The final words between John Lennon and Paul McCartney
The Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership was one of the most prolific of all time, with the Beatles having sold over 600 million records worldwide as of 2004. The partnership was formed when John Lennon and Paul McCartney were just kids, striking a friendship that would ultimately change the course of popular culture.
Yet the fact that the Beatles became the most significant cultural phenomenon the world has ever seen naturally brought its own emotional and financial pressures. As such, the band split in 1970. McCartney and Lennon would personally fall out with one another, though McCartney regrets not being able to sort out their friendship before Lennon tragically died in 1980.
McCartney once said: “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 blow up. It could have easily been one of the other phone calls, when we blew up at each other and slammed the phone down.”
He added: “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’ [or] robe, as he called it, because 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.”
Lennon would be murdered by Mark Chapman in 1980 beneath the Archway of his Manhattan apartment in New York City. The event shocked the world, and music fans across the globe would mourn the tragic passing of one of the most famous and influential musicians of all time.
McCartney said back in 2020, “It’s difficult for me to think about. I rerun the scenario in my head. Very emotional. So much so that I can’t really think about it. It kind of implodes. What can you think about that besides anger, sorrow? Like any bereavement, the only way out is to remember how good it was with John.”
He added, “I can’t get over the senseless act. I can’t think about it. I’m sure it’s some form of denial. But denial is the only way that I can deal with it. Having said that, of course I do think about it, and it’s horrible. You do things to help yourself out of it. I did an interview with Sean, his son. That was nice – to talk about how cool John was and fill in little gaps in his knowledge. So it’s little things that I am able to do, but I know that none of them can get over the hill and make it OK.”
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