Break Me One More Time [McLennon]

1981-1991 (epilogue i)

A few months into 1981, Paul and John packed up their lives and left their beloved home in the countryside of England. After much discussion, they decided to go to the States and start a farm up north, in Vermont. That would leave them just a five-hour drive from visiting George and Yoko, who were both living in New York City. Stu was also staying in New York, but was taking his family going a few hours away to Albany (that, however, was as far away as he was allowed to be from Yoko, who was now his Council advisor).

Moving to a whole new country could have been a lot of work if not for the help of Lilly and Tessa. Quickly enough, they were settled into their new home and, within another month or so, they had a good life set up for themselves. They had horses and cows, sheep and pigs, chickens, and even goats.

Paul sat on their veranda, clutching a guitar to his chest and overlooking the field. His fingers danced over the strings, and he sang, not much louder than a whisper:

"Heart of the country where the holy people grow,
Heart of the country, smell the grass in the meadow."

"That's got a nice melody to it," John said, and Paul stopped playing to turn and see him standing in the doorway. "You just come up with that?"

Paul smiled up at him. "No, it was on my second solo album." He still reveled in how honest he was allowed to be with John now. After twenty years of having tell him so many silly little lies, it was like a constant breath of fresh air.

John hummed as he settled down beside Paul where he sat on the steps. "Speaking of albums," he said.

"Oh, yes." Paul set his guitar down to the side. "We've got one to start working on."

"I like it," John said, nodding. "Just the two of us. No one else to change things around. We can do whatever we want with it."

And they certainly did. They didn't mean to do what they did, really. They just set out to write a song one night and, when they found themselves stuck at one point, John picked up a simple but catchy tune and started humming. At some point he started singing random lyrics:

"Mean, mean lady,
Killing machine.
Mean, mean lady,
Killing machine."

Paul picked his head up. "Hold on, I kind of like that one."

John raised his eyebrows. "That? That was nothing."

"No, it was something." Paul started singing it softly, writing the simple lyrics down. He added a few chords and John had to admit it sounded all right. "Do you have more?"

"No, I was just singing whatever came to mind." John shrugged. "Actually, I had Marbella in mind."

Paul looked back up at him, mouth agape, then he threw his head back and laughed hysterically. When he was finished, at last, they set to work on John's song about Marbella Giasson.

Working on one song about her turned into them working on a medley about the battle at the F.H.O., which then turned into Paul writing an eerie number about the White Room. Soon, they had a handful of songs about people they had met along the way — John's song,"Mean Lady", about Marbella Giasson; an upbeat song about breaking into places about the many agents of the F.H.O., the Unknowables, and the Shadows, but inspired mostly by Tessa's energy; a short, angry song that John really wanted to call "Shit Bag", written with President Wilson in mind; a soft, sad ballad about Barney.

Paul started telling John stories of the adventures he had been on over the years in order to inspire more songs. He told him about some of the places that Barney had taken him for the most part, but eventually he began telling him about the more dangerous run-ins he had had with magical people. He told him about the times he had been kidnapped by the Shadows, first by Marbella and then by Olivia, the agent. He told him about the times when he had to check in with President Wilson and the Judge, and the time that Barney had nearly been fired from the F.H.O., and the time that Carlos Vega had come to take his memories. Not all at once, of course, but over the course of several months he opened up to John about all that he had been through, and they got plenty of musical inspiration out of it along the way.