The Beatles express contempt for their female fans with the original photos from Robert Whitaker’s Yesterday and Today cover. Dear Ones,
Yesterday to show my loyalty I bought a Beatle wig, 3 Beatles albums, a Beatle sweatshirt, and 4 Beatle dolls. I spent $24.79.
I adore you. Take my heart. It is all I have left.
Fondly,
Karen A.
Springfield, Mass.
My adorable, sweet John,
I have lost 30lbs. and you have been the inspiration for my diet.
I don’t eat. I just sit and look at your picture.
Fat Phylis is no more!
Love
Love Letters to the Beatles, Bill Adler ed.
Next Waving 
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September 1, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Cara
Wait, what is up with that picture? I’ve never seen it before, but it looks to me like a woman sitting in front of a picture of John holding some sausages. I think I’m missing something
(But I do know that I want a Beatle wig, three Beatles albums, a Beatle sweatshirt and 4 Beatle dolls for $25. I’d take just 3 Beatle dolls for that price!)
September 1, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Pop Feminist
*brain explodes*
Do you not know of the infamous butcher photos? Go here immediately:
http://www.eskimo.com/~bpentium/butcher.html
Oh yeah, I have no qualms participating in consumer capitalism when it comes to Beatles merchandise. If they released every album again with, like, a new sound mix in stereo, I’d shake my fists ruefully at the heavens and enter in my credit card information.
…and probably not be able to afford food for a month.
September 1, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Cara
Well I know the butcher cover! (I actually saw a presentation ALL ABOUT IT by Beatles guru Bruce Spizer at the Rock Hall of Fame a few years ago.) But that’s not the butcher cover! HENCE MY CONFUSION.
And dude, I am waiting for the Beatles remasters so anxiously. And if they do not release them on LP, my head will explode. And when they do release them on LP, I will go buy a record player explicitly for the purpose.
(And . . . you know about the bootleg Purple Chicks remasters, right? Because if you do not you need to get them NOW.)
September 1, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Pop Feminist
haha! Woah, sorry for suggesting such a preposterous notion! I should’ve known you’d like been to a lecture on the topic.
Actually, this photo is part of the butcher series, but it’s not included in most photo collections…I don’t know why though. I got this from a photo archive at Columbia University. I’m all hard core like that.
Yeah, I’m quickly spiraling into debt with these re-releases, bootlegs etc. I’ll be on the streets in no time and build a little shelter out of album sleeves to protect from the brutal winter.
My cardboard sign will read:
Will lecture on the Beatles for food.
fine print: (I retain the right to passive aggressively exert judgement on your philistinism.)
September 1, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Cara
Well the lecture was kind of an accident. It was 7 years ago when I went to go see the huge Lennon exhibit they had at the Rock Hall, before I was as obsessive as I am now (but I still wanted to curl up and live there in the lyric sheet room). That lecture just so happened to be happening that day, so I went. It was pretty cool.
The Purple Chicks bootlegs are free online through torrents. The files aren’t compressed at all, so they’re massive, but it’s worth taking up all your computer memory — or you can burn them to CD in that super high quality and just delete the files. They did mono, stereo and sessions/outtake discs for every album, including a 10 disc version of the white album. I haven’t even gotten through most of the sessions. It’s amazing, having only ever heard the CDs . . . wow. I don’t know who did these or how, but they’re AMAZING, and my CDs are just totally useless now by comparison. There’s like, all kinds of sounds on Strawberry Fields that I never even heard before! And you can actually hear Paul’s bass! And OMG the vocals! Seriously, the first time I heard some of my favorite songs through these remasters, my jaw just dropped at the sheer awesomeness.
Unless you were indicating that you already did have them, in which case you know all of the above 🙂 But if not, I can ask my husband where he found them and downloaded them from. He did it last month while I was out of town, so I don’t know where.
September 1, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Pop Feminist
I’d love that link! I’m salivating based on your description!
September 1, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Cara
This is where Ian got them. You might have to sift around a bit, but they should all be there. He said that when you download the album, it gives you the mono, stereo and sessions albums in the one file.
The first song I listened to was While My Guitar Gently Weeps. And that made me go OMFG. Then I listened to Strawberry Fields and when OMFG x 10. And so on.
Enjoy 🙂 They’ve been the highlight of my life for the past month and a half.
(and though I know it’s very unlikely to be true, I secretly like to believe that the purple chicks are george and giles martin. hehe.)
September 1, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Pop Feminist
Okay, the site is, like, intimidating but I’ve heard a streaming version of I Want to Hold Your Hand…and I’m eternally grateful to you!!!
September 1, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Cara
SEE I TOLD YOU.
I honestly don’t know jackshit about torrents. But I’m sure that if you google it there’s a quick guide out there somewhere.
September 2, 2008 at 8:38 am
Zenobia
That lady has exactly the hair colour I want, and is wearing all my favourite colours.
Hrm, I wonder where I get my dress sense?