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Elton John remembers John Lennon 'whirlwind romance' JOHN LENNON'S 80TH BIRTHDAY is being celebrated by emotional interviews with his sons Sean and Julian this weekend. Plus Elton John who remembers an intense "whirlwind romance" of love, friendship and music with the Beatles legend. "We did a lot of naughty, naughty things together."
'It was a dream come true for me'
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1343360/Elton-John-John-Lennon-Beatles-Sean-Julian-Lennon-son-death-birthday-music
The new two-part interviews are being broadcast across Radio 2 this weekend ahead of Lennon's birthday on October 9. Elton opens up about an extraordinary two-year period with his fellow music idol. He tells Sean Lennon: "It was such such an important thing in my life, Sean, and it just really helped me. It gave me so much confidence. Your dad was as kind and as generous and sweet and we just hit it off immediately."
The two international stars only met in person on 1973. By then, Elton's 1970 breakthrough single You’re Song had been a top ten hit either side of the Atlantic.In 1973 his album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sold over 30 million copies and the 17 tracks included iconic hits Candle in the Wind, Bennie and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting.
Yet, he was totally starstruck to meet one of heroes and reveals in the new interview how he had cycled eight miles to buy the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In return, Sean tells Elton: "My dad, when he first heard your voice he was in America I think already, and he was thinking that's the first new kind of British singing that he really liked and dug. I think he said that he loved your music and the songs and he liked the song, Your Song."
Elton describes an incredible two year period that followed, filled with laughter and creative exchanges where Elton played on John's fifth album, Wall & Bridges and John guest starred at Elton's legendary Madison Square Gardens concert in November 1974.
https://youtu.be/LCXJHJG7190 Elton said of the whole experience: "It was just, for me, it was a dream come true."We laughed so much because we talked about the 50s and 60s and where we grew up, you know, Round the Horne in England, the radio shows we liked, the songs we liked, we didn't like, and your dad was just a fountain of knowledge. It was a hand in glove thing and I never thought that would ever happen.
"There was no attitude. I hate posers and I hate attitude and your dad didn't have any of it."
Elton met John at a video shoot for the former Beatles' fourth album, Mind Games.
He tells Sean: "I was a little bit, obviously I was in awe, I was meeting any of The Beatles and they all treated me so brilliantly, but your dad had that edge that none of the other Beatles had kind of because he wasn't afraid to say what he thought.
"Your dad was as kind and as generous and sweet and we just hit it off immediately. He was so funny. That's what I loved about him. And we talked about music, we talked about records we loved.
Sean adds: "And other things. He did other things I heard."
Elton replies: "Yeah, we did other things [laughs]. We did a lot of naughty, naughty things together. We had a lot of fun. Oh my god."
John had a reputation for a cutting wit and being difficult sometimes but Sean suggests that John's love for Elton would have tempered his behaviour.
Sean says: "I imagine he had… a special love and respect for you so he might not have been the same with everyone necessarily.
"I know for sure that he loved you equally because I read a lot about things he said and he never really spoke of anyone as highly as you, he really did love you."
The intense friendship came to a head with John's guest appearance at Elton's legendary Madison Square Gardens concert in 1974. After that, Elton says their closeness quickly faded away, but he understands why.
Backstage after the concert, John reunited with his wife Yoko Ono, after leaving her for an 18-month affair with Mae Pang. The couple soon after had son Sean, who later asked Elton to be his godfather.
Elton says: "After that and then you were born, I really didn't hear or see your dad at all and I didn't mind because you know what, he was so happy being back with your mum, and he was so enchanted having you that it was his life had become another thing and so I didn't really speak to him or see him that much at all or hear from him.
"And I didn't mind because it was just the fact that that night was so consequential in the history of his life. The fact that he got back together with your mum and then they had you."
PAUL MCCARTNEY has been interviewed to mark John Lennon's 80th birthday. The Beatles legend admitted how competitive they were but confessed he thought he had "an edge" over his bandmate "musically."
Beatles: Paul McCartney new interview
'I had an edge over John Lennon musically'
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1341509/Beatles-Paul-McCartney-John-Lennon-songs-feud-split-death-music-son-Sean-Julian-LennonThis year marks two major milestones for fans of John Lennon. Not only what would have been his 80th birthday on October 9, but then the 40th anniversary of his shocking murder on December 8. In an extraordinary interview on Radio 2 this weekend, John's son Sean chats with his half-brother Julian, as well as Paul McCartney and Elton John, about the incredible life and legacy of the Beatles legend. Paul opens up about their rivalry and why he had an advantage over his bandmate.
The interviews will be broadcast in two parts this Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Lennon and McCartney remain the most successful songwriting partnership in music history, with over 600 million records sold.
