#what if charlie day red string meme but I made it a fun little playlist

[wreathedwith]

Certified McLennon: a playlist

With receipts.

Side 1 || Side 2 || Bonus Tracks

Side 1

1.  I Want To Hold Your Hand (1963)

We wrote a lot of stuff together, one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u… got that something…’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’

— John Lennon, 1980 (x)

Eventually I ended up living with the Ashers. I'd already stayed over quite a bit, but Margaret must have said, 'Well, you know, we'll let you have the attic room. So I ended up there, and they got a piano up in that room.

When John came to visit, there was a piano in the basement as well - a little music room where I think Margaret took students. So, we would write there in the basement, both on the piano at the same time, or eyeball to eyeball on our guitars.

'I Want to Hold Your Hand' is not about Jane, but it was certainly written when I was with her. To tell you the truth, I think we were writing more to a general audience. I may have been drawing on my experience with a person I was in love with at the time - and sometimes it was very specific - but mostly we were writing to the world.

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x)

How else to begin the narrative but with a genuine Lennon-McCartney cowrite that fired the starting gun on global scale Beatlemania? Famously written "eyeball to eyeball" - and sung in unison pretty much throughout - we must also presume, sitting at the piano side-by-side as they were, their hands were in rather close quarters too.

As for Paul's extract: So I moved in with my girlfriend’s family // (new paragraph) John John John and I writing this song // (new paragraph) To be clear, this song is NOTHING to do with my girlfriend at the time whose house I was living in, but it maybe was to do with someone else I was in love with (in a very specific way) but I am not going to say who it that is. Paul, do you ever hear yourself. Any chance it's the boy pressed against your side for hours and hours telling you to do that again?

2.  Cafe On The Left Bank (1978)

When John and I hitchhiked to Paris in 1961, we went to a café on the Left Bank, and the waitress was older than us – easy, since John was turning twenty-one and I was nearly twenty. She poured us two glasses of vin ordinaire, and we noticed she had hair under her arms, which was shocking: ‘Oh my God, look at that; she’s got hair under her arms!’ The French would do that, but no British – or, as we would later learn, American – girl would be seen dead with hair under her arms. You had to be a real beatnik. It’s such a clear memory for me, so it was in my head when I was setting this scene.

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x)

lol @ Paul erasing a good eight months of age difference here for absolutely no clear reason. ‘nearly twenty’ my left eye

Indisputably a song inspired by John and Paul's 1961 trip to Paris together (and also, I suppose, a woman with Armpits of Note, living in Paul McCartney’s head for seventeen years rent-free). John inherited £100 from a wealthy relative just ahead of turning 21 and promptly 1) cancelled several gigs the band had booked, much to the rest of the band’s irritation 2) took Paul and no-one else to Paris for a fortnight. They stayed in a cheap hotel in Montmartre (just the one single bed) and have pretty much never shut up about it since (x). More information on the trip and some photos Paul took of John are available on tumblr (x) and elsewhere (x).

Here because I could not leave Paris unrepresented, and because if the line touching all the girls with your eyes isn't an observation laced with considerable jealousy, it is at the very least a keen awareness of exactly what John's eyes were up to at any given time.

3.  If I Fell (1964)

It’s semi-autobiographical, but not that conscious, you know. It’s really about – it’s not about Cyn, my first wife…

— John Lennon, 1980 (x)

One of John’s earliest ballads that he has specifically identified as not just being a chart-topping songwriting exercise with no personal meaning behind the curtain. If I Fell 1) doesn’t really match up with any of his known romantic relationships at the time 2) has some fairly ambiguous ‘whose point of view is this from exactly?’ going on. (Boy with girl entering a second/new relationship? Or someone wanting someone who’s already got a girl? Either way, the only pronoun we’ve got for sure in this song is that of the third party.)

More points raised (by another tumblr user) here (x).

(General note: early Beatles-era lyrics - like If I Fell and I Want To Hold Your Hand - ARE difficult to definitively pin down, being as they were often written to order/generic for a general audience/more likely to be any phrase that fitted the tune rather than personally meaningful/overall more commercial and less specifically autobiographical. But it was a time filled with intense and genuine songwriting collaboration. And we are not going to start this playlist in 1969, okay.) 

4.  I Will - Take 29 (1968)

When I’m writing, it’s as if I’m setting words and music to the film I’m watching in my head. It’s a declaration of love, yes, but not always to someone specific. Unless it’s to a person out there who’s listening to the song. And they have to be ready for it. It’s almost definitely not going to be a person who’s said, “There he goes again, writing another of those silly love songs.

