BOOKS
All their loving: McCartney and Lennon in Detroit, 1966
T
HERE’s a lot to unpack in the title of Ian Leslie’s musical biography, John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs. Whither George and Ringo, for instance? (George inhabits half a chapter. Ringo gets to deliver a letter to Paul as the group dissolves.) And “love story”? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to think about The Beatles as a story in love songs?
In a semi-apologetic note on page 383, the author explains his method. “While writing the book I was often asked if I had sought an interview with Paul McCartney. I did not.” Interviewing only one of the songwriting partners would have led, Leslie says, to an unbalanced book. “Although I drew on countless published interviews with the principals and others, I didn’t carry out any myself (except one with Michael Lindsay-Hogg).”