Better than looking in the mirror

A witnessing of the most wondrous duet in recent memory, and how the world was made all the better for it. If you find yourself lost in the song, refer to the sheet music.

[thecoleopterawithana]

Hi! I've been following your amazing blog for a while but I still don't understand some of your tags like '1st verse', '2nd verse' and so on...

Hello, dear anon! 

I’m so glad you’re enjoying the blog! And don’t worry, my tagging system has gotten so complex and convoluted that it often causes confusion even in its own creator! 

The initial motive behind the creation of this blog was essentially the need to organize all the information I was gathering on the amazing duet of Lennon/McCartney. It’s telling of how my understanding of them grew – so much so that I keep noticing new levels and facets to their dynamic – that I have to continue coming up with new tags. You can see that some of the more recent posts have a lot more of them than the early ones. In a perfect world, I would go back and update my entire blog. But that, as you may guess, would be rather time-consuming. Someday, perhaps…

But other than categorizing the personally perceived patterns between them, I find it is also extremely useful to give a chronological context. So the tags you referred, for example, concern certain phases of their lives, specified when possible with the exact year. 

I tried to create an index page in my blog, to help perusers (and me) keep track of all the tags and their meanings; Sheet Music, for when we get lost in the song. 

I’ll post a copy of it here, though I’m afraid it is not exactly up-to-date. I’ll try to add all the newer tags as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I hope this helps!

Sheet Music

Sheet music can be used as a record of, a guide to, or a means to perform, a song or piece of music.

In other words, an attempt at somehow organizing and facilitating the understanding of the incredible symphony at play.

As much for my benefit as for yours.

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Texture

In music, texture is how the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition, thus determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece.

A rather subjective (and at times inconsistent) classification of the mood or dynamics involved in the interaction. An amalgamation of possible patterns.  

But the only – the person I actually picked as my partner, who I’d recognised had talent, and I could get on with, was Paul.  |  [The general tag for the Lennon/McCartney.]

You know, like women these days want to get away from their husbands, get a life of their own. It was a bit that. Because with The Beatles, it was a bit like a marriage.  |  [The analogy they decided to go with.]

And if I say I really knew you well / What would your answer be? / If you were here today  |  [Trying to make sense of your partner with the benefit of hindsight.]

I don’t examine myself that way. I just am. I just go through it. I just wake in the morning and go to bed at night and whatever happens during the day just happens. I don’t really know how I am.  |  [Paul introspecting.]

The therapy is like a very slow acid trip which happens naturally in your body. It is hard to talk about, you know, because you feel ‘I am pain’ and it sounds sort of arbitrary, but pain to me now has a different meaning because of having physically felt all these extraordinary repressions. It was like taking gloves off, and feeling your own skin for the first time.  |  [John’s self-examinations.]

But when we were in private and together, there was no need for that. I could just often be the ‘baddie’ in a situation, and he could be a real soft sweetie, you know?  |  [Paul’s hard side and John’s soft edges.]

And if I say I really loved you / And was glad you came along / And you were here today / For you were in my song  | [Their letters to each other.]

But we always came back to the song we were singing / At any particular time  |  [Through the music of other artists.]

Why didn’t anybody ever say, “How come those guys don’t split up? I mean, what’s going on backstage? I mean, what is that Paul and John business? Why – you know, how can they be together so long?”  |  [Inside hinting and outside wondering.]

The plus is that your best friend, also, can hold you without… I mean, I’m not a homosexual, or we could have had a homosexual relationship and maybe that would have satisfied it, with working with other male artists.  |  [Wonderings about sexuality.]  

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       Major Key  |   [Happiness, cheerfulness, confidence, brightness, satisfaction.]

Whatever bad things John said about me, he would also slip his glasses down to the end of his nose and say, ’I love you’. That’s really what I hold on to. That’s what I believe. The rest is showing off.  |  [Each time they use that word in relation to each other.]

