Untitled

Take my life but don't throw it all away, don't break the promise that you made today

Take my heart but if you're not gonna stay, don't break the promise that you made today

Ah, don't break the promise that you made today

If you don't mean to keep your word, well, you better be heading down the road

Cause I can't, I can't stand it if we don't love life all you gonna do is tell me goodbye

Take my life but don't throw it all away, don't break the promise that you made today

Ah, take my heart but don't lose it on the way, ooh, don't break the promise that you made today

(don't break the promise) don't break the promise that you made today

Kiss it goodbye, (kiss it) walk if you don't want all, all of my loving

You know what you can do, baby, kiss it goodbye. (kiss it, kiss it) yeah, yeah

Ah, take my heart but don't throw it, don't throw it all away

You can read my mind

If you wanted to

You can come inside

You got to let me know

What you want to do

I don’t wanna hide

Step right up and take a look

See what you can find

All my life’s an open book

Come inside my mind

I can tell the truth

If you want to hear

What I have to say

There’s not a single thing

That you have to fear

If you come my way

[...]

Open up your mind (Yeah)

Open up your heart (Yeah)

Nothing else is keeping us apart

[...]

If you listen to them, the two songs are very different tonally, with the Beach Boys song coming from the perspective of an ex-lover singing to their ex's new lover (it's more bitter because of this), but there's still this element of the fleeting nature of love. I think that honestly, Paul's "Here Today" can even be read kind of as a response to that, where the love is still here despite the person he loved being gone. Though, with that said, both songs can also be read as commentaries on the way that love can ended or interrupted suddenly, either via new romantic ties or death. Paul's is saying "I love you" but at this point the love can't be actively returned because John's not alive to return it. While I don't necessarily know that Paul was consciously thinking of the Beach Boys song when writing the lyrics, there's no doubt in my mind that he at least considered it when deciding on the title. Paul is a big Beach Boys fan, he's not going to name his song the same as one of theirs off a record he loves without knowing what he'd doing. To me, that at the very least means he has thought about and consciously chosen not to obfuscate any connection that might be read there.

Summary: An analysis of the concept of 'Venus and Mars' and celestial bodies in Paul's (and John's) songs and its connection to John (and Linda)

What in the world you're thinking of Laughing in the face of love? What on earth you trying to do? It's up to you, yeah, you [...] Who on earth d'you think you are? Laughing at a fool like me? Superstar, right you are Well, we all shine on Like the moon and the stars and the sun Well, we all shine on Like the moon and the stars and the sun [...] Why in the world are we here? Surely not to live in pain and fear? Why on earth are you there? You're everywhere, come and get your share Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band and Yōko Ono · 1970

All at once you get love on your mind And your world is as kind as a penny Oh and you knew it all along You did the right thing Believe me it's true And it can happen to you All at once you get sound in your ears And your cloud disappears into yellow [...] My little love you cant go wrong Get on the right thing [...] All at once we see things in our skies And we both realize it together [...] Get On The Right Thing Wings ‧ 1973

Venus and Mars album cover ‧ 1975

"Venus And Mars" is both the title of a song and an album. It's the first time this theme appears in one of Paul's song. There are actually five songs in which this theme, more or less explicitly, appears over the years (Venus And Mars, New Moon Over Jamaica, Your Way, Everybody Out There, The Kiss of Venus), so it's clearly important for Paul.

Venus and Mars are two planets of the solar system, but also two gods in greek and roman mythology. Here is their story:

In Roman mythology, Mars was the fierce god of war, and Venus was the beautiful goddess of love and beauty. They had a secret, passionate love affair that became a famous scandal, despite Venus being married to the lame smith god Vulcan.

