Two of Us: The Passionate Partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney

by Geoffrey Giuliano

A provocative portrait of one of the most popular and influential songwriting teams ever examines the volatile relationship of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and uncovers the real psychological and emotional undercurrents that contributed to their success. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a lot about the Beatles. This is not one of the best written accounts, nor is it even-handed. Writing primarily about Lennon and McCartney the author clearly reveres Lennon and has little use for McCartney (of course, it's my own prejudice, too, though I like Paul more than he does). I did discover two things I did not know, if Giuliano can be trusted: in 'Get Back,' when Paul says, 'Get back to where you once belonged,' he's speaking to Yoko. That's kinda ugly. And, in 'Come Together,' John is saying 'Shoot me,' rather than just making a rhythmic vocalization which I always thought sounded like 'shook.' If true it's, well, kinda chilling. All in all, I will read just about anything about the Fab Four. Maybe their story can never be fully told.

[Bill · Rating 1 out of 5]

The subtitle on the cover says “Behind the myth.” This is blatantly misleading. This book does nothing but attempt to reinforce the myth, particularly the lie that John was the tortured genius artist who wrote all the best songs and Paul was the overbearing straight who wrote all the sappy hits.

The author uses florid prose to compensate for the fact that there is no new information in this book beyond the highly apocryphal and the analysis refuses to go beyond conventional wisdom.

I’ve often theorised that there are so many Beatles books out there that you could write a convincing volume just by reading a dozen or so existing ones and then taking an average. It turns out Mr Giuliano already has. Two Of Us contains no original research and leans particularly heavily on David Sheff’s Playboy interviews with John and Yoko in 1980. Coincidentally, that was the book I read immediately before this one, rendering a good quarter of this book redundant. It would be far better to go to the primary source, which is excellent, and spare yourself Giuliano’s interpolations.

Even the cut-and-paste research is sloppy. It states that John and Yoko appeared on the cover of Two Virgins “stark bullock (sic) naked.” (I think he means “bollock” in the British idiom). George had three songs on the White Album (as forgettable as Long Long Long is, he had four). So convinced is the author by 60s myths that when he asserts tracks on the White Album “inspired” the M*nson murders (not true), I half expected the next page to state that Paul was killed in a car crash and replaced by a lookalike named Billy Shears.

The bitter editorialising in the Afterword suggests to me that the author should have just tried to write a book about John Lennon instead of including other people he clearly doesn’t like. He states,

“Just about everyone who cares realised that John was the man (his emphasis) in the Beatles and that despite Paul’s colossal talent, energy, organisational skills, and drive, that’s the way it will always be, no matter how much revisionist history Mr. McCartney indulges in.”

What utter bollocks! Save your time.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty cool book because, unlike a lot of the other Beatles stuff out there, it's critical of the band. And it's got a lot of stuff that I haven't seen elsewhere.