If I Fell

Lately, I've gotten close to someone. They sent me lyrics to this last night. And I'm having a ridiculously hard time translating them to understand what he's trying to tell me.

He was in a relationship for a long time, a few years. And she completely broke his heart. He doesn't want her to know we've been seeing eachother because he knows it would hurt her. And I know he's terrified to get hurt again.

Maybe I'm overanalyzing it.

I reckon that this song is about meeting someone you really care about, but not being able to completely let yourself fall in love until you know that they won't repeat what someone has done in the past to hurt you.

This song is pretty clearly about being hesitant about falling in love again, after being hurt. Great song, with wonderful harmony and chords.

This song has a introductory section, which was a common practice in Broadway and Tin Pan Alley songs. So even though it is a pop tune, it harkens back to an earlier form. Both Lennon and McCartney used it for many songs. (Check out "Misery" and "Here There and Everywhere")

Lennon is expressing the hope to his new love that theirs will be a more mature relationship, not just the youthful infatuation of his previous one. He has found that love is more than "just holding hands," and has moved beyond it, apparently unlike his last girlfriend. So he's saying lets not start this unless you are sure and ready to be in a serious, adult relationship. The sentiment strikes a strong chord to someone between 18 to 21 who is moving from the "childhood sweethearts" phase and considering the consequences of a serious relationship.

You have to be a musician to appreciate how complex this song is. Lennon and McCartney switch singing lead and harmony at various points, because Lennon had a better lower range and McCartney had a better higher one. As a consequence, you have to be a very good singer with a wide singing range to cover it. Also, the chord progression goes unexpectedly to a minor key and then back. It sort of supports the feeling of cautious optimism in the song and the regret and sadness over the previous lover mentioned.

There is a darker interpretation of this song than I have read around here. This is not to detract from the beauty of the composition, but rather to add to it. It was written in January, 1964 by a married John Lennon, who admitted after the recording (2/64) that it contained autobiographical elements, and that the ballad style, and the weaving of coded personal elements was inspired by Dylan.

Musically, the Intro is a vaguely structured descent (Ebm, D, Db, Bbm; Ebm, D, Em, A), that goes in a circle and seems to waver around and try to hide the song’s key: D. It’s “beating around the bush” a little bit musically, as he sings the intro. He doesn’t want to reveal the song’s key yet for some reason because it's a confession. Exactly one year previously, he burst upon the scene and quite directly said (in the same key: D), that he all wanted to do was “hold your hand”. Things have progressed. Now there is more to it than “just holding hands”. “If I fell” takes on dual meanings: falling in love, and a fall from grace. If I Fell = If I eat the “apple” of temptation and cheat on my wife.

It's not too much of a stretch to say that the lyrics are the contemplation of converting an adulterous affair into an eventual replacement of his wife, Cynthia. Based on the linkage with "holding hands", this affair has been underway for a long time, and in the song John contemplates their next steps.It has become much more than just holding hands. He makes excuses for feelings which he knows are wrong by finding fault with how Cynthia is treating him, such as revealing that he feels she doesn't love him very much ("I must be sure...that you would love me more than her") and that he is mistreated by her in some way ("Don't hurt my pride like her, 'cause I couldn't stand the pain").

What John is saying to his new love is that he wants to leave his wife but only if she promises "to be true," the source of his dissatisfaction with Cynthia. The vulnerability in John’s pleading is ironic. Lennon has a very contractual idea of love with a passive/aggressive communication style. The same emotional oxymoron found another telling later in “Don’t Let Me Down” (“I’m really in love with you” in soft and pleasing tones, then screaming “DON’T LET ME DOWN!” like a threat.)

In the case of “If I Fell” we have Paul singing the upper half of a song which seems to have two melodies that intersect to form a single melody in the harmonization of the two parts. (See another example in The Everly Bros “Dream”) Although it doesn’t sound hard, anybody who has sung John’s part can tell you how incredibly difficult it is, and how much discipline it requires to “not go high” and follow Paul after the unison parts

The version we all know was sung live into one mic at Abbey Road and is on one track of a 4-track master. The technology exists now to separate the parts. Having heard both Paul and John’s AI “isolated” parts, they almost sound like different songs emotionally. Paul is singing the happy part of love, and John is singing the pain. The harmony of those emotional poles forms the melody that we hear. Together, they summarize John’s anguish with what he feels he must do, and despite his optimism in his new love interest, he is exposing his vulnerability and need for reassurance.

