Press Conference in Seattle Washington (1964, August 21)

Q: "Were you people disappointed with the crowd reception you got in Seattle as compared to the other cities in the United States?"

John: "No."

Paul: "No... very nice. Pleasant surprise."

Q: "How do you enjoy being mobbed?"

John: "Good - as long as you've got the police."

(laughter)

Paul: "We've never actually been mobbed, you know."

Q: "No one's ever actually got ahold of your person?"

George: "New Zealand, they got us... didn't they?"

Paul: "Well, not bad."

Q: "Your film got very good reviews, right across the country. Very pleased about the reaction to the film?"

Paul: "Yes, of course. What could we say to that - No?"

Q: "Somebody said that you were like The Marx Brothers. Have you thought about that? In the film."

John: "No."

Paul: "They say Ringo's like Groucho. That's what they say. But he's not, really."

Q: "Do you wish you'd made your success on how you sound more than on how you look?"

John: "We did originally. I mean, when you make a record it first just gets heard on the radio."

Q: "Do you wish they'd be quiet and let you sing sometimes?"

John: "Why? They've got the records."

Paul: "No, you know, if they've paid to come in and if they wanna scream - and they've paid to come in and scream - Great."

George: "and it's part of the atmosphere now."

Q: "Well, it was said in Las Vegas and in Frisco that your performance couldn't be heard because of the noise. Now, how do you feel about this? Do you consider it might hurt your future concerts?"

Paul: "It's been going on for a couple of years, you know."

Q: "How many more years do you think it will go on?"

Paul: "Don't know. We're not..."

John: "We're not taking bets."

Q: "Have you got any idea? Will it be three? Four? What do you think?"

George: "Till death do us part."

(laughter)

Q: "Do you ever get tired of all of this and just wanna go someplace and relax?"

Paul & George: "No."

Paul: "The thing is - when you sort of see us we're on tours. But we're not always on tours, and we..."

George: "Aren't we?"

Paul: "No we're not, George."

(laughter)

Q: "Ringo, how are you feeling?"

Ringo: "Fine, thank you very much."

Q: "Everything alright?"

Ringo: "Everything's alright. How are you?"

Paul: "I read you were dangerously ill."

(laughter)

Q: "Haven't had any more throat trouble?"

Ringo: "No, not yet."

Q: "How does your wife like all these girls making all this fuss over you?"

John: "She loves it."

(laughter)

Q: "Ringo, why do you get the most fan mail?"

Ringo: "Do I?"

Q: "You do in Seattle."

Ringo: "Oh very nice. Thanks alot, Seattle. I don't know, you know... Perhaps 'cuz more people write to me."

(laughter)

Q: "John, somebody said you borrowed your bathtub scene from 'Cleopatra.' Is that true?"

John: "I haven't seen 'Cleopatra.'"

Ringo: She used milk, didn't she?"

Paul: "Yeah, she had milk."

John: "Did she? I don't know. I just had water."

Paul: "No, it's just soap and water. We haven't changed."

Q: "Did you see the Needle at all, Paul?"

Paul: "Yeah. The Space Needle."

Q: "Did you go up?"

Paul: "No, but I saw it."

(laughter)

George: "It looks better from the ground."

John: "Don't like heights."

Q: "Did you get any fishing in today? We heard that you had four fishing poles."

Beatles: "Yeah."

Q: "Did you catch anything?"

Beatles: "No."

Ringo: Someone on the other side of the lake kept shouting, 'There's no fish in here!'"

(laughter)

Ringo: "So I sort of got discouraged and pulled me line in."

Q: "They caught a 51 pound salmon about two days ago."

George: "Sandwich?"

Paul: "Salmon."

Q: "Paul, what are your plans once your notoriety as a Beatle diminishes? What are your aims in life?"

Paul: "We've never made any plans as a group, you know - none of us ever bothered planning what's gonna happen. So, we won't do that now."

George: "Que sera sera."

Paul: "We'll just wait and see what happens."

Q: "What would you like to do after you're finished singing?"

Paul: "Don't know. Probably John and I will carry on songwriting."

John: (jokingly) "I'm not doing it with you."

Paul: "Oh, no!"

(laughter)

Q: "How far ahead are you booked?"

John: "I don't know."

Paul: "A few months, I think."

Ringo: "Oh. Next year."

Q: "Have you got another American swing in mind?"

Paul: "Swing?"

John: "Well, we don't do it. We have nothing to do with it, you see. We just say, 'How are we?'"

Paul: "I'm not sure. We're a bit vague on dates."

Q: "After who have you most closely patterned your music? Is there one particular artist, or type of music that you're involved with more closely than another?"

