The Beatles first album, Please, Please Me, has a cover photo shot by one Angus McBean.
McBean agreed to meet them at the EMI House in Manchester Square, London around mid-February 1963. The photographer recalled later:
As I went into the door I was in the staircase well. Someone looked over the banister – I asked if the boys were in the building, and the answer was yes. “Well”, I said, “get them to look over, and I will take them from here.”
I only had my ordinary portrait lens, so to get the picture, I had to lie flat on my back in the entrance. I took some shots and I said, “That’ll do.”
The Creative Opportunist strikes again. See the photo here.
Cut to July, 2003. I was working on some lyrics in the wee hours (to What Did I Miss? ?), when something reminded me of The Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK. Thinking I’d like to cover the song with Shoot The Messenger at some point, I scribbled down the title on a sticky note.
The next day, when I tried to read the note, it said Anarchy In The OK. Immediately, a narrative of Dodge City, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, & the OK Corral unfurled in my brain. After about 20 minutes, I had myself a nice little Sex Pistols parody. We’ve performed it many times since.
The moral of the story…we’ll I think yo get the gist (Hey, what a great band name, The Gist!).
Anarchy In The OK Corral
By Rob Frail, ©2010, All Rights Reserved
I am Wyatt Earp, I am a drunken jerk
Don’t know what I want, but I know how to shoot it
I wanna destroy those Clanton boys, cause
I wanna be anarchy
Verse 2
Doc Holiday is something to see
He drinks all night, then does surgery
He’s sober enough by noon to fight the enemy
Back to the saloon in time for four o’clock ‘tea’, cause
He wants to be anarchy
Verse 3
Anarchy in the OK Coral
We were shoulder to shoulder, cheek by jowl
The bullets were so thick that you couldn’t see
But the Clantons were no match for our anarchy, cause
They were anarchy wanna-bes
Verse 4
The townfolk never liked my brothers & me
They’d like to lock us up & throw away the key
He’d never admit it, but he’d have to agree
Without us, Tombstone would be Anarchy, that’s cause…
We wanna be anarchy
Verse 5
The Tombstone folk don’t care much for us;
With the carousin’ and the Clantons there’s just too much fuss;
So the sheriff got a posse to make us behave;
But we made an anarchy that they neve forgave, cause
We wanna be anarchy