Q: I heard that you were in New York because of a lawsuit.John Lennon: Rubbish. We’re here to talk about apples, you know.
Q: Is it true that Ringo wants to be in a Broadway play?
John Lennon: It’s being filmed by the National Theater in England. I don’t know what’s going on here!
Q: Do you have any plans for showing Magical Mystery Tour in this country?
John Lennon: Yes. We’ll put it on in the street with a screen and a projector.
Q: According to the press release, Apple will be making animated cartoons, TV programs, and TV commercials. What sort of thing will your company do that we don’t see on TV now?
John Lennon (to Paul): We don’t know, do we?
Paul McCartney: No.
John Lennon: We haven’t started.
Paul McCartney: We only came over here to plan it so we don’t know too much about it yet. We’ll tell you about it quietly someday, you know, give you the old program.
Q: Are the Beatles still meditating?
John Lennon: Yeah.
Paul McCartney: Yeah, now and then.
John Lennon: At this moment!
Q: Do you ever want to trip out again?
John Lennon: You never know, do you? It’s hard to be very specific, because I don’t know what I’m doing, do I?
Q: What kind of electronic devices do you plan to manufacture?
Paul McCartney: Ah, the electronic things. Well, they’re not like gimmicks. They are just great inventions. Our friend Alex over there is a genius. And he’s beautiful, he’s just incredible.
John Lennon: There’s no such thing as a genius, you know. But if there are any, he’s one.
Q: Can you give us an example?
John Lennon: No! You know about those long, nasty men in brown raincoats and sunglasses that you discover in the business world. And so, you don’t say what it is until it’s out, do you?
Paul McCartney: But it’s incredible.
Q: The press release says that you have established a foundation for selected charities. Can you explain?
John Lennon: Well, it’s a fund not specifically for charities, you know. But there is some way in which you can do something where you set up a foundation to pay for people who want to make films about a glass on a table. There’s some way of doing it. So, we’ll find out and do that.
Q: Have any of Alex’s inventions been used on any of your records?
John Lennon: No. but possibly on our next record.
Q: Why did you return to an almost Mersey-like beat for ‘Lady Madonna’?
John Lennon: Because we felt like it.
Paul McCartney: There’s nothing in it, but that was it. A record like any other would smell as sweet!
Q: Speaking of politics, what do you think of the Liberian Movement for Liberation?
John Lennon: I haven’t heard about it. But good luck to ’em!
Q: What do you think about what’s been going on at Columbia University?
Paul McCartney: What’s been going on?
John Lennon: They’ve been on strike, the same thing that’s going on elsewhere. Something’s going on!
Q: Are drugs more important to the youth of today than they were four years ago?
John Lennon: I don’t know what they’re doing. I have no idea.
Paul McCartney: It’s probably about the same. Maybe a little less.
Q: Can you give us some idea of the capitalization of Apple?
John Lennon: No. We can only use our common sense and have the right people to handle these things like capitalization.
Paul McCartney: What’s that mean? Capitalization?
Q: How much money are you putting in?
John Lennon: I don’t know – and that’s the joke!
Paul McCartney: We’ll do the details some other time, because we don’t know.
Q: We hear that you are about to make a distribution deal for films with a major US corporation. Will this influence your choice of material?
Paul McCartney: No.
John Lennon: Any deals we make will be short-term. We’ll be sure to get what we want. Otherwise, we won’t do it. So, we’ll make sure.
Also on this day...
- 2016: Beatles press officer Tony Barrow dies
- 2010: John Lennon statue to be unveiled in Liverpool
- 2009: Beatles Trivial Pursuit on sale in August
- 2003: Paul McCartney live: Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna
- 1997: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Jack Breslin Student Events Center, East Lansing
- 1984: US single release: Borrowed Time by John Lennon
- 1976: Wings live: Spectrum, Philadelphia
- 1963: The Beatles live: Rink Ballroom, Sunderland
- 1962: The Beatles live: Star-Club, Hamburg
- 1961: The Beatles live: Top Ten Club, Hamburg
- 1960: The Silver Beetles live: Lathom Hall, Liverpool
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
I was 14 and at this press conference.I wonder if this transcript contains the questions from the wider audience after the press were done. Derek Taylor opened it up to “us”. I aslo asked about meditation but I believe it was ” Why do you meditate, for rest or pleasure?”John said something snotty which I have blocked out! John Lennon spoke to me and i can’t remember what he said! Was it that he had already answered the question? The other transcript of this event online has John answering with the brushing teeth comment rather than Paul. I COULD have considered this snotty enough to close down OR he could have been further annoyed that I asked the question AGAIN and was obviously not paying attention because I was too busy peeing my pants
from excitement!
I hsve been well aware all these years that Paul met Linda the same day he met me and that somehow there was a BIG mess up in the universe- he should have been MINE!
John behaved like a real prick at this press conference harassing the press with mean spirited answers! They were only doing their jobs!
I believe Lennon was in need of a Heroin fix. He was all skin and bones compared to the Lennon who was filmed on January 25,1968 singing “All Together Now” on the Yellow Submarine insert at the the end of the movie.
Yoko Ono really did a job on the future John Winston Ono Lennon.
How do like that name change – Mr. Ono Lennon! What a feminist sap was John!
They say there’s a sucker born every minute!
John Winston Ono Lennon was the ultimate sucker in human history!!!
Binnie, I just loved your comments!!!!!!!!! Love is all we need!
“Something’s happening, but ‘I don’t know what it is, do you Mr Jones,” – sang Bob Dylan in Ballad of a Thin Man.
In another transcript I have seen, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney state their favorite group is Nilsson. Over the next several months, all of The Beatles became friends with Harry Nilsson, who eventually went to live in England for a time. It is amusing Lennon called Nilsson a “group.” He was a solo artist who used top studio musicians to create a tremendous body of recorded work, mostly from self-penned songs. His two Grammy-award winning songs were written by others. Following Lennon’s death in 1980, Nilsson spent several years campaigning for stricter gun safety laws in the U.S.