#johnandpaul

[monkberries]

saw this on my fyp and i-

[noiivis]

Idk

[waveofahand]

John and Paul, Poignant and Complete

This image has always struck me as so poignantly revealing of their whole relationship. John is fuzzy and undone, Paul is watchful and at the ready. John looks like someone who is emotionally all over the place -- nearly impossible to make out, so to speak. And Paul is so contained and hyper-aware of him, as though he is ready for anything, accepting of anything, that I wouldn't mess with him. And the hand, as though calling John back, back to him, pulling him back and away from whatever mood, emotion or feeling is leading John off into God knows what. Just -- for me -- a very poignant and complete portrait of these two, in spirit.

[theoriginallittledarling]

Such cuties

two of us

[theoriginallittledarling]

I’ve always heard My Brave Face as a song about Linda after she passed until I found out that Linda was still alive when Paul wrote it. Then I looked it up and saw the cover for it when it was released as a single:

Sorry for the terrible quality but the important thing is the circle glasses he’s holding. Almost like there was someone in his life that he lost who was famous for wearing circle glasses. Apparently Paul has been living a lie, wants to go bury his head in this person’s pillow, and can’t stop breaking down because this person is gone.

Edit: some have pointed out that he’s also wearing a bowler hat, which he and John wore when they would hitch hike together because they were more likely to be picked up (and they did hitch hike to Paris for John’s birthday in ‘61 which they both always looked back on with fondness even through their estrangement).

[monkberries]

john and paul post-breakup

[franklyimissparis]

the image of paul writing here, there, and everywhere at kenwood while john is sleeping and he’s waiting for him to wake up will haunt me till the day i die. just the softest and most romantic but also bittersweet picture. john awaking from his nap to find that paul has written one of the most beautiful love songs of all time at his poolside. and it being inspired by “god only knows” by the beach boys. and john telling paul while they were shooting help that he liked it better than any of his songs on the record. and john still saying in 1980 it’s one of his favourite beatles songs. and it being paul’s favourite song he’s ever written and him always bringing up john’s fondness for it. ripping my hair out.

[theoriginallittledarling]

COME ON MCLENNONERS THIS IS THE BIG ONE

Best RPF Ship - Round 6 Match 2

[johns-prince]

“John was determined to be open and friendly. George, however, seemed edgy, and all of his replies were curt and had a hostile edge to them. A long hour went by, filled with off- and- on talk about the tour. Then John finally hinted that he would be willing to play with George when he appeared at Madison Square Garden. “Well, maybe I can come and help ya,” he said.

“The last time John Lennon set foot on a concert stage, it was Thanksgiving 1974, making a surprise appearance with his friend Elton John at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

. . . .

John announces, “We thought we’d do one last number so I can get out of here and be sick. This is a number of an old estranged fiancé of mine called Paul.”

They do “I Saw Her Standing There,” their big finale. Even in the raw recording Elton released as a B-side, you can hear John get caught up in the crowd’s excitement. It’s his night to shine onstage in New York, for the first time in years and the last time ever.

Why is he doing a Paul song? Why is he making this moment about him and Paul, when all anybody wants is to cheer and shower John with love? But in the middle of the crowd, he calls Paul’s name.” 

[Rob Sheffield, Dreaming The Beatles]

“That’d be nice.” George glowered at John. Then George’s anger really burst forth. “Where were you when I needed you!” he snapped. It was the first of a series of explosions, each of them followed by moments of tense silence. “I did everything you said. But you weren’t there,” he repeated.

Their relationship would, for a time, be strengthened through their meditative practices. “Just by the look in his eyes I felt we were connected,” Harrison opined. Their intriguing bond was strengthened during a shared journey of inner realisation towards higher consciousness. “John and I spent a lot of time together from then on,” Harrison would later recall, “and I felt closer to him than all the others. I understood him, and I believe our thoughts were much more in line with each other.”

[Come Together: Lennon and McCartney in the Seventies by Richard White]

“You always knew how to reach me,” John would reply evenly to each of these outbursts.

There was no doubt in my mind, watching those two, that George’s anger with John had been accumulating for years. It was exactly the kind of situation that John usually ran from. But I could see in that moment that he loved George enough to remain calm and still as George drilled away at him.

George said that repeatedly in the past he had sung what John wanted him to sing, said what John wanted him to say. Because John wanted it, George had gone along with the decision to go with Allen Klein. In the nearly four years since, John had virtually ignored him, a fact that pained George deeply. George’s voice grew even more harsh as he blasted John for his sudden appearance, as if out of nowhere, to offer an evening’s worth of help.

Yet again George said furiously, “I did everything you said, but you weren’t there.”

