My Issue With This Statement Is That 1) There Was No Reason To Mention John At All To Make The Statement

As written in the video section :"Paul listens to the song "Beautiful Boy" and tries to hold back the tears. Notice the tribute in the song to Paul ("every day, in every way, is getting better and better"). It's from The Beatles' song "Getting Better" - John's contribution to that song at the time was cynical and witty (his lyric was "it can't get no worse") but here he was sending a little message to Paul that Paul was right, life does just get keep getting better and better."

Seeing Paul holding back his tears makes me want to cry ugly.

Reblogging because of Bob Spitz being yet another person who has no idea what Working Class Hero is about. In the song when John says “a working class hero is something to be” he is being sarcastic. A working class hero is a sucker who believes the lies of the upper classes that if they keep working harder and harder that corner office will be theirs when of course the upper classes have no intention of ever giving them “room at the top”. Not only is John not saying he’s a working class hero, he’s criticising people who are. If you post things about Paul being the “true working class hero” it shows you have no idea what the song is about. I’m not referencing the original OP for this post when I say this but rather similar quotes I’ve seen around here. Listen to the song! It’s very powerful and it helps to educate yourself

No doubt about it, they were tuned to the same groove. But aside from a musical passion and amiability, they filled enormous gaps in each other's lives. Where John was impatient and careless, Paul was a perfec-tionist-or, at least, appeared to be- in his methodical approach to music and the way he dealt with the world. Where John was moody and aloof, Paul was blithe and outgoing, gregarious, and irrepressibly cheerful. Where John was straightforward if brutally frank, Paul practiced diplomacy to manipulate a situation. Where John had attitude, Paul's artistic nature was a work in progress. Where John's upbringing was comfortably middle-Class (according to musician Howie Casey," the only claim he had to being a working-class hero was on sheet music"), Paul was truly blue-collar Where John was struggling to become a musician, Paul seemed born to it.

And John gave Paul someone to look up to. Their age difference and the fact that John was in art college- a man of the world! - made John "a particularly attractive character" in Paul's eyes. There was a feral force in his manner, a sense of "fuck it all" that emanated great strength. He had a style of arrogance that dazed people and started things in motion. And he scorned any sign of fear. John's response to any tentativeness was a sneer, a sneer with humbling consequences.

John occasionally felt the need to reinforce his dominance, but he never required that Paul cede his individuality. He gave the younger boy plenty of room in which to leave his imprint. The Quarry Men would try a new song, and John would immediately seek Paul's opinion. He'd allow Paul to change keys to suit his register, propose certain variations, reconfigure arrangements. "After a while, they'd finish each other's sentences," Eric Griffiths says. "That's when we knew how strong their friendship had become. They'd grown that dependent on one another."

Dependent--and unified. They consolidated their individual strengths into a productive collaboration and grew resentful of those who questioned it. Thereafter, it was John and Paul who brought in all the new material; they assigned each musician his part, chose the songs, sequenced the sets-they literally dictated how rehearsals went down. "The rest of us hadn't a clue as far as arrangements went," Hanton says slowly. "And they seemed to have everything right there, at their fingertips, which was all right by me, because their ideas were good and I enjoyed playing with them." But the two could be unforgiving and relentless. "Say the wrong thing, contradict them, and you were frozen out. A look would pass between them, and afterwards it was as if you didn't exist.

Even in social situations, the Lennon-McCartney bond seemed well defined. The unlikely pair spent many evenings together browsing through the record stacks in the basement of NEMS, hunting for new releases that captured the aggressiveness, the intensity, and the physical tug about which they debated talmudically afterward over coffce. Occasionally, John invited Paul and his girlfriend, a Welsh nurse named Rhiannon, to double-date.

To John's further delight, he discovered that Paul was corruptible. In no time, he groomed his young cohort to shoplift cigarettes and candy, as well as stimulating in him an appetite for pranks. On one occasion that still resonates for those involved, the Quarry Men went to a party in Ford, a village on the outskirts of Liverpool, out past the Aintree Racecourse.

"John and Paul were inseparable that night, like Siamese twins," says Charles Roberts, who met them en route on the upper deck of a cherry red Ripple bus. "It was like the rest of us didn't exist." They spent most of the evening talking, conducting a whispery summit in one corner, Roberts recalls. And it wasn't just music on their agenda, but mischief. "In the middle of the party they went out, ostensibly looking for a cigarette machine, and appeared some time later carrying a cocky-watchman's lamp. The next morning, when it was time to leave, we couldn't get out of the house because [they] had put cement stolen from the roadworks into the mortise lock so the front door wouldn't open. And we had to escape through a window."

