Paul McCartney in Casual Conversation with Jarvis Cocker at LIPA

Oh [Music] hi there my name is Jarvis very happy to be here I think you've been told to turn your phone's off and all that business haven't you you won't want to have your phone on anyway because something very exciting is going to happen I'm just going to do a short bit of full disclosure here I probably am not going to be very professional as a questioner today because I'm a massive fan of the person who I'm going to be speaking to I was remembered on the way over here when I was supposed to be you know at school and taking notice of things justify that sometimes I would be a home I would sometimes I would stay in the whole day listening to the radio next to my radio cassette player hoping that they would play a Beatles song so I could record it shouldn't say that really are kind of illegal but so my critical faculties are all out of the window I'm very excited as you might be able to tell and I'd like you to welcome to the stage none other than [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you son just here basking in your presence I suppose if I just sit here basking ya might get bored after event so I'll ask you some questions gone it seems that since we're here in some way this was your old school and then he went to school here yeah so that must be kind of a weird thing do you feel like something's gonna come and tell you off in him Akane what are you doing here ya know I'm the boss now ya know it really does kind of freaks me out put in a nice way whenever I come back here my first time I never came in here was when I was eleven and you went to if you're lucky went to the grammar school I went to this one and we came in up there because that was where the youngest kids were so I remember kind of coming in universal oh it was like thousand boys so and I'd never been in a school that big or that portion and so it was amazing for me just seeing this whole structured way of education that I had not been used to at all I was impressed and because now this is later this is a School for the Performing Arts yeah I wonder what it was like at that time when you were here was like creativity encouraged in the you know in the school as it was there not really no in fact the worst was music yeah there was like no encouragement if I go typical music lesson will be there'd be about 30 boys in the class and the teacher come in we don't be there ready for a music lesson teacher come in and he'd have a little record player in the middle of the room and he put a hell peel and he'd she said I want you to listen to this point and let me know what you think of it he put it on and he go out which is kinda fatal you know he's like aah so we would post one guy on the door as the lookout and then we get the ciggies and the cards and everything and you know let his record we probably took the record off yeah and he come back look how he's got the smoke away then we look Sid very studiously I said what did you think of it Boyd was really good so when I was it we never got any more than that never even though dududududududududu I'm sure none of that kind of behavior goes on in this school oh now you know it was it was exciting the seika's having a whole range of ages from us little plebs you know to the swat East prefect sand head boys teachers and the headmaster who was Junior Edwards who he was known as the bass the bass the bass ba said okay mr. pastor oh and he was the one who would cane you because we're talking all days in ER I mean in fact this is before I was here what the Charles Dickens stood on this stage and lectured no pressure not to pull you off but so it was it was like you know the Dark Angel but it was you know you're left-handed did you get any stick for that like it's cool out cuz I'm them and my mom telling me stories about we would to say oh you can't walk right with your left hand mmm and actually conscious you get forces to not me but my mum got a lot of stick about oh yeah I don't know did you know it wasn't too bad well I do have a distant memory of sitting down to write with my left hand and writing my name backwards right in P but going that way instead of going that way mirror writing what does this say about him so you know so but they never told me if I was allowed to write left see say you weren't really getting music education at school so what do you consider the things that didn't teach you about music where did you get that info from and my dad was a good amateur pianist and he was the guy at the family parties who would play the piano and they rolled had brought back and all the ladies would sit around the room with little drinks because if you have little drinks you don't get drunk unless you have a lot of little place this is what they did they never looked like a picnic but they would then sing all the all the old songs of the time of their time so this all went in so I I kind of still know those old songs and he would play the piano and I think all of that kind of ended up just reading kind of thing on but and when he later he couldn't play the piano he got arthritis so I ended up was the guy who played all these old songs when the very problems you know well I mean that I think that's one way I learn music and then the other thing was that he'd given me a trumpet for my birthday and I kind of learned because he used to be a drummer play tennis this is a laminar band and this was in the 20s when he was in the band so it's all Borneo don't talk to a tough time still BC in the films you know but he didn't want to teach me he thought I should learn properly and so I tried a few times to learn properly I but hated it when he probably talked about having to learn how to read music and read music and scales are really important yes this is what I mean to say too by the way hello world were on Facebook [Applause] folks yeah no don't let us put you off learning music is a really great thing now but the the sort of guitar craze came along it was it's given it's like a folk thing and we all were very into it so a lot of people got guitar so I asked my dad if I could trade the trumpet in for a guitar which having been a musician he it was fine with so then I had a guitar and you you met lots of friends who had guitars he would just talk so it's where I met George who went to this cool George Harrison I met it me used to get on the bus the stop after I did I was about a half an hour ride into this school so if we ever sat next to each other we were just develop our friendship and started talking about guitars so then we learned