#but all of paul's post 1980s output would require about ten times the work i put into my dissertation lol

[no-reply95]

Sorry I didn't make my question clear! I wanted to ask about songs from paul's solo albums after 1980! (except here today) like the lovers that never were, scared, etc.

Hi anon,

Thanks for your patience on this!

I'm going to focus on Paul's 80s output only in this post, just to make sure this post isn't too long - will happily do later periods at a later date, if that's something you'd be after?

Also I'm only doing the songs that appear on the original release of the album - but may also revisit those at a later date, if that's something you specifically want me to look into.

Okay, I've pulled out some song lyrics and relevant quotes regarding some songs from Paul's 1980s discography that may be directed to/about John - under a cut as this got long.

McCartney II (1980)

Coming Up

You want a love to last forever

One that will never fade away

I want to help you with your problem

Stick around, I say

"John described ‘Coming Up’ somewhere as ‘a good piece of work’. He’d been lying around not doing much, and it sort of shocked him out of inertia. So it was nice to hear that it had struck a chord with him. At first, after the breakup of The Beatles, we had no contact, but there were various things we needed to talk about. Our relationship was a bit fraught sometimes because we were discussing business, and we would sometimes insult each other on the phone. But gradually we got past that, and if I was in New York I would ring up and say, ‘Do you fancy a cup of tea?’"

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

Tug of War (1982)

Tug of War

It's a tug of war

What with one thing and another

It's a tug of war

We expected more

But with one thing and another

We were trying to outdo each other

"Of course I can see how it could fit that interpretation, because John and I did try to outscore each other – that was the nature of our competitiveness – and we were both very up front about it. But it’s also important to realise that our work benefitted from this tug of war in so many ways. I always like the story that someone told me of how John’s hearing ‘Coming Up’ prompted him to get back in the studio to record Double Fantasy. ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’ is a real favourite of mine. So, it’s true that if he wrote a good song, I’d feel I had to write a better one, which is no less a form of inspiration than anything else."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

Here Today

What about the time we met? (What about the time we met?)

Well, I suppose that you could say

That we were playing hard to get

Didn't understand a thing

But we could always sing

"I heard somewhere recently, ‘Why can’t men say “I love you” to each other?’ I don’t think it’s as true now as it was back in the 1950s and ’60s, but certainly when we were growing up you’d have had to be gay for a man to say that to another man, so that blinkered attitude bred a little bit of cynicism. If you were talking about anything soppy, someone would have to make a joke of it, just to ease the embarrassment in the room. But there’s a longing in the lines ‘If you were here today’ and ‘I am holding back the tears no more’, because it was very emotional, writing this song. I was just sitting there in that bare room, thinking of John and realising I’d lost him. And it was a powerful loss, so to have a conversation with him in a song was some form of solace. Somehow I was with him again."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

The Pound Is Sinking

Hear me lover

I can't be held responsible now

For something that didn't happen

I knew you for a minute

Oh, it didn't happen

Only for a minute

Your heart just wasn't in it any more

Like many other McCartney’s songs, “The Pound Is Sinking“, from 1982 album “Tug Of War“, was assembled from the fragments of two songs. “Something That Didn’t Happen” is the demo of one of those songs, and was officially released in the 2015 archive edition of “Tug Of War“.

Prior to its official release, it has been made available on countless bootlegs, under the title “Hear Me Lover“.

via The Paul McCartney Project

Wanderlust

Oh, where did I go wrong, my love?

What petty crime was I found guilty of?

What better time to find a brand new day?

Oh, wanderlust away

Pipes of Peace (1983)

The Other Me

Well I Know That One And One Make Two

And That's What I Want Us To Be

I Really Would Appreciate It

If You'd Help Me Find The Other Me

The Other Me Would Rather Be The Glad One

The Other Me Would Rather Play The Fool

I Want To Be The Kind Of Me

That Doesn't Let You Down As A Rule

"We all get into situations where we put our foot in our mouth. We say something we didn’t mean to say, or say something that is taken amiss. So this song is an apology: ‘I know I was a crazy fool / For treating you the way I did / But something took a hold of me / And I acted like a dustbin lid’. Something took over, and I acted childishly – ‘dustbin lid’ is Liverpool rhyming slang for a kid. Often after an argument, people walk away with a lot of strong feelings and energy with nowhere for it to go. If you’re a songwriter, you can use that. In writing songs like ‘The Other Me’, you can be your own psychiatrist. You’re reviewing your actions, admitting your faults and then looking for the solution which will make it better next time.