It’s that you were so close and so in love that if anyone decides to start talking dirty – great, then Pandora’s box is open.  |  [Saying they were ‘in love’.]

When you’re the best friend a man ever had?  |  [Besties doing besties stuff.]

And when I touch you / I feel happy inside / It’s such a feelin’ that my love / I can’t hide.  |  [Touching is good.]

Did I ever take you in my arms, / Look you in the eye, tell you that I do  |  [The eye contact thing they used to do.]

Hey you’ve got to hide your love away  |  [When only one of them is gazing.]

He looked like Elvis. I dug him.  |  [John showing his appreciation for Paul.]

The thing you must remember is that I’m the number one John Lennon fan. I love him to this day and I always did love him.  |  [Paul appreciating John.]

We wrote our first songs together, we grew up together and we lived our lives together. And when we’d do it together, something special would happen. There’d be that little magic spark.  |  [Pressing just how special their relationship was.]

The deal was, he could say that but if you said that, if you or anyone said anything bad about Paul, John’d take a swing at you. He’d say ‘you can’t talk about Paul like that’, Paul was his best buddy. If you were talking to Paul and you’d say something derogatory about John, he’d get up and leave. (…) You weren’t allowed to say anything bad about Paul or John to the each one of them because they would defend each other, which I liked, I thought that was great because you knew they were connected at the hip.  |  [Being protective of each other.]

People start these rumours: ‘He was this, he was that.’ I say: ‘Look, I’ve slept with him.’ We’ve done hitch-hiking holidays and we’ve had to top and tail it because there was only one bed. I say: ‘I knew him’.  |  [Sharing quarters.]

Home. Family. Love.  |  [Paul’s married life.]

You may say that I’m a dreamer / But I’m not the only one  |  [John, the Romantic.]

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      Minor Key   |   [Sadness, darkness, sullenness, apprehension, melancholy, depression, mystery.]

I know what’s coming down / And I know where it’s coming from / And I know and I’m sorry (yes I am) / But I never could speak my mind  |  [Communication issues.]

I don’t believe in Beatles / I just believe in me  |  [John’s disillusionment with people he places on pedestals.]

I was feeling insecure / You might not love me anymore / I was shivering inside / I was shivering inside / Oh I didn’t mean to hurt you / I’m sorry that I made you cry / Oh my I didn’t want to hurt you / I’m just a jealous guy  |  [Possessiveness over the other.]

I was trying to catch your eyes / Thought that you was trying to hide / I was swallowing my pain / I was swallowing my pain  |  [An accumulation of perceived rejections and disregards.]

Last year John said he wanted a divorce. All right, so do I. I want to give him that divorce.  |  [The Breakup.]

Tell me why, why, why do you make me so sad, so sad / When you’re the best friend a man has ever had? / Well, I wake up in the morning, I’m still dreaming ‘bout you / I tell you, pretty baby, I’m blue / Wake up in the evening, I’m still screaming out / Over you, over you  |  [Break-up depression and other hidden wounds.]

But as for me, / I still remember how it was before, / And I am holding back the tears no more  |  [Grieving and mourning.]

I still can’t come to terms with it  |  [Processing death.]

John, come on baby, did ya…? Yes!. No, I think he did, yeah. It wasn’t actually a spiky relationship at all. It was very warm, very close and very loving, I think, of all The Beatles.  |  [Their standing with each other.]

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      Times & Places   |   [Some special landmarks.]

What about the time we met? / Well, I suppose that you could say / That we were playing hard to get   |  [First audition.]

That spring of 1960, John and I went down to a pub in Reading, The Fox And Hound, run by my cousin Betty Robbins and her husband. We worked behind the bar. It was a lovely experience that came from John and I just hitching off down there. At the end of the week, we played in the pub as The Nerk Twins.  |  [A little vacation.]

After a late lunch, Linda launched into a long paean to the joys of living in England. When she was finished, she turned to John and said “Don’t you miss England?”, - “Frankly”, John replied, “I miss Paris.”  |  [The City of Love.]

