In the first flush of Beatlemania, it must have been difficult for the members of the Fab Four to get some perspective and live in the moment. You would imagine the future wasn’t a concept on which they could concentrate for very long.
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Paul McCartney managed to take the long view, however, when he wrote the excellent “Things We Said Today” for The Beatles. The song is so clever that it launches into the times far ahead just so it can look back at the here and now.
Precious “Things”
Having conquered music, it only made sense The Beatles would next take on the world of cinema. Their first film, A Hard Day’s Night, was released to rave reviews and boffo box office in 1964. John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote an album’s worth of material for the film.
As it turned out, the producers couldn’t squeeze all those songs into the movie. The songs that were left out populated the second side of the LP. Many of these tracks find Lennon and McCartney trying out new styles and even getting a bit more introspective than they had in their material up to that point. “Things We Said Today” is certainly in that vein.
McCartney wrote the song while out on a boat during one of the Beatles’ rare breaks touring or recording. He was with Jane Asher, his girlfriend at the time, so that could account for the dreamy nature of the song. According to an interview with his biographer Barry Miles, McCartney said he was looking forward and back simultaneously in the song:
“It was a slightly nostalgic thing already, a future nostalgia: We’ll remember the things we said today, sometime in the future, so the song projects itself into the future and then is nostalgic about the moment we’re living in now, which is quite a good trick.”
Examining the Lyrics of “Things We Said Today”
One interesting facet of “Things We Said Today” is how much the music colors the perception of the lyrics. There’s a hushed, autumnal quality to the song that keeps us from feeling too hopeful about the couple within it. Even when the song snaps to attention a bit in the middle eight, it makes it sound like the narrator is pushing too hard to get the happy ending he imagines.
Hearing McCartney sing over the somber chords, it casts a doubt upon the narrator’s assertions about his beloved: You say you will love me if I have to go / You’ll be thinkin’ of me, somehow I will know. He even seems to reference a separation down the road: Someday when I’m lonely wishing you weren’t so far away.
In the second verse, skepticism again creeps into the picture when the narrator talks about loyalty: These days such a kind, girl, seems so hard to find. He then imagines a time when their connection will outweigh everything else: Someday when we’re dreaming, deep in love, not a lot to say.
The middle eight again finds him indulging in some concerns about the relationship, although he pushes through it: And though we may be blind / Love is here to stay and that’s enough. By the final verse, his optimism starts to win the day: Love me all the time, girl, we’ll go on and on.
It’s a fascinating song because of this push-and-pull dynamic, as you can never quite trust the narrator believes he’s going to make it to the halcyon days he imagines. That’s why the meaning of “Things We Said Today” is very much in the ear of the beholder, as we try to ascertain whether that future is a fait accompli or a pipe dream.
Photo by Daily Mirror/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
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