Harry Colquhoun retweetledi
Paul McCartney reveals John Lennon complimented him exactly once in their entire songwriting partnership
The most successful songwriting duo in history wrote together for roughly a decade. They produced the catalogue that reshaped popular music. And in all that time, by Paul's own account, John praised his work to his face on a single occasion.
Asked whether he and John were competitive as writers, Paul doesn't hesitate:
"Yeah, we were competitive. Yeah. Not openly, but we later admitted, yeah, you know, so Paul's written a good one there. I better get going."
The rivalry ran underneath everything. One would hear the other's new song, register it as a challenge, and quietly raise his own game.
Paul describes the internal monologue plainly:
"That's a bit good. Right. Here we go. Come on."
He gives a concrete example of how this shaped the catalogue. When John wrote "Strawberry Fields Forever," reaching back into his Liverpool childhood, Paul answered with a song reaching back into his own:
"If he'd written Strawberry Fields, I would write Penny Lane. You know, he's remembering his old area in Liverpool. So, I'll remember for mine."
Two of the most beloved songs in the Beatles catalogue, written as quiet returns of serve.
Then comes the part that lingers. Asked whether they complimented each other when one wrote something great, Paul answers:
"Once."
Once. In all those years of writing together.
The one time it happened, Paul remembers exactly which song it was. "Here, There and Everywhere," from Revolver:
"John sort of just when it finishes wrote a really good song that I love that song. And I was like, 'Yes, he likes it.' You know, I've remembered it to this day. It's pathetic really."
Decades on, he still remembers the moment. He calls his own remembering of it pathetic, but the fact that he remembers at all says something about what a word from John was worth to him.
Asked whether he ever returned the praise, Paul is more generous about himself, with a caveat:
"Yeah, I would tell him his stuff was great. You'd normally have to be a little bit drunk. It helped."
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