Photos of Beatles from 1974
John Lennon and Paul McCartney with Keith Moon, 29 March, 1974
Patti Daley, former wife of guitar player Jesse Ed Davis has hit the Beatles news this week when she revealed lots of photos, lyric sheets and other memorabilia that she has kept from John Lennon’s “lost week-end” in LA back in 1974. Some of the photos depict one or more members of the Beatles from that era, some four years after the break-up of the band.
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| George Harrison and John Lennon |
Daley’s favorite picture is one of Lennon and Harrison at the Troubadour nightclub in west Los Angeles.
“It just shows who they were. John with his rock ‘n roll button and George just being his beautiful, spiritual self,” said Daley. “And that was his mate. He was just being patient and loving him.”
Unfortunately for us who reside outside USA, the NBC TV news series about these findings, dubbed “Rock’n’Roll Treasure” is not available for online viewing outside the country. However, Apple Scruffs Radio to the rescue via YouTube!
Daley has stored boxes of memorabilia for decades underneath her bed, in her home two hours east of Los Angeles.
Among the items in her collection are rare polaroids of Paul McCartney playing piano at Lennon’s beach house during their first post-breakup meeting, hand-written lyrics sheets from Lennon’s Walls and Bridges sessions (including “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”) and a copy of an angry letter Lennon wrote to Capitol Records after the release of The Beatles’ Rock’n’Roll Music compilation, in which he says the cover of the new album “looks like a Monkees reject” and suggests, instead, photos from the Hamburg days, taken by Astrid Kircher or Jürgen Vollmer. He ended up using a Jürgen Vollmer photo on his own “Rock’n’Roll” album.
The news series has continued after this first show, so let’s just hope the other episodes appear in YouTube-incarnations as well.
The great Beatles Photo Blog has a few of Daley’s photos here and here.
Update: I was contacted by a representative of NBC News who gave me some further links and I was told that the news clips have now been stripped for some copyrighted music and now will work for viewing outside the USA.
Hi Roger – congratulations on a fantastic blog! Regards from Rio de Janeiro.
Thanks a lot, Lizzie. Lizzie is one of the original "Apple scruffs" and she and her friend Gayleen Pease provided the backing vocals on The Beatles' "Across The Universe", the version that's currently on Past Masters Vol.2.
Miss Kelly Davis, Mr. Jesse Ed Davis legal wife when He passed swears that Jesse always told Her that He knew his ex-girlfriend Patty had stolen them out of His albums…. Kelly said if You go through His albums that She has, you'll see the empty spots where photos were taken..
Did anyone check with Miss Davis before blowing this lie story all over the news ??
Miss Kelly Davis passed last week in Her home in Playa Del Rey, I suppose it's a little late now to ask for the truth huh….
Reckless and careless reporting…
Kika
Not questioning the validity of your statement, but the thought occurred to me, Patti Daley said she walked around with a Polaroid camera all the time. It would seem she thus took most of the photos. There's many photos of Jess Ed, so she must have been taking them. One, if she took them, then they're hers, right? She is in some of them, without Jesse Ed, so he may have very well taken some too. I struggle to think he would interact with such luminaries in the music world with a camera like a tourist, when he was also one of the big dogs. From the way allot of those in the photos are cozied right up to her, she appears to have been an inside the circle. Hate to say it this way, but the girlfriends always seemed to be accepted as the picture takers. They were together 10 years, split up, communal property? Or should we expect this woman to willingly let 10 years of her life go b/c they break up? I'd say she didn't appear to be coming out now for the money, but this doesn't appear to be true. Some of this stuff is showing up on online auctions. Maybe she needs the cash, who knows. Also, Jesse Ed struggled at the end, both physically and financially, and most likely emotionally, he would have a reason to lash out and say she "took" these heirlooms from him? Again, not questioning your position, there just seems like there should be a "theirs" component to the ownership of these old photos and other materials. Would agree, it appears to be too late to ever know the truth. I do think Miss Daley is entitled to some of her memories as well though.