Lennon & McCartney - Soul Mates with a complex purpose?

Michael B-C

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I have to confess that I’ve been a Beatle maniac all my life - or at least from the age of about 15 when a number of years after their break up they exploded into my fraught childhood with the primal force of instant recognition as being my personal find! Now there's a joke!

I lived and breathed their music for years and even now they reside within me as brightly as then; a transformative life force that not only changed - or brought forth within in me - a life affirming, enriching mindset but also taught me so much about how I was to see the world. I think it was the extraordinary positivity and emotional honesty of their music, their search for harmony (but with an unexpected edge), their eclectic and limitless invention, their obtuse humour and their particularly forceful combination of personalities, that so got under my skin lifting me out of my own self imposed inner exile into a brighter perspective of the horizons of life.

From the get go John Lennon was the one. He was my unabashed hero. Considering the kind of young person I was (no rebel) I suppose it was that ubber-unnatural defiance and perverse oddity that drew me and as I discovered more and more about the fragile, complex, contradictory lost soul the brittle exterior disguised, I felt a juvenile identification with his broken hearted stubbornness.

Since I liked John so much, in typical fashion, Paul was a 'problem'. If you were a Beatle person you tended to fall into the trap of over identification at the expense of the other. Yes I loved much of his music but only if it didn’t overshadow the main man!

Down the years this foolery has mellowed more and more and I’ve come to more deeply admire and love the extraordinary genius of McCartney - his brilliant, overwhelming musicality (where Lennon's was more idiosyncratic and scatter gunned), his utterly endless gift for pure melody, his steel, his complete determination to excel (where as Lennon could so easily have drifted into lazy indolence), his relentless positivity which equally disguised a childhood blighted by profound and painful loss.

I post this now as I recently read Mark Lewisohn's sensational first volume in a planned monster biography:

The Beatles - All These Years: Volume One: Tune In

For anyone who has an interest in the gestation of such epoch changing genius as well as for a forensic examination of contextualisation of time and place, I can’t recommend it warmly enough.

From Amazon:

The Beatles have been at the top for fifty years, their music remains exciting, their influence is still huge, their acclaim and achievements cannot be surpassed. But who really were the Beatles, and how did they and everything else in the 1960s fuse so explosively?

Mark Lewisohn's three-part biography is the first true and accurate account of the Beatles, a contextual history built upon impeccable research and written with energy, style, objectivity and insight. This first volume covers the crucial and less-known early period - the Liverpool and Hamburg years of a hungry rock and roll band, when all the sharp characters and situations take shape.

This is the Beatles like you've never read them before. It isn't just 'another book', it's the book, from the world-acknowledged authority. Forget what you know and discover The Complete Story.

At the same time I came across the following brilliant self made 4 part documentary on YouTube (follow the link below for the other 3 parts). Not a word of commentary to blight the flow, just highly evocative footage, interview material and oodles of fascinating and revealing quotes. Highly atmospheric and evocative with a far deeper eye on the complexity of personality and psychic pitch than the usual take on the masters at the heart of the Fab 4


(Edit: new working link added - 02-11-23)


The key for me of both these works is the dawning realisation of how astonishingly symbiotic these two young men were; how ridiculous it was that they should ever find each other; how unique their chemistry and need for each other; how much deeper than normal went their bond - a true ying and yang union.

Their relationship has been described as the greatest love story of the 20th century and after reading and watching the above I don’t see that as a wild overstatement. There was something utterly primal hidden under those cheeky-chappy smiles, something absolutely desperate, unfulfilled and unfullfilible for them personally in their male guises yet still of earth changing proportion.

It goes way deeper than the mere fact they were united in unspoken tragedy (for those who don’t know both lost their mothers at a pivotal moment in their teenage development – now there’s a coincidence!), a secret shared knowledge that rooted these two seemingly opposite personalities in a perpetual union of sorrow - for though they handled it differently (Lennon by continual melt down, McCartney by ever increasing steely resolve), they lived out their momentous fame forever in its shadow.

