#Margaret McCartney

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Margaret McCartney, GP, Glasgow

Published: May 30, 2024

Publication of the Cass review in April 2024 was a seminal moment in contemporary medicine. Hilary Cass, a consultant paediatrician, was commissioned by NHS England to report independently on “the services provided by the NHS to children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender incongruence.” The background was an increase in referrals—of mainly “birth registered females in early teenage years”—to gender identity clinics from 2014 at an “exponential rate.”

The conclusions of the Cass review should not be surprising to anyone who has watched the promotion of medical interventions as necessary or curative in young people with gender dysphoria. As Cass states, there is a “lack of evidence” on the long term impact of hormonal prescriptions in young people, for example. Work now begins on how to design better, more evidence based, holistic services. The conclusion that services “must operate to the same standards as other services seeing children and young people with complex presentations and/or additional risk factors” is astonishing, in that it needed to be said. We need, says the report “a different approach to healthcare, more closely aligned with usual NHS clinical practice.” In other words, this suggests that the approach the NHS has taken with respect to gender dysphoria has been at odds with the usual, evidence based approach taken elsewhere. This should be deeply discomfiting. As the dust settles, and we reflect on the report’s conclusions, we should ask why this has happened.

There are multiple potential explanations. One is alluded to clearly by Cass: “the toxicity of the debate is exceptional,” she writes. Indeed. I know many senior medics who were concerned about the lack of evidence for interventions, but felt their reputation and job would be under threat if they spoke up. Anonymous personal attacks online is one thing; personal abuse from senior medics for raising clinical concerns is quite another. When considered in the context of whistleblowing more broadly, medicine clearly has an ongoing problem.

But when it comes to large, well funded, professional medical organisations, there is even less excuse. The job of medical institutions is in large part to remember the mistakes of history. These organisations should respond with care, consider evidence, uncertainty, and the recurrent tendency of well meaning medicine to do harm with good intentions. Popularity should be resisted over the need for evidence and caution. This requires strong leadership. Shutting down, or trying to shut down debate about serious clinical uncertainties—as has happened—is unacceptable.

This has not been helped by the multiple lobby groups, welcomed by many institutions to influence their policy making in this area. The same rules that we would normally use to guard relationships with any other pressure group—be it promoters of disease “awareness campaigns” or party politicians looking for support—seem to have dissolved against social pressure to achieve a compliance badge on a website.

The other explanation for what has happened that I think pertinent is this. Doctors, quite rightly, have been afraid to make the same mistakes as medicine did when homosexuality was treated as an illness in the 1950s. Then, electric shocks, desensitisation, hormones, and psychotherapy were attempted to be used to “treat” homosexuality—shamefully. What medicine did then was to intervene—ineffectively and harmfully—in something that was not a disease and should not have come under a medical purview. As Cass states, for most young people experiencing gender dysphoria, it is temporary; it is often associated with neurodiversity; it mainly resolves over time, and medical intervention does not benefit the majority. There is a comparison, but it is in favour of medicine backing off from prescriptions and surgery, and understanding why a phenomenon might be happening, why it is being seen in a medical context, and what is the best and least harmful way to respond to such expressed and profound distress.

I urge major medical institutions to treat the Cass review as a significant event, and consider what they have contributed, both negative and positive, to the damning conclusions. Was speaking up in their organisation possible, and welcomed? Did people raising concerns have fair hearings, or were they attacked or dismissed? Did the organisation enable rational debate, or instead attempt to shut it down? Did the organisation acknowledge uncertainty and the potential for harm in current practice? I don’t expect any of that to be easy. But without understanding what has happened, we will only be ready to make the same mistakes again, just in a different set of circumstances.

[harrisonarchive]

At the world premiere of A Hard Day's Night, London, July 6, 1967. Photo 1 courtesy of womanandhome.com; photos 2 & 3, screen captures.

"There was a big party afterwards. Nobody thought that Princess Margaret would agree to come, so no one invited her. I said, ‘We should, at least, ask her.’ Anyway, it turned out that she and Lord Snowdon had an engagement for dinner but they’d love to be asked to stop in for a drink first. We were all in the anteroom, having drinks before going in for food. George gave me a look and whispered, ‘When do we eat?’ I told him, ‘We can’t, until Princess Margaret leaves.’ Although the Princess and Lord Snowdon had this dinner engagement, they stayed longer and longer at The Beatles’ party, having drinks and chatting. Finally, George went across to Princess Margaret and said, ‘Ma'am. We’re starved, and Walter says that we can’t eat until you leave.’ With that, the Princess just burst out laughing, and said, 'Come on, Tony. We’re in the way.’" - Walter Shenson, Off The Record (x)

[good-to-drive]

Paul + quotes I like

Runner up: "Some people don't even know that they're bitter, they just wake up in the morning and think 'Oh, fuck, not again,'" (Marc Maron).

John George Ringo

[groovybananastarfish]

Little known Paul McCartney info.

“Did you know Paul sent a telegram to Margaret Thatcher in 1982? He did. It wasn’t friendly. He lost his temper over her treatment of health workers and fired off a long outraged message, comparing her to Ted Heath, the prime minister (tweaked in “Taxman”) felled by the 1974 coal strike. McCartney warned, “What the miners did to Ted Heath, the nurses will do to you.” This controversy is a curiously obscure footnote to his life—it seldom gets mentioned in even the fattest biographies. He doesn’t discuss it in Many Years from Now. I only know about it because I read it as a Random Note in Rolling Stone, not exactly a hotbed of pro-Paul propaganda at the time. (The item began, “Reports that Paul McCartney is intellectually brain-dead appear to have been premature.”) But the telegram was a major U.K. scandal, with Tory politicians denouncing him. In October 1982, Thatcher was at the height of her power, in the wake of her Falkland Islands blitz. Many rock stars talked shit about Maggie—Elvis Costello, Morrissey, Paul Weller—but Paul was the one more famous than she was. He had something to lose by hitting send on this, and nothing to gain. What, you think he was trying for coolness points? This is Paul McCartney, remember? He was in the middle of making Give My Regards to Broad Street. He could have clawed Thatcher’s still-beating heart out of her rib cage, impaled it on his Hofner on live TV, and everybody would have said, “Yeah, but ‘Silly Love Songs’ though.” Why did he feel so intensely about the nurses? He didn’t mention his mother in the telegram, but he must have been thinking of Mary McCartney’s life and death. So he snapped, even though it was off-message. (He was busy that week doing interviews for the twentieth anniversary of “Love Me Do”—the moment called for Cozy Lovable Paul, not Angry Paul.) He didn’t boast about it later, though fans today would be impressed that any English rock star of that generation—let alone Paul—had the gumption to send this. You can make a case that it was a braver, riskier, and more politically relevant move than John sending his MBE medal back to the Queen in 1970. Still, John’s gesture went down in history and Paul’s didn’t, though his fans would probably admire the move if they knew about it. He couldn’t win. He was Paul. All he could do was piss people off.”

—

Rob Sheffield, Dreaming the Beatles. (2017)

This is one of the best books I’ve read on them. Go get it.

[rmstitanics]

* FAMOUS INDIVIDUALS WITH YOUR MOON SIGN.

If you’re looking for suggestions on which authors and music artists to check out next, look to your moon sign! In Western astrology, the moon is said to represent your subconscious mind, emotions, and inner personality, so it is widely believed that we tend to relate to media by artists who share our moon sign.

