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McCartney: Lennon Invented the iPod

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006 at 1:25 PM - by

In an interview with O! News, Paul McCartney has revealed that Beatles band mate John Lennon actually invented the iPod in 1968. He called it The BeatleBox, according to an archival clip from The Barry Harris Show, after rejecting Yoko Ono's suggestion, which was "iPod."

Lennon created the music player out of an old refrigerator. The user would load records in the front and then select the one they wanted to hear by pressing a number combination on the front keypad. It came with headphones, although at 363 pounds, it was "bloody heavy" to carry around, as ex-Beatle Ringo Starr said in an interview with O! News.


Barry Harris tries out The BeatleBox

McCartney revealed that Lennon came up with the idea for The BeatleBox while the band was recording Magical Mystery Tour. He often disappeared in the evening, and the other musicians found out later that he was taking a night class in electronics.

Of course, The BeatleBox never made it into mass production, although a concept ad was created. McCartney said that he later bought it at an auction and had it converted back into a refrigerator.


The BeatleBox concept ad

Yes, the O! News story is satire.

19 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 30, 2006 1:47 pm

Doing April-Fools' style articles in May doesn't make you look clever.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 30, 2006 1:55 pm

Very funny video, but you guys really do need to watch how you're covering this "story"-- making it look like real news is probably taking a good joke a little too far.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 30, 2006 2:05 pm

Lighten up people. Did anyone actually read the headline and take it seriously? (What the hell?! Does anyone have a sense of humor anymore?)

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 30, 2006 2:11 pm

Yes, people really do still have a sense of humour, however ready comprehension is at an all-time low.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 30, 2006 2:28 pm

The problem with simply reading a headline in a web based format is that it's easy to lose vital information about the intent of the headline. It's easy to miss things that can't be readily conveyed via text alone.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 3:02 pm

Guest wrote:
Lighten up people. Did anyone actually read the headline and take it seriously? (What the hell?! Does anyone have a sense of humor anymore?)
JUST reading the headline on the TMO front page? Yes it is quite believable. Al Gore invented the Internet. Stranger things have definitely come out of the mouths of celebrities. It becomes obvious that you wasted your time as soon as this page has finished loading. Not sure what reading comprehension has to do with it. Oh I'm sorry I mean "ready comprehension".

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1960 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 3:04 pm

Guest wrote:
The problem with simply reading a headline in a web based format is that it's easy to lose vital information about the intent of the headline. It's easy to miss things that can't be readily conveyed via text alone.

Ok, I have to ask.

Is there ANYONE here who thought that a man who died in 1980 actually invented the iPod? (I'm just going by info in the headline here...nothing to do with the article even!)

ANYONE at all? Because if you exist then we will all be sorry, but so far all I see is a bunch of people thinking you might exist. Please post, mysterious person, and confirm their hypothisis.

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BradC said:

member since 29 Apr 2005 with 81 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 3:17 pm

But Al Gore never said the words "I invented the Internet." You're repeating Karl Rove's spin.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

And, yeah, stranger things have come out of the mouths of celebrities. But don't you think that if McCartney really said that, it would be all over the mainstream media right now?

We were just trying to have some fun to kick-start the week after the holiday weekend. Our apologies if anyone got upset over that. We thought the video was amusing, so we figured no one would have felt the article was a time-waster.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 30, 2006 4:23 pm

"Is there ANYONE here who thought that a man who died in 1980 actually invented the iPod?"

Probably not, but I bet many would believe that someone might CLAIM that a man who died in 1980 invented an iPod-like device...

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1960 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 4:30 pm

Guest wrote:

Probably not, but I bet many would believe that someone might CLAIM that a man who died in 1980 invented an iPod-like device...

This reminds me of what Gary Larson (the "Far Side" writer) once spoke of. He said he'd often get complaints of people who felt ofended on behalf of some group or another, but hardly ever did he hear directly from the actual group he suposidly offended. I think the same thing is going on here. Everyone's so concerned about the "confused readers" when we have yet to meet a single one!

I still promise to appologize for being wrong to the first person who admits that they thought this article was real after reading it.

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Mikuro said:

member since 15 Jun 2002 with 457 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 5:36 pm

When I saw the headline, yeah, I thought it was real. No, I didn't think Lennon actually invented the iPod, but that's not what the headline says, now is it? I thought "Oh. McCartney's sore that he lost his court case, and now he's saying something absurd. This should be fun." If I hadn't clicked the link, I would have gone on thinking McCartney really was loony.

But then, it's funnier when you think it's real for a second, isn't it?

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2088 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 7:27 pm

Guest wrote:
Yes, people really do still have a sense of humour, however ready comprehension is at an all-time low.

Apparently, so is spelling and/or typing ability.

Remember: Those who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones.

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DrShakagee said:

member since 14 Jun 2001 with 941 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 30, 2006 8:18 pm

BradC wrote:
But Al Gore never said the words "I invented the Internet." You're repeating Karl Rove's spin.

Acutally he said:

Al Gore wrote:
During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.

Taken out of contest that ONE sentence does sound like he claimed to invent the internet. Clumsy wording, but also clumsy editing to only include that one sentence.

As to this article when I read the headline I thought it was a typo and meant Vladimir Lenin invented the iPod.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 31, 2006 3:07 am

You mean it's not Nikolai Lenin? Boo!

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 31, 2006 4:53 am

gslusher wrote:
Guest wrote:
Yes, people really do still have a sense of humour, however ready comprehension is at an all-time low.

Apparently, so is spelling and/or typing ability.

Remember: Those who live in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones.

Very clever.

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LaurieF said:

member since 15 Jun 2001 with 3547 posts, TMO Forum Mod, send him a message or view his profile

Wed May 31, 2006 6:30 am

This is an order. Put a warning on the article: "May contain joke" or I'll sue.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 31, 2006 7:25 am

The funniest thing is the sound the buttons make when Lennon presses '06' - it's the 'sosumi' system 6/7 sound!

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed May 31, 2006 7:39 am

Biff wrote:
It becomes obvious that you wasted your time as soon as this page has finished loading.

Tee-hee, so you think that if it was actually true that Paul McCartney had said this, then reading the article wouldn't have been a waste of time? Hmmm?

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:20 pm

Amazing that these guys--Lennon and McCartney et al.--are still proving (wildly) inspirational in 2006.

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