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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Kenneth wellmck explain to me, he's sort of the progression

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Speaker 2: of Mal Evans's duties on behalf of the band. He

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Speaker 2: starts as a bouncer at the Cavern club, gets to

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Speaker 2: know him, becomes their driver and then bodyguard. At some

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Speaker 2: point he decides to quit his very solid job and

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Speaker 2: go on the road with the Beatles. Currently it must

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Speaker 2: have been pretty spooky decision to make for him.

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Speaker 3: It was a monumental decision to make if you think

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Speaker 3: about it and you put yourself back in the context

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Speaker 3: of nineteen sixty three. I mean, here he is. He

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Speaker 3: has a job that promises a pension. He's the first

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Speaker 3: person to be educated in his family. He's got a car,

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Speaker 3: a mortgage. You know, he's doing all of the solidly

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Speaker 3: middle class things. He was socially mobile as far as

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Speaker 3: the Evans family was concerned. And this was a big

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Speaker 3: deal to take a chance on a pop band. You know,

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Speaker 3: there was no there was no belief at all that

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Speaker 3: a pop band would be anything eighteen months and out

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Speaker 3: at best, and this was a band that was on

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Speaker 3: the rise. It had by this point please please meet

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Speaker 3: in from Medu when he had to make this decision,

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Speaker 3: and they were shortly the release She Loved You, which

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Speaker 3: of course was a game changer nationally in the UK.

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Speaker 3: But this was a big deal and the family went

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Speaker 3: into quite a bit of upheaval over this issue, and

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Speaker 3: rearly only his wife Lily, who stood by him and

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Speaker 3: championed his cause. Nobody else thought it was a good idea,

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Speaker 3: and I'm sure even in his heart now had his

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Speaker 3: own misgivings.

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Speaker 2: Describe for me how close he became to the Beatles,

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Speaker 2: because I mean it comes across in your book that

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Speaker 2: they became pals. I mean, George Harrison is going to

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Speaker 2: his house for dinner and He's going to George's. He

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Speaker 2: travels extensively with McCartney. He's buddies with Rango. I think

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Speaker 2: he's a little intimidated by John, but it seemed like

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Speaker 2: he really was part of the family. He's traveling with him,

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Speaker 2: he's eating meals day in the same hotels. He was

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Speaker 2: like one of.

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Speaker 3: Them him, he was, and he reveled in that. He

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Speaker 3: you know, drinks and meals for five. This is the

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Speaker 3: works phrase, because it meant he was one of the boys.

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Speaker 3: You know, he grew up very awkwardly, even though he

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Speaker 3: was athletic. As we talked about earlier, he's this big

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Speaker 3: guy really stood out. They called him hippo when he

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Speaker 3: was a kid, which you know he had to sort

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Speaker 3: of in his mind make sense of. But he loved

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Speaker 3: and adored the fact that they were that close. They

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Speaker 3: were all bosom buddies for several years there as they

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Speaker 3: traped around the world trying to consolidate their fame, and

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Speaker 3: those relationships were very important to him. Now there was

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Speaker 3: a flip side, right, I mean, the Beatles would call

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Speaker 3: now and neol aspinall every name in the book. You know,

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Speaker 3: they had to be there for all the rough stuff too,

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Speaker 3: And these tours were by by no means easy.

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Speaker 2: And he's not making a ton of money. In fact,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's pretty paltry when you look at it.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's paltry compared to say, what the Beatles were making.

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Speaker 3: You know, they're making six thousand dollars a week or

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Speaker 3: six hours pounds a week or whatever. He's making forty

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Speaker 3: or fifty pounds. When Brian Epstein's Epstein set everything up,

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Speaker 3: though he made sure Mal and Neil were getting way

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Speaker 3: better than scale. In fact, at least in those initial

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Speaker 3: years before inflation took too big a bite out of

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Speaker 3: their money, Mal and Neil were doing really well, you know,

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Speaker 3: in terms of the population.

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Speaker 2: Describe the progression of his duties for them, so driver, bodyguard.

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Speaker 2: I mean they became really dependent on him to a

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Speaker 2: large extent, not just to move the equipment, but to

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Speaker 2: protect them, to get them from A to b, from

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Speaker 2: the venues to hotels, and then a whole bunch of

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Speaker 2: other duties that developed later.

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Speaker 3: Sure, and Mal was kind of a fixer. You know.

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Speaker 3: One of John Lennon's assistants told me that John Boasted

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Speaker 3: now knew every police chief and every city in the world.