♈️ ARIES MOON

WRITERS:

Gore Vidal

George R. R. Martin

Nicholas Sparks

Rick Riordan

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Christopher Paolini

MUSICIANS:

P!nk

Whitney Houston

Céline Dion

Selena Gomez

Rihanna

Tupac

♉️ TAURUS MOON

WRITERS:

Jodi Picoult

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hans Christian Anderson

Clive Barker

George Bernard Shaw

Aldous Huxley

MUSICIANS:

Pharrell Williams

Kelly Clarkson

Bob Dylan

Demi Lovato

Christina Aguilera

Pitbull

♊️ GEMINI MOON

WRITERS:

C. S. Lewis

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Orson Scott Card

Franz Kafka

Margaret Mitchell

R.A. Salvatore

T. S. Elliot

MUSICIANS:

Ella Fitzgerald

Florence Welch

Art Garfunkel

Billy Idol

Sia

Tina Turner

♋️ CANCER MOON

WRITERS:

George Orwell

Liu Cixin

Brandon Sanderson

Cassandra Clare

Diana Gabaldon

Lois Lowry

MUSICIANS:

Tchaikovsky

Taylor Swift

Kurt Cobain

Halsey

Aretha Franklin

Janis Joplin

♌️ LEO MOON

Oscar Wilde

Holly Black

Geraldine Brooks

James Dashner

Jack London

Ta Nehisi Coates

MUSICIANS:

Lana Del Ray

Paul McCartney

Queen Latifah

Niall Horan

Bruno Mars

David Bowie

♍️ VIRGO MOON

WRITERS:

Leo Tolstoy

John Grisham

Claudia Gray

Isabel Allende

Xiran Jay Zhao

Douglas Adams

MUSICIANS:

Dolly Parton

Nicki Manaj

Madonna

Lorde

Bo Burnham

Lizzo

♎️ LIBRA MOON

WRITERS:

Jane Austen

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Sylvia Plath

William Shakespeare

Maya Angelou

R.F. Kuang

MUSICIANS:

Ariana Grande

Charli XCX

Bruce Springsteen

Jay-Z

Harry Styles

Fergie

♏️ SCORPIO MOON

WRITERS:

Veronica Roth

Edith Wharton

V.E. Schwab

Harper Lee

Keira Cass

Meg Cabot

MUSICIANS:

Lady Gaga

Tyler the Creator

Cyndi Lauper

Beyoncé

Bob Marley

The Weeknd

♐️ SAGITTARIUS MOON

WRITERS:

Stephen King

Victor Hugo

Marie Lu

Suzanne Collins

Samantha Shannon

Adam Silvera

MUSICIANS

Hozier

Freddie Mercury

Adele

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Chappell Roan

John Legend

♑️ CAPRICORN MOON

WRITERS:

Sarah J. Maas

J.M. Barrie

Jeff Shaara

Joyce Carol Oates

Stephanie Meyer

Angie Thomas

MUSICIANS:

Frédéric Chopin

Neil Diamond

Jon Bon Jovi

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Stevie Nicks

Donna Summer

♒️ AQUARIUS MOON

WRITERS:

Margaret Atwood

Leigh Bardugo

Louisa May Alcott

Seth Grahame-Smith

Anthony Horowitz

S.E. Hinton

MUSICIANS:

Cody Simpson

Marilyn Monroe

Britney Spears

Billie Eilish

Tim McGraw

Carrie Underwood

♓️ PISCES MOON

WRITERS:

Toni Morrison

Edgar Allen Poe

Malcolm Gladwell

Lisa McMann

Alice Oseman

Philippa Gregory

MUSICIANS:

Kenny Chesney

Elvis Presley

Frank Sinatra

Prince

Kendrick Lamar

Sabrina Carpenter

[crepesuzette2023]

Hi, I would love recs for mclennon fics dripping in sexual tension, like six hours in August by stonedlennon. It doesn't need to have explicit sexual content. Thank you!

Thank you so, so much for this ask—this is a category of fiction I personally enjoy *a lot* (imagine Paul's "I slept with John..." pronunciation).

Here are some favorites that came to my mind. Some have sex on the page, others do not; I remember all of these as having excellent Tension™. I hope you find something you like here! Young J/P:

Streets of Your Town (@with-eyes-closed): Sensual. The upheaval in young Paul's mind as he falls in love with music and John, without putting a name to it. As of yet unfinished, but it's so good I rec it anyway, because it's...[read to find out, take a fan]

All I Know Since Yesterday (RedheadAmongWolves): Paul and John's first kiss at Paul's, after long, sweet hours of trembling fear/excitement. Paul POV.

The Way Things Sometimes Are (@paisanas): Young John is troubled and pining for Paul. Paul is mesmerizing through his eyes.

now and then (there's a fool such as I) (@stonedlennon): The Nerk Twins take the bus to Caversham and share a bed. You can smell the summer grass and the sweaty leathers...

(Ain't no cure for the) summertime blues (orphan_account): John and Paul alone on a hot summer day.

The Photograph (thinkpink20): John finds a Photograph Mike took of Paul and notices...things.

Hamburg:

ageless children, animal sweat (eyeball2eyeball): Read this story to spend time in John's throbbing, unhinged Hamburg mind. No sex on the page, and yet. It's *everywhere*. For such a short story, it takes up a lot of room in my brain. The Paul in this story is one of my favorite Pauls.

Sinful City (thinkpink20). Days and Nights in Hamburg. Paul needs John, and stops questioning things.

In Margaret Asher's music room:

Tell You Something (@louiselux). Lennon and McCartney write "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The tension rises.

In or near Paul's Geodesic Dome:

shotgunning (@pauls1967moustache): John and Paul languidly try something new...

Chrysalis (cloudy_blue): Tension in 1967. Hypnotic and stylish, I love it.

Stop all the Clocks (@javelinbk): After Brian's death, John and Paul retreat to Scotland. Grief and awakening ensue...slowly and sweetly.

Greece:

Way Up Top (@boshemians). Snapshots of J/P desire and spiraling doubts, contained in the Beatles' trip to Greece to buy an island.

Nineteen Sixty-Eight:

Outro (bakerstreetafternoon). From the Summary: 'Had it been this tension that had kept them together? Had it always?'

Bad Luck to Talk (7intheevening): Paul chats with JohnandYoko at a party and follows them home for a cup of tea. What hurts more exquisitly than pining? Unacknowledged pining.

John I'm Only Dancing (@skylikeaflame): Amidst the insanity of the Mad Day Out, desire erupts relentlessly.

The 70's as they should have been:

Down on the Farm (RosalindBeatrice): Incredibly hot and realistic (and funny in just right amounts!). John visits Paul in Nashville; Paul shows off Wings and the family, John stays the night. Dot dot dot.

I can only speak my mind (@paisanas): John's diaries are leaked to the press and printed; Paul reads them. What follows is the sexual awakening of James Paul McCartney as he reads of John's feelings for him. First rate pining, past and present.

I still miss someone/ I know that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand/ close the door lightly when you go (RosalindBeatrice): John and Paul meet in 1976. There is a spark. Few and far between meetings follow.

The Other Eighties (John lives and experiences sexual tension with Paul):

and when broken bodies are washed ashore (who am i to ask for more) (wardo wedidit): John divorces Yoko and visits Paul in Scotland. Soul searching and relationship mending.

The Birthday Party (@merseydreams): John and Paul meet at Ringo's Birthday Party. There is only one bed.

Tension through the Years:

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (@savageandwise). John is turned on by Paul smoking. 1958—1969.

[gardenwalrus]

Tony Barrow, the Beatles’ first press officer, observed: “There was a very intimate relationship in Liverpool between the Beatles and their fans. And the Beatles’ fans could actually ring the Beatles. I mean, you just had to look under ‘Mc’ in the phonebook and ring Paul McCartney and say, ‘Please will you play “Some Other Guy” for us at the Cavern on Friday.’”  … Margaret Hunt, who first saw the Beatles perform at the Aintree Institute, decided to look up Paul McCartney’s home phone number and call him. Still asleep when she rang one weekday morning, a message was left for him. Much to her surprise, the call was returned. This first pleasant, one-on-one interaction with McCartney led to several others and, soon after, many with her favourite Beatle John Lennon.

- Christine Feldman-Barrett, A Women’s History of the Beatles (2021)

[wreathedwith]

Certified McLennon: a playlist

With receipts.

Side 1 || Side 2 || Bonus Tracks

Side 1

1.  I Want To Hold Your Hand (1963)

We wrote a lot of stuff together, one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u… got that something…’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’

— John Lennon, 1980 (x)

Eventually I ended up living with the Ashers. I'd already stayed over quite a bit, but Margaret must have said, 'Well, you know, we'll let you have the attic room. So I ended up there, and they got a piano up in that room.

When John came to visit, there was a piano in the basement as well - a little music room where I think Margaret took students. So, we would write there in the basement, both on the piano at the same time, or eyeball to eyeball on our guitars.

'I Want to Hold Your Hand' is not about Jane, but it was certainly written when I was with her. To tell you the truth, I think we were writing more to a general audience. I may have been drawing on my experience with a person I was in love with at the time - and sometimes it was very specific - but mostly we were writing to the world.

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x)

How else to begin the narrative but with a genuine Lennon-McCartney cowrite that fired the starting gun on global scale Beatlemania? Famously written "eyeball to eyeball" - and sung in unison pretty much throughout - we must also presume, sitting at the piano side-by-side as they were, their hands were in rather close quarters too.

