Another vaguely interesting example of The Beatles oft-commented-upon "group mind" has arisen, in the form of this fan shot of George at Kinfauns. The Safe As Milk and Monterey Pop bumper stickers are very familiar from the sunroom cabinets (note also: Another one (or possibly one of the same ones) attached to the back wall of the sunroom in the Cynthia pic). However, it seems that George too had these same stickers - in his case appended to the front door of Kinfauns. A fair guess would be that they came as a job lot via Derek Taylor, who was closely involved with both the Monterey Pop festival and Captain Beefheart, and were probably given to John and George during his visit to England in May 1967. (Although the festival itself didn't take place until June, promotional materials would have been in circulation by May). Or not, of course. It's also vaguely interesting how often accounts of the sunroom mention the Safe As Milk stickers as something else entirely - eg Milk Is Good For You, Milk Is Harmless etc, despite the fact that the photo of John ensconced on the couch in June 1967, Safe As Milk stickers prominent to his rear, is one of the most widely circulated sunroom artifacts; proof of something or other to do with memory/pisspoor research. (The George pic via Meet The Beatles For Real - link under Friends & Neighbours).
I've heard that John Lennon liked that Captain Beefheart album so much so he bought two copies of Safe As Milk just to get two bumper stickers...
ReplyDeleteAre you sure they where given to John Lennon?
No, as I said it's a best guess. But I've seen no evidence to suggest John actually went out and bought two copies of Safe As Milk, and I can't remember any specific comments by him about loving the album. I think it's more likely that Derek Taylor, being Beefheart's publicist, would probably have sent/brought freebies over for the Beatles. The fact George had one too might support that. Just a guess, though...I could always be wrong.
ReplyDeletewell now we can make our own stickers and copy John! ha!
ReplyDeleteCynthia, in one of her books(I believe she wrote two if I'm not mistaken), mentions coming home one night and being outraged to find John had put those stickers all over one of her paintings. So I assume he had many of them, and got them from a source other than the record album.
ReplyDeleteJohn didn't buy Safe As Milk because it wasn't out in the UK at the time. However Derek Taylor most likely gave him a few copies. Or perhaps he gave him one copy and John nicked another copy from Ringo or Paul.
ReplyDeleteThere are comments from Don V himself how Lennon constantly snubbed and ignored him. You can look it up for more specifics.
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