Lennon Mccartney Quotes

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Everybody seems to think I'm lazy I don't mind, I think they're crazy. Running everywhere at such a speed Till they find there's no need.
John Lennon
An interview: Interviewer: How do you sleep with long hair? Paul McCartney: How do you sleep with short hair? George Harrison: How do you sleep with your arms and legs still attached? Paul: It's just as much bother. Less, even. John Lennon: Short hair has to be trimmed. Ringo Starr: Yeah. John: That's why we have parties! Paul: Yeah, that must be it! We can't sleep with all this long hair!
The Beatles
Love is all you need" - The Beatles - "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love, you make" - The Beatles -
The Beatles (Beatles Stereo Box Set)
All you need is love...love is all you need.
The Beatles (The Beatles Lyrics: The Songs of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr)
What are we calling that, exactly?” I ask. Arthur ponders this for a moment. “Hmm. How about … Haphazard Medley Inspired By Radio on the Drive Over, Messrs. McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr, The Most Hideous Preteen Holiday Monstrosity Ever Inflicted Upon The Ears Of Longsuffering Parents, The Smiths Because I Know You Like Them, And A Great Deal Of Nonsense Made Up Spur Of The Moment, All For The Beautiful Boy Who Is Sitting Next To Me, Because Somehow, Amidst The Recent Chaos, Dissatisfaction, And Mediocrity Of My Existence, Lord Knows How, I Seem To Have Done Something Very Right.” Oh, this guy. “You’re never going to fit that on any album sleeves,” I say, leaning in to rest my forehead against his. “Just the beautiful boy part, then,” he compromises, starting to smile.
Hannah Johnson (Know Not Why (Know Not Why, #1))
We stood there for a minute or two, with John swaying gently against my arm. 'I'm feeling better,' he announced. Then he looked up at the stars. 'Wow..' he intoned. 'Look at that! Isn't that amazing?". I followed his gaze. The stars did look good but they didn't look that good. It was very unlike John to be over the top in that way. I stared at him. He was wired-pin-sharp and quivering, resonating away like a human tuning fork. No sooner had John uttered his immortal words about the stars than George and Paul came bursting out on the roof. They had come tearing up from the studio as soon as they found out where we were. They knew why John was feeling unwell. Maybe everyone else did, too - everyone except for father-figure George Martin here! It was very simple. John was tripping on LSD. He had taken it by mistake, they said - he had meant to take an amphetamine tablet. That hardly made any difference, frankly; the fact was that John was only too likely to imagine he could fly, and launch himself off the low parapet that ran around the roof. They had been absolutely terrified that he might do so. I spoke to Paul about this night many years later, and he confirmed that he and George had been shaken rigid when they found out we were up on the roof. They knew John was having a what you might call a bad trip. John didn't go back to Weybridge that night; Paul took him home to his place, in nearby Cavendish Road. They were intensely close, remember, and Paul would do almost anything for John. So, once they were safe inside, Paul took a tablet of LSD for the first time, 'So I could get with John' as he put it- be with him in his misery and fear. What about that for friendship?
George Martin (With A Little Help From My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper)
It's like John Lennon writing with... Taylor Swift instead of Paul McCartney.
Rainbow Rowell (Fangirl)
Dylan's friend Linus Millberg appears out of the crowd with a cup of beer and shouts, 'Dorothy is John Lennon, the Scarecrow is Paul McCartney, the Tin Woodman is George Harrison, the Lion's Ringo.' 'Star Trek,' commands Dylan over the lousy twangy country CB's is playing between sets. 'Easy,' Linus shouts back. "Kirk's John, Spock's Paul, Bones is George, Scotty is Ringo. Or Chekov, after the first season. Doesn't matter, it's like a Scotty-Chekov-combination Ringo. Spare parts are always surplus Georges or Ringos.' 'But isn't Spock-lacks-a-heart and McCoy-lacks-a-brain like Woodman and Scarecrow? So Dorothy's Kirk?' 'You don't get it. That's just a superficial coincidence. The Beatle thing is an archetype, it's like the basic human formation. Everything naturally forms into a Beatles, people can't help it.' 'Say the types again.' 'Responsible-parent genius-parent genius-child clown-child.' 'Okay, do Star Wars.' 'Luke Paul, Han Solo John, Chewbacca George, the robots Ringo.' 'Tonight Show.' 'Uh, Johnny Carson Paul, the guest John, Ed McMahon Ringo, whatisname George.' 'Doc Severinson.' 'Yeah, right. See, everything revolves around John, even Paul. That's why John's the guest.' 'And Severinson's quiet but talented, like a Wookie.' 'You begin to understand.
Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude)
remembered that, in his autobiography, Og had complained about Halliday’s sexist behavior toward Kira more than once. He wrote that Halliday always seemed to try to downplay Kira’s creative contribution to their games. Og once told an interviewer, “Jim always jokingly referred to Kira as Yoko, which infuriated me, because if we were Lennon and McCartney, then Kira was our George Harrison. She didn’t break up the Beatles. She was one of the Beatles! And without her help, we never would have had a single hit.
Ernest Cline (Ready Player Two (Ready Player One #2))
Don’t surround yourself with "yes" men and women. Stay close to people who aren’t afraid to tell you when you are wrong. “You need people around you that you can trust to say "that’s a shit idea," Hegarty says. “Every McCartney needs a Lennon.
World-famous advertising creative Sir John Hegarty on how to be and stay creative.
The history of popular music is littered with great partnerships. Rodgers had his Hammerstein, Lennon had his McCartney, and Lloyd Webber had… his photocopier…
Humphrey Lyttelton
All you need is love.
Lennon and McCartney
When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
John Lennon
It is the sound of the crowd that can be heard in the second, crescendoing rush of the orchestra that follows the final verse, rising from a hum to a gasp to a shout... fusing at last to a shriek (its similarity to the sound of the crowds at Beatle concerts is surely no accident). The onrushing sound of the orchestra at the end of "A Day in the Life" has transcended more than the conventions of Sgt. Pepper's Band. It is the nightmare resolution of the Beatles' show within a show. It is the sound in the eras of the high-wire artist as the ground rushes up from below. There is a blinding flash of silence, then the stunning impact of a tremendous E major piano chord that hangs in the air for a small eternity, slowly fading away, a forty-second meditation on finality that leaves each member if the audience listening with a new kind of attention and awareness to the sound of nothing at all.
Jonathan Gould (Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America)
Harrison’s visit to Dylan’s Woodstock sessions and his invitation to Eric Clapton to solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” convinced him that an outsider could revive stalled sessions. Dylan and the Band treated Harrison as an equal, while in his own band, Lennon and McCartney persistently patronized his material, even as it began to peak. (Lennon, in fact, sat out most of Harrison’s Beatle recordings from here on out.) Taking in an ally could only ease Harrison’s reentry into the contentious Beatle orbit. Along with lobbying for Ringo Starr to replace Pete Best, bringing Preston into the Get Back project stands as a defining move for Harrison: he single-handedly rescued Let It Be, and pushed his material throughout 1969, until Abbey Road featured his best work yet.
Tim Riley (Lennon)
Orpheus was the Mozart of the ancient world. He was more than that. Orpheus was the Cole Porter, the Shakespeare, the Lennon and McCartney, the Adele, Prince, Luciano Pavarotti, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar of the ancient world, the acknowledged sweet-singing master of words and music.
Stephen Fry (Heroes: Mortals and Monsters, Quests and Adventures (Stephen Fry's Great Mythology, #2))
There was a Ringo album coming down the pike, and a reunion, at least by the three of them (Harrison, Lennon, and Starr), that was all planned out. That was going to be Lennon’s next move after the world tour,” Douglas continues. “He talked fondly about McCartney every night, and he always wanted to redo certain Beatles songs, but he really spoke more like he really loved those guys. The only person that he was pissed at was George, because George put out this memoir [I Me Mine] and John was really, really pissed about that. I remember him saying, ‘How do you write about your life and not talk about the guy whose band you were in?
