#j&p

[paulnnccartney]

“and you don’t stroke hands with guys”

“not unless you’re secure..”

—

ringo is so tired

[jawhole]

[todayesterday]

“Some people think John was speaking directly to me [in Now and Then]. And you know what? That is very nice to think about, so I’ll stick with that interpretation.”

— Paul McCartney about being the inspiration for Now and Then to Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial (Dec. 01, 2023) (translated from portuguese version of the interview)

[saint-mona]

[undying-love]

"I thought Paul's was rubbish,' opined Lennon, saying that he preferred George's All Things Must Pass. McCartney studied the article with the morbid fascination of a jilted lover receiving a kiss-off letter."

-Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney by Howard Sounes

"John said that no one ever hurt him the way Paul hurt him. The words suggested a far deeper emotional attachment between the two than the world ever suspected - they were like those of a spurned lover."

-Paul McCartney: The Life, by Philip Norman

[icriedforthemoon]

Guys, I'm genuinely curious..

Do you think Paul is self aware of his homoerotic psychosexual relationship he had with John?

I've read a lot of things that are in favour of him being oblivious or him knowing everything and acknowledging it.

I just don't know what to believe, honestly.

[mclennoncel]

i'm watching the understanding lennon-mccartney doc series for the first time. im like an hour and a half into episode one. whats everyones opinions of it??

[fkajohnlennon]

In honor of fete day, here’s fem!mclennon meeting for the first time 🫶💞

The first time Paul sees her, she’s in a plaid dress and squinting out into the crowd, pin curls a mess and eyes twinkling in the afternoon sun.

Except…Paul had seen her before hadn’t she? In the chip shop down the road, or perhaps on the bus? Pretty girl— tall. Almost as tall as Paul, which said enough on its own. What had snagged her brain, though, was that usually she was wearing glasses; big, dark, cat-eye things that obscured her eyes through thick, finger-smudged lenses. Paul always thought she wore them well.

It was odd reconciling this girl on stage with the one she saw down at Henry’s, the one who wore leather drainies and was scolded by the owner of the chip shop for cursing in front of the other lasses. This girl on stage, though…well, she looked like she could have been helping dust the pews inside the church, had her guitar not been wailing for attention like a cat with its tail jammed in a door. Paul sipped her punch and watched as the girl sang her heart out; voice threadbare and cheeks pinker than a ripe strawberry.

It was all she could do not to run up to the girl the moment she left the stage. She made it five seconds before she lost her good sense and barreled through the crowd, knocking shoulders until she saw that familiar head of auburn hair.

“That was amazing!” she yelped, just as the other girl turned to see Paul landing next to her. Her eyebrows shot up and her eyes widened, but only for a second.

“You liked that?” she asked in that nasally voice Paul definitely recognized from around town— hollering at the chip shop and being a general menace on the bus.

Paul smiled, “Of course. I don’t know if I’ve ever met a girl who plays guitar like you!” which had been true. George played like Paul, and Paul played like herself. She had been so sure that her and George had been one of a kind up until that moment; two little girls playing make-believe with their daddies’ acoustics.

For her compliment, the girl gave a small smile. “You liked it?” she repeated while one eyebrow rose questioningly on her forehead.

Paul found she could hardly play coy. “More than anything!” she beamed. The girl in the red dress beamed right back.

“I’m Joan Lennon,” she said, and extended her hand out for Paul to shake. Her nails were short but polished, and they matched her dress.

“Pauline McCartney” she answered, her mouth cut into a wide smile, “but Paul does just fine.”

“Do you play as well, Paul?” Joan asked, making Paul’s heart leap a little in her throat.

“Oh yes,” she said, taking back her hand despite the warm embrace Joan had wrapped her in. It was much like the girl’s eyes; a smoldering attention that enveloped Paul—pulled her in—as though there was nowhere she would rather be than talking to Paul in that instant.

“All the time,” Paul added.

She had no idea that that was the start of a lifelong relationship— one filled with ups and downs more steep than the mountains that lined the countryside. In that moment, it felt small— simple. It felt like Paul had finally learned how to write her name, or how to let the air that had been trapped in her lungs since her mother died finally exhale. Joan was a period, or perhaps a comma. She was the punctuation to whatever run-on sentence Paul had been up until that moment, and it was something entirely and utterly breathtaking.

“I’d love to hear you play some time,” Joan said, “not a lot of other girls around here like guitar, you know?” and Paul nodded her agreement, feeling lighter than she had in some time.

[todayesterday]

the fact that the majority of the mainstream coverage about now and then is like “yes this is about paul isn’t that sweet and heartbreaking” is so insane to me and also probably so vindicating to paul. i wonder if this newfound post-get back media acceptance/acknowledgment of their love for each other changes the way paul’ll talk about john in future in-depth interviews. wonder if someone’ll outright (finally) ask him about it in a serious tone instead of “what do you think about this conspiracy theory?”. things are changing in the outsider narrative – i wonder if there will be chances (or more openness?) in paul’s narrative too

[saint-mona]

[hands-across-the-sky]

George Martin and also me to John and Paul re: And Your Bird Can Sing Take 2

[glass-onion-soup]

I have a few reasons for thinking this: 1. Paul's increasing positivity about it the further out he gets from actually having to deal with alive!John ("frightening phone calls, glad those aren't in my life anymore"). 2. Decades of confusion and anguish that John never liked him at all. 3. There's this recurring theme that crops up in his music after John dies... (not that these lyrics are literally about John, but in the sense that this is a general sentiment added to his emotional vocabulary after John died)(I do think a few of these are about John tho').

