I think it’s perfect because it is one of their collaborations where it’s easy to tell where each one’s contribution is so allows us to give a deeper look at how they bounce off each other.
Paul’s part is arranged to sound happy with the ultimate realisation of some kind of disagreement being that after all “We Can Work It Out.” Although if you take a deeper look at the lyrics, Paul doesn’t seem to be handling it all that well. The whole section is him practically saying that if they go his way specifically they’re able to work it out, although if they go the way of who they’re talking to, then they’ll fall apart and their love will soon be gone. What sounds like a jubilant “we’re gonna be alright” is actually him clearly not wanting some kind of compromise and instead being frustrated that his partner isn’t fully grasping what he’s trying to get across, or that they won’t come to accept what he want. In this he fails to let go of his own way of viewing things and to accept his partner’s point of view, and there is an anger and frustration there masked my the happy sounding chord progression and melody.
John’s part however, features a descending chord progression in a minor key, giving the otherwise happy sounding song a macabre tone, emphasised by his reminder that “life is very short,” one of the many lyrics John would write that coincide with his young death and sound haunting later on. It gives the song a massive contrast, but again if we take a look at the lyrics, John is the one asking for that compromise. He specifically says that there’s no time for fussing and fighting, and above all he just wants this argument put to bed. Even in the line “I have always thought that it’s a crime, so I will ask you once again,” he’s not saying for definite that it’s a crime as Paul claims that if they go the partner’s way they will fall out, he’s instead saying he thinks this. To me this is a very important distinction, as John is trying to get his point across by saying “this is my point of view,” instead of Paul’s way of getting his point across by almost saying that this is a fact.
The whole song is contrasting, not just in how the verses and middle 8 sound so different to each other, but in how each of the songwriters convey their point. Paul is frustrated and unhappy but it’s masked by a joyful and happy sounding melody and arrangement, while John is being open and vulnerable but masked by a dark melody and chord progression with lyrical themes of death and time. If you look throughout their writing then this appears so much of the time, even in their solo songs to each other, Paul’s “Too Many People” is trying to throw shade at John with cryptic lyrics, a triumphant sounding chord progression with the main theme of the song saying for a fact that there are too many people doing this and that, and saying for a fact that “you took your lucky break and broke it in two.” While John’s “How Do You Sleep?” has such a dark and angry sounding chord progression, and the lyrics don’t really hide anything and are a straight up character assassination to a degree with no mystery, but as John would later admit he was projecting almost everything he said in that song. I just think there’s something interesting about how this one song specifically says so much about them as songwriters, in terms of the musicality of their songs as well as their lyrics and how they interact with each other
