PAUL McCARTNEY - REVEALING INTERVIEW

on the recent world tour you did about I think half and half half post beetles and half beetles material what was the what made you finally decide yeah I'm gonna put a healthy dose of this material into my ass um it was time really the reason all of us in the Beatles shied away from Beatles material directly after the breakup was that I think we all thought we've got to try and prove to ourselves that there's life after the Beatles you know cuz it's not easy to have been Charlie Chaplin and then want to branch out into a serious career cuz you know even he had problems with that you know people still preferred the charming little cheeky [ __ ] you know and so we all had that problem to try and overcome so we all shied away from Beatle material as a way of doing it but time you know so much time has gone by it's now kind of 20 years since we made that decision and I just thought when I was thinking about the tour I just thought if I was going to his show you know imagining myself as an audience member what would I like to hear him do and the inevitable songs come in you know okay do to be good well how about Sergeant Pepper well hey could he do yesterday or she's leaving home whatever we left some quite a few out but um I just thought yeah you know there's enough water gone under the bridge there's no painful memories here the the breakup it was just painful you're just singing something with uh so many memories it's like I likened it later to scout like singing the ex-wife songs when you've had a divorce you know way buddy who you know no way is she gonna catch me doing that one you know so um you know we all made that decision independently to do that but I say there's enough time gone by so I just thought well it might be good to do them so we started rehearsing them and it was great fun cuz I hadn't done him for so long been keeping oh you see your steering clear of them yeah suddenly I was able to kind of think Hey Jude after millions of years and really enjoyed it Sergeant Pepper I know man I'd never ever done that only on the vocal take is that's what people get after the San Francisco concert I guess around 66 the Beatles are a studio band maybe some early rock videos as we would call them now through the through the rearview mirror but Sergeant Pepper Hey Jude get back those have never been performed in concert that's right you know we never did them so so it's great to rediscover them because they were actually fresher than my contemporary material because I'd been doing that suddenly the slammer songs are really nice to do that was the other decision I mean if you've got Hey Jude you can get the crowd going now and now and it's great you know you've got like guy you know 60,000 people doing that it's a great great thing to do you find maybe to your surprise moved you the most while you performed it on stage um I think it really the only thing that really happened cuz most of the time you don't get I don't get that moved because I'm thinking of words you know it's like an actor in a very sort of dramatic part you're really thinking to your next line you trying to remember where I walk next you knows a lot of that goes on even in even in a music show so you don't get that involved but there was this one moment really and Hey Jude cuz I hadn't done it for so long there's one line that always reminded me of John and that used to get me kind of emotional you know when it would creep up on me and sort of catch me on a worse there was a line the movement you need is on your shoulder which when I was playing John the song I basically sort of wrote that one I on the tour I kind of do the what my Beatles songs you know so I was playing John this song but when I wrote it and I'm going in Haeju know he's coming here and I said the movement you need is on your shoulder I said I'll be changing that you know stupid you know it sounds like a parrot and he said you won't you know he says it's a bloody great line I said no that's stupid the movement you need is on your shoulder what does that mean he said I know it means he said that's probably the best line in it man so I said great you know and when you've got a collaborator like John you leave it in you know cuz if he says it's great it's great it's like you know if I I insist on a line in one of his songs I could persuade him we can persuade each other we respect you so that pen so when I got to that line occasionally the movement you need he's on his children on it was quite occasionally a bit emotional to sort of sing that said in a Playboy interview that's probably more than a decade old now that all of you and maybe especially you because you were the primary collaborator coveted John's approval and you were quoted as saying he was the oldest which is indisputable no it isn't he wasn't Ringo zil's but he was the older that I guess of the two of the older the older right that's correct that is correct that let's get the chain of hold oh no all very old John senile me ancient but a little less agent no go ahead so anyway and also caught his saying that he was the smartest and the quickest wit we've been kind or was that true no III certainly think that was true I certainly think John was the quickest wit that was it was no doubt about that no contest he did that was definitely true um I and we did covered his you know respect his his attention and stuff and I think you know having said that I wouldn't mind betting he coveted ours you know we don't think of that you never know I just know what I felt I don't know what he felt and John was not very forthcoming about what he felt he was quite a private person and you'd you'd only have a see it in tiny little instances you know that he did he I remember once I mean one you know the things I remember about John is silly little things you don't remember all the great big moments they just went by in a flash you know meeting the Queen hi they're gone you know but you remember stupid little things I remember a kind of kind of arguing once about something musical or something