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Speaker 3: You know, he knew how to keep things moving, which

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Speaker 3: is essential in a you know, a sort of a

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Speaker 3: move movable feast of a rock circus like that. He

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Speaker 3: was He was essential in that fashion. But you know,

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Speaker 3: over the years, anything that was needed, uh, you know,

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Speaker 3: that was Mal's job. Now, after they discovered marijuana was

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Speaker 3: Bob Dylan in August nineteen sixty four, that was the job,

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Speaker 3: you know. They he and he and Neil devised a

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Speaker 3: plan by via which they would take cigarette cartons get

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Speaker 3: rid of all the tobacco, put in the weeds, reseal

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Speaker 3: with cellophane the cartons like they did in those days,

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Speaker 3: and away they'd go. They could move those through any

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Speaker 3: country for the Beatles, so they'd have their ready supply

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Speaker 3: whatever they needed.

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Speaker 2: Mal did you described go ahead? No, I was, You're

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Speaker 2: on a great track. I'm sorry interrupt, It's okay.

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Speaker 3: I just you know when we and we're doing our

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Speaker 3: Beatles Glass right now here at Mammoth and we're getting

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Speaker 3: into those great late albums and back tomorrow I the

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Speaker 3: White album. So it's a big moment that all the

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Speaker 3: students have been looking forward to. And that's when you

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Speaker 3: can really see now in those post touring years, Shine.

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Speaker 3: You know, he's the reason they can stay up late

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Speaker 3: working on a new track, or he knows how to

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Speaker 3: go wake up the person at the instrument store at

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Speaker 3: four am and say John needs a new guitar. You know.

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Speaker 3: So now was that guy all jobs and no questions.

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Speaker 2: They came to abuse him a little bit. You have

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Speaker 2: a section on the book where John Lennon calls at

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Speaker 2: three am and just says, apples it sucks.

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Speaker 3: They do a little bit. I think that came with

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Speaker 3: the job though, you know, he signed up for that.

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Speaker 3: He was there to serve their cause and whatever that meant.

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Speaker 3: Mal was willing to do. He would sometimes sacrifice his

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Speaker 3: own ego. If they were fighting amongst themselves, he would

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Speaker 3: get them to turn their ire onto them so that

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Speaker 3: they could work out whatever they were doing and move forward.

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Speaker 2: He loved being around celebrity, rubbing elbows with the people

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Speaker 2: who came to meet the Beatles as they became bigger

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Speaker 2: and bigger. He loved that stuff, right.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he did love it. He was pretty starstruck. He's

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Speaker 3: a little older than they are. He was five years

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Speaker 3: older than John and Ringo, who are the oldest members

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Speaker 3: of the band. Ringo still is I hope he maintains

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Speaker 3: after decades, but now was older. He knew all the

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Speaker 3: old movies. He was really tuned into Hollywood culture. For example.

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Speaker 3: He was a big reader, so all of this was

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Speaker 3: like seeing, you know, his celluloid dreams come to life.

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Speaker 3: When they would run around the world, you know, suddenly

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Speaker 3: there's Burt Lancaster or Frank Sinatra or whomever. And Mao

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Speaker 3: had developed a great gift of gab, so he was

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Speaker 3: also useful to them when they would have these kinds

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Speaker 3: of celebrity encounters because he could go and hang out

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Speaker 3: with him, have a drink, talk to them, and maybe

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Speaker 3: give the Beatles a break from having to be on

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Speaker 3: all the time.

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Speaker 2: When Beatlemania hits and they become this international stars on

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Speaker 2: a scale we can't even imagine, suddenly women girls start

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Speaker 2: throwing themselves at the band members, and in order to

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Speaker 2: get to the band members, they do the same to

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Speaker 2: the guys who were in the entourage. Bal and Neil, right.

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Speaker 3: That's right, and there's no doubt that plenty of things

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Speaker 3: went down there. What the really blew malaway was that

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Speaker 3: often the young women would be accompanied by their mothers,

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Speaker 3: and it was you know, it developed into these kind

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Speaker 3: of awkward situations and sometimes now had to be the

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Speaker 3: guy who turned away to women and got them out

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Speaker 3: of there before scandal might break out.

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Speaker 2: Well, Las Vegas, for example, they came to Las Vegas.

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Speaker 2: I've written about this. I've talked to people who are around,

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Speaker 2: you know, and written written the stories about their concerts

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Speaker 2: stop here in Las Vegas, and I knew that they

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Speaker 2: had stayed at the Sahara and heard some general stories

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Speaker 2: about what had happened behind the scenes, how they had

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Speaker 2: slot machines in their hotel room because they couldn't go

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Speaker 2: down to the casino. But there are some stories that

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Speaker 2: you tell in this book that I had not heard before,

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Speaker 2: about scandals that were narrowly averted.