— Paul McCartney, 2021 [on ‘I Will’] (x)

He won’t? Yes he will, ready or not.

(John’s the Silly Love Song mocker-in-chief; yet another romantic song from the Jane Asher era that Paul (in The Lyrics) has specified is not about Jane Asher. Jane, you deserved better.)

(Not the only improv fun on record for I Will, either (x).)

5.  In My Life (1965)

I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life… a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past… and it was, I think, my first real major piece of work.

— John Lennon, 1980 (x)

Specifically ‘consciously’ autobiographical, according to John, In My Life’s lyrics include an ambiguous conflation (or at least a lack of differentiation) between lovers and friends, friends and lovers. An earlier draft is more of a straightforward nostalgic longing for physical places in Liverpool left behind (scroll down to ‘about’ to read these lyrics - x), whereas the final version is a clear elevation of the singer’s current love, and the present more widely, over those places and people he remembers, however important they seem within his memory. 

Written in late 1965, John had not yet met Yoko Ono and was still married to Cynthia. Again, nobody (else) for this autobiographical song quite fits timeline-wise. More thoughts (from another tumblr user) here (x).

Intriguingly, the official John Lennon Instagram account has matched up In My Life’s lyrics with John and Paul (x), (x).

6.  Oh! Darling (1969)

When you told me // You didn't need me anymore // Well, you know I nearly broke down and cried

Paul to John, as John’s intense relationship with Yoko begins and The Beatles begin to end. Maybe.

Sonically, this one’s a 50s-retro belter that harks back to the kind of rock 'n' roll John and Paul would have been listening to and learning to play together as teenagers.

I have rejected some other sometime-heard lyrics elsewhere in this playlist, but it really, really sounds like Paul sings Oh, Johnny instead of Oh, darling at 2:47. What more do you want, really.

Sidenote: although this song is written by Paul, John wanted to sing it - because, he says, he could have done a better job of singing it than Paul(!) (x). There is a version where they sing it together (kind of) on Anthology 3 (x).

7.  Fine Line (2005)

Whatever's more important to you // You've got to choose what you wanna do

There is a long way between chaos and creation // If you don't say which one of these you're gonna choose

Come on brother, all is forgiven // We all cried when you were driven away // Come on brother, everything is better // Everything is better when you come home and stay

Come on back, come on back // Come on back to me

Paul has not elucidated on the meaning of this one too much - his 2005 explanation veers quickly away from lyrical content and towards the musical composition (x) - but there are clear themes present of divided friends, close yet conflicting creative approaches and priorities, and a longing for reconciliation. 

This one gets me right in the heart, especially the come on back to me bit. 

8.  Two of Us (1970)

It’s like you and me are lovers.

— John Lennon to Paul McCartney, 1969 (x)

It’s like we’re like a couple of queens.

— John Lennon to Paul McCartney, 1969 (x)

alright John, that’ll do, I think we get it now.

This one’s definitely Paul being inspired by romantic countryside drives with his soon-to-be-wife, Linda Eastman (x). (And/or late-night drives around London with same (x).) However, it’s also about John and Paul, most notably when it being about Paul and Linda doesn’t fit.

For sending postcards, in The Lyrics (2021) Paul mentions both Linda and John. You and me burning matches, lifting latches? This recalls smoking and drinking in Liverpool pubs (‘lifting the latch’ being scouser slang for paying for your first drink so that others will buy your drinks in future rounds (x)). You and I have memories // Longer than the road that stretches out ahead would be very pessimistic for a new romantic relationship. You and me chasing paper, getting nowhere suggests the Beatles’ business troubles and how they lead to arguments/lack of resolution rather than anything to do with Linda.

Besides Paul specifically saying that we’re on our way home is about “trying to get in touch with the people we once were” (!) moreso than literally travelling home, the Everly Brothers-style harmonies and some good old shared microphone singing make this another song from the Get Back sessions that musically recalls the past, nostalgia; where John and Paul started, together.

Version note: I chose the 2021 mix for this one (rather than the Let It Be… Naked version) to include John’s stupid Charles Hawtrey bit at the start (added in later from a 1970 session, when the song itself was recorded in January 1969), but it was a close-run thing tbh. Sub in the Naked version if you prefer it.

9.  Too Many People (1971)

I was looking at my second solo album, Ram, the other day and I remember there was one tiny little reference to John in the whole thing. He’d been doing a lot of preaching, and it got up my nose a little bit. In one song, I wrote, “Too many people preaching practices,” I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn’t anything else on it that was about them. Oh, there was “You took your lucky break and broke it in two.”