Tim Riley (Lennon)
Depending on how you looked at it, Darren was our Mick Jagger (designated swaggering extrovert) to Simon's Keith Richards (quietly virtuosic, blatantly self-destructive). Or else Darren had been Paul McCartney (chirpily commercial) and Simon had been John Lennon (moody, introspective, possessed of quasi-mystical insights).
Austin Grossman (You)
I hate this Christmas song,” Lyle said at last, turning off the radio. “You don’t like John Lennon?” Peg asked, trying to stifle a small laugh. “It’s just that, only John Lennon could write a Christmas song that made you feel like a fool for ever liking Christmas at all. Paul McCartney would never do that. Or George or Ringo, for that matter.
Nickolas Butler (Little Faith)
Harrison brought along a copy of a new record he was obsessed with, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. On only his second album, Dylan turned in an all-original breakout with meteors like “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Lennon and McCartney sponged it up as only two songwriters could while they hammered out sound-track songs for their movie, which would begin filming in March.
Tim Riley (Lennon)
Originally, Abe explained, the record companies had put the “hit” on the A-side and the lesser track on the B-side. At some point, the record companies started calling 45s double A-sides so that there’d be less conflict in bands. According to Abe, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had been at each other’s throats over which of their songs would be called the A-side. McCartney’s “Hello Goodbye” (A) versus Lennon’s “I Am the Walrus” (B), for example.
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow)
Ono had already met Paul McCartney. During an early gambit to secure rock-star patronage, she knocked on his Cavendish Avenue front door and asked him if he’d contribute an original manuscript to celebrate Cage’s birthday. Ono’s strategy combined two purposes: to flatter McCartney with her artistic credentials and introduce herself to a wealthy rocker who might invest in her work. McCartney declined but did refer Ono to his partner, Lennon, as “the artist in the group.”26
Tim Riley (Lennon)
Then Lennon meanders off into catty talk about Dylan’s new single, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” accusing him of wanting to be a waiter for Christ. Lennon eviscerates Jerry Wexler’s whole Slow Train Coming production that the single conjures: Dylan’s singing is pathetic, he says, the lyrics embarrassing. Surveying the 1979 rock scene, Lennon remarks how the Mighty Dylan, McCartney, and Jagger seem to be sliding down a mountain, blood with mud in their nails. This leads to a reflection on how competitive he used to feel with fellow rock stars, and how silly it all seems from his new vantage. Even a couple of years back he remembers the anxious panic such competition induced. Now there doesn’t seem to be much use to listen to their albums. He still sends out for them, but they all sound pointless.
Tim Riley (Lennon)
The four solo careers unveiled previously hidden internal politics as each man packed and moved out from the cozy Beatle mansion. Lennon seemed closest to Ringo, and then George; neither Harrison nor Lennon ever appeared on a McCartney solo album or vice-versa, whereas Ringo played for all three. Of course, Lennon’s solo “career” had begun as early as 1968 with numbers like “What’s the New Mary Jane” and “Revolution 9” during the White Album sessions, and then his avant-garde projects with Ono. Casual jams reflected these affinities as well: John and Yoko appeared onstage with George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and the Bonnie and Delaney band in London in December of 1969. Harrison was slumming with the band after sitting in for a night and having rather too much fun; he appeared onstage anonymously until it got reported in the music press. Mostly they got away with two weeks of touring, with Clapton and Harrison sharing lead guitars almost before most audiences figured this out.