In the very early days of The Beatles, of course, we didn’t even think of writing songs, except as a little bit of a side project. We mainly just liked fully formed songs that other people had recorded, so we’d do a Chuck Berry song or we’d do a Carl Perkins song or an Elvis song. When John and I met, the first year of our friendship was spent talking about these cover versions, the records we loved, and then playing them again and again. As we got to know each other, we practised these various covers until one day the conversation went, ‘You know, I’ve written one or two songs.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, so have I.’ That gave us something in common that was itself wholly uncommon. I went to a school of a thousand boys and I’d never met anyone who said he’d written a song. Mine were just in my head. So were John’s. We took each other by surprise. And then the logical extension was, ‘Well, maybe we could write one together.’ So that’s how we started. And we became versions of each other."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

Sweetest Little Show

And If They Treat You Like A Brother

Well You Will Never Let Them Down

But If They Treat You Like A Lover

They've Got The Sweetest Little Show In Town

They Got The Sweetest Little Show

Sweetest Little Show

Sweetest Little Show In Town

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)

No More Lonely Nights

I can wait another day

Until I call you

You’ve only got my heart on a string

And everything aflutter

But another lonely night

Might take forever

We’ve only got each other to blame

It’s all the same to me, love

’Cause I know what I feel to be right

"This was a straightforward love song, really, about a lonely person saying, ‘Can’t wait till we’re together.’ There are a few more lines to reinforce that idea: ‘’Cause I know what I feel to be right’ and ‘You’re my guiding light’. It’s about the heartache of being apart from your loved one and, when you’re back together, not wishing to be apart from them again – ‘May I never miss the thrill / Of being near you’."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

No Values/No More Lonely Nights

On the waters of life you row your boat

Into the strongest tide that you can find

On the darkest of nights we were two of a kind

We went through it all before the tide went out

And left us stranded on the shore

How was I to know

How was I to know

Press to Play (1986)

Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun

There Was Something About The Weather, What Can I Say?

Nothing Like Any Other Holiday.

That Was A Silly Season, Was It The Best?

We Didn't Need The Reason, Just A Rest.

Happy At The Good Times Coming,

Happy At The Good Times Coming In.

“There’s a nostalgic air about summers that have gone,” explains Paul. “…To me the song is three summers: one when I was a kid going to Butlin’s in my short trousers, feeling embarrassed ’cause I wanted long trousers… Then the second verse is a bit more grown up… I associate that second verse with The Beatles – ‘It was a silly season, was it the best?/We didn’t need a reason, just a rest!’ That’s one of my favourite lines on the album…

via The Paul McCartney Project

Footprints

Oh White Blanket Covers The Memory

Of All That Used To Be. All That Used To Be.

But His Heart Keeps Aching In The Same Old Way,

He Can't Help Feeling That She Might Come Back Someday

However Absurd

Something special between us,

When we made love the game was over.

I couldn't say the words,

Words wouldn't get my feelings through,

So I keep talking to you...

However absurd, however absurd... It may seem.

However absurd, however absurd... It may seem.

There’s a sort of ‘Walrus’ intro to this track, but of course any time you play that style on piano it evokes that. It’s a style I know and love. The lyrics on this song are a bit bizarre, but then again they make a kind of sense, a strange kind of sense. But then I find that things in life don’t always make sense, they’re not always conveniently wrapped up with a little sticker that says ‘This is very sensible!’ Sometimes they are completely absurd, which is what the song is about. In the middle section it explains itself a bit, less surrealist: ‘Something special between us… Words wouldn’t get my feelings through… However absurd it may seem.’ That’s taking off into ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran – there’s a line of his that always used to attract me and John, which was ‘Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you’. So it’s that kind of meaning to ‘However Absurd’.

via The Paul McCartney Project

Flowers in the Dirt (1989)

This One

What Opportunities Did We Allow To Flow By

Feeling Like Like The Timing Wasn't Quite Right?

What Kind Of Magic Might Have Worked If We Had Stayed Calm,

Couldn't I Have Given You A Better Life?

[‘This One’] is another very personal song – and it’s sometimes hard to talk about things that are personal. That’s why you put them into a song. ‘This One’ is about relationships. If you love someone, you want to be really great for them. But I don’t know hardly anyone who pulls it off all the time – certainly not me. I can be great for like a week, but then I bum out and blow it. This is about trying to explain how you wish you could always be. It’s about your best impulse.

Paul McCartney, Chicago Sun-Times, 1989 via amoralto

Don't Be Careless Love

Saw Your Face In The Morning Paper,

Saw Your Body Rolled Up In A Rug

Chopped Up Into Two Little Pieces

By Some Thug,

Don't Be Careless Love,

Be Careless Love.

When I returned, Paul had moved on to “Don’t Be Careless Love,” one of the most beautiful melodies that he had brought to our writing sessions and into which we had inserted the horrifying images of a nightmare. It was probably the weirdest song we’d written together. Paul was already at the microphone, delivering a perfect vocal performance in one take. The anger of ten minutes earlier completely evaporated in the face of such a beautiful piece of singing.

Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, 2015 via The Paul McCartney Project