LONDON — A Beatles interview from the 1960s in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney discussed the way they composed songs together was broadcast on British radio Tuesday after it was found in a film can in a damp garage in south London.
The Beatles were at the height of their popularity when the tape was recorded at Scottish Television studios on April 30, 1964. The band had recently toured America, winning huge audiences on the Ed Sullivan show and shooting to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
The interview was broadcast only in Scotland and sat in a film canister until it was discovered by film historian Richard Jeffs, who was astonished to find the familiar Liverpudlian accents of the Beatles on the tape. It was not immediately clear who owned the garage or why the film was there.
The audio portion of the tape was still usable for radio broadcast, allowing the British Broadcasting Corp. to showcase its interview 44 years after it was recorded.
On the tape, Lennon and McCartney discussed the haphazard way they composed together during the Beatles’ early days, when they were under intense pressure to generate hits while keeping up a bone-crushing touring schedule.
McCartney said the two usually worked on songs together but Lennon sometimes wrote songs completely on his own.
“Normally we sit down and try and bash one out,” said McCartney. “But then again, there’s no formula, because he (Lennon) can come up with one one day completely finished. We still say we both wrote it, though.”
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