— Paul McCartney, 1984 (x)

Ah, the beef period: the one time when it’s incredibly easy to verify that these were indeed songs written about each other. (Still, check this page (x) to follow Paul becoming slightly more and more honest about this song over time to see how difficult it is to pin him down on any exact meaning in the majority of cases.)

Yoko took your lucky break and broke it in two became You… by the time the song was released. Piece of (cake) at the start is ‘piss off’, directed at John. The final verse is about Linda, but only in the sense of Paul showing off to John that he also has a wife now actually! These absolute losers.

This song is all Paul’s anger towards John (and Yoko); it’s not even ambiguous, no matter what Paul might have said in the past.

10.  I Found Out (1970)

John, post Beatles and post primal scream therapy, with some advice for others (just don’t call it preaching, okay).

Included for its very un-Beatlesy raw production and I seen religion from Jesus to Paul, which is of course very clever of him and all that but, god. If it’s deeply wronged, it’s also deeply devotional.

11.  Riding to Vanity Fair (2005)

[Interviewer: It’s the only song here [in Chaos and Creation in the Backyard] that mentions a trouble not overcome.]

Yeah, an own-up song. Now it’s become more elegant, but it’s still a pissed-off song. When you’re trying to reach out to someone, and it’s rejected, that’s a hurtful thing. That happened to me at a particular point. It wasn’t Heather. It was about some other relationship that I had, and this was my therapeutic way of releasing myself.

— Paul McCartney, 2005 (x)

As a newer McCartney song, that’s the most specific Paul has got on the song’s subject.

The song’s subject is consistent throughout. The singer remembers holding back words from and trying to placate a former friend, says this person no longer needs their help and that they weren’t aware of what they’ve put the singer through, and that friendship was offered but is no longer there. In the past, more optimistic days, they had bonded through music.

Although unique in this little beef period section of the playlist as a song released 35 years after the breakup of The Beatles rather than contemporaneously, it appears to take Paul’s point of view at the time, as this does match up with his frustrated feelings then but not with what he has said and felt about John many years later (particularly after 1980).

A term more famous as a magazine title/novel by Thackeray, ‘vanity fair’ is originally a (fictional) fair described in Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. In any case, its meaning is also likely here to be a scene or place where only frivolous and empty things like fashion and entertainment are discussed; there are no serious thoughts present. The meaning of this phrase in the song has not been elucidated anywhere, to my knowledge: is Paul saying that none of John’s ‘preaching practices’ at this time were concerned with anything important? Is it a reference to Allen Klein or other untrustworthy associates that John had been spending time with?

Some more thoughts (not mine) here (x).

12.  Dear Boy (1971)

So, Paul has said this is not about John - it’s about his relationship with Linda. More recently he has admitted it’s a message to Linda’s ex-husband (which makes logical sense) (x).

I guess it's possible that Paul is lying or bending the truth, as he's sometimes wont to do (seems unlikely here tbh), but this song is primarily included in this playlist because John thought this song was aimed at him. And that compels me. 

Through this John-queer lens (if we can call it that), lines like I guess you never knew, dear boy // What you had found and I guess you never saw, dear boy // That love was there are not only rather taunting (and a bit of Paul being conceited too likely thing for him to be) but also suggest that (John thought) Paul was saying John never attained Paul's level of emotional intelligence and clarity about their relationship, that John made a stupid mistake to walk away from Paul's affection. There's the dear boy / dear friend (as Paul's term of address for John - patronising/affectionate) similarity-comparison to consider too. 

Then there's And even when you fall in love, dear boy // It won't be half as good as this (!) “This”: Paul and Linda, or Paul and John? (i.e. when you fall in love with a woman - suggesting (John thought) Paul thought he hadn't yet, with Yoko or anyone else - it won't be nearly as good as our relationship, what we had). 

I also struggle to see how John could have thought that this song was about him if there was nothing in his head whatsoever that characterised his and Paul's relationship as romantic or intensely comparable to a romantic relationship in some way. Why else would it make sense for Paul to be saying to him no other love will be as good as theirs was/is?

(Okay, there is a heterosexual explanation for this: Paul boasting to John about his amazing perfect relationship with Linda, saying John will never enjoy anything as good. But that’s still. Quite a thing to say to a friend, isn’t it.)

Anyway, John thinking that Dear Boy, and several other songs on Ram, were aimed at him - whether they actually were or not - is probably what goaded him into releasing…

13.  How Do You Sleep (1971)

It’s not about Paul, it’s about me. I’m really attacking myself. But I regret the association, well, what’s to regret? He lived through it. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about these things and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. Him and me are okay.

