The Comments On This Picture Are Hilarious. Paul Has Nowhere To Lean Because They’ve Been Asked To

Top 3:

-Paris fics?

-Liverpool fics?

-modern AUs?

-sexiest fics?

-after Beatles divorce fics?

-time travel fics?

yeah alright then. under a cut to save everyone's eyes.

:)

ok listen. listing 18 of my favorite pieces of fanfiction feels a bit like walking naked through a crowded cafeteria so pls be gentle ok? also be sure to check any author tags in ao3. ty!

PARIS:

Backwards Traveller by @scurator & @paulmcfruity / john remembers paris 1961. When You Are Young They Assume You Know Nothing by @lilypadd23 / cute and charming paris 1961 adventure. We're In A World Apart by RedheadAmongWolves / yes it's an au but it's set in paris so i'm including it here are you can't stop me. john & paul but it's 1966 and they're spies assigned to work together on a very important mission (still updating; 4/6 chapters available).

LIVERPOOL/EARLY DAYS:

non nobis solum by @downtothe-lastdrop / midday rendezvous in 1960. Put My Heart Around the Bend by @strwbryfeels / a journey through 1960. I really wanted to include this one in my hamburg list, but since it splits time between liverpool & hamburg I didn't. so I'm including it now. On The Way to Work by roundthatcorner / life in december 1960.

MODERN AU:

I recently rec'd some by @javelinbk and @theoldmixer which you should absolutely check out and here are 3 more :)

blood on the tracks by @backbenttulips / john & paul fall in love and get married super young, the beatles still happen, and then a double divorce. what then. my love (let me go again) [orphaned] / john & paul meet, really hit it off, and then paul falls into a coma. inspired by the movie The Big Sick. i enjoy the niche genre of j/p aus based loosely on movies and this was a fun one. we push and pull like a magnet do by toppermostofthepoppermost / college au. john is a hot mess and paul is a slightly older hot mess. very cute and silly and features a tattooed paul which I enjoy a lot. for reasons.

SEXIEST OTHER:

oh my god i'm way too embarrassed to admit what I find sexiest! i don't want anyone reading into my obvious [redacted] issues so instead i'm just adding 3 more that I really like :)

Tessellate by cloudy_blue / cyn on john & paul over the years it's good to touch by @pauls1967moustache / john & paul are trapped in a closet where feelings and other things arise. i made a special request for this one so it will always be a favorite ;) 5 Thomas Lane by @chut-je-dors / modern au with extremely domestic john and paul just being dads with a bunch of kids, a dog, and some cats. there's a 'flashback' chapter set in the 90s that I think is the most adorable thing i've ever read.

POST-DIVORCE:

that which resembles the gave but isn't! by @monkberries / from the author notes: 'what if the break-up but EVEN WORSE'. yeah. Adventures In Total Honesty by @merseydreams / john & paul meet up at an after party in 1975. six hours in august by stonedlennon - john & paul run into each other at a gay bar in nyc in 1979.

TIME TRAVEL:

(I've Still Got) You All Over Me by @muzaktomyears / paul has a doppelganger. or does he.... i was a younger man then (now) (post hoc) by @fingersfallingupwards / time-travelers's wife au on our way back home by @purechocolade / obviously! I read this again recently and enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

So glad I’m not the only one thinking this. Let’s show equal respect to John and Paul for a change. It’s what they both deserve.

@bitchybillionaire yes that’s the one. I’ve had the same trajectory, honestly. I’m interested in some of what they’re saying, because some of it is also what I’ve been thinking for years. And I get the need to give Paul the credit and attention he is due, after so many books and articles overlook him or malign him. But a lot of this podcast does feel like okay, John was elevated beyond belief before, so we have to do the same for Paul now to balance it. And like, what if we just met in the middle with a true balance of the scales instead of it being like a seesaw where Paul is elevated now?

Also they really need to cite more sources. It bothers me when they say “NOBODY has ever talked about xyz” but like, you got that info from somewhere. Someone had to have talked about it! Or else you wouldn’t know about it!