As for Paul's extract: So I moved in with my girlfriend’s family // (new paragraph) John John John and I writing this song // (new paragraph) To be clear, this song is NOTHING to do with my girlfriend at the time whose house I was living in, but it maybe was to do with someone else I was in love with (in a very specific way) but I am not going to say who it that is. Paul, do you ever hear yourself. Any chance it's the boy pressed against your side for hours and hours telling you to do that again?

2.  Cafe On The Left Bank (1978)

When John and I hitchhiked to Paris in 1961, we went to a café on the Left Bank, and the waitress was older than us – easy, since John was turning twenty-one and I was nearly twenty. She poured us two glasses of vin ordinaire, and we noticed she had hair under her arms, which was shocking: ‘Oh my God, look at that; she’s got hair under her arms!’ The French would do that, but no British – or, as we would later learn, American – girl would be seen dead with hair under her arms. You had to be a real beatnik. It’s such a clear memory for me, so it was in my head when I was setting this scene.

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x)

lol @ Paul erasing a good eight months of age difference here for absolutely no clear reason. ‘nearly twenty’ my left eye

Indisputably a song inspired by John and Paul's 1961 trip to Paris together (and also, I suppose, a woman with Armpits of Note, living in Paul McCartney’s head for seventeen years rent-free). John inherited £100 from a wealthy relative just ahead of turning 21 and promptly 1) cancelled several gigs the band had booked, much to the rest of the band’s irritation 2) took Paul and no-one else to Paris for a fortnight. They stayed in a cheap hotel in Montmartre (just the one single bed) and have pretty much never shut up about it since (x). More information on the trip and some photos Paul took of John are available on tumblr (x) and elsewhere (x).

Here because I could not leave Paris unrepresented, and because if the line touching all the girls with your eyes isn't an observation laced with considerable jealousy, it is at the very least a keen awareness of exactly what John's eyes were up to at any given time.

3.  If I Fell (1964)

It’s semi-autobiographical, but not that conscious, you know. It’s really about – it’s not about Cyn, my first wife…

— John Lennon, 1980 (x)

One of John’s earliest ballads that he has specifically identified as not just being a chart-topping songwriting exercise with no personal meaning behind the curtain. If I Fell 1) doesn’t really match up with any of his known romantic relationships at the time 2) has some fairly ambiguous ‘whose point of view is this from exactly?’ going on. (Boy with girl entering a second/new relationship? Or someone wanting someone who’s already got a girl? Either way, the only pronoun we’ve got for sure in this song is that of the third party.)

More points raised (by another tumblr user) here (x).

(General note: early Beatles-era lyrics - like If I Fell and I Want To Hold Your Hand - ARE difficult to definitively pin down, being as they were often written to order/generic for a general audience/more likely to be any phrase that fitted the tune rather than personally meaningful/overall more commercial and less specifically autobiographical. But it was a time filled with intense and genuine songwriting collaboration. And we are not going to start this playlist in 1969, okay.) 

4.  I Will - Take 29 (1968)

When I’m writing, it’s as if I’m setting words and music to the film I’m watching in my head. It’s a declaration of love, yes, but not always to someone specific. Unless it’s to a person out there who’s listening to the song. And they have to be ready for it. It’s almost definitely not going to be a person who’s said, “There he goes again, writing another of those silly love songs.

— Paul McCartney, 2021 [on ‘I Will’] (x)

He won’t? Yes he will, ready or not.

(John’s the Silly Love Song mocker-in-chief; yet another romantic song from the Jane Asher era that Paul (in The Lyrics) has specified is not about Jane Asher. Jane, you deserved better.)

(Not the only improv fun on record for I Will, either (x).)

5.  In My Life (1965)

I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life… a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past… and it was, I think, my first real major piece of work.

— John Lennon, 1980 (x)

Specifically ‘consciously’ autobiographical, according to John, In My Life’s lyrics include an ambiguous conflation (or at least a lack of differentiation) between lovers and friends, friends and lovers. An earlier draft is more of a straightforward nostalgic longing for physical places in Liverpool left behind (scroll down to ��about’ to read these lyrics - x), whereas the final version is a clear elevation of the singer’s current love, and the present more widely, over those places and people he remembers, however important they seem within his memory. 

Written in late 1965, John had not yet met Yoko Ono and was still married to Cynthia. Again, nobody (else) for this autobiographical song quite fits timeline-wise. More thoughts (from another tumblr user) here (x).

Intriguingly, the official John Lennon Instagram account has matched up In My Life’s lyrics with John and Paul (x), (x).

6.  Oh! Darling (1969)

When you told me // You didn't need me anymore // Well, you know I nearly broke down and cried

Paul to John, as John’s intense relationship with Yoko begins and The Beatles begin to end. Maybe.

Sonically, this one’s a 50s-retro belter that harks back to the kind of rock 'n' roll John and Paul would have been listening to and learning to play together as teenagers.

I have rejected some other sometime-heard lyrics elsewhere in this playlist, but it really, really sounds like Paul sings Oh, Johnny instead of Oh, darling at 2:47. What more do you want, really.

Sidenote: although this song is written by Paul, John wanted to sing it - because, he says, he could have done a better job of singing it than Paul(!) (x). There is a version where they sing it together (kind of) on Anthology 3 (x).

7.  Fine Line (2005)

Whatever's more important to you // You've got to choose what you wanna do

There is a long way between chaos and creation // If you don't say which one of these you're gonna choose

Come on brother, all is forgiven // We all cried when you were driven away // Come on brother, everything is better // Everything is better when you come home and stay

Come on back, come on back // Come on back to me

Paul has not elucidated on the meaning of this one too much - his 2005 explanation veers quickly away from lyrical content and towards the musical composition (x) - but there are clear themes present of divided friends, close yet conflicting creative approaches and priorities, and a longing for reconciliation. 

This one gets me right in the heart, especially the come on back to me bit. 

8.  Two of Us (1970)

It’s like you and me are lovers.

— John Lennon to Paul McCartney, 1969 (x)

It’s like we’re like a couple of queens.

— John Lennon to Paul McCartney, 1969 (x)

alright John, that’ll do, I think we get it now.

This one’s definitely Paul being inspired by romantic countryside drives with his soon-to-be-wife, Linda Eastman (x). (And/or late-night drives around London with same (x).) However, it’s also about John and Paul, most notably when it being about Paul and Linda doesn’t fit.

For sending postcards, in The Lyrics (2021) Paul mentions both Linda and John. You and me burning matches, lifting latches? This recalls smoking and drinking in Liverpool pubs (‘lifting the latch’ being scouser slang for paying for your first drink so that others will buy your drinks in future rounds (x)). You and I have memories // Longer than the road that stretches out ahead would be very pessimistic for a new romantic relationship. You and me chasing paper, getting nowhere suggests the Beatles’ business troubles and how they lead to arguments/lack of resolution rather than anything to do with Linda.

Besides Paul specifically saying that we’re on our way home is about “trying to get in touch with the people we once were” (!) moreso than literally travelling home, the Everly Brothers-style harmonies and some good old shared microphone singing make this another song from the Get Back sessions that musically recalls the past, nostalgia; where John and Paul started, together.

Version note: I chose the 2021 mix for this one (rather than the Let It Be… Naked version) to include John’s stupid Charles Hawtrey bit at the start (added in later from a 1970 session, when the song itself was recorded in January 1969), but it was a close-run thing tbh. Sub in the Naked version if you prefer it.

9.  Too Many People (1971)

I was looking at my second solo album, Ram, the other day and I remember there was one tiny little reference to John in the whole thing. He’d been doing a lot of preaching, and it got up my nose a little bit. In one song, I wrote, “Too many people preaching practices,” I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn’t anything else on it that was about them. Oh, there was “You took your lucky break and broke it in two.”

— Paul McCartney, 1984 (x)

Ah, the beef period: the one time when it’s incredibly easy to verify that these were indeed songs written about each other. (Still, check this page (x) to follow Paul becoming slightly more and more honest about this song over time to see how difficult it is to pin him down on any exact meaning in the majority of cases.)

Yoko took your lucky break and broke it in two became You… by the time the song was released. Piece of (cake) at the start is ‘piss off’, directed at John. The final verse is about Linda, but only in the sense of Paul showing off to John that he also has a wife now actually! These absolute losers.

This song is all Paul’s anger towards John (and Yoko); it’s not even ambiguous, no matter what Paul might have said in the past.

10.  I Found Out (1970)

John, post Beatles and post primal scream therapy, with some advice for others (just don’t call it preaching, okay).

Included for its very un-Beatlesy raw production and I seen religion from Jesus to Paul, which is of course very clever of him and all that but, god. If it’s deeply wronged, it’s also deeply devotional.

