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On paper – John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie

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John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs
by Ian Leslie
Faber & Faber 2025 (hardback 432 pages, ISBN: 978-0571376117)

Reviewed by John Earls

To write a book about The Beatles these days must be something of a challenge. What’s left to say? Who are you saying it to? How can you make it original?

With John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs Ian Leslie has pulled it off with considerable aplomb. Looking at the relationship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The Beatles’ prolific and exceptional songwriters, and telling it through 43 songs (mostly Beatles but some solo songs too) he has produced a stand-out book that is both erudite and engaging.

There is no question that Leslie is a Beatles fan (he wrote the excellent 64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney in 2020) and this explains the warmth and affection that comes through. But this is no hagiography.

Leslie challenges the enduring perception of Lennon as the radical rock’n’roller activist wit and McCartney as the cute, charming balladeer and, whilst acknowledging that there is some truth in these personas, “you only have to change the angle of view by an inch or so to see them very differently”.

The main focus is the unique relationship between Lennon and McCartney and its twists and turns. This includes the almost telepathic connection as well as the junctures. There is also the quite literal physical closeness that existed between them at times and its importance in their creative process – I lost count of the number of times the phrase “eyeball to eyeball” appears.

The book charts the story of The Beatles from Lennon and McCartney’s first meeting as teenagers in July 1957, through the graft of the Hamburg residencies and The Cavern in Liverpool, to the stratospheric levels of popularity in the 1960s, the acrimonious split in the 1970s (this had its own ebbs and flows) and the pursuit of solo paths. Leslie is particularly insightful on The Beatles’ visit to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India in February 1968, not just in terms of what happened during the visit itself but also in respect of its subsequent repercussions.

But this is not only a great book about The Beatles and the group’s two key protagonists, it’s a great book about modern music and its development. For example, in the chapter on We Can Work It Out Leslie signals how the famous Abbey Road recording studios, like all the major recording studios at the time, “had been run like a factory, the aim being to maximise output, with producers, engineers and arrangers trained to work at speed. Studio time was booked in blocks of three hours, deemed enough time to record a single and its B-side. These strictures were now relaxed for the Beatles, who were allowed to use the studio as an R&D department rather than just a manufacturing facility”.

The 43 song chapters mean that the book is in easily digestible chunks but the chronology means that they flow smoothly and coherently. Some of the chapters go into the specific song in some detail including its construction, whilst in other chapters the song itself only gets a couple of paragraphs but provides a hook to give context to the developing story.

Leslie has a wonderful way with words. Take these descriptions of McCartney’s singing, be it with lyrics – “he rolls around in word-sounds like a cat in a pool of sunshine” or without – “[Paul] floats on a wordless falsetto, hovering like a thing with feathers”. His writing about particular songs can also be perceptive and moving. Two paragraphs on Hey Jude are a case in point. I won’t reproduce them here but you will find them on page 253.

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs will inevitably send readers back to the music (all 43 songs are available on an excellent Spotify playlist here). This will entail not just going back to old favourites but also trips of rediscovery (almost literally in my case of Revolver’s psychedelic Tomorrow Never Knows).

This is a story about one of the most remarkable bands in modern music and the extraordinary, yet in other ways quite ordinary, people at its centre. And it is indeed also a story of love.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

For more information on the book and to explore purchase options, visit the Faber website

On paper – The Durutti Column – A Life of Reilly by James Nice

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The Durutti Column – A Life of Reilly
by James Nice
Burning Shed 2024 (hardback 272 Pages, ISBN: 978-0993303647)

Reviewed by John Earls

The guitar playing of Vini Reilly has been described as understated (which is not to say that it is not hugely influential and affecting). One could say the same of the man himself. So, the arrival of this authorised biography of the musician and his band The Durutti Column is both timely and welcome.

Written by James Nice, author of Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records, it is a well-researched and compelling account of the band and one of the most unique guitarists ever. It is particularly gripping if you are interested in the Manchester and Factory music scene in the 1980s.

The book is also beautifully produced and presented in hardback with quarter bound cloth spine reminiscent of much of Factory Records’ own output (however, it’s a shame there wasn’t a bit more diligent proof-reading).

