This widely acclaimed new book begins with a stated hypothesis that John Lennon and Paul McCartney shared a love for each other that transcends run-of-the-mill male friendships – explicitly a “quasi-marriage” – and that this ‘merger of souls’ informed almost everything they did from the moment they first met at Woolton Village Fete in July 1957 until John’s murder in December 1980.

The author evidences this by reference primarily to songs that the two either wrote together or wrote about or to each other across that period. This should make for a fascinating book.

Certainly the dynamic of that relationship and the art that it birthed was central to The Beatles success and it is a relationship that intrigues the die-hard fan; the fan that knows the music and the story inside out and still wants to know more about how the relationships within the band formed, fractured, and ultimately fell apart.

Here we encounter the first problem with ‘John & Paul: A Love Story In Song’. There is little or no original research, there are no new interviews, and no new facts are uncovered. Rather, and the author makes this clear, this book relies upon existing » Continue Reading.