The Paul McCartney Lyric that Imagined the Conversation He Wished He Could Have With John Lennon

The pressure on Paul McCartney to deliver some kind of statement in song summing up his feelings about John Lennon’s death must have been immense. How easily he could have misjudged the task and come up with something Lennon himself likely would have criticized as sappy.

McCartney managed to sidestep all of that by taking an honest look at his relationship with his ex-partner in the 1982 song “Here Today.” In so doing, he ended up delivering perhaps the most touching tribute of all to Lennon.

The Dangling Conversation

How could a songwriter possibly address a situation as tragic as the sudden, senseless death of John Lennon? Many did, and some did so quite admirably. (Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Paul Simon, and another Beatle, George Harrison, come to mind.) But expecting Paul McCartney to do it was another story.

Of course, McCartney is one of the finest songwriters of any era, so his skill was never the question. But because the whole world knew him as one half of the greatest writing team of all time—with Lennon being the other half—it was never going to be easy to put all that into words. And the public also knew well the two men weren’t always on the best of terms, especially after The Beatles broke up.

McCartney’s strategy was to approach the subject with honesty. He just needed a gambit that could make the song work. It struck him that an imaginary conversation with Lennon, one in which the two would try to reconcile what their relationship actually meant, would do the trick, as he explained in an interview (as reported by Beatles Bible):

“The song is me trying to talk back to him, but realizing the futility of it because he is no longer here, even though that’s a fact I can’t quite believe, even to this day. The ‘I love you’ part was hard to say. A part of me said, ‘Hold on. Wait a minute. Are you really going to do that?’ I finally said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to. It’s true.’”

Behind the Lyrics of “Here Today”

To put the tenderest spotlight possible on the words, McCartney, with help from former Beatles producer George Martin, kept the song musically simple, just acoustic guitar and string quartet (a la the Fab Four classic “Yesterday”). Note how he starts the song by tentatively reaching out to Lennon (And if I say), perhaps referencing the strained feelings between them throughout the years.

McCartney posits the theory that he did indeed know his best friend well, but he then imagines his buddy taking a contrarian viewpoint: Well, knowing you, you’d probably laugh / And say that we were worlds apart. As it was when they wrote together, McCartney’s optimism contrasts Lennon’s more cynical outlook: But as for me / I still remember how it was before / And I am holding back the tears no more.

“Here Today” goes all the way back to the beginning of this momentous relationship: What about the time we met? / Well, I suppose that you could say that we were playing hard to get. When McCartney sings about the night, the one when there wasn’t any reason left to keep it all inside, he is referencing an occasion on the first Beatles U.S. tour when the two men, both a little tipsy, spoke openly about how much they meant to one another.

McCartney might have been dealing with his own conflicted emotions when writing “Here Today,” but he never lost his songwriting touch in the process. For example, consider how he saves the biggest tearjerkers for the end. First, there’s his admission he loves Lennon, and then he connects him to the music they made: For you were in my song.

Paul McCartney has made “Here Today” a staple of his concerts over the past few decades, and it’s one of those moments where there’s hardly a dry eye in the house once he’s finished. Sometimes, that goes for the performer as well. McCartney did such a wonderful job communicating his feelings for John Lennon in the track that the emotion of it all carries him away along with the audience.

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