Tim Riley (Lennon)
Think about it, Tilda,’ he says, throwing his arms in the air. ‘All that stuff, that madness, that heartbreak. It’s all about love. It makes you crazy and you can end up acting like an idiot. Oh yes, love might be “a many splendoured thing”, but it’s also a right royal pain in the arse!’ I’m stunned, and Eli has tipped his head to one side in apparent confusion, but Daniel is warming to his subject now and adds striding about to his arm-waving. ‘Look – Gracie loved you and she loved Stevie. But she loved too hard, and it drove her crazy because she didn’t love herself and so she didn’t think that anyone else could. She gave up everything for love but didn’t feel loved in return. And yes, she was ill and thought God had disowned her, which probably didn’t help, but in the end it was all about love.’ Even in my slightly befuddled state Daniel’s words strike home. Sometimes a simple truth is like a hammer blow. Daniel sits down again and checks his mug for tea. It’s empty. ‘And at this point, I’d also like to take issue with Lennon and McCartney for propagating the ridiculous notion that all we need is love. I can think of at least five more things just off the top of my head, and given more time for proper consideration I’d probably come up with a few more.’ He looks sorrowfully into his empty mug. ‘And one of them is definitely tea.’ I get up and put the kettle on.
Ruth Hogan (Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel)
Subject of Thought Number of Times Thought Occurred per Year (in descending order) L. 580.0 Family 400.0 Brushing tongue 150.0 Earplugs 100.0 Bill-paying 52.0 Panasonic three-wheeled vacuum cleaner, greatness of 45.0 Sunlight makes you cheerful 40.0 Traffic frustration 38.0 Penguin books, all 35.0 Job, should I quit? 34.0 Friends, don't have any 33.0 Marriage, a possibility? 32.0 Vending machines 31.0 Straws don't unsheath well 28.0 Shine on moving objects 25.0 McCartney more talented than Lennon? 23.0 Friends smarter, more capable than I am 19.0 Paper-towel dispensers 19.0 "What oft was thought, but ne'er" etc. 18.0 People are very dissimilar 16.0 Trees, beauty of 15.0 Sidewalks 15.0 Friends are unworthy of me 15.0 Indentical twins separated at birth, studies of traits 14.0 Intelligence, going fast 14.0 Wheelchair ramps, their insane danger 14.0 Urge to kill 13.0 Escalator invention 12.0 People are very similar 12.0 "Not in my backyard" 11.0 Straws float now 10.0 DJ, would I be happy as one? 9.0 "If you can't get out of it, get into it" 9.0 Pen, felt-tip 9.0 Gasoline, nice smell of 8.0 Pen, ballpoint 8.0 Stereo systems 8.0 Fear of getting mugged again 7.0 Staplers 7.0 "Roaches check in, but they don't check out" 6.0 Dinner roll, image of 6.0 Shoes 6.0 Bags 5.0 Butz, Earl 4.0 Sweeping, brooms 4.0 Whistling, yodel trick 4.0 "You can taste it with your eyes" 4.0 Dry-cleaning fluid, smell of 3.0 Zip-lock tops 2.0 Popcorn 1.0 Birds regurgitate food and feed young with it 0.5 Kant, Immanuel 0.5
Nicholson Baker (The Mezzanine)
What do you listen to?” “I don’t know. Lots of stuff. I’ve been on a big Beatles kick lately.” By “lately” Ig meant the last seven years. “You like them?” “Don’t really know them. What are they like?” The notion that anyone in the world might not know the Beatles staggered Ig. He said, “You know…like, the Beatles. John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Anonymous
Always write for a person, not a crowd. Because as Lennon and McCartney demonstrated nearly 50 years ago, however big your audience is, you’re only ever playing to one person.
Ian Harris (Hooked On You: The Genius Way to Make Anybody Read Anything)
Many of the great collaborations in history were between people who fully understood and internalized what the other was saying. The fathers of flight, Orville and Wilbur Wright; WWII leaders Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt; James Watson and Francis Crick, who codiscovered the structure of DNA; and John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles were all partners known for spending uninterrupted hours in conversation before they made their marks on history. Of course, they were all brilliant on their own, but it took a kind of mind meld to achieve what they did. This congruence happens to varying degrees between any two people who “click,” whether friends, lovers, business associates, or even between stand-up comedians and their audiences. When you listen and really “get” what another person is saying, your brain waves and those of the speaker are literally in sync.
