#jody williams bo diddleys guitarist plays on billys blues (billy stewart) using this riff

[get-back-homeward]

The Love Is Strange mention clinches it for me.

Love Is Strange was a huge hit single by Mickey & Sylvia in late 1956. It features a unique for the time call-and-response conversation style middle that John and Paul (humorously) played with in their earliest recordings.

Buddy Holly’s version turns it into Words of Love (melody’s the same, but different lyrics), released June 1957. It features “darling” as an endearment, which goes back to their beginning. Remember, Come Go With Me, the song Paul recognized John playing on woolton fete day, features “darling” (even though John was mostly making up his own lyrics), as does many of the songs they learned together in those early years.

The Beatles cover Words of Love often (as early as 1958?) and record it for Beatles for Sale (1964) as one of their most faithful covers, showing how much they cared about the original.

There’s a ton of Love Is Strange covers, but one of the biggest is Everly Brothers’ version. It’s released in the UK October 1965 and gets as high as No. 11 by December.

Wings covers it on Wild Life (1971).

hey!! what do you think of ‘Bless You’ by John?

I mostly just think: Walls and Bridges era John my darling, my love. You light up my life and make me insane. The song itself is wistful and sort of sexy, like it's designed to be sung in a smokey club. Feels very John does girl groups again, so I'm a big fan.

But, outside of that, are you asking if it's maybe about Paul?

Well, this is interesting, because it could be about Yoko. That's the common consensus and it would track, to be fair. And unfortunately (but probably deliberately) the song could be heard by both of them and claimed as being about them.

Let's review this, shall we, to see what we can make out? Starting with some stuff that I'm less convinced could be about Paul:

Restless spirits departStill we're deep in each other's hearts

and

Bless you, whoever you areHolding her nowBe warm and kind-heartedAnd remember though love is strangeNow and forever our love will remain

So, both of these could be about Yoko very obviously. Whoever he's talking to is with someone else but perhaps just in the sense the new person is just keeping them company until John's back. He and Paul broke up because they were restless to try other things, so did he and Yoko. All around, inconclusive.

Musically, it doesn't scream Paul/The Beatles so it doesn't feel like a call back to anything that I'm hearing.

Stuff that gently pings my J&P radar

And remember though love is strangeNow and forever our love will remain

"I love you more than yesterday" anyone?

Bless you, wherever you areWindswept child on a shooting star

This just makes me think of Paul being a superstar burning so brightly John can't look away from him. It evokes traveling and being restless, which doesn't scream Yoko to me. But it does remind me of Paul.

Stuff that sets off every single J&P klaxon in the vicinity

Some people say it's overNow that we spread our wings

Hmmm, so it's addressed to someone that people think John's broken up with. Could be Yoko ofc, but then the reference to 'wings' just slaps that thought right out of my head. Like, come on, John is a master at lyrics. He knows how that sounds and there are other ways of saying this if he didn't want to make Paul perk up his ears.

But we know better, darling

I want to scream, punch and cry about their use of 'darling' for each other. I truly feel insane even thinking about it. I love this on a lot of levels, but mostly because they seemed to have been sneaking around during this period like the little weirdos they were. So, this feels like a direct reference to that.

Conclusion:

I want to belllliiiieeeevvveeee. The darling and wings does it for me. But, open to other thoughts, as ever.