Vulcan showing the captured Mars and Venus to the gods, painting by Maerten van Heemskerck

Sitting in the stand of the sports arena Waiting for the show to begin Red lights, green lights Strawberry wine A good friend of mine Follows the stars – Venus and Mars are alright tonight Venus and Mars Wings ‧ 1975

“Venus and Mars” also has a reprise that appears on the Venus and Mars album, which serves to open the second side of the LP record. The reprise incorporates some science fiction lyrics and sound effects, reflecting McCartney’s reading Isaac Asimov at the time the song was recorded. (x)

Standing in the hall of the great cathedral Waiting for the transport to come Starship 21ZNA9 A good friend of mine studies the stars Venus and Mars are alright tonight Come away on a strange vacation Holiday hardly begun Run into a good friend of mine, sold me her sign Reach for the stars Venus and Mars are alright tonight Venus and Mars - Reprise Wings ‧ 1975

Originally when the song was released fans believed the title referred to Paul and Linda. Paul has denied this, stating that the song “is about an imaginary friend who’s got a girlfriend who’s the kind of person who asks what your sign is before they say hello. That’s it: ‘A good friend of mine studies the stars.’ In fact, in the first verse it’s ‘a good friend of mine follows the stars,’ so it could be ambiguous: a groupie or an astrologer.” From "The Paul McCartney Project"

Do you remember why the album was titled Venus and Mars? Well, I wrote a song called ‘Venus and Mars’, and thought it was a good title. We only meant the planets, but then we had a great party on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, and somebody said, ‘Oh, hi Venus! Hi Mars!’ to Linda and me. So, it was a great observation from them: Venus is the female; Mars is the male. It made a lot of sense, really. So, I suppose people might have thought of that idea. But to us it was just the planets, and the song is just about a kind of space cadet. There were loads of people at the time who were very ‘spacey’. From paulmccartney.com, February 28, 2025

I didn’t even know they were our neighbouring planets. I just thought of naming any two planets. What were the first that came to mind? I thought, Jupiter, no, that doesn’t it… Saturn… no… Venus and Mars… that’s great, I’ll just put those in. Later, it turns out they’ve just done an eclipse, Venus and Mars have lined themselves up for the first time in something like a thousand years. I didn’t know they were the gods of love and war, either, and I wasn’t thinking about the Botticelli picture someone [George Melly] asked about. Paul McCartney In His Own Words, Paul Gambaccini

[May] Pang told me the following story: Lennon was making plans to see Paul and Linda McCartney right before Ono pulled her string and brought him home to the Dakota in Manhattan. “Paul and Linda were going to New Orleans to record the Venus and Mars album,” May recalled. “And John found out they would be there. He made plans to surprise them down there. He was in a great mood and he really missed Paul.” Just as Lennon was making this plan, he was also trying to quit smoking. [...] Indeed, Pang was correct, since Lennon did not return to her. Pang can only surmise that Lennon shared his plans with Ono, who feared a reunion with the McCartneys would spur Lennon to leave her forever. Paul McCartney was, and is, Yoko Ono’s prime rival and arch enemy. [...] At first when Pang told people about Lennon’s plans — after he’d left her — no one believed it. “But then something happened,” she said. “Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ publicist, showed me a postcard he’d gotten from John in England. It said, ‘Going to New Orleans to see Paul.’ And that was it. That was the proof.” Roger Friedman, FoxNews.com, “Lennon planned to visit McCartney in 1974,” September 25, 2001 (via amclennonblog)

[…] Many Paul McCartney fans are aware of Paul’s fondness for holidays in Jamaica, and that he has taken quite a few vacations there over the years. Another music legend by the name of Johnny Cash liked the place so much that he actually bought a house there. On one of Paul and Linda’s mid-1980′s trips to the island, Johnny invited them over to his house for dinner, and while Paul was there, he penned the song […] while looking at the moon. The song is called “New Moon Over Jamaica.” In May of 1988, Johnny showed up at Paul’s studio in England wanting to record the song, for inclusion on his upcoming album Water From The Wells Of Home. He had brought along Tom T. Hall, another country singer friend of his and the two of them had made a few modifications to the song. Paul shared a vocal with Johnny on the song and also played bass. Unlike Johnny’s country version, Paul’s demo is done with a reggae beat. On June 18, 1995, Paul featured his reggae demo of the song, segued with Johnny’s version, in his Oobu Joobu radio show and that is this version. From The Paul McCartney Project