There’s something disturbing about it. You ask yourself, ’How do you come back from it? How do you then lead a normal life after that?’ And the answer is, you don’t.  |  [LSD.]

On the road to Rishikesh / I was dreaming more or less  |  [What happened in India?]

John had given me a sort of love of Scotland.  |  [Highlands refuge.]

We thought we’d do a number by an old estranged fiancé of mine, called Paul.  |  [The Lost Weekend.]

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Form

The term musical form (or musical architecture) refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections.

An effort to give some sense of chronological order and circumstantial context to the events.

May be navigated by year, both of the piece of information itself and/or the period it is referring to.

Or explore it in the following rough attempt at sectioning their duet, give the song structure.

The Introduction is a unique section that comes at the beginning of the piece. Generally speaking, an introduction contains just music and no words. It usually builds up suspense for the listener so when the downbeat drops in, it creates a pleasing sense of release. The intro also creates the atmosphere of the song.   |   [1957 - 1960]

The Pre-chorus is an optional section that may occur after the verse. Often, when verse and chorus use the same harmonic structure, the pre-chorus introduces a new harmonic pattern or harmony that prepares the verse chords to transition into the chorus.   |   [1960 - 1962]

The Chorus contains the main idea, or big picture, of what is being expressed lyrically and musically. It is repeated throughout the song, and the melody and lyric rarely vary. It refers to passages of unchanging music and text providing a periodic sense of return.   |   [The songwriting]

The Verse is to be understood as a unit that prolongs the tonic… The musical structure of the verse nearly always recurs at least once with a different set of lyrics.

1st Verse   |   [1962 - 1966]

2nd Verse   |   [1966 - 1967]

The Bridge is a device that is used to break up the repetitive pattern of the song and keep the listener’s attention… In a bridge, the pattern of the words and music change.   |   [1967 - 1968]

The Elision is a section of music where different sections overlap one another, usually for a short period. It is designed to create tension and drama.   |   [1968 - 1970]

3rd Verse   |   [1970 - 1979]

The Outro of a song is a way of ending or completing the song. It signals to the listeners that the song is nearing its close.   |   [1979 - 1980]

The Solo is a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer.   |   [1980 - Present]

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Performers

Rather easier tags to manage, relating to the people involved.

Main

Johnny

Macca

Geo

Ritchie

Backup

Linda McCartney

Yoko Ono Lennon

Brian Epstein

George Martin

Mal Evans

Neil Aspinall

Pete Shotton

Stuart Sutcliffe

Cynthia Lennon

Jane Asher

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Instruments

The medium in which the information is available: quotes, illustrations, photos, GIFs, audio or video.

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Original Pieces

My stuff  |  [General tag]

Addendum  |  [Additions to other people’s posts]

Asks me why  |  [Reply to asks]

The Epistolary  |  [A compilation of their letters to each other, i.e. their songs]

Exploration of Emotional Entanglements  |  [Meta-analyses]

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[Note: This page will probably need frequent updates and clarifications. Most classifications are personal opinions and for the purpose of personal pleasure. Please pardon any lapses.]

[toyboymccartney]

[dreamingofthepast]

Oh John 😫

this interview is gold you guys

Paul’s unfunny joke being immortalized in this interview 😭😭😭

John and Paul interviewed for Flip Teen Magazine by Keith Allison Dec 15, 1965

[lonelyroad1988]

June 01, 1979 near Dover. Photos by Jim Sugar.

[todosphotos]

John recording “With The Beatles” 1963

[mrlennonmccartney]

jumper and blue

[festerwounds]

im beatling out

[whitealbum]

paul said i’m joining mike’s war on pinterest on the side of pinterest

[mclennonhater]

wishing everyone a happy mclennon monday with art i definitely drew myself 🥳🥳🥳 @silversunsailing

[silversunsailing]

😁😁😁

[amoralto]

John Lennon on the roof of his East 52nd Street penthouse, New York, photographed by Bob Gruen. (August 29th, 1974)

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“Writing songs,” says Paul McCartney, “is like following a trail – and you never know where it will lead you.”

