Lennon Versus Mccartney the Beatles, Inter Band Relationships and the Hidden Messages to Each Other In Their Song Lyrics

LENNON vs. McCARTNEY

The Beatles, inter-band relationships and the hidden messages to each other in their song lyrics

ADAM THOMAS

Praise for Lennon vs. McCartney

It’s really interesting…I enjoyed reading it

Katharine Viner, Deputy Editor, The GUARDIAN

"I thought everything to say about the Beatles had already been written. But this breaks major new ground. The most important book in the genre since Revolution in the Head."

Simon Dyson, MUSIC & COPYRIGHT magazine

Interesting…interesting

Mark Ellen, Editor, WORD magazine

An excellent piece of work. The compelling table that forms the second half of the book reads more like a blockbuster novel, as you breathlessly turn the pages reliving the ups and downs of the Beatle relationships.

Steven Demetriou, author THE MELODY MAN

Groundbreaking. A concise and intriguing look at an important but hitherto untold story. This one really had me digging out my old records for another listen. Superb.

Silas Casual, Owner & Founder, RED91 RECORDS

Dedication

For

Angela, Christopher and Phoebe

The moon and the stars and the sun

Copyright

Distributed by: Lulu Press, Raleigh, N.C., USA.

Published by: Adam Thomas, Hertfordshire, England.

© Adam Thomas 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented in the future, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Cover Art: Christopher Thomas and Phoebe Thomas

Art Design: Phoebe Thomas and Christopher Thomas

Contact the Publisher: lennon.mccartney@hotmail.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-326-07970-3

Introduction

In 2001 Paul McCartney acknowledged, for the first time, the true extent of the 1970s in-song ‘conversation’ between himself and John Lennon, saying: It was very painful, a bad period, there was a lot of deep messages in all the stuff we did then. I was really writing a lot of songs to John.

I had long been intrigued by this period in Beatle (and post-Beatle) history believing, as I do, that it offers some deep insights into the Lennon-McCartney personal relationship that have never before been closely examined.

Paul’s comments rekindled my interest to discover just how extensive the in-song references to each other are. So I started to gather together all the various notes and comments I had already jotted down on the subject. Next came the difficult bit, as I began a detailed analysis of their lyrics, gathering all the evidence I could to reconstruct the song conversation. More than a decade later this book is the result.

As anyone who has ever written about the Beatles has no doubt found, where they are concerned it can be extremely difficult to arrive at ‘the truth’ for any given situation or circumstance. For every incident there are often four (or more) different interpretations of what happened and how important it was. All four of the Beatles have their own truth with each, potentially at least, equally as valid as the other.

Linked to this lack of consistency is also a tendency to rewrite history. Things said or done (and songs written) in anger may have been designed to wound at the time, but can be regretted and explained away at a later, calmer, date.

Both of these factors have the effect of producing some contradictions in the research evidence I have discovered. Paul, for example, provides some examples of times when he was incredibly close to John. But at one stage also angrily throws away the line that he and John never got to the bottom of our souls - almost dismissing their closeness.

Similarly, George said of John that I felt closer to (him) than all the others, right through until his death adding just by the look in his eyes I felt we were connected. But in 1987 when asked by CBS about whether he had looked up to John, he found the prospect laughable and played down their relationship, saying That’s what he thought…I liked him very much, he was a groove. He was a good lad. But, at the same time, he misread me. He didn’t realise who I was.

These contradictions are understandable of course. After all, human relationships are incredibly complex and often ephemeral. Even if they had wanted to explain themselves effectively while in the artificial, pressurised environment of the media spotlight, this would be difficult to achieve.

But because the Beatles hold such a special place in many hearts, it is important to their fans that their personal relationships live up to our romantic interpretation of them. That is one of the reasons why the break-up of the Beatles, and the breakdown of the Lennon-McCartney relationship that was at its core, still remains such a fascinating subject more than 40 years later.

In terms of writing songs to each other, John was generally more overt and deliberate with his lyrical messages to Paul. He knew which buttons to press to get a reaction. For Paul it was quite often more subconscious. When asked about his song-writing process, McCartney explained: I do draw on things that seem important at that time. But it’s like you have a dream: the minute you start analysing it all this extra significance comes out. The majority of his message songs can therefore be seen in this context, as containing some degree of obvious meaning, but much more is below the surface.

While, during this period, John experienced some moments of genuine anger towards Paul he, in general, took their dispute less to heart. His temperament was typically characterised by short bursts of cathartic fury. This made any ‘grudge’ he held relatively short-lived, although he also became adept at compartmentalising his resentment, wheeling it out at certain times when it was useful.

