Thanks
An unusual aspect of tracking down the originals of Beatles lyrics is that I came across several people who did not want to be thanked. Or at least their name revealed. Mostly they want a quiet life, with no one knowing that they have acquired something so valuable, which might get stolen or cause envy or total surprise amongst their family and neighbours, muttering well, I never, the sly old puss. The huge rise in the value of the best Beatles bits over the last thirty years has meant that relatively ordinary, not all that rich collectors and fans, if they have held on to their stuff, have often found they are sitting on small fortunes. Anyway, they all know who they are–so thanks a lot.
Apologies in advance to any owners surprised to see their treasures included here. I did try to contact every present-day owner where possible, but many of the items have passed through several hands over the years. Thanks to Sony, controllers of the copyright, for permission for publication, but I would also have liked out of courtesy to have been able to contact all the owners of the physical manuscripts. Sorry about that.
Those I would like to name and thank include the following:
Yoko Ono, who did like the idea when I first mentioned it, and Paul McCartney who has always wished the project luck. D.J. Hoek, Head of the Music Library at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, for his help, thoughts, suggestions. Northwestern have seven Beatles’ lyrics, the most of any institution, apart from the British Library in London. And at the Brit Lib, a big thank you to Jamie Andrews, Head of English and Drama.
Colin Campbell, Emeritus Professor of Social Sociology at York University, England, was incredibly generous, letting me use material from his unpublished treatise on ‘Eleanor Rigby’, plus his thoughts on the Beatles lyrics. Thanks also to Professor Glenn Gass of the music school at the University of Indiana.
Amongst collectors and owners, family members and friends, plus expert fans who helped and to whom I am also grateful are: Maureen Cleave, Mike McCartney, David Birch, Marie Weston, Pete Shotton, Rod Davis, Jeff Leve, Philippe Leutert, Dave Ravenscroft, Howard Prosser, Dean Wilson, Peter Miniaci and Rick, Joachim Nosko, Thorsten Knublauch, Arno Guzek, Paul Drummond, James Breedon, Richard Hall.
Pete Nash, once again, for his research and saving me from some awful mistakes. Stephanie Connell and Stephen Maycock of Bonhams, Paul Wane and Jason Cornthwaite of Tracks, Spencer Leigh, Keith Badman, David Bedford, Steve Turner, Frank Caiazzo.
Alan Samson, Lucinda McNeile and Helen Ewing of Weidenfeld & Nicolson in London and John Parsley of Little Brown in New York–all a pleasure to do business with. Not forgetting Robert Kirkby of United Agents, for business and lunches.
The author and publisher are grateful to Sony, Harrisongs and MPL for permission to reproduce lyrics; to Charlotte Knee for photographing manuscripts; and to the following for their photographs or other images:
here, Photograph@Harry Benson; here, Sotheby’s; here, Colin Hanton; here, Tracks; here, here, here, Hunter Davies collection; here, Michael McCartney; here, Leslie Bryce; here, P. Drummond@Psy-Fi archive; here, here, here, Getty Images; here, UPPA/Photoshot; here, Bill Harry; here, here, Bad Handwroter/Arno Guzek; here, here, here, here, here, here, British Library; here, Ethan Russell; here, Jason Cornthwaite (Tracks); here, Mirrorpix; here, Ringo Starr; here, Caz Graham