Propheticstar - For A Prophesy

"While he ate, McCartney talked about his life as a Beatle and his relationship with John Lennon. He mentioned that ‘If I Fell’ was perhaps his favorite song by Lennon." -New Yorker: When I’m Sixty-Four (2007)

This is very interesting because he has never mentioned this song in interviews whenever he is asked about his favorite Lennon song. He always says Across the Universe, Beautiful Boy, Julia or Strawberry Fields.

What did Mimi think of Paul?

This is from an interview in 1970

How did you view the troubles the Beatles have been going through these last few years?

I don’t know all this business between John and Paul is about and I don’t dare ask John. I did ring Paul about it, and he told me things would straighten up. The boys have been friends so long. I remember them coming home from school together on their bikes, begging biscuits. I’m sure they’ll get back together soon. This is just a phase they’re passing through.

 What do you think changed John so much from his early days as a carefree kid?

She’s responsible for all this, Yoko. She changed him, and I’m sure she and Linda are behind the split between John and Paul.

—–

In the book “Paul McCartney: the biography” there’s a page in which Mimi talks about the first time she saw Paul:

“John was insecure, and when he saw Paul he wanted to look cool. He was suddenly hooked. He gave up all his friends for Paul. Aunt Mimi recalled that John jumped around the kitchen when he told her about his new friend. And when Paul arrived at John’s home for the first time, Mimi sarcastically said to John that they were like ‘chalk and cheese’ meaning how different they were. And John would start hurling himself around the room shouting ‘Chalk and Cheese! Chalk and cheese’ smiling and laughing. He was fucking in love with him, he adored him. She understood he found the partner of his life.“

I’m curious about something. Is there concrete evidence of John attempting to strike Linda? I’ve. seen it mentioned various places but I’m a little skeptical. If it’s true that seems like it would be very hard for Paul to forgive. Your thoughts? Thanks.

Hiya @missu4everjohnny,

So for anyone reading this post who might not already be familiar with the story in question, Ill give you some brief business context: 

The company Northern Songs was set up in 1963 by Dick James and Charles Silver, in order to publish Lennon/McCartney songs.

February 1965 it became a public company on the London Stock Exchange.

John and Paul each have 750,000 shares (15% each), while George and Ringo have 40,000 (0.8 %) each. During his divorce, John sold over 100,000 of his shares in order to set up a trust fund for Julian. Paul on the other hand bought 1000 shares (or 0.02% of the company). 

By January 1969, Dick James had a growing concern about John Lennon’s recent behaviours, and the negative consequences they may have for the Northern Songs company in terms of stock value.

March 1969, Dick James and Charles Silver sell their shares in Northern Songs to ATV for £1,525,000, giving John and Paul no notice or the chance to buy them out. That way, ATV acquired 1,604,750 shares, which, in addition to the 137,000 they already had, gave them nearly 35% of the company.

John and Paul, who were both away on their honeymoons as they received the news about Northern Songs, felt betrayed and upset by James’s choice to sell his shares. 

In April 1969, John found out that he had 644,000 shares (£1.25m), while Paul had 751,000 shares (£1.4m). John was furious with Paul. 

@thecoleopterawithana did a particularly good breakdown on this whole saga, touching on both the business logistics and the emotional responses within it from John and Paul. So massive credit due to them for explaining the Northern Songs situation in a way that My-Little-Pea-Brain can actually understand, and do go give their post a read for a far more comprehensive understanding of all this!

But onto Johns reaction and whether he did in fact attempt to physically assault Linda McCartney. 

Ken McNab writes in his book And In The End: the last days of the Beatles:

Various accounts over the years have suggested the two men almost came to blows. One unverified report has the volatile Lennon shaking his fist at Linda McCartney with Klein holding him back. Sheepishly, McCartney tried to defend his underhand actions: ‘I had some beanies and I wanted more.’ (pg. 101)

And Peter Doggett wrote in You Never Give Me Your Money: 

Then Klein informed Lennon that McCartney had secretly been increasing his stake in Northern Songs. ‘John flew into a rage,’ recalled Apple executive Peter Brown. ‘At one point I thought he was really going to hit Paul, but he managed to calm himself down.’ One unconfirmed report of this meeting had Lennon leaping towards Linda McCartney, his fists raised in her face. (pg. 79)

These are the only two texts I could find specifying the report that John had made an attempt at physically assaulting Linda. Unfortunately, neither writer cites a source for the unconfirmed report, and Ive been unable to locate the claims origins—so I cant tell you how reliable its author is. 

