J.D.
06-08-2011, 10:21 AM
I'm reading a book about Coleridge and Wordsworth, and as I learn more about how the two of them existed and composed together, I'm struck by the similarities between their relationship and that of another famous writing duo. Consider the following description:
"'Kubla Kahn' was anomalous in being written in isolation. Most of Wordsworth and Coleridge's poems dating from this period were composed by one poet under the critical eye of the other. Once can only surmise at the extent of their co-operation from the odd anecdote, and from influences scholars have detected in the texts themselves . . . A single anecdote exemplifies the kind of co-operation that must surely have happened in other, unrecorded cases. Wordsworth's 'We are Seven' was largely composed while he was walking to and fro 'in the grove' at Alfoxden, and many years later he gave an account of how it was completed.
When it was all but finished, I came in and recited it to Mr. Coleridge and my Sister, and said, 'A prefatory stanza must be added, and I should sit down to our little tea-meal with greater pleasure if my task was finished.'
I mentioned in substance what I wished to be expressed and Coleridge immediately threw off the stanza . . . "
from The Friendship: Coleridge and Wordsworth by Adam Sisman
Now compare the above description to what Wikipedia has to say about the Lennon-McCartney songwriting relationship:
"Although Lennon and McCartney often wrote independently — and many Beatles songs are primarily the work of one or the other — it was rare that a song would be completed without some input from both writers. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and take it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song . . .
As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternate chord. "A Day in the Life" is a notable and well-known example of a later Beatles song that includes substantial contributions by both Lennon and McCartney, where a separate song fragment by McCartney ("Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head...") was used to flesh out the middle of Lennon's composition ("I read the news today, oh boy..."). "Hey Jude" is another example of a later Paul McCartney song that had input from Lennon: while auditioning the song for Lennon, when McCartney came to the lyric "the movement you need is on your shoulder," McCartney assured Lennon that he would change the line — which McCartney felt was nonsensical — as soon as he could come up with a better lyric. Lennon advised McCartney to leave that line alone, saying it was one of the strongest in the song.[7]"
"'Kubla Kahn' was anomalous in being written in isolation. Most of Wordsworth and Coleridge's poems dating from this period were composed by one poet under the critical eye of the other. Once can only surmise at the extent of their co-operation from the odd anecdote, and from influences scholars have detected in the texts themselves . . . A single anecdote exemplifies the kind of co-operation that must surely have happened in other, unrecorded cases. Wordsworth's 'We are Seven' was largely composed while he was walking to and fro 'in the grove' at Alfoxden, and many years later he gave an account of how it was completed.
When it was all but finished, I came in and recited it to Mr. Coleridge and my Sister, and said, 'A prefatory stanza must be added, and I should sit down to our little tea-meal with greater pleasure if my task was finished.'
I mentioned in substance what I wished to be expressed and Coleridge immediately threw off the stanza . . . "
from The Friendship: Coleridge and Wordsworth by Adam Sisman
Now compare the above description to what Wikipedia has to say about the Lennon-McCartney songwriting relationship:
"Although Lennon and McCartney often wrote independently — and many Beatles songs are primarily the work of one or the other — it was rare that a song would be completed without some input from both writers. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and take it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song . . .
As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternate chord. "A Day in the Life" is a notable and well-known example of a later Beatles song that includes substantial contributions by both Lennon and McCartney, where a separate song fragment by McCartney ("Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head...") was used to flesh out the middle of Lennon's composition ("I read the news today, oh boy..."). "Hey Jude" is another example of a later Paul McCartney song that had input from Lennon: while auditioning the song for Lennon, when McCartney came to the lyric "the movement you need is on your shoulder," McCartney assured Lennon that he would change the line — which McCartney felt was nonsensical — as soon as he could come up with a better lyric. Lennon advised McCartney to leave that line alone, saying it was one of the strongest in the song.[7]"