#fabcast

“So, ‘Dear Boy,’ which is so obviously about John Lennon. It’s as much about John Lennon as ‘Mother’ is about John Lennon. [Paul] has said in recent years that it’s about Linda’s first husband for not recognizing her greatness or whatever. And this whole thing, [Paul is] so smart and funny, you know? ‘Just the cutest thing around.’ He’s talking about himself, and making a dig at Yoko too. [Paul is saying to John] Like, c’mon, look at my face. You picked her over me? You really did? It’s a joke, it’s a great fucking joke! ‘I bet you never knew how much you missed, dear boy.’ And that line, ‘And even when you fall in love, dear boy, it won’t be half as good as this.’ This knocking of [John] and Yoko with [Paul] and Linda are the real thing. That’s one way you can take it. But the other way is [Paul is saying to John] The love of your life is me. Yeah her with the whispering about the bullshit about the clouds and all that. Yeah maybe that’ll last a few years, maybe it won’t once you sober up, but the love, the person that gave you the real love when you had none - and even when you had your girlfriend Cynthia who never understood anything about you - I was the one that was there, I was the one that cried with you, I was the one who knew your mother, I was the one that stuck around, I never bailed on you. You bailed on me. That’s what that is. [In the song Paul is saying] Even when you fall in love, you’re never gonna get anyone as devoted to you and your cause as me.”

John Lennon is never too far from Paul McCartney's mind. Paul McCartney, from what I gather, has a great... not only a love, but a great need to work with this man. That's his passion in life. His musical passion is working with John Lennon, either on John Lennon's songs, jamming with John Lennon, singing with John Lennon...

Even when they're smiling in Let It Be, there's a shadow over all that activity. They just look so drained and tired and annoyed. And Paul -- he's trying so hard, he's trying. You know, Two Of Us on the same mic and doing the Everly thing. [...] It's depressing. And that version of Maxwell's that Lennon does, where it's that demented voice. And it's not thirty seconds. It's like three minutes doing the whole thing. He tears it apart. But even that McCartney loves 'cause he's singing my song.

[Stephen] Shrimpton's first job was getting Paul out of jail in Japan, and his last job was overseeing the release of Broad Street. Which is an interesting span!

The now moments were getting [John] back with Ringo, getting him back with George, getting him back with Paul. Paul was the biggest, obviously. And I almost got them to write....When [John and Paul] saw each other it was like they never left each others' side, as if they'd seen each other every day. It was in January of '75 we had seen Paul and Linda, we'd go out to dinner, they'd come by the house and they'd just pop in whenever they were around. And all of the sudden one morning [John] was looking out the window, and I'm looking, I'm doing something and he says, 'Hey, I want to ask you something.' I said what? And he goes, 'What if, umm, do you think I should, uhh, write with Paul again?' And I'm telling you, I spun my head around like the Exorcist, you know, there's Linda Blair's head, and I go what? I said what do you mean? And he said, 'Well, I was just thinking. What do you think?' And I said, you know what, the two of you solo, you know, about your own stuff, you're good. But when the two of you get together there's a magic that can't be broken. There's something about it. And he just sort of looked at me and he went, 'Yeah.'

“He [Paul] is saying ‘I’m with her.’ That’s what he’s saying. He’s saying ‘I am with her now,’ just like John. You know they mirror each other. Until the end of Lennon’s life those two are twins. They’re just not together anymore, but they mirror each other the entire time. It’s an ongoing conversation and an ongoing argument, like together or apart John Lennon and Paul McCartney were literally halves of a whole. They both found women and they both said [to each other] ‘I’m with her now and you’re gonna deal with it, because we gave you everything, we gave you so much that now I’m going to turn her voice up in the mix and you’re gonna deal with it.’”