The memorable session for ‘New Moon Over Jamaica’ took place at Paul’s Sussex studio on Monday, 9th May and, luckily for Club Sandwich, two impeccable witnesses have given us their accounts. First John Hammel, trusty keeper of Paul’s guitars among other gear: "Johnny and Paul had demos of the song beforehand. When he arrived, Johnny got his guitar out, chatted to Paul and they played other tunes together. Johnny’s wife, June Carter Cash, played autoharp which I tuned for her. It was a really nice session." From The Paul McCartney Project

There's a new moon over Jamaica And the new year just got here, you see There's a new moon over Jamaica And I'm living with an old memory So won't you come back to Jamaica? You know it isn't so far Look up in the sky where you left me that night I'll be standing right under that star (chorus) I said good evening to Venus She said good evening too Out there somewhere, you know I could swear She sent a message of true love from you (chorus) A new moon makes someone feel happy A new moon makes someone lovesick I'm thinking of you, but what can I do? New moons and new years and old loves don't mix There's a new moon over Jamaica And the new year just got here, you see There's a new moon over Jamaica And I'm living with an old memory Just the new year, a new moon and me New Moon Over Jamaica Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney and Tom T. Hall ‧ 1988

The thing is with a lyric like this on ‘Your Way’ is that people will know what it means. I know what it means. And that’s enough for me. People can pull out lyrics out of context very easily and they can take the piss very easily. So it is a trap you can find yourself heading into of trying to get over-literate, just because you know that someone may quote the line. ‘Rinse The Raindrops’ – I’ve only ever written a couple of songs where the lyrics came first. ‘All My Loving’ with The Beatles was the first one of those. Paul McCartney – From “The Driving Rain interview” published on paulmccartney.com, November 2001

I like it Please don`t take my heart away It`s happy Where it is so let it stay You gave me love You gave me what I wanted You gave me love your way I've seen it Shining from the furthest stars Like Venus Saw it on the way to Mars You gave me love You gave me what I wanted You gave me love your way Your way is strong You way is right Your way is mine tonight Your Way Paul McCartney ‧ 2001

[...] There but for the grace of God go you and I We're the brightest objects in the sky There but for the grace of God go you and I Do some good before you say goodbye Hey, I was trying to remember How bad it was then When you didn't have a friend When you didn't have a friend (chorus) Oh, talk to me I can't hear you Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah Hey, everybody out there I know what it's like I know what it's like Everybody out there I can't hear you, I can't hear you Everybody out there Everybody Out There Paul McCartney ‧ 2013

The lyrics "There but for the grace of God go you and I" are a reference to "There but for the grace of God go I", which is a common proverb from John Bradford, who was actually a preacher at St. Paul's Church in London. (source)

At the end of the song a (probably) looped morse code is included:

.. ……. .-.. .. …- . ……. --- -. ……. -- .- .-. …

Which means "I live on Mars". A maccaboard user pointed it out in 2014 and also someone on tumblr but I can't find the post. I also personally checked and it matches the translation.

I had a cool little book Jools Holland’s wife had given me, kind of an astrology book, all about the planets and the movements and the fantastic synchronicity of it all. A fascinating book, actually, when the planets go through all the little things, if you look at a graph, as it were, of them all, it like makes a lotus. It’s trippy. There was some great little phrases – “the kiss of Venus” was one of them. So I was loving that book and I was making up a song about that, but that was an instance of forcing myself to write. And I felt good after it. I thought, ‘Yeah that’s a pretty good little song.’ I haven’t had time to record it, but I will. Paul McCartney, from the Flaming Pie – Archive Collection book, 2020

I’ve seen a lot of people express confusion about Paul because he often seems to send mixed signals. On one hand, when he’s asked directly about John he instantly goes into defense mode: “No, John wasn’t the love of my life. That was Linda, that’s Nancy. I loved John as a brother.” He insists John never made a pass at him, that there was “never any hint,” that he’s “never made love to a man.” He’s said variations of that multiple times. But on the other hand, there’s this whole other side of Paul — the one that says and does things that are so suggestive, so emotionally charged, that you can’t help feeling he wants people to get the subtext.

Take “Let Me Roll It.” When performing it live once, he changed the lyric from “You gave me loving in the palm of my hand” to “He gave me loving in the palm of my hand.” That’s deliberate. Why would he sing he in front of thousands of people? Especially in a song already noted for sounding Lennon-like, with John’s vocal echo, tone, and emotional rawness? It feels like a quiet nod — a moment of honesty he knows will pass unnoticed by most, but not by everyone.

