Lennon & McCartney seen in a fresh, stirring and original new light by Ian Leslie

Ian Leslie posted his ‘64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney’ in 2020 and the viral reaction to its piercing and original points encouraged him to write ‘John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs’. Do we need another Beatles book? We do if it’s this one! It’s exceptionally good and highly recommended. The conventional wisdom for decades was that John was the tormented, anti-establishment genius and Paul the effortlessly tune-churning, bourgeois poser. Ian’s book points up that their deep devotion to each other and telepathic, close relationship was the root of the supernatural partnership that made those songs possible. The two of them were, as he puts it, “the bubble within the bubble – and the deeper you get, the more mysterious the story becomes.” He talks to us here about …  … their powerplays and their underlying rivalries for the leadership of the group. … why the Beatles were in another league - “like Shakespeare versus Johnson or Marlowe”. … how a songwriting duo where both wrote words and music gave them an extraordinary advantage. … the writing of Yesterday and John’s fear that Paul might no longer need the group and leave. … Paul’s discovery of his “superpowers” between ‘64 and ’66. … how current groups now have “intimacy councillors” and in any other band the unmanageable Lennon would have been ejected. … In My Life, Hey Jude and other songs they wrote about each other. … how there was “an element of their fathers about them, of stiff upper lip” and displays of physical affection were rare. … Paul as “the omnivorous culture-vore” in avant garde London while John was horizontal in suburbia. … why Paul’s pace and creativity must have been psychologically punishing for the others. … and how the emotional landscape shifted with the arrival of Yoko and Linda. Order Ian’s book here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Paul-Story-Beatles-decades/dp/0571376118Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.