I remember John just gonna take these glasses down and say it's only me I'm putting them back up again um you know so so maybe he did have similar feelings towards us that we had to him but he just didn't make it perhaps as obvious but we were Lennon fans definitely you know he's a great guy you were an ex Beatle by the time you were 29 so this extraordinary rush of worldwide fame and extraordinary experiences had happened to you and John Lennon as very young men and ever since that time people some with knowledge some without knowledge have speculated about the nature of that collaboration the nature of that relationship what sense are you able to make of it now well you know I think in life it's not that easy to analyze your relationships with people um not just John I think with with anyone it's not that easy and as you say when there's when fames in there as as one of the factors it can get even more complicated but I always feel quite lucky having I had a really great family in Liverpool I had great parents and I've quite a secure childhood I never realized it at the time but talking to someone like John later and hearing about his childhood when his father left home when he was 3 and things like that you know boy I don't know what I'd have done if that had happened to me so so I I think that helped me just to sort things out to sort relationships out just my kind of Liverpool upbringing cuz um there pretty much feet on the ground people and very earthy people I come from you know so if there's any bold going around it gets found out fairly quickly you know so I've got I think I've got a good antenna for that it's easy to see how these images take hold even sitting here talking to you a man I hadn't met until half an hour ago you're accessible you're open John seemed to have more of an air of danger and people equate that with an artistic temperament and so the easy compartments happen halls the Melody Maker John's the artistic soul of the Beatles and people forget that yeah Paul wrote yesterday and he wrote the long and winding road but he also wrote helter skelter and why don't we do it in the road he wrote day tripper you know does it how much does it bother you still that people don't have the full picture it doesn't really bother me too much you know I it's a natural thing that happens that I was actually just talking to someone before about that I think the only way I could get the kind of edge Don had would be to have a different childhood and I certainly wouldn't wished for that you know John had a real bad time his childhood say you know his father left only was 3 his mother didn't his mother lived with someone down the road he didn't live with his mother although he idolized her he lived with his aunt and uncle then the uncle died John started to think he's got a jinx and he any man he lives with leave rather suddenly and I think John was very frightened person about that his first marriage didn't work out so he had a lot of pain you know inside himself that I didn't have so I mean the only alternative for me is to wish for a painful life which I'm not gonna do you know I if that's what I require to be a great artist and I don't want to be a great artist maybe then the best situation is neither have to live life but to have him there as a sounding board yeah I mean that was what's the great thing that both of you can do you know you have to remember me as a sounding board for John Oh cuz uh that is the thing I say to people you know look if John had thought that I was rubbish he didn't suffer fools gladly he wouldn't have worked with me as long as we did we wouldn't have been able to do what we did if he didn't we enjoyed it we sat down really enjoyed each other's company we're really good for each other - does John as you say was more the sort of acid width person I mean I was writing the song a song off Sergeant Pepper and a jumper it was always great this way you know I was I was writing the song and he's sitting by the side he got a guitars on piano I'm going it's getting better all the time he's going to couldn't get much worse and you got hurt get it down you know that's fantastic you know I'd say I don't care what people think or how they analyze it um I think if John was here now I don't think he'd say he was the only one in the Beatles or that he was the soul of the Beatles I think he'd admit that there was pretty equal affair really but um you know having said that he was great and I'm more than proud to have worked with someone like him it was a it was a great experience you can imagine I've read and we all hope it's true that you more or less reconciled before he was shot yeah there was there was really the great thing about the whole thing cuz I don't think George did you know we were often having arguments round about that time um and you know business things and you'd sort of ring up and we shout at each other and slammed the phone down you know it's got pretty difficult but very luckily I think a couple of months before he died we'd got really some good conversations on the phone I'd just be ringing him it was around about the time when he was doing role reversal with Yoko he was the house husband mm-hmm this is you know John did that for a little while so remember ringing him and I saying you know what's happening will you do and he said well I'm just padding around here in my role but just put the cat's out I'm just gonna make some bread and I got the washing up to do love oh dear me I'm honest works never doing them it was great so I can relate to all that you know that's just good old stuff fightin and it was great to relate to John on on that kind of level which we which I find very easy so we really did we reconciled and we were talking very friendly to each other as I say I'm not sure but I think George may have a slight regret that I don't know whether he did get that conversation in listen I mean you know whether he did or not he knows John loved him I mean we you know for all our craziness we loved each other we were we're real good buddies but that's the way