chords off each other and the great thing was and then same happen with John the great thing was that years later if John and I was showing the guy's a song George automatically knew anything we knew you know it wasn't like we knew anything more he knew exactly so we could just go Jimmy G to play through and he would know the song you know so but I think that's really where our music took off once we had this and of course it was a craze rock and roll actually was coming in you know from skinful it and I remember you mean these used to be pews not these nice comfortable seats you're all sitting in we had Borden benches you know and I remember sitting back there with a copy of a music paper the enemy and seeing a picture of Elvis Presley you know we just enthralled with this guy and then when we heard his records that was it so we wanted to do that we want it to be like that that was how we wanted to live that's interested sit would would you say that you saw Elvis before you heard in that hmm it's quite interesting so that must have been kind of a bit mind-blowing to imagine what it might be like and then to actually hear it was an ad for Heartbreak Hotel his first records and yeah we just we just fell for the whole thing you know we just thought he was a great singer he had a great sense of humor he made great records and we just we just that was it then so we got into a group John was already in a group so but it was kind of you know you learned everything just by a year and we never learned to write anything down well this wasn't I wanted to ask you about how you remembered songs because if tape recorders were around they must have been really bulky mm-hmm it's not like today where if you kind of have an idea and you're out somewhere you can like hum it into your phone like that so how did you kind of remember I always think that was a great thing that we didn't have and we did thank you say the big bulky one was called Grundig a little blinking green eye in the front but we never had one we knew a guy who did so we borrowed it once and we put a couple of little songs down on it but we mainly used it for prank phone calls explain your gonna have to explain okay here's how it went a fear John just in my house in Portland Road and we've got this thing so we we some think I know we should do we should record a bit of dialogue and then leave applause and they'd say a little bit more leaving pauses and will ring up someone and then we record the whole thing you know so if we ended up ringing his one of his school teachers call mr. popjoy good name so the dialogue went like this year we put on voices hello there's almost a pod pod joint here we've I'm ringing about the bananas I don't know yes the bananas you ordered so we didn't join sir your question we didn't really do much recording you know but the thing is why it was a good thing was that we had to write songs you could remember and I think that turned out to be a good thing so you know John and I would have a writing session and we write something go away I was normally the afternoon so they would go away we have any evening out and stuff and in the middle of the evening you think but it always came back in the morning first thing in the morning oh yeah oh you play it again and you just remembered it and we and we ended up saying well if we can't remember it how to expect other people to so I suppose you were right and stuff that was memorable and I hate to say we're still remembering it now you know that's very true all they always Jesus I used to do a radio show and one feature that was a thing called on this day did you go like that I had to do in the voice on this yeah I found out two things on this day from your life the first one is the 25th of July 1963 you played the fourth of six nights at Hammersmith at Weston super Mare Odeon I don't expect you to remember that but I just wonder had you do something wrong to be sentenced to be playing Wessex nice seems a lot long time to be playing Western Superman we could fill it though now I really think it was just because you know I don't know we just we did what the manager told us you're playing weston-super-mare and of course cause it's a seaside as we loved it went on the beach got prawn tease oh you know it wasn't too much the plane that was just what we did in the evening but it was good fun and there was another one it's not quite the right day but in a couple of days in 1968 you went into the studio and recorded Hey Jude and then the session went from 8:30 p.m. till 4:00 a.m. the reason I mention that is just as well as we're here I wonder if that gives any insight into that you know the recording process how do you capture a song you know when do you decide you've said this thing about you know you yeah but you if it sticks with you then you know it's worth having then I guess the next decision is when do you try and capture it try and get it down on tape how do you make those decisions you know well I think when when the songs done you you go boy what happened with me with albums is I just write songs till I got too many and I think what I better record them so I can write another book so yeah you wait till you've got the song finished and I've written Hey Jude I checked it out played it to John and he liked it there was one line in it that I thought I was going to change remember him I'm offering my little music room at the top of the house on this little magic piano I had and I'm playing the song and I go the movement you need is on your shoulder and I said honestly I'll be changing that don't worry he looks good so you won't you know the best lying minutes so you know that that was like so each signed off on it so we went to a Pierrot wasn't available but we wanted to know that it was ready to record once in sort of getting someone so we went to a place called Trident which was in Soho and little studio we used to use and we just sort of went in probably like you say in the evening we always used to work only a day on during the day because that was the way you were supposed to but as we got more and more successful as time went on we'd heard that people like Frank Sinatra worked through the night so he's a relapse all of that so that would game became another cool thing to do so we came in and we'd kind of you know I'd but I play it through so everyone knew it and you start recording it and I think easily you know with memories particularly quite a long time you get little stories that you tell and then I'm always back on my mind to go and is this true you're making this up but I remember you know