{"id":20220,"date":"2026-02-03T14:09:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20220"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T06:09:21","slug":"the-best-paul-mccartney-song-according-to-john-lennon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artgardenhub.com\/?p=20220","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cbest\u201d Paul McCartney song, according to John Lennon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The story of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is a complicated one. Together, they formed arguably the greatest songwriting partnership of all time, making\u00a0The Beatles\u00a0the most significant rock band the world has ever seen. They pushed the established musical boundaries and beckoned culture into the bright light of the future with their words and music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Lennon and McCartney changing the world with the potency of their collaboration, the\u00a0break-up of The Beatles in 1970 was a sticky situation\u00a0for all involved. Notoriously, McCartney wrote \u2018Too Many People\u2019 as a critique of his old partner, a standout moment on his celebrated 1971 solo album,\u00a0Ram<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song contains lines about \u201cpreaching practices\u201d and \u201cgoing underground\u201d, with McCartney airing his frustrations about what he perceived as Lennon\u2019s hypocrisies. While Ram<\/em> wasn\u2019t received particularly well upon release, it has since benefitted from a reappraisal later in life and is now considered one of McCartney\u2019s best. Too Many People\u2019, though, only added fuel to what was becoming an increasingly hostile public spat. It was so acrimonious that even 50 years later, McCartney is still sensitive when broaching the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis song was written a year or so after the Beatles breakup, at a time when John was firing missiles at me with his songs, and one or two of them were quite cruel,\u201d McCartney recalled in his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.<\/em> \u201cI don\u2019t know what he hoped to gain other than punching me in the face. The whole thing really annoyed me. I decided to turn my missiles on him too, but I\u2019m not really that kind of a writer, so it was quite veiled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: \u201cIt was the 1970s equivalent of what we might today call a \u2018diss track\u2019. Songs like this, where you\u2019re calling someone out on their behaviour, are quite commonplace now, but back then, it was a fairly new \u2018genre\u2019. The idea of too many people\u2019 preaching practices\u2019 was definitely aimed at John telling everyone what they ought to do \u2013 telling me, for instance, that I ought to go into business with Allen Klein\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John<\/a>
The two icons together, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This high-profile slight against John Lennon was responded to with the brutal and cutting \u2018How Do You Sleep?\u2019, a track from his 1971 album\u00a0Imagine<\/em>. Lennon said at the time: \u201cI heard\u00a0Paul\u2019s messages in\u00a0Ram<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 yes there are dear reader! Too many people going where? Missed our lucky what? What was our first mistake? Can\u2019t be wrong? Huh! I mean Yoko, me, and other friends can\u2019t all be hearing things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lennon recorded the song with former Beatles guitarist George Harrison, adding extra bite to the track. He explained: \u201cSo to have some fun, I must thank Allen Klein publicly for the line \u2018just another day\u2019. A real poet! Some people don\u2019t see the funny side of it. Too bad. What am I supposed to do, make you laugh? It\u2019s what you might call an \u2018angry letter\u2019, sung \u2013 get it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the ill will between them, when speaking to\u00a0Hit Parader<\/em>\u00a0in 1972, Lennon was democratic when discussing The Beatles\u2019 songs and even revealed the name of the number he thought was McCartney\u2019s \u201cbest\u201d. This is the 1968 ballad, \u2018Hey Jude\u2019. Famously, it evolved out of the track \u2018Hey Jules\u2019 that McCartney had written to comfort Lennon\u2019s young son, Julian, after his father left his mother for Yoko Ono.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When discussing the 1968 hit, Lennon said: \u201cPaul. That\u2019s his best song. It started off as a song about my son Julian because Paul was going to see him. Then he turned it into \u2018Hey Jude.\u2019 I always thought it was about me and Yoko, but he said it was about him and his.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his famous 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon also offered another theory to the song\u2019s inception: \u201cHe said it was written about Julian. He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian then. He was driving to see Julian to say hello. He had been like an uncle. And he came up with \u2018Hey Jude.\u2019 But I always heard it as a song to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow I\u2019m sounding like one of those fans reading things into it\u2026 Think about it: Yoko had just come into the picture. He is saying. \u2018Hey, Jude\u2019\u2014\u2019Hey, John.\u2019 Subconsciously, he was saying, \u2018Go ahead, leave me.\u2019 On a conscious level, he didn\u2019t want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, \u2018Bless you.\u2019 The devil in him didn\u2019t like it at all, because he didn\u2019t want to lose his partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The track deserves it\u2019s acclaim. We needn\u2019t tell you about the power of \u2018Hey Jude\u2019, all you need to do that is to listen to this song being sung at a festival or large gathering and hear 90% of people join in and you\u2019ll feel<\/em> just how impactful the track has been as, after nearly 60 years following its release, \u2018Hey Jude\u2019 still lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A_MjCqQoLLA<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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