John and Paul
A Love Story in Songs
Ian Leslie
Having read it
★★★☆☆
Well, it tells a relatively interesting story, interspersed with a few intriguing creative, insightful and human perspectives, but just not sure that I really benefited and expanded my existing and limited knowledge of the Beatles, and this story’s protagonists, by actually reading it.
It had some good parts in its first third or so and some decent insight into the efforts of early days and then the creative ups and downs of sustaining group output, but it was too long in my opinion and suffered with a narrative that seemed a bit lost at times. But, maybe that was its point so as its telling reflected its protagonist’s own ups and downs to craft a synonymous story that was more relatable to its readers . . .
. . . or it was, basically, just a bit boring.
A good passage
Until the autumn of 1963, the Beatles were primarily of interest to pop fans and only vaguely noticed by everyone else. But in early November, the Beatles performed at the Royal Variety Show in front of the Queen Mother and more than twenty-one million viewers on TV. Lennon’s pre-prepared line (‘For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery’) struck just the right balance of irreverence and charm.
From then on, they were truly national figures. The teenage girls who created Beatlemania were derided as psychologically disturbed by older generations, but there was as yet no vocabulary up to the task of describing this group or capturing the magnitude of the earthquake. Screaming was the most appropriate response.
A second good passage
‘Penny Lane’ can be thought of as McCartney’s Magritte. Musically, it is inspired, at least in part, by the Beach Boys, who with Pet Sounds had hit a creative peak high enough to scare McCartney into proving the Beatles could do better (Ray Davies, of the Kinks: ‘Paul McCartney was one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met.4 Lennon wasn’t. He just thought everyone else was shit.’)