New revelations about John Lennon’s desire to rekindle his songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney have emerged, shedding fascinating light on an important period in rock history.
Years after the bitter breakup of The Beatles and the infamous feud that ensued, Lennon apparently expressed a genuine interest in collaborating with his former bandmate again. This surprising bit of news comes from May Pang, who dated Lennon during his temporary separation from Yoko Ono.
Pang shared her story in the new documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, which will be available for fans to buy later this week. The film dives deep into a period of Lennon’s life some call the “Lost Weekend” that is apparently not as well understood as some might have believed.
At that point, The Beatles had split, and all the members were doing their own things musically. They had found success, but according to Pang, Lennon was thinking of working with his former songwriting partner again. The Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo may be the most commercially successful of all time.
In a conversation with USA Today to promote the documentary, Pang recalled a pivotal moment that signified Lennon’s eagerness to rekindle his creative pairing with the fellow former Beatle. She explained that in January 1975, Paul and Linda McCartney were planning to head to New Orleans to work on a new album. Upon hearing this, Lennon, who had always held an affection for New Orleans, expressed his interest in going to meet them in the city.
“A couple of days later, he’s tinkling on the guitar, and he goes, ‘What do you think if I wrote with Paul again?'” Pang recounted. The mere suggestion was startling to her, as it marked a significant shift from the animosity of their past. “I think it would be great,” she responded to Lennon’s surprising proposal.
Lennon went even further, suggesting that they should go down to New Orleans together to initiate the collaboration. Pang states that “He really wanted to do that” and she feels that if she’d been able to get him to the city at the right time, “it would have happened.”
While Lennon’s aspiration to write with McCartney again never came to fruition, it is a story that hasn’t been told yet—which is rare when it comes to The Beatles. While they never worked together again, Lennon and McCartney did settle their dispute and became friendly again before the former’s murder in 1980.
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