It opens with Reilly’s early years growing up in Manchester, with him cocking an ear to his engineer Dad listening to jazz and classical music, tinkering on the piano and switching to guitar under the tutelage of Miriam ‘Mimi’ Fletcher, a German expatriate who escaped Nazi persecution before the war and was to become Reilly’s first significant creative mentor.

Already exposed to classical composers such as Tchaikovsky through his father’s musical listening, ‘Mimi’ broadened Reilly’s exposure to include others such as Bach and Bohuslav Martinů (who Reilly cites as a favourite). It is after discussing Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony that Reilly goes on to outline his own thoughts in respect of responses to music:

“For me there are three main responses to music: the physical response, which is the most basic, where you dance about to it; an intellectual response, where you listen to the construction, evolution and development of the piece; and third, and most important to me, the emotive response, and this really is the greatest expression of emotion anyone has ever managed to write”.

The music of Vini Reilly and The Durutti Column certainly hits those spots.

We then get taken through Reilly’s playing with punk band Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds, coming into contact with then local TV personality Tony Wilson, the formation of Durutti Column and the release of their first album The Return of the Durutti Column in 1980, also Factory Records’ debut album.

Needless to say the presence of Factory supremo and Durutti Column manager Wilson looms large. The, at times difficult, relationship between him and Reilly is revealingly and sensitively handled, sometimes movingly so with Reilly reporting “I owe him my career…I loved him, really. He was almost like a father figure to me. He was also really generous spirited”.

There are some great reminiscences. I particularly liked the story about former Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin (who had a Durutti tune Shirt No.7 dedicated to him) and Reilly (apparently no mean footballer himself in his youth) visiting one Steven Patrick Morrissey of The Smiths and having a kick about in Morrissey’s back garden. Reilly played guitar (along with Stephen Street) on Morrissey’s first solo album Viva Hate and the book delves into its writing, recording and records the reflections of involved parties (not always harmonious).

As well as Reilly’s guitar playing, we are also reminded of his musical innovation, such as the use of sampling on the album Vini Reilly (1989) which preceded Moby’s Play (1999) of which Reilly is still scornful.

The concentration on the 1980s – nearly each year from 1979-1990 gets a dedicated chapter – is where the book goes deepest. There is a chapter on 1991-1999 (‘A Turbulent Decade’) and 2000+ (‘Requiem’, all of two pages). The final ‘Interlude’ (there are several interspersed between chapters) is 2009: ‘A Paean to Wilson’ featuring a 2010 interview by Wilson Neate.

The omission of the latter years which include the Chronicle album and performance, Chronicle XL and Reilly’s deteriorating health is noticeable and unexplained.  

Finally, the other significant and consistent presence in the book is Bruce Mitchell, stalwart Durutti Column drummer and latterly also Reilly’s manager and organiser.

Reilly has long been self-critical often openly so in the music press to the detriment of the albums he was supposed to be promoting. Mitchell comes across as not only a loyal friend (“the best friend I’ve ever had” says Reilly) and simpatico musical colleague, but one of Reilly’s best advocates:

‘Vini doesn’t really listen to his old stuff,’ jokes Bruce, making light of the maestro’s chronic and enduring lack of insight. I just wanted to say that I’m proud of them for him’.

Amen to that.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

For more information on the book and to explore purchase options, visit the Burning Shed website

On paper – Composing Myself by Sir Andrzej Panufnik (Collected Writings, Volume One)

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Composing Myself
by Sir Andrzej Panufnik
(Collected Writings, Volume One)
Toccata Press [477pp, hardback, illustrated, ISBN 978-0-907689-90-4, £80]

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Toccata Press continues its estimable ‘Musicians on Music’ series with this New Edition of Composing Myself – the autobiography of Andrzej Panufnik, first published (by Methuen) in 1987, now reissued with many new annotations, photographs and an end-piece by his widow.

What’s the book like?

Panufnik’s life – taking in the unsettled formative period of his youth, traumatic years with Nazi then Soviet occupation of Warsaw and takeover by communist forces loyal to Moscow, then rigid Stalinization of Polish culture on Socialist Realist lines resulting in his defection to the UK – would make a compelling film, and it typifies this composer’s unwavering integrity he pointedly eschews sensationalism or false emotion in its relating. Moreover, such measured objectivity is enhanced by his tangible evoking of an era cruelly obliterated while resulting in the death of his brother and destruction of all his music. The era of his emergence as Poland’s leading composer and conductor, but also a pawn at the hands of his political ‘masters’, is no less absorbing. Panufnik’s subsequent life – his struggle for recognition in an adopted country where his music fell-foul of officialdom while finding favour with conductors such as Leopold Stokowski and Jascha Horenstein – runs parallel to his evolving a mature idiom and, with the support of his second wife Camilla Jessel, the creative renaissance of his last quarter-century.

