NOTES
Epigraph
v “There is such” “Paul McCartney: A Giant among Rock Immortals.” 2007.
Prelude
xi “Coffin described”: Epstein 1977, 301–2.
xii “In the postwar years”: Payne 1968, 254; Stuckey 1987; Floyd 1995.
xii “Ethnomusicologist John Chernoff”: Chernoff 1979, 154.
xiii “base”: Handy 1957, 76–77.
xiii “The predictability”: Epstein 1977, 295.
xiii “marvelous complication”: Ibid.
xiii “Robert Anderson”: Ibid., 296.
xiii “They’d all take”: Raboteau 1978, 245.
xiii “One observer quipped”: Jackson 1967, 62.
xiv “Louis Armstrong learned”: Brothers 2006, 43 and 40.
xiv “Armstrong 1966”: Armstrong 1966, 57. Ellington agreed: “Rock ‘n’ roll is the most raucous form of jazz, beyond a doubt; it maintains a link with the folk origins, and I believe that no other form of jazz has ever been accepted so enthusiastically by so many.” Hamm 1995, 163.
xiv “All that music”: Jones and Chilton 1971, 45–46.
Introduction
xvii “his revisionist account”: Sheff 1981, 117. For a review of Lennon’s revisionist history, see Weber 2016, 67–113.
xviii “Some of the finest”: For example, Wilfred Mellers (1973, 32): “Though only during the first year or two did Lennon and McCartney actually compose together . . .” (emphasis in original). Ian Macdonald was similarly fooled.
xix “Becker argues”: Becker 1982, 91.
xx “Editorial intervention in literature”: Stillinger, Multiple Authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius.
xx “The differences are structurally determined”: Andrew Durkin (2014) makes the opposite case, that Ellington’s collaborative ways were not qualitatively different from those employed by someone like Beethoven. He observes, for example (p. 58), instances of Beethoven heeding the advice of other musicians, as well as borrowing melodies created by someone else. To me, the differences are so dramatic, with Ellington cultivating a central focus on what can be achieved through direct collaboration and Beethoven not (while still part of the kinds of interconnections Becker associates with an “art world”), that we need a vocabulary to identify them. “Collaboration” seems like the right word.
xx “sad farewell”: MacDonald 2005, 356.
xxii “as Lennon put it”: Sheff 1981, 132.
xxiii “a backing track”: Journalist Maureen Cleve (Turner 2009, 74) described the process for filling out the song A Hard Day’s Night: “The song seemed to materialize as if by magic. It consisted of John humming to the others, then they would all put their heads together and hum and three hours later they had this record.”
xxiii “Starr summed up”; Martin and Pearson 1994, 72.
xxiv “McCartney said”: Miles 1967.
xxv “like a script in a movie”: The analogy is suggested by Albin Zak 2010, 191.
xxvii “Richard Taruskin”: Taruskin, “Introduction: The History of What?,” Oxford History of Music.
Chapter 1: Ellington and Early Jazz
3 “I had never heard anything like it”: Ellington 1973, 47–49. Ellington gave the date as 1921, but this has been clarified by John Chilton; see Tucker 1991, 75, for discussion.
5 “remembered clarinetist Garvin Bushell”: Bushell 1988, 25.
6 “Bechet took Hodges”: Ellington 1973, 48.
6 “One observer explained”: The relationship between church and early jazz in New Orleans is discussed in Brothers 2006, 31–54.
7 “impulse for wildness”: Leonard 1962, 38.
7 “gushed saxophonist Bud Freeman”: Freeman 1974, 8.
7 “became a Negro”: Mezzrow 1946, 111 and 210.
8 “I don’t know how many castes”: Nicholson 1999, 7–8.
8 “Chesterfield gentleman”: Ibid., 4, 1–2.
8 “The way the table was set”: Ibid., 23.
8 “Ellington acknowledged”: Tucker 1993b, 7–8.
9 “My strongest influences”: Hasse 1993, 135.
10 “tone parallel”: Tucker 1991, 12.
10 “In our house”: Cohen 2010, 9.
10 “old standard operatic things”: Tucker 1993b, 11.
10 “jungle music”: Nicholson 1999, 79.
10 “All through grade school”: Ellington 1973, 17.
10 Ellington’s (and Strayhorn’s) A Drum Is a Woman (1956) coincidentally shares imagery with Lennon’s Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (1967). The narrator speaks about a song he once heard sung by Madam Zajj, the leading figure in the suite. The madam beckons all comers into her “emerald rock garden just off the moon” where “cellophane trees grow a mile high,” and where the fruit “tastes like the sky.” There is also a diamond-encrusted hot-house. The connections to Lennon’s Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (1967) are striking. I doubt that Lennon knew this obscure narrative; the similarities come from the mutual love of both composers for the work of Lewis Carroll. The point is that the two visually oriented musicians found their way to a similar set of vivid images. On Ellington’s love of Carroll, see George 1981, 136.
10 “Harvey Oliver Brooks”: Nicholson 1999, 8.
11 “stray tips”: Tucker 1991, 44–45 and 59–62.
11 “Heliotrope Bouquet”: Berlin 2016, 156.
12 “Sometimes he had two or three”: Nicholson 1999, 19.
13 “Duke drew people”: Teachout 2014, 2.
13 “There was an awareness”: Peter Jenner in Green 1988, 61.
13 “If anybody taught Ellington”: Nicholson 1999, 32.
14 “He didn’t want it”: Ibid., 40.
15 “This colored band”: Teachout 2014, 49.
15 “forget all about the sweet music”: Nicholson 1999, 47.
15 “for all-colored Broadway productions”: Woll 1989.
16 “Ellington’s most recent biographer”: Teachout 2014, 112 and 254.
17 “It simply hasn’t the verve”: Wilder 1990, 415.
17 “Once you put your horn”: Nicholson 1999, 50.
19 “My biggest ambition”: Ellington 1973, 87 and 109.
20 “Fletcher Sr. refused”: Allen 1973, 3.
20 “But before he knew it”: On Henderson, see Magee 2005.
21 “fistful of nickels”: Nicholson 1999, 81.
22 “Sugar Foot Stomp”: Magee 2005, 88; Brothers 2014, 149–150.
23 “Carolina Stomp”: Magee 2005, 90–96.
23 “changed our whole idea”: Ibid., 94.
23 “Modernism will always”: Peyton, Chicago Defender, November 14, 1925: 7.
24 “The musicians got paid to rehearse”: Hodes and Hansen 1977; Schuller (1968, 134–174) remains the essential introduction to Morton.
25 “You clap your hands”: Brothers 2014, 234–237; Brothers 2006, 143.
26 “Gunther Schuller”: Schuller 1968, 157.
26 “According to Barney Bigard”: Bigard WRC 1969.
27 “Johnson described”: Brown 1986, 185.
29 “He [Cook] lacked the interpersonal skills”: Riis 1989, 42.
29 “I can see him”: Ellington 1973, 95.
29 “First you find”: Ibid., 97; Nicholson 1999, 45.
29 “I’d sing a melody”: Collier 1978, 245; Tucker 1993b, 241.
30 “Bechet described”: Nicholson 1999, 57.
Chapter 2: The Miley Method and the Ellington Problem
31 “Picasso and Braque”: This paragraph derived from Antliff and Leighten 2001.
31 “We were prepared to efface”: Rubin 1989, 19.
32 “two mountaineers”: Ibid., 47.
32 “his wife”: Braque and Picasso were not alone among early modernists in sharing their progress so closely. An equally celebrated example is T. S. Eliot asking Ezra Pound to review his emerging draft for The Waste Land. In 1921–1922, Pound sharpened his blue pencil and boldly reduced the text by half, while revising in the margins a lot of what remained. Pound described himself as the “midwife” of Eliot’s poem. More than one scholar regards his intervention as so strong that he should be credited as coauthor. Eliot’s wife Vivienne also worked over the drafts. Stillinger 1991, 121–38.
