The Beatles BibleThe opening song on The Beatles’ final album, ‘Two Of Us’ was written by Paul McCartney about his fondness for getting deliberately lost in the country with his future wife Linda.
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WikipediaThis McCartney written song is a duet with Lennon, and is generally described (with quite a bit of evidence) as inspired by McCartney’s country travels with Linda. As you can see in the Beatles Bible article, There’s even a picture of McCartney writing it in the car.
It doesn’t feel like the whole story, but maybe I am projecting a bit.
The lyrics and the act of singing them together with Lennon may have had a particular significance for one or both of them as it came at a time when their intense relationship was breaking down.
To me it seems like some of the phrases “lifting latches”, “lighting matches”, “wearing raincoats”, “spending someone’s hard earned pay”, sound like references to real events that someone else involved would recognize. And they sound very like the sorts of misadventure that might happen to impoverished young people, hitch-hiking (McCartney’s trips with Harrison and separately with Lennon) or else maybe travelling around Britain and Europe pre-fame, rather than to a wealthy rock star couple. That said, maybe it’s a bit of a fantasy about the sort of private life that Paul and Linda might have wanted to escape to.
It’s interesting to think about how singing about Two Of Us in this intimate way might feel to the other Beatles – especially George who had once been Paul’s travelling companion and was now feeling rather excluded from the band.
Harrison once said:
“He [Lennon] didn’t realize who I was, and this was one of the main faults with John and Paul. They were so busy being John and Paul they failed to realize who else was around at the time.”
I had the impression – watching Lennon and McCartney singing Two Of Us together in the Get Back documentary, that they were both trying reconnect over the song and enjoying singing together, in an otherwise fraught situation. But I also felt that this kind of created a bit of a bubble around them, that maybe excluded the other Beatles – maybe it was an example of the kind of thing George was alluding to.
One of the downsides of being a fan is that you run the risk of developing a kind of parasocial relationship with the target; feeling like you know them as well (or better?) than their friends, which is unhealthy. The scary thing is that almost everyone the Beatles encountered, who was not a personal friend before they became world famous, is likely to have had some kind of parasocial image of them. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have now been living with this for 60 years.
So reading significance and double meanings into this charming, simple song and it’s performance is probably just a bit weird. No wonder they are wary about their privacy and what they say in interviews etc. However, I will say that McCartney is particularly prone to write songs that are more cryptically meaningful than he necessarily let’s on. He says quite a bit about it in the Lyrics books and (excellent) Life in Lyrics podcast.
Here’s one that I can find (about Hey Jude):
“What often happens is that a song starts off in one vein… but then begins to morph into it’s own creature”.
I am pretty sure there are some more quotes about the morphing process and I will try to dig them out as I go along because, whereas Lennon’s lyrics are often pretty transparent in their intent, McCartney’s are very often obscured whether consciously or subconsciously. Luckily he also says (in The Lyrics):
“I’m always glad when people put their own interpretations on my songs… I’ve let the song go. It’s yours now.”