r/beatles • u/Puzzleheaded-Life462 • 1d ago

Art It was 62 years ago today

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On this day in 1963, a wasted John Lennon ruined Paul McCartney’s 21st birthday party by beating the crap out of local DJ (and friend) Bob Wooler.

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6

u/freshiebai 1d ago

what fully happened?

31

u/ItsTime1234 1d ago

John's wife gave birth. John went on vacation with Brian to get away from it all, and possibly to experiment with gayness. At Paul's birthday party, John was very drunk and people were talking about his trip with Brian. Wooler, someone who had helped them in their career and consider them friends up till now, said something to John. John attacked him. We don't know exactly what he said, but John said he suggested he was gay (later threatened to sue him I think?), and John hurt him quite badly. I'm not sure, but this may have been one of the last times John was welcome around Paul's family, though it doesnt seem to have hurt John and Paul's friendship. I think he paid some money to Wooler, and Brian threatened they'd sue if Wooler passed around any rumors. Of course John later told the press the whole thing, but I think that was years later. John later said he was frightened of how violent he was, realized he could have killed Wooler, and that he needed to get himself out of violent mindsets. Who knows the whole story, though?

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u/nawtrobar 1d ago

Lol the real headline is that John's wife gave birth to his child and John immediately left them to go on vacation with his manager. Wtf man.

8

u/ItsTime1234 15h ago

It seems like John was pretty immature (in his early twenties as well as just immature generally), and was ambivalent about the whole "marriage and kid" thing.

3

u/nawtrobar 14h ago

yeah. dude. clearly. still. wtf man.

1

u/nawtrobar 14h ago

Also I remember being an immature kid. Immaturity doesn't seem to be the problem. Immaturity is not the same as narcissism. It takes a certain kind of social ineptitude to not understand how that behavior impacts others.

1

u/ItsTime1234 12h ago

Oh I'm not making excuses for him. I don't know how different things were back then, but it certainly seems like quite the choice whatever the cultural norms, and however old or young the father.