Whether writing independently or holed up together in John’s loft at his Surrey mansion, Lennon and McCartney wrote songs that captivated millions across the world and changed popular music forever. The melodies and the moptops definitely helped but it was the writing that initially struck a chord with the world.
When asked about his main intention when writing a song, Lennon replied ‘to communicate’. Which probably explains why at least half of all Lennon and McCartney songs have the words ‘you’ and/or ‘your’ in the first line.
They may have taken their lyrics to more obscure places as they matured, but at the beginning, much of their success was down to writing songs that everyone could understand and be inspired by.
For a communications industry, it never ceases to amaze me how bad we can be at communicating to each other. I have sat in briefings littered with acronyms I’ve never heard of and words and phrases that not only don’t exist in normal life, they don’t exist in any dictionary either.
We get so wrapped up in our own world of branding and marketing speak that we forget about the real world entirely. We seem to think that dreamed up buzz words and trade-marked phrases breed creativity, when most of the time they only create confusion. Of course, business problems can be incredibly complex but it’s our job to simplify the issue and strip it back to something that’s both simple and stimulating, enabling Creatives to wander off and work their magic.
If we can’t inspire the creators, what chance do we have of inspiring the customers.
I Feel Fine, The Beatles, Blackpool ’65.
Wichita Adman 