To the extent of my knowledge, no one else present during the occurrence has spoken about the alleged incident either—however, Peter Brown makes note that he believes John came close to physically attacking Paul, although in his original text The Love You Make he doesn't write anything on this:

“You bastard!” John spit. “You’ve been buying up shares behind our backs!”

Paul blushed and shrugged limply. “Oops, sorry!” he smiled. 

“This is fuckin’ low!” John said. “This is the first time any of us have gone behind each other’s backs.”

Paul shrugged again. “I felt like I had some beanies and I wanted some more,” he said. (pg. 305)

So what is the likelihood of this being true, and what do I personally believe?

Honestly, I don’t know. I see it as plausible being that John has a history of physical violence, which Ive written about in more depth here. Im aware that he made conscious-efforts to change his behaviours over the years, and claimed in his 1971 interview with Peter McCabe and Robert Schonfield to have given up violence following the Bob Wooler incident in 1963—but we know from May Pang that there were still occasional incidents of physical violence. During a moment of stress, I could imagine he might have returned to old habits (and please note as well that ‘stress’ would not be a justification of this action in any way) and tried to attack Linda.

If John did make an attempt to physically attack Linda, my guess as to why Paul have been able to forgive (and seemingly forget) about the incident, is because it would have remained a hypothetical. It never really happened, so I feel like it would have been relatively easy for him to brush it off, because there were no actual consequences (or at least, no physical harm towards Linda caused). 

However, I can also see that theres reasons not to believe the story. Both McNab and Doggett write of an ‘unconfirmed’ or ‘unverified’ report, meaning we have no idea who made this claim. As far as we know, the original claimant might not have even been in the room; it could be complete bollocks. 

And although I wouldn’t really be surprised if Paul and even the Eastmans had chosen not to make a big deal out of the incident, Id be surprised if no one else present mentioned it—especially Peter Brown, given that he thought John came close to attacking Paul. 

However, to counter that last point, another theory I have is that if Paul had been standing close to Linda at the time, perhaps it wouldn’t have been clear based on Johns erratic behaviour who he was aiming for—so while some people might have believed John was attempting to attack Linda, others might have thought he was aiming for Paul.

So in short—and I apologise about the very dissatisfactory response—my opinion on this really is just an ‘I Don’t Know’ one. It could go either way imo. It would be easier to discern an answer I think if we had access to the original report, but as far as Im aware, that hasn’t been released. 

Sources:  

Northern Songs breakdown (x) — @thecoleopterawithana

Dick James sells his Northern Songs shares to ATV (x)

The Beatles and ATV fight for the control of Northern Songs (x)

You Never Give Me Your Money — Peter Doggett

And In The End: the last days of The Beatles — Ken McNab

The Making Of John Lennon — Frances Kenny

The Love You Make: an insiders story of The Beatles — Peter Brown & Steve Gaines

For The Record — Peter McCabe & Robert Schonfield

it'll pass

January 26th, 1969: Paul arrives at the studio accompanied by Linda and Heather just as George and Ringo are working out the melody for ‘Octopus’s Garden’ on the piano. John, who has been playing around on drums, chimes in none too discreetly with a question he’s been eager to ask Paul.

JOHN: Hey! Did you dream about me last night? PAUL: [long pause] I can’t remember. JOHN: Very strong dream. We both dreamt about it. It was amazing! Different dreams, you know, but I thought you must’ve been there. [inaudible] I was touching you. [inaudible] PAUL: Nothing to worry about, though? JOHN: Nothing to worry about, no.

That feeling when the married couple next to you starts squabbling

‘The Big Beat Craze’, Daily Mirror, 10th September 1963

"This blurring of sexual lines was part of the creative mix of the culture, but it also had its dark side. The homoerotic subculture had as a nasty by-product a virulent strain of misogyny. .. the [redlands] trial and acquittal bonded Mick and Keith--but it created a very odd dynamic. For Keith it was just an alliance within the group, but for mick it was a lot more than that. It has all the irrationally and passion of a love affair. Lennon and McCartney had a similar bond between them".----Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithful with Paul

Now and Then

1977

Now and Then: I know it's true / It's all because of you

And if I make it through / It's all because of you / And now and then / If we must start again / Well, we will know for sure / That I love you

I don't wanna lose you, oh no / Abuse you or confuse you / Oh no, no, sweet darlin' / But if you have to go away / If you have to go, well you the reason [?]

Now and then / I miss you / Oh, now and then / I want you to return to me / 'Til you return to me / I know it's true / It's all because of you / And if you go away / I know you could never stay

.