32 “Miley’s life”: Tucker 1993b, 454–58.
33 “growling at each”: Nicholson 1999, 56.
33 “Lewandos”: Baumgartner (2012) organizes and reviews much of the literature on this piece.
33 “The strength comes from the inseparability”: As dancer and critic Roger Pryor Dodge argued, with Miley as his primary example, freak music with manipulated timbre “can inspire the player to subtle melodic invention”; Tucker 1993b, 456. See also Schuller 1968, 322 and 326.
34 “Mary Austin”: Austin 1926, 476; see Brothers (2014, 222–75) for discussion.
35 “The band became”: Nicholson 1999, 48.
35 “backbone of the band”: Ibid., 53.
35 “The recording begins”: Tucker 1988, 88.
36 “People heard it”: Tucker 1991, 243.
36 “the hair on your head rise”: Brothers 2014, 63.
37 “Saxophonist Otto Hardwick”: Lasker 1994, 35.
38 “Bub is responsible”: Tucker 1993b, 27.
38 “The title East St. Louis Toodle-O”: Baumgartner 2012, 35.
38 “entering the realm of art”: Becker (1982, 149) quotes philosopher Arthur Danto: “The moment something is considered an artwork it becomes subject to an interpretation. It owes its existence as an artwork to this, and when its claim to art is defeated, it loses its interpretation and becomes a mere thing. . . . art exists in an atmosphere of interpretation and an artwork is thus a vehicle of interpretation.” Ellington’s explanation for the title was “The Black and Tan was a speakeasy of the period where people of all races and colors mixed together for the purpose of fulfilling their social aspirations”; Stanley Dance, liner notes to The Ellington Era, 1927–1940, Volume One (Columbia C3L 27).
39 “she had been performing with him”: Williams 2002, 111–112.
39 “Creole Love Call was filled out”: On Rudy Jackson’s role in Creole Love Call, see Tucker 1991, 236–42.
40 “Miley was an idea man”: Nicholson 1999, 53.
40 “He was responsible for many licks”: Ellington 1978, 24.
41 “he needed Ellington”: Roger Pryor Dodge in Tucker 1993b, 457.
41 “It is possible to theorize”: Schuller 1992, 41 and 39. Also Schuller 1968, 326–27: “Although the extent of Miley’s contribution has not yet been accurately assessed, there seems little doubt that those compositions that bear Bubber’s name along with Ellington’s were primarily created by Miley. These include the three most important works of the period . . . East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, Black and Tan Fantasy, and Creole Love Call.”
42 “what Langston Hughes called”: Hughes 1926, 693; Tucker 1993b, 135.
43 “If music is a language”: Maus 1989, 1–80.
43 “There are reports”: Tucker 1993b, 467, 463–465, and 458; Nicholson 1999, 53.
43 “One writer even referred”: Tucker 1991, 242.
44 “This played out in South Side Chicago”: Brothers 1997, 185–86.
44 “You’ve got to learn to stop hollering”: Jackson 1966, 59.
45 “Whenever his theme song”: Ellison 2003, 681 and 682.
46 “Darrell claimed”: Tucker 1993b, 127–28 and 57–65.
47 “primitivist thinking”: On primitivism, see Brothers 2014, 222–275.
47 “emotional holiday”: Tichenor 1930, 485.
47 “Rudolph Fisher”: Fisher 1927, 398.
49 “decoration of the interior”: Haskins 1977, 33; Singer 1992, 100.
49 “The big attraction are the gals”: Vail 2002, 9.
49 “Spike Hughes”: Nicholson 1999, 74.
50 “Benny Goodman and Charlie Parker”: Goodman 1939, 231; Morton 2008, 31.
50 “so beautiful it sometimes brought”: Ellington 1973, 119.
50 “full of ideas”: Ellington 1978, 109.
50 “an absolute song factory”: Teachout 2014, 163.
50 “Ellington’s frequent failure”: Ibid., 271.
51 “Cootie Williams was hired”: Nicholson 1999, 89.
51 “open faucet”: Serrano 2008, 108. Chapter 11 of Serrano is an excellent introduction to the obstacles in assessing Tizol’s compositional achievement.
52 “Yeah he did some bad things”: Serrano 2008, 118.
52 “Juan was disgusted”: Ibid., 117.
52 “a very big man”: Ibid., citing Ellington 1973, 55–56.
53 “The opening strain”: See the analysis, with transcription, by Jeffrey Magee, in Magee 2015, 91–93.
53 “Radio was a surprise benefit”: Wall 2012, 197–222.
53 “The band was first heard”: Cohen 2010, 32.
53 “started to reference”: Peyton Defender, August 10, 1929: 7.
53 “Louis Armstrong remembered”: Singleton IJS 1975.
53 “they all rushed back”: Teachout 2014, 92.
54 “Black Paul Whiteman”: Barnes 1929, 7.
54 “talent on his grandmother’s side”: Ellington 1978, 10–12.
56 “mostly my own”: Bigard 1986, 64.
56 “We had a little six-piece”: Nicholson 1999, 340; Tucker 1993, 43.
56 “I had to laugh”: Bigard IJS 1976.
56 “first tune I wrote”: Tucker 1993, 89.
56 “Each member of his band”: Ibid., 270.
57 “Gary Giddins has described”: Miley’s role was noted by Schuller (1968, 336), citing Ulanov (1946, 94); Giddins 1986, 110.
57 “Lyricist Don George described”: George 1981, 29.
57 “experimenting with chords”: Schuller (1986, 47–50) offers a pithy discussion of Ellington’s effective and innovative use of harmony.
58 “I understand that he got a lot”: Bigard 1986, 64.
58 “Trumpeter Freddie Jenkins described”: Nicholson 1999, 111.
58 “Vodery’s chromatic tendencies”: Howland 2009, 40–43; Teachout 2014, 93; Tucker 1996.
58 “Doctor of music”: Braud 1957.
59 “Ellington was the right person”: Schuller 1968, 340.
61 “He put Harry’s name”: Nicholson 1999, 194; Stewart 1972, 119.
61 “Ellington’s pretty smart”: Bigard 1976.
61 “we used to call ourselves”: Nicholson 1999, 126.
61 “origin story”: Teachout 2014, 113.
61 “I don’t consider you a composer”: Collier 1987, 130.
61 “compiler of deeds”: Teachout 2014, 115.
62 “It wouldn’t cost him”: Ibid., 116.
62 “My loot”: Hasse 1993, 327.
62 “might get credit”: Williams 2002, 117.
62 “You’ll be talking”: Tamarkin 2008.
62 “helped subsidize”: Hajdu 1996, 141.
62 “he inspired a togetherness”: George 1981, 148.
63 “The musicians understood”: On the contracts, see Nicholson 1999, 80.
63 “Writers aiming to glorify Ellington”: For a useful review of literature on Ellington from this point of view, see Whyton 2010, 127–152; see also Durkin 2014.
64 “Mills to promote Ellington as a great composer”: This theme is developed by Cohen, 2010, especially Chapter 2.
64 “I made his importance”: Cohen 2010, 63.
64 “increasing veneers”: Ellington 1978, 38.
64 “Mills wanted Duke to be the star”: Nicholson 1999, 159.
64 “Critic Abbe Niles wrote”: Tucker 1993b, 40–41.
65 “bore the indelible stamp”: Ibid., 59–61.
65 “composed, scored and played”: Ibid., 61. Darrell’s readers included composer Percy Grainger, who would, in October, invite Ellington to a composition seminar at New York University; Rexroth 2007, 77.
65 “Sell Ellington”: Teachout 2014, 4.
65 “the involved nature of my numbers”: Tucker 1993b, 49.
68 “Managers and promoters”: Ibid., 55.
68 “The chief number”: Ibid., 51.
68 “Ellington’s pay reached the highest”: Cohen 2010, 99–100.
68 “We worked clean”: Bigard 1986, 52.