Today, the trail has led us to McCartney’s studio in rural Sussex. Rabbits snuffle around the garden and the English Channel shimmers in the distance. There are worse places to work. A quick scan of the studio kitchen reveals a copy of Mary McCartney’s recipe book and a John Lennon calendar; March’s pin-up is “Moody John” in sunglasses posed against the New York skyline.

— Paul McCartney, interview w/ Mark Blake for Q: Songs in the key of Paul. (May, 2015)

[i-am-the-oyster]

[bodhbdearg]

Did Mimi "squat" Mendips?

In my recent review of the book The Making of John Lennon by Francis Kenny (2018), I noted a story from John's half-sister, Julia Baird, who claimed that Mimi got her house "Mendips" via squatting. A couple of people enquired if that claim was true so I looked into it in more detail.

The claim seems to originate in Julia's memoir Imagine This (2007). Julia doesn't specify her own source for the story but it was presumably another family member, as Julia herself was not born when these events supposedly took place (around 1945). Elsewhere in the book she describes hearing many family stories from Mimi's sister Anne ("Nanny") when Nanny was in her old age, so that indicates that the story may come from her.

Julia's account is as follows:

By this time [around 1945] Mimi and George had moved into a new home. The house she and George rented in Vale Road, backed on to an identical one, called Mendips, in Menlove Avenue. The two back gardens were separated only by a fence, so Mimi had a clear view of what was going on in the other house. One day she noticed that the tenants were moving out of Mendips. Mimi wasted no time. She immediately started to pile up the Vale Road furniture beside the fence at the bottom of the garden. She then manhandled it over the fence into the other back garden. Within the day, Mimi and George were the new occupants of 251 Menlove Avenue, fronting on to the main thor- oughfare into town. The owner of the house only found out when it was a 'fait accompli'. Which meant that Mimi was a squatter! The law was strongly weighted in favour of tenants during those dark war days. The woman who owned the house had been waiting to sell it when the previous tenants left. Now, she had no choice but to sell to the new incumbents, Mimi and George, if she wanted to realise the money from the house. Mimi was very pleased with herself. As the occupant she was able to drive a hard bargain, relying on possession being nine- tenths of the law.

This account posits Mimi and George as squatting the house first, then buying it at a good price, benefitting from favourable laws towards tenants during wartime.

I then checked Tune In: The Extended Edition, because if anyone is likely to have investigated this claim using primary documentation, it's Lewisohn. He doesn't mention the squatting claim (though he does use Baird's book as a source for other things) and has this to say about the purchase of Mendips:

The purchasing deposit [for Mendips] was paid with money inherited from Francis Smith's [Uncle George's father] suicide, beyond which George and Mimi had a mortgage with the Leek & Moorlands Building Society - the monthly repayments met partly with rental income (from letting out The Cottage to Mimi's sister Harriet) but mostly through prudent budgeting.

Now, I know Lewisohn is famous for his attention to detail, but even that seems like a lot of information for something as mundane as a house purchase. I wondered if he dug up all that documentation (I'm assuming he has documentation) - down to the name of the building society - specifically to counter the claim of squatting - without explicitly mentioning it? I don't know, but the level of detail, even for Lewisohn, is striking.

The thing is, these two accounts don't necessarily contradict each other. Baird has Mimi and George squatting first, then buying - presumably they could be using the exact same deposit and mortgage as Lewisohn describes. While Lewisohn's account doesn't mention squatting, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Lewisohn's account has the advantage of being backed up by documentation (again, assuming he has documentation) while Baird's is a reported account from someone (Nanny, probably) who wasn't there, and which Baird also did not witness herself. But, at the same time, Baird is literally family, so will have been privy to oral accounts that, even if distorted, could have a grain of truth and by their nature wouldn't leave a paper trail.