Panufnik’s text, left unaltered from 36 years before, is rounded out with explanatory footnotes – by Toccata MD Martin Anderson and the composer’s widow – that fill in a background often unclear or conjectural when Poland was still under communist rule. Almost all his friends or colleagues from the pre-war era are accorded brief but pertinent biographies, but the absence of information about his first wife Marie Elizabeth O’Mahoney (Scarlett Panufnik) after the breakdown of their marriage and divorce in 1959 is surprising (she died in seeming obscurity in 1984). There is an effusive Preface by Simon Callow, contextual Editorial Introduction by Anderson and, most valuably, a Postscriptum by Lady Panufnik. This takes the narrative from 1987 with the composer working on his most ambitious work, the Ninth Symphony, through a further 14 years as saw further high-profile premieres and recordings of almost all his major works before his untimely death in 1991. A late addition details the crucial role of MI6 officer (later MP) Neil Marten in Paunfnik’s escaping Polish ‘minders’ while in Switzerland in 1954.

Is it worth reading?

Absolutely. Panufnik’s being a significant cultural figure as well as a major composer should commend this book to anyone at all interested in the history of post-war Europe. Along with almost all those previously reproduced, this new edition features a host of photos unknown or not available in 1987 and which complement the narrative unerringly. This book is otherwise produced to Toccata’s customary high standards, with an index of works and a general index. Specific information on each piece can be found at Panufnik’s dedicated website (see below).

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The book is Volume One of Panufnik’s collected writings, its successor intended to collate the composer’s articles on music and culture together with his numerous programme notes. Hopefully this can be published in time for the 35th anniversary of his death in 2026.

For more information on the book and to explore purchase options, visit the Toccata Classics website

On paper – Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer by Philip Watson

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Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer
by Philip Watson
Faber & Faber 2023 (paperback 544 Pages, ISBN: 978-0571361694)

Reviewed by John Earls

Philip Watson’s magnificent biography of Bill Frisell was first published in 2022 with the paperback edition released earlier this year. It is the first authorised biography of the American guitarist and composer – but it is no hagiography although Watson is a fan – and has already been described as definitive. It is also Watson’s first book. Not that you would know – it is both erudite and elegant. The author is of course a very experienced journalist (formerly deputy editor at GQ and editor-at-large at Esquire, he is currently jazz critic at the Irish Times).

An immediate issue to tackle in any work on Frisell is the description of him as a ‘jazz guitarist’ (not Watson’s phrase). Sure, he has played with many jazz greats including collaborations with Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Elvin Jones, Lee Konitz, Jim Hall, Paul Bley, Charlie Haden, Jan Garbarek and Billy Hart – to name but nine – as well as his thirty-year trio partnership with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano, and all are referenced in the book as are descriptions of Frisell’s jazz sensibility. However, the book is also excellent in illustrating the vast range of Frisell’s musical activity as listener, performer and influencer. This includes, in no particular order, folk, country, Americana, blues, world music, contemporary chamber, TV and film scores, 1950s and 60s pop, surf-rock, and the songs of John Lennon. This, as Watson acknowledges several times, can rub up against a certain type of jazz purist (more of which later).

On the ‘classical’ front, American composers Charles Ives and Aaron Copland are strong influences – excerpts from Ives’ Three Places in New England and an adaptation of Copland’s Billy the Kid feature in Frisell’s stunning and eclectic 1992 album Have a Little Faith. But early on in the book one of the young Frisell guitar tutors recalls making him aware of the music of Poulanc, Ravel, Debussy and Béla Bartók.

The book is diligent, but never dull, in tracking Frisell’s story and development from childhood, education, first musical steps (his original instrument was clarinet), the tough start to his career and later success and recognition. It’s quite a journey and there are interesting moments along the way despite Frisell’s protestations that “there haven’t been any fights or anything. And all I’ve done is stay married to the same woman for the past thirty-five years”.