I think sitting down and doing hate you told me and then just realizing Ringo had gone to the toilet but he's got his drunkard over there and eat crap he gone today so hey turn unluckily you didn't come in for a couple of verses and then he's got to come in I just see him at the corner of my own thinking this is quite a good take I'm singing this well well I think we're just going to say that is true discuss offense I like we're going to ask some questions from people absenting questions I know those questions from people who were here in the audience people who are studying here at letter also some questions that have come from Facebook look could I start with one question which kind of is almost related to that which comes from my friend Richard hauling a musician from Sheffield nevermind that was that their wit and he was wandering him as a little never mind as long as you've got your health he managed to drink oh then and he wanted to know what Custer was a craze around that time when you started of people having pseudonyms like Billy Fury and all stuff like that and Ringo Starr mm-hmm did any of the rest of you think of having some kind of like superheroes pseudonym yeah this is what you thought you had to do yeah you know Paul McCartney it's like it sounds good now that's alright now I must I've grown into it put a lot of work into yeah but ya know we did think we had to be more glamorous so I was Paul Rummel nice little sound and we went on a little tour with a guy called Johnny gentle we were because yeah this is a thing all the other people were like Billy Fury Danny turn boost morale wild and we've got landed with Johnny gentle alright playing and we're backing him up in there and and you get you go up there and to be all the little because it's gotten me little Scottish fans they go to George watch Carl Harrison and John it was Long John Silver and but wrinkl came with the name and everything you know why because he was we always kind of he was the oldest in the group but you know also to us like the professional and we were kind of amateurs we sort of students I was I think one of the nice things about the Beatles we weren't really serious about Yogi's just sort of dragged into it you have to be in it to play but Ringo had his group using Rory storm and the Hurricanes and another pseudonym Rory Caldwell anyway so he was within that band and they were like we thought they were like really pros because they had a season at portland's which is a hard to come for any of you global listeners and that was a great gig you've got to go there you got to settle in you've got your rooms you got the girls I knew would the big rock stars you know so Ringo became Ringo Starr with lots of rings for that you know but he was the only one but yeah we changed you know poor Roma it's good I might go back to it and that's not a look really we are that maybe this is slightly related this is a someone who should be in the audience Steven Geisler hope I'm pronouncing that correctly Steven guys well Giesler are you here you can just say present sir yeah Stevens question is if music hadn't worked out what are the career could you seen yourself do it well you know at that time in this school you would go to the careers master I don't know if it still happens you know as he leaving you sort of school to go out into the big world and I went in this guy and he's talking to me what you liked it and he turned out I only had enough qualifications to be a teacher you know it's like you're no good or you can be a teacher won't teach other people not to be good you've got a knack so that what I was I adapt you to go and be yeah but you're you're breaking that kind of thing within this Academy oh yeah yeah we don't do that anymore no much groovier now is one is there a Brian Campbell in the audience oh right Brian's question is is there a song you are jealous of and wish that you were driven and it's so one or what is it yeah there's always a couple that I hear you know that I think are nice and I would like to I liked stings field of gold and I thought you know what I should have read that how dare he did you let me know that yeah yeah you stole my soul and I that was a nice one you know let's have another one here some of these are very long and the favori won't get a chance to go through all of them you're whipping through them there I've got them here but he's gone gone out of order so I'm totally I'm on Georgia rim I don't know if I'm on number 10 Thomas Whitaker you've really built it alright Thomas would like to know what was the last piece of music or album you listen to that you found quite impressive all as stuck with it I think probably Kendrick Lamar yeah and I liked sorry I mean you know talking about modern so so the last piece of music Muslim people and not so modern I like Kanye's dark twisted fantasy like that's why I ended up working with him cuz I like that other pieces I don't know there's one out at the moment that I think is very catchy which is Christine and the Queen's record I like that it is like totally Michael Jackson rip off well we don't mind and now did hear music now because he was a so many different ways with these I know we never - but I'm talking about what because there are so many I suppose industry speak would be delivery platforms all but there's so many ways you could I love it when you talk dirty [Music] what say that really but yeah I mean you know as I don't know if you could hear before you took the stage I was saying I used to stay at home just listen to the radio hoping a Beatles song would come on and record it if we did I'm sorry about that not I play the Royal we're suing on you but you know now there are many of the ways that kids saw anybody you know to hear music so how do you me it's mainly radio probably in the car yes you know in any journey I'll just listen see what you hear I still have CDs come on and and I listened to buy them and then I just Spotify mmm-hmm calm before so you know quite a few ways I still play vinyl yeah well it leads me understanding I wanted to talk to you about actually because I was reading stuff he was saying about you new record Egypt station and and one of the things you said about it was that you want it he wanted to make an album that was like an album and you remembered albums are mm-hm which for me when I think of that I think of a vinyl album I thinking that that's in a way recorded music found its ideal home you know the length of them of an album the fact it's got two sides and stuff I don't know what was that what you meant by that yeah I mean