Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s relationship did not end on ideal terms. While they had moved past the vitriol of the late 1960s and early 1970s, they never quite reached the level of friendship they had when they first met. According to Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, McCartney was one of only a handful of people Lennon liked.
Paul McCartney was one of the few people John Lennon trusted
McCartney and Lennon met at a church fête in 1956. While their relationship had its base in their shared love of music, they soon realized they had a great deal in common. The trust between them only improved their musical relationship.
Cynthia said that while Lennon had many acquaintances, there were very few people he loved and trusted. McCartney became one of these confidantes.
“Paul was one of the three people John was closest to,” Cynthia wrote in her book John. “Although he had plenty of cronies, he only really let his guard down with Paul, me, and Stuart Sutcliffe.”
Paul McCartney initially wanted to be like John Lennon
According to Cynthia, before Lennon and McCartney were that close, the latter did his best to emulate his older bandmate.
“In those days, Paul tried hard to impress John, posing and strutting with his hair slicked back to prove that he was cool, because John was very much the leader,” she wrote. “It was his band, and he had the final say about who got in and who didn’t, and what they played. Then, he was everything Paul wanted to be — laid-back, self-assured, and in charge. As the schoolboy he still was, Paul could only aspire to those things.”
Their dynamic eventually became more equal, though.
“As the two became closer this changed,” she wrote. “John recognized Paul’s musical talent and that he could learn from him. Paul responded by becoming more confident and they came to share decisions and eventually ran the group together.”
Cynthia Lennon believed her husband needed his bandmate
Cynthia believed Lennon was more of the band leader than McCartney was. Still, she didn’t think her husband would have reached such great levels of success without his bandmate. McCartney had the drive necessary to achieve recognition. On his own, Lennon did not.
“I don’t think that at nineteen John had the faintest idea he would be rich or successful, or even hoped for it in the same way that some people hope to win the football pools,” Cynthia said in the book Lennon: The Definitive Biography by Ray Coleman. “Paul was a keen schoolboy but John wasn’t like that. He was just happy doing what he wanted. He was carefree.”
She wasn’t sure he would have been a musician at all without McCartney’s help.
“He would have ended up a bum … It’s hard to say that now, after what happened, but he wouldn’t have cared that much,” she said. “I’d have gone out to work, he wouldn’t have any qualifications whatsoever because he was falling foul of the art college, and Mimi would have pushed him in all sorts of directions. He would have needed to learn a trade, or go back to school again, and I can’t see him concentrating. He’d have gone downhill.”
