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About Melissa Davis
Expertise
I feel extremely comfortable with my ability to answer questions regarding The Beatles personally - backgrounds, family, education, and the genesis of the group from inception to the end. I do not feel that I have the expertise to answer extremely technical questions regarding equipment, other than to refer the questioner to other sources.

Experience
Besides having been the right age at the right time to live through and enjoy The Beatles, I have continued my interest in them, in their music, and their influence on 20th century - in everything from the obvious, music, to fashion, humor, film, politics, and the music industry. As a dedicated Anglophile, I have studied at the University of London as an undergraduate and traveled in the UK extensively - yes, walked across Abbey Road, visited Savile Row - all of it. Beyond that, I am a teacher and a writer with excellent writing, editing, and research skills.

Publications
The Copy Workshop advertising series Colorado Law Journal Various magazines

Education/Credentials
B.A. History & Political Science, M.A. English History, J.D.

Awards and Honors
Teacher of the Year, Archdiocese of Dallas (2000)

You are here: Experts > Music/Performing Arts > Classic Rock > Beatles, The > The Beatles Relationships

Topic: Beatles, The

Expert: Melissa Davis
Date: 7/6/2008
Subject: The Beatles Relationships

Question
QUESTION: I always picture The Beatles hanging out with themselves, but I want to know about their relationships with other friends. This is for my own interest. I know George was close with Eric Clapton, but after Pattie swapped over to Eric, how did their relationship go? Did they have a relationship with The Kinks? The Rolling Stones? The Who? amoungst many others. Sorry if this a little vague, I tried to word It best as possible.

ANSWER: Hi Andrea,

Not to worry; you worded your question perfectly. I think I can shed some light on the Beatles relationships with other groups of the era and specifically about George and Eric Clapton’s long friendship.

Although virtually all their time was spent touring, filming, writing, and recording in the years from 1962 – 1966, they were not completely insular. The Beatles seemed to have been secure and confident enough not to feel threatened by other groups, genuinely enjoying mixing with other musicians and they got along socially very well with them. But that should be distinguished from ‘hanging out.’ For one thing, they didn’t have much time to ‘hang out’.

As far as friendships, you mention the obvious, let me put it into a context a little. They met each other years before their ‘overnight’ success when they were 14, 15, and 16 years old. They went through the usual crises of adolescence together – and some extraordinary ones. Through it all they seem to have shared an unshakable faith in the band and each other and stuck together through bad gigs, no gigs, cheap instruments, no instruments, no money, no audience (they once played to a ‘crowd’ of 18 people south of London, playing the entire show anyway) for five years before they got their recording contract.

Their unprecedented fame resulted in almost suffocatingly close surroundings in cars, planes, and hotels for years after that. In addition, their naiveté and the perception that people from the north – from Liverpool, were provincial made them easy targets. A lot of people made fortunes off the Beatles’ efforts. Their reaction was to remain close to the people they trusted – the people who they had known before they were famous (Neil Aspinall, Malcolm Evans, Pete Shotton, Ivan Vaughn from Liverpool come to mind), members of their families and each other.

They were never competitive with the Rolling Stones, offering them I Wanna Be Your Man well before they released it themselves, so the Stones could have a strong follow-up to their first single, which had stalled at #21. Any competition seems to have been fomented by the Stones’ management who sought to style the Stones’ as the ‘naughty’ version of the Beatles. This never seemed to carry over into the interaction between the two groups. Mick Jagger went along to Wales with them in August 1967 to meet with the Maharishi and was also in the audience for the All You Need Is Love recording session that was the first world satellite broadcast - to 400 million viewers - on June 25, 1968.

Mick Jagger called them, ‘the four-headed monster’ and said that they were “… on a different wavelength. It was like they had their own code. They were nice enough and all, but you knew you were an outsider. They made me realize that I was in a band that was a business, but they [the Beatles] were friends. Once when I told John he had a cool lighter, he said that George had given it to him for his birthday. I thought to myself, I didn’t even know when Keith Richards’s birthday was and wouldn’t give him something for it if I did know. That was the difference between us and if I was jealous of anything, I was jealous of that.”

They did stick together – partly because being from the north, they felt the prejudice against northerners that was common. They had experiences, due to their extraordinary success, that made other groups jealous and competitive and separated them from all the other groups. They had known each other for a long time and been through a lot together; any internal problems they might have had had been worked out years before when they were teenagers in the clubs and dance halls and in Hamburg. They got alone quite well, understood and trusted each other.

