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The Do List

New Book ‘John & Paul’ Explores Complex Ties Between Lennon and McCartney

Ian Leslie thoroughly examines the history, creative chemistry and often-tortured relationship between the two Beatles.
Jeff Rowe, Associated Press

A book cover depicting a black and white close up photograph of John Lennon's face resting directly above Paul McCartney's.
‘John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs’ by Ian Leslie. (Celadon Books)

Ian Leslie’s John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, takes a detailed look — 426 pages — at how John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked together from their meeting as teenagers until John’s death.

Had McCartney not decided at age 15 to go hear Lennon’s band playing in a London suburb, the world would have been denied the multitude of Beatles songs that brightened a generation and brought escalating musical innovation to rock music.

As Leslie affirms in the book, Lennon and McCartney early on developed a personal and creative chemistry that allowed them to elevate each other’s work to the timeless song classics still heard around the world.

And into that relationship dives Leslie, analyzing the mountain of articles and books written about the Beatles and interpreting messages the two men were sending to each other in their solo songs, particularly after the band’s break-up when both were writing and performing as solo acts.

Leslie focuses on exploring the often-tortured relationship between the introverted, sometimes jealous and frequently depressed Lennon and the more outgoing, driven and business-like McCartney.

Leslie’s comprehensive assembly of lyrics, memos and actions of the two men strays into gossip sometimes in his effort to define their relationship. The book labors to find where the Lennon-McCartney relationship fell in the spectrum of best buds to bromance. Leslie includes a quote from Lennon, when asked if he ever had sex with a man, answers “not yet.” But no other evidence follows that Lennon and McCartney were more than good friends who loved each other as brothers.

Leslie doesn’t pursue what might have blossomed musically had McCartney connected with a Lennon-like collaborator after the Beatles founder’s passing. What songs might McCarthy and Brian Wilson might have written, for example? Leslie so thoroughly dissects the relationship between Lennon and McCartney, though, that it is difficult to imagine another creative equivalent partner for either man.

We don’t hear from McCartney in this book; Leslie says he thought that would have “unbalanced” the story, given the inability to get an assessment from Lennon. That’s a dubious conclusion but what we can take away from this book is this: Lennon and McCartney were living proof that strikingly different personalities can come together for astonishing results. Might there be someone in the world who has not felt a mood lift from a Beatles song? Good luck finding anyone.

So what does McCartney think of the book? We didn’t receive replies from emails to McCartney’s representatives but given the creative intensity of the McCartney-Lennon relationship, something from McCartney seems likely. A new song perhaps, with a soul-connecting reference to his best friend.

‘John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs’ by Ian Leslie is out on April 8, 2025, via Celadon Books.

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