John: "Just rock and roll, really."

Q: "What previous groups would you say that you most liked?"

John: "Do you mean out of the new groups?"

Q: "No, out of the old groups. Which groups did you listen to prior to yourselves - the records that you listened to at that time?"

Paul: "Elvis Presley's a good group."

(laughter)

Q: "Did you ever meet him?"

Beatles: "No."

Q: "I understand you took a little junket on your way up. Did you take a look at Boulder Dam?"

Paul: "Oh yeah! That's what it was - He was flying 'round for hours! We went right 'round it!"

(laughter)

George: "Boulder Dam, eh? I'd heard about that."

Paul: "I heard about it at school."

Q: "Of all your imitators, which one do you have the most respect for, or give the biggest chance of making it?"

John: "Well, all our... None of the imitators that really imitate us, you know, have done anything at all. The people that have made it as groups are sort of original, so we don't really... You don't hear about..."

Paul: "It may look to you as though they're imitating, you know, but they're quite different, really. They're just, you know... People have just got long hair in England now. But it's... They're not imitating us. They had long hair before us, 'specially in prehistoric days."

Q: "Who would be the most accepted or the biggest American star in Great Britain now?"

John: "I think it's still Elvis."

Q: "Elvis?"

John: "It probably is."

Paul: "I think so. Yeah."

Q: "John, have you written a poem after you got back from the United States? Did you write anything that described the..."

John: "No, I never write anything like that."

Paul: "Don't you?"

John: "Oh no! I never do, you know."

Paul: "I wish you would."

(laughter)

Q: "John, your reputation as a literary writer... Would you like to do any writing in the future seriously?"

John: "No more serious than I've done now."

Q: "In the same vane?"

John: "In the same write."

Paul: "Yeah. and it's not a put on. Somebody wrote and said it was a put on - this book."

John: "What's that?"

Paul: "Uhh...you're only sort of kidding."

John: "I am."

George: "But not the way..."

Paul: "Not the way they mean, John."

Q: "Where do you get the inspiration for most of your songs?"

Paul: "Just anywhere. You don't... It's difficult to explain, but you don't get it from sort of looking at a mountain or anything. You don't suddenly go back and write the song about..."

George: "You don't?"

Paul: "No, George. I haven't done it. We haven't done any about mountains yet. You never know."

Q: "Ringo, is there a story behind the rings on your finger? Any background to them? Pick them up in a different town?"

Paul: (jokingly) "Once upon a time..."

Ringo: "No, I just keep... That's off me mother, that's off me grandfather, I'm not married. It's a wedding ring, but I'm not married. and these are just two different girls, you know - and I've had these three on for four years now."

Q: "You don't change rings?"

Ringo: "No. I've got a few more but I never wear them."

Q: "John, what do you think of all these magazines carrying the story of your wife soon to deliver you a new baby?"

John: "Well, I just think it's potty, you know. Sort of mental - the people who write them. Unless they get it off somebody who convinces them that these things are true, otherwise they must be a bit mental, you know."

Paul: "We've seen stories about every one of us since we've been here."

George: "The most ridiculous stories ever."

Q: "Like what?"

John: "My wife having a baby, and the tagline to the page was, 'Ringo asks John to share wife,' you know."

George: "and then another one saying..."

Paul: "...John's definitely leaving."

John: "I'm leaving the group, and all that rubbish."

Paul: "and then I'm definitely married."

George: "and the fella who wrote it - he can prove it! See, he's a very smart fella."

Paul: "Yeah, the man said he can prove it. and another magazine I read today said, 'Do you think Paul's married?' and it said, 'Well we do, and we know. We say he's definitely married.' and it was ridiculous, it said that we'd never denied it. None of us had ever denied it. So we deny it now."

Ringo: "Yeah, nobody ever asked us."

Q: "Do you fellas know how much you make?"

Paul: "Nope."

John: "Alot."

(laughter)

Q: "Are you guys making any plans to make movies in the United States at all?"

John: "We don't even plan that. We wouldn't mind it, I mean but, the next one's gonna be made in Britain."

George: "It'd depend on the plot of the film, anyway. If it called for the United States, we'd have to do it here."

Paul: "and it wouldn't be up to us where we did it, anyway. It's up to the company and the director and things. We're just in it."

Q: "George, what good qualities do you think England has over America and America over England?"

George: "Umm, I don't really know. It depends on the individual. I mean, I might like something about England that you may detest. So I think, you know, qualities depend on each individual."

M.C: "Thank you very much everybody. It's eight minutes to showtime. We will have to break it up now. Thank you very much."

Source: Audio recording of the press conference