— John Lennon, 1972 (x)

Famously, and very directly and explicitly so, John lashing out at Paul.

Some original lines and studio outtakes were even more harsh (x). For his part, Paul seems to have been genuinely hurt by this song despite John’s various later attempts to shrug it off as a kind of knowing public feud with things okay behind closed doors, especially the charge that the only thing you done was Yesterday. (He knows that’s wrong. He knows and I know it’s not true. - Paul, 1971)

A pretty face may last a year or two is so mean, kind of threatening even, and yet also an example of John never missing an opportunity to say Paul… has a pretty face.

14.  Dear Friend (1971)

“Dear Friend” was written about John, yes. I don’t like grief and arguments, they always bug me. Life is too precious, although we often find ourselves guilty of doing it. So after John had slagged me off in public I had to think of a response, and it was either going to be to slag him off in public — and some instinct stopped me, which I’m really glad about — or do something else.

— Paul McCartney, 1994 (x)

And then with ‘Dear Friend’, that’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up. I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I’m not going to cry in front of all you lot though!

— Paul McCartney, 2018 (x)

Dear friend, throw the wine // I'm in love with a friend of mine

Paul ends the feud (in that John never releases a song in response to this, and they do in time start talking again).

There’s a mutability to ‘friend’ here: dear friend is John, I’m in love with a friend of mine the very next line is ambiguous. Both John and Paul were young and newly-wed at the time. The second friend could be Linda, but it’s the same word side-by-side, twins; if it’s John, Paul doesn’t just feel love for him, he’s in love. As this analysis by another tumblr user (x) points out, in all the various quotes where Paul has discussed this song and confirmed it’s about John, he doesn’t mention their respective wives once.

Side 2

15.  Best Friend (1972)

Well, I wake up in the morning // I'm still dreaming 'bout you // I'll tell, you pretty baby, I'm blue // I wake up in the evening // I'm still screaming out over you

Tell me why, why // Why do you treat me so bad? // You're the best friend, a man ever had // You're the best friend, a man could ever have

The Paul McCartney Project says this is considered to be a song to John Lennon. There's no citation at that webpage, but I think we can see the vision. (x) 

Addressed to a best friend (with complaints of mistreatment), but with lots of morning/nighttime dreaming (x) and screaming and some pretty babys thrown in for good measure. Girl get up, girl more on, etc (he won't). 

A year or so ago, John was telling Rolling Stone (1971):

It’s just handy to fuck your best friend. That’s what it is. And once I resolved the fact that it was a woman as well, it’s all right.

(The live version of this song remains the only version available.) 

16.  Call Me Back Again - Live (1976)

Come on and call me back again

…Tell me, what can I do, what can I do, I can’t get through

The pining continues? Various critics have suggested (x) that this song is aimed at John Lennon. 

The timeline certainly fits: Paul wrote the song spring of 1974 in LA, concurrent with John’s time living in LA while separated from Yoko/A Toot and a Snore in '74 (x). Come early 1975, Paul and Linda had dinner in New York with John and May Pang (John’s girlfriend during his eighteen month-long ‘Lost Weekend’ period away from Yoko) and encouraged John to come and visit them while they were recording in New Orleans (x). John then planned to surprise Paul during these sessions for the album that Call Me Back Again appears on (Venus and Mars) (x). However, John never made it: just before leaving for New Orleans, John went to see Yoko and they got back together, bringing the ‘Lost Weekend’ period to an abrupt end. (Yoko got pregnant with Sean very soon after.)

As teenagers in post-war Liverpool, Paul and John were unlikely to be on the phone to each other much (even in 1970, only 35% of UK households had their own telephone(x)), but certainly did call on each other’s houses all the time.

Version notes: This version is from the 1976 live album ‘Wings over America’, but the studio version was first released in 1975. I’ve chosen the live version primarily for Paul’s more raw, more desperate, more better vocal. There are some small lyrical differences and, in the live version, plenty of babe, baby-type ad libbing.

In the live version, Paul sings I’ve called your name, child, every night since then. (I’ve seen some claims that he’s singing I’ve called your name, John on this or other live versions (x) but with the best will in the world I simply don’t hear it.) Only in the studio version does Paul sing I’ve heard your name every night since then (rather than I’ve called your house), which in addition to the pretty racy Oh I’ve called your name every night since then brings the song towards something even more sex-and-dreams adjacent (or possibly suggests the subject is a famous person).

