Sir Paul McCartney has shared a photo of himself with John Lennon to mark what would have been the Beatles legend’s 85th birthday. Paul took to social media to share a photo of himself and John in their younger years as he wished him a happy birthday. Lennon still has enduring influence on popular culture today, 45 years since his death.
McCartney posted a flashback to their songwriting days as he shared a black and white photo of himself alongside Lennon, deep in thought over their music. The 83-year-old music star captioned the post: “Sweet memories on this day of a very special friend. Happy birthday John – Paul.”
Fans rushed to the comments to send a number of red love heart emojis, while others sent their best wishes and happy birthday messages. But Sir Paul isn’t the only person to mark Lennon’s heavenly birthday as the National Trust also plan to celebrate in a heartwarming way. Tonight, the light in John’s old bedroom will be left on in his memory.
Lennon’s family home in Mendips, Woolton, is now owned by the National Trust. Yoko Ono bought her late husband’s family home in 2002 and donated it to the National Trust to save it from demolition and property speculators. John lived at this address with his aunt Mim until 1963 and it was from here where he went on to change the world.
Speaking to the ECHO in 2022, Simon Osborne, general manager of the National Trust’s Liverpool properties said: “We’re proud to care for Mendips, the childhood home of John Lennon in Liverpool.”
He continued: “We leave the light on overnight in John’s bedroom as a simple tribute to him and his cultural legacy. John’s bedroom is the place where some of the earliest Beatles hits were written, where Lennon and McCartney once sat on John’s bed to start composing songs like ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘I Call Your Name’.”
The childhood home of Paul McCartney – 13 Forthlin Road – is also owned and managed by the National Trust, with many citing it as the birthplace of The Beatles.
Paul and John were the driving creative force behind The Beatles. The majority of the band’s songs were written by the two and credited to Lennon-McCartney, irrespective of how collaborative the writing process was.
They began writing together after meeting at a Woolton church fete in 1957. They wrote hit after hit until The Beatles went their separate ways in 1970.
Every song written by John and Paul for The Beatles received that joint credit. In a 1980 interview with Playboy, John said about working with Paul: “(He) provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.
“There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ‘n’ roll. But, of course, when I think of some of my own songs – ‘In My Life’, or some of the early stuff, ‘This Boy’ – I was writing melody with the best of them.”
John continued his incredible career until he was shot dead aged 40 in 1980 as he walked into his home at the Dakota building in New York City. Tearful crowds gathered at New York’s Roosevelt Hospital, where John had been taken, and at the Dakota itself.
Forty five years on from his murder, John’s work continues to inspire fans and the sadness of his death is still felt.