John Lennon and Paul McCartney Were ‘Idiots’ Who Didn’t ‘Know Music From Their Backsides,’ According to a Collaborator
John Lennon and Paul McCartney are one of the most successful songwriting duos of all time. The pair wrote countless hits and helped lift The Beatles to atmospheric success. Despite this, McCartney admitted that neither he nor Lennon could actually read music. This could be frustrating for any other artists who worked with them. Once, another popular songwriter complained about their inability to write music.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked together as songwriters
Lennon and McCartney met as teenagers and began working on music together. McCartney said their style of writing flowed easily.
“It is different when you’re writing with someone,” McCartney said in an interview on his official website. “Particularly with John, who I did most of my collaborations with, it was a completely different ball game because we were working off each other. Often one of us would say a line, and then — it was like it was a joke — the other one would say the next bit!”
He said that the conversational style of their writing made writing with Lennon easier than his solo work.
“It became quite conversational,” he said. “I’d write, ‘it’s getting better all the time,’ and then John would go, ‘it couldn’t get much worse!’ You’re spinning each other through the song, and so that process is interesting. In fact, I think it makes it a bit easier, because if you’re stuck then hopefully the other person isn’t, and if they’re stuck hopefully you can help them out of it. So, it’s a pretty good way of working.”
Another popular songwriter insulted the pair
Early in The Beatles’ career, Lennon and McCartney were working on the single “From Me to You” and sought assistance from songwriter Kenny Lynch.
“After a period of about half an hour had elapsed and nothing seemed to be coming from the back,” musician Roger Greenaway said, per Express.
Lynch grew frustrated with Lennon and McCartney’s inability to finish the song. Eventually, he blew up at them.
“Well, that’s it,” Greenaway recalled Lynch saying. “I am not going to write any more of that bloody rubbish with those idiots. They don’t know music from their backsides. That’s it! No more help from me!”
Lynch didn’t hold the writing session against McCartney and Lennon, however. In 1973, he appeared on the cover of the Wings album Band on the Run.
Paul McCartney admitted that he and John Lennon couldn’t read music
McCartney and Lennon may have been frustrating for Lynch to work with because they could not read or write music.
“I don’t see music as dots on a page,” McCartney said, per Global News. “It’s something in my head that goes on. None of us did in the Beatles. We did some good stuff though. But none of it was written down by us. It’s basically notation. That’s the bit I can’t do.”
Evidently, though, their inability to write music didn’t have a detrimental effect on their career.