I therefore wonder if they were that apparently very rare thing - true soul mates, or rather two halves of the same soul aspect who sought each other out in an absolute need to reunite in this time and forge something that would be truly transformative for them and the world.

For of course the whole Beatle phenomenon is hugely contradictory. On the one hand so much brilliance, so much revolutionary force, that our world is simply not the same after their coming. On the other, the whole underbelly of the 1960s, its usefulness to STS forces as a means of eventual control and destabilization, and of course so much death and deformity. And The Beatles were at the centre of both aspects.

One of the things that comes out of the documentaries, particularly the later episodes, was the fact that John and Paul were very close to healing their divisions at the time Lennon was mind-control murdered. In fact I learned that they planed to start writing together again - sadder and wiser, more mature and richer for the experience of the cost of the loss of their 'divorce'. The potential is obvious.

And what stopped them? Not just that hail of bullets but Yoko Ono.

The more you look into her the darker she gets. Her mind control of Lennon was highly suspect as was her manipulation of him from day one to get her away from Paul/The Beatles. When for a period he escaped her clutches (at her own behest - real game theory in play here) and actually began to enjoy a real relationship of love with May Pang (perversely engineered by Ono), she micromanaged their relationship from a distance to such a point where she could control his absolute return to her domain like a desperate broken child returning to the clutches of an abusive parent. Talk about spider or what!

It was with great interest therefore that I recently listen to an interview with May Pang when she described in great detail the UFO sighting they both shared from their New York balcony window.

May Pang on John Lennon, UFOs, Yoko Ono & hypnotism

Listening to what she innocently imparts you get the distinct impression that the sustained visitation was deliberately aimed at them. And soon after John was tricked into returning to Yoko’s arms, despite claiming he was drugged or bewitched (literally) or both. When you add to this the fact that just prior to this John and Paul were once more getting closer and closer to reigniting their partnership and when you realise it was she who engineered it so a planned get together in a studio the very day of his murder was deliberately postponed… it makes you wonder what forces both of and not of this earth were driving her.

So many of their songs and so many of McCartney’s later works can be seen as being about each other and the hidden depths of their feelings for one another. Yes Lennon in particular had a capacity for vindictive cruelty and lashed out at Paul via song but he always claimed and owned it as symptom both of his love for him and his own BS. Come what may, I’m still left with a deeper sense of sadness and a deeper sense of wonder than before. Two astonishing humans who lived right on the edge of life’s abyss.

I’ll finish with two of McCartney’s in particular. One obvious and one not so – for this second song captures in so many ways what I think was driving them from a soul level. Hints of unconscious 4th or 5thD longing and being reunited? Maybe I over reach.

Paul McCartney/John Lennon - Here Today

Paul McCartney - Tug of War

Just some thoughts.

How do you all see the Beatles legacy, for good and ill?
 
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Fellow Beatles lover here. I got into them in about 1995, had been a Stones fan about a year before. That was the time when music began to make sense to me as a way of conveying ideas and emotions, all locked into a 3 minute gem. The contemporary music (Blur, Suede, Oasis), whilst good, didn't really hit me the same way, I went digging for the roots of UK music.

The Beatles redefined what was possible for musicians back in 63/4. Dylan, too. An abandonment of cliche, a search for direct emotional truth, dramatically conveyed. Whilst combining genre influences. It's just amazing, looking back just how groundbreaking Dylan and The Beatles were back then. Pithy lyrics with ridiculously catchy riffs. Everyone making music looked on them with awe back then. They even copied their haircuts for chrissakes! Check out The Byrds in 1965 for example. They fused Dylan and the Beatles to immediate effect.