A particularly innovative and insightful feature of the book are the ‘Counterpoint’ listening sessions dotted throughout whereby Watson (a long-time host of the Wire magazine’s ‘Invisible Jukebox’) plays pieces of Frisell’s music to a series of musicians and artists and probes for responses. The list includes Paul Simon, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Gus Van Sant, The Bad Plus, Gavin Bryars, Hal Willner, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill. It is the range and quality of the listeners that impresses. Many have been collaborators, but Rhiannon Giddens confesses “I don’t really know his music at all”. “Excellent” replies Norman, “This could be interesting!” Van Dyke Parks on Big Sur is a particularly fascinating exchange.

Amongst all the interviews throughout the book there are many references to Frisell’s modesty and shyness. But what also comes across is a powerful sense of his integrity. This can manifest itself in different ways. There’s the decision to honour a commitment to a tour with his long-term supporter and collaborator Paul Motion – “Paul was where my heart was” – at the expense of a more lucrative offer with Jan Garbarek and damage to the relationship with influential ECM boss Manfred Eicher.

But there’s also the night in a club in Rome in July 2004 when Frisell and Petra Haden are performing Stevie Wonder’s I Believe and are heckled by a guy shouting “This is not jazz. This is bullshit”. Frisell stops playing, goes to the microphone (a rarity in itself) and says “Fuck you”, or as Claudia Englehart, Frisell’s sound engineer and road manager, tells it ”Fuuuuuucccccck. Yooooou!” Yep, that would be the same modest and shy Frisell that seeps through the rest of the book.

If you are already familiar with Frisell’s work or even parts of it (it’s a huge catalogue) you will find this a fascinating and extremely valuable profile of this extraordinary musician. If you are not, but are a music lover, it will still be a good read.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

For more information on the book and to explore purchase options, visit the Faber & Faber website

On paper – Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack

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Nick Drake: The Life
by Richard Morton Jack
John Murray Press 2023 (576 Pages, ISBN: 9781529308082)

Reviewed by John Earls

I first encountered the songs of Nick Drake via the 1985 compilation album Heaven in a Wild Flower. There was something about this selection of bittersweet songs and delicate voice from the three albums released between 1969-72 by the enigmatic singer-songwriter (and exceptional guitarist) who died at the age of 26 that resonated strongly with this then twenty-something listener.

Richard Morton Jack’s recent biography Nick Drake: The Life is a comprehensive and detailed work (576 pages) compellingly and sensitively told. It captures the magic, music and story behind these three remarkable albums – Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter and Pink Moon – and much more.

Drake came from a privileged background – his 21st birthday present from his parents (a cheque for £750 – worth £10,000 in today’s money) is a particularly eye catching illustration.

But it is his musicality and dedication to his art that shines through. And, of course, there is the story of the mental illness that led to his untimely death.

The book is good on the details of Drake’s collaborators and contributors – I knew that Richard Thompson (guitar) and Danny Thompson (double bass) had played a part in some of his albums but if I already knew that British jazz legends Kenny Wheeler and Henry Lowther both played trumpet on Hazey Jane II, and P. P. Arnold was one of the backing vocalists on Poor Boy, then I’d forgotten.

It’s also good on recording performances given (John Peel) and missed (The Old Grey Whistle Test), and a fascinating encounter with the Rolling Stones in Marrakesh in 1967.

Some of Drake’s musical likes and influences won’t come as a surprise (Bob Dylan, Tim Buckley, Bert Jansch, Joni Mitchell). But there’s also a taste of Drake’s classical music listening including Fauré, Mahler, Debussy and Satie.

Jack’s biography is already being rightly hailed as ‘definitive’. But credit should also go to Patrick Humphries who wrote a groundbreaking biography in 1997 and gave Jack full access to his materials.

When I first heard Nick Drake’s music and read Humphries’ biography it was very much with the subject uppermost in my mind.

Now, as a parent myself, I am also moved by the traumas and anxiety experienced by Drake’s parents Rodney and Molly whose anguish and love is touchingly and delicately portrayed. Drake’s sister Gabrielle has written the foreword to the book but, as she makes clear, this is not an authorised biography.

This is a magnificent book. Inevitably it sent me back to the albums. There is no doubt the music will endure but ultimately, it’s a tragic and heartbreaking tale.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

For more information on the book and to explore purchase options, visit the Waterstones website