11.  Riding to Vanity Fair (2005)

[Interviewer: It’s the only song here [in Chaos and Creation in the Backyard] that mentions a trouble not overcome.]

Yeah, an own-up song. Now it’s become more elegant, but it’s still a pissed-off song. When you’re trying to reach out to someone, and it’s rejected, that’s a hurtful thing. That happened to me at a particular point. It wasn’t Heather. It was about some other relationship that I had, and this was my therapeutic way of releasing myself.

— Paul McCartney, 2005 (x)

As a newer McCartney song, that’s the most specific Paul has got on the song’s subject.

The song’s subject is consistent throughout. The singer remembers holding back words from and trying to placate a former friend, says this person no longer needs their help and that they weren’t aware of what they’ve put the singer through, and that friendship was offered but is no longer there. In the past, more optimistic days, they had bonded through music.

Although unique in this little beef period section of the playlist as a song released 35 years after the breakup of The Beatles rather than contemporaneously, it appears to take Paul’s point of view at the time, as this does match up with his frustrated feelings then but not with what he has said and felt about John many years later (particularly after 1980).

A term more famous as a magazine title/novel by Thackeray, ‘vanity fair’ is originally a (fictional) fair described in Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. In any case, its meaning is also likely here to be a scene or place where only frivolous and empty things like fashion and entertainment are discussed; there are no serious thoughts present. The meaning of this phrase in the song has not been elucidated anywhere, to my knowledge: is Paul saying that none of John’s ‘preaching practices’ at this time were concerned with anything important? Is it a reference to Allen Klein or other untrustworthy associates that John had been spending time with?

Some more thoughts (not mine) here (x).

12.  Dear Boy (1971)

So, Paul has said this is not about John - it’s about his relationship with Linda. More recently he has admitted it’s a message to Linda’s ex-husband (which makes logical sense) (x).

I guess it's possible that Paul is lying or bending the truth, as he's sometimes wont to do (seems unlikely here tbh), but this song is primarily included in this playlist because John thought this song was aimed at him. And that compels me. 

Through this John-queer lens (if we can call it that), lines like I guess you never knew, dear boy // What you had found and I guess you never saw, dear boy // That love was there are not only rather taunting (and a bit of Paul being conceited too likely thing for him to be) but also suggest that (John thought) Paul was saying John never attained Paul's level of emotional intelligence and clarity about their relationship, that John made a stupid mistake to walk away from Paul's affection. There's the dear boy / dear friend (as Paul's term of address for John - patronising/affectionate) similarity-comparison to consider too. 

Then there's And even when you fall in love, dear boy // It won't be half as good as this (!) “This”: Paul and Linda, or Paul and John? (i.e. when you fall in love with a woman - suggesting (John thought) Paul thought he hadn't yet, with Yoko or anyone else - it won't be nearly as good as our relationship, what we had). 

I also struggle to see how John could have thought that this song was about him if there was nothing in his head whatsoever that characterised his and Paul's relationship as romantic or intensely comparable to a romantic relationship in some way. Why else would it make sense for Paul to be saying to him no other love will be as good as theirs was/is?

(Okay, there is a heterosexual explanation for this: Paul boasting to John about his amazing perfect relationship with Linda, saying John will never enjoy anything as good. But that’s still. Quite a thing to say to a friend, isn’t it.)

Anyway, John thinking that Dear Boy, and several other songs on Ram, were aimed at him - whether they actually were or not - is probably what goaded him into releasing…

13.  How Do You Sleep (1971)

It’s not about Paul, it’s about me. I’m really attacking myself. But I regret the association, well, what’s to regret? He lived through it. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about these things and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. Him and me are okay.

— John Lennon, 1972 (x)

Famously, and very directly and explicitly so, John lashing out at Paul.

Some original lines and studio outtakes were even more harsh (x). For his part, Paul seems to have been genuinely hurt by this song despite John’s various later attempts to shrug it off as a kind of knowing public feud with things okay behind closed doors, especially the charge that the only thing you done was Yesterday. (He knows that’s wrong. He knows and I know it’s not true. - Paul, 1971)

A pretty face may last a year or two is so mean, kind of threatening even, and yet also an example of John never missing an opportunity to say Paul… has a pretty face.

14.  Dear Friend (1971)

“Dear Friend” was written about John, yes. I don’t like grief and arguments, they always bug me. Life is too precious, although we often find ourselves guilty of doing it. So after John had slagged me off in public I had to think of a response, and it was either going to be to slag him off in public — and some instinct stopped me, which I’m really glad about — or do something else.

— Paul McCartney, 1994 (x)

And then with ‘Dear Friend’, that’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up. I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I’m not going to cry in front of all you lot though!

— Paul McCartney, 2018 (x)

Dear friend, throw the wine // I'm in love with a friend of mine

Paul ends the feud (in that John never releases a song in response to this, and they do in time start talking again).

There’s a mutability to ‘friend’ here: dear friend is John, I’m in love with a friend of mine the very next line is ambiguous. Both John and Paul were young and newly-wed at the time. The second friend could be Linda, but it’s the same word side-by-side, twins; if it’s John, Paul doesn’t just feel love for him, he’s in love. As this analysis by another tumblr user (x) points out, in all the various quotes where Paul has discussed this song and confirmed it’s about John, he doesn’t mention their respective wives once.

Side 2

15.  Best Friend (1972)

Well, I wake up in the morning // I'm still dreaming 'bout you // I'll tell, you pretty baby, I'm blue // I wake up in the evening // I'm still screaming out over you

Tell me why, why // Why do you treat me so bad? // You're the best friend, a man ever had // You're the best friend, a man could ever have

The Paul McCartney Project says this is considered to be a song to John Lennon. There's no citation at that webpage, but I think we can see the vision. (x) 

Addressed to a best friend (with complaints of mistreatment), but with lots of morning/nighttime dreaming (x) and screaming and some pretty babys thrown in for good measure. Girl get up, girl more on, etc (he won't). 

A year or so ago, John was telling Rolling Stone (1971):

It’s just handy to fuck your best friend. That’s what it is. And once I resolved the fact that it was a woman as well, it’s all right.

(The live version of this song remains the only version available.) 

16.  Call Me Back Again - Live (1976)

Come on and call me back again

…Tell me, what can I do, what can I do, I can’t get through

The pining continues? Various critics have suggested (x) that this song is aimed at John Lennon. 

The timeline certainly fits: Paul wrote the song spring of 1974 in LA, concurrent with John’s time living in LA while separated from Yoko/A Toot and a Snore in '74 (x). Come early 1975, Paul and Linda had dinner in New York with John and May Pang (John’s girlfriend during his eighteen month-long ‘Lost Weekend’ period away from Yoko) and encouraged John to come and visit them while they were recording in New Orleans (x). John then planned to surprise Paul during these sessions for the album that Call Me Back Again appears on (Venus and Mars) (x). However, John never made it: just before leaving for New Orleans, John went to see Yoko and they got back together, bringing the ‘Lost Weekend’ period to an abrupt end. (Yoko got pregnant with Sean very soon after.)

As teenagers in post-war Liverpool, Paul and John were unlikely to be on the phone to each other much (even in 1970, only 35% of UK households had their own telephone(x)), but certainly did call on each other’s houses all the time.

Version notes: This version is from the 1976 live album ‘Wings over America’, but the studio version was first released in 1975. I’ve chosen the live version primarily for Paul’s more raw, more desperate, more better vocal. There are some small lyrical differences and, in the live version, plenty of babe, baby-type ad libbing.

In the live version, Paul sings I’ve called your name, child, every night since then. (I’ve seen some claims that he’s singing I’ve called your name, John on this or other live versions (x) but with the best will in the world I simply don’t hear it.) Only in the studio version does Paul sing I’ve heard your name every night since then (rather than I’ve called your house), which in addition to the pretty racy Oh I’ve called your name every night since then brings the song towards something even more sex-and-dreams adjacent (or possibly suggests the subject is a famous person).

17.  Jealous Guy (1971)

He used to say, ‘Everyone is on the McCartney bandwagon.’ He wrote ‘I’m Just a Jealous Guy’, and he said that the song was about me.

— Paul McCartney, 1985 (x)

We do only have Paul’s word to go on here, his comment having been made in 1985. (If John said this, he did not appear to say it publicly.) Of course this song could be (and/or) addressed to Yoko, but there’s not really any reason it couldn’t be addressed to Paul. I was dreaming of the past // And my heart was beating fast would certainly point to an association with someone John had known for long enough for them to be in his past (Yoko very much being his present as of 1971). Oh, and John’s jealousy of Paul, particularly professionally, was legion (x).

