McCartney: Esquire Interview

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by nicole21290, Jul 2, 2015.

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  1. leeroy jenkins

    leeroy jenkins Forum Resident

    Location:
    The United States
    Well, then when you do that, Lennon now wrote all of the early songs. Point being that once you assign who wrote what by listing a name first it leaves any guesswork out of it. Whoever has their name listed first wrote it from that point on. No more "they wrote this one together", "this one is Paul, with some help from John" etc..
     
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  2. Paul H

    Paul H The fool on the hill

    Location:
    Nottingham, UK
    As Leeroy says, it then really does look like Lennon wrote most of the songs.

    I see Leeroy beat me to making the point.
     
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  3. She is anyway

    She is anyway Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Minnesota, USA
    My understanding of Paul's argument is that these sorts of problems (credits which omit the second author's name, leaving people with the false impression that John was the sole author) arise primarily when the credits include first names. Isn't he saying that, ideally, he'd actually still prefer to stay with the "Lennon-McCartney" credit (as opposed to "John Lennon and Paul McCartney) for all the songs, not just the ones of 50/50 authorship? He says that this practice of including the first names, and taking up more space, began with the Anthology project, and has continued. I get the sense that he was all right with "Lennon-McCartney" (more than all right with it, proud of it) all along, and that his first choice now would still be "Lennon-McCartney" for the whole body of work. Every other stance he's taken over the years ("Can't we just make it my name first for 'Yesterday' then?") seems to represent an adjustment he's made to the problems that started, as he sees it, when they broke up the "Lennon-McCartney" brand name and began including first names as well.
     
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  4. leeroy jenkins

    leeroy jenkins Forum Resident

    Location:
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    I didn't realize that the McCartney credit had been removed.
     
  5. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Nah... Paul's name would come first on Love Me Do, I Saw Her Standing There, All My Loving, Hold Me Tight etc.
     
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  6. Fivebyfive

    Fivebyfive Forum Resident

    Location:
    East coast, US
    In the Esquire article, in my reading, Paul makes clear that he's not referring to the "Lennon-McCartney" credit on the albums at all.

    He's talking about the longer credit that appears on sheet music: "Composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney." Or "Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney." That's the one where his name often gets cut off or left off, and he wanted that sheet music credit switched based on who the primary songwriter was.
     
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  7. Fivebyfive

    Fivebyfive Forum Resident

    Location:
    East coast, US
    That's the really sad part of Paul's comment on all this. Even HE feels so defensive about expressing his own opinion and defending his own role that he's like "OK, OK, John gets to determine who wrote what, I give up."
    We all know how Lennon would have reacted to having "McCartney-Lennon" on all of "John's songs."
     
  8. theMess

    theMess Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, UK
    As Fivebyfive and Sheisanyway have pointed out, Paul is more than happy for all Beatles songs to be listed as Lennon/McCartney, a partnership he is proud of.

    What he is not happy with is his name coming second on songs that he wrote most of, when first names are also used, because otherwise his name gets cut off of songs that he alone wrote, leading to situations where only John is listed as writing songs that he had nothing to do with.

    Quite simply, all songs should be listed as Lennon/McCartney, and where they are not, Paul is happy to use John's Playboy interview as a guide so that the primary writer can have their name listed first.

    I see nothing unreasonable about that idea.
     
  9. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    They said, “OK, what we’ll do is we’ll alternate it: Lennon and McCartney, McCartney and Lennon.” Well, that didn’t happen. And I didn’t mind. It’s a good logo...."
    (End snippet)
    "But what happened was the Anthology came out [in 1996, with Epstein and Lennon now long dead]. And I said, “OK, what they’re now saying is, ‘Song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.’” I said, if you’re doing that, it’s not Lennon and McCartney, it’s not the logo any more."
    (End snippet)
    "so I said, “Could we have ‘By Paul McCartney and John Lennon’, wouldn’t that be a good idea? And then on ‘Strawberry Fields’ we’ll have, ‘By John Lennon and Paul McCartney’. ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘John Lennon and Paul McCartney’. ‘Penny Lane’, ‘Paul McCartney and John Lennon’. Seeing as we’re breaking it up, can we do that?”
    (End snippet)
    "And at first Yoko said yeah. And then she rang back a few days later and she had this guy Sam Havadtoy who she was living with – she was co-Havadtoying – and she said she’d decided it wasn’t a good idea and no, no, no, no. "
     
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  10. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
    Personally, I think if it were just a matter of history or posterity, the credits should be revised to reflect the songs' actual authorship, and do away with the many fictitious co-author credits. Two more amicable people could sort that out, and I would think the value of each guy's songs would be close enough. But there's too much money involved, and you know Yoko would fight Paul over every last line of lyric.
     