Chapter 3: The 1930s: An “Accumulation of Personalities”
69 “The Wizard of Oz”: The process is exceptionally well documented in Harmetz 1977.
70 “I don’t remember”: Harmetz 1977, 163.
70 “generous parade”: Schuller 1989, 59.
71 “We would have an arrangement”: Nicholson 1999, 18.
71 “Everyone made suggestions”: Magee 2015, 88; see also Hardwicke in Nicholson 1999, 71.
71 “Everybody pitches”: Tucker 1993b, 475; see also Rex Stewart 1972, 96.
71 “filling the holes”: Braud 1957.
71 “All bands at that time”: Nicholson 1999, 121.
71 “Bechet taught”: Serrano 2012, 182. Bechet was in New York City in 1932, playing in a band led by Tommy Ladnier.
72 “1933 article”: Tucker 1993b, 101.
72 “1944 New Yorker”: Ibid., 227. Serrano (2012, 203) considers the likelihood that the quoted dialogue between Tizol and Ellington in this article was invented by the author of the article.
72 “Tizol the extractor”: Stewart 1991, 154; Nicholson 1999, 127; Bigard 1986, 63.
72 “How much Tizol edited”: A 1933 article in Time magazine described how “Ellington lets all his players have their say but listens particularly to the shrewd advice of pale Cuban [sic] Juan Tizol.” Teachout 2014, 140.
73 “what he called extended compositions”: Howland 2009, 179.
73 “The idea came from Mills”: Nicholson 1999, 118–19; Ellington 1978, 34; Ellington 1973, 82; Howland 2009, 159.
73 “New York University”: Rexroth 2007, 79.
74 “connections to Gershwin’s”: A. J. Bishop in Tucker 1993b, 349.
75 “It would be a pity”: Lambert in Hasse 1993, 154; Wilder in Tucker 1993b, 258–61. Howland (2009) locates the formal models Ellington was using, especially the extended pieces of Paul Whiteman. Zenni (2001) addresses the issue from the point of view of “structural unity.”
75 “first jazz composer of distinction”: Lambert 1937, 187–88.
75 “in a soliloquizing mood”: Tucker 1993b, 244.
75 “The thirteen-minute Reminiscing”: Howland (2009, 171–76) makes the case that Ellington’s preferred conception was limited to the first three parts.
75 “Schuller was impressed”: Schuller 1989, 75.
76 “Aren’t there marked similarities”: Tucker 1993b, 215–16.
76 “silence becomes part of the performance”: Katz 2010, 77.
77 “We had a recording date”: “Duke Ellington Tells the Secrets of His Success,” Chicago Defender (national edition), October 2, 1937: 9.
78 “sic-ing that stuff”: Murray and Ellison 2000, 61.
78 “platinum-blonde girl”: Teachout 2014, 290.
79 “make new, unadulterated”: Tucker 1993b, 112.
79 “the first jazz composer”: Lambert 1937, 187.
79 “Usually the Negro element”: Ibid., 180–187 and 199.
82 “Every aspect of my life”: Erenberg 1998, 39.
83 “Ellington explained”: Tucker 1993b, 371.
84 “It has been claimed that he sold”: Brothers 2014, 434.
87 “Cootie Williams said”: Collier 1978, 164.
87 “Otto Hardwick composed”: Teachout 2014, 152.
87 “Two women were arguing”: Tucker 1993b, 341.
90 “Duke got his name”: Teachout 2014, 162.
90 “Corner after corner”: Ibid., 164.
91 “Spanish melodies”: Serrano 2012, 224–25.
92 “Tizol biographer”: Ibid., 208.
93 “every orchestra began to play”: Ibid., 331.
93 “Duke took credit”: Collier 1978, 187.
94 “Our type of music wasn’t really for black people”: Teachout 2014, 159.
94 “authentic Negro music”: Quote from Tucker 1993b, 135.
94 “weird chords have grown stale”: Stratemann 1992, 132; Hasse 1993, 196.
95 “Negro leaders could”: Teachout 2014, 161.
95 “Swing is stagnant”: The articles are reprinted in Tucker 1993b, 132–40.
95 “Basie’s outstanding”: Tucker 1993b, 139.
96 “Refining the basics”: Murray 2016, 10.
97 “Where the preacher”: Quoted in Giddins and DeVeaux 2009, 216.
97 “We always had somebody”: Giddins and DeVeaux 2009, 220.
99 “an accumulation”: Tucker 1993b, 339.
99 “He studied violin”: Büchmann-Møller 2006, 62.
99 “He was featured in front”: Teachout 2014, 202.
99 “Those precision notes”: Ibid.
100 He could improvise”: Tucker 1993b, 435.
100 “His amazing talent”: Stewart 1991, 196.
100 “Webster’s entry”: Date from Stratemann 1992, 150. Biography for Webster from Büchmann-Møller 2006.
101 “Ben Webster is not only”: Nicholson 1999, 217; Büchmann-Møller 2006, 70–71.
101 “A lot of guys”: Büchmann-Møller 2006, 70.
102 “Shuckin’ and Stiffin’”: Ibid., 69–70.
102 “I just wrote”: Büchmann-Møller 2006, 69. This insistence that Webster composed the main theme of Cotton Tail has usually been missed in discussions of this piece, but Hinton’s report is clear: the piece began with a theme composed by Webster that was offered to Ellington. We will never know how much the final theme resembled Webster’s original, but the original must have been attractive, or it wouldn’t have caught Ellington’s attention.
103 “Making a study of Hawkins”: DownBeat commented how Webster was moving closer to Hawkins; see Büchmann-Møller 2006, 70. On Strayhorn hanging out at Minton’s Playhouse and studying early bebop, see Hajdu 1996, 74.
103 “Stanley Crouch”: Tucker 1993b, 496.
103 “The lively chorus for saxophone”: Stewart 1972, 129.
104 “The flexible Webster”: Büchmann-Møller 2006, 68.
104 “ten-bar phrases”: Ibid.
105 “miracle year”: Teachout 2013, 209; Schuller (1989, 48) refers to “the famous masterpieces of the early 1940s, the creative zenith of Ellington’s career.”
106 “ten-bar lengths”: On the phrase lengths see also Schuller 1991, 118 n. 39.
107 “introduction was composed by Billy Strayhorn”: Van de Leur 2002, 34 and 290–91.
Chapter 4: Billy Strayhorn
109 “Our species”: Steinbeck 1970, 151.
110 “Mr. Ellington, this is the way”: Hajdu 1996, 50.
111 “Billy Strayhorn was my right arm”: Ellington 1973, 156.
111 “Strayhorn was born”: This biographical sketch is derived from Hajdu 1996.
113 “He would ask me”: Hajdu 1996, 13.
113 “I think my brother”: Ibid., 18.
113 “learned everything”: Ibid., 14.
113 “He kept to himself”: Ibid., 16.
114 “What he realized”: Ibid., 32.
114 “He began composing Lush Life”: Van de Leur 2002, 16–17; Hajdu 1996, 34.
114 “Every now and then”: Hajdu 1996, 34.
116 “There wasn’t a lot of guys”: Ibid., 70.
117 “The harmonic language of Passion Flower”: Van de Leur 2002, 28–30.
117 “At that time people weren’t writing”: Hajdu 1996, 87.
117 “You’ll do whatever”: Ibid., 57.
118 “a tendency to emphasize Blanton and Webster”: For example, Berish (2014, 113): “Arguably the most significant hiring was bassist Jimmie Blanton, in October 1939.”
118 “In the winter of 1940-1941”: There was also a recording ban on ASCAP composers that made attribution to Strayhorn a necessity; see below.
119 “flinging a pot of paint”: Anderson and Koval 2002, 215.
119 “The main theme of Chelsea Bridge”: See Hajdu 1996, 50–54. Strayhorn denied having known the Ravel, and it is certainly possible that the connection was coincidental, the result (as Walter van de Leur has kindly pointed out to me) of experimenting with similar progressions.