4. The fact that 'Here Today' is defensive in a similar genre ("well, you didn't give me a single inch on this front, but I'm gonna view our history positively anyway!!!!!")

5. Defensiveness in general and still fighting perceived rivalries with John years after his death (commissioned in the 90's not just a biography, but a biog aimed to set the record straight on who brought avant garde to the band). 6. On the day of, Paul said "remind me never to fall out with anyone again". Within ten years this changed to "it's so sad George never made up from falling out with John before he died like I did." 7. That George had to tell Paul to stop fighting Yoko basically on his deathbed, and that Paul's entire perception of his and John's relationship could still be warped, controlled and filtered entirely by Yoko despite them having "made up". 8. Vagueness and repetitive paucity re: his and John's cross-ocean post-75 correspondence. Okay yeah, he and John could small talk about their children and baking hobbies without yelling at each other, but did they actually resolve any of the issues that put barriers up between them in the first place, let alone scale the walls erected during their break up? 9. Paul sounds extremely not even a little bit resolved re: his relationship with John in the infamous off the record convo with Hunter Davies. I take his attitude here - when he was in the thick of the emotional storm almost immediately after the event - over things said to the press 10-40 years later.

And I don't think it's lying at all. It's a completely normal function of human psychology to re-frame traumatic or unresolved events more positively or soberly the further you get away from them, otherwise we'd all go completely insane. Paul wasn't really allowed to process his anger at and grief over John without the fantastical abstraction "St John" marketing construct, or having Yoko jump down his throat, so there isn't really any mental recourse left except to tell himself that they were "okay in the end". Also: even if he were fully conscious that they didn't make up and just sort of tells this pat story in interviews to avoid talking about it, that's also not lying??? Refusing to air your dirtiest laundry in public isn't lying, the press and fans aren't entitled to shit. If I were Paul I would say even less than he has (I say, spending all day thinking deeply invasive thoughts about this man's inner psychology; but see, I do it on tumblr under an anon identity lmao). I think his headspace is more likely the former than the latter, but I wouldn't define either of these as lying.

But I also think where you stand on this issue depends on what you mean by "make up". If you mean they were able to be friendly and polite with each other, then yes: they made up. If you mean "did they exhume the skeletons in their closet as to be able to move on a form a new kind of honest, intimate friendship", then I think the answer is definitively no. It's not unusual to have more formalized, shallow relationships with your teen-hood friends as an adult, esp for someone like Paul who has a very traditionally male attitude of saving all his emotional intimacy for The Wife/Girlfriend and one or two close confidantes, but I think it's clear from the way Paul has struggled with parsing and accepting John's death for about forty years indicates that "formal small talk relationship in which the wounds are efficiently ignored or suppressed" is not what he was hoping to have with John going forward.

[nowordsmp3]

come on bro...you almost got it you're almost there.....

[thelesbianthespianposts]

imagine: you get your memories back after years of amnesia to find out your whole species is dead and earth doesn’t exist anymore. that the only thing left of your culture is your weird ex and his busted honda civic that barely even works that he stole from the government when he was 13. And he’s been taking members of an alien species for trips in his honda civic and they’re all like “woah it’s so cool” and you get upset because it’s NOT COOL it’s a honda civic, the turn signals don’t even work “wow it can go up hills” yeah OF COURSE IT CAN GO UP HILLS EVERY CAR COULD DO THAT. but they’ve never seen a car before so everything it does is the coolest thing ever. And your ex’s only tool is a fucking screwdriver which is somehow also cool to this dumbass alien species even though it’s a fucking screwdriver so you just look like an idiot screaming about how none of this is even cool it’s actually really shitty but your whole planet is gone so you can’t even prove it but also you’ve had a constant drumming sounding in your head since you were 10 slowly driving you insane. I would become evil too.

[oneafter909]

early beatles writing sessions

paul: okay, we have to come up with some ideas for the next album. so i was thinking—

john: i have an idea for a song about how im a piece of shit fat ugly bitch with no friends and is hated by everyone and should die. i’m going to call it Dumbfuck Asshole About To Kill Himself.

paul: ……right! cool! i was thinking more along the lines of “i love you girl and want to dance with you” but that’s really good too!

[stuckinapril]

lived my whole life in guilt bc i thought i was responsible for people's feelings. newly realizing that other people are responsible for their feelings and reactions, even if they make it seem like i'm the problem. a lot of the time it really has to do w them and their own emotional regulation. i can't keep thinking i'm not allowed to have space bc of other people's insecurities. like i literally refuse to dim myself. other people are responsible for their feelings just as i'm responsible for mine.