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Beatles were more fun than Fleetwood Mac

IamGroot

IamGroot

Inactive
Jan 18, 2018
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#1
Right after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen. It ended when Patti Harrison caught them in bed. John Lennon was disgusted, referring to it as "incest".

Meanwhile, Eric Clapton was hitting on Patti Harrison. She rebuffed him, causing him to turn to heroin for solace. When Patti tired of George's infidelities and obsessive Indian mysticism, she divorced George and married Clapton, initiating 10 years of alcoholic wife beating. George referred to Eric as his husband-in-law.

When George quit the band in 1969, John Lennon suggested Eric Clapton as a replacement . Eric had cut several tracks with the band including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" whereas George took numerous takes to get his part. George returned to the band and it became moot. But Clapton noted that he and George had already bonded musically, so a stint in the beatles was unlikely .

Patty was overwhelmed when she heard "Layla" which supposedly was Erics love cry to her. With the Beatles over and Clapton's star on the rise, he made his move. In 1970, he showed up at Georges house drunk and played a musical duel. George gave him the poorer guitar and amp, but Eric bested him in a 2 hour match watched by actor John Hurt.
 
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#5
IamGroot said:
Right after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen. It ended when Patti Harrison caught them in bed. John Lennon was disgusted, referring to it as "incest".

Meanwhile, Eric Clapton was hitting on Patti Harrison. She rebuffed him, causing him to turn to heroin for solace. When Patti tired of George's infidelities and obsessive Indian mysticism, she divorced George and married Clapton, initiating 10 years of alcoholic wife beating. George referred to Eric as his husband-in-law.

When George quit the band in 1969, John Lennon suggested Eric Clapton as a replacement . Eric had cut several tracks with the band including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" whereas George took numerous takes to get his part. George returned to the band and it became moot. But Clapton noted that he and George had already bonded musically, so a stint in the beatles was unlikely .

Patty was overwhelmed when she heard "Layla" which supposedly was Erics love cry to her. With the Beatles over and Clapton's star on the rise, he made his move. In 1970, he showed up at Georges house drunk and played a musical duel. George gave him the poorer guitar and amp, but Eric bested him in a 2 hour match watched by actor John Hurt.
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I have just read EC's autobiography and whilst he admits to alcoholism and bad behaviour, I don't recall anything about wife beating. Must go have another read.
 
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#6
Gunga Din said:
I have just read EC's autobiography and whilst he admits to alcoholism and bad behaviour, I don't recall anything about wife beating. Must go have another read.
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If I were writing my autobiography, and had beaten my wife at some point, I would likely leave that part out. ;)

(I have no idea if he actually did it. I'm just saying that, if he did, he probably wouldn't spell it out in a book.)
 
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#7
IamGroot said:
Right after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen. It ended when Patti Harrison caught them in bed. John Lennon was disgusted, referring to it as "incest".

Meanwhile, Eric Clapton was hitting on Patti Harrison. She rebuffed him, causing him to turn to heroin for solace. When Patti tired of George's infidelities and obsessive Indian mysticism, she divorced George and married Clapton, initiating 10 years of alcoholic wife beating. George referred to Eric as his husband-in-law.

When George quit the band in 1969, John Lennon suggested Eric Clapton as a replacement . Eric had cut several tracks with the band including "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" whereas George took numerous takes to get his part. George returned to the band and it became moot. But Clapton noted that he and George had already bonded musically, so a stint in the beatles was unlikely .

Patty was overwhelmed when she heard "Layla" which supposedly was Erics love cry to her. With the Beatles over and Clapton's star on the rise, he made his move. In 1970, he showed up at Georges house drunk and played a musical duel. George gave him the poorer guitar and amp, but Eric bested him in a 2 hour match watched by actor John Hurt.
Click to expand...
There is not one correct statement in this entire post.
 
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#8
two fingers said:
If I were writing my autobiography, and had beaten my wife at some point, I would likely leave that part out. ;)

(I have no idea if he actually did it. I'm just saying that, if he did, he probably wouldn't spell it out in a book.)
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That's true but he was quite frank in his admissions and may have veiled the abuse in language that I skipped over.
 
#10
I also have no idea if any of those Beatles stories are true. BUT, I have learned a lot recently about how a lot of what you read/see/hear about music legends is completely made up. A friend of a friend tours with a (supposedly) "wild party animal" of a musical artist. A while back, this person was sitting in a rehearsal studio drinking a glass of milk and reading a novel during a break. At that exact moment he tweeted out something about being so drunk he pissed in a fish tank (or something like that). Then he went back to reading. (I may be hazy on a couple of the details....but it's pretty much how it went down.)

A couple years ago, Miranda Lambert tweeted out something about being too lazy to go around so she pushed her lawnmower right through her house while it was running. According to another friend of a friend, she was shopping in a fancy boutique and nowhere near her home at the time. Never mind that she likely doesn't cut her own grass..... ever.

Point is, who knows how much of that crap is actually true? And how much is completely made up because "that's what rock stars are supposed to act like"?
 
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#16
seilerbird said:
There is not one correct statement in this entire post.
Click to expand...

Really? Harrison's affair with Maureen Starkey and Clapton's chasing Patti and their subsequent marriage?

The guitar duel for Patti is one story I haven't heard before, I'll admit.
Frankly with the amount of drugs and drink everyone in that circle seemed to be indulging in at the time it's amazing anyone had time to make music.:D
 
#19
IamGroot said:
Right after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison had an affair with Ringo's wife Maureen....
Click to expand...
Okay... Well, none of that sounds like "fun."

You also only gave the Beatles side of the story. The Fleetwood Mac side includes:
  • Peter Green did too much LSD, left the band, and spent years struggling with mental illness
  • Jeremy Spencer, while on tour, said "I'm going to get a magazine" and never came back; it turns out he joined a religious cult
  • Danny Kirwan developed issues with alcohol, smashed a custom Gibson before a show, then refused to go on stage, and was subsequently fired
  • John McVie developed alcohol issues, which strained his marriage to Christine (keyboard player/singer) and contributed to their divorce
  • Christine had an affair with the band's sound engineer, Martin Birch... who was married at the time (and later went back to his wife)
  • After the divorce, she hooked up with the band's lighting engineer Curry Grant, wrote "You Make Loving Fun" about him, which of course John had to play for years (note: she told him it was about her dog in a vain attempt to reduce some of the fighting)
  • John's post-divorce tactic was to bang groupies at the band house, which Mick described as "a bordello with blacked out rooms, thick shag carpets, deprivation tanks, and a very liberal sprinkling of assorted drugs"
  • Guitarist Bob Weston had an affair with Jenny Boyd Fleetwood (Mick's wife and Patti Harrison's sister), which resulted in Bob getting fired (natch) and contributed to their divorce 2 years later
  • By the way, Jenny was 15 when she first met Fleetwood... Yuk
  • The band's manager, Clifford Davis, then put together a completely different band and toured as "Fleetwood Mac," causing lawsuits (turns out that Fleetwood and McVie signed away the use of their names... oops)
  • After the band reformed with Buckingham and Nicks, the McVies spit up; B&N were also constantly fighting; most of the band was drinking heavily and doing lots of cocaine....
  • By the way, Buckingham allegedly abused Nicks during their relationship; the last time that happened, he choked her to the point where she thought he was going to kill her; she was saved by the band intervening
And that is, like... half the history of the band. I'm sure I missed a bunch of pre-1977 stuff too.

There is little doubt that, to the degree any such comparisons make sense, the history of Fleetwood Mac is much more dramatic and traumatic than that of the Beatles.
 
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