Relations between France and England have rarely looked brighter. The recent loan of the Bayeux tapestry has become a symbol of a renewed friendship between the two countries, evidenced further by the numerous smiles exchanged on the occasion between prime minister Andy Burnham and French president Emmanuel Macron. A new book released in France at the start of this month, however, could soon darken the sunny skies of a revitalised entente cordiale.
In Code Yesterday, author Michel Bussi proposes that every single song credited to the Beatles was in fact written by a woman … of French descent. Before you clench your fists in anger, rest assured: Code Yesterday is a work of fiction. Bussi is one of France’s most successful thriller writers, whose books have sold in the millions and been turned into several films.
Seven years ago, he wrote J’ai dû rêver trop fort (“I must have been dreaming too hard”), which drew its inspiration from the story of American folk singer Sixto Rodriguez. His latest, he says, is the outcome of a lifelong fascination with the Fab Four, or the garçons dans le vent as they are called on his side of the Channel. A little later my sister came home with The White Album, and I assumed it was a third compilation, and could not figure out why it had all these songs that were already on the other two,” he remembers, laughing.
While his desire to write a story around the most iconic of rock bands was something he’s envisioned for years, his starting point came from an observation: “There are absolutely no women among all of the classic rock bands. Things have changed, thankfully, but for a long time, rock was exclusively a male thing. So I wanted to give them a revenge.” That’s how his plot began.
According to his story, a certain Yvonne McKenzie (a relation to “Father McKenzie” in Eleanor Rigby is implied) meets John and Paul near St Peter’s church on 6 July 1957, the same fateful day the pair first run into each other. Yvonne, a customs inspector born in Normandy to a French mother and an English paratrooper and raised on Liverpool’s Penny Lane, develops a crush on them both. Hurt by their indifference, she one day starts humming a song while sat in front of the young McCartney on the bus: Love Me Do.
Macca can’t get the tune out of his head and has no qualms about passing it off as his own. When Yvonne hears it on the radio for the first time, she is overwhelmed, and when John and Paul come back to her to ask for more, she happily obliges. The collaboration that ensues is unconventional but professional: Yvonne sings melodies to them over the phone, they add middle-eights and vocal layers and churn out hits.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