18.  Silly Love Songs (1976)

There were accusations in the mid-1970s – including one from John – that I was just writing ‘silly love songs’. 

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x, x)

I love you…

Paul standing up to the ‘you’re wasting your time on this unserious soppy shit’ allegations. Silly Love Songs stayed at number one for five weeks solid in the US, so, re. what kind of songs people want, McCartney was arguably onto something. (Its chart peak in the UK was only number two - silly love songs are all well and good, but they can’t beat the public’s desire for a novelty parody song about agricultural machinery). 

As well as the quote above, in the 1986 book ‘McCartney, Songwriter’ it is phrased as Paul clarifying that the song was actually directed to John Lennon (rather than music critics, as first assumed). The song - the whole song.

John apparently liked this song very much and interpreted it entirely as a message to him, specifically including the ‘I love you’ parts. (x) (in user gswan steve hoffman music forums we trust, very reliable source okay, don’t take this away from me please).

19.  I Know (I Know) (1973)

Today I love you more than yesterday // Right now I love you more right now…

And I know it's getting better (all the time) // As we share in each other's minds 

An own-up/apology song from John to Paul. Probably. The official John Lennon Instagram account thinks so, anyway (x).

In his 1980 interview with Playboy - the one extensively quoted throughout this post, because John talked about the authorship and meaning of many of his songs in this interview - John only said that this song was just a piece of nothing. Which likely points to this song not being about Yoko, because when a song’s about Yoko he’ll generally shout about it. (I Know (I Know) was recorded in the summer of 1973, just after Yoko kicked him out thereby starting the ‘lost weekend’ period. So Lennon may have (also) been realising some things about that relationship when he wrote the song, because their relationship was clearly not in a good place.)

The song’s Paul references:

The 1971 Wings song ‘Some People Never Know’ is Paul saying some people don’t understand what it means to love (x). I Know (I Know) and its chosen title as a response to this song is a) a song response where John and Paul are in agreement rather than opposition, for a change b) John telling Paul that he does know what it means to be in love.

In a similar vein, I know what I was missing could be in response to I hope you never know how much you missed in (Paul’s 1971 song) Dear Boy.

Today I love you more than yesterday (in light of Paul’s song Yesterday and John’s Yesterday taunt in 1971’s How Do You Sleep)

And I know it's getting better (all the time) (Getting Better, 1967, Beatles-era McCartney-led cowrite)

No more crying (a possible response to Oh! Darling’s When you told me // You didn't need me anymore // Well, you know I nearly broke down and cried). Or The Long and Winding Road (Many times I’ve been alone // And many times I’ve cried)

Considering John and Paul’s (particularly John’s) belief that they shared some kind of dream or mind connection, I’m intrigued by the (contradictory?) lines But I never could read your mind and As we share in each other's minds.

Finally, there’s John and Paul’s first joint LSD experience:

Paul and Mal [Beatles Roadie/PA], this time, were full of tales of this here LSD and what it could do… Paul said he and John had had ‘this fantastic thing’; which really wasn’t very informative, so I pressed him to flesh it out. ’Incredible, really, just locked into each other’s eyes … Like, just staring and then saying, “I know, man” and then laughing … And it was great , you know.’ 

— Derek Taylor [press officer for The Beatles], 1983 (x)

20.  Coming Up (1980)

I heard a story from a guy who recorded with John in New York, and he said that John would sometimes get lazy. But then he’d hear a song of mine where he thought, ‘Oh, shit, Paul’s putting it in, Paul’s working!’ Apparently ‘Coming Up’ was the one song that got John recording again. I think John just thought, ‘Uh oh, I had better get working, too.’ I thought that was a nice story.

— Paul McCartney, 1980 (x)

1980 optimism: Paul edition. Potentially these lyrics could be interpreted as offering John help, consistent friendship, and perhaps even studio time. (This reading is strengthened by lyrical variations in some of the live versions; see below.) 

Oh, and in the music video for the song Paul’s drumkit identified the band (all Paul and Linda, in a 6:1 ratio) as The Plastic Macs (after The Plastic Ono band) (x).

Version notes: It’s the studio version with the vocal distortion that John heard on the radio, liked, and found inspiring (/competitiveness-inducing) enough to want to create songs again - he called it the freak version that [Paul] made in his barn (x) - so that’s the version on the playlist. 

The Glasgow live version was more commercially successful, and was the single A-side in the US. Here’s a breakdown of some of the differences between the studio and live versions of the song:

And if you're searching for an answer - 1980 studio version

I know you're searching for an answer - 1979 Glasgow live version (more definitive) (x)

I want to help you find an answer - 1979 Hammersmith live version (more collaborative) (x)

I know that we can get together // We can make it, stick with me - 1980 studio version

I know if we could get together // We'd hear music endlessly - both live version (less imperative, but with a delightful music reference) (this forum post (x) mentions a version with ‘making music endlessly’, which is even more suggestive of being about a musical collaborator, but I haven’t been able to find a version that definitely has this rather than ‘we’d hear’)

The live versions also include some not-uncommon Paul pretty baby I wanna stay-type adlibs. I think the Hammersmith performance is my personal favourite. It goes fast!

21.  (Just Like) Starting Over (1980)

But when I see you darling // It's like we both are falling in love again // It'll be just like starting over, starting over

1980 optimism: John edition. More generally, this is John’s increased optimism going into the eighties and the desire to put the difficulties of the seventies behind him.

Within the narrative of Double Fantasy - John’s big comeback album after five homemaking years away from the music business, made with Yoko - it seems like this song must be about John and Yoko, whose relationship was central to promotion of the album and was being portrayed in a particularly idealised way at this time. Were they going through a renewed closeness (implying that even after the ‘lost weekend’ was over their relationship had been going through troubles prior to this renewed closeness)? Or were there difficulties in their relationship during the album release, behind the scenes? (x)

Some possible elements that point to this song being (at least in part) about John and Paul:

The demo version (x), which includes the lyrics The time has come, the walrus said, for you and me to stay in bed again. (John and Yoko bed-in (x)? Or the walrus was Paul (x) / “In bed” (x)?)

The 50s/Elvis/rock ‘n’ roll style of this track evokes where John started, together with Paul. John starts the stripped down remix of this song with This one’s for Gene and Eddie and Elvis and Buddy (x).

When I see you, darling doesn’t necessarily suggest someone you see all the time every day (i.e. your wife).

It's time to spread our wings and fly and Don't let another day go by, my love - Paul’s band, Paul’s songs. Although yes, these are all common phrases regardless.

Whether this is about John’s hope to rekindle his relationship with Yoko, Paul, both or neither, he made it clear that he wanted in 1980 to start over - do better - in a wide variety of aspects. According to John, the song was written with a wider circle (rather than one person) in mind:

I’m not aiming… [the song] at 16-year-olds. If they can dig it, please dig it. But when I was singing and writing this and working with [Yoko] I was visualizing all the people of my age group from the sixties. Being in their thirties and forties now, just like me, and having wives and children and having gone through everything together, I am singing to them! I hope the young kids like it as well, but I’m really talking to the people that grew up with me and saying: “Here I am now - how are you? How’s your relationship going? Did you get through it all? Wasn’t the seventies a drag? You know, here we are, let’s try and make the eighties good, you know, because it’s still up to us to make what we can of it. It’s not out of our control.” (x)

Considering both Coming Up and (Just Like) Starting Over, and the possibility of an eighties Lennon-McCartney reunion: there is one account (x) suggesting John and Paul were planning to spend time in a London studio together in December 1980, then January 1981 when studio availability fell through. This hasn’t been verified elsewhere, although Jack Douglas, the producer of Double Fantasy, does mention in a 2016 interview (x) that both John and Paul had signed on to work on Ringo’s next planned album, with them potentially both planning to attend a January 1981 studio session in New York. Who knows what could have happened if the worst hadn’t.

Time passed. Paul locked the door of his home studio and played (Just Like) Starting Over, the first single from Double Fantasy. Top volume. For days. Christmas came, with its inevitable reruns of Beatles films and other tributes. A fan brandishing a knife tried to break into the McCartneys’ estate. Paul put up more barbed wire and floodlights. A month later, in February 1981, he went back to work.