that good buddies you know they they occasionally hate each other it's the way of any great love affair or any family or anything it's not all roses hey you don't need me to tell you this but I guess for the benefit audience than to get your reaction if somebody didn't mixed in with it all genuinely love somebody genuinely care about their feelings about them they wouldn't go to the lengths in whatever strange way that John did to lash back at they wouldn't hold a pig on the cover to parody you holding a sheep and RAM they wouldn't you know call your stuff rubbish or write how do you sleep they wouldn't do it no I think that's right you know I think that's right I think he was very hurt there were people turning him against me it was his way of defending himself he was it was quite pissed off about the McCartney bandwagon as he once called it you know bloody you know he's getting on all the telly who's getting new selling records um you know whose it was a jealous guy you know but I understood that that's that that was John you love it or you leave it and I stuck with it for many many years and I think we would have all continued the Beatles but Yoga came along John fell wildly in love with her he needed a big big change in his life and he got it he came to live in New York he kind of threw over all his English contacts and everything and you know can't blame him that's what he wants to do in his life so we we had to kind of fade into the background to allow them to have their relationship what are we gonna do ringing him hey John you know hey come and see me leave Yoko you know I mean obviously never gonna happen so you had to let him do what he wanted you know and he did you know and he you joy dit how often did you walk around in a melody or some kind of snippet of a thought went through your head and you said that's better for John's voice or this would be good if the two of us could work on it together well that still happens obviously you know you get an idea which is sort of Lennon esque then you can't help thinking you and particularly me who's worked with him so much you can't help thinking boy you know we could really develop this one unfortunately I now have to just do it my way it's the man said yeah you know um which is okay there's nothing I can do about it you know great sure if John was here I'd much prefer to develop them with with him but I don't have that luxury speaking of my way that segues into the next thing I think Sinatra once did something which of course was George Harrison's uh song um I only announced it as my favourite Lennon McCartney song - thanks Frank hey didn't know what Fitzgerald do all you need is love or did Kampai man can't buy me love okay and an Otis Redding put day tripper into into one of his sets the point I'm getting to is there are probably hundreds of thousands of Beatle covers mmm which ones do you like the best and which ones do you say please no I'll buy it back from I'm not telling you those ones because the artists are probably still around but um the ones I love there's a roy redmond version of good day sunshine it's not really known by many people I love that I like Ray Charles is Eleanor Rigby I tend to like black versions just because I like black vocalists you know and I like what they do with the song funk it up a bit you know and it's always a plus it's a great honor you know for a kid like me who started off totally idolizing and a record like what did I say by Ray Charles yeah to have him do my song I mean you know that's that's something special Stevie Wonder we can work it out there's some which is funny actually I mean I don't know if he's anything to do it but I know when we met Bob Dylan years later you know the bit in the middle that goes um I can't hide I can't hide kind of woo oh you he's saying oh man he said I thought that was I get high I get high I got so maybe that was something to do say no Bob you know it's I can't high I don't know you know some it just caught the imagination I think that Rick really then all the others got interested you know she loves you became a hit all over again that loves me too we ended up with like the top five at one point so even that early stuff before you can see the clear departure into more artistic material before revolver before Rubber Soul when the break becomes very clear if you look back on that early stuff it's not just the freshness there was some clever things done there and different things done there that people didn't recognize because they were concentrating on the fashion they were concentrating on the hysteria but even starting a song like she loves you with the chorus think about a thousand rock and roll records I can't think of any that start with the chorus like that one did it's just different come right in with the hook I mean you guys had that I heard you say to somebody uh maybe in a moment of Imahara state you were a little cleverer than everybody adds right a moment to be modest yeah that's right now it is difficult to kind of talk about that without really seeming you know big-headed but we were slightly different it wasn't so much cleverer really that's kind of the wrong word it was we were slightly more artsy we were a little bit more like an art group um for instance we did a waltz there was there was a James ray there was a guy called James ray and we had his album and he had this little song if you got to make a fool of somebody now nobody was doing Wells's but we just do this we we tried to be go for the b-sides of records lesser-known songs and our whole repertoire was made up of quite weird songs because of that so it did make us different and I think you know with me having gone to a grammar school and got a couple of exams and stuff done reasonably well with John having gone to an art school George went to the same school as I did - and Ringo went to school for three days he was something else but he was a quick study it was a boy was he a quick but that's another story he was ill a lot when he was a kid but I think it did give us a little bit of a different