The Frost Interview - Paul McCartney: 'Still prancing'

he's one of the most famous musicians of all time so much in demand that normally he doesn't have time to give interviews of more than fifteen bit but we're in luck today he's agreed to give us a full hour in front of the camera Paul great to see you again lovely to be here we'll hear his own unique story of the Beatles little bit of a shock to all of us he just announced it all I'm leaving the group watch some of the highs and a few lows in his life future let's see this and we'll hear him play Paul macaque is my guest on the frosted yes honored by their country decorated here are the beetle the Beatles John Paul George and Ringo helped to define the 1960s transforming modern music they played sellout concerts all over the world in front of hysterical fat at the height of Beatlemania fans screamed so loud that the group said they couldn't hear their own music have you been in any way flattered by the historical the excellent desert yeah varies licenses they were carefree cheeky Indian cigars and the rest in the dress rebellion with more than 20 number-one hits through the sixties the Beatles were seemingly unstoppable but the group couldn't love that this mean a business or emotional split within the Beatles actually committed both today Paul will tell us the truth behind the headlines of the split I was fighting the other three guys who are my lifelong buddies will hear inside stories of the group whose studio in London's Abbey Road is still a shrine for them and it's always in my heart the songs written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon live on through the generation he was pretty hot stuff and writing with me I was pretty hot stuff too from humble origins Paul McCartney is now one of the richest men in the world I think people have a strange idea about working guys like they're all thick now 70 is even topped the bill at the White House it's a far cry from the English city of Liverpool in the nineteen fifties when John and Paul met and history was made we started off writing very simple songs together gradually the songs got a little more complex little better as we learn our trade and then eventually because we didn't spend time in hotel rooms together anymore and we lived separately he would write something I would write it and then we would probably finish each other's songs off you know he's fascinating it you really could do that from yeah you know I'd write something like Eleanor Rigby and I just didn't have the last verse or something but I knew how the song went so I take it to him and sort of say okay now here's Hyksos what do you think and it was a great way to work and I valued his opinion greatly as he valued mine because we'd grown up together so we knew that each of us knew and he would say it's great it's fine you know and I had second verse I had a character called father McCartney father McCartney doo-doo-doo-doo and he said oh that's nice I said now that's my dad said I don't really want to be singing about father McCartney so we got the phonebook out McCartney makan day makan McKenzie so he became father McKenzie so those kind of things were were great to do he'd bring a song and I finish it off day in the life he had I read the news today oh boy so we'd finish it together and then do all the verses together slop my little thing in the middle of it all and then occasionally we would write things totally separately and finish them up right just it was really just because we didn't live together anymore I don't think either was minded I sort of write Hey Jude and just play it to him as a finished thing he'd write whatever Strawberry Fields play that to me but it was a great thing you know I looking back on it I really feel blessed to be the guy who wrote with John you know because he was pretty hot stuff and writing with me I was pretty hot stuff too so the two of us you know gelled John and I wrote together something like 300 songs just short of 300 we would meet up sit down to write and three hours later we'd have a song and never never did we have a dry session we never came away from a session which all we can couldn't figure it out we always wrote a song and I said you know looking back on it I think that's pretty cool pretty amazing and we only had a couple of moments where it nearly went perfect but we fix them had a cup of tea so it was pretty great you know it's a great experience for me Liverpool in the 1940s was a tough place in which to grow up it was bombed regularly during the war there was widespread rationing ah but music helped to keep the spirit wrap really my first interest in music my first taste of music would be the family sing alongs which were New Year's Eve and it was a great evening you know it was quite big family they'd roll the carpets back and all the ladies that have little gin and it's Roman Black's baby shams and steadily get drunker during the evening and there'll be someone playing the piano most of the time that was my dad so he would play all these things and later on I took over that role but that's where I heard all these old songs in Chicago Doctor Who and I say the great thing was because that was the entertainment of that Eros it was pre TV so it was great it all sort of I took it all in like a sponge and thrown I grew up I had a great affection for those