Through the rest of the year and into the brutal cold spell that blighted early February -every day that winter seemed more blustery than the last-the two boys reinforced the parameters of their friendship. Afterschool hours were set aside for practice and rehearsal, with weekends devoted to parties and the random gig. It left little time for studies, but then neither boy was academically motivated anyway.

I love this quote. I’m so glad someone could put into words what John contributed and was able to do. I just wish he had more time to do it

“He was one of the major influences on my music life. I just thought he was the very best of what could be done with rock ‘n’ roll, and also ideas. I felt such akin to him in that he would rifle the avant-garde and look for ideas that were so on the outside of, on the periphery of what was the mainstream and then apply them in a functional manner to something that was considered popularist and make it work. He would make it work for the masses and I thought that was so admirable. That was making artwork for the people and not making it elitist.” 

- David Bowie (Far Out Magazine. Written by Tom Taylor in 2021)

Paul McCartney circa 2022 in the Lyrics book: A Day in the Life-that was all me and I’m not even going to mention the other guy at all.

— John Lennon, Hit Parader: Lennon-McCartney Songalog – Who wrote what. (extracts) (April, 1972)

Could anybody tells me where this comes from?It is very important for my mclennon theory I think……

It can incredibly fit well for the I saw her standing there script

I mean this……you act like a QUEEN……😮

Sharing because I’m a John girl and I need to represent

Reblogging for the link at the very end. I didn’t even know this existed! Thank you!

How are you finding the Lyrics book?

honestly - it's mostly what i have expected it to be. there are definitely a lot of very good and enjoyable parts in it, and i think in many cases it does provide a good insight into how paul constructs his lyrics, his thought-process, his inspiration for a particular song/line etc, these are all interesting to read through, the stories and the photos are lovely, and the inclusion of all the manuscripts and doodles does add a lot to it. and it’s paul. so if you love his weirdo brain and his music, you’re gonna enjoy it! and then at other times you'll want to tear your hair out because this man is the stupidest mfer on earth there aren’t any big revelations, but i didn’t really expect any, so in that respect i wasn’t disappointed. however, it’d have been nice if paul could have been at least a tiny bit more willing to explore the more personal aspects of some songs but i’d be lying if i said i was genuinely expecting him to drastically change the way he’s been discussing these things for the past however many decades...

and... the fact they went for this semi-autobiography route AND put it all in alphabetical order... it means it’s a bit eh sometimes, a bit all over the place. i sort get why this approach was chosen but i just think that overall, they could have done a lot more with the book, the concept and the opportunity were there. (+ it’s a pity that some lyrics, that are actually gorgeous and interesting (i’ve just seen a face, monkberry moon delight, footprints, my brave face, a certain softness, riding to vanity fair, alligator, scared, to name a few) were left out, while others were included basically just so the obligatory historical discussions could be carried out because you know, the book sometimes cannot make its mind up about whether it wants to focus on paul the artist or demand paul to be a quasi beatles historian) but i would think that for people who don’t know that much about these songs or paul’s life, the book could be more interesting to read through and they wouldn’t be so nitpicky about it lmao.

what i will say is that if you want a physical copy , i would buy it at a discount or if having the proper book isn’t that important you could just..... you know....... :)

I’m now crying. He is killing me

Paul McCartney sings “I Got a Feeling” with John Lennon in first encore of the new tour!

April 28, 2022

Everyone reading this focussing on the fire when my first thought was how cruel Mimi was. Calling John fat. Making fun of his way of speaking. Putting down his musical interests. Discouraging him from going to Hamburg. Poor Johnny. Mimi’s impact on his mental health must have been severe

miss auntie mimi and little johnny starting a fire with his gang

Happy birthday beautiful Johnny! Because you deserve all the love on this day and every day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN LENNON!

"I am a guy, yeah. That is true. But how do you know unless you see somebody? I am just some guy who did... Whatever. Always see me as me. I was always me, all the way through it... I love motels 'cause there is no reception area. I like hotels too. But I like motels as well. Just invisible places where you check in with a credit card, in the middle of the night, anywhere. Some guys in taxis now, old guys, they recognize the voice is English, but they don't recognize me. They don't know who the hell I am. They say, "Oh, you're English! I was over there in the war..." And they go on and on... And tell me amazing life stories.... They ask, "what do you do?" and I say, "I'm a musician," and they say, "Are you doing alright?" "Yeah, I am..."