Nancy R:
Michelley:
moptops:
I don't want Paul's revisionism, however I'd love to clap my peepers on that long tome he wrote while in that Tokyo jail in 1980. It still exists.
I'm really not trying to follow you around here disagreeing with you. Really I'm not. But I find it very discouraging when Paul fans repeat this nonsense about Paul "rewriting" history. Many Years From Now is actually a really terrific read. And it gives Paul's take on this period of his life. He has every right to give his side of the story -- especially given that he was faced with Philip Norman (author of Shite, I mean Shout) who went around saying that "John was the Beatles." Now THAT was revisionism. Why is it that when John Lennon went around claiming that he wrote most of Eleanor Rigby, no one kept accusing him of "revisionism" -- or worse, outright lying since John didn't contribute to the song at all? There are many, many cases where John "rewrote history" and we all know that all of the Beatles did that to some degree and yet Paul is the only one ever accused of that. In his cranky 1970 interview John actually insisted that he and Paul had stopped writing together "very early on" -- like 64 or 65. Why doesn't anyone ever call out John about that for "rewriting history" and, again, outright lying? Especially since, in 1980, after letting that lie hang out there for 10 years, John finally admitted he'd lied about that. They collaborated to the end, as late as Don't Let Me Down (to which apparently Paul contributed both lyrics and arrangement). Sorry to go off on a rant but this is one of those deeply unfair slams that Paul gets hit with that is just downright unfair. The man has his share of faults but he's no more prone to revisionism than any of the Beatles were, than George Martin was (as Mark Lewisohn's book has shown) than Brian Epstein was, than Yoko continues to be (sure, Yoko, you "didn't know who John Lennon was" : .
Michelley, I mostly agree with you, but funny I just read something where Paul said John helped him with Eleanor Rigby! I'll have to see if I can find the quote.
Everything I've ever read says that John was the only one who DIDN'T help with Eleanor Rigby. John has been the only one who has claimed that he did, whereas the rest of the people who were there (Paul, George, Ringo, Pete Shotton) all did contribute lyrics and all say John didn't have FA to do with the song.