1 Overlooked Gem Song From Every Beatles Album
7. For No One - Revolver
Eleanor Rigby, with its famous strings and empathetic lyric is one of Paul McCartney’s most highly regarded songs to this day, but it isn’t the only stately McCartney ballad on Revolver and the other one deserves some love too.
Paul is often unfairly maligned for writing lightweight love songs, particularly in his Wings and solo years. While love has always been one of his major lyrical themes right back to his Beatles days, there is a distinct difference between his love songs from the '60s and those from the '70s and '80s.
Specifically, Linda McCartney becoming Paul’s wife and and chief muse inspired a string of romantic songs which, while individually strong, led to a uniformly loved up, upbeat mood.
His ultimately unsuccessful romance with Jane Asher, plus various other dalliances, led to a more complex and varied set of love songs in Paul’s Beatles era. For No One, written under the working title “Why Did It Die?”, is a prime example.
The song addresses a relationship that is drifting apart, the protagonist coming to terms with the end of “a love that should have lasted years.” With a stately musical backdrop and mature vocal that matches the poignant lyric, Lennon mentioned it as one of his favourite McCartney songs.