The Beatles Boxed Set (15 page)

            John’s
reputation as troublemaker spread at Quarry Bank High School. He and his friend
Pete would set fires for the fun of it. They would raft in the pond at Foster’s
Field, adjacent to the Strawberry Field home, and would build a bonfire to dry
their clothes so that Mimi would not suspect of their activities.

            And
to distinguish himself from others, John began adopting the trendy “Teddy Boy”
appearance, wearing Edwardian jackets over colorful shirts and tight jeans. Young
men in those days strived to be Teddy Boys to look cool. But for John, the
Teddy Boy marked him as an outsider and as a way to rebel against the school
and his aunt.

            John
recalled, “The sort of gang I [ran with] went in for things like shoplifting
and pulling girls’ knickers down. I was scared at the time, but Mimi was the
only parent who never found out.” But John’s pranks became even more daring.
From stealing candies, they progressed to stealing things they could sell.

            And
being a Teddy Boy, John felt as though it made him look tough. Unknown to his
friends, he was suffering from insecurities, and having that Teddy Boy look lent
him an image far removed from these insecurities. He felt that looking tough
would avoid a run-in with really tough kids in the neighborhood, though he
could fight dirty if need be.

            Paul
McCartney, future member of the Quarrymen, recalled that he heard so much about
John before actually meeting him. “John was the local Ted. You saw him rather
than met him.”

            John’s
lack of interest in school was largely unknown to Mimi, though she noticed that
he started smoking and frequently swore. John’s math teacher observed, “He’s on
the road to failure if he carries on this way.” John frequently missed his
classes; when he was sixteen, he failed his O-levels.

Long
after the war ended, Britain had a hard time getting back on its feet.
Rationing continued, though battered cities and destitute neighborhoods were at
a standstill.

            It
would be 1956 before the state-run British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
launched a television news service. Only 30 percent of Britons owned television
sets, and those were the ones who were rich enough. The Smiths were far better
than most Britons in Liverpool that time, but they, too, had no television set.
But luckily, Pete Shotton’s policeman father bought a television set, and Pete
lived just around the corner. Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation was the first
broadcast event in England.

            As
for BBC, the station played mainstream standards such as Tin Pan Alley tunes. And
Liverpool’s seaport became the means for Liverpudlians to have access to music.
The American sailors on the Cunard lines brought with them rhythm-and-blues and
country-and-western records to sell on the black market. In addition, travelers
brought with them European releases of American music that were not picked up
by British labels.

            As
television sets were not popular yet, the alternative was radio. And John was a
fan of the radio. Initially, he listened to the nightly offerings of BBC,
ranging from drama to news program. But one night after turning the dial, John
came across something rarely heard on BBC – rock ‘n’ roll.

            John
had stumbled upon a radio broadcast from the country of Luxembourg. Radio
Luxembourg was launched in 1931 to play military band music but had changed
after the war. Its wavelength couldn’t reach beyond Germany during the day, but
at night its signal was stronger and could reach much of the UK.

            Auntie
Mimi wasn’t so much a music fan, but Judy had wires running from her gramophone
to remote speakers in different parts of her home. This was unheard of during
that time. John copied this setup at Mendips, with wires running from the radio
in the living room up to his bedroom where he had installed s speaker so that
he could listen late at night to JDs such as Jack Jackson. John was able to
listen to songs that were topping the charts in the US, including hits of Bill
Haley and the Comets, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.

            John
recalled, “Once I heard it and got into it, that was life, there was no other
thing. I thought of nothing else but rock and roll.”

            His
introduction to early rock ‘n’ roll came through Lonnie Donegan, a Scottish
banjo player and guitarist who became famous for popularizing skiffle in
Britain. Donegan’s high-tempo version of Leadbelly’s
Rock Island Line
became a major hit in 1956, spending eight months in the Top 20. The success of
this single and the fact that skiffle didn’t require expensive instruments
contributed to the British skiffle craze that affected a lot of teenagers in
those days, including John.

            John
already knew how to play the accordion and harmonica and some of the banjo, but
now he only wanted to have his own guitar. He begged Judy to buy him one, which
she did. She bought him a cheap model called Gallotone Champion for five
pounds, on the condition that the guitar be delivered to her house, knowing
full well that Mimi wasn’t supportive of her son’s musical aspirations.

            John
soon learned to play Fats Domino’s
Ain’t that a Shame
and Buddy Holly’s
That’ll
be the Day
.

            It
would have been perfect had Mimi became more understanding of her nephew’s musical
aspirations. She preached about how wrong it was to idolize Presley or whoever
it was that was making such “noisy” music. She also grew exasperated by John’s
playing, saying that she hoped he’d grow tired of it and focus on his studies
instead. She had told him, “The guitar’s all right for a hobby, but you’ll
never make a living out of it.”

            How
wrong Auntie Mimi was, for soon John would follow the path he had chosen and
which would propel him to superstar status, would take him places and would
provide him things his Auntie Mimi could have only imagined.