For Paul it ran a little deeper. His bitterness towards John was expressed more subtly, but the openly explicit criticisms from John levelled at him were internalised and taken more to heart. After John’s death, Paul was comforted by Yoko’s simple confirmation that John had been really fond of him. After all they had gone through together, and despite being on good terms for several years before John’s death, it seems he still wasn’t even sure of that. The Beatles, like everyone else, had their insecurities and wanted to be liked and loved.

When he described the feud in 1980, John admitted that he deliberately stirred up his own angry feelings for creative purposes: I used my resentment against Paul - that I have as a kind of sibling rivalry resentment from youth - to write a song. It was a creative rivalry…it was not a vicious vendetta.

George and Ringo also made some significant contributions to the ‘song conversation’. Indeed George’s wife Olivia remarked that George’s most important relationships really were conducted through their music and their lyrics.

George’s first wife Pattie also confirmed that the depth of the group’s feelings for each other went way beyond ‘normal’ friendship, adding: George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through or even comprehend it.

Author Malcolm Doney elaborated on this when he described the four of them as having a mystic urge to be together and that during the height of their fame, when they got together after being apart for a while they would just hold each other in silence.

To better understand the depth of their relationships it is important, I believe, to put their spoken words about each other into context. This is why the lengthy ‘table’ that makes up the second half of this book is important as it highlights, chronologically, the events that prompted the actions they took, the lyrics they wrote and the comments they made.

For example, a November 1972 entry reports a comment from Paul saying that he and the other Beatles were not friends at that time. But shortly after, in April 1973, he was happy to play with the other three. The reason for the change of heart is clear when we see that in the intervening period the other three had come around to Paul’s way of thinking about their manager Allen Klein.

It is, similarly, important to make clear what events in their personal lives were informing their song lyrics at each moment in time - particularly when they were writing about each other. The act of song-writing assisted all four of them in working out what they were feeling; a creative process that helped them find meaning in the events surrounding them. The resulting song was not necessarily therefore a considered reflection on what they really felt about each other.

So, while the ‘messages’ are in themselves intriguing and informative, it would be a mistake to always read too much into their explicit content. Here the comparison with a family is too strong to ignore. They were four brothers. They argued, fell out and said things to hurt. But, underlying it all, there was always love. An internecine love sometimes perhaps, but love nonetheless.

George explained it well when he said: Oh yeah, we were tight. That was one thing to be said about us, we were really tight, you know, as friends. We could argue a lot amongst ourselves but we were very, very close to each other.

Bearing this closeness in mind, their song lyrics should be seen as a fleeting glimpse of short-lived feelings - often hinting at more deep-seated sentiments that require in-depth examination to fully comprehend them. The fact they were so close gave them license to say what they wanted to each other. And - as you will see - they certainly exercised that privilege with gusto.

The Story

By just about any measure of record sales, chart success and critical praise the Beatles are the most popular pop/rock group of all-time. Beyond their music they also had a massive social and cultural impact on the world – seen as leading figures in the movement from the austere 1950s to what are seen as the more relaxed and enlightened 1960s. The ramifications of this change are still being seen and felt today.

So it’s unlikely, I think, that anyone taking the trouble to buy and read this book doesn’t already know at least something about ‘the Beatles story’. So I’m not going to bore you with too much repetition. But a certain degree of background knowledge – particularly about their personal relationships – is needed to put everything that follows into some sort of context.

The Beatles:

*Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) was born in Liverpool on 7th July 1940.

*John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool on 9th October 1940. He died in New York on 8th December 1980.

*James Paul McCartney (Paul McCartney) was born on 18th June 1942 in Liverpool.

*George Harrison was born on 24th February 1943 in Liverpool. He died in Los Angeles on 29th November 2001.

The most obvious place to start their story is on the afternoon of Saturday 6th July 1957, when a skiffle music group called the Quarry Men (led by John Lennon) played at a fete at St Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool. Although they may well have seen each other previously, this was the day that John first properly met Paul McCartney. Paul played him some songs on a guitar after the show and John was so impressed he asked Paul to join the group, which he did shortly after.

More used to playing church halls and small clubs, in August 1957 (while McCartney was away at scout camp) the group secured a gig at the Cavern jazz club - a venue that would later become synonymous with their early success.

While this booking was a sign of progress, within a few months Paul was becoming frustrated by the musical inability of some of his new band mates, so suggested to John that his friend George Harrison (an accomplished guitarist) join the band. Again John was impressed, this time by George’s guitar playing, but had reservations about him being too young. However George hung around with the band for a while and sometime around his 15th birthday (in February 1958) became an ‘official’ part of the group.

On the face of it, John’s negative perception of George’s youthfulness seems a relatively trivial issue, but his role as the ‘baby’ of the group had a long-term affect on his status. He initially accepted his position with good grace, but as he matured he felt there was a degree of condescension from the others towards him and this became a recurring