Then there’s "On My Way to Work". When explaining that song in The Lyrics, Paul starts talking about how, as a young man, he used to worry about finding the right person — “How am I going to find the right soul among all those people?” And then the next page shows a photo of John performing at the church fete in 1957. At the end of that section, in the last paragraph, Paul reminisces about how he first saw John there, and even earlier on the bus, and how he’ll “always remember that first image.” So what is he implying there? That John was the “right soul” he’d been looking for all along? The placement of that photo and those reflections aren't random. He wants people to connect the dots.

It’s the same when he was once discussing his song Early Days. He starts talking, unprompted, about Menlove Avenue — John’s street — "It’s me remembering walking down the street, dressed in black, with the guitars across our back. I can picture the exact street. It was a place called Menlove Avenue. Somebody’s going to read significance into that. John and Paul on Menlove Avenue? Come onnn.” But the irony is that no one would have thought about that if he hadn’t pointed it out himself. It’s almost as if he wanted people to think it. By saying, “don’t read into it,” he guaranteed that everyone would. In the Fuh You music video, for example, has layers of symbolism most casual viewers miss. It’s shot in Liverpool, in black and white, and centers on a boy named Jamie (Paul's first name is James) who’s in a taboo relationship at the time — he’s white, his girlfriend is Black. But what’s fascinating is the setting: he passes by the exact newsagent where Paul once said he saw John for the first time and spoke to him. Even if 99% of the audience never noticed, Paul still made sure that reference was there.

Or take what he did during the Got Back tour: Before the show, he plays a long slideshow — thirty minutes of photos spanning his whole life: early days, Beatles, Wings, solo years. Yet the only person who gets a full-screen image — taking up the entire frame — is John. Not Linda. Not the other Beatles. Not Paul himself. And during that moment when John's huge picture appears, heart-shaped and star-shaped balloons float across the screen in multiple colors. Again, Paul knows exactly what he’s doing.

In The Lyrics, when he discusses I Want to Hold Your Hand, he explicitly says it wasn’t about Jane Asher — even though she was his girlfriend at the time. Then he adds, “I might have been drawing on my experience with person I was in love with at the time.” That’s odd phrasing. Why couldn't he just say, "It wasn't about Jane, but I was drawing from my experiences with her." Saying “a person” — gender-neutral, unspecific — feels intentional, almost teasing, like he wants readers to wonder. He does it again with I Will. He says that just because he was with Jane doesn’t mean the song was about her. Then he adds, “It’s not always about someone specific, unless it’s to a person out there who’s listening. It’s definitely not going to be a person who said, ‘There he goes again, writing silly love songs.’" Lol, come on. In the same book he mentions that John often said this.

In 1998, when asked by Q Magazine how he’d spend a day with John if he could have him back, and as you all know, he said: “In bed.” Then, in 2010, asked to describe John in a sentence, he said: “A wild and wolly genius with whom it was my pleasure to work with, talk with, walk with and occasionally sleep with.” He knows most people will take that as a joke, just like when nobody took John seriously when he said about Paul, “Oh, I’ve had him. He’s no good.” But that’s exactly why Paul (and John) said it: because humor gives them plausible deniability. They can tell the truth and hide it in plain sight, knowing only a few will think there's more to it.

And then, of course, there’s the whole Now and Then project — the final Beatles song. Paul said he likes to think John wrote it about him. Meanwhile, people close to him — his own guitarist, Giles Martin, and Peter Jackson — have all described the song as a love letter to Paul. They’re not being subtle. They’re collectively shaping that narrative, softening the world for the idea that the Lennon–McCartney story was a love story. So when you put all of this together — the defensiveness in direct interviews versus the suggestive, layered hints scattered through his work —we see Paul’s lifelong balancing act: the public man protecting his image, and the private artist who keeps leaving breadcrumbs for those who are listening closely. He may never come out and say it plainly — but everything he’s done, everything he’s said between the lines, seems designed to make sure we think it anyway.