comes up McGuinn picks up the phone. “Let’s go see him now,” he said. “I’ll make sure he’s at home.”
Wilson is out playing tennis, so he meets us at his house an hour later, dripping with sweat. He opens the door himself seconds after we ring the bell. He has a glass of milk in each hand passing them to us one at a time, then retreats to the kitchen from where he retrieves his own glass.
“I’m glad Roger brought you over,” Wilson said without preamble. “I want you to hear some new songs.”
He plays six, all with a definable Beach Boys/Brian Wilson sound, but enhanced with chiming twelve-string guitar and harmonies not as precise as those on the final Beach Boys’ album, “Pet Sounds.”
The first song on the tape is “Wild Honey,” a rocker shouted by Carl Wilson over a throbbing Theremin and McGuinn’s soaring guitar. His solo begins where his noodling on “Eight Miles High” left off, racing the Theremin to the end of the instrumental break before Carl comes in with the final verse.
“Change is Now,” a McGuinn song, was recorded by the Byrds and it shows. The middle is lifted with a rich four-part harmony, McGuinn and the three Wilson brothers. Here, you realize that the vocal authenticity comes from Dennis Wilson, whose voice is not as refined as Brian and Carl.
Four other songs-”Friends, “Let the Wind Blow,” “Here Comes the Night” and “Goin’ Back” finish the tape. The final song is written by Goffin-King, the same team that wrote highbrow stuff like “Do the Locomotion.” But this is a beautiful piece, ironically the one where McGuinn and the three Wilsons emerge as equals.
Wilson lets the last note fade and switches off the tape.
“I could never have cut those songs with the Beach Boys,” he said. “Bless them, but they didn’t understand what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to explain it to them. Al (Jardine) and Mike (Love) hated “Pet Sounds” and I refused to go through all that again with ‘Smile.’ And I’ve gone in a different direction since then.”
There would be no Beach Boys without Wilson, and his breaking up the band could have doomed Love and Jardine to obscurity, Wilson, generously, has allowed the two-along with Wilson touring replacement Bruce Johnston-to continue performing as the Beach Boys.
People attending recent Beach Boys have expressed disappointment there are no Wilson brothers onstage. Brian actually stopped touring in 1964, but Carl was an acceptable substitute, and there was always Denny on the drums.
The new-model Beach Boys sound authentic enough- after all, Brian rehearsed them-but they lack authenticity. Even so, they are pretty exciting, speeding up the songs to fit about twenty into an hour’s time, then adding a few encores.
The adrenalin, at least for this tour, comes from a substitute drummer, 21-year-old Keith Moon, who recently left the remarkable but virtually unknown in America band known as The Who.
“Keith came backstage during the Beach Boys on the last British tour and offered to step in if they ever needed a drummer,” Brian said. “It bothered Denny at the time, but made him feel less guilty when he wanted to quit. He remembered the English kid and gave him a call. Luckily enough, he has the year free until his next project.”
Moon will continue drumming for the Beach Boys until March, when he is due to join a new group with Jeff Beck and Eric Burdon.
“We’ll find Mike and Al a new drummer then,” Brian said. “It doesn’t really matter who’s playing these songs, really.”
Brian’s agreement with the Beach Boys doesn’t allow them to record new music but he doesn’t think that’ll be a problem.
“I know those guys,” he said. They’ll be happy if they can play those same songs, over and over, forever.”

