Postcards from the boys... (Beatles content)

[M]

from today's National Post - - note:: the paper itself has photos of some of the actual cards if you want to see them... page AL10... they are not viewable online

Postcards from the boys

~~~ Whenever John, Paul or George went on a trip, they'd send Ringo a postcard. A new book details these notes, doodles and jokes from the drummer's private archive. ~~~

Ever since the Beatles began making young girls scream in the early Sixties, there's been a cottage industry in biographies and biopics detailing the minutiae of their humble beginnings in Liverpool, their dalliances with the Maharishi and their acrimonious breakup. Considering they disbanded 34 years ago, there is little we don't know about the Beatles. In fact, as Ringo Starr notes, "A lot of people know more about my life than I do."

But few know about Starr's love of postcards. Whenever one of his jet-setting friends set off on a trip, Starr requested they drop him a postcard. Thankfully, they obliged and over the years he amassed an amusing collection, many of which were posted by his former band mates.

The drummer approached Genesis Publications in London with his holdings and proposed a book. Postcards From the Boys was published shortly thereafter, with all royalties going to The Lotus Foundation charity. (In Canada, it's published by Chronicle Books and costs $39.95.)

While postcards by nature show little regard for privacy and demand brevity, Ringo's collection paints a surprisingly intimate portrait of the relationship between the Fab Four.

In addition to tracing "the boys" history through their frequent travels, changing spouses, birth of children, recording of albums and Starr's frequent moving of house, the cards illuminate that particular Beatle wit as well as the friends' enduring affection for one another.

"It's a slightly different way of looking at the Beatles," says Robby Elson, the editor at Genesis who wrote the book's introduction. "Lots of Beatles' biographies spend a lot of time documenting their every move minute to minute, but that's a very dry way of looking at the Beatles. I think Ringo opening up his treasure chest of postcards is a slightly more human way of looking at their lives."

Accompanying each postcard are Starr's ruminations on their often cryptic meanings and his memories of what was happening in his life at the time.

A postcard from Paul and Jane (Asher) from the Maharishi's compound in Rishikesh, India, informs Ringo and his wife, Maureen, that John and George managed to meditate for seven hours and Paul for two and a half. The Starkeys only stayed in Rishikesh for a couple of weeks because they had children and Maureen's fly/moth phobia was aggravated by the Indian jungle. This postcard also reminds Starr of the death of Brian Epstein, the band's manager.

A 1970 postcard from Denmark, with love from John and Yoko, launches Starr into a story about how he and Harry Nilsson ended up in Austria looking for Johann Strauss but instead found Robert Altman, with whom they dined in Denmark. Starr then moved on to Greece.

In 1979, Lennon scrawled a note to Starr, who was living in Los Angeles at the time, that read: "Blondie's Heart of Glass is the type of stuff y'all should do. Great and simple." This was in reference to Starr's stalling solo career.

"Several of them are apologies, like the one from Paul calling himself Mr. B. Lumpy. I think that's a very nice insight," says Elson. "It's obviously an apology but it's done in a very Beatlesque manner. Very weird. And there are some lovely postcards such as the one made by George and Olivia Harrison. I think it's wonderful that they made a postcard to send him and it's a beautiful photograph. These are just lovely insights into their individual character like the haiku written by John Lennon. Priceless stuff, really."

[MarcO]

that's really excellent. One of the most redeeming things about the Beatles is that they really were just 4 yobs from Liverpool, and they went through all that sh!t together. It's no wonder they broke up within 10 years of forming - theirs was a microcosm of what it means to be a rock musician, they invented the template and generations of artists have just filled it in but it may be impossible to break that mould.

This story got me to thinking of that Simpsons episode where Ringo is still sitting around answering Beatles mail 30 years later. Good for him. A lovely man.

[h]

Here is a very expensive Limited Edition - couple of samples on this page...

http://www.rockstore.net/Merchant/mercha...gory_Code=books

[M]

Marco - I was thinking of that episode too... "Marge - we have french fries here but we call them 'chips' "