119 “originality at the expense of beauty”: Van de Leur 2002, 53.
119 “From the moment I first heard”: Ibid.
119 “Webster loved”: Gioia 2012, 60.
121 “He already had a passion for collecting”: Hajdu 1996, 77.
121 “try things out”: For example, see Van de Leur 2002, 103.
121 “It sounded as if Stravinsky”: Hajdu, 86. For detailed analysis and transcription, see Van de Leur 2002, 38–43.
121 “renaissance in elaborate”: Ellington 1973, 153.
122 “It didn’t work out”: Hajdu 1996, 82; Van de Leur (2002, 34) notes the contradiction between Strayhorn’s account and the surviving manuscript evidence.
123 “fragmented”: Schuller 1989, 131.
123 “an extended palindrome”: A precedent for the palindromic form is Ellington’s 1930 “Jolly Wog” (Givan 2014, 179).
124 “The shaken-up order”: Plus, Ellington pulls a neat trick with the sequence of key areas, with theme C flowing to theme B and theme B flowing to theme A in a way that seems to resolve the initial tension of B moving to C in the first part.
124 “The vitality is in step”: Greene (2011, 224–32) carefully documents relationships between Ko-Ko and earlier Ellington compositions.
125 “sailed over all”: Hasse 1993, 241.
125 “Ko-Ko dates”: Green 2011, 225, n. 34.
125 “The effect resembles”: Transcription by David Berger and Alan Camp-bell, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington: Ko-Ko United Artists Study Score Series, p. 12. Transcription of the passage from Take the “A” Train in Van de Leur 2002, 48. On characteristic scoring tendencies and dissonance placement associated with Ellington (closed-position scoring, lower-register dissonance) and Strayhorn (open-position scoring, upper-register dissonance), see Van de Leur 2002, 75–78.
126 “Schuller admired”: Schuller 1989, 118.
126 “Billy got a great full sound”: Hajdu 1996, 94.
126 “It was so natural”: Gerald Wilson quoted in Hajdu 1996, 94.
126 “I’d see Billy walk”: Hajdu 1996, 82; see also George 1981, 78–79.
126 “composing together on the telephone”: Van de Leur 2002, 89 and 104.
126 “In music you develop”: Ellington 173, 156.
127 “I don’t think your strain”: Tucker 1993b, 225.
127 “It is unlikely that the surviving evidence”: Hence I find this claim from van de Leur (2002, xxii) to be overstated: “the ultimate proof of authorship lies in the respective and distinctive styles of the two collaborators, which is not only visible on paper but first and foremost audible.”
127 “summit of Ellington’s compositional achievement”: Teachout (2013, 210), following Schuller’s “the creative zenith of Ellington’s career” (1989, 48).
127 “It was easy for Ellington to make”: There was also a new twist in the business model caused from outside the band. In January 1941 the American Society of Composers and Publishers, representing Ellington and many other composers, got tangled up in a dispute with major radio networks over how much money could be collected for airing their members’ compositions. The immediate result of this dispute was a boycott of ASCAP-registered tunes, including Ellington’s. He was thus forced to emphasize compositions from Strayhorn and also his son, Mercer, during 1941.
128 “Strayhorn reworked the arrangement”: Van de Leur 2002, 63.
128 “the 1941 musical”: On Jump for Joy, see Hajdu 1996, 90–94 and Teachout 2013, 221–34.
129 “take Uncle Tom out”: Tucker 1993b, 148.
129 “Negro is the creative voice”: Ibid., 147.
129 “That killed me”: Cohen 2010, 194.
129 “Ellington and Strayhorn wrote the music together”: See Van de Leur 2002, p. 294 n. 27, for a precise list of Strayhorn’s contributions to Jump for Joy.
129 “We should have listed”: Hajdu 1996, 92.
130 “Strayhorn’s essential contribution”: Van de leur 2002, 62.
130 “Ellington had been talking about”: Tucker 1993a, 69–73.
130 “It’s time a big”: Ibid., 76
131 “greatest pre-performance”: DeVeaux 1993, 130.
131 “Mercer Ellington explained”: Teachout 2013, 238. Recent readings of Black, Brown and Beige include Barg and Van de Leur 2013, Howland 2009 (Chapter 4), and Schuller 1989, 141–50.
132 “Critics complained”: Quoted in DeVeaux 1993, 128.
132 “no one in 1943 would have even thought to question”: To glimpse how pervasively Ellington’s co-composers have been written out of the reception of this music, consider these misrepresentations from Gunther Schuller’s liner notes for an LP reissued by the Smithsonian Institution (published 1978, reprinted in Schuller 1986, 51–59): Lost in Meditation is called “vintage Ellington,” and Tizol is identified as playing it “with sovereign suavity” though not identified as the composer; I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart is described as one of Ellington’s “superb vehicles” for Hodges though not identified as one of Hodge’s compositions; Don’t Get around Much Anymore is “Duke’s own hit of 1940” with no mention of Hodges; Prelude to a Kiss is “one of Ellington’s most celebrated ballad songs,” with no mention of Hardwick; Cotton Tail is presented as “Ellington’s own,” with no mention of Webster; and Mood Indigo is Ellington’s “all-time classic” with no mention of Bigard.
132 “Paul Bowles”: DeVeaux 1993, 137. Howland 2009 (Chapter 4) argues that the formal model for Ellington was Paul Whiteman’s “symphonic jazz.”
132 “The Negro was put”: DeVeaux 1993, 134.
132 “It has been suggested”: Barg and Van de Leur 2013, 445.
133 “long meter”: Evans 1982, 42–43, quoting Eddie “Son” House.
133 “breathtaking performance”: It has always been assumed that Come Sunday is one of Ellington’s greatest melodic accomplishments. But if we take the Ellington problem seriously—meaning that we cannot simply assume that Ellington composed all of the music credited to him—then we should be particularly alert whenever Hodges is near. It has been ignored until recently that Ellington borrowed one of Ben Webster’s tunes for the section called Emancipation Celebration. Büchmann-Møller (2006, 71): “The unadulterated theme [from Ben Webster’s Dearie] pops up as the conclusion to Emancipation Celebration in the Black, Brown and Beige suite.”
133 “Strayhorn wrote about a third”: Van de Leur 2002, 88.
133 “without knowing”: One recent writer (Berger 2014, 251), believing Sugar Hill Penthouse to be Ellington’s creation, calls it “the ultimate in sophistication and refinement.”
133 “his jazz waltz”: Van de Leur 2002, 92.
133 “Hodges was making”: Hasse 1993, 273.
134 “George pitched”: George 1981, 52–56.
135 “The band’s radio audience did not know”: Van de Leur 2002, 96.
135 “Critic Alec Wilder wrote”: Tucker 1993b, 259.
135 “Ellington gave him stock”: Hajdu 1996, 120.
136 “It was a pleasure you know”: Teachout 2014, 114.
136 “Billy could have pursued”: Hajdu 1996, 79–80.
136 “Ellington wanted the recognition”: Ibid., 101.
136 “Mr. Ellington’s score”: Ibid., 104.
136 “In April 1947”: Ibid., 109.
136 “He encouraged me not to compromise”: Ibid., 117.
137 “Leonard Feather wrote”: Schiff 2012, 167.
137 “Ellington’s royalty stream”: Hajdu 1996, 141.
138 “His contributions are so substantial”: Van de Leur 2002, 117; Teachout 2014, 268.
138 “Strayhorn’s arrangement of The Tattooed Bride”: Lambert (not knowing that the arrangement is Strayhorn’s) 1999, 150.
138 “only Ellington’s name listed as composer”: Ted Gioia (2012, 358) notes a “surprising” lawsuit from the Strayhorn estate challenging the copyright of Satin Doll. “One wonders what the two artists themselves would have thought of this litigation,” writes Gioia, “given the smooth give-and-take that characterized their professional relationship over a period of three decades.” To that one can only say two things: (1) on the inside, things were not as smooth as they appeared on the outside; and (2) in terms of credit, it was mostly Strayhorn who did the giving, Ellington the taking.
