 If
you think John Lennon was the smart, arty Beatle while Paul was an empty head twittering
prettily, this book will hip you to the facts. While John sat in the suburbs getting
stoned to numb the pain of his imminent divorce, bachelor Paul was feeding his head by
immersion in the London avant-garde. He pioneered the Beatles' experimental stuff, though
his witty song-by-song account proves that it really was a 50-50 partnership--and some of
the best innovations, like the snarling 1964 feedback intro to "I Feel Fine,"
happened by pure accident. Paul's insight into John's genius, which sprang from howling
paranoia and a stark childhood, is still deeper than his insight into himself, but the
book's true glory is its inside info on all those songs--the six tunes about John's
marriage on A Hard Day's Night; Paul's heist of the "I Saw Her Standing
There" bass line from Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking About You" (found on
Berry's The Chess Box); the true meanings of "Norwegian Wood" (pine
paneling, which the song's narrator burns to avenge the girl's refusal to have sex with
him), "Got to Get You into My Life" ("you" is marijuana), and
"Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" ("life goes on" in Yoruba). This book is even
better than A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song and Revolution
in the Head. Here is the last word on the Beatles, inevitably slanted toward McCartney
but generally more convincing than Lennon's own recollections. --Tim Appelo |