life-under-calico-skies - Tumblr blog

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Lennon may not be at his most dynamic in Get Back but he’s still compelling, partly because he’s not the character we expected to meet. At least, he’s not who I expected. Having ingested many books about the Beatles I thought he was going to be fiery, caustic, domineering, and - in this period - bitterly scornful of McCartney. Yet the Lennon we see here is for the most part a rather gentle presence who acts as a calming mediator between Paul and George. He grins at Paul, laughs heartily at his jokes, listens patiently to him. There is something quite childlike about John, particularly when his face opens up into a smile as the band hits a groove, or when he’s sitting patiently on the floor with a guitar and Yoko, waiting for another take. When Ringo starts playing Octopus’s Garden with George, John says “What am I doing, Ritchie?” and gets on the drums. There is bravado, of course - as when, following George’s departure, he immediately suggests they get Clapton in and split George’s guitars. But there is tenderness, too: after George leaves, it is John who brings the three remaining Beatles together into a hug.

We are used to thinking of Lennon as the visionary and Paul as the pragmatist. Yet here it’s Paul who throws up wildly impractical ideas - a news show that ends in an announcement of The Beatles’ split, a TV spectacular, an album full of songs they haven’t written yet, by next week - and John who suggests, mildly and sympathetically, that they consider what’s actually possible.

— Ian Leslie, "The Banality of Genius: Notes on Peter Jackson's Get Back" (January 26, 2022).

[I was curious to read more of Ian Leslie's approach to the Beatles in general and Lennon-McCartney in particular, since he's currently writing a book about John and Paul's relationship: “John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs". He's also the author of that New York Times opinion piece that came out today.]

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you can click on this button once daily to help palestine and support other causes in the middle east for free. it takes literally 5 seconds and could help save lives so please take the time to click and share this link.

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“We nearly always went up to his little music room that he’d had built at the top of the house, Daddy’s room, where we would get away from it all. I like to get away from people to songwrite, I don’t like to do it in front of people. It’s like sex for me, I was never an orgy man. So John and I would sit down and by then it might be one or two o’clock, and by four or five o’clock we’d be done”. – Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now

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Absolutely feral that the casettes Lennon recorded before he passed titled "For Paul (McCartney)", not knowing whether he'll ever give it to him or if it will ever be discovered, contain demos of songs that literally said

"And now and then, if we must start again, we will know for sure that I will love you"

and

"if I make it through, It's all because of you"

and

"Can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch that seemed to mean so much?"

and

"Seems that all I really was doing, was waiting for you"

and

"Now and then, I miss you - I want you to be there for me, always to return to me"

and

"It's real love, it's real"

and-

and-

and-

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It’s here! It’s here! This is not a drill!

The Beatles - Now And Then (2023)

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Paul’s harmony coming through fully for the first time at “we will know for sure that I will love you” actually makes me feel ill

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Saw this this morning - love seeing my boys back on newsstands

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I’m not crying, you are.

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It’s here! It’s here! This is not a drill!

The Beatles - Now And Then (2023)

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re: new (old) Beatles song

Oww my heart

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I love that the whole 1941 sequence which involves Crowley firing a literal *gun* at Aziraphale is arguably the most romantic part of the series, and Crowley kissing Aziraphale for like 15 solid seconds is arguably the most violent moment of the series

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you gotta be as gay as possible on the computer otherwise alan turing died for nothing

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I love how ridiculously warm John would feel about the fact that Paul still loves him so much and sings with him at concerts and wanted to finish another song with him after all this time, and I love how John would kind of just feel it all behind his beautiful face, looking down, trying to be nonchalant about it.

The way that Paul loves John, so absolute and steady. The way that John didn't feel loveable like that, but craved it, but didn't recognise or trust it, and the way it was there and real anyway despite him. I don't know. I like that Paul is so relentless in loving him.

[life-under-calico-skies]

I love how ridiculously warm John would feel about the fact that Paul still loves him so much and sings with him at concerts and wanted to finish another song with him after all this time, and I love how John would kind of just feel it all behind his beautiful face, looking down, trying to be nonchalant about it.

The way that Paul loves John, so absolute and steady. The way that John didn't feel loveable like that, but craved it, but didn't recognise or trust it, and the way it was there and real anyway despite him. I don't know. I like that Paul is so relentless in loving him.

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Reblog if you’re over 20 and still read/write fan fiction.

I’m curious!

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Happy birthday, Johnny!🎂

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