John Lennon’s ‘Awfulness’ Was Still More Trustworthy Than Paul McCartney’s ‘Niceness’

Paul McCartney was known as the cute Beatle, while John Lennon was known as the smart Beatle. The monikers weren’t able to capture the complexity of each member of the band. Still, the flat characterizations followed them for much of their careers. A friend of the band said McCartney’s kindness made people distrust him. Lennon, on the other hand, could be outright cruel to people and still hold their trust. 

People trusted John Lennon more than Paul McCartney 

Hunter Davies wrote the only authorized biography of The Beatles. After spending a great deal of time with the band, he came to conclusions about McCartney and Lennon.

“Paul was the easiest to talk to,” Davies wrote in The Beatles. “He had such energy and such keenness and, unlike John, enjoyed being liked, at least most of the time. I don’t see this as a criticism. John himself could be very cruel about Paul’s puppy dog eagerness to please.”

Davies said that while McCartney was more likable, people still didn’t trust him. 

“The irony was, and still is, that John’s awfulness to people, his rudeness and cruelty, made people like him more, whereas Paul’s genuine niceness made many people suspicious, accusing him of being calculating.”

Davies admitted McCartney was a bit of an overthinker, but he was genuinely kind.

“Paul does look ahead, seeing what might happen, working out the effect of certain actions, but he often ends up tying himself in knots, not necessarily getting what he thought he wanted. I think there is some insecurity in Paul’s nature, which makes him try so hard, work so hard. It also means he can be easily hurt by criticism, which was something that just washed over John.”

Paul McCartney said John Lennon was very guarded

McCartney was closer to Lennon than most people, and he said his bandmate’s sharp wit came from an attempt to protect himself.

“John’s persona was very guarded, hopelessly guarded,” McCartney said on the iHeartPodcast McCartney: A Life in Lyrics (via NME). “That’s where all his wit came from. Like so many comedians, it’s to shield themselves against the world.”

While some people bristled against this side of Lennon, McCartney was drawn to it. 

“John having a very difficult upbringing – his father leaves home, his uncle dies and his mother gets killed – he could be very sarcastic,” McCartney said. “We all could, it was my way of dealing with my mother’s death. There would often be a very witty put-down. It wouldn’t always be a put-down but it was always a very quick answer, and he’d trained himself to do that. That was one of the attractive things about him.”

The ‘Yesterday’ writer said people never seemed to trust him

McCartney was highly aware of the fact that people didn’t seem to trust him. It felt that people couldn’t believe the things he told them.

“It happened the other day at Ringo’s wedding,” he said. “I was saying to Cilla [Black] that I liked Bobby [her husband]. That’s all I said. Bobby’s a nice bloke. Ah, but what do you really think, Paul? You don’t mean that, do you, you’re getting at something?”

McCartney said this was a common occurrence for him.

“I was being absolutely straight. But she couldn’t believe it,” he said. “No one ever does. They think I’m calculating all the time.”

Lennon’s brutal honesty, on the other hand, seemed more trustworthy.