I've got two periods of Beatles music in my mind. First the catchy, mop top era, then the post mystic, LSD era. Both are fascinating to behold. The level of creativity was incredible, the combination of emotional/musical cadences, they could move without overdoing it. Overall I like the later music more, but they are really two different bands spanning those two periods.

Plus you also have to factor in that they were people who continually "chemically enhanced" themselves, going back to their tours of Germany. With a tight gang mentality. they pretty much invented the band ethos, although Blues musicians were living that lifestyle for 30 years or more. Really there's nothing new under the sun, just different interpretations of sensations. Early on they were an amphetamine fuelled force, then they became more acid/weed influenced. It was extremely controversial at the time to be open about these things, but they were honest about how they lived their lives, and learned as they went along, as we all do.

Interesting looking back that The Stones were targeted by the cops for hash possession, but The Beatles (who were doing the same) pretty much got away with it. The creative force that was McCartney/Lennon didn't rub people up the wrong way, unlike Jagger/Richards.

I think their legacy is assured. The honesty of their work, and the skill of the song craft will live on. They've almost become standards for how you approach the craft. I feel like putting The White Album on now!
 
I came across this article about the history of Beatles famous song "Hey Jude" .


“Hey Jude” sums up the Beatles’ turbulent summer of 1968 — a tribute to their friendship, right at the moment it was starting to fracture. The single was a smash as soon as they released it on August 26th of that year — their biggest hit, topping the U.S. charts for nine weeks. It’s the Beatles at their warmest, friendliest, most open-hearted.
...
Like everyone else, Paul was blindsided by the sudden changes in John, and “Hey Jude” was his direct response. He composed it in his head while driving his Aston Martin out to visit Cynthia and Julian, at the Weybridge house where he used to join his partner for afternoon writing sessions
...
Cynthia and Julian thought “Hey Jude” was for them. John heard it as the ballad of John and Yoko. But neither side was wrong — countless people around the world have heard this homily speaking to them. “The movement you need is on your shoulder” — John was so right about that line, and as Paul says, he thinks of John every time he sings that part. “Hey Jude” is a tribute to everything the Beatles loved and respected most about each other.
...
The pain in “Hey Jude” resonated in 1968, in a world reeling from wars, riots and assassinations. And it’s why it sounds timely as our world keeps getting colder. After more than 50 years, “Hey Jude” remains a source of sustenance in difficult times — a moment when four longtime comrades, clear-eyed adults by now, take a look around at everything that’s broken around them. Yet they still join together to take a sad song and make it better.
 
It goes way deeper than the mere fact they were united in unspoken tragedy (for those who don’t know both lost their mothers at a pivotal moment in their teenage development – now there’s a coincidence!), a secret shared knowledge that rooted these two seemingly opposite personalities in a perpetual union of sorrow - for though they handled it differently (Lennon by continual melt down, McCartney by ever increasing steely resolve), they lived out their momentous fame forever in its shadow.

I remember reading that Lennon had done Primal Therapy and I wondered when reading Developmental Trauma whether that had been good for him. DT says that catharsis isn't always a good approach for some people because it drops them into their trauma before they've learned to regulate their nervous system.

Here's a 1970 interview with Lennon where he talks about Primal Therapy and mentions that he needs to have a good reason to go out or his anxiety is triggered.

4:45
 
Ah, soul mates with a complex purpose. Indeed. But what purpose? I have been having a lot of my idols fall lately. Consider the data points. And then consider why you can or can not at least entertain the possibilities.

The Beatles were in the first wave of the British "Invasion" in music. The Beatles were the good (boy) cops and the Stones were the bad (boy) cops. They followed the current Disney trajectory: start out innocent, fun and energetic. Then take a much darker path while leading their young fans along with them. (yes the music was good but Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus can be infectious too. From Hannah Montana to Slutty Sex kitten)

"She Loves You Yeah" morphed into "I need a fix cause I going down" ...etc. Just analyze the lyrics without rose colored glasses.