138 “It was a situation”: Hajdu 1996, 131.
138 “Mercer Ellington said”: Ibid., 196.
139 “We had a relationship”: Ibid., 192.
139 “He had a very very very”: Ibid., 194.
140 “He had a trick of hearing the breath”: Ibid., 132.
140 “He could have done a million”: Ibid., 136.
140 “The actual source of his frustration”: Ibid., 122.
141 “The group worked out the arrangement”: “Duke Ellington often wrote tunes from phrases his soloists played,” writes Mingus biographer Gene Santoro (2000, 116–17), “but Mingus went one better. He created a whole arrangement out of the way his musicians played what he gave them.” See also Priestly 1984, 66, 77, and 106.
141 “dark church”: Mingus’s sister Grace quoted in Gabbard 2016, 22–23. See also Priestly 1984, 4, and 67; Saul 2003, 165.
142 “The charming way he says it”: Gabbard 2016, 47.
142 “He routinely embarrassed”: “You never knew who was going to be screamed into submission or humiliated,” observed his wife Sue. Saul 2003, 395.
142 “gave me his complete open mind”: Gabbard 2016, 320; also Priestly 1984, 99.
142 “Alfred Hitchcock”: Hitchcock in the movie Hitchcock/Truffaut, directed by Kent Jones (2015).
143 “Can you do it”: Teachout 2014, 286.
144 “doing little bits”: Davies 2009, 281.
144 “The final polishing”: Tucker 1993b, 321–22. The analysis of Strayhorn and Ellington as having these different working methods is developed by van de Leur, especially Chapters 4–6. Van de Leur articulates the differences between the two composers (2002, p. 78): “Where concepts tended to govern Strayhorn’s writing, Ellington seems to have worked case by case, proceeding from chord to chord, from passage to passage, as if designing each sound and phrase separately, without necessarily adhering to a chosen musical technique. As a rule, Ellington kept infusing new and musically unrelated ideas into the musical fabric of a given piece.”
145 “The problem was”: Van de Leur 2002, 116.
146 “He kept the promise”: Ibid., 116.
147 “devoted to Shakespeare”: “We were with literally the top Shakespeare scholars in the world, and Strayhorn didn’t have a thing to apologize for,” remembered the festival’s founder, Thomas Patterson. “His knowledge was very deep.” Quoted in Hajdu 1996, 163.
147 “comparisons with Debussy”: Schiff 2012, 187.
148 “overly scented confections”: Lambert 1999, 281.
148 “Up and Down is a musical illustration of Puck”: Schiff (2012, 4–5) suggests that Strayhorn might have identified with Puck, who, in Shakespeare’s play, puts things in motion from behind the scenes much as Strayhorn did in the Ellington collective.
149 “the best work that Mr. Ellington”: Hajdu 1996, 170.
149 “A Tone Parallel to Harlem”: Howland 2009, 280–88; Berger 2014, 253–56.
149 “the final thirty seconds”: Hajdu 1996, 140.
149 “Brian Priestley”: Priestley 2014, 61.
150 “Duke was a professional”: Hajdu 1996, 210.
150 “The ballet had risen”: Barg 2013, 797.
150 “It’s always a struggle”: Hajdu 1996, 204.
151 “Ellington’s aim”: Lambert 1999, 219.
151 “The surviving manuscripts establish”: Van de Leur 2002, 137–39 and 275–76. Lisa Barg (2013) interprets Strayhorn’s Nutcracker as “a vehicle for (queer) modernist experimentation” (p. 798).
152 “The scoring is among”: Lambert 1999, 218.
152 “Sugar Rum Cherry”: On Sugar Rum Cherry, see Barg 2013, 800–802.
153 “Arabesque Cookie”: Barg (2013, 810) argues that “the formal, sonic, and programmatic features in Arabesque Cookie can be allied with figurations of gay Harlem Renaissance artists of queer desire and identity.”
153 “In September 1963”: On Ellington and the State Department tours, see Von Eschen 2004, Chapter 5.
155 “He was always talking to it”: Ellington 1973, 199.
156 “that Strayhorn is much more than Ellington’s”: Hajdu 1996, 240.
156 “freedom from hate”: Ibid., 257.
156 “Billy worked for Edward”: Ibid., 259.
157 “Like a king”: Or, as the actor Richard Burton put it (George 1981, 257), “The concentrated essence of everything that’s gifted and courteous.”
159 “Hodeir and Lambert”: Hodeir in Tucker 1993b, 227; Howland 2009, 177 on tunesmiths. Gabbard (2016, 305) quotes Mingus, writing in DownBeat, June 1, 1951: “Charlie Parker is in his own inimitable way creating complete, clearly thought-out compositions of melodic line every time he plays a solo, as surely as one was ever written down by Brahms or Chopin or Tchaikovsky.”
159 “distinction between jazz composer and jazz arranger”: Schuller (1989, 202): “It is a crucial factor that the Lunceford band—this applies as well to Webb, Calloway, and several other of the major black orchestras of the thirties—was not a composer’s orchestra, like Duke Ellington’s, but an arranger’s,” wrote Gunther Schuller, the most influential writer on Ellington’s music (emphasis in the original).
159 “The groundwork was laid”: Schuller (1968, 350) approvingly quotes Frances Newton (aka Eric Hobsbawm): Ellington “solved the unbelievably difficult problem of turning a living, shifting and improvised folk music into composition without losing its spontaneity.” One could instead argue that, on the one hand, the New Orleanians had already done this; on the other, it was the technology of recordings that really made the difference, more than anything.
159 “his strongest suit”: Lavezzolo 2001, 112.
Chapter 5: Early Beatles and Rock and Roll
163 “Handy had an epiphany”: Brothers 1997, 181.
164 “into a tribal-like frenzy”: McMillan 2013, 47.
164 “jungle music”: Miller 1999, 198.
165 “radio broadcasters hesitant to use it”: Ibid., Chapter 1.
165 “If I could find a white man”: Ibid., 72.
165 “I haven’t come to hear you”: Braun 1964.
166 “Actually I think we both wanted”: Miller 1999, 64; see also Emerson 2005, 7.
166 “first white-black person”: Joplin 2005, 64, 72, and 76; Adelt 2010, 101.
166 “if our society dictated”: Otis 1968, 12.
166 “Presley bumped up the tempo”: Miller 1999, 81.
167 “wasn’t going to work for”: Sounes 2011, 27.
167 “Rock and roll has its place”: Miller 1999, 133.
168 “The colored folks been singing”: Tick 2008, 585.
168 “When I first heard”: Keogh 2004, 39.
168 “It was the way Presley sings”: McCartney quoted in BBC News, August 5, 2005.
169 “We’ve been playing”: Giuliano 1994, 5.
169 “born to rebel”: On the topic of developmental experience shaping rebellious behavior, see Sulloway 1996.
171 “He always had to have a partner”: Shotton and Schaffner 1983, 24.
171 “At heart Julia was”: Riley 2011, 59; see also Shotton and Schaffner 1984, 58; Lewisohn 2013, 239 and 320; Davies 2009, 16–17.
171 “Maggie May”: Lewisohn 2013, 335.
171 “I did my best”: Sheff 1981, 136.
171 “sabotage”: Kozinn 2013, C3.
172 “He had a lot of power”: George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012.
172 “Of course you can take part”: Riley 2011, 59; Shotten and Schaffner 1984, 84.
172 “The guitar’s all right”: Davies 2009, 242.
172 “somewhere they put you”: Riley 2001, 87.
172 “It has been well established”: Frith and Horne 1987; Green 1988, 32–33.
173 “Me best mate”: Flannery 2013, 165.
173 “Are we turning”: Lewisohn 2013, 282.
173 “I was brought up”: Ibid., 192.
173 “Why should we be over”: Braun 1964, 91.
