With Apologies To Fleetwood Mac Fans, Who Probably Knew All This: I Was Just Thinking About How Fleetwood

Hey can you tell me more about I Don't Know (Johnny, Johnny)? because there is very very little info about it online and the only source of the song i can listen to was a youtube video. Considering the excessive research of everything beatles by a fuckton of people, I'm surprised we don't know much about this. (because really, it it is what people say it is, it burned down all the mclennon doubts i had)

You’re right. This song was written around 1959/1960. The only audio we have, this one,  is the recording of a rehearsal made in 1960 at Paul’s house. 

Even if the recording is damaged and the sound is shitty the lyrics are quite easy to understand:

P- Well oh Johnny, oh Johnny, oh god Johnny boy

How are we gonna tell him

Why don’t we go somewhere where he don’t own me

Where can i go?

Oh Johnny boy you wore me out.

Oh Johnny, oh Johnny, oh Johnny boy

Oh Johnny, you got me, you be my boy

Well, a long time ago, I called you Johnny boy.

J- Hey little boy, I’m packing my shoes, and I’m leaving you.

I told my Mama I’m going to see my sister

She don’t see me, I don’t know what I’m going to do.

P- A long time ago I called you Johnny boy.

I don’t know what to tell the fellas.

Please, oh please, Johnny.

J- Well I’ll tell the fellas that I do love you.

P- I don’t know what I’m gonna do.

I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I tell my father

You love me Johnny, I love you Johnny

I’m not gonna let you go.

P- I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I tell my father

You wore me down, you wore me down.

You’re gonna leave, you’re gonna leave me

Please, oh, I’m not gonna let you go

J- Take the next bus out of town

Then you won’t let your father down.

I don’t know what good I am since I see life in front of us.

P- Well get out of town,

don’t hold me down.

I don’t care.

J- Get out of town,

I don’t know (3x)

I want to leave right now

To get out of town.

P- You know I want to do it all.

I want to go far away, far away,

I want to go far away.

J- No, no, no, no

P- Yeah, I’m going far away.

Yeah, we’re going far away.

We’re gonna leave.

J- We’re going away,

Yeah, we’re going away,

Gonna leave town right now.

This is one of the very first mclennon song, it’s very clear that they sing their desire to escape together: Paul is afraid of what his father might think of it cause he loves John:

 “ I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I tell my father” 

and at 2:39 John replies:

‘And i love you Paul’. 

Like, it’s so clear you don’t even need to investigate much about it, no metaphors, no double-meanings, it’s all SO SIMPLE AND EVIDENT, they’ re singing I LOVE YOU  to each other, that’s it! And the song ends with both John and Paul singing that the only solution is to leave and go away from the town.

This song was never put in any Anthology, even if there’s another song of the same year, You’ll be mine, that has the same shitty audio (the same recording)  but they decided to include it! “I don’t know (Johnny Johnny)” instead was never included, neither edited or cleaned, that’s why some people have doubted its veracity, because very few people have ever listened to it, and it’s considered rare. It’s such a pity they didn’t try to clean it a bit, but, i think WE ALL KNOW WHY. Can’t imagine this song listed in the Anthology, cleaned, a bit edited, and a random 40s old white man listening to it and exclaiming: “Wow! what a friendship!”

Cavendish, 20 June 1967.

I'm sure he'd prefer to be alive but there’s also no way that john lennon wouldn’t be a at least a little self-satisfied with the idea of his death permanently making him the center of paul’s universe. he doesn't seem like the "you need to let me go" type. he seems more like the "if you don't cry over me at least once a week I'm going to start flickering the lights on and off until you have a seizure" type

“Whatever happened to the life that we once knew? Can we really live without each other?”

(x)

the one time mclennon doesn’t top and tail it

GEORGE: I remember saying, “Well, one of us has gotta be the bass player, and it’s not me. I’m not doing it.” And John said, “I’m not doing it, either.” Paul just went for it. (1995) JOHN: Paul’s bass playing is underrated. Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ever. And half the stuff that is going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period. He’s an egomaniac about everything else about himself, but his bass playing he was always a bit coy about. He’s a great musician who plays the bass like few other people could play it. (1980) RINGO: Paul is still, to this day for me, one of the most incredible melodic bass players around. He’s just incredible. (2016) PAUL: As time went on, I realized that I didn’t have to just play the root notes. At first if it was C, F, G, then it was normally C, F, G that I played. But then I started to realize that you could be pulling on that G, or just staying on the C when it went into F. And then I took it beyond that. I thought, well, if you can do that, what else could you do? You might even be able to play notes that aren’t in the chord. I just started to experiment. What could you do? Well, maybe you can use different notes. Sevenths instead of the regular notes, or maybe even a little tune through the chords that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Maybe I can have an independent melody. (2018)

Damon Albarn calling Oasis the best band

1963.02.19 – Liverpool. The Cavern club

(Photos by Michael Ward/Getty Images)