Ian Leslie posted his ‘64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney’ in 2020 and the viral reaction to its piercing and original points encouraged him to write ‘John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs’. Do we need another Beatles book? We do if it’s this one! It’s exceptionally good and highly recommended. The conventional wisdom for decades was that John was the tormented, anti-establishment genius and Paul the effortlessly tune-churning, bourgeois poser. Ian’s book points up that their deep devotion to each other and telepathic, close relationship was the root of the supernatural partnership that made those songs possible. The two of them were, as he puts it, “the bubble within the bubble – and the deeper you get, the more mysterious the story becomes.” He talks to us here about … 

 

… their powerplays and their underlying rivalries for the leadership of the group.

 

… why the Beatles were in another league - “like Shakespeare versus Johnson or Marlowe”.

 

… how a songwriting duo where both wrote words and music gave them an extraordinary advantage.

 

… the writing of Yesterday and John’s fear that Paul might no longer need the group and leave.

 

… Paul’s discovery of his “superpowers” between ‘64 and ’66.

 

… how current groups now have “intimacy councillors” and in any other band the unmanageable Lennon would have been ejected.

 

… In My Life, Hey Jude and other songs they wrote about each other.

 

… how there was “an element of their fathers about them, of stiff upper lip” and displays of physical affection were rare.

 

… Paul as “the omnivorous culture-vore” in avant garde London while John was horizontal in suburbia.

 

… why Paul’s pace and creativity must have been psychologically punishing for the others.

 

… and how the emotional landscape shifted with the arrival of Yoko and Linda.

 

Order Ian’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Paul-Story-Beatles-decades/dp/0571376118

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