So Paul Himself Says This Story Never Happened But We’re Just Going To Post This Story Because It “makes

Ah yes the typical tumblr experience. Thousands of posts where John is reduced to nothing more than the sum of his faults…crickets. One article about Paul that throws a few softball shots (in a sea of articles defending Paul’s every action as being completely justified) and the comments are full of essays defending Paul. And yet people around here keep saying that Paul is a victim that needs defending because of what happened back in the 80s when John had just been murdered and people in their horror may have gone too far one way. It’s kind of silly when you think about it.

Paul liked to keep his options open and this applied to friendship. Just when you thought you were getting to know him, to feel a commitment from him, he'd slip behind a smiling mask. Finally I came to accept this aspect of his nature and we worked together, travelled together in a relaxed fashion, but never with any developed contact.

Paul had a real appetite for life -- an exuberant optimism and a buoyant enthusiasm that was admirable even if at times it overwhelmed his sceptical partner, John.

...He lived in his head to create music or lived to create music in his head. This process or activity could account for a certain distance in his contact with people, however pleasant and engaging he might appear.

Robert Freeman, The Beatles: A Private View

It’s nice to see something about John on here. John and Sean had a beautiful relationship and I do think he and Julian would have gotten there. I’m sorry both of them were robbed of their father because of a madman.

This is such a weird take. Why would Julian not love having these memories of his dad? Why, even if John was an imperfect father, is he not worthy of his son’s love? I’m relieved Julian has chosen to let any bitterness go. I’m also even more excited for Get Back as some truly beautiful aspects of John’s personality are clearly on display given Julian’s reactions.

sidenote: julian is such a good person i admire him a lot because if it was me i think i'd be bitter as fuck

Sorry I didn’t realise it didn’t originate with you. I just get frustrated sometimes as I see the same 2 biased sources-this guy and Erin Torkelson Webber continually reblogged. I do apologise though. Hope you are having a good Saturday

“When John got the drift about how the others felt, instead of keeping Yoko away out of sensitivity for their feelings and out of concern for the group dynamics, he said, “I don’t want to play with youse lot anymore.” Paul desperately wanted things to work out. He was enormously patient. It was only his great love for John and for the whole Beatles thing that stopped it from blowing up sooner than it did. I remember the exasperation on his face away from the studio. At the time he was Abbey Road far more than John, who mostly kept away. John’s input was minimal, except on his tracks, or the ones he featured on. George’s input was pretty strong, but Paul was the most visible one, perhaps to the point of being overwhelming. Not in a nasty way, but just being creatively in the lead. I think this was because his personal life was very happy. John, newly obsessed with Yoko, should have been happy, but was exhausted and in torment. Looking for some release, he and George had even taking up chanting together.”

— Tony Bramwell, Magical Mystery Tours

My favourite album is Rubber Soul! Yes! I like to think I’m both deep but approachable. I kind of wish my favourite was Let it Be if only for the description

hiya! how would you describe someone based on their favourite bugs album?

Hello my darling, sorry this took ages. But, here we go:

Please Please Me: Hipster who thinks they are the only one to truly understand The Beatles. Or you just think Ringo singing so joyously about Boys is worthy of the top spot. Maybe you're right

With The Beatles: You think the whole Lennon/McCartney thing is overrated and they were just a neat little rock group. So, in other words, and independent thinker. But not necessarily in a good way

A Hard Day's Night: Perhaps you were irrevocably fucked up from watching the film on repeat with your childhood best friend where you'd pretend to be married to Paul and John (don't look at the author). Or, you're a happy-go-lucky good time boy/girl and I think we should be friends

Beatles for Sale: Depressed and here for a pity party

Help!: Depressed but better at hiding it

Rubber Soul: Deep, but in a fun, approachable way

Revolver: Deep, but in a sort of off-putting yet compelling way

Sgt Petter: Just straight up fun but not that deep

Magical Mystery Tour: Another flavour of hipster, but one that wants to explain the dream they just had to me in great detail.

White Album: A freak that cannot be satisfied by staying in one lane. I like you

Yellow Submarine: A George Martin stan that thinks he should have been able to have his own album, as a treat

Abbey Road: You like pain, but in a suffering is beautiful sort of way. Like a renaissance painting come to life

Let It Be: You like pain, but in a horny way. We should be best friends

Okay, how did I do?

Tbh I saw that same anon a few weeks back and was annoyed the first time but didn’t want to start drama. I am all for speculation and what ifs (after all this is tumblr!) but I’m not cool with baseless speculation. There is nothing in John’s words or actions that indicates John would be a conservative nut job if he lived today and I’m not really enjoying one person’s feelings being presented as fact as it might not be clear to people new to the Beatles that there is no evidence to back up this persons point of view . A large part of why we have so much anti vaccine craziness is because feelings have been presented as fact in the news media and people latch onto it. Sorry if I fired as I know you were making a joke and I perhaps took it wrong. I just wanted to explain why I felt the need to respond. But I get just your blog and I appreciate it was just a joke.

“Would John have gotten politically weird if he lived” anon here and FRUSTRATED. I’m not saying I told you so, I’m just telling at these idiot men through the screen.

Also I do not understand how these rich famous people don’t know the difference between a parasite (what ivermectin treats) and a fucking virus. They are different.

