Womack is the author of three
novels: John Doe No. 2 and the
Dreamland Motel, The Restau-
rant at the End of the World, and
Playing The Angel. In addition to
fiction, he has authored several
books devoted to The Beatles.
Born in 1966, he became a Bea-
tles fan in the late 1970s. I was
able to chat with Womack as he
prepared for the new semester
at Monmouth University where
he is the Dean of the Wayne D.
McMurray School of Humanities
and Social Sciences and serves
as Professor of English.
The pairing of The Beatles and
George Martin seems like a last
ditch effort between two sides.
Martin desperately wanted a
pop star like Paramor had and
the last thing Brian Epstein (the
Beatles’ manager) wanted was
to return to Liverpool without a
record contract.
That’s absolutely correct. They
NJ STAGE 2017 - Issue 40
were as Martin’s older son Greg-
ory likes to say “each other’s Last
Chance Saloon.” They needed
to make it work, but they weren’t
entirely conscious of that at the
time. George planned to record
those six sides with them and
never see them again.
Do you think Martin would
have been interested in working
with The Beatles if it wasn’t for a
guy like Paramor having the suc-
cess he had with Cliff Richard?
I don’t know. I think that’s what
George needed at the time to
kick him in the ass. He needed
that deep envy and jealousy
and those sort of things to make
him want to do more. I think
that was essential for him. But
he also needed to learn how
to become passionate about
something. When you look
at that story it’s kind of a clas-
sic. George wants to have all
of the stuff that Norrie has but
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