Paul McCartney says he and John Lennon wrote some unreleased songs that “weren’t very good”

"There were a few that were clearly by young songwriters who don't quite know how to do it"

Paul McCartney appears as one of the interviewees in a new BBC radio documentary marking what would have been John Lennon‘s 80th birthday.

The documentary, John Lennon at 80, is broadcast from 9-10pm on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds, and is presented by Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon.

McCartney was asked whether he and Lennon wrote “any throwaway songs that were sort of bad? Or was this kind of like, you just struck gold from the beginning?”

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“There were a few songs that weren’t very good,” McCartney said. “There were a few that were clearly [by] young songwriters who don’t quite know how to do it. There was one called ‘Just Fun’.”

Elsewhere, McCartney revealed that even after The Beatles’ split, he continued to be influenced by Lennon.

“Ever since The Beatles broke up and we didn’t write together or even record together, I think each one of us referenced the others. When we’re writing stuff, I often do it, you know,” he said.

“I’m writing something and I go, ‘Oh, god, this is bloody awful.’ And I think what would John say? And you go, ‘Yeah, you’re right. It’s bloody awful. You’ve got to change it.’ And so I’ll change it, and I know from reports that he did similar things to that. If I’d have a record out, he’d go, ‘Bloody hell… got to go in the studio. Got to try and do better than Paul.'”

Meanwhile, Lennon’s glasses and a detention sheet from when the late Beatle was in school have gone up for auction, marking 50 years since their split.

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