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Speaker 3: Sure, young women shuttling around in elevators and this sort

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Speaker 3: of thing, and worried parents, et cetera. It turns out

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Speaker 3: possibly worried about nothing. But you know, the Beatles really

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Speaker 3: were very fortunate. Now they're no led Zeppelin or The

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Speaker 3: Who or some of these stories you'll hear about the seventies.

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Speaker 3: It certainly was never of that level, particularly in the

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Speaker 3: case of led Zeppelin of leadness. But you know, the

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Speaker 3: Beatles were there were there were lots of comers, people

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Speaker 3: coming for them all the time, and it would it

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Speaker 3: was creating all sorts of hazards. They're young guys. Mal

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Speaker 3: has never seen people offer themselves in this way up

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Speaker 3: so easily. It was a strange place. Larry Kane, whom

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Speaker 3: you probably have spoken to in the past, is particularly

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Speaker 3: eloquent on this about how this circus like atmosphere really

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Speaker 3: kind of recks your psyche. You know, you start behaving

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Speaker 3: in ways you might not normally and they started finding

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Speaker 3: themselves sort of going down this road of the bacchanal.

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Speaker 3: John Lennon especially found it, you know, thrilling on the

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Speaker 3: one hand, but really dangerous on the other.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So mel Evans, you know, he's he had some

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Speaker 2: musical aspirations of his own at some point. It never

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Speaker 2: really spoke about it until later in the book, but

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Speaker 2: you know he clearly had some thoughts. So maybe he'd

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Speaker 2: like to be a star at some point as well.

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Speaker 2: And he actually collaborates with the Beatles on a number

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Speaker 2: of songs. We've played a couple of them here where

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Speaker 2: he's he's helping to perform or add to the sound

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Speaker 2: on a couple of them. And I know there must

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Speaker 2: be a longer list that you'd be aware of. He's

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Speaker 2: also in their movies, right, that's right.

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Speaker 3: You know Mal was handy. That's the word Paul McCartney

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Speaker 3: would often use. It was handy to have Mal around.

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Speaker 3: He you know, if you in the middle of the

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Speaker 3: night and you need somebody to hold down an organ,

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Speaker 3: note there he is play the moroccas the harmonica, you know,

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Speaker 3: count out the measures as you played earlier in the day.

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Speaker 3: In the life he plays the alarm clock on that song.

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Speaker 3: He's even there at the end banging the gigantic piano chord.

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Speaker 3: You know, he was there, available, competent, and you know

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Speaker 3: they had such a small group that they could trust.

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Speaker 3: They're putting out so much music and their spark, their

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Speaker 3: artistic spark is just unmatched during that period. So to

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Speaker 3: keep the train, you know, moving forward with all of

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Speaker 3: that great momentum, they might call on Mal or other

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Speaker 3: folks who were part of that small entourage to come

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Speaker 3: up with a lyric, or to participate or collaborate in

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Speaker 3: some fashion. It was just a highly energetic space and

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Speaker 3: Mao was, like I said, he was a pretty well

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Speaker 3: read guy, pretty plugged in in terms of culture, and

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Speaker 3: he was there in a pinch and they knew to

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Speaker 3: take advantage of that.

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Speaker 2: He does the hammer on an anvil in Maxwell Silver Hammer.

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Speaker 3: That's him right, It isn't on the final recording. He

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Speaker 3: actually was in a work stoppage. We could discuss later

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Speaker 3: if you want, but he plays it at Twickenham Studios

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Speaker 3: during the Get Back sessions in January sixty nine. The

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Speaker 3: really interesting part is not just that he plays the anvil,

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Speaker 3: but that he knew how to go get one you know,

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Speaker 3: Paul said, I need a hammer and an anvil, almost

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Speaker 3: like an afterthought, and Mal whips out his rolodex, which

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Speaker 3: he kept with him everywhere, and he knew that there

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Speaker 3: was a theatrical props prop shop somewhere around their store,

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Speaker 3: and he went over and talked them into giving them

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Speaker 3: his anvil, and that's how that came about.

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Speaker 2: So he's taking notes every step of the way on

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Speaker 2: this stuff to describe how accurate it is, how useful

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Speaker 2: it is. I know you said it needed a lot

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Speaker 2: of organization, but how good were the notes? How accurate?

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Speaker 3: Well, they're stupendously accurate, you know, I mean, as you know,

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Speaker 3: scholars know, the most important information you can get is contemporaneous.