Listen to your uncle Paul boys. Be cool, get vaxxed.

I have no clue where Julian gets this from tbh I don't know his social circles. I'll say that from what I can tell most of John's weirdness seemed to come from Yoko and her circle (not saying it's entirely her fault, just saying I feel like that might be why Sean's like this, though he may also be just trying to be supportive of his brother).

It's so hard to talk to these types of people cause they're so terrified generally and for whatever reason feel completely justified in their distrust of science. I don't know Julian or Sean's full educational background but often I think it's people who get overwhelmed about biology and don't have an intuition for it (see: people who clearly don't really know what RNA even is freaking out about it)

Honestly, probably Paul is also non-confrontational about this type of thing though, so I'm not sure he's the best bet to try and convince Julian and Sean otherwise.

So glad I’m not the only one thinking this. Let’s show equal respect to John and Paul for a change. It’s what they both deserve.

@bitchybillionaire yes that’s the one. I’ve had the same trajectory, honestly. I’m interested in some of what they’re saying, because some of it is also what I’ve been thinking for years. And I get the need to give Paul the credit and attention he is due, after so many books and articles overlook him or malign him. But a lot of this podcast does feel like okay, John was elevated beyond belief before, so we have to do the same for Paul now to balance it. And like, what if we just met in the middle with a true balance of the scales instead of it being like a seesaw where Paul is elevated now?

Also they really need to cite more sources. It bothers me when they say “NOBODY has ever talked about xyz” but like, you got that info from somewhere. Someone had to have talked about it! Or else you wouldn’t know about it!

Just wish I could read an article that praises Paul yet doesn’t crap on John. I’m the member of about 30 John Lennon pages across multiple social media platforms and they are really positive places that celebrate John with photos, video and articles. If the other Beatles are mentioned it’s always with respect and a desire to support their various projects. I can’t remember the last time someone bashed Paul. Why can’t this be the norm?

“Did you know Paul sent a telegram to Margaret Thatcher in 1982? He did. It wasn’t friendly. He lost his temper over her treatment of health workers and fired off a long outraged message, comparing her to Ted Heath, the prime minister (tweaked in “Taxman”) felled by the 1974 coal strike. McCartney warned, “What the miners did to Ted Heath, the nurses will do to you.” This controversy is a curiously obscure footnote to his life—it seldom gets mentioned in even the fattest biographies. He doesn’t discuss it in Many Years from Now. I only know about it because I read it as a Random Note in Rolling Stone, not exactly a hotbed of pro-Paul propaganda at the time. (The item began, “Reports that Paul McCartney is intellectually brain-dead appear to have been premature.”) But the telegram was a major U.K. scandal, with Tory politicians denouncing him. In October 1982, Thatcher was at the height of her power, in the wake of her Falkland Islands blitz. Many rock stars talked shit about Maggie—Elvis Costello, Morrissey, Paul Weller—but Paul was the one more famous than she was. He had something to lose by hitting send on this, and nothing to gain. What, you think he was trying for coolness points? This is Paul McCartney, remember? He was in the middle of making Give My Regards to Broad Street. He could have clawed Thatcher’s still-beating heart out of her rib cage, impaled it on his Hofner on live TV, and everybody would have said, “Yeah, but ‘Silly Love Songs’ though.” Why did he feel so intensely about the nurses? He didn’t mention his mother in the telegram, but he must have been thinking of Mary McCartney’s life and death. So he snapped, even though it was off-message. (He was busy that week doing interviews for the twentieth anniversary of “Love Me Do”—the moment called for Cozy Lovable Paul, not Angry Paul.) He didn’t boast about it later, though fans today would be impressed that any English rock star of that generation—let alone Paul—had the gumption to send this. You can make a case that it was a braver, riskier, and more politically relevant move than John sending his MBE medal back to the Queen in 1970. Still, John’s gesture went down in history and Paul’s didn’t, though his fans would probably admire the move if they knew about it. He couldn’t win. He was Paul. All he could do was piss people off.”

— Rob Sheffield, Dreaming the Beatles. (2017)

Thanks lovely. I suppose these comments are striking a nerve as anonymous asks are already complaining about these comments. Shrugs. It’s a shame that people can’t critically examine these topics but given how much more popular Paul is on tumblr than John, it’s not surprising. I’ll still look forward to seeing Get Back at the end of the month and having John back in the flesh for even a little bit of time.

“Some of those who eulogised Lennon seemingly could not do so without denigrating McCartney, Harrison and Starr or devaluing their contributions to the Beatles. “He [Lennon] stood for a mixture of tough minded realism… wit and intellect. Paul on the other hand was a pretty boy.” The most famous example of this came from the Village Voice’s Christgau, one of America’s most powerful rock critics. In a piece shortly following Lennon’s death, Christgau referred to the three remaining Beatles as “hacks” and blamed their refusal to accept Ono into the band for the breakup. He also repeated a number of misconceptions about Lennon that, while widely accepted, were untrue. This included praising Lennon, the only middle-class born Beatle, as a “working-class” hero and declaring that Lennon had always been the only artistic, avant-garde Beatle because “the others just didn’t have the stuff.” His obituary of Lennon stated that the wrong Beatle had been killed. “Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon? Why isn’t it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney?”

Erin Torkelson Weber, The Beatles and the Historians