what I thought was these days you've got you know the big stars like people saying Taylor Swift and Kendrick and the people know more particularly the first two and their songs are in a way a collection of singles you know they're all great commercial tracks but it doesn't kind of roll through like a Pink Floyd album used to or Vietnam and I so I thought well I can't compete with that kind of Taylor Swift thing she's got better legs than me fortunately you're handling you I know that we know these but so you know I thought with maybe what I can do you just do a sort of what used to be called a concept album so it's it is an album that if you want to can sort of listen all the way and it should roll through and take you someone that's what I told was this new one um so the cover is part of is that I was gonna ask you about the title of the album but I believe that's the name of the painting that's on the on the cover yeah yeah I did a painting and it had Egyptian iconography in it because I do I like that kind of thing so I put some of these images in the baking and mixed it up a bit and just to remember it I call the Egypt station because you had sort of Egyptian things and I never thought any more of a people quite liked it so I liked that one you know and I was looking at it one day and I thought it's quite a nice title that Egypt station so that could be the new album's title and then I thought you know what the painting could be the cover so we started that's where it started and then we got some really good art directors who took it but yeah that's cool and so you know we start off like with a station noise so he was sort of in a station and then acquire swells out of that so it's like heavenly station now you're tripping dude and then he goes into the first song being on anything carries on yeah and then and I shouldn't work am I allowed to I'm not gonna spoil it but then at the end you was we go to the station again don't we go to the station yeah we did so you know that that's that was the idea we should do something like like that for people who like that kind of album that goes right through the music only gonna choose the single that they like only going to choose that track in that track but there will be those amongst us who will listen all the ways yeah and I think as we were saying about I think an album is the format for that I mean I I do that I don't know whether I'm representative of any demographic or even human being but I enjoy that as a thing to do to sit on the sexy foot of an album on and just it's a nice amount of time 2025 minutes and you go into that world for Amit and then you kind of resurface make yourself a cup of tea put the other side on if you want or or whatever it's a ya know there's a really pleasant way to absorb some music I think yeah well so that's the idea with the new album yeah now here's another one this is kind of well this may be this is slightly related number eleven Carter Fleming are you are you present hello Carter Carter would like to know have the developments in technology for recording in composing music affected your writing process in any way kind of ties into what we're talking yeah I think I think it has actually and I think it's maybe affected it adversely because you could record anything any time just reach your phone bang you got it so I find myself with like thousands of sketches doctor that will do yeah he's like I'll finish that one day so I've got thousands of things to finish and I don't think that's a great thing when you didn't have that you tended to have to finish it so the process that John and I used just kind of still how are you still the one I use and it was just basically to sit down come up with a bit of an idea of a song and finish it just keep doing it keep doing it until you got to the end and then you'd written a song which I think was probably good rather than having a little fragment a little sketch that maybe months later you'll return to and you'll be trying to recapture the vibe that you did listening to it and so I don't think it's as good a system and that that I would say I'm complaining about that just keys to easy to pour ideas down and and then just not bother and does that also go through to this studio as well because obviously now you can like record everything and then you can if if a bit goes wrong you can edit that bit out and mmm let's combine take one with yeah six thousand and then auto-tune it so it's all same key oh you've seen me record oh I know that table I wonder with this record it doesn't sound like it was done that way so I wonder whether we know what was your method well you know I think it is a really good strong thing if you can get the original performance with your band or however down all-in-one so you've got the kind of spirit of it and so quite a few tracks on the album we just did with the band you know we learned them and do them like old school and then we may be over toward maybe did this and that you know but there is something comes through it's the spontaneity and why I remembered that I must do that but listening to all Beatle records yeah I can hear them this also got fresh there right in your face yeah particularly the realer he was and and I think it was just its spirit got onto the record you know but we didn't mess around oh yeah we're talking all about you know how we recorded we first came down from all got our first recording contract with Sir George Martin blessing and we were told what they wanted us to do because they were grownups and we were twenty something and we didn't know and no idea what you did in her call this year so they just said show a 10 o'clock and between 10:00 and 10:30 get ready you'd have tune up and obviously he's covered to you whatever we want to do and then at 10:30 the producer will come again and you'll start the session and from there you had one and a half hours to finish that song completely which we never thought it was a pressure because we didn't know anything else and they just sort of said you know George just so George Martin would come down and me and John afternoon was unless it was George's song but it was after me and John would have written the song the week before and because our manager ring goes up and say you've got a week off we got wow great he said to write the next album we've got great I mean it seemed like enough time you know so we did it and we bring it in on the Monday morning and it was only me and John knew it so we had a couple of acoustic guitars so we just singing do-do-do-do-do - whatever George and Ringo would would