Two of Us: John Lennon & Paul McCartney Behind the Myth


Printed:	1999	Author:	Geoffrey Giuliano
Publisher:	Penguin Books Limited	ISBN:	0140234608
Suppliers:

Paperback: 222 pages, usually ships within 2-3 days.
Amazon Review
This nuts-and-bolts account of the fabled John Lennon/Paul McCartney collaboration underscores how two very different personalities meshed to create the Beatles sound. Lennon (clearly the author's favorite) was the word man, the rebel, the experimenter who didn't really care how people reacted to his music; McCartney was the crowd pleaser, the melody man with a gift for pleasing tunes, the traditionalist with one foot in Tin Pan Alley. Together they made magic; separately, after the Beatles broke up in 1970, Lennon was preachy and screechy, McCartney was trite and trivial. Longtime Beatles chronicler and rock-music biographer Geoffrey Giuliano (The Lost Lennon Interviews, Rod Stewart: Vagabond Heart) doesn't come up with any staggeringly new information in his otherwise solid examination of the day-to-day specifics involved in creating songs from early pop classics like "Please Please Me" to such mature masterpieces as "A Day in the Life," but he does extract some fab quotes about the Fab Four. (Drummer Pete Thomas on getting his first Beatles album at age 9: "A drum, a cymbal, and With the Beatles. Has the world really come much further?") A must for fans, and critical enough to interest more detached followers of 1960s pop as well. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
John Lennon and Paul McCartney remain one of the most brilliant and influential songwriting teams in popular music. But obscured behind the music was a fierce, tumultuous rivalry that spanned an entire generation. This riveting, provocative biography uncovers the meaning behind the music. Rock authority and Beatles biographer Geoffrey Giuliano provides little-known details of events in John and Paul's relationship.