Ok, this is something I've been thinking about for literally TWO DECADES, so. Here's my 2 cents about Paul's 70s songs that are somehow about Artie. Next will be Artie's songs that are about Paul, because even if he didn't write them he still accurately chose which songs to sing, so whatever he says I believe they meant something to him.
Anyway, Paul's 70s (and 1980) lyrics that are oh so plainly about his ex partner (according to me).
Everything Put Together Falls Apart: the title tells it all. The lyrics are awfully pitiless, too.
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard: ah, memories! This is just... well, we all know what this is.
Congratulations: yes, of course this is a song about a marriage between a man and a woman that's not working. Makes sense, because of course his hurried marriage to Peggy wasn't working. Still.
From Still Rhymin' Simon (1973):
Kodachrome: not plainly about Artie, but its 50s vibes and the way they sing it in Central Park... I don't know. It's them, somehow.
Tenderness: could be about his soon-to-be ex wife, but I believe it's about his first ex wife, lol. The lyrics bring back Only Living Boy memories ("Let your honesty shine"/"There's no tenderness beneath your honesty"). Paul can't take criticism, so he could speak of anyone, but... yeah.
Something So Right: uhmmm... supposedly about Peggy too, buttttt... its reference to I Am A Rock (being an island/having a wall around oneself) makes it suspicious to me.
American Tune: he wrote this with Artie's voice in mind, so even if the lyrics are not about him it still has his spirit inside (although, "I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong"...)
Was A Sunny Day: again, like Baby Driver, it has a 50s vibe that makes me think of younger P&A having fun.
From Still Crazy After All These Years (1975)
Still Crazy After All These Years: I MET MY OLD LOVER ON THE STREET LAST NIGHT. That's all, your honor. Ex wife? Ex wife my ass.
My Little Town: again, written specifically for Artie, who then convinced him to sing it together... and have you seen their 1975 SNL live performance of it? Gee.
I Do It For Your Love: well. Of course this is also supposed to be about Peggy, but I just can't see it. "The rooms were musty, and the pipes were old" hardly an apartment where he lived with Peggy after the massive S&G success - sounds like a place where he lived before. "Found a rug (...) the colors ran, the orange bled the blue": the colors remind me of them: opposites, warm and cold, blending together, one kinda hurting the other...
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover: the title is enough, yes? Yes. "I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free, there must be fifty ways to leave your lover" is totally something along the lines of what Peggy told him when she reassured him that he'd make it big without Artie back in 1969/1970. (I'm not making this up, Paul himself said that she encouraged him to leave his lover.)
Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy: a great divorce song, and yes, could be about Peggy. But it also sounds like a general reflection about how some people (man who love only women?) have it easier than others (men who love men as well?).
You're Kind: again, might as well be about Peggy, but it has a Tenderness to it, imho.
One-Trick Pony (1980) What?? You hear Artie in his soundtrack album?! Well, hell if I do.
Late In The Evening: again the 50s vibes, memories from older days... and their Central Park performance? Yeah.
That's Why God Made The Movies: apart from the movies in the title, "Say you'll nourish me with your tenderness (...) Say you won't leave me for no other man, Say you'll love me just the way I am"... makes me think of their whole Catch-22 mess, Artie spending more time than needed with Mike Nichols, the movie theme... yeah.
One-Trick Pony: tell me this isn't his admiration mixed with envy for Artie's singing voice speaking: "He makes it look so easy, he looks so clean, he moves like God's immaculate machine, he makes me think about all of these extra moves I make and all this herky-jerky motion and the bag of tricks it takes to get me through my working day"
How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns: your regular song about a distant lover. Much like Homeward Bound. Or Kathy's Song. Or... yeah, whatever. "In a fever I distinctly hear your voice emerging from a dream" - For Emily, much??
Oh, Marion: "The boy's got a heart but it beats on his opposite side (...) He said, It's a chance I had to take, so I shifted my heart for its safety's sake"... uhm, hello? His heart is on the opposite aka "wrong" side of something? He loves in a "wrong" way, you could say? So he shifts his heart, he put it back where it should be, on the "right" side? I don't know. Man.
Nobody: who knows me better than anyone, better than I know my own self? You.
Have I spent too much time of my life thinking about these two? Guilty as charged. But hey, I love them and their messy love. This is love to me.
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