watch it George o'clock the chords Ringo it so yeah it's the beat and then we just separate I go on bass John and georgia vonnegut aren't ringing on drums and we would just start recording so that would keep us about we're probably at about an hour and 10 left to do this record and now because that was the only time you had you did it and then you had to do another song in the morning they did an hour off it was like 10:30 to do the maths 10:30 plus one and a half hours wellness school I don't say everyone subject yeah amongst the many anybody then you'd have a fun warm you know from 12 you'd have to 130 he had a break of an hour you came back and you did it all again two more songs and so you were knocked off by five ish and you'd what four songs in the camp which you know right today standards is like silly what that musics a deal I've got the snare sound by that just about which the computer on yeah yeah no it's true yeah so it was a great system and most of all the early Beatles records were done like that and what I liked about it was after you'd finished you'd put in this hard day you had four songs so you were kind of priorities then you could go out in the evening you'd have something to eat or maybe go to a play or something and I think that informed the next day yeah you know because we're down in London so I might go to like the National Theatre and see a play I was going out with an actress at the time so we'd go out and see Juno and the paycock gonna call and Blakely in it and it was so good you know Nationals do you don't why did you come back you don yeah and I don't know it's somehow informed what you did the next day raised the bar a little bit so I was always glad that we had those hard working days but the evenings off yeah the way you speak speak about it I wonder do you ever come here and like have you ever taken a class here or anything like that you know yeah are you saying about the thing of people getting something down quick oh yeah I haven't done sort of a recording thing I do the song writers so I come up here and I basically listening to a bunch of songwriting students who are kind of my students you know and I always say to them okay look you know I don't know how to do this I know which is great look yeah oh yeah great teacher see ya I was always destined but no I mean is I actually don't know how to do it and I don't want to know how to do it I sit down to write a song I hope it's something I don't know how to do and I hope it's noon you know I don't want to think always got to do got to do this you know I find myself getting predictable I'll try break I think so say that to them and and then after the shocks come off their faces they will then play me a song they play me their work and I'm just kind of critique and I'll say I'm just imagined we're writing together and what I would do would be this and by the way you don't have to accept it because it's your song oh my but generally you know they accept now you know I mean hopefully I made good situations know that I mean I think that's really interesting because as you say this is an academy and it's it's to some extent a formal education and that's not something that you had in your in your music education and then it's interested here that you you know communicate that because I agree with you I think music it's a very kind of slippery beast to how you tell whether something is good or not is really like wonder I don't know whether you get this thing but like one day you can write a song you think yes Grammy's come on and then you listen to the next signal oh my god good trap yeah and I know that thing can work the other way like you right so do you think it's children rubbish and then and then listen to the next day and you realize it's good so that kind of thing where you can never pin it down in some ways is frustrating but also is what's exciting about it because you never tame it anyway that's why me you know that's why I don't really want to tame it or know how it goes you know and the thing is we learn it by doing it the way we happen to do it or having to have done it I'm not saying the Beatles all the Liverpool groups all the British groups the British Invasion for America I don't know any of them really knew how to write or read music we didn't need to and we're talking to Jeff Lynn about it well we just made you look didn't we you know enjoy that's what we do we just sort of made it up but I I will work with people who do know how to do furnaces something's got to be orchestrated I will bring in someone who actually knows what to tell the orchestra you know I'd have to write it out but often they will say to me oh that song was that three four two four twin of the part I know because we you know we made it up so we just go closer to you know good day sunshine I have the bad and there's somewhere in there's a 2/4 bar or something you know but we just went oh it went like that yeah change is there yeah and I think it was more exciting yeah a minute it's it's written for me not for of course you all you kids around the world studying music and your parents spending all that money no I mean I you know it is also great to go to the other route it's just not the route I went yeah well it's funny you've reminded me of something now because one of the most frustrating things of my adolescence was buying the Beatles song book because I was such a family knows Hannah and sitting down and then suddenly having this terrible crushing realization that I couldn't play any of the songs because they had all these kind of thoughts that were like all over it like that and I wondered about that weather I bet they didn't consult you about those song book so or did they did they come and say how do you play this song no no I mean the chord symbols was all we could ever read on sheet music and the words so that's what we used we would just look up the chord symbol and we knew a lot of the chords you know as we because the thing about the reels we started here in Liverpool and played little clubs then we went to Hamburg I'm going to Hamburg was like a big experience not just for young kids let off the leash in the Strip District oh that was also revealing but just that we played so long we played like sometimes eight hours straight through kind of thing you know [Music] but because we played so much you land lots of stuff we learn lots of song school you didn't want to get bored and you know at that age the worst thing is your God we're doing these same ten songs again so we have millions of songs and millions of chords so that's what happened