JOHN & PAUL

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Ian Leslie offers a unique view of the history of the Beatles in John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs. The volume focuses on the titular Beatles, with Leslie noting that by focusing on them "George and Ringo have been pushed to the side of the story." But his focus is not just on Lennon and McCartney, it is an attempt to connect the lyrics written by the two men, individually and together, into an analysis of their personal relationship.

The book is broken into forty-three chapters, each named for a song written by Lennon, McCartney, or both. Leslie uses the songs of these titles and the songs' lyrics in an attempt to describe the songwriters' aromantic relationship which, nevertheless Leslie describes as a love story, which it is, including an eventual sense of betrayal. The chapters cover their early years as they tried to get the band started, their trips to Hamburg, and eventually the increase in writing separately, which Leslie ties to McCartney's residence in London while Lennon (and Harrison and Starr) bought a home in the countryside. Without seeing each other constantly, Lennon and McCartney began to have different experiences, with McCartney active in the artistic London scene and Lennon living the life of a hermit, first with Cynthia Lennon and later with Yoko Ono.

From the beginning, Leslie appears to be something of a Paul McCartney partisan, which isn't entirely surprising since he notes that this book grew out of an article he wrote entitled "64 Reasons to Celebrate Paul McCartney." Nevertheless, he does not dismiss Lennon's importance as a song writer or his influence on McCartney and his depiction of Lennon seems to be close to many other's depiction of him. Leslie tends to paint Lennon as somewhat irrational and given over to his insecurities while McCartney is depicted as being more driving and better at hiding his insecurities, although Leslie does note that McCartney has complained about perceiving Lennon's lack of positive response to his solo work, without wondering about his own reciprocal support for Lennon. However, it is important to note that Leslie is attempting to get at the nature of Lennon and McCartney's relationship which can best be summed up as incredibly complex as it grew from a collaborative friendship closer than brothers to a not-always friendly rivalry. An intriguing note that Leslie includes is the concept that LSD could completely change the way the user interacts with the world. Taken with the timing of the souring of the Lennon-McCartney relationship, it raises the question of how much their differing views of LSD impacted their relationship.

The later portions of the book offer a view of the breakup of the Beatles which focuses on the difference between the two as individuals. Leslie discusses the mythology of the Beatles that grew up around them. Part of the mythology is the idea that Ono broke the Beatles up, which he does not appear to give credence to. He notes that the idea that McCartney wrote sappy songs and Lennon wrote series songs came from the image Lennon and Ono pushed in a series of Interviews while McCartney was focusing more on music than on publicity. Finally, there is the cult of Lennon, which arose after Lennon's murder, and which McCartney had to learn how to navigate since the beatification of Lennon came at his expense.

Leslie bases his work on numerous interviews given by the Beatles and their circle over the years, books about the Beatles, and his close reading of the lyrics. While he makes strong arguments that their lyrics can be seen as references to the state of their friendship when the songs were written, it is important to take those arguments with a grain of salt. It is possible that the songs were written, consciously or subconsciously, to reflect their friendship or turmoil, but it can also be reading too much into the lyrics.

In a world where there are numerous books about the Beatles, from volumes covering individual years to works which focus on every little detail of the Beatles up to the point where Ringo joined the group, Leslie does offer a unique way of looking at the band, or at least at McCartney and Lennon. He presents something that begins as a healthy, close friendship between two men, turns into a highly successful and lucrative collaboration, and ends with them attempted to rebuild their friendship following the acrimony of a falling out. His version of Lennon and McCartney never felt they had to hide their love away, but rather they were able to use their love for each other to build a band, as well as music that would endure long after the band ended.

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