songs and I realized that I'd been noticing without realizing it the structure of the songs and some of the tricks and some of the things that would later find their way into my songs just because they were in my subconscious well let's take a look at those boyhood days in fact my thoughts are everywhere Oh when rocking my school is forever once we return and that was it that was the himself or so yeah that was one of the homes we moved around a lot my mum was a midwife so we had a few homes that was where we ended up did you think of yourselves as typical British phrases working-class middle-class working-class I thought John was middle-class tom was they had their own house or something yeah yeah they had their own house that was good start for middle classes we were in a council house yeah I was always very proud working class you know that suit me fine I still think of myself as that I still you can still do yeah I do really maybe I should have adapted I haven't I mean in my mind I think I'm actually very proud to be of the working classes you know I think I think people have a strange idea about working class like they're all thick my family was like amazingly intelligent my dad was really a great word Smith my cousin Bert used to compile crosswords for Telegraph Guardian and times which are probably three of the best best words in the world so I mean you know they were there were no slouches when it came to that so I was very proud of that hidden factor of the working classes you know they were they were actually quite well-read quite intelligent until and you said that you'd met princes and prime ministers on but there was nothing better than the common sense of a Liverpool lad or a Liverpool man yeah I believe that um you know I've met as you say lots of great people and I think they are great but I don't think they're any greater than some of the great people I met as a kid you know who were just ordinary people but had you know common sense had the nouse you know had the humour and you know had the wit to not become a prime minister who needs that job did the death of your mother into upped your life you're only 14 when you oh yeah did it was strange because in those days nobody talked about it so we just knew my mom was ill and we had to go and stay with my auntie and then just one morning she came in and just said bad news boys you know your mom's tired and we didn't know of what we didn't know anything about it so yeah it's a huge shock to the system I suppose you just thought what are we going to do now you know what's what's going to happen but it's funny I was talking to friend the other night he was saying a lot of people particularly in in the music business someone like Bono John Lennon myself all had tragedies of that early age and had to sort of pick themselves up and go and do something or go under certainly that was what gave me a big bond with John that we both lost our moms he lost his in a particularly terrible accident and he was very close to his mom as I was to mine so we were to Liverpool kids growing up who'd lost their moms at an early age he was 16 you were 15 when you mean when you so it was early early it was very early so we both had this problem to deal with which was sort of you know a personal loss we had the emotional side to deal with and just the physical side of how we're going to earn some money because my both my parents worked so yeah it was very difficult but it did make me sort of resolved to earn money I really remember looking around the estate where I lived I thinking what's the main problem here you know that I'm gonna I'm gonna cuz I'm gonna have to face it and it was lack of money yeah so nobody had money you know and they were always arguing husband and wives Rory well you never gave me at all you know it was all I thought if I can avoid that this would be good so I think that was kind one of the big things behind doing the Beatles as it was for John you know just sort of get out and as you said any money your first gig as it were was it a Butlins camp was it I yeah that was a little amateur talent contest my brother and I entered and we sang by by loved by the Everly Brothers at short trousers on in those days people you didn't get long trousers till you were like about twelve or something so now you know kids have got jeans and everything to aged five you know one and younger but it was the things I think in our family that I don't know they're doing training your legs yeah or something and even weather-worn for the future but yeah so I these great trials a little school cap and a uniform which I looking back on it I think that was probably my best set of clothes to go to Butlins in you know now it'd be the count of the hair thing the shades and the iPad yeah so yeah we got up on stage and saying bye-bye love and didn't win didn't win no we never won talent conscious The Beatles never won anything we once famously got beaten by a woman an old lady's playing spoons oh no that was a beat she was good mind you yeah and a good spoon glad yes a lot of beating a lot of you apart from spintires your earliest musical influences in those days where were Elvis Buddy Holly Kong Perkins Chuck Berry and Little Richard those Muslims yeah the names that spring to mind we're that fast probably the most influential were Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry because what we notice about them that was different was they sang their own songs they wrote these songs and they played to accompany him self and that was what we wanted to do we had guitars we wanted to sing and then there was this final thing we'll we're right to so Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly were very good writers Chuck Berry's quite a poet no you know in that scene and the other thing works have you suddenly needed to write because we'd be backstage at a gig whether it be other bands on before us and we'd hear long tall Sally Mary I say oh that's my I was gonna do that it would hear you know yeah that's why I choose ago John was gonna do that Oh God and they would do our entire act because we were all drawing from the same source you know records so we started to have to look for b-sides and unusual tracks and then started to think we might try writing some so none of this kind of the great music a map on us the Lennon McCartney Muse was none of that it was just we needed to so they couldn't get at our songs did you write so prolifically the record company couldn't couldn't really keep up with you I mean what when you look at the number of songs of the 1960 to 1963 and 1964 I mean you were fantastically prolific but you know David I mean I love looking back on it especially when I'm talking to younger people about the business because they'll say well how did you do all that I'll say well it was because that was what you did that was what the grown-ups told you to do I remember being in a meeting with Capitol Records and we said to them well what do you want you know they said four singles a year and two albums say okay yep fine you know singles too old all right I'm Brian epps tone would ring us up our manager Brian would ring us up the week before we were going to do an album me and John and he'd say oh to weekly we said you've got next week off to write the album so that was all we could do we couldn't say no we couldn't say we won three weeks it was in fact we had the opposite reaction which was great a week off Wow and we'd write eight or so songs to go in the studio and so it was just what you were expected to do yeah you were told to arrive at the studio 10 o'clock and be prepared by 10:30 for the grown-ups to arrive and then you would tell them what you're going to do John and I would actually then tell George and Ringo what we were going to do because we were written they wouldn't know the song there's no such thing as demos or anything we play the song go and record it in one and a half hours it's all you had and then the next one half hours the other song for the morning yeah so you do these two songs you'd have an hour off for lunch which you paid for yourself down the pub there's a half a bitter and a cheese roll you come back 2:30 to 5:30 do two more songs so you did four songs in a day so it was all that was all we knew it was required so we did it well in fact I read somewhere that George Martin very beginning expected you to be doing a song by him oh I know much more here and in fact I mean you were ready to do your songs and he wasn't expecting that and of course from the word go that was the magic yeah well George told us to do this song he said it's a hit and we wanted a hit he said this is a number-one hit I know so we said well let's hear it he played it was done like it he said oh please boys do it it's a hit so he said no and we resisted very strongly in the end he said look do it and if you really still hate it after you've done it I won't force you to release it so we did it and we still hated it and we still hate it so he gave it to Gerry and the Pacemakers who had a number one hit with it how do you do what you to me classic yeah we were wrong now you know so we just said we're right our oh yeah yeah well let's let's take a look at Beatlemania there was like we came like a religious fervor almost overnight didn't it it must have been thrilling and sometimes terrifying to you I don't think it was terrifying to us because I think we were the good thing about the beatless careers it was a staircase so now we'll you'll get kids come in at the top you know Pop Idol American Idol we got talent whatever in expect up they come in and then over a period of eight weeks their major national stars we we couldn't get arrested at first so we play little clubs and then we play Hamburg and we play little theaters well no ballrooms then theaters but at Le Santa so by the time we came to be really famous and the screaming began we were a little bit used to it yeah we thought it was rather cool I mean we knew them we knew who they were we'd see them the stage door and you kind of had you kind of knew who they were that in fact they were us a few years ago we've been fans very recently so we knew how it felt you know so we were frightened of sure and it really carried on until the sad days when the Beatles came to an end I mean it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime thing it was close and it it grew and sort of evolved which is quite nice we're talking someone recently about that a musician saying that was where we learned that albums ought to evolve rather than just that's their hits and here's another collection of hits exactly the same on your different songs is it we felt we had to grow I always have