17.  Jealous Guy (1971)

He used to say, ‘Everyone is on the McCartney bandwagon.’ He wrote ‘I’m Just a Jealous Guy’, and he said that the song was about me.

— Paul McCartney, 1985 (x)

We do only have Paul’s word to go on here, his comment having been made in 1985. (If John said this, he did not appear to say it publicly.) Of course this song could be (and/or) addressed to Yoko, but there’s not really any reason it couldn’t be addressed to Paul. I was dreaming of the past // And my heart was beating fast would certainly point to an association with someone John had known for long enough for them to be in his past (Yoko very much being his present as of 1971). Oh, and John’s jealousy of Paul, particularly professionally, was legion (x).

18.  Silly Love Songs (1976)

There were accusations in the mid-1970s – including one from John – that I was just writing ‘silly love songs’. 

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x, x)

I love you…

Paul standing up to the ‘you’re wasting your time on this unserious soppy shit’ allegations. Silly Love Songs stayed at number one for five weeks solid in the US, so, re. what kind of songs people want, McCartney was arguably onto something. (Its chart peak in the UK was only number two - silly love songs are all well and good, but they can’t beat the public’s desire for a novelty parody song about agricultural machinery). 

As well as the quote above, in the 1986 book ‘McCartney, Songwriter’ it is phrased as Paul clarifying that the song was actually directed to John Lennon (rather than music critics, as first assumed). The song - the whole song.

John apparently liked this song very much and interpreted it entirely as a message to him, specifically including the ‘I love you’ parts. (x) (in user gswan steve hoffman music forums we trust, very reliable source okay, don’t take this away from me please).

19.  I Know (I Know) (1973)

Today I love you more than yesterday // Right now I love you more right now…

And I know it's getting better (all the time) // As we share in each other's minds 

An own-up/apology song from John to Paul. Probably. The official John Lennon Instagram account thinks so, anyway (x).

In his 1980 interview with Playboy - the one extensively quoted throughout this post, because John talked about the authorship and meaning of many of his songs in this interview - John only said that this song was just a piece of nothing. Which likely points to this song not being about Yoko, because when a song’s about Yoko he’ll generally shout about it. (I Know (I Know) was recorded in the summer of 1973, just after Yoko kicked him out thereby starting the ‘lost weekend’ period. So Lennon may have (also) been realising some things about that relationship when he wrote the song, because their relationship was clearly not in a good place.)

The song’s Paul references:

The 1971 Wings song ‘Some People Never Know’ is Paul saying some people don’t understand what it means to love (x). I Know (I Know) and its chosen title as a response to this song is a) a song response where John and Paul are in agreement rather than opposition, for a change b) John telling Paul that he does know what it means to be in love.

In a similar vein, I know what I was missing could be in response to I hope you never know how much you missed in (Paul’s 1971 song) Dear Boy.

Today I love you more than yesterday (in light of Paul’s song Yesterday and John’s Yesterday taunt in 1971’s How Do You Sleep)

And I know it's getting better (all the time) (Getting Better, 1967, Beatles-era McCartney-led cowrite)

No more crying (a possible response to Oh! Darling’s When you told me // You didn't need me anymore // Well, you know I nearly broke down and cried). Or The Long and Winding Road (Many times I’ve been alone // And many times I’ve cried)

Considering John and Paul’s (particularly John’s) belief that they shared some kind of dream or mind connection, I’m intrigued by the (contradictory?) lines But I never could read your mind and As we share in each other's minds.

Finally, there’s John and Paul’s first joint LSD experience:

Paul and Mal [Beatles Roadie/PA], this time, were full of tales of this here LSD and what it could do… Paul said he and John had had ‘this fantastic thing’; which really wasn’t very informative, so I pressed him to flesh it out. ’Incredible, really, just locked into each other’s eyes … Like, just staring and then saying, “I know, man” and then laughing … And it was great , you know.’ 

— Derek Taylor [press officer for The Beatles], 1983 (x)

20.  Coming Up (1980)

I heard a story from a guy who recorded with John in New York, and he said that John would sometimes get lazy. But then he’d hear a song of mine where he thought, ‘Oh, shit, Paul’s putting it in, Paul’s working!’ Apparently ‘Coming Up’ was the one song that got John recording again. I think John just thought, ‘Uh oh, I had better get working, too.’ I thought that was a nice story.

— Paul McCartney, 1980 (x)

1980 optimism: Paul edition. Potentially these lyrics could be interpreted as offering John help, consistent friendship, and perhaps even studio time. (This reading is strengthened by lyrical variations in some of the live versions; see below.) 