we sort of developed just along the way by learning chords I mean the used to be a shop where we got our guitars here called Hasse's it owned by a guy called Frank Heskey and in there there was like the guy who could play the guitar you know in the music shop he was our being here on Jim Gretta and he would he would play it was a Jazza so he would sometimes play he's amazing cause I remember me and George just studying it God why is that oh yeah he's like an F chord but he got these funny little things going on here oh yeah okay and we learned it I mean I still dunno was called it an F demented or something but we learned it so that it suddenly roundabouts that you hear it on quite a few of our songs it's in Michelle did you do yeah I mean to lose you yeah we just used and but that was a thing you know and and it is it is funny because I remember you know talking with loads of groups and the kind of people we'd hang out with be windy doing shows and things of TV shows and I remember sitting around with Travis and the guys from Travis and we're just chatting and he were playing me one of those songs and he sort of was in a and then it went to F sharp minor so I said I like that f-sharp minor and it was that what it's called he says we call it one up from F Alden it is well that's it as long as everybody in the band calls it that then you're alright exactly it's so have another question here this is number 12 John Reynolds white John John Reynolds would like to know out of all the musicians you've worked with who do you admire the most and why out of all the ones I've worked with it would be fellow Beatles it would be John who was pretty cool and George and Ringo you know having worked with John so one on one you know I I could see it I got to see his Bruns before the world did so you know I would get to hear across the universe and Julia and some of these songs you know and so you know I'm a big fan and when we would work together on something like day-in-the-life he after what would happen is whoever was going to be the sort of creator of this song would bring in the first verse so he said you knew what was going on read the news today oh boy okay and then we sit down and we take it from there which the write it all down and develop it and do the thing so yeah so I've seen John at work you know so obviously and little things he did were I thought brilliant you know I I started a song it's getting better all the time and he went he couldn't get much worse go get that down so you know just those little things were you'd I think I think and then I think Stevie Wonder you gotta go to Stevie come please just the musical monster you know he's fantastic everything only because he's got something was going on about Stevie Wonder to me the other day like you know he's got his he's even got two voices he's got like the hive Stevie and then he's got the angry Stevie and then then he can play the harmonica and then somebody showed me this clip the other day where he just plays the drums amazing his voice it's like way too much yeah you know he is and the little guitar thing he's got now obviously what you know I worked with him we did the record ebony and ivory which some people thought was a big glib you know but to me I thought it's kind of cool thing you know the black and white living together in harmony what's wrong with that but it was it was great fun working with Stevie on there he we came out to Montserrat which was George Martin studio in the Caribbean and so we were working there and Linda my first wife Linda I said well invite Stevie over oh it was a Sunday we were taking the day off so I said great so the hasty over angry mob Steve do you fancy coming to lunch oh yeah so I said great I think to not do great so totally to Oklahoma she's okay so she starts cooking with to look in mind so three o'clock comes I go hey Steve how you doing man what's going on you know oh oh oh yeah I said you're coming over with you oh yeah yeah yeah I'm just heading out the door yeah I'll be there in two seconds well 10 o'clock at night I'm serious and that felt like going behind you but he just each out of rollerblades and it was okay because did he have a good excuse or - no hey you know what you didn't need one that's the thing about Steve you just you just gotta go with it he's just so good and you can't say you know but dinner was somewhat burned I've got one here number 13 David Harrison this question actually this is also my mom asked this question as well mm-hmm so it must be brilliant it must be what's your favorite cover version of a Beatles song because I think I think the Beatles do hold the record for the most covered band ever so there's a lot of cover versions out there on this so yeah there's only caught urea yeah the wonder earliest one that really caught my ear was pastor Phillips as a kind of R&B singer and she did a female version of and I love called and I love him which is really great I love it and then later Ray Charles - then I'm not Eleanor Rigby which was loved I mean he's saying you know yeah our stuffs being covered and I was lucky when I come up with it on yesterday because that covered like about 3,000 times I think 3,000 people maybe over there had recorded that and I was always amazed great but I thought who are these people you know so I said to one of our guys I said Johnny can you get me like the top ten just give me the sort of top ten best ones I just saw and I listened to a mother well they were great it was like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Marvin Gaye very cool Ray Charles and you know the list went on it was amazing people amazing versions it's a funny thing though when I listened through it was Frank Elvis and I think Marvin who changed the lyrics a little bit in the middle I go why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say but they changed why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't notice I why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say I did something wrong because what I think and they go I must have done something wrong like you know disclaimer I don't think I did maybe they say I did I don't think I did I'm Frank Sinatra although I can't think the life of me what he was like say well this is one Phil Christopher maybe we cover this a little bit but how would you teach an aspiring songwriter to write a successful song well that's most first of all then have write a song I don't know with it as accessible yeah I don't know really I don't know like I say you know I actually don't know how to do it but what I'm doing I was