55 years later, Paul McCartney says girl who said she loved you would now prefer to just be friends
These are the thoughts I wake up with, friends.
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John was powerfully influenced by songwriters like Arthur Alexander ("Anna"
, and that surfaced in songs like "This Boy."
Easily the most powerful track on "Rock & Roll," his final album before that 5-year long era in the Dakota prior to "Double Fantasy," was his cover of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." It's the perfect cover tune to match the Lennon songwriting style...optimism shrouded in turmoil.
John wrote songs like "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," Paul wrote songs like "Good Day Sunshine."
When they met in the middle with their songwriting, that's where the magic happened. For the most part, their post-Beatles recollections of who wrote what have matched, for the most part. Even on a song like "Yesterday," which was 100% Paul...written by him, performed by him, no Beatle involvement...when he sings lines like "There's a shadow hanging over me," you imagine that if Lennon had approached the same subject matter, it would been closer to one of the "primal scream" songs on that first Plastic Ono Band album. The irony, of course, is that Paul came up with "Helter Skelter," which some people credit as being one of the first heavy metal songs.
No easy way to put those lads in a box when it comes to defining their individual and collective styles.
i wouldn't over-simplify the underpinnings of Lennon and McCartney's individual and collective songwriting styles, but I'd say that McCartney was fully committed to the "craft of songwriting," while Lennon viewed it as more of a means to an end, a channel of expression.
Case in point...Lennon often wrote songs that were every bit as "crafted" as McCartney. The most stunning aspect of "Double Fantasy" was that he had returned to a more "Beatlesque" version of songs. After his five year absence following an album of cover songs and the infamous "Lost Weekend" in Los Angeles, there was little hope that he'd return with anything significant. And, he did.
But "the moment" often took precedent over fine-tuning the end result. The best example would be "Instant Karma," an idea he had in one day, followed by a call to the musicians and the final product complete by the end of the day. Then there was the famous / infamous "Some Time In New York" album, often derided as the least of his works, with the less-than-polished Elephant's Memory as his backing band, and a set of songs that went for an immediate political gut-punch.
With McCartney, the word "slight" often appears in reference to his solo work...albums like the first Wings album, "Wild Life," and primitive pop ditties like "Mumbo" and "Bip Bop." The best moment had to come when he wrote "Silly Love Songs" in response to the assertion that his main interest was writing...silly love songs.
But every time one tries to "define" their styles, they offer something to crush the logic. McCartney released "My Brave Face," the most Beatles-saturated song of his solo career, at a time when the marketplace was flooded with Beatles "tributes" and Beatles-influenced bands. He took heat for it, and his response was "If there's anyone entitled to write a song that sounds like The Beatles, wouldn't that be me?"