— Christopher Sandford, in ‘McCartney’ (2006) (x)

22.  The Long And Winding Road - Naked Version (1969)

The long and winding road // that leads to your door // Will never disappear, I've seen that road before // It always leads me here, lead me to your door

The only information Paul has really given about writing this song is that he was inspired by a road stretching up into the hills as seen from his newly-purchased farm in the Scottish Highlands (x). Which is certainly a likely inspiration for the road image, but doesn’t give anything away about, like, the deeper meaning of the song.

It’s possible that this verse refers to ‘the night we cried’ in Key West that Paul also mentions in Here Today (1982):

The wild and windy night that the rain washed away // Has left a pool of tears, crying for the day // Why leave me standing here? // Let me know the way

Is this long and winding road a journey of inevitable hardships (written as this was to the background of The Beatles’ late 60s troubles), or a journey home? (We’re on our way home)

Paul really does love a road metaphor in his songs: there’s 2001’s Lonely Road (I hear your music and it's driving me wild // Familiar rhythms in a different style… Don't want to get hurt second time around // Don't want to walk that lonely road again) (x) and then there’s 2013’s Road, which doesn’t appear on this playlist but for me is the key to unlocking The Long And Winding Road (x).

We came from nowhere // Hiding from a storm // We cling together // To keep each other warm

The road to somewhere // Stretches through the night // We follow blindly // Heading for the light

I can't see anymore // The blinding light // It's just a metaphor // I use when things aren't going right

…I′m scared to say I love you // Afraid to let you know // That the simplest of words won't come out of my mouth // Though I'm dying to let them go // Trying to let you know

…I'm still too scared to tell you // Afraid to let you see // That the simplest of words won′t come out of my mouth // Though I'm dying to set them free // Trying to let you see, how much it means to me // How much you mean to me // How much you mean to me now

-

Version notes: this is the version from Let It Be… Naked because this is Paul’s song and he does not want those women’s voices on a Beatles record (x) and because this is an intimate song from one person to another and so I wanted that wall of sound right outta here.

The ‘Naked’ take was recorded several days after the version used in Let It Be (1970), and it has this rather intriguing lyric variation:

Anyway, you’ll never know // The many ways I’ve tried - 1970 Let It Be version

Anyway, you’ve always known // The many ways I’ve tried - 1969 Naked version

John has always known, I think.

23.  Here Today (1982)

A love song to John, written very shortly after he died. 

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x)

An imagined conversation, and some shared memories; no ambiguity as to the meaning of the lyrics here.

The night we cried is about a specific event: an approaching hurricane cancelled a planned Beatles concert, meaning the band were stuck in Key West with nothing to do. After a day of drinking a lot with the band and their tour support groups (and throwing up), John and Paul sat in a motel room and had in-depth conversations. Paul has described this as the only time he and John cried together. They held each other and they cried about how much they loved each other. (Telling this anecdote in The Lyrics book ultimately leads to Paul saying we had the most intimate relationship. and I think [those moments like Key West are] what you think about when you lose a friend.)

Many, many other (heartbreaking) quotes, and attribution for Key West, from Paul about this song can be read here (x).

24.  On the Way (1980)

Well we've been travelling for a long time // And we finally finished here //  Though I said some things to hurt you // Well it was only out of fear  

Well you know I'll always love you // Everything will be alright // If I know you don't mind // The things I say // On the way

Bluesy as all hell. Paul hasn’t talked about this one very much.

(Here in the playlist For The Narrative; as this is dated 1980, I should specify for clarity’s sake that this song was written and released before John’s death.)

25.  My Brave Face (1989)

Now that I'm alone again // I can't stop breakin' down again // The simplest things set me off again // And take me to that place // Where I can't find my brave face

At least once a tour, that song just gets me.. I’m singing it, and I think I’m OK, and I suddenly realise it’s very emotional, and John was a great mate and a very important man in my life, and I miss him, you know?

— Paul McCartney on performing ‘Here Today’, 2004 (x)

The cover? Circular glasses and a bowler hat (x). (John’s famous glasses; they got “a couple of bowler hats” as their gimmick to attract lifts to hitchhike to Paris in 1961 - you can see them in the bowler hats in some of the Paris photos (x).) The video? A crazed Japanese fan has stolen Paul’s possessions, including Beatles memorabilia and his famous Hofner bass. (Hm.) The collaborator? Hitting the low harmonies alongside Paul’s singing just like John used to, which Paul described as “getting to be too much” (x). Jeez.

(Should be noted that the songwriting for this one is co-credited to Paul and Elvis Costello, Paul’s collaborator for the majority of his 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt. Let’s not take too much of a detour, but one of the reasons Paul gave for wanting to try this collaboration was that both of them shared Liverpool family roots. Their work together was fruitful in terms of output but perhaps it did ‘get a bit much’ after all - they never worked together again. You can find attribution for this and read lots more about Paul and Costello here (x).)

26.  This One (1989)

The song is basically a love song – did I ever say I love you? And if I didn’t it’s because I was waiting for a better moment.

— Paul McCartney, 1989 (x)

The ‘I love you’ part was hard to say. A part of me said, ‘Hold on. Wait a minute. Are you really going to do that?’ I finally said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to. It’s true.’

— Paul McCartney on ‘Here Today’, 1982 (x)

27.  Now and Then (2023)

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

How else to finish but with the final Beatles song?

January 1994, John Lennon’s induction ceremony into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: backstage, Yoko gives Paul cassette tapes of unheard demo material from John. Already working together on Anthology (a TV documentary/album release/book Beatles retrospective) at the time, Paul, George and Ringo built on these demos John had recorded in the late 1970s to create and release ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ together (x). They worked on a third single, but there were serious quality problems with John’s recording and George wasn’t happy to proceed with it on this basis. (Actually, what he said was is that it sounded “fucking rubbish”. “But it’s John!”, Paul reportedly countered (x).)

But Paul kept mentioning the song in interviews. “One of these days”, he said in 2012, they were going to finish it (x). 

And they did.

It’s the sound separation technology Peter Jackson used to create the 2021 Get Back documentary that made Now and Then technically possible, but it’s Paul’s dogged determination sustained over a thirty year period to release this record as a Beatles song that got it out there. John’s last words to Paul in-person, back in 1976, were Think about me every now and then, old friend (x). All the time. All the time.

Bonus Tracks

(Not on Spotify / not written by Lennon and-or McCartney / not otherwise fitting in.)

28.  The Lovers That Never Were - 1987 Demo / Geoff Emerick Mix (1987)

All of the clocks have run down. // Time's at an end. // If we can't be lovers we'll never be friends.

For the lyrics and the Beatle-esque harmonies and the raw performance. 

(We don’t have much information on who exactly wrote what between McCartney and Costello on any of these shared-credit tracks, but it seems likely from the style of lyrics here that Costello heavily contributed to this one. As I say though, we don’t know for sure.)

29.  Just Because (1975)

John’s cover of Lloyd Price’s 1957 hit. (John spent some of his ‘lost weekend’ period recording an album of rock ‘n’ roll covers, initially with Phil Spector producing. Production was, needless to say, troubled.)

For John’s ad lib during the outro of the song, not in Price’s original: There's two basses in this. I hope you appreciate it. Which bassist might John be addressing here?

Then there’s Just Because - Reprise, where John can be heard saying (25 seconds in): I'd like to say hi to Ringo, Paul and George... how are you? (and) Everybody back home, in England... what's cookin'? 

There’s also its drunk ‘n’ drugged cousin, Just Because - Rough Mix, which really is a hot fucking mess. Check the tags at the linked post for more conjecture, but John’s certainly pining for someone. Most of these lyrics are not in Price’s original, including Darling I would never // I’d never make nothing without you.

(Bonus to the bonus: John’s cover of The Ronettes’ Be My Baby, also intended for this covers album but left off of the 1975 release. Yes, back in the day The Beatles as a matter of course didn’t swap any pronouns around when performing covers, but (5 minutes in) the I need him here is so desperate-sounding. I won’t tell nobody. I won’t say a word…)

30.  I Don’t Know (Johnny, Johnny) (1960)

Two boys, 1960, Forthlin Road.

Aged 17-18 (Paul) and 19 (John), the band (not yet named The Beatles) convened twice at Paul’s place to record rehearsals on a borrowed reel-to-reel tape recorder. Not all of the lyrics are clearly decipherable, but it sure sounds like John and Paul are planning to skip town together and never look back. Let’s hope they make it.

-

A final note (if anyone on Earth has made it this far - hi, and thanks very much for reading): this isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of all McLennon-feasible songs, or unimpeachable ““arguments””! (That's impossible.) This is just a playlist I wanted to make, influenced by what I wanted to write about following a serious research deep-dive, which songs I like listening to, what I personally find most compelling, and what fitted into the playlist order narratively speaking - as its in narrative rather than (purely) chronological order, alternating between Lennon and McCartney whenever viable and beginning and ending on true jointly-written collaborations.