MONKEES SHINE; NBC PULLS PLUG
Time Magazine, December 21, 1967

NBC has officially canceled ‘The Monkees” after the cast and crew conspired to change a previously rehearsed live segment to result in what network executives called a “subversive” message.
A statement released by producer Donnie Kirschner said “the Monkees played a good natured prank they felt was in keeping with their happy go lucky image. Unfortunately, they violated standards of good taste.”
A network source said on Tuesday that the decision to cancel could have gone either way “but the group did not apologize for their actions, and we can’t have actors using the airwaves to broadcast their personal opinions.”
The script called for all four members, one at a time, to sit down on a shoeshine platform, striking up a casual, holiday-based conversation with the bootblack who was seen from the rear. At the end of the sketch the four were directed to stand up and say “Merry Christmas!” and hug the shoeshine man.
In the script the face of the shoeshine man was not visible, although it was obvious that he was a Negro. On the air, the four group members gave holiday greetings directed toward four holidays: Christmas, Hanukah, Ramadan and a made-up holiday called “Festivus” before the bootblack turned around, raised his fist and spoke out for “holiday power to all people.”
The actor playing the bootleg bootblack was later identified as Jesse Jackson, 25, a sometime associate of Dr. Martin Luther King.
The group and its producer meant this as a message in support of racial equality, and had to change the script several times in order to satisfy the network’s censors, who felt it would alienate areas where race relations were fragile. Telephone switchboards were immediately jammed, and the show was not broadcast on the west coast.
As news of the cancellation spread Monkees fans in both New York and Burbank, CA staged protests at network headquarters.
The show was one of 1967’s most popular new series, although it had an uncertain start. It was originally intended to begin airing in September 1966, translating the zaniness of the Beatles two movies into a comedy format. Four actor-musicians were cast in the series, but it was postponed after the Beatles were killed in a riot on July 4, 1966. The series was then recast and rewritten to be “a little more serious and political” for audiences who were still in shock after the loss of the Beatles. Former child star Micky Dolenz was the only member of the original cast who was retained. The three new members were Steve Martin, 21, a comedy writer and banjo player, California songwriter Harry Nilsson, 25, and Todd Rundgren, a 19-year guitar prodigy from Philadelphia.
The first few episodes of the Monkees’ TV show were uneven and, as many critics said unfunny. It was threatened with cancellation after just a few episodes but audience numbers increased after a series of topical episodes ended the first season. “We had such a small audience that the network figured they’d let us do what we wanted,” Martin said in an interview at the beginning of the 1967 fall season for TV Guide. “It backfired for them, because more people started watching.” Martin didn’t comment about NBC’s decision, and according to his manager has many roles to choose from. Not if NBC has any say. Network president Steve Supac said last week “these guys are all finished in show business. You will never hear the names Micky Dolenz, Todd Rundgren, Harry Nilsson, Steve Martin or Jesse Jackson again.”

Washington Merry Go Round
JOHNSON: Concerns About King’s Safety
By Drew Pearson
President Lyndon Johnson doesn’t watch a lot of television, especially those programs geared toward frivolous entertainment, but by chance happened to see a portion of the comedy show, “The Monkees,” just before Christmas.
My source tells me the president was relaxing after a long day and the television was on in the background when a Christmas skit that included a young Negro leader in a raised salute was broadcast. That particular skit caused a lot of controversy and adverse reaction, since the actors were not following the script.
It resulted in the cancellation of the show and the chastising of the leader, Jesse Jackson, by his boss, Rev. Martin Luther King. King, it was reported, was told by his advisers to distance himself from Jackson’s protest action, and by all accounts is following that advice.
But Johnson had quite a different reaction. My source told me he sat silently for about twenty minutes and picked up the phone, calling King directly and expressing concern about his safety. My source was not in a position to write down Johnson’s exact words, but later reconstructed them as “Martin, I am worried that someone will see this broadcast, get a crazy idea and come after you.”
The president then attempted to get King to meet with law enforcement officials to provide extra protection, a suggestion that prompted an immediate negative reaction. King has proof that he is in the FBI’s sights and doesn’t want them anywhere nearby. Cooperating with them would provide more of a security risk than a positive force. Johnson, turning on all his persuasive powers, brought up a name of a King associate who, it turns out, is a government agent feeding selected information back to the Justice Department. Again reconstructed, Johnson said that it was possible for agents to blend in with the King entourage and provide protection without disrupting King’s mission.
This includes a “Poor People’s Campaign” where King intends to stage a massive demonstration in Washington this spring. This demonstration could be even bigger than the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which drew 200,000 people to Washington on August 26, 1963.
King, an accomplished orator, is reportedly working on a more powerful speech that he delivered that day, when he said he said he “had a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
King doesn’t trust law enforcement, and he admires-but does not actually trust-the president. Whether or not Johnson can persuade King to accept help with security, the warning has already sounded. People in King’s camp are no more aware of the potential threat. There are even members of King’s camp who feel that Johnson’s call was a tip off, a warning about what could happen if King doesn’t back down. This isn’t how Johnson operates, but he is not above political manipulation. Johnson doesn’t completely trust King, but realizes the two leaders can help each other to achieve mutual goals.
Johnson is gearing up for a re-election campaign, and knows that support from King will be essential if he is to defeat either of the Republican favorites, Nelson Rockefeller or Richard Nixon. He also needs some positive news, to offset the anti-Vietnam War rumblings that are beginning to shake the country.
I predict that the two leaders will come to an agreement. King will take Johnson’s suggestions to heart, and the march will proceed with the president’s tacit cooperation. This will give Johnson a political advantage.
This time next year, as Johnson is sworn in for his final term, the two will be working together in favor of King’s dream.
January 7, 1968