174 “seemed to have the sort of mind”: Lewisohn 2013, 338.
175 “held back”: Ibid., 375 and 462.
175 “loved my association”: Ibid., 518.
175 “Now there were three”: Davies 2009, 45.
175 “They were such a gang”: Lewisohn 2013, 575.
175 “I grew up steeped”: Miles 1997, 23.
178 “He was already”: Sheff 1981, 147.
178 “a corny little song”: Miles 1978, 71.
179 “Paul was always more advanced”: Lewisohn 2013, 515; “I’m not going to waste my life” 2009, 10; Shotten and Schaffner 1984, 91; Miles 1978, 80.
179 “John was always writing poetry”: Lewisohn 2013, 579.
179 “very tough”: Ibid., 629.
180 “John brought a biting”: Inglis 2000, 83.
181 “These mental constructions”: The foundation for my discussion is Zak 2010.
182 “I never compartmentalized”: Zak 2010, 48.
183 “A record is in a sense”: Ibid., 49.
183 “sweet surprise”: Ibid., 54.
183 “unique way of sobbing”: Ibid., 58–9.
185 “just playing you know by feel”: Ibid., 102.
185 “paralyzing monotony”: Ibid., 73.
185 “We just never even thought”: Miles 1997, 82.
186 “Brill Building”: Emerson 2005.
186 “Leiber and Stoller”: Myers 2012a.
186 “Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman”: Emerson 2005, 42 and 163.
186 “a very average hack song”: Ibid., 31.
186 “Leiber and King fleshed”: Emerson 2005, 128; Myers 2012a.
187 “If I hadn’t seen the Beatles”: Lewisohn 2013, 1412 and 1437.
188 “play so much run a ring”: Palmer 1982, 260.
188 “Chuck Berry specialists”: Flannery 2013, 215.
191 “son of What’d I Say”: Lewisohn 2013, 1244.
192 “two-thirds of the market”: Zak 2010, 81.
192 “the most brutal ugly”: Emerson 2005, 17 and 169.
193 “There was no way to control”: Zak 2010, 201.
193 “radio dial picking up”: Myers 2012b.
193 “We were really looking at”: Lewisohn 2013, 13.
193 “to write a musical”: Braun 1964, 13.
193 “most famous composers”: Rupprecht 2015, 26; Harker 1992, 238–43.
193 “British Goffin and King”: Lewisohn 2013, 1344.
194 “those who were in art school”: Frith and Horne 1987, 86.
194 “I become whoever I’m with”: Giuliano 1994, 142.
Chapter 6: Four-Headed Monster
195 “four headed monster”: George-Warren 2009, 30.
195 “It was an odd phenomenon”: Clapton in George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012.
195 “The bigger the Beatles”: Starr in George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012.
195 “the naughtiest city”: Lewisohn 2013, 700.
196 “ticket to ride”: Turner 2009, 122.
196 “fueled by amphetamines”: That Germany was where the Beatles were introduced to stimulants was no accident. With a long tradition of excellent chemists and engineers, Germany had been in the forefront of drug development for more than a century. In the late 1930s a new method of synthesizing methamphetamine was marketed under the name Pervitin, which was used widely (Ohler 2016, 41). Pervitin has been recognized as the key ingredient in the German invasion of France; it kept soldiers in a euphoric state continuously for three days and three nights. “Blitzkreig was founded on methamphetamine,” one medical historian has insisted (Ohler, 89). Preludin, the latest 1950s amphetamine invention, put the Beatles into overdrive not just in Hamburg but for years to come as an aid to performance and creativity. “Once you had a few beers and the odd pill, you could stay awake for days and didn’t give a shit,” explained one Hamburg musician (Spitz 2005, 218). This connection between the century’s most horrific political movement and its most exciting musical movement stands as one of history’s little ironies.
197 “reading poetry by Yevtushenko”: Miles 1997, 83.
197 “There was always an underlying ambition”: Ibid., 84.
198 “generated through actual conversations”: See, for example, Davies 2009, 263–69.
198 “Liverpool friends contributed to the lyrics”: Davies 2009, 260; Shotton and Schaffner, 1984, 214–17.
199 “A very charming image”: Spitz 2005, 226.
199 “Seemed incapable of taking Harrison”: Shotton and Schaffner 1984, 186; Sheridan in Lewisohn 2013, 888; Brown and Gaines 1983, 221.
199 “John and Paul would butt”: Lewisohn 2013, 703.
200 “They liked us because we were kind of rough”: McMillian 2013, 18.
200 “Lennon stood”: Ibid., 18–19.
200 “Cynthia Lennon described”: Lennon 1978, 72.
200 “They did not have the musicianship”: Miles 1997, 82.
200 “no. 1 because they resurrected”: Lewisohn 2013, 950.
200 “Chuck Berry specialists”: Flannery 2013, 215.
201 “to play Chuck Berry covers”: Ibid., 219.
201 “On an intuitive level”: Lewisohn 2013, 834.
201 “Or the crowd was part of them”: Ibid., 866.
201 “They reminded me”: Ibid., 966.
201 “His secretary typed”: McMillian 2013, 29.
202 “At an audition for Decca”: Miller 1999, 192.
202 “Mark Lewisohn”: Lewisohn 2013, 843.
202 “Lennon’s close friendship with Stuart Sutcliffe”: Ibid., 722.
203 “slip in an original song”: Ibid., 1151, 1096, 1071, 649, 651, 1056, and 1057.
203 “revived the songwriting partnership”: Ibid., 1193.
203 “All novelists expect”: Stillinger 1991.
204 “In Victorian England”: Sutherland 1976.
205 “You’d sell your soul”: Lewisohn 2013, 1323.
205 “Roy Orbison and producer Fred Foster”: Lehman 2003, 14–15; 48, 50, 51, 94, and 36.
205 “I could recognize”: McMillian 2013, 135.
205 “George Martin always has something”: Miles 1978, 93; see also Lennon in Wenner 2000, 8.
205 “Martin’s legacy will not just be”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 370.
206 “I desperately wanted my own Cliff”: Lewisohn 2013, 1222.
206 “Neil Aspinall called ‘the chain’”: Ibid., 1313.
206 “less complicated and more mature”: Gould 2007, 309.
208 “when Epstein heard it”: Flannery 2013, 180–81.
208 “Tony Sheridan heard it”: George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012.
208 “We actually had a sense of being different”: Belmo 2002, 63.
209 “Epstein hired a lawyer”: Lewisohn 2013, 1341–43.
210 “side by side at two desks”: Nayder 2002, quotation on p. 202.
210 “In the distant future”: Sandbrook 2005, 673.
210 “A well-placed churchman”: Ibid., 195.
210 “William Mann”: “What Songs the Beatles Sang,” 1963, Times December 27: 4, cited in Sandbrook 2005, 677–78.
210 “John and Paul were writing”: Lennon 1978, 90.
211 “mostly working on chord”: Lewisohn 2013, 1235.
212 “I took the high harmony”: Miles 1997, 95.
212 “play the riff in the gaps”: Lewisohn 2013, 1337.
212 “Don’t Ever Change covered by the Beatles”: Ibid., 1241; Miles 1997, 92.
212 “Their interactive verbal style”: Lewisohn 2013, 1363–66, 157, 1025, 1328, and 600.
213 “London is so very strange”: McMillian 2013, 12; Braun 1964, 31.
213 “Press release from the fall”: Lewisohn 2013, 1351.
213 “exaggerate their accents”: Ibid., 1396 and 1428.
213 “It’s Liverpool, where Z-Cars”: Braun 1964, 9; Lewisohn 2013, 1115 and 1418.
213 “Being born in Liverpool”: Lewisohn 2013, 1228; Gould 2007, 42; Davies 2009, 1–2.
214 “If one seemed in danger”: Boyd 2007, 89.
214 “blunt northern humor”: Miles 1997, 159.
214 “It’s a highly prized commodity”: Lewisohn 2013, 405.