[menlove]

SILLY ASK. if the beatles were girls what do you think their names would've been

MAN okay so when it comes to fanfic i am a firm "i'm just keeping their names" when i do genderbends bc it's sooo dear to my heart to have genderfucky names (like a girl named "john"? stunning. no notes.) but! in actuality ...

paul was named after his father (james). so i think Girl Paul would probably be named mary, and the name "james" would've gone to mike. maybe mary pauline mccartney? and then she could still get called paul/paulie

john was named after his grandfather john "jack" lennon & winston churchill. so going with that, i'm proposing jacquelyn "jackie" elizabeth lennon- after the queen (who at the time of his birth would've just been the princess, but still a pretty popular name for girls at the time if i'm remembering another research dive i did for a different character) & after her grandfather still. that way, it keeps the j sound in her name! a lot of people like joan and i think that's cute too! but i think jackie works better To Me

can't find out why george was named george rip. but i'll propose georgie/georgina- simple enough! he doesn't seem to be named after anyone in his family, so there's that. however, to make things fun, i did look up the popularity of the name "george" in 1943 in the uk- 14th most popular! and the 14th most popular girl name was margaret. so for shit's and giggles, i'm actually going margaret. & this would be hysterical in comparison to "jackie" elizabeth lennon bc they'd have the names of the royal sisters and i think this would tickle them

ringo was also named after his father, so like paul, i'm saying she'd be named after her mother! so elsie starkey :) since ringo is a stage name based off his rings though, i think her stage name/nickname would still be ringo!

[bebemoon]

official pfw s/s ‘25 schedule

23 sept | weinsanto, pressiat, ruibuilt, vaquera, julie kegels, cfcl

24 sept | alainpaul, maitrepierre, ruohan, marie adam-leenaerdt, mame kurogouchi, christian dior, florentina leitner, germanier, anrealage, vaillant, ester manas, saint laurent

25 sept | courrèges, rochas, the row, litkovska, zomer, dries van noten, cecilie bahnsen, rabanne, meryll rogge, acne studios, reverie by caroline hu, balmain

26 sept | chloé, didu, christian wijnants, gauchere, nehera, mugler, heliot emil, uma wang, christopher esber, rick owens, boyarovskaya, schiaparelli, casablanca

27 sept | maxhosa africa, leonard paris, gabriele colangelo, magda butrym, loewe, issey miyake, jitrois, giambattista valli, nina ricci, vetements, mossi, yohji yamamoto, victoria beckham

28 sept | junya watanabe, barbara bui, carven, noir kei ninomiya, vivienne westwood, dawei, hermès, paloma wool, elie saab, comme des garçons, kimhekim, vautrait, ann demeulemeester, mcqueen

29 sept | undercover, junko shimada, niccolo pasqualetti, duran lantink, akris, valentino, ottolinger, margaret howell, atlein, paula canovas del vas, enfants riches déprimés, isabel marant

3o sept | ungaro, stella mccartney, lutz huelle, zimmermann, gabriela hearst, veronique leroy, shiatzy chen, sitiuationist, sacai, aigle, rokh, pierre cardin

o1 oct | chanel, dice kayek, peter do, kiko kostadinov, agnes b., miu miu, xuly.bët, abra, lacoste, ujoh, louis vuitton

[tavolgisvist]

It was at Stoky Wood* (badge - black and yellow, with a picture of a Spitfire flying over the River Mersey) that Paul and I saw our first film. We were seated on long wooden benches watching Crime Buster Dick Barton**, a great radio hero of ours, when it became too much for Paul. In the flickering half light I watched with great amusement as Big Brother stumbled over me and his pals to exit screen left, scared out of his tiny mind. He wasn't scared when it came to smaller things such as bullies, however, and many's the time he came to my rescue in the school play yard. 'Big Brother have a use after all,' I thought.

*Stockton Wood Primary School, Speke, Liverpool **Dick Barton: Special Agent, was released in May 1948 Btw, Paul's 'I have another memory, of hiding from someone, then hitting them over the head with an iron bar' is the story about Stoky Wood too (Paul was at Stockton Wood Primary School from September 1947 until July 1951)

My memories of brother and I are of two independent little chaps, but Uncle and Auntie,s remembrances are of 'two right little swine', always up to mischief, or with their backs to the wall saying, 'We won't… WE WON'T!' I'm sure they're just a might confused. I do remember a few instances, however, which might give their memories some validity. Like the memory of Paul and me in 72 Western speeding up the growth of next door's apples by throwing stones at the apple tree, and then vigorously denying it. The stones on the other side let us down! Memories of being boss of my own gang in the later Stockton Wood years and charging against the 'enemy' across the school yard in full war cry (obviously why the headmistress Miss Margaret A. Thomas, who used to make the school toys herself, advised the world that one day I would be a 'Leader of men').*** And the came an older bully unto the yard who hit little girls and maketh them cry, and it behove me to teach unto him a lesson: Seeing that I was far too young and weedy to challenge him personally, I chose a friend to talk for me…(no, not Paul)…a housebrick! Being, as I've said, a holy lad it wasn't too difficult to levitate the brick up into the air…over the Bully's thick head…and cut (snip!) the invisible strings. After this bloody, awful incident, he didn't bully little girls, or anyone else for that matter, ever more.

(Mike McCartney, 1981, Thank U Very Much. Mike McCartney's Family Album)

Part (I), (II), (III), (IV), (V), (VI)

***'I remember the headmistress saying how good the two boys were with younger children,' says Jim, 'always sticking up for them. She said Michael was going to be a leader of men. I think this was because he was always arguing. Paul did things much quieter. He had much more nous. Mike stuck his neck out. Paul always avoided trouble.'

(The Beatles: The Authorised Biography by Hunter Davies, 2010, Updated Edition)

They were four tough kids from Liverpool who’d learned their craft playing in hotel-cum-brothels in Hamburg. I mean, they were tough. They grew up in Liverpool, which was a tough city. It’s like growing up in Detroit or somewhere. Somewhere, that toughness always comes out. <…> This just goes back to where they came from. Liverpool is a tough town. I wouldn't particularly want to run into Paul McCartney in a dark alley, if he didn't like me.

(Michael Lindsay-Hogg, May 2024, interview with Rob Sheffield for Rolling Stones)

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to appoint Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, GCVO, to be Royal Companion of The Order of the Companions of Honour. 

The Companion of Honour (founded 1917) is a special award granted to those who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time. There at 65 members at any one time. The Order of the Companions of Honour was founded by George V to recognise services of national importance. Its motto is, "In action faithful and in honour clear". Catherine is the newest, and youngest, member of the Companions of Honour.

Ranks and Post-nominals: Member (CH)

Current members include: Sir David Attenborough, David Hockney, Sir John Major, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Lord Coe, Dame Maggie Smith, Lady Mary Peters, Sir Paul McCartney, Delia Smith, Margaret Atwood, Sir Elton John, Sir Quentin Blake, Sir Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Dame Anna Wintour, Dame Shirley Bassey

[good-to-drive]

The Lady Bugs Re: Names

I always think we miss a trick giving The Female Beatles (or, if I may, The Lady Bugs) names like Paula and Georgia instead of something new. What follows is a detailed proposal (not really) for The Lady Bugs Re: Names.

RINGO

I always like the idea of Roxanne Starkey -> Roxy Starr (as a little pun on rockstar), but I think you also have to consider the possibility that she just goes by Starr all by itself. I'm not sure mononymous celebrities were a thing back then, but maybe she starts an early trend and next thing you know everyone's doing it. Like all trends, it would eventually become cringey, but Starr wouldn't notice or care.

GEORGE

Given that this is The Catholic Beatle, my first thought is Geo -> Jo -> St Joanna. But imho the female counterpart to St George is actually St Margaret, who, while she never fought a dragon, was eaten and barfed up by a dragon. I know that doesn't sound too great, but female saints almost never get to do anything cool so dragon vomit is actually pretty exciting.

PAUL

Wouldn't it be SO fucked up if her name was Julia? To just crystallize in the most heavy-handed, on-the-nose way possible that all of Girljohn’s relationships with women are in the shadow of her grief for never having had a positive maternal figure. But this is supposed to be about Girlpaul, not Girljohn, and Paul's full name is James Paul McCartney II so Girlpaul can be named Mary Patricia after her mother and go by Patricia or Patty.