There were key players on the Beatles team with heavy Tavistock and MI5 connections. Trist and Adorno. The Beatles promoted a sort of new age theosophy, alternative religion, drugs and even the androgyne/transsexual agenda ( "Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman But she was another man" - from "Get Back"). There were Masonic hand signals and bizarre, arcane album covers a plenty.

They were HEAVILY promoted. Moreso than any other band of that era. I recall the C's saying that those bands that are put in the public eye are put there for a reason by the powers that be. The Beatles fit the timing and profile to be a part of the "Tune in, Turn on and Drop Out" mantra promoted by the CIA, in part to control and deflect real grassroots political activism.

And then there is McCartney. Look at McCartneys early work and then the later post-Beatles out-of-character garbage put out by Wings. Perhaps there IS something to the idea that Paul was replaced by "Faul".

And then there is Mark Staycer, a supposed Lennon impersonator who has an uncanny vocal signature, and much of the identical vintage equipment and guitars used by Lennon. He even looks like Lennon. Musical impersonators don't make the kind of money necessary to buy $20,000 dollar period-correct Epiphones like it was nothing. And wouldn't it be like Lennon to impersonate a Lennon impersonator if he was still alive?

My Opinion? The Beatles were unique and put out some amazing music. But I was never seduced by it. Seduced by other bands? Yes. Everybody has to make up their own mind. I was there. I lived through it. Every college dorm had the White album and marijuna wafting through the halls. The White Album, while a masterpiece, has a dark, inward, slightly sick adn depressing vibe to a lot of it. Personally I did not find it uplifting but an avenue to a dark place. You can do your own research if you like. Getting harder and harder to pin things down. That said:


 
Hi - Michael B-C. Listen to those clips and tell me it doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I checked this out and thought "yeah right" at first, but the vocals gave me a chill and was like a 2x4 in the head. I know the first video says 2015 which would not be right for his apparent age but that is just the upload date which means nothing. OF course I realize you may not agree, but DANG!
 
The Beatles - All These Years: Volume One: Tune In

Your link didn't work for me ("Video not available") so I searched for a new one:

Video 2:30:17

Haven't had the time yet to watch it though as it is rather lengthy. There are five other volumes to complete the saga, totaling to about 7¾ extra hours more. Paul McCartney also has got a separate series of documentaries devoted to him only.

As for the Beatles, when they started their career (1960) I was only fifteen and still at school. Having been a choir boy in church and being an active amateur violin player as well, I was more into classical music than anything else but several of my sisters were very much into rock and roll and other pop music. Anyway, there was no escaping that kind of music in those days as it was literally everywhere around you all the time, so I got my fair share of (over) exposure and developed a fancy for it after a while.

My personal favorites are Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite! (on Sgt. Pepper) and Nowhere man (on Rubber Soul). I never cared to collect their singles releases but I own all their LP's on vinyl with the proper equipment to play them, although I hardly ever do. Only on some occasions when overwhelmed for some reason or another with nostalgia and homesickness for that period of my life, will I take time off so to speak to listen to them again for a while -- which always works out refreshing and uplifting.

Thanks for starting this thread, by the way. :thup:
 
I discovered --just too late to edit my mistake-- that I copied the wrong line to start off my post above. It should read as follows:
Understanding Lennon/McCartney Vol 1: Together

I take this opportunity to state that I never was interested in the Beatles group as a public persona, only in their music. All the hoopla and media attention around them wasn't for me and I totally ignored that completely, especially the shrieking voices of all those screaming girls.
 