The Beatles and their wives (in Paul's case it was his long-time girlfriend Jane Asher) vacationed together and, in the case of the Lennons, the Harrisons, and the Starkeys, they all lived extremely close to each other outside London. John and Ringo's homes were virtually next door to each other and George's house was just 10 minutes away. Paul lived in London and was much more involved in the avant garde music and art scene (Swinging London 1964 - 1967). They enjoyed each other's company quite a bit and the wives got along well; they were in and out of each other's houses daily, eating together, socializing, and working on albums. Paul was especially close to Julian Lennon during this time and even took him on a trip so that John and Cynthia could have a little private time of their own.

The Beatles were friendly with Donovan and Paul recorded background vocals on two of his singles. Jimi Hendrix rented an apartment from Ringo Starr for the time he was in London. They liked Bob Dylan, although they didn’t see him often as he lived in the United States. They enjoyed Eric Burden of the Animals. They were not close to the Kinks or the Who; the members of both those groups later said that they felt intimidated by the Beatles’ success.

The Beatles were each other’s best friends. Years later, George Harrison said, “One thing you could say about us, we were tight. We could argue amongst ourselves, but around outsiders, we always stuck together.” He said they had always felt sorry for Elvis, because there was “only one of him… only Elvis knew what his life was like.” Ringo added, “If any one of us started to go off the deep end, the others pulled him back to center. They were my brothers.”

Even when John was at his most critical, after the break-up, someone who worked for Capitol Records said, “while it was apparent John could say whatever he felt like about Paul, you took your life in your hands if you said anything about any of them to John. It was very much a family thing with him. You just didn’t cross that loyalty line. That was obvious.”

When George Harrison died in 2001, Paul McCartney said, “He was just my baby brother that I loved so much.”

George and Pattie... Eric and Pattie… and George and Eric
Pattie and George met during the filming of A Hard Day's Night. They fell in love and were a couple almost instantly, getting married almost two years later when George wasn’t quite 23 and she was 21.

Eric Clapton had been in a British Invasion band in the years immediately following the Beatles success in the United States, called The Yardbirds. You are probably familiar with Eric Clapton’s contribution to While My Guitar Gently Weeps on The Beatles (a/k/a The White Album) and Harrison’s reciprocal contribution to Cream’s Badge. As you know, Eric Clapton developed a crush and then almost an obsession for Pattie. It was understandable; when she and George married, she was a model and considered to be one of the most beautiful women in England. She certainly was the envy of girls all around the world. It would seem that the attraction wasn't mutual - until suddenly it was. Eric's threat about using heroin (a threat he made good on) and Layla were ways he dealt with the issue. He and George were friends, but not particularly close.

There are differing versions about George’s reaction when he learned that Eric had fallen for Pattie: furious, jealous, indifferent, or even relieved – so it's hard to say where the truth lies. It does seem that the pressures on George and Pattie were against the success of the marriage right from the start: they were very young when they met and became involved almost immediately; they were in the public eye constantly, George had virtually no experience with having a real girlfriend – lots of experience by that time with women of course, but no ‘real relationship’ experience at all. Add to that the strain of not being able to have children – without all the medical technology that we have today to help with that situation, and it’s easy to see how it didn’t last.

In any event, George said he was glad Pattie was ‘with Eric and not some jerk’ and he and Eric remained lifelong friends. George even said they were ‘husbands-in-law’ and played at their wedding.

When Eric Clapton’s son, Conor, died in a horribly tragic accident at age 4, Patti walked on one side of Eric and George on the other as he entered the chapel for the memorial service. I think that probably says more about the situation than I could and says it eloquently.

I hope that gives you some insight into their relationships; write with a follow-up if you need any further information.

MDavis

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your answer, it was VERY interesting AND helpful.

When I read 'Add to that the strain of not being able to have children' I was confused. I may be out of the loop on that one, or I may be spacing out and just not understanding. Can you tell me why that is?

Thanks again,
Andrea :)

Answer

I'm sorry I wasn't clear. Pattie and George tried to start a family after they married in 1966, but Pattie did not become pregnant. At that time, medical technology was not able to diagnose and treat fertility problems as it does today, nor were there options like in vitro fertilization, etc. available.

Usually, it was thought that a couple should 'try' for several years before concluding that they were unable to conceive. This can cause, and doctors say it almost always does cause, stress and tension in marriages and you can see how the emotions around it can be very intense.

Pattie did not have children with Eric Clapton, either, and has since written that she later found she was unable to have children, which was a source of unhappiness for her.

George finally became a father at 35 when his only child, Dhani, was born on August 1, 1978 making him the last Beatle to become a father. Interestingly, John and Paul had also had sons at the age of 35 (Sean Lennon in 1975 and James McCartney in 1977), so it was something else they had in common right around that time in their lives.

I'm glad the rest of the answer gave you some background to the relationships of the Beatles within the group and with other musicians. Please feel free to write again if you need any further information.

MDavis

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