1978

Love Awake: Love awake to the day / When we can make our love awake / Lord knows we need it any time we can get it / But we forget it every now and then / But if you don't feel it, later on, you'll regret it / And if we let it we could set it free, you and me

.

1981

My Old Friend: If I told you how I feel / Oh, it wouldn’t sound so real / ‘Cause emotions, they are just now settin’ in / But it sure is great to know / That wherever we may go / We can always be the best of friends

My old friend, / Thanks for inviting me in / My old friend, / May this goodbye never mean the end / If we never meet again this side of life / In a little while, over yonder, / Where it’s peace and quiet / My old friend, / Won’t you think about me every now and then

.

Well, it was something that I’ll never live long enough to forget. It happened in February of 1981 and as the world all knows, and never will forget, in December of 1980 when John Lennon was taken away from us, and so this was the following year, in February. I wrote the song about and for Paul McCartney. I did it because he was so kind to invite me down to this beautiful island of Montserrat with Stevie Wonder. Ringo was there, just had a wonderful time. I flew down by myself. Paul and Linda met me with a jeep on the (center) airfield with a little single engine plane and took me across the mountains we were like kids again, and it was a wonderful time, and I wanted to do… I didn’t want to cry when I left after staying down there, and I’m a big crybaby! If something moves me, I’ll just choke up… I talk about it. I thought that would happen, so the night before, I just wrote how I felt on the isle of Montserrat on every shell, forget a country boy with a guitar and a song you invited me, and you treated me like kin, and you’ve given me a reason to go on. So my old friend, think about me every now and then. I sang it for Paul, at about 10:00 the next morning. I was scheduled to leave flying again in the little single engine aircraft to the island of Antigua where I was flying commercial back to Atlanta and on to Nashville and back to Jackson, where I live here. I sang it, he said “Carl, it’s beautiful… would you sing it again?” and I said. “Sure, man.” He said “wait just a minute,” and he got Linda in there, and they sat on the floor, I sat on his old Fender twin reverb amplifier, with a guitar, I did however notice a microphone over there. I didn’t pay that much attention to it, but George Martin recorded it and after I finished singing the song to Paul, he was crying, tears were rolling down his pretty cheeks, and they’re pretty to me just like they are to the rest of the world. I think he’s a very handsome boy and always did. He’s even handsomer when he’s crying. And Linda said, “Carl, thank you so much.” I said, “Linda, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you cry.” She said, “But he’s crying and he needed to. He hasn’t been able to really break down since that happened to John.” I mean he stepped outside of the room, out by the pool, and he just had his handkerchief out, and he was going at it. And she put her arm around me and said, “But how did you know?” I said, “Know what, Linda? I don’t know what you’re talking about?” She said “There’s two people in the world that know what John Lennon said to Paul, the last thing he said to him. Me and Paul are the only two that know that, but now there’s three and one of you… you know it. I said, “Girl, you’re freaking me out! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” She said the last words that John Lennon said to Paul in the hallway of the Dakota building were… he patted him on the shoulder, and said, ‘Think about me every now and then, old friend.’ Q: That’s just amazing… And she said, here you are, that’s what you just sang, and how did you know? And I said I didn’t know it, gosh, I didn’t know it. But McCartney really feels that Lennon sent me that song, he really does.

— Carl Perkins, interviewed for Goldmine (September 26, 1986).

.

1994

Paul had gone to Yoko to ask if she had any of John’s songs kicking around. The deal was that Paul would induct John into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in return. Yoko’s a generous person in that respect, so she actually gave him three songs – 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love' were worked up and released, the last one wasn’t.

— Source close to the Anthology project, quoted in the Sunday Express (April 29, 2007).

.

1995

It was one day – one afternoon, really – messing with it. The song had a chorus but is almost totally lacking in verses. We did the backing track, a rough go that we really didn’t finish. It was sort of a bluesy sort of ballad, I suppose, in A minor. It was a very sweet song. I liked it a lot. Should it ever be completed it would probably end up as either ‘Now And Then’ or ‘Miss You’. I wished we could have finished it.

— Jeff Lynne, quoted in the Sunday Express (April 29, 2007).

It didn’t have a very good title, it needed a bit of reworking, but it had a beautiful verse and it had John singing it. [But] George didn’t like it. The Beatles being a democracy, we didn’t do it.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed for Q Magazine (November 2006).

.

