Now and Then

I think to the very end, despite the stratospheric heights that they ascended, Paul and John were little boys with  broken hearts desperately in search of the ghosts of their mothers. 

At their peak as their maturity evolved at a lightening pace both visually and audibly, they knew how to wrap sadness in a shiny, melodic package. They  understood profound loss yet knew how to paint their masterpieces with brush strokes of melodic hope. 

They were conjoined at the heart which is why they fought like spurned lovers. They were what Europe needed after being obliterated by the war and what America needed after the Kennedy assassination. 

They initially seduced us with a handclapping fuel of joy and cheekiness.  How ironic that that learned their trade in of all places, Germany where there was a darkness at the edge of town.  

We, who were there in the day, revered them because to us their music was a sermon at the  church of what's happening now. We were reborn because of them and the effect was seismic. We got to shatter our shackles and then grow with them at an astonishing pace.   

Their message was the same message that you will find in the bible of any faith.  Yet unlike the more established  organized religions they evolved and adapted by the second. 

John especially took transparency to the extreme because to the very end he was searching for his authentic self. Paul became the affable diplomat that he has always been. 

They have guided us through marriage, parenting (or the lack of) adultery, homosexuality via Brian, divorce, death, faith,consciousness and enlightenment.  We are not just a mob of fanatics who are irrevocably attached to our youth (though that is normal and there). 

We are a tribe who respects their elders.  Needs their elders to bestow their infinite wisdom on us.  Listening to Now and Then I was touched by John's beautiful vocal that was never apparent in that muddy cassette dirge.  

It is deceptively acrobatic. Almost Macca like. And I could not escape the feeling that he was singing to everyone whom he has ever loved deeply including his old partner.  I read somewhere that the original title was  Because of  You. If that's true, calling it that would make any man feel way way too exposed at vulnerable to say that publicly without a call and response.  You want a little more evidence?  According to Carl Perkins, the last words that John ever said to Paul were, “Think about me every now and then, old friend.”

I sense this is what haunted Paul and possessed him him over decades to go finally finish it. You say goodbye and I say goodbye.  And in the end it was the perfect love story.