Phoebe and Thalia unpack how the topic of leadership between John and Paul is discussed by authors and fans, and some of the hows and whys behind the various narratives.

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I asked Neal Brennan if he and Dave Chappelle had a private language. “Oh yeah,” he said. He got out his cellphone and looked at a recent text from Chappelle.

“He just texted me at 12:50 in the afternoon,” Brennan said, “ ‘Tata-tow!’ And I texted back, ‘Rickety-crickety-clack-clow!’ ” He laughed. “I have no idea what that means.”

Then he changed his mind. “Like I know just what he means.”

“What does he mean?” I asked.

Brennan laughed again.

“So by him writing ‘Ta-ta-tow!,’ that’s him basically saying, ‘Show business is insane.’ It’s almost like a birdcall, of like, ‘Ta-ta-tow!’ And then I write back, ‘Rickety-crickety-clack-clow!’ Which is nonsense, and it’s also this euphoric, drug-addled way of talking about crazy people, because this guy we used to work with would use the term rickety-crickety and he was pretty far out.”

I tried to interpret: “So he’s basically saying, ‘Show business is crazy,’ and you’re saying, ‘Yeah, man,’ but in a way no one else could understand?” Brennan said I’d pretty much got it. But I felt like a translator on deadline. I had arrived at a serviceable interpretation, but I knew full well that the essence of the original eluded me.

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Excerpted from Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Creation in Creative Pairs by Joshua Wolf Shenk.