“Er…” his friend paused and pushed his round granny glasses farther up his nose. John was incredibly vain, and would never wear his glasses even though he was totally blind and ran into things with out them. He didn’t mind around Paul though, mostly cause they were best mates. Paul took great pride in this because John wouldn’t wear his glasses around George or Pete or even Stu. It meant something, as silly and trivial as it was, still.
“Paul?” John snapped
“Huh?” he mumbled, shaking his head and pulling the paper closer to his face
John rolled his eyes “You know that part of the song where it goes, duh nuh nuhhhhhh in Johnny B. Goode?”
Paul though for a second “Yeah… you mean how it only does it once?”
“Yeah” John nodded “I think that’s the bridge, and the Pre chorus…”
“Comes before the chorus?” Paul said dryly
John shot him a look “Sod off, Macca. But yeah”
Paul leaned back against the wall and fiddled with the edge of the bit of paper he held “What if we’re wrong
“So what?” John shrugged “So we make up our own rules to song writing.”
“I like the sound of that” Paul grinned.
John grinned “Right so what d’you think of the song”
“It’s fucking ‘orrible” Paul said gravely
“Oh shut up” John rolled his eyes “It’s better then it was before”
Paul clicked his tongue “Looooove, me do” he sang “wouldn’t it work better like, something before it and then a quick ‘love’”
“You mean like: Laaa Love me do?”
“Er… no that was fucking ‘orrible as well”
John rolled his eyes “How bout ‘Woaaaah Love me do?”
“Neh”
“Yeah, love me do?”
Paul looked thoughtful “I guess that would-”
“Oh I know!” John cut him off excitedly “We repeat it, ‘Looove, love me do!”
“Yeah!” Paul grinned and scribbled and extra love down on the paper.. “Fucking awesome mate”
John smiled smugly “Yea, I’m a fucking genius, me” he turned serious “Have you come up with anything else?”
“For what?”
“Dunno,” he shrugged “Anything, you were humming something this morning. That’s why I thought you’d want to write.”
“Oh” Paul nodded “Well, it’s sort of a half formed idea at the moment”
John shrugged “Show me what you got son”
Paul took the guitar from John and groaned. Right handed guitar. “It’s backwards again”
“Not my fault you’re fucking deformed Macca” John grinned
“Oh, fuck off you twat” mumbled Paul, trying to get his barring on the righty guitar. “Oh Christ, what’s the E7?” he flipped the guitar over and then flipped it back again and struck a chord that only sounded half good. John laughed merrily at his friend’s expense
“Shut it Lennon, Ok, so E7, A, and uh, B7” he went through the chord progression until it didn’t sound completely Shit and then strummed a bit. “Kay” John was looking at him intently
“Got any words for it?”
“Only one line” said Paul, wrinkling his nose “But I got the melody”
John shrugged “We’ll do like we did with ‘Too much about Sorrows’, make a big list of word that rhyme”
“Oh” Paul moaned “But that takes so bloody long and half the words aren’t even real words…” he sighed and shook his head “Kay it goes, duh dum, duh duh, a-neeeeeeeeeh”
“Dah dum, duh duh,a-neeeeeeeh?” John repeated “Did you pinch that from Buddy Holly?”
“No!” Paul laughed
“What’s the one line”
“She was just seventeen” sang Paul
John raised his eyebrows “That would be catchy if there were more to it”
“I know” shrugged Paul, and sang along with the guitar “Well, she was just seventeen, dah duh, duh duh deeeeeee”
“What rhymes with seventeen?” John asked, he lit up the last fag in the carton and the tore the box open to write on the inside of.
“Er… Sheen, lean, queen, dean, teen, nean, bean, keen… How about Keen”
“That’s a word?” John asked, in disbelief
Paul took the fag from John and took a long drag off it “Well” he said, exhaling smoke “Yeah, you know like I’m really keen on her…”
John looked dubious “I’ve always hated that expression”
“It rhymes though” Paul pointed out
“Don’t matter” John said stiffly “I’m not singing it”
“Hey! I’ll be singing It! It’s my song.”
“Fine” John countered “I won’t be playing bloody guitar behind you singing it then”
Paul groaned “Fine, what else”
“Well you’ve got ‘bean’ here” John laughed “She was just, seventeen, and she loved, jelly beans”
“Oh fuck off” Paul threw his pen at his partner and leaned against the wall smoking thoughtfully “What else”
“Queen?” suggested John “That’s better, you know” He was playing the one line they had over and over in his head and suddenly something clicked. Unfortunately it wasn’t another lyric, but it had something to do with Paul’s face while he was thinking. “Oh god” John groaned “This isn’t about who I think it’s about, is it?”
“what?” asked Paul
“Yer fucking song”
Paul shrugged “It’s not about Astrid, I think we just got her out of our system I-”
“No, not bloody Astrid” John shook his head and grabbed the ciggie back from Paul “A certain aesthetically pleasing brunette mate of ours”
Paul blinked “Gabby?”
“Who else?”
Paul shook his head “It’s not about Gabby,…” He trailed off catching John’s eyes “Sort of” he continued. “How did you know”
“Besides being a mystical fucking twat, it’s too obvious”
“Oh” Paul muttered “It doesn’t mean anything, I just like looking at her”
John shrugged “I’m not arguing” he said “Let’s just hold back on this song yet, you know until she goes to London and we’re back in Liverpool. Before we” he grinned largely “Unveil it to the masses”
“You think it’s good?” Paul asked incredulously. That was praise. And John rarely dealt out praise. That was as close as you would get, but it was lovely all the same.
He shrugged “It’s catchy, and besides, it’s about an underage bird. Why *wouldn’t* I like it”
Paul laughed “Yeah, ok. But what about Queen”
“Beauty Queen?” Suggested John
“She was Just seventeen, she’d never been a beauty queen” Paul sang
“What d’you mean by that?” asked John, frowning
“Nothing” Paul paused “Sort of, I guess. I never really noticed her before I saw her standing there…”