Behold my purchases from the Eyes of the Storm exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday. I had a discussion with the women on the till in the gift shop about how hot John looked in his sunglasses 😎

So Paul himself says this story never happened but we’re just going to post this story because it “makes sense” based on no data whatsoever except a “feeling”. Let’s not support fuelling the fire of stories that have been disproven

A Man Possessed

“Most days Paul would stroll the prettily opulent, peaceful streets that lay between his house and Abbey Road. One evening, after the other three Beatles had long since driven up in their expensive vehicles, John could be made out pacing up and down the front steps, gazing with increasing impatience along the route that Paul usually took.

Suddenly he was called to the phone by George. Then he was seen racing down the front steps and running as fast as his unfit body could carry him in the direction of the McCartney residence. Paul had called to say that he would not be coming to the studio that evening–he and Linda had realized it was the anniversary of their first meeting and had decided to have a romantic, candlelit dinner at home.

Arriving outside 7 Cavendish Avenue, John, like a man possessed, clambered over the tall security gate. When Paul responded to his thumping on the front door by opening it, John pushed him aside, rushing in and screaming at Paul for his thoughtlessness. 

“It’s the anniversary of me and Linda meeting,Paul reiterated lamely. ‘So what!’ snapped John contemptuously. ‘I don’t cancel studio bookings for my anniversaries with Yoko. How dare you inconvenience so many people!’ John glanced around him in furious frustration. Then his eyes alighted on something. Striding over to the wall, he removed a painting, one that he himself had done and given to Paul in earlier, genuinely loving times. It was Paul’s favorite painting, as John well knew. John stuck his foot through it and stormed back to Abbey Road.”

~McCartney, Chris Salewicz, 1986

Happy birthday beautiful Johnny! Because you deserve all the love on this day and every day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN LENNON!

"I am a guy, yeah. That is true. But how do you know unless you see somebody? I am just some guy who did... Whatever. Always see me as me. I was always me, all the way through it... I love motels 'cause there is no reception area. I like hotels too. But I like motels as well. Just invisible places where you check in with a credit card, in the middle of the night, anywhere. Some guys in taxis now, old guys, they recognize the voice is English, but they don't recognize me. They don't know who the hell I am. They say, "Oh, you're English! I was over there in the war..." And they go on and on... And tell me amazing life stories.... They ask, "what do you do?" and I say, "I'm a musician," and they say, "Are you doing alright?" "Yeah, I am..."

Ah the hypocrisy. Lewisohn gives Paul some light criticism (along with Stu!) about his letter format? and this is unacceptable. Paul takes numerous pot shots at John (criticises his lack of literary nature, lack of handiness around the home, takes credit for Ticket to Ride for some reason) in the lyrics book and anyone who questioned it was completely shot down. Surely this double standard is apparent?

“On 27 March, Stuart wrote a letter looking to get the group a holiday camp booking … and as if in competition, which he was, Paul also wrote one that same day or soon after. Both are indicative of their hopelessness, for - as Rory Storm and the Hurricanes thrillingly knew - summer seasons had already been tied up a month or more. Paul’s was another masterpiece of dressing: this time he made no mention of personnel, obscuring altogether the question of a drummer, and added one to every calculation - the boys were ‘eighteen to twenty’ and had been together for four years, time in which they had ‘acquired three very importance things - competence, confidence & continuity’. Stuart’s letter was also verbose, and more intense. The recipient couldn’t have had many letters from rock groups that began 'Dear Sir, As it is your policy to present entertainment to the habitues of your establishment…’”

— The Beatles: Tune In, by Mark Lewisohn, on Paul McCartney and Stuart Sutcliffe’s attempts to book a spot at a holiday camp for the band to play

But we can quote Paul’s Lyrics books because failing to mention John’s contributions is only a lie by omission 😂😉

PLAYBOY: "When you talk about working together on a single lyric like ‘We Can Work It Out,’ it suggests that you and Paul worked a lot more closely than you’ve admitted in the past. Haven’t you said that you wrote most of your songs separately, despite putting both of your names on them?“

LENNON: "Yeah, I was lying. (laughs) It was when I felt resentful, so I felt that we did everything apart. But, actually, a lot of the songs we did eyeball to eyeball.”

