Paul McCartney first met John Lennon the year after his mother’s death, at a church fair where Lennon was performing with his skiffle group, the Quarrymen. McCartney, who had been honing his musical abilities nonstop, was able to impress his future songwriting partner with an impromptu performance on Lennon’s guitar and the church piano. He was invited to join the group, and the two immediately gelled as musicians. But their emotional connection became even deeper the following year when Lennon lost his mother, Julia, when she died tragically in a traffic collision at the age of 44. Lennon was just 17, and the trauma of his loss remained present in his music in songs like “Julia,” released with the Beatles in 1968, and his solo works “Mother” and “My Mummy’s Dead,” recorded with the Plastic Ono Band.
Toward the end of his Beatles career, McCartney wrote his own ballad dedicated to the memory of his mother: “Let It Be.” The opening line is: “When I find myself in times of trouble mother Mary comes to me / Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” In interviews, McCartney has stated that the song came to him after he was visited by his mother in a dream.