Although they are credited jointly on most songs, few were written in partnership. It was a hangover from their early days when they agreed on joint credits but, in reality, one would compose the bulk of a track and then the other would add some finishing touches.
This lead to a rivalry, both during the Beatles years and after, which Paul accepts also added to their creative drive
Looking back at it, Paul told Sean Lennon: "I think what was important wasn't who was more sophisticated than the other or whatever.
"There maybe is some truth that, musically, I had an edge because my dad had shown us some things. And I'd learned the guitar chords a bit before John, but it wasn't so much that, the sophistication, it was attitudes.
"So my attitude would be, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And then John would bring another edge to it.
"So the great thing was the combination of those two attitudes, and I look back on it now like a fan."
The Beatles famously and acrimoniously split in 1970, after the recording and release of Abbey Road.
Relationships between all four band members were strained for years, but Paul is able to look back now with great affection and positivity on what they went through and created together.
He added: "You think, ‘Wow, how lucky was I to meet this strange Teddy boy off the bus who turned out to play music like I did? And we get together!’ And, boy, we complemented each other. It was a bit yin yang. They say with marriages opposites attract and I think we weren't like madly opposite, but I had some stuff he didn't have, and he had some stuff I didn't have. So when you put them together it made something extra, which I think was this."
Paul says he can now look back an see how their partnership and rivalry encouraged them both to be better and to push boundaries.
The Beatles star added: "The fact that we'd come along this journey together meant that, 'hey, we're just gonna continue, and who knows?, we might get better.'
"And so we did, and if I did something that was a little bit ahead of the curve, then John would come up with something that was a bit ahead of my curve. And then so I'd go ‘Well, how about this?’… there was a lot of friendly competition."
Beatles songs:
Which songs did John Lennon write in Lennon-McCartney partnership?
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1340439/Beatles-songs-Which-songs-John-Lennon-write-Lennon-McCartney-partnership-paul-mccartney
BEATLES wrote some of the best-loved songs in rock'n'roll history - but which were written by John Lennon?
The Beatles had two main songwriting brains behind it: John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney. George Harrison and Sir Ringo Starr also contributed music to the group, but the Lennon-McCartney partnership was behind some of the biggest hits from the band. It is said the band’s songwriters often wrote full songs before presenting it to the band - so which songs did John Lennon write?
John Lennon was a fantastic songwriter, as was his Beatles companion Sir Paul McCartney.
Lennon and Sir Paul met at a local church fete in 1957, where Lennon was performing with a skiffle group called the Quarrymen.
After Macca impressed Lennon with his guitar stylings, he was invited to join the Quarrymen, and soon they brought along their friends to listen to their new song performances, inviting mates such as Nigel Walley and future Beatle George Harrison.
Speaking to Playboy in 1980, Lennon spoke fondly of his bond with Sir Paul and their writing.
He said: “[Sir Paul McCartney] provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.
“There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ‘n’ roll.
“But, of course, when I think of some of my own songs—‘In My Life’, or some of the early stuff, ‘This Boy’—I was writing melody with the best of them.”
The pair used this medium to communicate many of their feelings, about the world and issues they were facing.
But who wrote which songs?
According to Barry Miles’ book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Lennon and Sir Paul often wrote independently, with many of the songs from the band being mostly the work of one of the two writers.
However, it was rare a song would be completed without both writers taking a look, whether it was to change a melody, add something like a bridge or middle eight, or combining unfinished songs to make a whole.
An example of this is shown in The Beatles Anthology documentary, where Lennon is seen telling Sir Paul not to change a line in his hit song Hey Jude.
The line ‘the movement you need is on your shoulder’ was going to be changed by Sir Paul, but Lennon made sure he kept it, and it soon became an important line in the famous tune.
Despite them both working on songs, many were worked on pretty much as individuals, though which song is which is harder to decipher.
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite from 1967 is an example of this, which Lennon claimed to have written entirely, while Sir Paul later said he was as involved in it as his bandmate.
Similarly, Help! from 1965 was also considered to be a co-written song, while in late interviews Lennon claimed this was entirely his own writing.
These arguments exist with a number of the songs, including Eleanor Rigby and Ticket to Ride.
However, there are some very clear songs which are more Lennon’s work than Sir Paul’s, such as I Am the Walrus, Come Together and Strawberry Fields Forever.
After Lennon’s death, there were reports of Sir Paul attempting to reverse the songwriting credits for a number of Beatles songs from Lennon-McCartney, to McCartney-Lennon.
He entered into a dispute with Yoko Ono, who inherited Lennon’s wealth and certain musical rights, along with his son Sean.
However, in 2003, Sir Paul declared: “I’m happy with the way it is and always has been.
“Lennon and McCartney is still the rock ‘n’ roll trademark I’m proud to be a part of - in the order it has always been.”
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