Dear all have been busy will provide what I have seen on you tube with some book references.
will then be interesting for all to see read and consider with an open mind.
Please review the following youtube channel presentations:
In chronological order or for summary start youtube presentation in bold, followed by remaining.
All books are referenced in

BillyShears.com

www.billyshears.com
www.billyshears.com




Sage of Quay Radio - Neil Sanders - The Real Charles Manson Story (Aug 2017)
Cara St. Louis with Mark Devlin and Mike Williams - The Great Beatle Conspiracy (Aug 2017)
Sage of Quay Radio - Friends of Sage - A Paul Is Dead Discussion (Oct 2017)
Patricia Steere with Mike Williams - Paul Is Dead: The Memoirs of Billy Shears (Apr 2018)
Sage of Quay Radio - Nick Chylak - The Teenage Paul Is Dead Researcher (June 2018)
Sage of Quay - Mike Williams on Metaphysical Connection - Yes, Paul Is Still Dead (July 2018)
Mike Williams with Mark Devlin - The McCartney Conspiracy 9/9/9 Updates (Sept 2018)
The Making of the Beatles First US Visit - Documentary
Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams - The Beatles, Paul McCartney and The Grand Illusion (Dec 2018)
Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams - The Beatles, Paul McCartney and The Grand Illusion (Dec 2018)

Sage of Quay™ - Gary Lachman on Aleister Crowley (Full Lecture)
Sage of Quay™ - Nick Chylak - Billy Shears, Crowley and the Hardy Warrior (Mar 2019)
Sageof Quay™ - Mike Williams - The Movie Yesterday is a Paul Is Dead Film (July 2019)
Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams - The McCartney, Stanshall, Ackrill Analysis (Aug 2019)
www.youtube.com

Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams - The Essentials of Paul Is Dead 🧐
© 2019 M. Williams - All Rights Reserved Many folks who follow my McCartney research have asked which of my shows are the ones to watch to get a foundational...
www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com

BillyShears.com

www.billyshears.com
www.billyshears.com
www.youtube.com

Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams with Richard Syrett - The Paul Is Dead Conspiracy
© 2019 - All Rights Reserved This show was originally recorded on January 30, 2019. Mike joins Richard Syrett on Conspiracy Unlimited to discuss the McCartne...
www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com

Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams - Did The Beatles Write All Their Own Music? (Apr 2020)
Beatles researcher Mike Williams investigates the highly controversial topic of whether the Beatles wrote all their own music. In this comprehensive 4.5 hour...
www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com

Sage of Quay™ - Mike Williams w/Vince Russo - Hey Hey We're The Beatles (May 2020)
I had the pleasure of joining Vince Russo on his podcast to discuss my presentation on whether the Beatles wrote all their own music. PRESENTATION: Mike Will...
www.youtube.com
www.youtube.com
* Sage of Quay Hub Website: http://www.sageofquay.com/

The Memoirs of Billy Shears: The Nine After 9-09 Edition Paperback – 9 Sept. 2018
by Thomas E. Uharriet (Author), Billy Shears (Author), Gregory Paul Martin (Foreword)
Take your time watch as many presentations before making rash judgement calls, read the book also.
The social engineering aspect is very important.
 
The definitively final track from the Beatles hit the internet 3 hrs ago (courtesy of 2 living Beatles and the technologically restored to as if now clarity of two passed over). Make of it what you will, it offers some small degree of touching solace in these darkening hours...

It's all because of you (to all forum members - eternal blessings and thanks for being there 💞.

 
We listen to mix tapes in the car.. I usually just keep a couple tapes in there of whatever we're in the mood for at the time, only changing them every few weeks or months.. Nice coincidence - I happened to suddenly feel like some Beatles yesterday and took out that tape for the first time in a few years.. It was interesting reading your original post about Lennon & McCartney, Michael B-C! I don't know much about 'em, just love the music.. My mum used to sing & play Beatles songs on piano when I was a baby, some of my first memories... but then I didn't really listen to them myself 'til I was around 16. They're always linked in my mind with Monty Python, which I got really into around the same time. Same vibe, somehow (at least the later Beatles stuff).. Sort of the same humour, maybe, though less explicit in The Beatles ... But they can be really funny. Absurdity used to express something deeply human. And their collage style of music production, and songs which are like little skits about characters..
 
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