felt that we were artists and that it would be a good thing to evolve and this next album shouldn't be the same as the last one which it made it more fun of course no probably more difficult but we were just enjoying it but tensions emerged when Yoko Ono became a part of John Lennon's life she was sitting on sessions and you'd have to try and get your mind around this the breakup of the Beatles was never going to be easy but Abbey Road was to be their last album before they split we'll hear more from Paul McCartney in part 2 the truth is they aren't being recognized tonight simply because of their careers as great lyricists or songwriters what's your name Paul McCartney we're talking to Paul McCartney a living legend we just played South America and I hear about 300,000 people since the days of the Beatles pause music has continued to be incredibly successful his marriage to Linda and their four children brought him happiness at home yeah we did have a row and it was like oh forget it let's call Hitler but when a is just 53 Linda contracted Kemp's actually what the doctors had told me privately we caught a too late but first back to 1970 and the news that shook the music were the disbanding of the Beatles the breakup in 1970 was something a lot of people literally took to heart almost as much as the four of you in fact here's that particular moment in history don't you lift is on it Arizona awesome Gallup on your gas get back to you how big he was growing out and to do with there was a time they were just for them but now their mind if their children a time to be stated reactron so having a client's name is mentioned and Alan plan is definitely deserve in this quest announcer five four five four because he doesn't like Alan it's never Pleasant when someone appears not to like unfortunately he is a obligated into Apple for a considerable number of years so yeah it's associated himself with me boyo has really no effect what are your reflections on that period now as you look back it there well Irene it's interesting seeing Allen Klein who is not with us anymore so we shall talk too badly of him but he shall be sued if you do that's true oh it was just a weird thing he came over he wanted the Beatles he made it known that he wanted the Beatles he persuaded John and Yoko that he would be the great manager for the Beatles and he persuaded them he said to Yoko that he would give her an art exhibition in Syracuse so and then he got all sold to pay for it so I mean obviously then she was on his side and the only kind he would say what do you want a million bucks you got it so this is fairly persuasive argument and I went it will wait a minute this doesn't look right to me and so I disagreed with the whole thing and it was not popular for that but they the guys came to me and said he wants 20% I said 20% of the Beatles said tell him 10 if you're going to go with him and they came back now he wants 20 so I had to fight for it it was a very difficult time for me personally because I had to actually I was fighting the other three guys who my lifelong buddies but there was I said no I want to fight Klein they said he's not party to any of the agreements so it made no sense to fight him so you know after long soul-searching and stuff I decided I had to do it or he would take all everything the Beatles had ever owned and stuff so I did and I said now thank goodness you know the people's say thank you you know and said but if Brian Epstein had not died and therefore Allen Klein has not found a space that he could involve himself in huh god knows what would have happened The Beatles might have stayed together and you'd still be in the Beatles today they might have but I think John in particular was ready to do something else and when Yoko came along a part of her attraction I think was the sort of avant-garde side of things which she was famous for and still is so she showed him another way to be that was very attractive to him and I could see that you know she's just sort of said well no look you know how about this don't you like this are you just a rock and roller and so I think it was time for John certainly to leave a little bit of a shock to all of us he just announced it all you know I'm leaving the group and we all said all you sure about that and we tried to keep it together but he was definitely going to leave so that was basically what did it but I think in a way then we realized that we'd come full circle we kind of done everything we wanted to do and it was a neat body of work so it probably was a good idea and then later when we got offers to reform we said no we've done it it won't be as good you know it might might be crummy second time around so in actual fact it wasn't that bad a thing it was a shock at the time you've never really blamed Yoko for the breakup as a lot of people may have you know I think you know at the beginning it was difficult because she was sit in on sessions and you'd have to try and get your mind around this you have to think wait a minute John's in love this woman this is not an ordinary relationship she's not an ordinary woman you've got to admit that and if she wants to sit in on the session it's something that we wouldn't have done our girlfriends or wives wouldn't have done that and it wasn't it was an unspoken rule you wouldn't sit in on a session but so yoke I