now gonna write try and write a song you I would first of all go somewhere very quiet like a faraway cupboard or toilet because it's embarrassing writing songs you know you don't want to do it in public because you want it you want to make your mistakes in private so I would get somewhere required and you know probably take a guitar and then just start googling around on whatever chord you fancy that day whatever so I'm coming in my mind would be a to the one up from F so I be you know I would start with that and start just so noodling with it just change and it just kind of select a rhythm or a temple that feels okay in the mood I mean and then I just start sort of singing over it and just see what comes out and sometimes something crazy feelings out and but I would kind of go with it I just try and follow the trail and I think the main thing is to stick with it but not just go harness is terrible because often the second verse or the chorus can get great and then you can sort of go back and fix the beginning of it you know so that's what I do I just keep going and then just write the words as I go and sometimes the second verse is better so I switch that to the first risk and just keep going till I feel like I'm and then yeah if you're lucky you get in a kind of pocket do you think I can't join this I did it recently even though I've finished the album and I'm trying not to write songs I was going to the gym and it was closed what I'm going to do now go now to kill and so I picked up my guitar just doing ding ding ding I thought oh that's ok I'll put that down on my phone no voice no don't do that all finish it forget it anyway this one won't finish it so I sat down and started with this little thing and instead of putting it down to the phone I just pursued it and kept going on it and it turned out as a song it's interesting you say that thing about having to find some my way you're not going to be overheard yeah and that must have been difficult I watched I guess a lot of people in the audience have seen your appearance from the carpool carrier you thing recently you seem that you haven't have a watch of it as part of that you go back to your old child at home yeah and finding a place you know private to kind of write songs when you're living in a house of that size hasn't been pretty difficult yeah well it was the toilet yeah what's the acoustics but that we can duck and cause problems of it so well if you monopolizing the toilet oh yeah it did it occasionally and then I would have to stop let someone go and go back in holding my notes but another thing that I found interesting that you said whilst you were there was was this thing of feeling the distance that you travel from that place yeah but also how formative it was how clear it was in your mind as well as if I understand correctly that was the first time you've been back there since you looked yeah it was you know I'd been outside cuz ya'll coughed a little quite a long with Lipper and that's here philippa oh yeah I can't be and so I often fly up and then I'll get a car health track from the airport and I'll Drive whoever's with me around and you know I just take that all the routes and so we go through like you know speak where I used to live also to say oh you know I know I want to Drew that church over there for an art competition which I actually want I can I wanted there's only two people in the competition and he won the year before I think they'd let me have it but anyway you know as I'm going around telling all these stories and when I get to fourth Lynn Road which is my old house which is now a national trust thing I never go in I would just pull up there and you know tell them all the stories but I never never really want to go in I thinking it might be a bit spooky hmm my favorite so strange going back to you know so I'm doing this one time I'm sitting in the car I'm showing this friend and this older guy walks past he goes yeah he didn't live there but now with with with James it was like he said no we should go in you know and I loved it it was great and he wasn't spooky I think was just it's like this place you know it's just full of memories just everything where I look around and I'm playing playing show like me on those benches at the back there with George and you know coming coming here for seeing the headmaster of all the teachers walk in with their gowns are like a feeling counts so you know just it's just so many memories getting the cane for instance which was a wonderful memory I'm now heavily into us and him I blame them I was gonna get onto that lady and soon as you grow to go couch I like it no how were you used to get the game you know and I gave the kids these days you can't really imagine what that was to be like but it was that was what happened you know if you were cheeky and we were you know we're always just you know Liverpool guys anyway you've got a problem yo and Liverpool guys and you know the kind of like me and George and those kind of always so we're always getting in trouble and you would get okay and you would have to hold your hand out you go office town there was a buzz his office headmaster and you would that was the worst of your cold days and you would have to hold your hand and he would give you what they called six of the best and he would just take this bloody try thing I was long robbed and even just wacky I knew you could put it back on you just as you know hence my love affair but damn one time the story goes George was getting he got it quite often I'm afraid to say but George got it once and the teacher doing it this time missed and got him there on the artery the last dangerous because you know you got arteries as I can open them that's like these days you just they the teacher be expelled me anything like that but those days it didn't matter anyway so George has got this big wheel on his wrist here he goes home and he's having tea with the family and he's dad suddenly notices what's that only worse I got came today you know I had to admit it really well the next day in school over there I think it was in George's in class and a little knock comes on the door and it's another teacher they said to the teacher who came George cruciate for a moment sir there it goes outside and there's the teacher who came George the teacher who's showing George's dad in so George's dad and they said did you came my son yesterday yeah well it is a barbaric practice in it I mean he's kind of crazy they did exist I simply just waved at me and I don't think they were being friendly I think telling me that we've got