Creative Tension

and : 'used to connect' 'an addition'

but : 'on the contrary' 'exception of'

I've just finished watching 'McCartney 3, 2, 1' a new music series on Disney Plus. It's an intimate fireside chat between Paul McCartney and super producer Rick Rubin, mostly focused on the Beatles song-writing process. I could listen to both of them taking for hours. It's fascinating.

I was struck by lots of things - the playful freedom and naiveté of the Beatles' songwriting and producing process (songs could change wildly during the recording process); their curiosity in modernist classical music like John Cage, and Eastern mysticism, both of which they managed to incorporate into their own pop music; and the productive tension of Paul McCartney's song-writing partnership with John Lennon.

When McCartney describes the process behind some of the greatest pop songs ever recorded, you're struck by his restless creative energy. You get the sense he was always throwing in new musical ideas. Songs were being continuously reinvented as they went along. Metaphorically speaking, the paint was still wet on these pop masterpieces as they were being laid down to tape.

If McCartney was the 'and' in the Beatles, constantly looking for new ways to reinvent and add to the songs, then Lennon was the 'but', the one challenging the song and calling out the easy sentiment. There's a famous story McCartney tells about when he was writing 'Getting Better' from Sgt Peppers. McCartney sung the lyrics 'it's getting better all the time' and Lennon sarcastically replied 'it couldn't get much worse'. That tension epitomises their relationship.

A productive creative process makes all the room in the world for 'and' - the abundance of new ideas - while allowing for 'but' or 'on the contrary'. The push forward and the push back. There's a fantastic creative tension there if you can make the space for it.