One of the core components of creativity is interdependence, a felt sense of connection with the places we inhabit, the activities we engage in, and in this case, our relationships with others. Here is an excerpt from an interview on NPR’s To the Best of Our Knowledge of Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney by radio host Jim Flemming. I was on the edge of my seat listening to the piece. You can too at Joshua Wolf Shenk on Lennon and McCartney. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Fleming: This is still the competition then. Was it George Martin who said they had a tug of war going all the time?
Shenk: Yeah. George Martin’s image is a beautiful one that they were at the end of a rope tugging all the time, pulling as hard as they could, smiling all the while. Then he said the tension made for the bond. I love that image because I think it captures something essential. We were talking earlier about the space between two people, and really in a very basic way, my Slate series and the book I’m writing for the Penguin Press is a kind of biography of the space between creative people.
I think that space needs to be open, you know, just like two boxers in the ring, a way for them to avoid contact is to hug each other. You can’t have creativity when you’re actually fused, but you obviously can’t have it when you’re a million miles away. So the image of the tug of rope really kind a captures that moment and that space of tension in a beautiful way.
Fleming: Maybe you could say it musically. Is there a composition, a Lennon-McCartney composition that you think really sums up their relationship?
Shenk: Oh, man, so many great ones. The first thing that pops in my head is We Can Work It Out, which is you know, a great place where you know, you have a song that was primarily written by Paul, at least instigated by Paul. And you have these sort of darker hues, these minor notes that John brought in and it just adds up to something so huge and beautiful. [music]
Two of Us is a great song. There are a lot of things going on. Paul said it started because Linda suggested that they just go off driving in the middle of nowhere and that’s the first verse of the song. [music]
But when you get into the heart of it it really feels like you know, one partner relationship that is on its way to estrangement, really pointedly calling out and there’s great tape of the two of them playing around with that song in the studio, an ostensibly miserable time. They were miserable in a lot of ways.
You know, business fights were just a total nightmare, but when they got together and were playing together, the pleasure was totally palpable. [music]
For the full transcript, click here.