Paul McCartney will soon be 80, nearly twice as old as his pal John Lennon was when his life was so senselessly cut short.
For those of us who are old enough to remember when JFK was assassinated, who saw the Beatles on Sullivan, who remember the remarkable string of albums as they were released from Rubber Soul to Let It Be and everything in between; for those of us who can tell you where we were when we heard that Lennon had been shot and that the dream really was over, what happened in Spokane on the opening night (April 28,2022) of Sir Paul’s current Got Back tour – McCartney on stage singing with Lennon – revealed and soothed a deep ache in our hearts.
It is not hyperbole to say that we have lived our lives feeling that with Lennon’s murder something sacred had been stolen from us. It was more than the loss of Lennon, but in some sense the loss of Beatles themselves. No one, with the exception of Lennon’s wives and sons, could have possibly felt the grief more seismically than McCartney. In his heart-wrenching “Here Today,” which has been a staple of his live shows for decades, McCartney sings directly to his beloved mate:
And if I say
I really loved you
And was glad you came along
Then you were hear today
For you were in my song
On more than a few occasions McCartney has gotten choked up while playing the song and we have gotten choked up with him. But McCartney is no longer content to sing to Lennon on stage, even though “Here Today” remains in his setlist. He is now moved, finally, to sing with Lennon.
McCartney’s inspired choice is “I’ve Got A Feeling,” which qualifies as his last true collaboration with Lennon. Unlike other classic Lennon-McCartney songs in which one of them wrote the verses and chorus and the other the bridge, “I’ve Got A Feeling” is an unlikely combination of incomplete songs.
Lennon’s “Everybody Had A Hard Year” is a somber ditty unveiled during the White Album sessions. The title is reflective of Lennon’s tumultuous personal life at the time. He was divorced from his wife Cynthia, estranged from his son Julian, addicted to heroin, and his soon to be wife Yoko had suffered a miscarriage. McCartney, as was most always the case, had a notably sunnier outlook and his “I’ve Got A Feeling” is an exuberant wail of love for his soon to be wife Linda. These songs with their distinctly divergent emotional viewpoints shouldn’t work together, yet somehow they seamlessly complete each other.
Years ago, when McCartney performed “We Can Work It Out” in concert, he sang Lennon’s famous “life is very hard and there’s no time for fussing and fighting” middle section. Midway through “I’ve Got A Feeling” there was no reason to think that McCartney wouldn’t cover the song as he had in the past with one of his band mates singing Lennon’s part.
But just as Lennon’s segment was nearing, McCartney uncharacteristically turns his back to the audience and looks up at the screen as Lennon, larger than life and perhaps death too, sings out:
Everybody had a hard year
Everybody had a good time
Everybody had a wet dream
Everybody saw the sun shine
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
McCartney then turns back to the crowd and adds a knowing “oh yeah” of his own, which serves to affirm and consecrate both their union and the audience’s union with them. McCartney turns and looks up to Lennon again as he continues:
Everybody had a good year
Everybody let their hair down
Everybody pulled their socks up
Everybody put their foot down
And then comes the moment we never imagined we would see again: McCartney on stage singing with Lennon. It’s an exquisite blend of an old McCartney voice and a young Lennon voice. This is Paul and John making music and magic together as they can now. It’s joyful and beautiful and inexpressibly poignant.
We all would have preferred that Lennon had come out of retirement from his cottage by the sea to join McCartney live for this performance. But alas, there’s no way it could be except the way it’s meant to be. This is the hand that fate or God, or whatever you want to call it, has dealt us.
When the Beatles spilt, McCartney was the object of scorn and angry criticism because his songs didn’t have the emotional nakedness of Lennon’s or the spiritual luminosity of Harrison’s.
In Ram, his second album (credited to Paul and Linda McCartney) McCartney sang about domestic bliss, which was somehow unfashionable in the early 70s. Now Ram is recognized, along with Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Past, as one of the best solo Beatle albums ever. With Band On The Run, McCartney achieved a level of superstardom rivaled only in the decade by Elton John.
Nevertheless, with Lennon’s premature passing, McCartney has lived in the shadow of a ghost, not to mention a martyr. “Since his death he’s become ‘Martin Luther’ Lennon,” McCartney observed in 1985. McCartney has carried that weight a long time.
But perhaps there has been a great release. In the stunning performance of “I’ve Got A Feeling” Lennon towers over McCartney but cannot overshadow him. Their days of one-upmanship are forever gone.
What’s revealed is pure yin and yang, earth and sky, flesh and spirit, McCartney and Lennon.
What a great gift, especially to those of us who were there from the start.