Kate Murphy (You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters)
For Paul, the suit against Klein could not have been richer: Lennon and company were now arguing that their May 1969 contract with Klein—the contract they tried to strong-arm Paul into signing at Olympic Studios—should be considered invalid “because they did not understand the nature and effect of it.”13 They argued, too, that an amendment to that contract should be rendered invalid on the same grounds, plus misrepresentation, by Klein, of its meaning.
Allan Kozinn (The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73)
Tanto Lennon como McCartney tuvieron muchísima prensa por sus intentos de llevar el tema de Irlanda a las letras del roc&roll. Para mí todo eso es terriblemente irrelevante. Sin hacer aspavientos, Rory Gallagher ha hecho lo única que un rockero puede hacer por Belfast ¡y esto es ir y tocar en el maldito lugar!
Roy Hollingworth
I heard Paul’s messages in Ram,” Lennon fumed in an interview with Crawdaddy magazine. “Too many people going where? Missed our lucky what? What was our first mistake? Can’t be wrong? Huh. I mean Yoko, me, and other friends can’t all be hearing things.
Allan Kozinn (The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73)
Paul’s bass line and a wiry guitar solo from Denny finished Wings’ contributions to the track. Also polished off that day was ‘Let Me Roll It,’ which had in common with ‘Piano Thing’ a repeating instrumental riff—in this case, a bluesy, slightly distorted guitar figure—as its spine. Something like the figure that runs through Lennon’s ‘Cold Turkey,’ the ‘Let Me Roll It’ riff called for a distinctive atmosphere, which Paul and Emerick created by putting the guitar through a PA system rather than a guitar amp, giving it a bright, high-power sound.
Allan Kozinn (The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73)
Henry was right to observe that two players left Wings, and Paul hadn’t asked why. But Paul hadn’t asked why because he knew the answer. The dispute that led to McCullough’s departure mirrored fights he’d had with Harrison over what to play and how to play it, as well as Lennon’s complaint, in that painful Rolling Stone interview, about Paul treating them as sidemen. He was, once again, accused by his bandmates of being a control freak.
Allan Kozinn (The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73)
By the time I got to know Paul, he and John had formed a close partnership. They had agreed that any songs they wrote, together or separately, would be by Lennon and McCartney. It was as though, even then, they had a strong sense that their success depended on the connection between them.
Cynthia Lennon (John)
His letters weren’t always so reflective, but that one wasn’t unusual. He found it easier, in many ways, to say what he really meant in a letter and, as he had since the Hamburg days, he used them to tell me how he really felt. A few years later, when John and I had divorced, I sold this letter, along with several others John wrote. I was touched and delighted when, some years afterwards, the owner put it up for sale again and Paul McCartney bought it. He had it framed and presented it to me and Julian as a gift.
Cynthia Lennon (John)
Rather than tell a story in traditional Tin Pan Alley style, Lennon and McCartney wrote their lyrics to create a mood or a tone, so as not to get in the way of the effect created by the music and the sound.
Ian MacDonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties)
As fundamental as they are for anyone seeking to understand the Lennon-McCartney partnership, McCartney’s assertions don’t discredit Lennon’s claim that ‘one on one, eyeball to eyeball’ collaborations (or start-to-finish fifty-fifty co-compositions) effectively ceased after the first year or so of their Parlophone contract.
