Yoko Ono Said John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s First Meeting Proved Lennon’s Intelligence
In 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met at a church party after a performance by Lennon’s band. McCartney was impressed by Lennon and played a song for him afterward. McCartney joined Lennon’s band, and they would go on to form The Beatles together. Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono, acknowledged the importance of the first meeting between the future bandmates. She also said that Lennon’s acceptance of McCartney proved his intelligence.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon met as teenagers
At St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool, Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen, played a show. McCartney reflected on their first encounter.
“Ah yes, I remember it well. I do actually,” McCartney wrote in a statement, per the book The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Breakup. “My memory of meeting John for the first time is very clear. My mate Ivan Vaughan took me along to Woolton here and there were The Quarrymen, playing on a little platform. I can still see John now — checked shirt, slightly curly hair, singing ‘Come Go With Me’ by The Del Vikings. He didn’t know all the words, so he was putting in stuff about penitentiaries — and making a good job of it. I remember thinking, He looks good — I wouldn’t mind being in a group with him.'”
McCartney approached Lennon afterward and played a song for him.
“A bit later we met up,” he said. “I played him ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ and he seemed pretty impressed — maybe because I did know all the words. Then, as you all know, he asked me to join the group, and so we began our trip together.”
Yoko Ono said the meeting was proof of Lennon’s intelligence
Ono said that Lennon and McCartney’s first meeting changed the world for the better.
“Yes, the meeting of John and Paul was an important event not only for those of us who loved their songs but for the whole world which went through a social change for the better as a result of their words and music,” she said.
She believed it also showed Lennon’s intelligence, proving from an early stage that he was ready to lead a band.
“John’s first thought as Paul showed what he could do was: ‘Okay — this guy is good and already girls are flocking around him, not around me! So, if I let him in, he’s going to be a tough one to handle — but I’ll have a strong band,'” Ono explained. “So John took Paul in, I think this story is important in that it shows as a creator and a leader of a band, John went for getting a strong band rather than having an easy time. And John was only a teenager. What a brain! What a guy!”
Paul McCartney said there was a spark between him and John Lennon
McCartney and Lennon didn’t always get along, but the bassist said he was grateful for the opportunity to have worked together. There was a clear creative spark between them.
“We wrote our first songs together, we grew up together and we lived our lives together,” McCartney said. “And when we’d do it together, something special would happen. There’d be that little magic spark. I still remember his beery old breath when I met him here that day. But I soon came to love that beery old breath. And I loved John. I always was and still am a great fan of John’s. We had a lot of fun together and I still treasure those beautiful memories.”
He said he was happy to have risen to success with Lennon by his side.
“There’s no way that when we met here we had any idea of what we’d be starting,” he wrote. “But I’m very proud of what we did. And I’m very glad that I did it with John.”