  11. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    PLAYBOY: "'Give Peace a Chance.'"

    LENNON: "All we were saying was give peace a chance."

    PLAYBOY: "Was it really a Lennon-McCartney composition?"

    LENNON: "No, I don't even know why his name was on it. It's there because I kind of felt guilty because I'd made the separate single-- the first-- and I was really breaking away from the Beatles."
     
  12. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    PLAYBOY: Why were the compositions you and Paul did separately attributed to Lennon-McCartney?"

    LENNON: "Paul and I made a deal when we were 15. There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what."
     
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  13. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    You may well be right. However, those were pretty busy years IIRC.
     
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  14. Thesmellofvinyl

    Thesmellofvinyl Senior Member

    Location:
    Cohoes, NY USA
    Has McCartney ever before mentioned seeing and being impressed by Lennon prior to their first meeting? This was the first I'd read of it.
     
  15. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I just looked over the 1980 Playboy interview, by the way. By my count Lennon only references 22 Lennon-McCartney songs (including I Wanna Be Your Man). There must be another interview where he goes over every song. I did middle eight on this, Paul did on that. I can't remember where it is....but THAT one is much more thorough.
     
  16. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    It's the same interview, just a longer version that came out as a book.
     
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  17. dudley07726

    dudley07726 Forum Resident

    Location:
    FLA
    Funny, that at the same time while Lennon was still crediting McCartnry on GPAC, McCartney wasn't reciprocating with Come &Get It
     
  18. Muddy

    Muddy Large Member

    Location:
    New York
    Uh-oh ... :eek:
     
  19. Headfone

    Headfone Nothing Tops A Martin

    My favorite part of the interview:

    PM: "...All my life I’ve been trying to win a school prize or trying to do OK in an exam or trying to get a good job. I’ve always been trying to do something where people go: you’re good. When you get it, it seems a shame to me to go, oh, ****. To me it’s like, this is what I wanted. I do like it, I must say. The attention’s never really bothered me. I’ve always thought, “OK, you’re famous, you’ve chosen that path. You can’t blame anyone else.” As long as you’re enjoying it that’s good. And when it goes wrong you’re just going to have to deal with it."

    That's about as honest and introspective as I've ever heard him be.
     
  20. Culpa

    Culpa Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    I thought Lennon was first to drop "Lennon/McCartney". Didn't Cold Turkey come out before Come and Get It?
     
  21. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yes, "Cold Turkey" (released October 1969---right around the same time as the Abbey Road album!!) preceded "Come And Get It" (released December 1969) by 2 months, and John was the sole author on "Cold Turkey" while Paul was the sole author on "Come And Get It".

    But there were some previous unusual credits:

    "Cat Call" (by the Chris Barber Band, 1967) and "Penina" (Jotta Here and Carlos Mendes, 1969) were only credited to McCartney.

    The Family Way Soundtrack (January 1967) is also solely credited to Paul.

    And: The "Thingumybob" 45 by the Black Dyke Mills Band in 1968 had a credit of "McCartney & Lennon" (in that reverse order).

    Plus there is the Bernard Webb credit of "Woman" for Peter & Gordon. But presumably the publishing earnings for that went into the same account that held all of the Lennon-McCartney monies.
     
  22. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    No comment on whether it is "funny" or not. Come and Get It was never written for The Beatles. Just as Penina wasn't.

    Probably Give Peace a Chance wasn't! It seems quite evident it wasn't. So....when the credit gets taken away McCartney doesn't utter a peep. No Havadtoying by him. No trying to leverage it.

    Funny, eh!?
     
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  23. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Uh oh...
     
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  24. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    Do you have a link? Thanks. (I know I saw this on the internet)
     
  25. Muddy

    Muddy Large Member

    Location:
    New York
    :doh:

    This thread.
     
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