Albert Goldman's biography, for all its flaws, was fairly thoroughly researched, and there's no mention there of squatting, fwiw.

My feeling is Baird's anecdote is so oddly specific that it's likely it has some basis in truth, but could be distorted and exaggerated. It isn't proved or disproved by Lewisohn's documentation of the eventual purchase of Mendips. Baird also has another account - this time something she did experience herself - of another Stanley sister (Harriet "Harrie") seemingly taking over a house that Baird and her sister were under the impression John had bought for their use. It's not proof of anything, but if true, may indicate a pattern of behaviour among at least two of the Stanley sisters regarding the getting and keeping of houses.

[thedissenters]

John Lennon | © Robert Whitaker

[i-am-the-oyster]

Hi oyster I just saw on another blog where they said that John and Paul sunbathed in a graveyard or cemetery?? Is that true and if it is can you pls provide the source?

This is definitely something I've heard. But I'm currently sick in bed so I'm going to throw it out to my followers to find a source!

[i-am-the-oyster]

About 12 minutes in.

Thanks to @the-paper-apricot for finding it 🥰

[undying-love]

"I asked Jake to bring Elvis [Costello] into the office where I took him into my confidence about my hopes for him co-writing with Paul, which happily was a prospect which excited him. I then suggested to Paul that he should shelve the material he had been recording with Phil Ramone for the time being and try to write some new songs with Elvis. Albeit with the raised-eyebrow, somewhat-sceptical air he affected when being told something he didn't want to hear, Paul agreed to “give it a try" and almost immediately they started to write and record together. [...] But despite a creative flame having been lit between them which burned so brightly that a whole album's worth of material was completed before the end of June, Paul essentially wasn't comfortable with its implications, at one point exasperatedly asking me, "who does this guy think he is, John Lennon ?" [...] I had told him that he needed help to write better songs and whilst he quite readily agreed to work with Elvis Costello, I could see then what he has since admitted, which was that he had serious reservations about the collaboration and at times because of the emotionally disturbing chords it struck with him he found the whole experience quite difficult." (Richard Odgen)

"[Me and Elvis] just sat on these couches. Each of us got an acoustic guitar. Sat across from each other. I said to him, ‘The way I’m used to working with a collaborator is really, mainly with John. And the way we used to do it is sit opposite like this...' And the thing for me that was kind of nice. The nice thing for me is seeing John there, him being right-handed, me being left-handed, it felt to me like I was looking in a mirror. So that was a way I had learned to write and it was the way I liked to write and Elvis was very happy to work like that. So it was like a repeat of that process, and so he was John, basically, and I was Paul. You know, the bottom line is I’ve never had a better collaborator than John and I don’t expect to. Because we were pretty hot.” (Paul)

"When me and Elvis Costello came together...there were similarities between him and John. They both got specs. People with glasses got a different sort of attitude to the world, I think. They could be a little more introverted...a litttle more of a pussycat on the inside and more aggressive on the outside. Which John was, and I think Elvis is a little bit. I like that in people." (Paul)

"At first I thought the natural thing: ‘I’ve collaborated with Lennon and anybody else will not be as good.’ Which I still feel. If you’ve written with the best, who else is going to be as good? [...] I felt Elvis Costello was the nearest to John and I get a lot of journalists asking me this. ‘Yeah, there are similarities between them …’ But I got pissed off after a while and I ended up answering, ‘Yeah, they both wore glasses.’ No matter how anyone reminds me of John, they’re not John." (Paul)

[ceofjohnlennon]

New release of contact sheets of John Lennon photographed by Leslie Bryce for The Beatles Monthly Book, June 29, 1967. The photoshoot was in Kenwood. Scans © beatlesresearchsociety on Instagram.

[harrisonarchive]

George Harrison and Paul McCartney in the studio, 1967; photo from The Beatles Anthology (2000).