215 “but they’re not black”: Ibid., 1350.
215 “This working-class explosion”: Miles 1997, 98.
215 “Profumo affair”: Sandbrook 2005, 629–37.
216 “We want the youth”: Ibid., 690.
216 “quite a few people mention”: Braun 1964, 32.
217 “You don’t have to be a genius”: Ibid., 12.
217 “cock rock”: Frith and McRobbie 1991.
217 “On this next number”: Miles 1978, 54.
218 “If we could put”: Miles 1997, 276.
219 “The Beatles sent the class thing”: Miller 1999, 217.
219 “We’re rather crummy”: Gendron 2002, 165.
219 “In his paternal”: Early 2004, 53.
220 “almost a chord for every word”: Exhibit The British Invasion at the Museum of Liverpool, June 2015.
220 “That’s it!”: Sheff 1981, 117.
221 “Their chords were outrageous”: Scaduto 1971, 175.
221 “Critic Alec Wilder wrote about”: Wilder 1990, 122.
221 “Suddenly you could breathe”: Miller 1987, 5.
221 “See I remember in the early meetings”: Miles 1978, 75; Goldman 2013. Lennon’s “sound of the overall thing” also included the right consonants and the right vowels; see, for example, his comments on I Dig a Pony in Turner 2009, 287.
223 “They definitely needed each other”: Lewisohn 2013, 1456.
223 “To learn a guitar part”: Miles 1997, 170.
224 “The thing about rock and roll”: Sounes 2011, 37.
225 “Allen Ginsberg pinned a Rimbaud”: Fowlie 1994, 9.
225 “The poet makes himself a seer”: Rimbaud 2000, 403.
226 “When I read that the bells went off”: Dylan 2004, 288.
227 “It may be dated to around January 1964”: Lewisohn 1988, 59. A different chronology is presented in Miles 1997, 201.
227 “McCartney’s first Yesterday”:Miles 1997, 80 and 81.
228 “Gershwin insisted that the melodies”: Pollack 2006, 176.
228 “The melody works with harmony”: McCartney alluded to the mutual benefit of working with melody and harmony together: “People think of Long Tall Sally and say it sounds so easy to write. But it’s [I’m Down] the most difficult thing we’ve attempted. Writing a three-chord song that’s clever is not easy.” Turner 2009, 113.
228 “He cited a connection”: The Beatles Anthology 2000, 175.
230 Eine Kleine Beatlemusic: Gendron 2002, 172.
230 “McCartney suggested a small blue note”: McCartney learned to use single blue notes for effective moments of intensification. In I’m Looking Through You the flat seven of the IV chord is saved for the high peak of emotional-musical climax (“You’re not the same”). In Eleanor Rigby, a flat fifth adds a fleeting moment of deeper poignancy (“Where do they all come from?”).
231 “William Mann”: William Mann (1963) on the Beatles’s version of ’Till There Was You: “a cool, easy, tasteful version of this ballad, quite without artificial sentimentality.”
233 “He bought himself a cap”: Bell 2013, 361.
233 “He later claimed”: Sheff 1981, 149–50.
233 “doing little bits”: Davies 2009, 281.
223 “Harrison suggested triple-meter”: Miles 1997, 210.
234 “arguments that see the fingerprints of McCartney”: MacDonald 2005, 170; Miles 1997, 277; Davies 2009, 371.
234 “He must have been aiming for a classical touch”: This hunch is confirmed by Lennon (Wenner 2000, 8): “I would say, ‘Play it like Bach or something, could you put twelve bars in there?’”
234 “Irish folk music”: Miles 1997, 221.
235 “Elements of the song date back”: Turner 2009, 142.
236 “Brian Wilson … Bette Midler”: Giuliano 1984, 370.
236 “beginning of my adult life”: McMillian 2013, 136; Lydon 2003, 12.
Chapter 7: Retreat
237 “This isn’t show business’: Braun 1964, 52.
237 “like a Walt Disney”: Lennon 1978, 155.
238 “the wisest, holiest”: Inglis 2000, 4.
238 “The people gave their money”: McMillian 2013, 132.
239 “Lennon paid the steepest price”: As Lennon explained (Wenner 2000, 57), he began taking amphetamines in Hamburg and “was a pill addict until Help!, just before Help! Where we were turned onto pot and we dropped drink . . . I’ve always needed a drug to survive.”
239 “thousand trips”: Miles 1978, 115.
239 “When the actor Peter Fonda”: The documented explanation of Fonda’s comment is that he was recalling an experience from childhood.
241 “I suppose now what I’m interested in”: Davies 2009, 288–89.
241 “Whenever in doubt”: Leary 1964, 6.
241 “rather earnestly strumming”: The Beatles Anthology 2003.
242 “The Byrds had just demonstrated”: Bellman 1997; Heylin 2007, 23–24; Green 1988, 160.
243 “Paul had a great hand”: Emerick and Massey 2008, 405.
243 “French for bullshit”: Miles 1978, 120; MacDonald 2005, 224.
243 “I don’t go in for much of those”: Braun 1964, 51.
243 “innovative techniques”: Giuliano 1994, 222 and 228; Weber 2016, p. 235 n. 163; Green 1988, 79.
244 “McCartney met”: Miles 1997, 180; Inglis 2000, 11; Braun 1964, 53; Green 1988, 77–78.
244 “I am trying to cram”: Gould 2007, 313.
244 “The London Days”: Cardew 2006, 73–75.
244 “went on too long”: Miles 1997, 237. McCartney was also inspired by John Cage. “Cage, he felt, is too random,” wrote an interviewer from March 1966. “I like to get ideas randomly but then develop them within a frame,” McCartney explained in what could be taken as an accurate description of the use of tape loops in Tomorrow Never Knows, recorded on April 7. Quotation from an unpublished interview by Michael Lydon, March 1966, accessed (March 2017) on the website teachrock.org.
245 “what is like becomes”: Harvey 1975, 28; Stockhausen 1958, 74; MacDonald 2005, 224.
246 “rudimentary recording studio”: Miles 1997, 239–41, 258, and 291; Spitz 2005, 601; MacDonald 2005, 190; Heylin 2007, 9 and 10.
247 “The idols now”: Miles 1967, 9.
247 “take the edge off”: Sheff 1981, 153.
247 “Harrison later insisted”: The Beatles Anthology 2000, 210.
247 “evocative and complete”: Swainson 2000, 555.
248 “gathering of friends”: Shotton and Schaffner, 1984, 214–17; Davies 2014, 146–47. Lennon’s contributions to Eleanor Rigby (contrary to his claims) appear to have been negligible; see, for example, Davies 2009, 371.
248 “All of this love thy”: Gould 2007, 310.
250 “From Braque and Picasso the practice spread”: Oxford Art Online, article “Collage,” by Francis Frascina, Marjorie Perloff, and Christine Poggi.
251 “weld together”: The Beatles Anthology 2000, 97.
253 “He alone in the industry”: Heylin 2007, 47.
255 “Well it’s magic”: Miles 1967, 8–11.
256 “battering ram”: Miles 1997, 595.
256 “I was really going through”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 115. Lennon in Wenner 2000, 17: “I was very paranoid in those days [the making of Sgt. Pepper], I could hardly move.”
257 “I should have tried to get”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 88.
257 “There never was”: Shotton and Schaffner 1984, 186.
258 “It is a fantastically abstract”: Miles 1967, 10.
258 “It isn’t necessarily so”: Bromell 2000, 99.
261 “The way we wrote”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 88; Sheff 1981, 183–84.
262 “immediately compared”: Newsweek cited in Gendron 2002, 195.
262 “three bars”: Inglis 2000, 16.
262 “McCartney asked”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 149.
262 “Peter Zinovieff”: Pinch and Trocco 2002, 278–82.
262 “spiraling ascent”: Martin 1994, 56; Noyer 2015, 70.
262 “The worst thing about”: Bromell 2000, 98; Miles 1967.