five minutes left so early I've been remiss I haven't asked you any of these Facebook questions that's - yeah let's do a couple no you go girl yeah I think okay so we've got a Adina or na Okada from Facebook in Japan hello Paul I just can't wait to listen to the new album in September which songs would you think that John would say oh that's a good one from Egypt station and which ones would your wife Nancy like most lots of love from Nina okay um I think John would like a song called I don't know I think he'd like that and I I know that Nancy likes a song called contra dog which I wrote to my guitar yeah it sounded strange but it's a long time it's another of my perversions I write to guitars that's interesting because I I was lucky that I was I was looking at see soundchecking and and you were playing that song and I was thinking it was that song - yeah I didn't realize it was doing inanimate objects and people are not unless I explain the story people are not gonna cuz it it does sound like it's sort of a breakup song it's to someone I don't like but it isn't it's it's it's a long story but so but Nancy like that yeah and Danny Costello from Facebook in bookstand UK and no books done well you probably do a wall Sheffield lovely water yeah they bottomless they do yeah it's so look like oh right yeah well this is again about Egypt station I've heard that you have a painting Colding chip station can you tell us a bit more about it and why you chose it for the title we've we have kind of covered a little bit sort of done that well the thing was I like kind of looking at reference books is history book for often for like old symbols so on the cover of Egypt station there's an onyx so I like that image and I'll often see statues or a stick that kind of civilization and what I think's amazing is some of them look very modern but they're they're from long time so I like those and if I like the image I'll put it in the painting and just put other things in it this is kind of a guy in there definitely not Egyptian and I'll just mess it up so it kind of becomes kind of like a little surrealist composition and so that was that I made that painting and I called it Egypt station it's like you were saying that it seems to be something that's fed into your music a lot you were saying about the thing about the Beatles sessions ending and then you could go out and go to theatre or whatever but you know if I'm correct me if I'm wrong here I believe that the the Apple on the Apple label comes from and the Greek painting that you you won't yeah yeah yeah I developed a love for art I'll tell you really when it started I liked it anyway as a kid growing up but in 1953 do you believe when I was 11 coming to this school the Queen was ground was the coronation year and so they had a competition which was an essay competition and you had to write about the monarchy so I did everything and I happened to win one of the categories so what am i leading with this door we're talking about your love of art love of art thank you I was off on one that so so you got a prize for winning this competition and you got like one of the things you got was a book on the monarchy it's a great PR exercise for the monarchy and the only thing you were allowed to choose until I choose chose a modern art book and so that I used to just look at that all the time so by the time I got some money with the Beatles in the early days I liked to sort of look at art of stuff and I had this really great mate it was a owner of a gallery called Robert Fraser and he really knew his art you know so I could get advice from him and I enjoyed looking at this Rennie Magritte Belgium Belgian painter and he he knew his dealer so Robert said to me do you want to come to Paris and we'll have dinner with the dailies he's he's invited us I said yeah right it was funny because Robert was gay and I told some of my friends you know he's going to Paris with Robert they go are you sure they're not quite secure about my sexuality overlap with the S&M I mean but getting there are we now anyway we got over we go and and so we have dinner and everything then he was above the gallery so he go downstairs or these little stairs oh he's like you know someone who loves his wife and I could I could now afford to buy a couple now I couldn't I mean you know they are like but they were like three thousand pounds and now they're worth a bit more but yes so so that kind of started his love of art and in in all of that I saw this Apple and what happened one day Robert knowing I love this I was out in the background in London doing a little music video with Mary Hopkin actually and I'm so I was busy and Robert knew I was busy so I came back in from the garden and he'd left this little painting little oil by Magritte propped up on the thing and each split he'd just gone so and then one of the painting was a green apple and written across within Magritte's writing was aurevoir so that is the coolest most conceptual thing anyone's ever done just leave I'm agreed with or avoid and you know so yeah that's where it came from so and people say why was the Apple because you know there was an apple before Apple you know because people think that we made an apple but we mean Apple so and why we did it people said why did you do something it was a is for Apple dude we just like that it was near the beginning of the alphabet Apple like Ellen I need list would come Ali we kind of like them we like that I do and then Abba went but obidos by being a B so they came before us on the list I'm not gonna get forgiven if I don't wound I would love to talk to you for the maybe until the end of time but I know we have to stop them and thanks ever so much for submitting tonight questioning it's good for I have to say to ever to everyone hang around as well because I believe something exciting's gonna happen behind that curtain quite soon I also know that you're gonna come and play in Liverpool in December sorry yeah so everybody should prepare themselves for that yeah we are playing the Echo Arena and in December but the thing is we also have tomorrow we have a little secret gig somewhat unlivable indicated night I've got kidding you Jarvis would I like to write well I'm not Clinton go ladies and gentlemen please [Applause] you both you

Channel: PAUL McCARTNEY

Views: 928,840

Keywords: Paul McCartney, Jarvis Cocker, LIPA, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Egypt Station, I Don't Know, Come On To Me, Fuh You, Q&A

Id: -gxdrjRqcZQ

Length: 71min 7sec (4267 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018