was doing it so I think it created uncomfortable moments but I she certainly didn't break the group up the group was breaking up and I think she attracted John so much to another way of life that he then went on to do very successfully and had a sort of second part to his career writing things like imagine and doing a give peace a chance I don't think he would have done that without Yoko so you can't blame her after the breakup there were four different careers there but I mean yours was to be the most prolific and so on and you really got going quite quickly as we can see here makes you game so living let down everybody gonna don't be shy I'm gonna say me everybody gonna dare to if you want to you can do anything and Oh I yeah Mario can tiles are really quite different a lot of the things we've been hearing it was a phenomenon in its own right wasn't it yeah I just decided I lived part of the time in Scotland on a farm Linda loved it and she just had this thing was gone so we lived there and brought the kids up there part one of the time and I just thought there's no new Scottish songs is all old airs or Amazing Grace stuff like that but there are no new Scottie songs I thought might be a good thing to try so I tried I got the man from the local pipe band the the master of the ban Tony Wilson he came in the kitchen with his bagpipes because I wanted to know what key it was in I don't know what my parameters were yeah yeah so everyone I said we better go outside very loud in a little kitchen so he's had out in the little garden zone I've got my guitar go oh it's a and do you okay and the hits kept coming but did that wonderful thing you once told me about about yesterday and the fact that you woke up with yesterday and so on did the tunes keep coming that way no that's the only one I've dreamt I don't want to others but that weren't so good and I done the minnow but that was just that was a special one and it's not often songs arrive like that I I just think it was very magical the way that arrived people would say through the ado believe in magic I says I quote that as an example of why I sort of have to believe in something mystical something magical can I have the whole song in my head the whole melody that's quite unusual I think you know I think what's maybe unusual is remembering it and I know I know a lot about you I always forget a drink yeah what have you forgotten yesterday yeah so you would never know that you did hear it over no no no I forgot it but I would have forgotten it yeah and therefore you might have remembered it exactly exactly but then just around the scene away from the field of work really here are some just glimpses of your life and times you and that was a song you dedicated in fact you wrote it recently and dedicated it to Nancy yeah it was written for Nance here and you were immensely blessed in the meeting that you had with Linda that turned into what was a very special 29 years and so on began in the bag of nails did yeah yeah and in the club the bag of nails yeah um I saw her across a crowded room um I just thought she's she's nice she's pretty so actually as she was leaving the club I stood up and blocked her passage as machs more would have said yes in answer I said hello and I introduced myself what's your name my name's I said we're going on to a club after this speakeasy do you want to come so we met up there with her group of friends she was with my group of friends and that was it no we never looked back spent a lot of time with with each other and had four beautiful kids you said once amazingly that you had a terrible round the night before you got married this perfect marriage endless even that can happen the day before but I'm not sure that such thing as a perfect marriage yeah we did have a row um strangely enough and it was like oh forget it let's go get my yeah and of course I mean it was used to describe it as the biggest possible nightmare when when Linda contracted cancer ooh and battled it for what nearly two years hmm yes it was obviously a huge shock anyone who's had that happen in their family knows and you think right let's go let's battle it and in many cases you can in her case we called it too late that becomes very difficult to do anything about but we fought it she fought it we did everything we could but actually what the doctors had told me privately when she contracted it was that no she's recorded too late and that she will probably have about 18 months left and that's what that's what it was we had to manage that time and try and defy their predictions so it was it was a terrible thing for me in the family and all her family yeah something like that it must make you question whether there is somebody there hmm that I can appeal to and he doesn't seem to be listening yeah you know I think you're right it's all very well to say there's a benevolent force and stuff but then that's the old argument who's it when something like that happens where were you what was that about people used to say that you know and still do about punch packs or something you know what's what's that for why is a child born yes disfigured or disabled or something I suppose suppose I kind of choose to ignore that side of things because I I can't I can't work it out you which of these role would you say is the proudest role in your life husband father