Music
became an everyday part of John Lennon’s life, something that his mother shared
with him. And being a teenager who has fallen in love with rock ‘n’ roll, there
was an urge to imitate the sounds he loved.

John’s
circle of friends from the Quarry Bank High School all of a sudden became a skiffle
band. John played guitar; Ivan Vaughan, Nigel Walley and Len Garry alternated
on bass; Bill Smith was on tea-chest; Rod Davis played the banjo; Pete Shotton
was on washboard; and Eric Griffiths was on guitar. Later on the group would
welcome Colin Hanton, who played drums.

John formed his own skiffle band when he
was 16

            Of
course, John took the lead in singing. The combination of their playing didn’t
produce music that was good to the ears. John himself only knew a few chords,
though he tried to appear as though it was enough to make him appear like a
star. John also made up for what the others lacked as musicians. Sometimes he
would make up the words to a song, or add funny lines to keep their audience
entertained.

            John’s
band was called the Black Jacks and made their first performance on the back of
a flatbed truck on June 22, 1957. They were assigned the afternoon and evening
sets during celebrations for Empire Day. Judy took care of the band’s wardrobe.

            The
following month, Pete’s mother, a planning committee member at St. Peter’s,
arranged for the Black Jacks to play at the annual summer “Garden Fete” on July
6. By that time, the Black Jacks had changed their name to the Quarrymen. The
event included a performance on the back of a parade lorry, an afternoon set in
the churchyard and an evening dance.

            On
the afternoon of July 6, the Quarrymen had begun their performance. John was
singing
Be-Bob-a-Lula
and the crowd was laughing as John added funny
lines. But someone in the audience, a 15-year-old boy named Paul McCartney, was
impressed not by John’s guitar abilities but by the way he stood out among his
mates.

            Paul
came along to the fete after he was invited by his friend Ivan Vaughan. He
heard John singing
Come Go with Me
by the Del Vikings, one of Paul’s favorites
that time. He recalled seeing John with his “curly, blondish hair, wearing a
checked shirt – looking pretty good and quite fashionable.”

Paul McCartney would soon join the
Quarrymen

            It
was not just Paul who caught the music. Mimi was shocked to see her nephew
making an awful noise in his “drainies” (drainpipes) and ducktail. When John
spotted her, he ad-libbed, “Uh-oh, here comes Mimi down the path.”

            Mimi
stood beside Judy. The former was scowling, the latter smiling.

            After
the afternoon performance, Ivan introduced Paul to John. At first, John showed
indifference even when Paul picked up his guitar, turned it upside down (he was
left-handed) and played Eddie Cochran’s
Twenty Flight Rock
. John was
impressed, though he didn’t show it. He couldn’t hide the fact that Paul played
the guitar with an expertise far above their own skills. Then Paul sang a
medley of Little Richard songs. The two discussed fingerings briefly.

            Still,
John was reluctant to ask the younger boy to join the Quarrymen. It would be a
week later before Pete Shotton, following John’s instructions, invited Paul to
join the Quarrymen.

            John
and Paul would soon form a friendship that would last until John’s death,
though it was a stormy friendship right before the band split in 1970. But for
now, they had become friends, something that their elders did not quite approve
of. Paul’s biographer, Barry Miles, wrote, “Aunt Mimi disapproved because she
thought Paul was a working-class lad who was encouraging her nephew to devote
time to his guitar which should have been spent studying.” Paul’s father, Jim,
also disapproved of John, telling his son, “He’ll get you into trouble, son.”

            Despite
the disapprovals, John and Paul continued spending time together. Paul had been
at the Smiths a few times already, noticing the living room walls lined with
books and a typewriter, which was unusual at that time in Liverpool. But
generally, the boys would listen to 45s and talk about music. John recalled,
“We spent hours just listening to the stars we admired. We’d sit around and
look all intent and intense and then … try and reproduce the same sort of
sounds for ourselves.

            Paul
put it this way: “We’d often get in the little glass-paneled porch on the front
door looking out on to the front garden and Menlove Avenue. There was a good
acoustic there, like a bathroom acoustic, and also it was the only place Mimi
would let us make noise. We were relegated to the vestibule. I remember singing
Blue Moon
in there, the Elvis version, trying to figure out the chords…
Then we’d go up to John’s room and we’d sit on the bed and play records, Fats
Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry. It’s a wonderful memory: I don’t often get
nostalgic, but the memory of sitting listening to records in John’s bedroom is
so lovely, a nice nostalgic feeling, because I realize just how close I was to
John.”

            Having
failed his O-level exams, John flunked out of Quarry Bank shortly after the St.
Peter’s fete. To make matters worse, he and Nigel Walley spent one night
drinking and then signing up for the merchant marine the first chance they got
the following morning. Mimi was furious when she learned about it. She went to
the recruitment office and had John’s name removed.