Personally, I don't believe they had a relationship, but there are some things in the songs that I can't explain. Like "She loves you" being written in a way that sounds like the speaker using the 3rd person about themselves (John's song, correct me if I'm wrong) and "And I love her" being a direct answer to that (that's why there's "and" in the title, also - Paul's song). Or the song Press with blatantly sexual lyrics and "Oklahoma was never like this". What could it be refering to but the musical, written by a famous duo that was a predecessor to Lennon-McCartney? ("It was never like this with their writing"). But then again, there is "Lovers that never were", impying they didn't take the chance. What are your thoughts on those?
Press does actually stand out to me, given how it talks about a secret code, which Paul now brought up again in Days We Left Behind. So yes, if that song is about John, then it's indeed very hard to explain away. But to be honest, I don’t believe either "She Loves You" or "And I Love Her" have much (if anything) to do with John and Paul's relationship. Most of their early 60s love songs feel like exactly that: straightforward pop numbers without too much subtext to analyze. "She Loves You" falls squarely into that category for me, and I firmly believe "And I Love Her" was written about Jane Asher. I don't see any real connection between the two tracks. Regarding "The Lovers That Never Were," I am actually much more reserved about that song than most people in this fandom. I am always careful not to draw sweeping conclusions from co-written tracks, and Elvis Costello was heavily involved in that one. Because we don't know who wrote which lines, or who came up with the title phrase, we can't definitively use it as proof. It could easily be a standard, melancholic love song about no one in particular that they just happened to pen together. Taking the title to mean that John and Paul "never went there" or never took a physical chance is simply more than we can comfortably deduce.
That being said, there are absolutely songs from both of them that (when you scrutinize the lyrics and the context in which they were written) clearly seem to be inspired by one another. These are the tracks that are rather hard to explain away if you believe their relationship was strictly platonic. Take "Arrow Through Me" (written in 1979). It was written at a distinct low point in Paul and John's relationship, and Wings drummer Steve Holley noted that Paul was visibly depressed about missing John while they were recording it. Interestingly, in The Lyrics book, Paul includes the song but spends 95% of the entry talking about entirely unrelated topics. When he finally acknowledges the track in the very last paragraph, he vaguely mentions that "the character" in the song has been wounded and cheated on, cryptically adding that "there was nobody more down" than him at that moment, without ever elaborating. Another song you should really pay attention to is "However Absurd" (1986). Most of the track is complete nonsense, which Paul has acknowledged was similar to John’s "I Am the Walrus" style. But the middle verse completely stands out, as it isn't nonsense at all:
"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..."
This mirrors a recurring and deeply self-aware theme in Paul's songs about John: his profound difficulty with vocalizing his feelings, or regret over not telling John "I love you" enough while he was alive. If this verse is indeed about John, well, you can interpret the "when we made love the game was over" as you wish, haha. If I were to draw any connection between that line and another song, then I'd say that concept of a "game" echoes his line from "Here Today": "we were playing hard to get." But for me, what really cemented my belief that neither of them viewed their relationship as just a friendship aren't even any of these songs. Lyrics can always be dismissed as "poetic license" (using romantic language to elevate intense but platonic emotions). What cannot be easily explained away is the way they actively taunted each other through their songs by weaponizing their new relationships. In the early 70s they were throwing jabs that essentially amounted to, "Ha, I have someone new now who has replaced you." You see it clearly in the last verse of Paul's "Too Many People" ("Now what can be done for you? She's waiting for me"). Conversely, look at how John immediately took "Dear Boy" personally. Regardless of who Paul actually had in mind when he wrote it (whether it was John or Linda’s ex-husband), the fact that John instantly assumed Paul was taunting him is incredibly revealing. It is simply not usual behavior for a man to use his new marriage as a petty dig at his former best friend, nor is it casual for that friend to interpret the song as a message that he "fumbled" the relationship and is now missing out. If they were constantly using Linda and Yoko to signal that they had replaced one another, they were acutely quite aware of the exclusive space they used to occupy in each other's hearts. They knew exactly how much it would hurt the other to see that space filled. This matches Paul's own admission that they "spurred each other into marriage", or John recreating the David Bailey photos with Yoko. Whatever the nature of their relationship was, it was clearly not a normal "platonic" friendship, and neither of them seemed to perceive it that way either, judging by both the things they said about each other and the songs they wrote. There are simply too many aspects of their relationship that you have to either downplay or explain away in order to dismiss the romantic undertones.
theartofmadeline
pixelskylines
2087