“I just said to Paul the other night when we got back to his house and we started playing this little harmonium of his. And I started trying to sing ‘She’s Leaving Home’ and I suddenly thought, This must have been really interesting if you were trying to write this song — it’s all this big stretch over one Seventh, a C Seventh or something — and I suddenly said to him, ‘Now who wrote that bit? Was that you or was that John?’ And he said, ‘I think what probably happened as I wrote the first bit, right, then John came in…’ Then I suddenly thought, This is stupid. I’m asking Paul who wrote which bit of ‘She’s Leaving Home’ twenty years later! [Laughs] Who cares anyway?” - George Harrison, Q, 1988 (x)

[undying-love]

From Mark Lewisohn's Tune In: "Was Woolton fete the first time John met Paul? A riddle in two paragraphs: In certain private company, Paul sometimes reveals that he hadn’t only seen John on buses before the Woolton fete, but they’d also exchanged a few words. Paul says he was working as a paperboy (on his bike, delivering the Echo to local houses in the evenings) when he once talked to John outside the newsagent’s shop. John never mentioned it, and Paul has chosen, consistently for decades, never to say it publicly. He was a paperboy after the McCartneys relocated to Forthlin Road in summer 1956, when he turned 14. Paul is shy about giving away the shop’s identity to anyone who’d print it, but one local family who knew him think it was “Abbas.”

From beatlesliverpoollocations.blogspot.com:

The unnamed family mentioned in Mark Lewisohn’s notes are the Hodgsons. In 1956 Charles (senior) and his wife Annie were living at 111 Stamfordham Drive, Allerton with their two sons, Reginald, 26 and Charles, 14. Peter Hodgson, Reginald's son, has told me how his Uncle Charlie got to know the 14 years old Paul McCartney when he was working as a paper boy. Peter Hodgson: In or around 2010 I told Mark [Lewisohn] that (Paul had worked at) the shops at the Cenotaph, right by my Dad’s [...]  We now know that sometime in the past, Paul has revealed the actual first meeting between himself and John and where that meeting took place. I think someone close to Paul has let the cat out of the bag to Mark and (Lewisohn) has wanted to know the name and location of Abbas in 1956. At this time and in the subsequent years, the locals will still have referred to the shop as Abbas when mentioning it, hence it was still known as Abbas by my Dad and brother...many decades later. This is where the confusion started as to the shop’s location as Mark was relying on documentation only, whereas I was relying on first hand witnesses who actually lived literally yards away. I got it straight from Macca, face to face, he agreed and nodded when I mentioned Abbas so when I told Mark many years later he went searching and could only find an Abba in Aigburth. What’s interesting is that at some point Mark actually asked Paul the name of the newsagent’s he delivered for in Allerton. Paul refused to answer him. An unusual refusal for such a seemingly trivial question. [Peter was pleased with what my own research had uncovered, for personal family reasons as much as for the benefit of Beatle’s history. (He said to me): You finding W.W. Abba at 85 Woolton Road vindicated me to Mark, as it’s impossible for me, my Dad or Uncle Charlie to have been making it up].

(Scene from the Fuh You music video. The location of the newsagent, W.W. Abba at Woolton Road, is on the left, which is shown as Paul sings, "on the night that I met you...". The Liverpool local who found the newsagent did his research much earlier than the release of this video. He was shocked when he saw it.)

[bodhbdearg]

The thing that interests me most about this account is what is reveals about ML's working methods, which seems to prioritise documentary sources over oral accounts. This is a perfectly reasonable approach that most historians would take, as oral recollections can be confusing and distorted by normal memory failure, agendas etc. But this account does seem to display a certain lack of imagination on his part. It would make sense, in a scenario such as this, to retain both the oral and the documentary evidence, even if they contradict each other, and present them in the text, acknowledging the contradiction and letting the reader decide what seems most likely. That way, any further supporting evidence for either position that may arise will already have all the relevant information to build on. It may seem like a trivial point but he did many oral interviews with others and used it to inform his research, so it would've made sense to do the same here, even if it was just a quick conversation.