Jim Keltner: “George was very, very heavily influenced by John, all of John’s thinking and the way John did things in the world, and the way he handled his Beatledom, you know. I think that George was very affected by that.”

Suddenly he leveled his gaze at John. “You know, John,” he snarled, “I want to see your eyes. I can’t see you eyes.”

Paul McCartney: “One of my great memories of John is from when we were having some argument. I was disagreeing and we were calling each other names. We let it settle for a second and then he lowered his glasses and he said: “It’s only me.” And then he put his glasses back on again. To me, that was John. Those were the moments when I actually saw him without the facade, the armour, which I loved as well, like anyone else. It was a beautiful suit of armour. But it was wonderful when he let the visor down and you’d just see the John Lennon that he was frightened to reveal to the world.”

John was wearing his sunglasses. He reached up and quickly took them off and put on his regular glasses. He was willing to do anything to pacify George. But the gesture was not enough. It looked as though George was going to slap John.

“I still can’t see your eyes.” Suddenly he reached over, yanked John’s glasses from his face, and dashed them to the floor. His face was a mask of fury and contempt; I had never seen an angrier man. George’s anger even paralyzed John.

Paul McCartney: “Whatever bad things John said about me, he would also slip his glasses down to the end of his nose and say, ’I love you’. That’s really what I hold on to. That’s what I believe. The rest is showing off.”

I knew how panicky John became when he could not see. I expected him to jump up and hit George. I was terrified that George might be satisfied only by a fistfight.

Paul McCartney: “I wrote ‘Here Today’ about John. It’s just a song saying, you know, ‘If you were here today you’d probably say what I’m doing is a load of crap. But you wouldn’t mean it, cos you like me really, I know.’ It’s one of those ‘Come out from behind your glasses, look at me,’ things. It was a love song, really, not to John but a love song about John, about my relationship with him. I was trying to exorcise the demons in my own head.”

[Conversations with McCartney by Paul Du Noyer]

Yet, miraculously, John stayed calm. There was long silence. Then George returned to the basic them of his anger, but I could see the worse moment had passed.

Finally, well after midnight, it all wound down. John and I were bone weary, and we took a suite right there at the Plaza.

When we were alone John told me, “I saw George goin’ through pain and I know what pain is about. So I let him do it. I’ll go out and help him or whatever it is he wants me to do. If he wants me to go out on stage, I will.”

—Loving John, May Pang

[Inspired by this post]

[theoriginallittledarling]

“[Ram] has McCartney’s best songs on it…and it was only for John. He couldn’t give a shit what anyone else thought, this was all for John.”

- my dad

[monkberries]

Been idly clicking back through old interviews with 80s paul, and his 'if I'd died instead of John' refrain has a ring of really awful contemplation to it that made me start thinking about it seriously, what with now & then and all, that if Paul had died instead of John, I don't think they'd be releasing 'the last beatles song' or, collaborating for anthologies. It's ghoulish to think much less say but I really think he'd either be in prison or dead, despite everything he had to live for.

I think it depends on when you're talking about Paul dying whether I agree with this or not. I think if Paul had gone when they were younger, like during the Beatle years perhaps, then yeah, John could very easily have flown off the rails in whatever capacity (and vice versa tbh). In 1980, though... I dunno. He could have gone off the rails, but it would be much less likely with Yoko and Sean and Ringo and George still around. He survived all those other deaths of people close to him before, I see no real reason why he couldn't survive the death of Paul in 1980, when they had been so (comparatively) estranged for so long.

Anthology certainly wouldn't have looked the same, but at the same time, John could be incredibly nostalgic and he might have been interested in preserving his and the others' views on events.

[cheesenchalk]

im ignoring any and all news of potential casting in favor of lucid fever-dream-hallucinating my own pitch for a beatles biopic that follows ringo as the main perspective character as he meets the other's in hamburg, when he's with rory storm, and older and more experienced and the beatles are all intimidated by him and trying to impress him so he's introduced to them at their Most ThemTM -- paul at his most McCharmly, John at his toughest of teddy boys, george trying harder than ever to play at the grown up who belongs there

So both ringo and the audience start off getting to know these people as the most one-dimensional, performative versions of themselves, almost the caricatures that stories usually end up painting them as anyways because that's what theyre acting like at first, but again both ringo and the audience slowly peel away the layers of persona as they watch things fall apart, and build back up, because this eclectic little band of boys is a complete mess with a rhythm section that should probably be in jail for crimes against music but there's something sparking under the surface, just waiting for that last cog in the machine to click into place to become something

