Paul McCartney meets John Lennon for the 2nd time

Here’s a story. Matt Damon told it. But it’s not about Matt Damon. It’s about Bono. But it’s not really about Bono, either; it’s about Paul McCartney. But Damon heard it from Bono. One day, Bono flew into Liverpool. Paul was supposed to pick him up at the airport, and Bono was shocked when Paul picked him up at the airport alone, behind the wheel of his car. “Would you like to go on a little tour?” Paul said. Sure, Bono said, because Bono, you see, is a fan of Paul’s, in the same way that Damon is a fan of Bono’s. “Bono’s obsessed with the Beatles,” Damon said at the table in the lobby of the gated hotel in the little town in Germany.

“He’s, like, a student of the Beatles. He’s read every book on the Beatles. He’s seen every bit of film. There’s nothing he doesn’t know. So when Paul stops and says ‘That’s where it happened,’ Bono’s like, ‘That’s where what happened?’ because he thinks he knows everything. And Paul says, ‘That’s where the Beatles started. That’s where John gave me half his chocolate bar.’ And now Bono’s like, ‘What chocolate bar? I’ve never heard of any chocolate bar.’ And Paul says, ‘John had a chocolate bar, and he shared it with me. And he didn’t give me some of his chocolate bar. He didn’t give me a square of his chocolate bar. He didn’t give me a quarter of his chocolate bar. He gave me half of his chocolate bar. And that’s why the Beatles started right there.’ Isn’t that fantastic? It’s the most important story about the Beatles, and it’s in none of the books! And Paul tells it to Bono. Because he knows how much Bono loves the Beatles.”

From Esquire – August 2013

From “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story” by Bono, 2022:

I’m sitting in the front seat of a red Range Rover. The driver, who picked me up from John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, is Paul McCartney. He’s taking me and Jimmy Lovine on a magical mystery tour through his hometown, showing us the neighbourhoods where the Four grew up. He’s pointing here, there, and everywhere. And apologising.

“You sure you’re interested in this?”

“Oh yes,” I reply. “I couldn’t be more interested.”

“Yeah? Okay, well, that’s where George’s neighborhood was. It was actually a rough neighborhood, George’s. Really Ringo’s was a little tougher. I’ll show you where he was in a minute. John’s was like a little nobby. Not too nobby, but a little nobby. And mine, my family were okay. We were over there.”

As he drives, he points out the window.

“There’s the 86 bus. Myself and John used to ride there, just gone by. You sure you don’t mind me telling you this?”

“Oh no, I don’t mind. Please go on.”

Do I mind? It’s like Moses giving you a tour of the holy land. It’s like Freud giving you a tour of the brain. It’s like Neil Armstrong giving you a tour of the moon It’s like Paul McCartney driving me through the geography of a music that has transformed my life. We pull up at a light.

“See over there? That newsagent? It’s changed a bit, but that’s where I had my first real conversation with John.”

Now I know a bit about The Beatles lore and wonder if his memory is playing tricks.

“But I thought your first conversation with John was when he was in the Quarrymen and they played at that fete in St. Peter’s Church.”

Paul looks at me with, I feel, some respect.

“Yeah, that’s true,” he says, smiling. “But I’m talking real, insightful stuff, not just ‘What sort of guitar do you use?’ or ‘What sort of tunes are you listening to?”

“Insightful? How do you mean?”

“Well, John bought a bar of chocolate, Cadbury’s chocolate, and when he came out of the newsagent’s he broke it in half. Gave me one half. I was amazed because, you know, back then, chocolate was really something. Most boys would break off a little square, but John gave me half his bar.”

I was musing on this as Paul put his foot on the accelerator and we moved off.

“I don’t know why I’m telling you that”

Perhaps he did know. I knew. In an instant it was clear to me that the greatest collaboration in the history of popular culture started with a fifty-fifty deal on a bar of chocolate. Lennon and McCartney. Born over a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate.

From “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story” by Bono, 2022

Going further

• https://webgrafikk.com/blog/uncategorized/half-chocolate-bar-started-beatles/
• https://webgrafikk.com/blog/uncategorized/half-chocolate-bar-started-beatles/
• https://webgrafikk.com/blog/news/bono-confirms-half-a-bar-of-chocolate-united-lennon-mccartney/

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