If ever one needed a clear-cut example of young John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s differing personalities in the early 1960s, one need look no further than the musicians’ reactions to meeting a four-piece rock band composed entirely of women in 1963. The “girl group” met The Beatles—who were on the cusp of Beatlemania, but not quite there yet—during one fateful night at The Cavern in the bands’ native Liverpool.
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The Cavern’s DJ, Bob Wooler, is the one who introduced the two groups. Wooler presented the band, called the Liverbirds, as “the first all-girl group,” per The Liverbirds: Our Life in Britain’s First Female Rock ‘n’ Roll Band. Paul McCartney quickly replied that he thought that was a great idea. A far more sullen John Lennon retorted, “Girls don’t play guitars.” I’ll give the women guitarists reading this article a second for their eyes to unroll from the back of their heads.
As annoyingly flippant as the interaction was, it proved to be beneficial in more ways than one. Liverbirds bassist Mary McGlory later told Guitar World that when the time came for the women to settle on their chosen instrument, she opted for the bass, thinking back to how supportive McCartney was when they first met.
As for Lennon? Well, The Liverbirds had a new goal in mind: prove him wrong.
How a Bit of Reverse Psychology Helped Boost The Liverbirds’ Confidence
John Lennon had a complicated relationship with women throughout his entire life, which resulted in questionable and problematic behavior that I won’t dive into here. While it’s impossible to know whether Lennon really felt like “girls can’t play guitars” or if he was just being cynical for cynicism’s sake, if he were hoping his comments would deter The Liverbirds, it didn’t work.
After The Liverbirds left The Beatles that night at The Cavern, they all commented on “the cheek” of Lennon’s reaction. “It’s clear his feelings about women evolved,” McGlory and drummer Sylvia Saunders wrote in The Liverbirds. “But we also wonder if what he said that day in The Cavern dressing room was meant to test us, provoke us into making a success of the band. If so, it certainly worked.” She added, “It encouraged us more than it disheartened us.”
Lennon was, after all, one cranky voice among many, many more supportive ones (including his own bandmate, Paul McCartney). McGlory told Guitar World that other male-led groups were far kinder to them in their early days. “Even groups like The Searchers, or Gerry and the Pacemakers, the groups that were very big at the time, they all said, ‘Listen, girls. If you need any help, you just get in touch with us.’ Some of the groups really did come, one or two members of them, to some of our rehearsals. So, there was absolutely no problem there at all.”
Although The Liverbirds would disband in 1968, they did so on the heels of a Japanese tour that proved to John Lennon—and any other naysayers—that girls could not only play guitars, but they could also get paid to tour the world doing it.
Photo by Siegfried Pilz/United Archives via Getty Images
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