JOHN AND PAUL

 John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie, © 2025, 448 pgs.

Love the Beatles but never really read a book about them before. This is less a 'Beatles' book and focuses more on the friendship of the chief songwriters, John and Paul. Each chapter is named after one of their songs and talks about what was going on for the group at the time and what the dynamic was between Lennon and McCartney. Lots of good takeaways here, but as close as the two were, they also had a continuous game of trying to out-song the other--John wrote Strawberry Fields, Paul wrote Penny Lane. Paul wrote Yesterday, John wrote In My Life. They were constantly inspiring and feeding off each other, which resulted in them becoming the greatest American songwriting duo since the Gershwin brothers. When you think about it, the amount of time they wrote together and how many hits they produced were unheard of at the time--they single-handedly changed the face of rock and roll and celebrity within a decade--they still hold the record for most number one hits on the Billboard 100. The author is very empathetic to both artists, dismantling some of the misleading myths that came to dominate the press while also detailing their struggles with drugs and depression. At it's core, this is very much a book about male friendships. Really loved this book, well-written and researched--couldn't put it down. 

Days That I'll Remember

Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time with John Lennon and Yoko Ono by Jonathan Cott  240 pp.

Jonathan Cott interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono for the first time in 1968 when Cott was the first European editor for a fledgling magazine called Rolling Stone. It was the beginning of a lifetime friendship. His last interview with Lennon was just three days before his death. His most recent interview with Ono was in 2012 shortly before her eightieth birthday (OMG, she's 80!). In addition to his reminiscences about their meetings and what was going on socially and musically at the time, Cott includes the full transcripts of his recorded interviews. The interviews were published in part in Rolling Stone and other periodicals but reading them in their entirety is fascinating (at least to a John Lennon fan). Lennon talks candidly about his life, fame, The Beatles, his relationship and work with Yoko, the "bed-ins" for peace, and other performers/songs that influenced his music. Two haunting parts of the 1980 interview stood out for me. In one part, when talking about future plans Lennon said, "But there's time, right? Plenty of time." followed by "it will be fun to be on the cover of Rolling Stone, It will be fun, won't it, to start 1981 like 1968?" And when talking about the critics he said, "What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interested in being a dead f***ing hero...." Three days later, December 8, 1980, he became one. Those who aren't fans may not care about this book but I just might have to buy a copy for my personal library.