2007

There are a couple of things which may surface at some point. You see, with the Beatles, there’s always a surprise somewhere along the line. We did ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, those two songs of John’s, and that was very exciting, very moving for me and very comfortable having his voice in my headphones in the studio again. And there was a third track, another song we had our eyes on called ‘Now And Then’. l actually wanted to do it on Anthology 3, but we didn’t all agree. But things change and the thing is that it might not go away. There was only one of us who didn’t want to do it. lt would have meant a lot of hard work, the song would have needed a lot of re-writing and people would have had to be very patient with us. But there are these one or two things lurking in the bushes. The Beatles might just raise their ugly little heads again…

— Paul McCartney, quoted in the Sunday Express (April 29, 2007).

.

2012

And there was another one we started working on, but George went off it. We were like, ‘No George, this is John’. He said, ‘It’s still rubbish’. ‘Ok, then’. So that one is still lingering around. I’m gonna nick it with Jeff and do it. Finish it, one of these days.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed for the “Mr Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne & ELO” documentary (2012).

.

2018

Get Enough: It was a time when we walked by the docks / I told you, "I need you all of my life" / And watching the tugs rolling by together / Do you remember? / Do you remember the lights on the shore? / How they reflected the rain on the road? / I believed that you love me alone / It was real / Do you remember? / Now and then I see your face / I've been wanting a lovin’ embrace / I've been looking for love, but it gets me nowhere / Oh, yeah, yeah

Get enough, get enough, get enough of (Your love) (x2) / I can't get enough of / Of you

It was a time we were all full of hope / Saw the future burning bright / As we watched the moon rollin’ out to sea / Do you remember? / But those days are erased from my mind / Yeah, I've left all those old days behind / But still I remember your face forever, forever

.

If I'm going to see a face in a painting, it's highly likely to be his.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed by Diane Sawyer for ABC News (November 2, 2000).

.

2022

And then 'Now and Then’ just kind of languished in a cupboard and we didn’t do anything with it. I kept saying, “You know, maybe we should do something with this, seems a bit—” “Hm, I don’t know…” There wasn’t a great desire to do anything with it. So it hung around for a while. Years! And every so often, I’d kind of go to the cupboard and think, “There’s a new song in there! We should do it! We gotta do it!” But it’d go back in the cupboard.

— Paul McCartney, in BBC Sounds Eras: The Beatles (November 2, 2023).

I got a phone call from Paul saying, “Is it possible to use that [MAL] technology for another project I’ve been thinking about? […] Would it be possible to take John’s vocal and clean it up and get rid of everything else? Because that would allow us to finish this Beatles song.” And absolutely, it didn’t take me more than about a second to get back to him and say, “Of course we can do it!”

— Peter Jackson, in BBC Sounds Eras: The Beatles (November 2, 2023).

.

2023

Now and Then: I know it’s true / It’s all because of you / And if I make it through / It’s all because of you

And now and then / If we must start again / Well we will know for sure / That I will love you

Now and then / I miss you / Oh now and then / I want you to be there for me / Always to return to me

I know it’s true / It’s all because of you / And if you go away / I know you’ll never stay

Now and then / I miss you / Oh now and then / I want you to be there for me

I know it’s true / It’s all because of you / And if I make it through / It’s all because of you

.

I do feel as though ‘Now and Then’ is a love letter to Paul written by John. I mean, I've never really asked Paul about it, and I'm not sure whether Paul would say, ‘Oh, that's definitely it,' because he wouldn't want to second guess John. But that's the sense I get. And I get the feeling that's why Paul was so determined to finish it.

— Giles Martin, interviewed for PEOPLE magazine (October 26, 2023).

When you say you enjoy 'Now and Then', that’s really nice, because that’s why we do it. We do it so people can listen to stuff and not just hear it. 'Now and Then' sounds like a love song. It sounds like a song that John wrote for Paul, and the other Beatles: “I miss you/ Now and then.” It sounds like Paul has gone there, which I think he did. You know, no one told Paul to go and do it, and Paul didn’t go, This would be a great exercise for the Red and Blue Album. He was at home in the studio. He dug on the record and started working on it, because it’s his mate. And he really misses John. I mean, that’s the truth. They broke up, and John died nine years later. It really isn’t very long.

— Giles Martin, interviewed for GRAMMYS (October 26, 2023).

.

When I remember the Beatles, I remember the joy, the talent, the humor, the love. And I think, if people remembered us for that — for those things — I’d be very happy.

— Paul McCartney, in BBC Sounds Eras: The Beatles (November 2, 2023).

Brian Epstein watches The Beatles performing at the Washington Coliseum, 11th February 1964