264 “extensive back and forth”: Described in Davies 2009, 263–67.
265 “Humor is often about shifting meaning”: Psychologist Dacher Keltner (2009, 137) describes laughter as “an invitation to enter into the world of pretense, it is a suspension of the demands of literal meaning and more formal social exchange . . . a ticket to travel to the landscape of the human imagination.”
265 “doesn’t go anywhere”: Sheff 1981, 197.
265 “Through the Looking Glass”: Miles 1997, 312.
266 “We’re fed up”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 132.
266 “Paul instructed”: Davies 2009, 270.
266 “cool anti-romantic”: Mann 1967, 96.
266 “genius doesn’t lie”: Eisen 1969, 155.
266 “One difference”: As William Mann (1967, 96) insisted, “any of these songs is more genuinely creative than anything currently to be heard on pop radio stations.”
267 “Walter Everett”: Everett 1999, 112; Mann 1967, 94–95.
267 “schmaltz”: Martin 1994, 34.
269 “from North India”: Everett 1999, 112 and 342; Bellman 1998, 297; Moore 1997, 45.
269 “talk of trimming”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 186.
270 “Harrison now seems to take”: Christgau 1967, 117.
270 “Lillian Ross”: Lillian Ross, “Sgt. Pepper,” The New Yorker June 24, 1967: 22.
272 “dig at his sustained harvest”: Shotton and Schaffner 1984, 256–61.
272 “Just as Paul had assumed”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 212.
273 “I am That”: Mahesh Yogi 1967, 9; Mendelson 2014, 31; Sheff 1981, 156.
274 “like a human click”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 212; Becker 1982, 91.
274 “perpetually ascending”: MacDonald 2005, 266.
274 “Milan Kundera”: Keltner 2009, 130.
Chapter 8: Grow a Little Taller
275 “We’d all learned”: George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012.
275 “I’m quite proud”: McMillian 2013, 176.
275 “Harrison remembered”: Riley 2011, 77; Davies 2009, xxxv.
275 “Emboldened by precedents”: Bellman 1997, 120–21.
276 “auspicious sign”: Davies 2009, 318.
276 “For me it was like”: Glazer 1977, 37.
276 “In the summer of 1966”: Shankar 1999, 189; Reck 1985, 105; Harrison 1980, 55.
276 “the only person who ever impressed”: Tillery 2011, 55.
277 “Last born”: Sulloway 1996.
277 “answer the telephone”: Boyd 2007, 87.
277 “I started my own”: Farrell 1997, 176.
278 “Harrison received”: O’Mahony 2008, 23.
278 “Each soul is potentially”: Shankar 1999, 195.
278 “all four of them on the cover”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 92; Tillery 2011, 156; Mason 1994, 106.
279 “God is in the space”: Miles 1997, 393.
279 “If we’d met”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 32.
279 “You know I feel”: Ibid. 37.
279 “One evening Shotton”: Shotton 1984, 252.
280 “I hope the fans will”: Giuliano 1994, 107.
280 “Across the Universe”: Fiona Apple’s 1998 recording is a rare example of a cover that actually improves upon the Beatles original. Of course there are many covers of Beatles songs that that successfully reconceptualize original arrangements. My point here is that this arrangement doesn’t do that; it simply improves on the original.
280 “field of sorrow”: Mahesh Yogi 1967, 155–57 and 366–68.
281 “The Inner Light was recorded”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 97.
281 “based on the classic Taoist text”: Belmo 2002; Reck 1985, 113.
282 “big brass band”: Farrow 1997, 137.
282 “got to a real good place”: Transcendental Meditation 2010.
282 “land of light”: Farrow 1997, 138.
282 “For creating it was great”: Sheff 1981, 169; Lennon in Wenner 2000, 12: “I wrote the last batch of my best songs [in India].”
283 “John and George were in”: Lennon 1978, 170.
283 “John and George have each done”: Starr, 2004, 17.
283 “Well if you’re so cosmic”: Mason 1994, 138–39; Boyd 2007, 116 and 119.
283 “I felt what we were doing”: Lennon 1978, 176.
284 “Lennon’s fragile ego”: Starr (2004, 49) reports, with no date given but probably from around this time: “I can say this now (if he was here John could tell you) but suddenly we’d be in the middle of a track and John would just start crying or screaming—which freaked us out at the beginning. But we were always open to whatever anyone was going through so we just got on with it.”
284 “postmodern statement”: Ed Whitely, “The Postmodern White Album” in Inglis 2000.
284 “Both John and I had”: Miles 1997, 497.
285 “Fernando Sor”: The connection to Sor’s Study, No. 19, opus 60 in G major (the same key as Blackbird) was brought to my attention by Randy Reed, my colleague at Duke University. Chet Atkins did in fact record Bach’s Bourrée in E minor for an album called Hi Fi in Focus, released October, 1957.
285 “Kahlil Gibran”: Lennon 1978, 172; Sheff 1871, 160.
286 “Harrison’s initial idea”: MacDonald 2005, 301.
288 “warm endorsement from Time”: Platoff 2005; McMillian 2013, 180.
288 “For the Maharishi spirituality trumped”: Kent 2001, 84.
288 “evening lectures”: Lennon (The Beatles Anthology 2000, 298): “I had been thinking about it [the song Revolution] up in the hills in India.” On the Maharishi’s politics, Mason 1994, 126–27.
289 “whistling caterwauling”: Prose 2002, 337.
290 “Carlos Castaneda”: Shotton and Schaffner 1984, 378.
290 “Not bad”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 241; O’Toole 2007; Davies 2009, 372.
291 “hip credentials”: Adding to the problem for Lennon was his jealousy of Jagger and the Stones’ more rebellious image; see Davies 2009, lvi.
292 “Emerick described”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 251.
292 “Starr actually quit”: Brown and Gaines 1983, 315–16.
292 “It got a bit like”: Beatles Anthology 2000, 316.
292 “Listen, John”: Brown and Gaines 1983, 296.
292 “I am more stoned”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 246.
295 “McCartney explained”: Sulpy and Schweighardt 1997, 183.
297 “I was stoned all the time”: Miles and Marchbank 1978, 103; Sulpy and Schweighardt 1997, 198–99; Brown and Gaines 1983, 302.
297 “Alchemical wedding”: Connolly 1981, 121.
297 “pious subtly self-righteous”: Brennan 2007, 158, 155; Doggett 1998, 115.
297 “went off the rails for good”: Heylin 2007, 278.
297 “alienated a good part of his dancing public”: Teachout 2014, 10; see also Heylin 2007, especially Chapter 13.
299 “different working methods”: Sulpy and Schweighardt 1997, 76.
300 “According to Martin”: Martin and Pearson 1994, 122.
300 “emollient”: The Beatles Anthology 2003, Episode 7.
301 “simultaneous dreams”: Sulpy and Schweighardt 1997, 272.
302 “It’s complicated now”: The Beatles: Let It Be 2002 [1970].
302 “Simplicity is a complex form”: Quoted by Clark Terry in Keep on Keepin’ On 2014.
303 “No matter how bad”: George Harrison: Living in the Material World 2012.
304 “That bitch”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 286.
306 “Louder!”: Ibid., 300.
306 “John and Paul were a unique”: Lewisohn 2013, 654.
308 “In January Lennon had suggested”: Sulpy and Schweighardt 1997, 209.
309 “like they had gone back in time”: Emerick and Massey 2007, 294.
310 “There were some really loving caring moments”: The Beatles Anthology 2000, 356.
312 “thanks partly to lyrics copied directly”: Leary 1997, 51.
312 “Whatever it is that will please you”: The Beatles Anthology 2000, 316.
313 “A tape from January 1969 caught Lennon”: The Beatles Anthology 2000.
314 “chocolate coating”: Sheff 1981, 179.
315 “disagreements contributed”: Miles 1997, 579.
315 “It was getting too democratic”: Noyer 2015, 80.