Ian MacDonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties)
The influence of the mid-to-late-Sixties English counterculture is clearer in The Beatles’ music than in that of any of their rivals. This arose from a conflux of links, beginning with their introduction by Brian Epstein to the film director Richard Lester, continuing with McCartney’s friendships with Miles and John Dunbar, and culminating in the meeting of Lennon and Yoko Ono. Through Lester and his associates - who included The Beatles’ comedy heroes Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers - the group’s consciousness around the time of Sgt. Pepper was permeated by the anarchic English fringe theatre, with its penchant for Empire burlesque (e.g., The Alberts, Ivor Cutler, Milligan and Antrobus’s The Bed Sitting Room). This atmosphere mingled with contemporary strains from English Pop Art and Beat poetry; the ‘happenings’ and experimental drama of The People Show, Peter Brook’s company, and Julian Beck’s Living Theatre; the improvised performances of AMM and what later became the Scratch Orchestra; the avant-garde Euro-cinema of Fellini and Antonioni; and the satire at Peter Cook’s Establishment club and in his TV show with Dudley Moore, Not Only . . . But Also (in which Lennon twice appeared). From the cultural watershed of 1965-6 onwards, The Beatles’ American heroes of the rock-and-roll Fifties gave way to a kaleidoscopic mélange of local influences from the English fringe arts and the Anglo-European counterculture as well as from English folk music and music-hall.
Ian MacDonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties)
this guy is so fucked up in the head he believes McCartney wrote better songs than Lennon.
Keith Houghton (Killing Hope (Gabe Quinn #1))
Choochiness is yet another British term that has no precise meaning, but, like pornography, you know it when you see it. The way I have things stacked up, choochiness is a particularly British amalgam of cuddlywuddliness, cutesypiedness, and butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouthedness that embraces everything from shops named The Ketch to Hugh Grant’s stammer. It is a grating and often maddening behavioral pattern that makes others want to reach out and pinch the choochster’s cheeks while secretly longing to stuff a hand grenade right down his throat. “Paul McCartney is choochy; John Lennon is not,” says my brother-in-law, Max, who fled England for France in 1976, largely to escape from rampant choochiness. “Paul McCartney: choochy. John Lennon: not choochy. That’s the difference.” THERE
Joe Queenan (Queenan Country: A Reluctant Anglophile's Pilgrimage to the Mother Country)
I’ll give you all I got to give if you say you’ll love me too. I may not have a lot to give but what I got I’ll give to you. I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.” - Can’t Buy Me Love, Lennon - McCartney
M.L. Banner (Time Slip (Stone Age #1.5))
By the summer of 1958, the nucleus of the future Beatles—Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, two protons and a neutron—was formed.
Anonymous
Most of the beetles in the computer were the John Lennon and Paul McCartney kind of Beatles.
Megan McDonald (Judy Moody Saves the World!)
Frank tells me there's nothing shameful about being creative for money. He tells me that John Lennon and Paul McCartney used to sit down together and say, "Let's write ourselves a new swimming pool.
Coco Mellors
But it's like John Lennon writing with...Taylor Swift instead of Paul McCartney.
Rainbow Rowell (Fangirl)
Recuerda: hasta los Beatles empezaron como una banda de covers. Paul McCartney ha dicho: “Yo emulaba a Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis. Todos lo hacíamos.” McCartney y John Lennon se convirtieron en uno de los equipos compositores más importantes de la historia pero, como recuerda McCartney, sólo empezaron a escribir sus canciones “como una manera de evitar que otras bandas tocaran el set que tenían planeado”.
Austin Kleon (Roba como un artista: Las 10 cosas que nadie te ha dicho acerca de ser creativo (Spanish Edition))
The death of their manager Brian Epstein was the beginning of the end for The Beatles. While Yoko Ono did try to fill the power vacuum and exacerbate the cracks created by Epstein's loss, she was not solely responsible for The Fab Four's demise. As with every big event, there are many actors, factors and complexities at play and no one simple explanation for everything.
