why is it so difficult/controversial for certain people to admit that John (probably) wrote If I Fell for Paul?
Some insist the card was from Jane because of the "To Paul with love xxx" but doesn't that make it even more sus for John to just take the card and write those lyrics? Not considering the fact that phrase was from his own hands, but I'm not an expert in calligraphy. And from what I've heard he put down the lyrics while they were on a plane, I think in the US, so what did Paul always had the card on him?
I remember the first time I saw it was in one of Hunter Davies' books and of course he was adamant that John was talking about Cynthia and felt sorry for her, okay, it was the acceptable conclusion for the times, but now? Especially with Ian Leslie's book (idk why he left out the card part though) I guess more people feel comfortable giving in to speculation, but some remain so obtuse (including the guy who owns the actual card, I read he's convinced it's from Jane).
I suppose it's a lost cause asking knowing Paul, but did he ever acknowledge the card/song in some way? Or someone close to him and John, it's still the one song together with In My Life (from the band) that is so discussed about being mclennon.
The few people who have actually publicly discussed the Valentine's card, like Bill Maher and his guest who brought it, they either genuinely have no idea what to make of it because the idea of John writing that for Paul doesn't fit how they view their relationship (so they think there must be a more logical explanation), or they privately think it’s "sus" but don't want to publicly air their speculations. Because most general audiences don't know the deep lore behind John and Paul, they immediately reach for the "safest" theory that makes sense to them: that it must have been Jane (or a fan) who gave it to Paul. Yes, in the last decade, following Get Back, Now and Then, and the release of Leslie's book, there has been a noticeable shift. More people are publicly discussing John and Paul's relationship in a far more intimate way than ever before. But you do sometimes get the feeling they are still walking on eggshells. They always frame it as a "platonic love affair," carefully tiptoeing around it without ever explicitly suggesting anything more (regardless of what they might actually believe). And it makes sense, as none of us can know for sure what happened between them, but they completely avoid even jokingly mentioning the (however unlikely) possibility of it being more than a standard friendship. Look at how some of them handle it:
Peter Jackson, Giles Martin, and Brian Ray (Paul's guitarist) have all publicly stated that they believe that Now and Then is a love letter from John to Paul. Yet, they never elaborate on the implications of that statement, considering the song's lyrics are romantic.
Morgan Neville directly told Paul that Man on the Run is basically "two love stories": Paul and Linda, and Paul and John. Neville looked somewhat shy saying it (looking down briefly and trying not to smile), like it was something he’d been planning to say to Paul for some time. Paul actually nodded, seemingly accepting it since Neville framed it metaphorically.
Howard Stern, when discussing "Now and Then," was prompted by a co-host who said, "You know how you've been trying to talk to Paul about being in love with John, and it being like a love affair?" Howard immediately agreed: "Yes, John and Paul had the greatest love affair in history," before quickly adding, "it just wasn't a physical thing."
Bob Spitz on the OSD podcast in 2021 said he was "convinced" they were "in love" from the moment they met, describing their first meeting as an instant "this is it for me" moment. But he immediately qualified it: "very platonic, but..."
Bill Maher, speaking to Julian about Get Back, stated that "John and Paul were in love" and that "all the women were third wheels," before quickly adding, "and I don't mean there was a gay element there, by the way."
Chris Salewicz argued in is book that John’s sudden wedding to Yoko was a knee-jerk reaction to Paul marrying Linda, essentially a panic response to "losing the first love of his life". Yet on the OSD podcast, he added: "I’m not saying anything happened between them, I’m sure it didn’t."
Ian Leslie has consistently described their dynamic as a "platonic, non-physical romance," though sometimes pushing the envelope by suggesting John might have wanted something more while Paul was simply too straight or oblivious. Sometimes he's a bit more bold and says that the relationship was actually romantic but not sexual (and that it might have had a "physical or erotic component"...)
And I'm not even going to elaborate on Alec Baldwin, lol.