attitude you know sort of slightly whittier attitude was someone like John I mean we were asked for uh somebody said how did the group start and instead of sort of you know saying um the group started when the boys got together at Wilton town hall in nineteen junsu de started away we got a vision on you know a man came to us on a bun and we had a vision you know it was always liked and developed this little thing in Europe we developed because we'd started to get contact with the press and so we'd started to sort of realize the game here you know if you wanted to get invited back you had to say something you know so um I say and John was particularly good Ringo was very good at that too he always had a Lancer you know he's got funny guy a lot of people would say if you had to pick one album sergeant pepper's the album it would that jive with your own assessment or is that more because it was a cultural impact than wasn't maybe as good musically um I don't I don't really make any difference a differentiation between the album's I kind of think for their time and for the musical knowledge we had each one's got something special I probably would choose Sergeant Pepper myself because I had a lot to do with it tells your idea sort of all where I go band right you know it was my that was my idea but um it wasn't entirely my idea but yeah - to get us away from being the Beatles I had this idea that we should pretend we were another group and it took hold you know even down to getting costumes made and everything um I think I'd probably choose that if I had to but I I wouldn't want to really I prefer to sort of have each one for for what they meant at the time you know Abbey Road is a nice album revolvers a nice album rubber soles and I sell them so I wouldn't like to choose really but if I had to I probably you know on a desert island I probably take Sergeant Pepper with me it stands up it's still a very crazy album it still sounds crazy even now after all these years and you would think that it would have really dated and that stuff since it would sound so much more modern but I don't think it does um some of that stuff really stone sounds pretty wacky still I'll ask you only one question like this because you're probably tired of hearing it in one form or another no it's pretty it's pretty obvious that you guys reflected your time and helped to shape it but what do you think is the lasting meaning of the Beatles if there's if there's a meaning to be taken from this all you need is love should I elaborate if you'd like um you know after the 60s that was kind of looked on as a bit sort of stupid you know hey all you need is love dude you know well you need more you know we need weapons and we need defense or whatever you know she's also true but it's it's coming back it keeps rolling back this idea that what these people on this planet need is love you know I think that was our men I always say to people you know we could have we could have had a really satanic message and with the power we had boy you know we could have made quite a difference the other way but we always chose not to do that nobody was remotely interested in that we had this idea that all you need is love do it in the end I still believe it in the end of love you take is equal to the love you make that's your song that kind of thing you know I still think that that's true I think the idea gets knocked every so often because you know it's a violent world and that you do need other things but I still think that's the that's the message what do you think are the best songs you've done on your own and I went back before I did this interview and listen to some wing stuff and some of it people take potshots at me and I don't like all of it as well as I like the earlier stuff with the Beatles but if I were to pick the 10 or 12 best wing songs I certainly wouldn't be ashamed to throw those out on now the thing about wings was that we lived we did everything we did in the shadow of the Beatles legend so we never thought we was successful at all with wings we always just thought we were you know never producing anything good really but I think looking back on it like you're saying I think maybe I'm amazed it was a reasonable song and something I would have been quite proud to do in the bit I think there are a few songs you know you can't get it all right and obviously faced with a with a an uphill battle which it was to perform in a group after you're known as the Beatles you know I think we did really well you know you know relatively speaking and in fact I'd certain albums I always thought were terrible bummer so I looked them up in the charts and they're kind of number eight in America or something you know okay that's not number one but boy it's not bad you know so um you know I think there are certain few songs there that still hold up when will you tour again probably next year this must be a great kick for you because as I understand it like you said earlier you wanted to keep on with the Beatles and not the least of which of the reasons was you wanted to go back and perform maybe in smaller venues and a lot of those Beatles performances after you hit they weren't really concerts as much as they were cultural events you probably couldn't even hear yourselves on stage so now you get a chance to perform again that has to mean a lot to you yeah I like performing yeah I'm some kind of a ham I don't like just sitting at home twiddling my thumb's you know or just being in the studio all the time there's something about the feedback from a live audience that is that is very special you make a record and in a closet kind of thing it gets released you see it go up the charts if you're lucky but but you don't see the whites of anybody's eyes you just see figures and you see accountants talking to you about how you did when you get out on tour there's people hey I remember you and you know you can see the first 30 rows and you kind of relate to them a well we got in tonight you know even that looks like a nice-looking couple over there and I enjoy that I mean