Oh, and in the music video for the song Paul’s drumkit identified the band (all Paul and Linda, in a 6:1 ratio) as The Plastic Macs (after The Plastic Ono band) (x).

Version notes: It’s the studio version with the vocal distortion that John heard on the radio, liked, and found inspiring (/competitiveness-inducing) enough to want to create songs again - he called it the freak version that [Paul] made in his barn (x) - so that’s the version on the playlist. 

The Glasgow live version was more commercially successful, and was the single A-side in the US. Here’s a breakdown of some of the differences between the studio and live versions of the song:

And if you're searching for an answer - 1980 studio version

I know you're searching for an answer - 1979 Glasgow live version (more definitive) (x)

I want to help you find an answer - 1979 Hammersmith live version (more collaborative) (x)

I know that we can get together // We can make it, stick with me - 1980 studio version

I know if we could get together // We'd hear music endlessly - both live version (less imperative, but with a delightful music reference) (this forum post (x) mentions a version with ‘making music endlessly’, which is even more suggestive of being about a musical collaborator, but I haven’t been able to find a version that definitely has this rather than ‘we’d hear’)

The live versions also include some not-uncommon Paul pretty baby I wanna stay-type adlibs. I think the Hammersmith performance is my personal favourite. It goes fast!

21.  (Just Like) Starting Over (1980)

But when I see you darling // It's like we both are falling in love again // It'll be just like starting over, starting over

1980 optimism: John edition. More generally, this is John’s increased optimism going into the eighties and the desire to put the difficulties of the seventies behind him.

Within the narrative of Double Fantasy - John’s big comeback album after five homemaking years away from the music business, made with Yoko - it seems like this song must be about John and Yoko, whose relationship was central to promotion of the album and was being portrayed in a particularly idealised way at this time. Were they going through a renewed closeness (implying that even after the ‘lost weekend’ was over their relationship had been going through troubles prior to this renewed closeness)? Or were there difficulties in their relationship during the album release, behind the scenes? (x)

Some possible elements that point to this song being (at least in part) about John and Paul:

The demo version (x), which includes the lyrics The time has come, the walrus said, for you and me to stay in bed again. (John and Yoko bed-in (x)? Or the walrus was Paul (x) / “In bed” (x)?)

The 50s/Elvis/rock ‘n’ roll style of this track evokes where John started, together with Paul. John starts the stripped down remix of this song with This one’s for Gene and Eddie and Elvis and Buddy (x).

When I see you, darling doesn’t necessarily suggest someone you see all the time every day (i.e. your wife).

It's time to spread our wings and fly and Don't let another day go by, my love - Paul’s band, Paul’s songs. Although yes, these are all common phrases regardless.

Whether this is about John’s hope to rekindle his relationship with Yoko, Paul, both or neither, he made it clear that he wanted in 1980 to start over - do better - in a wide variety of aspects. According to John, the song was written with a wider circle (rather than one person) in mind:

I’m not aiming… [the song] at 16-year-olds. If they can dig it, please dig it. But when I was singing and writing this and working with [Yoko] I was visualizing all the people of my age group from the sixties. Being in their thirties and forties now, just like me, and having wives and children and having gone through everything together, I am singing to them! I hope the young kids like it as well, but I’m really talking to the people that grew up with me and saying: “Here I am now - how are you? How’s your relationship going? Did you get through it all? Wasn’t the seventies a drag? You know, here we are, let’s try and make the eighties good, you know, because it’s still up to us to make what we can of it. It’s not out of our control.” (x)

Considering both Coming Up and (Just Like) Starting Over, and the possibility of an eighties Lennon-McCartney reunion: there is one account (x) suggesting John and Paul were planning to spend time in a London studio together in December 1980, then January 1981 when studio availability fell through. This hasn’t been verified elsewhere, although Jack Douglas, the producer of Double Fantasy, does mention in a 2016 interview (x) that both John and Paul had signed on to work on Ringo’s next planned album, with them potentially both planning to attend a January 1981 studio session in New York. Who knows what could have happened if the worst hadn’t.

Time passed. Paul locked the door of his home studio and played (Just Like) Starting Over, the first single from Double Fantasy. Top volume. For days. Christmas came, with its inevitable reruns of Beatles films and other tributes. A fan brandishing a knife tried to break into the McCartneys’ estate. Paul put up more barbed wire and floodlights. A month later, in February 1981, he went back to work.