John has already "fallen" in his own mind: Julian was already 8 months old when he wrote the song. The relationship may be fantasy or John's imagination, but the "fall" is already there. Perhaps John felt manipulated into marriage and that his shotgun wedding and the price he paid for it weren't as accidental and innocent as they first seemed. Perhaps he felt as if Cynthia was "taking a ride" on his hard-earned fame? It's worth mentioning that Cynthia had her own fan club, the only non-Beatle to be so honored. So "hurt my pride like her" takes on many possibilities that don't necessarily mean that Lennon was actually having an affair. He was fantasizing it though, quite clearly: "If I fell" in this reading does not mean love.

So, I think this song is very deep for John, and certainly much deeper than most gave it credit for. After all, "she will cry when she learns that we are two," will cause (and probably caused) Cynthia great pain as well (when she heard the song). It's interesting to note also that the love interest he is singing to is very aware of his being married and that he is still in love with his wife ("if I love you too"), otherwise he wouldn't be telling her this whole story with such openness. John's sincerity comes through supported by the dual melody lines as mentioned before that reflect his divided mind. Yet, in his affair there is a duplicity and insincerity, that “being in love” doesn’t absolve him of. His pleading, as in his repeating the phrase "oh please" in the second verse, shows his increasing desperation. In the transition from the third verse to the bridge, he shifts the resulting "pain" he felt from the thought of his own hurt "pride" in the first bridge to the "pain" of Cynthia learning that he and his new love interest were now "two" in both of the remaining bridges. So guilt. Did I mention that?

Remember, “Pride comes before a fall”, and the title of the song is If I Fell. The second verse ends "Don't hurt my pride like her". Lennon already knows he is a slave to his ego and pride. That's the honesty: he's us telling the truth about himself and the affair, but he is wracked by the guilt of it. "If I Fell" is thus the contemplation of a willing transgression of "what is right". It’s very mature songwriting throughout and makes sense at many levels, both musically and lyrically.

i love the first few lines of this song "If I fell in love with you would you promise to be true, And help me understand? ‘Cos I’ve been in love before, and I found that love was more, Than just holding hands"

so much meaning right there..isn't love more then just holding hands?

Well, the first time i hear this song was so long time ago. But the second time, it was a few hours ago when my date sang it to me with piano. And she doesn't know that the lyrics she sang describe perfectly what i'm hoping for her.

Everytime I listen to this song, I think John wrote it about a guy (...Paul, hehe).

"That you would love me more than her."

Grammatically speaking, it should be "she" at the end. Right now, it means: You would love me more than (you love) her. This implies it's a guy he's singing to who has a girlfriend/wife.

But of course we all know John likes to play with language. And her sounds better than she.

Great song, beautiful, really.

I don´t understand, why Ferjll means, that this song is about Brian?? I think it is related to Stuart Sutcliffe. Some indications leads us to possibility, they were..., I don´t know how formulate it... maybe something like lovers (Tony Sheridan admitted that "some love thing happened" between John & Stu). I think he was a bit confused about his feelings and insecure what will happen if he deserve Cynthia and also - could he trust Stuart? A big decision in one´s life, isn´t?

Also the fact, John was really jealous on other people who were in contact with Stu, he was very possessive to him. Very interesting is that he has beaten up Cynthia when he saw her dancing with Stuart. Interesting - because he used to beat up other men who invited Cyn to dance, not his own girlfriend. Why he insluted Cynthia instead Stuart?

I really think that so far, Atman's interpretation is spot on. I think the singer is hesitant about starting a new relationship with someone who he perceives has the ability to love him in a much more mature fashion than his last lover. It's not the new lover who makes him afraid to start a new relationship, it's his experiences with his previous lover who maybe acted like love was more of a fairytale hence the line "love is more than holding hands".

Additionally, I think that the reason he believes the previous lover will cry when she discovers that he is with his new lover is because the new lover is either someone they both know or is someone she would never expect him to be with. Maybe it's someone she never imagined he would be with. Kind of like a shocking discovery that your new lover moved on to someone you would never think he would date. Maybe the new lover is not as pretty as she is but has more to offer than she does. Maybe he knows for some reason, the previous lover would think she is a better selection than his new lover because she is prettier than her albeit for him, he is looking at the character of the new woman who he believes would love him better.