19 February 1963, the Cavern, photo by Michael Ward
Photo by Mike McCartney
August 13, 1966, photo by Bob Bonis
We wrote with two guitars, John and I. And, as I’ve mentioned previously, the joy of that was that I was left-handed while he was right handed, so I was looking in a mirror and he was looking in a mirror.
We would always tune up, have a ciggie, drink a cup of tea, start playing some stuff, look for an idea. Normally, one or the other of us would arrive with a fragment of a song. ‘Please Please Me’ was a John idea. John liked the double meaning of ‘please’. Yeah, ‘please’ is, you know, pretty please. ‘Please have intercourse with me. So, pretty please, have intercourse with me, I beg you to have intercourse with me.’ He liked that, and I liked that he liked that. This was the kind of thing we’d see in each other, the kind of thing in which we were matched up. We were in sync.
(Paul McCartney, about Please Please Me in The Lyrics, 2021)
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A lot of what we had going for us was that we were both good at noticing the stuff that just pops up, and grabbing it. And the other thing is that John and I had each other. If he was sort of stuck for a line, I could finish it. If I was stuck for somewhere to go, he could make a suggestion.
We could suggest the way out of the maze to each other, which was a very handy thing to have. We inspired each other.
(Paul McCartney, about Eight Days A Week in The Lyrics, 2021)
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When John and I met, the first year of our friendship was spent talking about these cover versions, the records we loved, and then playing them again and again. As we got to know each other, we practised these various covers until one day the conversation went, ‘You know, I’ve written one or two songs.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, so have I.’
That gave us something in common that was itself wholly uncommon. I went to a school of a thousand boys and I’d never met anyone who said he’d written a song. Mine were just in my head. So were John’s. We took each other by surprise. And then the logical extension was, ‘Well, maybe we could write one together.’ So that’s how we started. And we became versions of each other.
(Paul McCartney, about The Other Me in The Lyrics, 2021)
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Q: "Can I ask you about Lewis Carroll?"
A: "Oh, Lewis Carroll. I always admit to that because I love 'Alice In Wonderland' and 'Alice Through The Looking Glass.' But I didn't even know he'd written anything else. I was that ignorant. I just happened to get those for birthday presents as a child and liked them. And I usually read those two about once a year, because I still like them."
(John Lennon, June 16, 1965, interview for BBC)
Paul McCartney in his garden at Cavendish Avenue, 7; photo by Barry Lategan (for Observer 'What Makes A Man Stylish?', July 1968)
I think of the imagined world of Lewis Carroll [Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There] that John and I both loved so much.
(Paul McCartney, about I’ll Get You in The Lyrics, 2021)
We’d been together so much that if you had a question, we would
both pretty much come up with the same answer. [about their hitchhike to Spain by way of Paris]
<…>
It’s a bit crude, but it’s fair to say that, in general, I’d had a good life and John hadn’t. His life had been tougher, and he had to develop a harder shell than I did. He was quite a cynical guy but, as they say, with a heart of gold. A big softy, but his shield was hard. So that was very good for the two of us. Opposites attract. I could calm him down, and he could fire me up. We could see things in each other that the other needed to be complete.
(Paul McCartney about Ticket To Ride in The Lyrics, 2021)
Sometimes I look in the mirror
Is nobody there?
But I just keep on staring and staring
No
Can it be?
Can it be?
Can it be?
And if I look in the mirror
And nobody´s there
But I just keep on staring, and staring
No
Is it me?
Is it me?
Is it me?
I’ll admit I had low expectations for the new album but I’ve been incredibly impressed with the musicality and production of The Boys of Dungeon Lane. I’m in awe of Paul’s ability to pluck these melodies out of thin air, and after a listen or two, feel as if they have been in the McCartney catalog for decades. How can he hitting this great stride at 83 years old? It illustrates that getting older doesn’t mean you stop growing or that creativity dies. I hope all of us will be this lucky.
I’m really into a lot of songs on this record but I wanted to talk about Never Know because, not only is it my favorite, but a lyric triggered a connection that’s worth exploring, so here we go…
First, this song feels heavily inspired by past musical Beatle business (tape loops, close harmonies, mellotron, electric piano, recorder à la Fool on the Hill) but the lyrics feel placed in the early 70s timeline of the breakup and escape to Scotland. Let’s take a look:
I want to be the one | That's rooting for you | Lying in the sun again | I want to feel your touch | The things that you do | Have always meant so much to me
I don’t think he’s literally talking about lying in the sun (although he’s likely using a double meaning here), I read this as John being the sun. ☀️ The charismatic genius he bet his life on. When all is right with the world, he’s typically basking in John’s glow. Almost all of John’s attention and warmth, creatively and personally, has been on Paul up to this point. But now the sun shines on Yoko and he’s longing to be the partner who is John’s main support and focus again.
I want some love and peace | We need it right now | Your wonders never cease to be
At this point in time, John and Yoko are heavily engaged in their Peace activities. And Paul seems to be saying: okay, so you’re promoting a facade of love and peace to the world but, to me, you’re attacking my whole existence. Don’t I deserve love and peace right now too?
I love you, but you know | My heart is breaking over you | When you got me on the run | My body's shaking, oh, oh, oh | My mind is black and blue | I love you, but I never know
Here’s where this song took at turn that, in my mind, made me more certain that this is a “John Song.” The lyric “you got me on the run” alludes to his and Linda’s escape to Scotland to spin out, mourn, and heal in private. And the reason I think that is because of the line “my body’s shaking,” which instantly reminded me of the quote below from the book Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run
And this interview from All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words calls out shaking a little later in the timeline.
I'm gonna take the time | To prove that I care | Don't mind as long as I'm with you | I've got to make you see | I'll always be there | I only want to be with you
Following the story laid out in the previous lyrics, this last verse seems to be present day Paul being ever so self-aware that one of his greatest weaknesses is not being able to show/tell people that he loves them or that they are important to him. And he’s come to the understanding that this is what John needed to hear/know to believe that Paul never stopped loving him, knew a good thing when he saw it (warts and all), and was still committed to their partnership. So this song is just another one of those attempts to make John (somewhere across the universe) see that Paul “will always be there.”