— Christopher Sandford, in ‘McCartney’ (2006) (x)

22.  The Long And Winding Road - Naked Version (1969)

The long and winding road // that leads to your door // Will never disappear, I've seen that road before // It always leads me here, lead me to your door

The only information Paul has really given about writing this song is that he was inspired by a road stretching up into the hills as seen from his newly-purchased farm in the Scottish Highlands (x). Which is certainly a likely inspiration for the road image, but doesn’t give anything away about, like, the deeper meaning of the song.

It’s possible that this verse refers to ‘the night we cried’ in Key West that Paul also mentions in Here Today (1982):

The wild and windy night that the rain washed away // Has left a pool of tears, crying for the day // Why leave me standing here? // Let me know the way

Is this long and winding road a journey of inevitable hardships (written as this was to the background of The Beatles’ late 60s troubles), or a journey home? (We’re on our way home)

Paul really does love a road metaphor in his songs: there’s 2001’s Lonely Road (I hear your music and it's driving me wild // Familiar rhythms in a different style… Don't want to get hurt second time around // Don't want to walk that lonely road again) (x) and then there’s 2013’s Road, which doesn’t appear on this playlist but for me is the key to unlocking The Long And Winding Road (x).

We came from nowhere // Hiding from a storm // We cling together // To keep each other warm

The road to somewhere // Stretches through the night // We follow blindly // Heading for the light

I can't see anymore // The blinding light // It's just a metaphor // I use when things aren't going right

…I′m scared to say I love you // Afraid to let you know // That the simplest of words won't come out of my mouth // Though I'm dying to let them go // Trying to let you know

…I'm still too scared to tell you // Afraid to let you see // That the simplest of words won′t come out of my mouth // Though I'm dying to set them free // Trying to let you see, how much it means to me // How much you mean to me // How much you mean to me now

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Version notes: this is the version from Let It Be… Naked because this is Paul’s song and he does not want those women’s voices on a Beatles record (x) and because this is an intimate song from one person to another and so I wanted that wall of sound right outta here.

The ‘Naked’ take was recorded several days after the version used in Let It Be (1970), and it has this rather intriguing lyric variation:

Anyway, you’ll never know // The many ways I’ve tried - 1970 Let It Be version

Anyway, you’ve always known // The many ways I’ve tried - 1969 Naked version

John has always known, I think.

23.  Here Today (1982)

A love song to John, written very shortly after he died. 

— Paul McCartney, 2021 (x)

An imagined conversation, and some shared memories; no ambiguity as to the meaning of the lyrics here.

The night we cried is about a specific event: an approaching hurricane cancelled a planned Beatles concert, meaning the band were stuck in Key West with nothing to do. After a day of drinking a lot with the band and their tour support groups (and throwing up), John and Paul sat in a motel room and had in-depth conversations. Paul has described this as the only time he and John cried together. They held each other and they cried about how much they loved each other. (Telling this anecdote in The Lyrics book ultimately leads to Paul saying we had the most intimate relationship. and I think [those moments like Key West are] what you think about when you lose a friend.)

Many, many other (heartbreaking) quotes, and attribution for Key West, from Paul about this song can be read here (x).

24.  On the Way (1980)

Well we've been travelling for a long time // And we finally finished here //  Though I said some things to hurt you // Well it was only out of fear  

Well you know I'll always love you // Everything will be alright // If I know you don't mind // The things I say // On the way

Bluesy as all hell. Paul hasn’t talked about this one very much.

(Here in the playlist For The Narrative; as this is dated 1980, I should specify for clarity’s sake that this song was written and released before John’s death.)

25.  My Brave Face (1989)

Now that I'm alone again // I can't stop breakin' down again // The simplest things set me off again // And take me to that place // Where I can't find my brave face

At least once a tour, that song just gets me.. I’m singing it, and I think I’m OK, and I suddenly realise it’s very emotional, and John was a great mate and a very important man in my life, and I miss him, you know?

— Paul McCartney on performing ‘Here Today’, 2004 (x)

The cover? Circular glasses and a bowler hat (x). (John’s famous glasses; they got ��a couple of bowler hats” as their gimmick to attract lifts to hitchhike to Paris in 1961 - you can see them in the bowler hats in some of the Paris photos (x).) The video? A crazed Japanese fan has stolen Paul’s possessions, including Beatles memorabilia and his famous Hofner bass. (Hm.) The collaborator? Hitting the low harmonies alongside Paul’s singing just like John used to, which Paul described as “getting to be too much” (x). Jeez.