JOHN

It’s tempting to give her an alluring, urbane name, but I really do feel she's one of these girls who wasn't given a name that suits her and has to cycle through a few options before she hits a good one. Kind of a Ladybird thing, except Girljohn would never idolize Ladybird Johnson, who is the only Ladybird I can ever think of. As a teenager she'd favor names from mythology and literature, Cassandra and Morganna and such, and then settle on something elegant, unique, and a tiny bit salacious, like Electra (a la the Electra complex). Regardless, Mimi will pointedly call her Marge, and Electra won't stand up to her.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

📋 𝐌𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐌 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐀𝐑𝐎, 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟒𝟎𝐱𝟒𝟎 📋

📌 ARO jam recipients (as of May 27th, 2024)

Tracy Robbins (designer, wife of Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins) *

Delfina Balquier (Argentine socialite, wife of Nacho Figueras) * and Nacho Figueras (professional polo player) *

Kelly Mckee Zajfen (friend, Alliance of Moms founder) *

Mindy Kaling (actress and comedian) *

Tracee Ellis Ross (actress, daughter of Diana Ross)

Abigail Spencer (friend, Suits co-star) *

Chrissy Teigen (television personality, wife of John Legend)

Kris Jenner ('Momager') *

Garcelle Beauvais (actress, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) *

Heather Dorak (friend, yoga instructor) *

📌 Archetypes podcast guests

Serena Williams 🏆

Mariah Carey 👑

Mindy Kaling (actress and comedian) *

Margaret Cho (comedian and actress)

Lisa Ling (journalist and tv personality)

Deepika Padukone (Indian actress)

Jenny Slate (actress and comedian)

Constance Wu (actress)

Paris Hilton (entrepreneur, socialite, activist)

Iliza Shlesinger (comedian and actress)

Issa Rae (actress and writer)

Ziwe (comedian and writer)

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (former wife of Canadian PM Trudeau)

Pamela Adlon (actress)

Sam Jay (comedian and writer)

Mellody Hobson (President and co-CEO of $14.9B Ariel Investments, Chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation, wife of George Lucas)

Victoria Jackson (entrepreneur, wife of Bill Guthy: founder of Guthy-Renker, leading direct marketing company)

Jameela Jamil (actress, television host)

Shohreh Aghdashloo (Iranian and American actress)

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (actress and singer)

Candace Bushnell (Sex and The City writer)

Trevor Noah (South African comedian)

Andy Cohen (talk show host)

Judd Apatow (director, producer, screenwriter)

source

📌 40x40 participants

Adele 🌟

Amanda Gorman (poet and activist)

Amanda Nguyen (activist)

Ayesha Curry (actress, cooking television personality)

Ciara (singer and actress)

Deepak Chopra (author and alternative medicine advocate)

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris (former Surgeon General of California)

Elaine Welteroth (former Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue)

Dr. Ibram X Kendi (professor and anti-racism activist)

Fernando Garcia (creative director of Oscar de la Renta)

Gabrielle Union (actress)

Gloria Steinem (feminist journalist and social-political activist)

Hillary Clinton (politician, wife of former US President Bill Clinton)

Katie Couric (journalist) *

Kerry Washington (actress)

Chef José Andrés (founder of World Central Kitchen)

Melissa McCarthy (actress)

Princess Eugenie (member of British Royal Family)

Priyanka Chopra (actress)

Sarah Paulson (actress)

Sofia Carson (actress)

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (former wife of Canadian PM)

Stella McCartney (fashion designer, daughter of Paul McCartney)

Dr. Theresa "Tessy" Ojo - CBE, FRSA (Diana Award CEO)

Tracee Ellis Ross (actress, daughter of Diana Ross)

Unconfirmed - Edward Enninful (former Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue)

Unconfirmed - Daniel Martin (makeup artist) *

An official list of all "40x40" participants was never disclosed

source 1 // source 2 // source 3

📌 Notes:

Names with an asterisk (*) indicate that they follow ARO on Instagram

Notably missing from these lists: Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and wife Nicole Avant, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, Beyoncé, Tina Knowles, Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Kevin Costner, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia Rossi *, Brooke Shields, John Travolta, Kelly Rowland, Holly Robinson Peete, Misan Harriman *, Michael Bublé

Wedding guests missing from these lists: Jessica Mulroney, George and Amal Clooney, David and Victoria Beckham, Idris Elba and Sabria Dhowre, James Blunt and Sofia Wellesley, Janina Gavankar, Elton John and David Furnish, James Corden and Julia Carey, Patrick J. Adams and the rest of the cast of Suits, Joss Stone, Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley, Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford [Source]

Sunshine Sachs must've called in a LOT of favors to get so many famous names on board the Archetypes Podcast and the 40x40 project. Vanity projects that went... nowhere.

Without Sunshine Sachs, IMO it's highly unlikely that M will ever be able to reach the same level of celebrity access on her own.

If there are any names missing from these lists, please comment below 👇

Post link

author: SeptièmeSens

submitted: May 27, 2024 at 06:44PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[wastemanjohn]

tagged by @wodkapudding ty darling

last song: i'm hanging out with my mum and all we are allowed to listen to is wings and the beatles. she went to see paul mccartney this week and now paul mccartney has taken over my life too. in the last few hours i have heard every song paul mccartney ever even breathed near. send help.

favourite colour: pink. every other colour is inadequate.

last book: margaret atwood - old babes in the wood

last movie: i started american mary the other night but then i fell asleep lol

last show: i'm on my thousandth house rewatch

sweet/spicy/savory: sweet

relationship status: single and not ready to mingle go away

last thing i googled: call me maybe drill remix (don't ask)

current obsession: this one deanbobby scene i am so fucking stuck on, specifically morrisons branded fruity fizzy water and obnoxious false lashes

looking forward to: spending lots of time with friends and family over the next couple of weeks, finally getting this FUCKING fic done hopefully and and the stuff i have planned in 2025

tagging @saintmarywinchester @laikuh @setyourfireonme @mandymovie @briefcasejuice @weaksspot @luulapants @bossymarmalade

[scotianostra]

On November 1st 1889 a wall collapsed at Templetons Greenhead Factory Calton, tragically taking the lives of 29 woman.

For some reason this didn’t flag up yesterday.......

At about 5.15pm that evening, unusually high winds caused a large section of the new western extension to collapse into the adjoining weaving shed. The workforce was composed almost entirely of East End women and many were buried in the ruins.

The Eastern and Central Fire Brigades attended the scene under Superintendent William Paterson and they were assisted by the Glasgow Salvage Corps and policemen in their search for survivors. The firemen and Salvage Corps were replaced at 7pm by organized search parties consisting of workers from the factory. Although many women were rescued, twenty-nine died women and girls in the rubble.

Maggie Shields was a power loom weaver at Templetons Greenhead Factory Calton , who went to her work on the 1st November 1889 and became one of the 29 young girls to loose there lives when the ornate wall that was being built collapsed during a storm and demolished the weaving shed where Maggie and her co workers were working. Maggie was 22 years old and lived at 10 Gibson Street Calton The Glasgow Herald on the 2nd November reported that Maggie was missing at that time.

Their names were, according to the Evening Times:

Margaret Arthur, 20 Margaret Blair, 16 Helen Bradley, 21; Agnes Broadfoot, 21 Elizabeth Broadfoot, 17 Margaret Cassidy, 18 Lilias Davitt, 19 Agnes Dickson, 16 Jane Duffie, 20 Janet Gibson, 16 Dinah Gillies, 19 Jean Glass, 20 Sarah Groves, 22 Margaret McCartney, 17 Minnie McGarrigle, 24 Agnes McGregor, 17 Martha Mackie, 20 Elizabeth McMillan, 15 Rose Ann McMillan, 21 Jeannie Marshall, 22 Jemima Morris, 23 Grace McQuillan, 19 Margaret Shields, 22 Elizabeth Sinclair, 25 Mary Ann Stewart, 16 Annie Strathearn, 19 Mary Turnbull, 15 Ellen Wallace, 23 Annie Wilson, age 14

A memorial garden at the corner of London road and Tobago street is believed to have been built to commemorate the death of these 29 girls and on the wall was a plaque with the poem.

‘Green buds for the hopes of tomorrow Fair flowers, for the joy of today Sweet memory, the fragrance they leave us As time gently flows on its way’

The reason I say believed is that the garden seems to have come into existence many years later in 1954, and no records exist to it coming about.

There’s a wee bit about the memorial garden here https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/13259515.makeover-for-memorial-to-29-women-crushed-in-glasgow-workplace-disaste