Saturday, August 06, 2016

Things We Said Today by Paul McCartney (and some misunderstood lyrics)



When I was a kid, I thought the words to the bridge went like this:
Me, I'm just the lucky kind
Not to hear you say that love is bluff
And though we may be blind
Love is here to stay and that's enough
I still kind of like that version, expressing thanks that the object of the narrator's affection isn't a cynic.

In fact though, the bridge goes:
Me, I'm just the lucky kind
Love to hear you say that love is luck
And though we may be blind
Love is here to stay and that's enough
The melody, as is typical of McCartney, is beautiful. And, in this version as in the original recorded with the Beatles, the harmonies are fetching.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi there Mark,

I hope you're doing well.

Always enjoy a Beatle/Paul McCartney-related post, so thanks for bringing this to my attention. Hate to break it you to though-- you still haven't got the lyric quite right-- correct lyric is:

Me I'm just the lucky kind,
Love to hear you say that love is love.
And though we may be blind, love is here to stay.
And that's enough...

But you know, even Paul McCartney's own website (https://www.paulmccartney.com/albums/songs/things-we-said-today) gets it wrong on part of the lyrics for this song-- instead of "Me I'm just the lucky kind" it has "Me I'm just a lucky guy"! Bad!

This has always been for me a favorite. Maybe I'll record a quick version of it for you and post in reply soon :)

Blessings,
Alex



Unknown said...

P.S. Beatles.com also has the line as "Love to hear you say that love is love." But you know I became intrigued by the fact that many lyrics sites transcribe the words as you said-- "Love is luck." So I went back and listened to the original Beatles version, as well as more recent McCartney acoustic performances of the song. On the original I still think the lyrics as sung match what they have on Beatles.com. But on some of Paul's solo performances it really does sound like he's changing things subtly:

Me I'm just a lucky guy
Love to hear you say that love is love
And though it may be blind,
Love is here to stay and that's enough...

I suppose "Love is luck" makes sense, but I don't think it would sound as good when sung, so that's why I am pretty sure what he's been saying is love is love-- whatever that means :)

As you know, McCartney likes sounds and the lyrics need not always make sense.