and as time goes on and they all have their ups and downs, the more they spend time around each other as two bands of familiar faces from home while living in a foreign place and get to know each other bit by bit, it uncovers the little glimmers of who these people actually are. the john that's only tough because he's still running from grief, and chasing the relationships in his life he thinks he can hold onto. The paul that isn't as charming when hes lonely and furious because hes ready to fight tooth and nail -- and eventually just fists -- for the promise of this band he dropped everything for and nobody seems to be taking as seriously as he is. The george who wants to be more than the spare part to the duo who have already decided that theyre it and dont have room for anything else

he sits in for a few performances while their drummer is who-knows-where. and not only does everything start to fit into place musically, but he brings both a levity and a steadiness that they'd been missing, the reliable heartbeat in the background that keeps it all going

and theres something compelling and electric about them that drags you along and won't stop that just isnt entirely there in the more polished band he belongs to now, so a few years later when hes offered a little higher salary and a place with them, he takes it

etc etc continue that same process of breaking down barriers and finding your way into already long-established dynamics and getting more complete pictures of who they are as a unit and individuals through the creative process, through public scrutiny, through the chaos and euphoria and horrors of success, through the incomparable connection and intimacy of becoming one head of the monster, and the exhaustion and turmoil of what its like to be one thing just to eventually tear itself apart

in my head the ideal version is a show or even a miniseries so theres more room to spread the story out compared to a movie. but a large part of the purpose of creating a biopic in the first place is outsiders wanting to know what the reality of being in the belly of the beast is like, and learning about the people within, so why no one has ever utilized the framing of the one member of the band whose experience of joining was exactly that....

[waveofahand]

"Mums, Yer Boys" reaches 10,000 reads!

10,000 reads for "Mums, Yer Boys are Cryin'" which is a terrible title but a sweet story from 'way back when I first started writing fanfics -- this one was meant to be a one-shot, like everything else I'd written up til then, but somehow the story of the teenaged Paul searching for John after Julia's death turned into a second chapter where he takes control (and care) of both John and a dour, miserable Mimi and that turned into a chapter about how empty and lonely their lives feel and then suddenly it seemed like I had absolutely no control over the story of these two young characters: There is 17 year old John Lennon -- wild in grief, angry, lashing out and desperate to find a place where he belongs, desperate to figure out HOW to find a life he can stand to live, in a world where he can never fit in to. With Julia's death he is pretty much convinced he has nothing, is nothing in this miserable post-war Liverpool world. He is mean; he is funny; he is profane; he is needy. John can't see or identify his targets but he sprays his anger like a machine gun, not caring where it hits.

There's is 16 year-old Paul McCartney, precisely the opposite -- self-contained, private, all tucked in on himself and watchful. He is constantly on the lookout to see how he can control what is going on around him. He carries his own anger -- both at Liverpool and the world around him -- but it's entirely focused, better-directed, and dangerously quiet. He is kind; he is watchful; he is bossy; he is anxious; he is forgiving. If John is a machine gun, Paul is a suicide bomber who keeps resetting his timer. Together, both of them find a safe place to put their heartache, and the first stirrings of a longing that neither of them fully understand yet, but are tentatively ready to explore.

There is Mimi Smith, cold, snobby, snippy, unable to show herself (or the depths of her love) to her troubled nephew, and repeatedly thrown off her guard by the sheep-eyed, common boy who never lets her off the hook.

There is Julia, present only in death -- at her laying out, where John falls apart; at her funeral, which Paul attends while all in his head. There is Jim McCartney, stern, too quick with his hands, but capable of compassion, and even to admit his own failings, in time. There is George Harrison. A bit grubby. Always hungry, easily called out but a sure friend.

There is even Auntie Jin and her bowlful of "Irish witchery..." I've always been very grateful that people like this story, which probably could use some editing but I've never touched it. It just kind of tumbled from my keyboard and has always felt "true" to me in a way I can't explain, so I've just let it be. THANK YOU for reading it, and for some really wonderful, encouraging comments. You can read the whole story at A03.

And truly, thank you for reading this story and keeping it alive. Some it helped to build "Carry that Weight." This talented artist created this image several years ago. Not for the story but ... it really is perfectly suited to the final chapter.

[theoriginallittledarling]

The water damage 🥺

Tonight I’m thinking about how in the original lyrics for Here Today the lyrics weren't even "if you were here today" they were "if you were here with me" but Paul crossed it out ...

[muzaktomyears]

cannot believe that my first introduction to true Beatles fandom was my best friend in primary school taking me under her wing (I knew the main songs but virtually nothing about the band itself) and getting us to play 'the Beatles' every breaktime, in which she'd be John and I'd be Paul. There was no Ringo, as far as I remember? George appeared sometimes as a baby we had to look after.

[franklyimissparis]

tim i wish you were born a girl - of montreal / paul mccartney 1985 interview with exclusiv (transcript by @amoralto) / john lennon’s introduction to “i saw here standing there” played live with elton john at madison square garden, 1974