(Should be noted that the songwriting for this one is co-credited to Paul and Elvis Costello, Paul’s collaborator for the majority of his 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt. Let’s not take too much of a detour, but one of the reasons Paul gave for wanting to try this collaboration was that both of them shared Liverpool family roots. Their work together was fruitful in terms of output but perhaps it did ‘get a bit much’ after all - they never worked together again. You can find attribution for this and read lots more about Paul and Costello here (x).)

26.  This One (1989)

The song is basically a love song – did I ever say I love you? And if I didn’t it’s because I was waiting for a better moment.

— Paul McCartney, 1989 (x)

The ‘I love you’ part was hard to say. A part of me said, ‘Hold on. Wait a minute. Are you really going to do that?’ I finally said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to. It’s true.’

— Paul McCartney on ‘Here Today’, 1982 (x)

27.  Now and Then (2023)

Now and then // I miss you // Oh, now and then // I want you to be there for me // Always to return to me

How else to finish but with the final Beatles song?

January 1994, John Lennon’s induction ceremony into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: backstage, Yoko gives Paul cassette tapes of unheard demo material from John. Already working together on Anthology (a TV documentary/album release/book Beatles retrospective) at the time, Paul, George and Ringo built on these demos John had recorded in the late 1970s to create and release ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ together (x). They worked on a third single, but there were serious quality problems with John’s recording and George wasn’t happy to proceed with it on this basis. (Actually, what he said was is that it sounded “fucking rubbish”. “But it’s John!”, Paul reportedly countered (x).)

But Paul kept mentioning the song in interviews. “One of these days”, he said in 2012, they were going to finish it (x). 

And they did.

It’s the sound separation technology Peter Jackson used to create the 2021 Get Back documentary that made Now and Then technically possible, but it’s Paul’s dogged determination sustained over a thirty year period to release this record as a Beatles song that got it out there. John’s last words to Paul in-person, back in 1976, were Think about me every now and then, old friend (x). All the time. All the time.

Bonus Tracks

(Not on Spotify / not written by Lennon and-or McCartney / not otherwise fitting in.)

28.  The Lovers That Never Were - 1987 Demo / Geoff Emerick Mix (1987)

All of the clocks have run down. // Time's at an end. // If we can't be lovers we'll never be friends.

For the lyrics and the Beatle-esque harmonies and the raw performance. 

(We don’t have much information on who exactly wrote what between McCartney and Costello on any of these shared-credit tracks, but it seems likely from the style of lyrics here that Costello heavily contributed to this one. As I say though, we don’t know for sure.)

29.  Just Because (1975)

John’s cover of Lloyd Price’s 1957 hit. (John spent some of his ‘lost weekend’ period recording an album of rock ‘n’ roll covers, initially with Phil Spector producing. Production was, needless to say, troubled.)

For John’s ad lib during the outro of the song, not in Price’s original: There's two basses in this. I hope you appreciate it. Which bassist might John be addressing here?

Then there’s Just Because - Reprise, where John can be heard saying (25 seconds in): I'd like to say hi to Ringo, Paul and George... how are you? (and) Everybody back home, in England... what's cookin'? 

There’s also its drunk ‘n’ drugged cousin, Just Because - Rough Mix, which really is a hot fucking mess. Check the tags at the linked post for more conjecture, but John’s certainly pining for someone. Most of these lyrics are not in Price’s original, including Darling I would never // I’d never make nothing without you.

(Bonus to the bonus: John’s cover of The Ronettes’ Be My Baby, also intended for this covers album but left off of the 1975 release. Yes, back in the day The Beatles as a matter of course didn’t swap any pronouns around when performing covers, but (5 minutes in) the I need him here is so desperate-sounding. I won’t tell nobody. I won’t say a word…)

30.  I Don’t Know (Johnny, Johnny) (1960)

Two boys, 1960, Forthlin Road.

Aged 17-18 (Paul) and 19 (John), the band (not yet named The Beatles) convened twice at Paul’s place to record rehearsals on a borrowed reel-to-reel tape recorder. Not all of the lyrics are clearly decipherable, but it sure sounds like John and Paul are planning to skip town together and never look back. Let’s hope they make it.

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A final note (if anyone on Earth has made it this far - hi, and thanks very much for reading): this isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of all McLennon-feasible songs, or unimpeachable ““arguments””! (That's impossible.) This is just a playlist I wanted to make, influenced by what I wanted to write about following a serious research deep-dive, which songs I like listening to, what I personally find most compelling, and what fitted into the playlist order narratively speaking - as its in narrative rather than (purely) chronological order, alternating between Lennon and McCartney whenever viable and beginning and ending on true jointly-written collaborations.