It’s clear that no matter what these commentators privately believe, they all carefully walk around it. They either genuinely believe it was an incredibly intense but strictly platonic bond, or they suspect there was more to it but feel highly uncomfortable publicly speculating on the private lives of two public figures (I think both reasons are valid). This self-censorship is why I think Ian Leslie left the Valentine's card out of his book entirely. I am almost certain this was a deliberate choice rather than an oversight. Leslie toned down or ignored several suggestive elements in his book, even editing and cutting short some of Paul quotes (like the one where Paul says he knew exactly what John was doing when he publicly trashed him, calling it John’s way of confessing his old affairs and proving to Yoko how much he loved her). When asked about the If I Fell card in interviews, Leslie acknowledged that it was "nicely suggestive", but he kind of talks around it without exploring its massive implications (he mostly says that he sees it as John expressing to this "person" how much they mean to him). I can see why. After all, if it's true that John wrote the lyrics to a deeply vulnerable, romantic song on a Valentine's card and addressed it "to Paul with love," then this could complicate his thesis that their relationship was platonic and that Paul was entirely oblivious to John's feelings, as he claims. I also don't buy the idea that Leslie is simply completely ignorant of most of the lore, even though he has claimed in press conferences to have no clue about things like the mating beetles on the RAM album cover. Years before his book came out, Leslie was on the OSD podcast calling the Paris trip their "honeymoon" and saying other suggestive things. When I first listened to that OSD episode, I came away thinking that he believed their relationship wasn't entirely platonic. For the book, in my opinion, he toned the rhetoric down to avoid alienating mainstream readers (who would write off a book hinting at romance as "shipper nonsense"), and possibly to avoid drawing any legal or personal ire from MPL and Paul himself, or anything that would complicate the publishing of his book.
Even Christie’s auction house got caught up in this rationalization. In their official lot description for the card, they claimed John suddenly got the inspiration for the song on a plane and, finding no other paper, used Paul’s Valentine's card. Their explanation is faulty for a couple of reasons:
They have absolutely no way of knowing that sequence of events. It's all speculation.
The lyrics written on the card are absolutely pristine. There are no scratch-outs, and they are 99% identical to the final recorded version. It is clearly an almost finished presentation, not a rough, spontaneous draft. But because it likely didn't make sense to them that John would write If I Fell on a valentine for Paul, they theorized that John suddenly got the inspiration for the song but couldn't find a regular piece of paper on the plane (which is also kind of hard to believe).
Paul, expectedly, has never addressed the card, but he has indeed mentioned If I Fell. Back in 1964, he was asked about what was his favorite song from AHDN, and he said "If I Fell". Over forty years later, in the mid-2000s, he privately told a journalist that it was probably his favorite John song of all time. Yet, whenever Paul is publicly asked about his favorite Lennon songs, he sticks to: "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Julia," "Beautiful Boy," "Imagine," or "Across the Universe." But it’s clear he hasn't forgotten If I Fell considering he recalled it being his favorite more than four decades after its release. Maybe it’s simply too personal for him to name as his favorite publicly, or maybe he thinks that people would over-analyze the implications of it. Of course, it's also possible he just changed his mind over the years and that it's no longer his favorite. We will likely never know for sure, because I just don't picture Paul addressing it (or anyone asking him).
P.S. Now that I see the card more clearly, the exchange between Maher and the other guy is even funnier. When Maher asked why John would write those lyrics on a Valentine card for Paul, the guest tried to explain it away by saying, "Actually, I think it was Jane who wrote that, because it is signed 'J'." But that doesn't seem to be an intentional "J" on that card: the curved line under "To Paul with Love" seems to be a decorative underline, not a letter. And even if it were a J... John also starts with a J! It being a "J" doesn't just automatically prove that it means "Jane". It was a completely unconvincing explanation he came up with at the moment. Also, it would be kind of odd for Jane to give a card to Paul that only says "to Paul with love", without writing anything else inside. It just seems like whoever wrote 'To Paul, with love' intended the lyrics themselves to be the actual message to Paul, instead of simply writing the usual romantic dedication people write in Valentine's cards.
🎶 "... when she learns we are two" 🎶
