Simply John Lennon Signing A Postcard He Sent To Derek Taylor With An MCLENNON

why aren't you posting more song analysis?

Thanks for the message anon!

I hesitate a lot when stating my views due to it being part of the minority on tumblr. (I'm one of those who believe J+P had an explicit love affair), to interpret their songs, I view it from that standpoint....

English is my third language and it takes a bit of work because if you interpret one song, it is usually interconnected with other songs.

Can't Buy Me Love and I Feel Fine as an example. I've always wondered why John was staring at Paul in the beginning of the "I Feel Fine" music video "Baby's good to me, you know", then it kinda clicked, that he might be replying to Paul's song (oh, there she goes, reaching):

In "Can't Buy Me Love" Paul wrote:

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend If it makes you feel alright I'll get you anything my friend If it makes you feel alright

(very friend coded indeed and then, the question "if it makes you feel alright?" John answers with his song "I Feel Fine".)

In "I Feel Fine" John wrote:

She's so glad, she's telling all the world That her baby buys her things, you know He buys her diamond rings, you know

(John is telling the story in 3rd person "that she's being treated right", the boys were harmonizing on the "I'm in love with her and I feel fine" which is the lover's answer to the girl's claim).

I FIND JOHN AND PAUL ADORABLE ANSWERING EACH OTHER LIKE THIS

I wish I could share more of my views. But I'm scared to be labelled delusional as it is and be asked for receipts to claims I am not ready to show yet....

You could almost be forgiven for thinking “Good Night” was mine, because it’s so soft and melodic and so un-John. I believe John wrote this as a lullaby for Julian, and it was a very beautiful song that Ringo ended up singing to the accompaniment of a big string orchestra. I think John felt it might not be good for his image for him to sing it but it was fabulous to hear him do it, he sang it great. We heard him sing it in order to teach it to Ringo and he sang it very tenderly. John rarely showed his tender side, but my key memories of John are when he was tender, that’s what has remained with me; those moments where he showed himself to be a very generous, loving person. I always cite that song as an example of the John beneath the surface that we only saw occasionally. I think that was what made us love John, otherwise he could be unbearable and he could be quite cruel. Now that I’m older, I realize that his hostility was a cover-up for the vulnerability that he felt, and if you look at his family history it’s easy to see why. But this is an example of that tender side.

Paul McCartney, Many Years from Now

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

These pictures together are really good!

Reading about Paul’s time at the Liverpool Institute and wondering why we don’t talk about Paul’s close friend from the ‘Inny’ Ian James more often. Especially considering Ian has provided quotes like:

“What brought us together as soulmates was our love of music.”

And:

“Paul and I would walk to my home from school and sit in the back yard where I taught him his first chords, before he bought his own guitar, and I’d change the strings around so he could practice. I still have the guitar although it’s barely playable now.”

And:

“Immediately following the Skiffle craze, Rock ‘n’ Roll arrived and we couldn’t get enough of it. We’d go to all the travelling fairs where they played it non-stop and where we wore our infamous matching white jackets (with sparkles in the material) and drainies [fancied being the British Everly Brothers].

And:

“Paul and I would visit all the record shops in Liverpool and know all the female staff by name. They would play us all the R ‘n’ R and R & B records that had just been released. I remember the record shop where I bought my first rock record—the double-sider Don’t Be Cruel/Hound Dog. Paul was with me at the time and he was with me when I bought Lend Me Your Comb by Carl Perkins which I’ve probably still got in the original 78 rpm.

Which decades later resulted in:

“On the last visit to his office I walked up the last flight of stairs and just as I turned the corner into his office I heard the strains of Hound Dog blasting from the juke box he keeps in one corner. A nice thought from an old pal.”

Plus:

Picture of Paul strumming Ian’s guitar in his office at MPL in London. Note the vintage photo of Ian propped up on the guitar – the same photo seen above.

The Beatles - “Day Tripper” (1965)

so nobody’s gonna talk about how when john and yoko had an explosive fight in the early 70s about if he was still allowed to act like a beatle sometimes or not (john arguing that he had to, especially if he wanted to play with the others!! and yoko arguing that it wasn’t artistic enough) and it was so emotional that he crushed his glasses and then chose to run away and where did he run to?? PARIS FRANCE!!!!! john lennon missed being a beatle and wanted to play with his beatles again, was even looking forward to playing with paul, and yoko wouldn’t let him, so he went to paris. PARIS. in this essay i will

When the Beatles were told to help decorate the Casbah Club, owned by Mona Best (Pete Best’s mother), John Lennon — as he finished painting the room he was assigned to paint [the Aztec Room] — decided to carve his name into the wall as a way to sign his “work of art”. He was caught by Mrs. Best, however, and received a whack on the back of his head as a punishment; but nobody covered it up and it’s still there to this day.

Some time later, when the Casbah was expanding itself, the Beatles were again asked to help with the painting of a new room [the Spider Room]. John decided to carve his name once again into the ceiling, adding a sarcastic little “I’m back” to his signature this time

“Whatever happened to the life that we once knew? Can we really live without each other?”