it's I'm that kind of a person you know I like to get out and and and also obviously the applause is something you don't get when you do a record I think we're all pretty insecure as humans I think you know we've all got quite a good dollop of insecurity you know I figure if I have then you know and I've done so much I shouldn't be insecure at all so if I've got it I figured most people have got it um I think it can help a bit of applause can help you sort of think hey you know it's like was it Sally Fields came on the Oscars are you I'm like you love me you know it's that it's that one you know it's uh you hope they're like you actually do a concert in the applaud and there you can see someone you see a fully grown man crying you figure well he probably liked it right now there's a film about the world tour of a year ago called get back and of course there was a live album made out of various concerts from that tour but is there a new studio album in the works now yeah they're just written a new album and we go in a couple of weeks we'll go in the studio and start working on that with the band basically the same band that was on the world tour but with a different drummer I didn't realize that you wrote at least the substantial part of when I'm 64 when you were 16 I wrote the tune then yeah that was in the days it was actually kind of pre rock and roll nobody can nobody the kids now can't imagine a time when there wasn't rock and roll but it's just before that so it's kind of you know we were looking to kind of interest people like Sinatra rather than you do rock and roll you know so I did this little turd that if do don't do it then and then the words came later but yeah I wrote the Tumen I was quite young so now you're closer to age 64 then you were either when you wrote the tune or when the whole thing came together and would thanks a lot at least thanks I love this guy ya know that is true I have to own up to this and I'm fast approaching 50 next year but you know hey we're all getting the one way or another can you see yourself performing into your 50s into your 60s I don't know I don't know I didn't think no I didn't think I'd be born performing when I was 30 you know I thought it to be very unseemly to be jiggling around on a stage at that age that great age now that looks very young thirty I see people approaching thirteen this oh my god you know I don't know I'm gonna handle it and don't worry it's okay uh yeah I could be performing when I'm 90 you know but the songs would be very slow I think by then first thing I renew in that you own the the publishing rights to a whole lot of music and not all of it is rock and roll song at his Broadway stage shows and others are ballads from years gone by but Michael Jackson has the rights now to all the Beatles tum how much did it bother you when revolution was used to sell Nike sneakers and things like that heaps yeah you know it was a I'll tell you why you see with the Beatles we had all those offers you know anybody who publishes songs you get those offers hey can we use this commercial we had the offers from the big soft drinks companies you know I'm talking about big huge offers to use a Beatle song to use this and that but we always turned them down because we believed it a devalue the whole thing we'd be seen to be selling out which we were keen not to do you know we kind of felt that our fans believed in us and we owed them some sort of integrity we talked to them we knew what they thought of us you know so something like revolution you know it meant more than a pair of sneakers so and I think the danger is it does devalue it and I think even commercially it's not that great a decision but anyone who knows music publishing there's a lot of pressure on you to do that because it's a big heap of cash comes in suddenly and you know it's very hard to resist for anyone but I think we shouldn't do that I don't really think we should do that I think I think it's more sensible leave the kind of legend intact and I think they'll I think they'll do great the songs I think they'll continue to do great and I think to commercialize them like that I think it spoils them and having taken that decision with the Beatles it's now out of our hands really we can we don't have the authority and in order to do that because it's now being sold but I do still think it's a pity but I've I think it's something we might change I don't know in the future but personally I also think as I say it's know it doesn't make commercial sense I think you we can we can we can we can you end up week catalog of songs that are thought of as sneakers automobiles Snickers bars and stuff you know here's here's something I just saw in last week's Rolling Stone with Jerry Garcia on the cover it's obviously John's glasses woke up got out of bed dragged a comb across my head found my way downstairs and drank a cup John Lennon Paul McCartney Maxwell House coffee no boy don't you love it well never mind love it's not the first time and it probably won't be the last but there you go that's what I mean cheap and nasty I reckon but you know I think also the other thing you see I'm kind of subverting this whole thing by sort of letting Maxwell House know that the composer of this these lyrics so actually they happen to be mine doesn't like them being associated with this and I think in the end I think they won't like getting involved with the song where someone's not happy about it you know they'd rather have something clean and simple perhaps I don't know that's that's a hope for the future anyway it goes without saying that we're appreciative it was good to meet you cos thanks a lot okay see you later

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Length: 29min 51sec (1791 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Kool-Kukumber]

Great interview. Was funny hearing Paul say he’ll be performing when he’s 90 considering he’s not too far off from that age any more.

[u/Danielpark05]

"You might remember this better than I do actually. Something about a flat top, that's all I know. "