Paul McCartney struggled with ‘overwhelmingly strong feelings of pain’ in The Beatles

EXCLUSIVE: John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote a lot of hits for The Beatles, with one expert claiming the songs were so popular because they channeled their feelings into them

Paul McCartney was emotional in The Beatles(Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Paul McCartney struggled with feelings of “pain and loneliness” during his time in The Beatles, something also felt by his bandmate John Lennon.

The pair wrote a number of hit songs for the band and author Ian Leslie, who has written a book about John and Paul, believes he knows why they worked so well together. Speaking exclusively to The Mirror US, Leslie said, “I think that they were very different in some ways and very similar in others.

“And they’re kind of differently shaped personalities fitted together in this kind of unique and amazing way.” When John and Paul first met, they were both teenagers who ended up going through similar tragedies.

Paul was just 14 years old when his mother Mary McCartney died of an embolism as a complication of surgery for breast cancer. John Lennon’s mom Julia Lennon sadly died when he was 17 after being hit by a car.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon were united in The Beatles(Image: Redferns)

Leslie told us, “When they met, they were teenagers, both of them very emotionally intense and both of them had had difficult childhoods in different ways, but in one particular way. They both lost their mothers at a young age.”

He also suggested John and Paul bonded over the love for rock n’ roll music, adding, “The music became a way for them to channel these otherwise overwhelmingly strong feelings of pain and loneliness and joy as well.”

Leslie continued, “They found a way to express those feelings in songs. And so the songs that they write together and perform together are really full of their emotions and feelings, including their feelings about each other.”

Leslie suggested both John and Paul might have struggled with their emotions as they “grew up in an era where you didn’t talk about your feelings much.” He added, “They didn’t go to counseling or therapy.”

John and Paul’s partnership sadly came to an end in 1970 when Paul announced he was leaving The Beatles and the band subsequently split. The once-close pair then hit out at one another through songs.

John started the bitter war with his track How Do You Sleep? before Paul hit back with Too Many People. Leslie suggested their vocal attacks were due to unresolved tensions.

The expert told us, “Of course, they were no longer with each other all the time. So they were not arguing face to face. So what do they do when they want to communicate with each other, which they still did? They have to do it through songs.

“That’s the way they know, ‘When I feel angry or annoyed, that’s an emotion you can feel like with somebody. Well, I’ll put it into a song.’” The expert suggested the back and forth in the songs was “like dialogue at a distance.”