songwriter musician philanthropist and now crooner father father properly yeah sir and grandfather 2 8 8 yeah the journals the press have trouble catching up with that the last one I saw said six and other ones though but the truth is 8 this they've had two more but I would say being father grandfather is probably my proudest thing but the others are pretty cool too oh yes and then of course you're a father also an 8 year old as well with Heather and so on is it different being an older father when you do it second time around as I have with my eight-year-old daughter I think you're more aware I know other people who in the same situation and you're more aware that time is fleeting so you pay more attention I think often when you're having your kids at an early age you're building your career this is what I find when I talk to people while I was in the office all the time yes you know I never home and so this time around you I make time you've got to accent you with the positive in negative latch on to the affirmative don't mess with in between you got to spread joy up to the maximum bring blue down to minimum have faith all fandemonium Lila to walk upon the scene you latch on to diva don't mess mystery - hey buddy you with your new lead singer there yeah I didn't realize he was going to get up you know it was such a fantastic evening and we just enjoyed being at the White House British tourists basically I'm a big fan of his so we're chatting and Nancy's chatting to his wife or having a great time come to do the concert he gives me my award and then we're going to finish with a Jew so I see them get up as I start to get towards the end of Hey Jude and I think I will they're leaving they've been told you know leave before the end it's seemly so I think that's fair enough bit of a pity but that's fair enough I suddenly see their walking on the stage and he's going Joey Joey Joey Easter through the whole thing very nice and my crew loved him because he had time for them you know he had time for us but he took time out to sort of shake my crews hands and thank them they were on their phones guess who I've just Jacob we had a great evening and now this is our last clip my last clip coming up the future let's see this have you got any ambitions in fact in in other spheres completely I mean do you want to be Prime Minister when does that sort of thing yeah I don't wanna be oh nothing like that no retire when do you think you'll achieve that ambition okay hmm waiting's a guy in a couple of years well idea everybody I imagine says to you the pop world is very short-lived and everyone like that and what will you do when the phase passes do you think the phase will pass does it worry you know yeah I couldn't care less really I don't think I did if we flopped tomorrow it'll be it'll be sad you know but I mean it wouldn't really worry me thank you very much it'll be a great pleasure to watch Paul McCartney in retirement but it will probably be in the year about 2010 I should think thank you he was he wasn't that far out that fell it wasn't oh he was pretty good because here we are two years after that date and you're nowhere near retiring are you not really oh no I saw something I wrote it was quoted as saying the other day it would be pretty sad to be prancing around on a stage at 40 I'm still prancing yeah I'm enjoying it people say to me why do you do it and I said come to one of our shows and you'll see it is phenomenal we just played South America we did free show in the stocks and I hear about 300,000 people learn and the warmth and the feedback that they gave us anyone who saw that or anyone who even heard about it would know that's why I do it that's why I've always done it it's just a great thing to do and I feel sort of privileged to be able to put on a guitar still and play it play the songs that I love old songs and new songs I just really feel very lucky that I'm allowed to do that you know so not interning retiring just yet could we tempt you to play us out with a bit of music I think so Jerry but I think God praise the Lord what if it rain we didn't care she said that someday soon the Sun was gonna shine and she was right this love of mine my Valentine and I will love her for life and I will never let a day go mine without remembering the reasons why she makes me certainly that I can fly and so I do without a care I know that someday soon the Sun is gonna shine and she'll be there this love of mine my Valentine thank you well they daemon under children at your feet one day I managed to play Henry yeah

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 2,174,296

Keywords: John Lennon, al Jazeera, The Beatles, paul mccartney, frostworld, Beatles, aljazeera, The Frost Interview, sir david frost, george harrison, frost over the world, david frost interview with the shah of iran, Frost Interview, paul mccartney happy with you, paul mccartney despite repeated warnings, paul mccartney songs, paul mccartney live, john lennon death, david frost, the worst bass player I ever heard, Quincy Jones, #Beatles, #PaulMcCartney, sixties hits, make love not war

Id: w_9L0zzeA-M

Length: 47min 17sec (2837 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 10 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/practically_floored]

They also lost one to a midget playing (and standing on) a tea chest bass