If you think John Lennon was the smart, arty Beatle while Paul was an empty head twittering
prettily, this book will hip you to the facts. While John sat in the suburbs getting stoned to numb
the pain of his imminent divorce, bachelor Paul was feeding his head by immersion in the London
avant-garde. He pioneered the Beatles' experimental stuff, though his witty song-by-song
account proves that it really was a 50-50 partnership--and some of the best innovations, like the
snarling 1964 feedback intro to "I Feel Fine," happened by pure accident. Paul's insight into
John's genius, which sprang from howling paranoia and a stark childhood, is still deeper than his
insight into himself, but the book's true glory is its inside info on all those songs--the six tunes
about John's marriage on A Hard Day's Night; Paul's heist of the "I Saw Her Standing There"
bass line from Chuck Berry's "I'm Talking About You" (found on Berry's The Chess Box); the
true meanings of "Norwegian Wood" (pine paneling, which the song's narrator burns to avenge
the girl's refusal to have sex with him), "Got to Get You into My Life" ("you" is marijuana), and
"Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" ("life goes on" in Yoruba). This book is even better than A Hard Day's
Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song and Revolution in the Head. Here is the last word
on the Beatles, inevitably slanted toward McCartney but generally more convincing than
Lennon's own recollections. --Tim Appelo
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