I can’t believe the nerve of some people. Littlelambdrgnfly’s writing is fire.

That other anon can piss off. The beatles shagged their way through Hamburg, its not like they were sexually immature in anyway?? plus the issue with age gaps is power imbalance which absolutely does not exist in a fanfic about men who are 50 years older than you irl. Please don't get disheartened to write the sequel just because one stupid anon wanted to make you feel bad over nothing (also cause, while I'm really looking forward to the sequel to the sum of them and any other fics you may write, the rise and fall of john lennon is my favourite and the things you've planned for the sequel are so hot!!)

Thank you, that’s pretty much how I felt about writing them at those ages! I mean, I feel like it’d be one thing if I was writing about, say, the kids from Stranger Things, but it’s different when it’s the Beatles because they weren’t inexperienced or sexually immature (except for George lol), they were fully grown men by that point. And it’s not like there are actual young people getting exploited... And also, yeah, I’ve seen way too many friends and even my younger sister get involved with people way older than them to know how weird it is when someone in their late teens or early 20s gets involved with someone in their late 30s or 40s.

I’d be less disheartened if this was the only message I got like this. I know I’m older than a lot of people on this website, but damn, it’s a 60 year old fandom and it’s not like you automatically stop liking what you like once you hit a certain age. I don’t like being thought of as a creep, but tbh, I thought if I was going to get hate, it’d be for the fetish and not my age. If I do a sequel, I may just post it here or maybe make a Patreon, I’m not sure but that’s a long ways off if it happens. Thank you for your nice words though <3

Can we all just weep at John’s body language in 3 & 4: “Constantly transferring your weight from one foot to the other or rocking forward and backward is a comforting movement that indicates you are anxious or upset…[rubbing your earlobes] is a soothing action to counter feelings of uneasiness or vulnerability.”

(Also in no.3, John and Paul’s synchronised head turning, ama cry over that as well, they were so attuned to each other goddamnit.)

I agree! The reality is that all these authors have bias but if it’s in favour of Paul McCartney it’s ok because he’s seen as being victimised by the rock journalists of an earlier era. Erin Torkelson Weber has a quote I’ve often seen here that just because something came later it’s not necessarily untrue. But the important thing to keep in mind is it’s not necessarily true either. Paul McCartney has a huge advantage over John Lennon in that when he tells his story, the emotions of the situation have settled which makes him seem like a more rational source, unlike John who was still working through his emotions in the 70s as the events were still in recent memory. Paul has also had time to think about how to make his story palatable to today’s audiences where times have changed, which John never had given he died 40 years ago. He also has his legacy to preserve and of course will twist things to his advantage as who is going to challenge him? Yoko is ill and Sean doesn’t know the full story as he was only 5 when his dad died. I just think people need to think critically about this and realise that just because this is the latest version of events doesn’t necessarily make it true. The truth is always something in between

“Some of those who eulogised Lennon seemingly could not do so without denigrating McCartney, Harrison and Starr or devaluing their contributions to the Beatles. “He [Lennon] stood for a mixture of tough minded realism… wit and intellect. Paul on the other hand was a pretty boy.” The most famous example of this came from the Village Voice’s Christgau, one of America’s most powerful rock critics. In a piece shortly following Lennon’s death, Christgau referred to the three remaining Beatles as “hacks” and blamed their refusal to accept Ono into the band for the breakup. He also repeated a number of misconceptions about Lennon that, while widely accepted, were untrue. This included praising Lennon, the only middle-class born Beatle, as a “working-class” hero and declaring that Lennon had always been the only artistic, avant-garde Beatle because “the others just didn’t have the stuff.” His obituary of Lennon stated that the wrong Beatle had been killed. “Why is it always Bobby Kennedy or John Lennon? Why isn’t it Richard Nixon or Paul McCartney?”

Erin Torkelson Weber, The Beatles and the Historians