Beatles With Records – Part Twelve

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A few people have sent in some more images of the Beatles either as a band or as solo artists being photographed with those things they sold so many of – records and CDs.

This first one, from Beatles Blog reader Ariel Caceres,  is a stunner – a photograph of John Lennon I have never seen before. Ariel says this was taken  on 24 October, 1973 during the filming of a TV commercial to publicise John’s “Mind Games” LP. There are some more images documented here:
If anyone knows more about the background to this shot just get in touch. Why is John kneeling and holding a copy of his 1973 LP “Mind Games”? Why is a man dressed as a fairy godmother casting a spell over him? And who is the bearded gentleman? Please write in and let us know:

(click on the image to see a larger version)

I think you’ll agree that it is an extraordinary photograph! Lennon is clearly doing something to publicise his latest record at the time (below), but what is going on in the scene above?

Our friend Claude Defer in France has once again been busy in his archives and has sent through some more images of the Beatles photographed with records.

First, a photograph of George with sleeves of his “33 1/3” album (from 1976) behind him:

Next comes Paul and Linda (in Bruxelles according to Claude – on July 2, 1992). They’re signing a copy of the “London Town” LP from 1978:

You can see in Paul’s hand the rear cover of the LP:

You can also just see that the man at the right in the photograph is holding a copy of the Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson picture-cover, 12-inch single from 1983, “Say, Say, Say“. You can see the rear of the cover:

Claude also sent in a picture which was already shown in the Beatles With Records – Part Seven, but he’s kindly included the full set of George Harrison photos taken at the same location of George looking at, and signing, a copy of the Beatles “Help!”:

And a final photo, another one from Ariel. This time not of a Beatle, but a Beatle son. It’ s Julian Lennon holding what could be a book – or is it a 45 rpm picture-cover record? The photo is kind of faded and I’m not sure:

He definitely has in his hands something with this image on the front cover:

If you know what this item could be let us know at beatlesblogger@gmail.com, or simply submit a comment in the space provided below.

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

8 thoughts on “Beatles With Records – Part Twelve”

  1. The guy with John in the Mind Games pic is Apple’s Tony King, dressed as the Queen. (You shoulda been there!) It was part of the original “Mind Games” promo clip, not the revisionist one currently circulating that uses footage from the original “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” promo.

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  2. The photo of John with the “fairy godmother” – It’s actually supposed to be the Queen of Great Britain, not casting a spell but knighting him, in the tradition of touching each shoulder with a sword. Looks like she is holding a wand, but it’s definitely the Queen – she’s wearing the same crown she wears on the UK “Machin” stamps – (Google “machin stamp” and compare).

    This was, I think, just the guys clowning around before getting down to work on the commercial. There’s a bit of footage somewhere (an old VHS video tape release) of John dancing with the “Queen” – actually a man in drag, as you say – and someone calls out “Fred Astaire and Ginger Beer” (“Ginger Beer” being rhyming slang for “queer”, or gay) whereupon John looks a little embarrassed and stops dancing. So I think they are just mucking about. I’ve not seen the actual commercial – don’t know whether copies still exists somewhere.

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    • Thanks Terry – a great bit of extra information. I Googled Machin Stamps too and learned something else I didn’t know. Really appreciate you contributing. I wonder if there is anything on YouTube of the finished commercial? I had a quick look while preparing this post but couldn’t find anything.

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  3. They show some of this in the Imagine documentary – the 1988 one. May Pang is talking about the lost weekend and how John wasn’t so lost and mentions all the albums he did. They show a brief clip of John and that “queen” dancing and then you see Elton John take a snapshot. This is all I know about the pic, but I’ve been in such a solo Lennon mood lately I had to chime in.

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