Paul McCartney pays tribute to John Lennon in Here Today documentary

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Paul McCartney Pays Tribute to John Lennon in Short Documentary About His 1982 Song, "Here Today"
WFJA 105.5 ClassicHits
October 9, 2015



Paul McCartney has posted online a brief documentary about his relationship with his late Beatles band mate John Lennon, apparently to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Lennon’s birth.  The four-minute video focuses specifically on “Here Today,” the homage McCartney wrote for Lennon after his death.  It appears on Sir Paul’s recently reissued 1982 solo album, Tug of War.

The clip features footage of McCartney performing the song in concert recently, some archival photos of him and Lennon together, and segments of a 1980s interview in which Paul recalls how he, George Harrison and Yoko Ono reacted to John’s murder.

“We were in recording when John died.  Like a lot of the people who had been closely associated with him, we all kept recording,” says McCartney in the interview.  “George did.  George Harrison, the same day, went into the studio.  Yoko pretty soon after went right into the studio.”

He adds, “It was just so hard for everyone to bear, that either you were gonna sit at home and just think, think, think, or you were going to try to do something to take your mind off it, and all of us kind of had the same reaction.”

Then, with regard to “Here Today,” McCartney explains he initially decided not to write a song about Lennon because he felt it was “too hurtful” a subject.  Eventually, though, he came up with an idea about a conversation that he might have with his late friend.

“I thought about me and John, which was that sometimes I would say, ‘Oh yeah, I know John very well,’ and John would turn around and say, ‘No you don’t. You don’t know me,’ you know, like friends can often be…plenty of arguments,” Paul says in the interview.  “And I think we’d been so close and we’d had arguments, and then when The Beatles split up we had bad arguments…that the idea about the song for me is, ‘If I said I really knew you well, you’d probably just laugh and say that we were worlds apart anyway, if you were here today.'”

You can check out the video at McCartney’s official YouTube channel.

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YouTube.com

Paul McCartney: From the Archive – Here Today



PAUL McCARTNEY

08/10/2015
http://www.PaulMcCartney.com 
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Here Today - lyrics

And if I said
I really knew you well
What would your answer be?
If you were here today
Here today

Well knowing you
You'd probably laugh and say
That we were worlds apart
If you were here today
Here today

But as for me
I still remember how it was before
And I am holding back the tears no more
I love you

What about the time we met?
Well I suppose that you could say that
We were playing hard to get
Didn't understand a thing
But we could always sing

What about the night we cried?
Because there wasn't any reason left
To keep it all inside
Never understood a word
But you were always there with a smile

And if I say I really loved you
And was glad you came along
Then you were here today,
For you were in my song
Here today