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Speaker 3: And here's Mal taking notes and saving receipts and documents

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Speaker 3: and writing up his thoughts, for example, after meeting Elvis,

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Speaker 3: you know, at length, so was It's incredibly valuable and

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Speaker 3: vital kinds of information because it's firsthand and it's happening

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Speaker 3: in the moment. So you know, it tends to presuppose

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Speaker 3: some of the other sort of excavation that Beatles scholars

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Speaker 3: have had to do over the years to try to

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Speaker 3: figure out what happened, you know, now telling us in

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Speaker 3: real time exactly what transpired.

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Speaker 2: He's taking photos too, right, He took lots of photos.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, the Beatles, you know, these young guys were excited

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Speaker 3: by gadgets, and so they would get the latest and

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Speaker 3: the greatest in terms of still in moving cameras, and

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Speaker 3: as they did, they would pass on the other ones

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Speaker 3: to Mao. And in fact, they encouraged him to take

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Speaker 3: photos because you know, somebody needed to document this strange

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Speaker 3: thing that was taking place. They all recognized that it was,

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Speaker 3: you know, really big and otherworldly, this kind of fame

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Speaker 3: they were experiencing, and that kind of fell on the

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Speaker 3: shoulders of mal It was George Harrison who said, look,

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Speaker 3: you know, you know, we only pay you a certain

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Speaker 3: amount if you want to sell photos, we don't care.

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Speaker 3: And he did a few times to magazines like I

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Speaker 3: believe sixteen magazine in the United States. But yeah, they

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Speaker 3: absolutely encouraged him to take photos. He went from being

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Speaker 3: kind of an okay photographer sometimes with maybe a finger

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Speaker 3: in front of the lens a little shaky, to pretty

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Speaker 3: competent and of course sometimes he's the only person there

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Speaker 3: to document something photographically.

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Speaker 2: Can you imagine what his level of access would have

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Speaker 2: been would be worth today if the Beatles were at

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Speaker 2: their height now, I mean, you know, just a tip

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Speaker 2: here or there where they were going to stay, or

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Speaker 2: who they were with, or a photo or two.

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Speaker 3: My gosh, yeah, I mean, you know, mal probably would

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Speaker 3: never have allowed himself to exploit them in that way,

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Speaker 3: but you're right, I mean it would be worth a fortune.

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Speaker 3: He was very careful, particularly as Beatlemania became more omnipress

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Speaker 3: and even a little violent and dangerous and sixty five

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Speaker 3: and sixty six, he was so concerned about their safety.

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Speaker 3: You know, there was a lot of frivolity in nineteen

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Speaker 3: sixty four you mentioned Las Vegas, but less so by

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Speaker 3: the time they gets to sixty five and sixty six.

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Speaker 3: I mean, they are as you suggested, they're pinned up

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Speaker 3: in hotel rooms. They really aren't seeing any of the

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Speaker 3: cities they go to. There's a lot of danger. I

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Speaker 3: mean a lot of cities. Their police forces aren't really

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Speaker 3: coming out in mass They might send two constables when

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Speaker 3: they needed to send two hundred, you know, to help

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Speaker 3: protect them. So it was pretty harrowing. But you know,

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Speaker 3: absolutely now was essential in keeping that that train moving forward, and.

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Speaker 2: Of course there was racial strife in the US during

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Speaker 2: their tours, and you know, a segregation that made the

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Speaker 2: band uncomfortable. There was the John Lennon's infamous comment about

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Speaker 2: being more popular than Jesus that people were starting to

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Speaker 2: burn their records. I mean, there was a lot of

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Speaker 2: risky situations they got themselves into.

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Speaker 3: They really did. And John would call that the Jesus

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Speaker 3: Christ to Her in nineteen sixty six, which would be

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Speaker 3: the last Beatles to Her, And it did get pretty harrowing.

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Speaker 3: You know. There was at one point they were in

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Speaker 3: Memphis and somebody threw firecrackers on the stage, you know,

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Speaker 3: and they thought, which one of us has been shot? Right?

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Speaker 3: Or you know, the KKK would march outside of you know,

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Speaker 3: their concerts. It was really getting out of hand, and

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Speaker 3: they knew better. They knew that the better work that

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Speaker 3: they were doing was always going to be in the

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Speaker 3: studio as opposed to those circus like concerts. They really

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Speaker 3: begun to have enough, but it truly was dangerous. And

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Speaker 3: now recognize that he was outnumbered in terms of trying

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Speaker 3: to protect them.

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Speaker 2: I can imagine, you know, fans were disappointed that they

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Speaker 2: stopped touring, but It was obviously a good decision on

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Speaker 2: their part. They could concentrate on producing really great records.

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Speaker 2: And you know, they're performing in these concerts and can't

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Speaker 2: even hear themselves, and nobody in the audience can hear

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Speaker 2: them play either, so don't blame them for that.

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