Off The Beatle Track

A mini trend in Paul’s lyrics, both with The Beatles and later, involves references to being “right” (usually Paul) and/or “wrong” (usually the person to whom Paul’s singing)*. I’ll take a look at some of Paul’s songs that contain those references (and not, for example, John’s Anytime at All or A Hard Day’s Night, even though Paul sings “When I’m home everything seems to be right” in the latter) to see whether they might reveal something about the the writer. Yes, it’s a long shot, but what is this blog for if not to stumble down blind alleys in the hopes of finding something of value?**

Hold Me Tight (1963)

In the first line of this forgettable track from With The Beatles, Paul sings, “It feels so right, now hold me tight.” Remarkably, Paul forgot (I guess?) that he wrote a song with this title, because 10 years later, he released a song with the same title as part of the medley on Wings’ Red Rose Speedway. In that song, Paul sings, “Take care of me and I’ll be right”; “Hold me tight, hug me right”; and “Make love to me and make it right.” “Right” is obviously a handy word to rhyme with “night” and “tight,” but taken together, the two Hold Me Tights reveal that Paul equates being loved with being “right” (and vice versa, I’d argue, as demonstrated below).

Can’t Buy Me Love (1964)

Paul pulls off the neat trick of rhyming “right” with itself in the first verse of The Beatles’ first 1964 single: “I’ll buy you a diamond ring, my friend, if it makes you feel all right.\I’ll get you anything, my friend, if it makes you feel all right.” I won’t read too much into those references, except to say that feeling “all right” seems to be on the way to feeling loved. (And I concede that may be a stretch.)

We Can Work It Out (1965)

Here we go. This single, reportedly about a disagreement that Paul had with his partner, Jane Asher, is what I’m talking about: “Think of what you’re saying. You can get it wrong and still you think that it’s all right.” Well, maybe, but isn’t there a chance, Paul, that you’re wrong and the person to whom you’re singing is right? Yes, as it turns out, that’s entirely possible: “Only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong.” But in the next two lines, he sings, “While you see it your way\there’s a chance that we might fall apart before too long.” In other words, even though time may prove me wrong, we have to do things my way so that we don’t break up in the near future. It’s not just me, right? This is a weird argument. He’s not at all confident that his way will work, but he still insists on doing things his way.

I’m Looking Through You (1965)

This Rubber Soul track sounds like a continuation of the We Can Work It Out argument: “Why, tell me why, did you not treat me right?” Then the next line pays off my assertion that it’s “right” for Paul to be loved: “Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight.” In these lyrics, loving Paul is the “right” thing to do.

Fixing a Hole (1967)

One could argue that this Sgt. Pepper track contains the most revealing lyric that Paul ever wrote: “And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong, I’m right.” Where to start with that? If I ever write a book about Paul,*** I could devote an entire chapter to Fixing a Hole. On the one hand, of course it effing matters if you’re wrong! If you’re wrong, admit that you’re wrong. On the other hand, I hear some of you saying**** that the next two lines explain the circumstances in which Paul’s right: “Where I belong I’m right\where I belong.” Yeah, maybe. Maybe the lyrics are more ambiguous than my interpretation allows. But later in the song, Paul sings that people who disagree (with him?) “don’t get in my door.” I don’t know much about psychology, but: What kind of person says that it doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong, or prevents those who disagree with him from entering his home? Is that a sign of high or low self-esteem?

In a later post, I’ll tackle some of Paul’s Wings and solo songs that discuss Paul’s being right, including, of course, Back Seat of My Car: “We believe that we can’t be wrong.”

What do you think about Paul’s insistence that he’s “right”? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.

*One notable instance of Paul’s acknowledging that he “said something wrong” is 1965’s Yesterday, which I won’t discuss here. I believe that Paul wrote Yesterday about the 1956 death of his mother, Mary, when Paul was 14. Here’s a good, but very sad, essay about Mary’s death written by Ray Connolly.

**And then, of course, finding nothing of value.

***Which I won’t do. But if I did, I’d title it with something I stole from the excellent Screw It, We’re Just Gonna Talk About The Beatles podcast, Paul McCartney: Music Is Easy.

****No, I don’t really believe that anyone’s actually saying anything or, for that matter, even reading this.