Stewart Stafford
When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Paul James McCartney, John Winston Lennon
loved too hard, and it drove her crazy because she didn’t love herself and so she didn’t think that anyone else could. She gave up everything for love but didn’t feel loved in return. And yes, she was ill and thought God had disowned her, which probably didn’t help, but in the end it was all about love.’ Even in my slightly befuddled state Daniel’s words strike home. Sometimes a simple truth is like a hammer blow. Daniel sits down again and checks his mug for tea. It’s empty. ‘And at this point, I’d also like to take issue with Lennon and McCartney for propagating the ridiculous notion that all we need is love. I can think of at least five more things just off the top of my head, and given more time for proper consideration I’d probably come up with a few more.’ He looks sorrowfully into his empty mug. ‘And one of them is definitely tea.’ I get up and put the kettle on.
Ruth Hogan (Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel)
didn’t love herself and so she didn’t think that anyone else could. She gave up everything for love but didn’t feel loved in return. And yes, she was ill and thought God had disowned her, which probably didn’t help, but in the end it was all about love.’ Even in my slightly befuddled state Daniel’s words strike home. Sometimes a simple truth is like a hammer blow. Daniel sits down again and checks his mug for tea. It’s empty. ‘And at this point, I’d also like to take issue with Lennon and McCartney for propagating the ridiculous notion that all we need is love. I can think of at least five more things just off the top of my head, and given more time for proper consideration I’d probably come up with a few more.’ He looks sorrowfully into his empty mug. ‘And one of them is definitely tea.’ I get up and put the kettle on.
Ruth Hogan (Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel)
Lennon was – whether by luck, accident or perceptive foresight – at the forefront of the psychedelic era’s passion for rose-tinted introspection, which channelled the likes of children’s literature, Victorian fairgrounds and circuses, and an innocent sense of wonder. McCartney, too, moved with the times when writing his children’s singalong Yellow Submarine. Among the hippie era’s other moments of nostalgia were Pink Floyd’s Bike and The Gnome from their debut album Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, recorded at EMI Studios as the Beatles worked on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, laid down in 1966 but released in the same month as Sgt Pepper, and which drew from Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories just as Lennon did; and many more, from Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through The Tulips to Traffic’s psychedelic fantasy Hole In My Shoe. The Beatles continued writing songs evoking childhood to the end of their days. Sgt Pepper – itself a loose concept album harking back to earlier, more innocent times – referenced Lewis Carroll (Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds), youthful anticipation of old age (When I’m Sixty-Four), a stroll down memory lane (Good Morning Good Morning), and the sensory barrage of a circus big top extravaganza (Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!). It was followed by Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine, two films firmly pitched at the widest possible audience. A splendid time was, indeed, guaranteed for all.
Joe Goodden (Riding So High: The Beatles and Drugs)
Just because everybody loves The Beatles doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with The Beatles.
A.D. Aliwat (In Limbo)
bought a pristine copy of Man on the Run, a biography of Paul McCartney that began not with the Beatles, but with what McCartney did after they broke up. Parker had always preferred McCartney’s work to John Lennon’s, whatever effect it might have had on his standing with the cool kids. Lennon could only ever really write about himself, and Parker felt that he lacked empathy. McCartney, by contrast, was capable of thinking, or feeling, himself into the lives of others. It was the difference between “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”: although Parker loved both songs, “Penny Lane” was filled with characters, while “Strawberry Fields Forever” really had only one, and his name was John Lennon. Parker might even have taken the view that Lennon needed to get out of his apartment more, but when he did, an idiot shot him. He’d probably been right to spend the best part of a decade locked inside. Ross appeared just as McCartney
John Connolly (A Game of Ghosts (Charlie Parker, #15))
True, they had been getting along better than at any time since 1969. But John’s U-turn on a reunion in New Orleans stung Paul, and though he wished the reunited Lennons well, the reconciliation created some awkwardness: less than a year earlier, Paul was flying across the country as a go-between, carrying Yoko’s recipe for fixing their marriage, but Yoko may have regarded his more recent attempt to lure John and May to New Orleans as a dangerous distraction.
Allan Kozinn (The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2: 1974 – 80: A comprehensive look at Paul McCartney's life and work post-Beatles.)