Paul Simon Said John Lennon and Paul McCartney Were so Competitive They ‘Took the Oxygen out of the Room’
John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked together to bring The Beatles to success, but they also competed for control over the band. After The Beatles broke up, they began a competition to see who could release the best music. This dynamic was noticeable to everyone around them. Paul Simon said he considered himself competitive, but Lennon and McCartney were on a different level.
Paul Simon considered himself a competitive person
When Simon heard Elvis’ songs, the music bowled him over.
“All I knew was I wanted to be this guy,” Simon said, per the book Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn. “I wanted to be Elvis.”
Soon, though, he decided he couldn’t compete with the superstar. Instead, he wanted to position himself as far away from Elvis as possible.
“I realized I had to get as far from what Elvis was doing as I could with my music,” he said. “I wasn’t going to compete with him because I knew I couldn’t beat him. But I still felt I could make it. I just had to go softer. Besides, it was very important to me that I not be an imitator of anybody. I wanted my own parade. That’s a competitive drive I had, for whatever reason, whether it was in my nature or it came from my family or from my neighborhood — probably a father thing.”
Paul Simon said John Lennon and Paul McCartney were extremely competitive
Like Simon, Lennon and McCartney had a competitive drive that set them up for success. Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, explained their dynamic in The Beatles.
“John and Paul had always been competitive,” Cynthia Lennon wrote in her book John. “Although the other band members — and the audience — knew that John was the group’s leader, Paul wanted to be involved in all the decisions, whether they were about which venue to play or which songs to use. The two sang alternatively on stage and each had his own style.”
Simon said that their competitive nature was so apparent that it was all-consuming.
“Simply wanting to make the best music can make you competitive,” he said. “You have no idea how competitive John Lennon was around Paul McCartney. When I first met them, I felt like someone had taken all the oxygen out of the room. I almost couldn’t breathe, they were so competitive, and that’s what made them so great. They wouldn’t settle for just good. That was me, too.”
Paul McCartney often inspired John Lennon to write new music
The competition between Lennon and McCartney did not end when The Beatles broke up. If anything, they became more driven to one-up each other with their music. When Lennon felt a lack of inspiration, hearing a new song from McCartney would get him into the studio.
“You know, I heard a story recently from a guy who used to record with John [Lennon] in New York, and he said that John would get lazy — but then he’d hear a song of mine where he thought, ‘Oh, s***, Paul’s putting it in, Paul’s working!'” McCartney told Billboard in 2001. “Apparently [Coming Up] was one song that got John recording again. I think John just thought, ‘Uh oh, I better get working, too’ [beams]. I thought that was a nice story.”
