John Lennon - Paul McCartney - The Beatles

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“It was just a very happy conversation”: the final words Paul McCartney and John Lenon shared

Fri 31 January 2025 19:49, UK

After The Beatles’ split, Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s relationship was, to put it mildly, turbulent. The once-inseparable songwriting duo became estranged, their creative partnership dissolving into public jabs and private resentment. But as time passed and egos settled, the two childhood friends found their way back to each other, rekindling their brotherhood before Lennon’s life was tragically cut short.

Lennon’s murder in 1980 was a seismic loss for McCartney, a wound that, even decades later, remains raw. The brutal nature of the tragedy made it almost impossible to comprehend—the sudden, senseless killing of his closest collaborator and friend. Yet amid the heartbreak, one small consolation remained: before fate intervened, they had made peace. The bitterness had faded, leaving only the bond that had first united them. And for McCartney, that reconciliation was a solace in an otherwise unbearable loss.

The world reacted in uproar when Lennon passed. It wasn’t simply fans of Lennon’s music who were left mortified by the murder, but his contemporaries too. Lennon had represented something entirely earnest in the art world, and the tragic shortness with which his life would now be forever connected was a reminder of the futility of creation and the sadness of society. But while musicians and music lovers wept for talent now floating into the wind, McCartney mourned his best friend.

It took McCartney a while to truly express his love for Lennon publically. Following the tragedy, his first instinct was to channel his grief into song, something he did on Tug Of War‘s poignant number ‘Here Today’—which is undoubtedly the high point on the record. In the song, McCartney imagines a conversation that he might have had with Lennon as they trade off, back and forth, playing verbal volleyball. To make sure it was authentic, he enlisted the help of former Beatles producer George Martin to help guide him on the emotional track.

McCartney paints a beautiful, earnest, and honest reflection of his friend on his canvas. Warts and all, Lennon is accurately rendered for a generation who will now only know his memory. Macca adds texture to this image, showing their relationship’s tender moments, hinting at the day they met and ‘the night they cried’. While we cannot be sure, it’s fair to assume that when Lennon was alive, the two songwriters didn’t say half of what they should have to each other. We’d bet the use of the word ‘love’ in this track is a hint to what McCartney wishes he had told his friend. It goes down as one of McCartney’s most poignant tracks and one that always deserves listening to as the typification of the Lennon-McCartney partnership.

In 2004, Macca spoke with The Guardian about the track and how it still hurts to play the material live: “At least once a tour, that song just gets me,” he said. “I’m singing it, and I think I’m OK, and I suddenly realise it’s very emotional, and John was a great mate and a very important man in my life, and I miss him, you know? It happened at the first show, in Gijon: I was doing fine, and I found myself doing a thing I’ve done in soundcheck, just repeating one of the lines: ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’ I did that and I thought, ‘That’s nice – that works.’ And then I came to finish the song, to do the last verse, and it was, ‘Oh shit – I’ve just totally lost it.’”

It wouldn’t be until 1984, some four years after the murder of Lennon, that McCartney would address his relationship with his songwriting partner. During an interview with Playboy’s Joan Goodman, a meeting in which the former Beatle detailed his last conversation with his brother-in-arms, he said: “That is a nice thing, a consoling factor for me because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out. But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn’t have any kind of blowup. It could have easily been one of the other phone calls when we blew up at each other and slammed the phone down.”

What were the final words Paul McCartney and John Lennon shared?

Macca then talked about the phone call in more depth, revealing: “It was just a very happy conversation about his family, my family. Enjoying his life very much; Sean was a very big part of it. And thinking about getting on with his career. I remember he said, ‘Oh, God, I’m like Aunt Mimi, padding round here in me dressing gown’ …robe, as he called it, cuz he was picking up the American vernacular… ‘feeding the cats in me robe and cooking and putting a cup of tea on. This housewife wants a career!’ It was that time for him. He was about to launch Double Fantasy.”

It’s a blessed relief that the two co-founders of The Beatles who had been through thick and thin together managed to resurrect their friendship before it was too late, with the finest songwriting partnership of all time being closer than they had been in many years which is a true attestation to the brother-like relationship they shared.