Celadon Books provided an early galley for review.

One of the very first albums I remember listening to as a child of the late 60's was Meet the Beatles. As far back as I can recall music being in my life, I was a fan. Still am.

Leslie does a wonderful job pulling the reader into the youthful world of John and Paul, taking the time to weave in the details of the tapestry of the history of their relationship. I very much felt like a comfortable fly on the wall as the events unfolded. It is also amazing to see how much unfolded over a relatively short period of time - everything the group went through in less than a single decade together. And just as there is a lot of time spent on the coming together of the group, an equal amount of time is spent on the drawing up to the end and the aftermath. The situation was complex and messy; Leslie puts all the pieces out there for the reader to make their own judgments.

I feel like I came away knowing a lot more about the relationship between John and Paul after reading this book.

I was born too late to be a Beatles fan in the moment, but I wasn't too far behind. Their music played all around me as I grew up in the '70s, part of the fabric of my childhood. I learned about them in bits and pieces, became fascinated with their obvious musical arc from good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll to whacked-out psychedelic tunes and back again, before disbanding forever.

Despite the density of this book, it's hard to believe that they made the entire journey from twanging guitars and rockabilly-style wailing to sitars and sound collages in such a short amount of time. Perhaps that is the most important theme of this book, the lack of randomness in their story, the obvious steps that they took from song to song to build their catalogue. Every piece mattered. Every song moved them perceptibly forward.

The book does progress chronologically through song titles as emblematic of the Beatles timeline, but settles firmly into the story of the relationship between John and Paul. The author immerses us in their characters - their fears, their worries, the tragic events that drove them together and ultimately apart - and carries us from day one to the horrific end. John and Paul spoke together through song, sometimes jointly as the doubly-voiced first-person narrator of a tale, and then spoke to each other through songs, taking vicious shots at each other in the post-break-up years. John claimed that all brothers fight, and he had no closer brother than Paul. Sadly, their reconciliation never fully actualized before John was murdered. The author weaves in all of the lives surrounding theirs - George, Ringo, Yoko, Linda, etc. - and explains their impacts on the John and Paul story.

He works deeply in the lyrics, vocalizations and the music, helping us to understand true meanings behind the Lennon-McCartney songs, even why specific individual notes can tell us things we need to know. We come to see the subtle nuances that made John and Paul great, and the individual styles that eventually set them on different paths. Lennon was rock 'n' roll. Paul would have been happy on a piano in an echoing music hall. Together as they were for so long, with thousands of hours on stage in Hamburg and Liverpool, they perfected their craft.

Like the author, I, too, saw Paul sing with "John" in concert a few years ago, at Fenway Park. Paul was overcome with emotion as John's image played on the screen behind him (Paul turned to face it) and they sang together, as were so many of us that day, believing, if momentarily, that we were seeing the Beatles finally reunited for one night, one song only. This book makes me appreciate that moment that much more. It reminds us of what the world had, what the world lost, and not what may never happen again, but what has been preserved for all time. The Beatles will live on, and the remarkable story of John and Paul will be shared for generations to come.

Like so many other readers, my teenage years were touched, formed, affected, and filled by The Beatles and their music. Surprisingly, I have never read any other comprehensive histories of the group or its individuals, and Ian Leslie gives us a plethora of sources he used so that will be of help in the future. I won't be fact-checking Leslie's many footnotes so I can only say that the story he weaves is intriguing and very emotional. In fact, "John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs" is a mixture of psychology, emotion, and musicology and the combination is enlightening and enjoyable. There were, of course, things about John's and Paul's lives - separately and together - that I knew little about. As a teenager, I'm sure I was less than aware of the volume of drug and alcohol use/abuse. The extent of their codependency certainly wasn't something I thought about. "John & Paul" often left me crying because the anecdotes were so heart wrenchingly sad. After each reading session I found myself listening to one or two of the songs that the chapters are named for. It gave me some closure for the many wounds this book opened up. Regardless of some of the disturbing things that are revealed here (and probably in many of Leslie's sources), The Beatles and their songs will always remain, for me, tremendously important. I have recommended this book for my library to purchase once it is published. Amusingly, when I submitted the title - John & Paul - the librarian asked if it was about Popes!!

An exciting and very entertaining look at the partnership of Lennon and McCartney. In forty three chapters each focused on a Beatles song, Ian Leslie charters their remarkable journey. Theirs is a love of friends, partners, competitors, polar opposites, inspiration and of finding the emotional balance missing in each other. Their relationship was a duet of differences and like mindedness, wanting to impress and wanting reach new heights. The depth of who they were, how they collaborated and the security of knowing the other was there provides a fresh and insightful look at this ‘once in a lifetime’ partnership.
A must read for Beatle fans!
Thanks to NetGalley, Ian Leslie and Celadon Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Big Beatle's fan here and I really liked this book. Put the relationship into context in a way I hadn't read about before. Other books seem to focus on professional jealousy and this one showed the depth of the friendship and collaboration. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I've read a lot of books about The Beatles and this one is the best I've ever seen. It turns out to be the book I was always hoping to read without knowing it--a book focused exclusively on John and Paul's remarkable relationship. Leslie has amazing insight into The Beatles as well as into an artist's psychology. He hunts through lyrical clues to show how some instances where they're talking about their relationship in the songs.

It seems like Paul wanted to impress John who he viewed as a leader, but never realized how much John insecurity made him desperate to impress Paul. Leslie even makes a fairly convincing case that John may have had a confusing attraction to John.

Leslie has a great description of their respective songwriting styles-- "Paul created songs that felt as if they had always existed; John channeled transmissions from another planet. "

Thanks to Celadon Publishing for sending me a galley of the book in return for an honest review. Tell all the Beatles fans in your life that this is a book they need to read.