The tender advice Paul McCartney gave John Lennon about ego
There hasn’t been a relationship more picked apart in rock history than John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Throughout their time in The Beatles, Lennon and McCartney were in each other’s company throughout Beatlemania, always working away on a new classic and turning their genre inside out. While Lennon was known as the more egotistical of the group, McCartney also remembers him being wildly insecure.
As both men were starting in Liverpool, McCartney remembers Lennon having concerns about his legacy as a musician, telling Cosmic Magazine, “I remember John saying to me once,” ‘What are people going to think of me when I’m dead? I wonder if they’ll like me’”.
Always the musical brother, McCartney told Lennon not to worry about the future, saying, “I said, ‘Now just you stop, listen to me – ‘people love you, and they are going to love you more’ – and that’s turned out to be the case. I had to reassure him and say:`You’re great’”.
Despite having a friend to work off of, Lennon felt that insecurity throughout his life before meeting Yoko Ono. While his experimental albums may have been hard for fans to understand at the time, this was the first time Lennon felt comfortable being himself. That’s not to say he had a pleasant time once The Beatles called it quits.
As his insecurities rose to the surface, Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band put all of his ‘rockstar’ hang-ups on the table, picking apart every aspect of his life and letting fans see the inside of his rough upbringing. Throughout his debut solo effort, Lennon talks about his sense of abandonment at the hands of his parents on ‘Mother’, the broken classist system on ‘Working Class Hero’, and even The Beatles’ legacy on ‘God’.
By the time Lennon made it to the other side, he had mentioned being on much better terms with McCartney. Despite falling out over business in the past, Lennon was happy to have McCartney as a confidante during his times of trouble, saying in 1980, “At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, I would do anything for him. I think he would do anything for me”.
Once Lennon was gone, McCartney needed to say something to mark down his feelings. Although their Liverpool upbringing kept them from showing their true feelings, McCartney poured his soul into ‘Here Today’ on his album Tug of War. Though the song has the melancholy surrounding Lennon’s murder, McCartney takes the time to make peace and thank Lennon for being a part of his life.
When he plays the song in his solo shows, McCartney talks about how grateful he is for writing this song for his old friend, saying, “I explain that when we first started off as a group, we were four lads from Liverpool! I’m not going to tell anyone I love him! you’re kidding!’ We never did any of that, so I needed to write this into the song after he died”.
Lennon may have some dark corners of his past, but he had nothing to worry about regarding his legacy. He certainly wasn’t an angel, but his music has helped many generations through the darkest times in their lives.
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