March 6, 2024 • 31 mins
From his earliest days as a songwriter, Paul McCartney was interested in love songs. But by the time of Wing’s 1976 album “At the Speed of Sound” McCartney had become tired of critics suggesting that was all he wrote. And so he wrote the album’s lead single, a defiant anthem about the importance of love in our lives, and named it “Silly Love Songs.” Through discussing this song with Paul Muldoon, McCartney also touches on some of the other love songs in his catalogue: “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “All My Loving,” “I Will” and one he wrote for his wife, Nancy —”My Valentine.”
“McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” is a co-production between iHeart Media, MPL and Pushkin Industries.
The series was produced by Pejk Malinovski and Sara McCrea; written by Sara McCrea; edited by Dan O’Donnell and Sophie Crane; mastered by Jason Gambrell with assistance from Jake Gorski and sound design by Pejk Malinovski. The series is executive produced by Leital Molad, Justin Richmond, Lee Eastman, Scott Rodger and Paul McCartney.
Thanks to Lee Eastman, Richard Ewbank, Scott Rodger, Aoife Corbett and Steve Ithell.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Pushkin. Hi, everyone, it's Paul muldoon. Before we get to
this episode, I wanted to let you know that you
can binge all twelve episodes of McCartney A Life and
Lyrics right now, add free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber.
(00:35):
Find Pushkin Plus on the McCartney A Life and Lyrics Show,
pedge in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
The vast majority of people in this city believe in
love because they're getting married, or they getting engaged, or
they're going to see a film. This idea of love
is very strong and sometimes gets knocked because it also
can be seen as sloppy. But the romantic thing is
(01:14):
one of the things I write about a lot. One
day with the bluebird, with the beaches. They're marvelous, the wonderful,
the beautiful, idyllic world that we love to just be in,
even if he's just in a dream, or even if
he's just watching a film. That's a feeling. When a
(01:34):
film does that to you, it gives you that, oh
my god, life's great.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'm Paul will do for a while now. I've been
fortunate to spend time with one of the greatest songwriters
of the era, and.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Will you look at me I'm going on to I'm
actually a performer.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is Sir Paul McCartney. We work together on a
book looking at the lyrics of more than one hundred
and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many hours
of our conversations.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It was like going back to an old snapshot album
looking back on work I hadn't ever analyzed.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
This is McCartney, a life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir,
and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic
figures in popular music. In this episode Silly Love Songs,
looking back on McCartney's prolific career, it's obvious that the
(02:47):
dominant theme across his music is love. I guess this
is true across the history of music. Love songs always
topped the charts, songs about wanting love, falling in love,
being in love, rejecting love. We seem unable to exhaust
the subject, though a few Paul McCarthy. These critics have
(03:10):
accused him of trying to, so much so that he
eventually felt compelled to write Silly Love Songs, a love
song about writing love songs.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And what's wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I like to know the rang.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Again.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
From his earliest days as a songwriter, Paul McCartney was
drawn to songs about romance.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
As a.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
SENDMA to you, remember that, always be in love with you,
treasure these.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Your zose certain set of subjects to write things about.
Love is very much wall revenge, breakups, desire, you know,
and that covers an awful lot of territory those few categories.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Unlike the small sy love songs of their parents' generation,
the Beatles love songs were fresh and cheeky, filled with
the light hearted fun of young love. In the early
Beatles records, nearly every song was a love song, but
often carrying some twist or clever take on tired romance cliches.
(04:47):
For example, McCartney was able to use the love song
as a vehicle for a critique of materialism My.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Now Rainbow Friends Below Ryan.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It just bangs in, there's no intro, can't Bobby comes
right in, so it's very instant, very simple, and then
it goes into you know, by your diamond ring, by
you anything. But it's still won't part.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
Of me love because I don't care you that the money,
the money love, so it's.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Just you know, materialism versus love. It really is quite
a simple idea. You know, you can have all the
money in the world, but that's not kind of by
you love. But I found it a neat little way
to say it quickly.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That said, the young lads from Liverpool were interested in
both love and money, and they caught on that writing
about love would be a quick way to reach a
big audience.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You know, nowadays people have a slightly sort of more
hyphalutin idea of what you're doing when you're writing soult
and what we were doing when we were writing them.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Close and I'll kiss you.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
There was a certain formula the pronoun I you me him, her, my,
she love me, I saw her standing I'll get you,
or my look, I want to hold your hand.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
But you probably weren't feeling that was formulaic at the time,
were you.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
No? Not really no, no, we weren't. But looking back
on it, all they were all I may love. Because
you wanted to contact the fans, there were songs to
contact the people with.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The Beatles did contact people on a massive scale, and
as they developed their musical style, ernest love songs remained
front and center. Take for instance, McCartney's I Will from
the White album.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Who Knows hal long I've loved you?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know?
Speaker 7 (07:37):
I love you still?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Will I wait, lo me loud?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Did you want me too? I will see I wasn't
actually wait for anyone. But it's a very romantic idea.
So it's me as the Troubadour. It's me, you know,
wandering around show and Forrest, you know, play.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Alan a Dale the lud playing Troubadour Risk from the
nineteen seventy three Disney film Robin.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I love that movie. I love that thing.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It's that kind of thing. It's me as that guy.
And then so you know, if if you want me to,
I will. And then for if I ever saw you,
I didn't catch your name, I never really mattered. I'll
always gonna say.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So you I did got your name.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's too like an amorphous person. Instead of every man,
it's every girl. And I'm very much think that I
don't have to have a face. It's a dream of
a face.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
Very mad.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I will.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
We feel the same for me. It's so satisfying to
get in touch with that feeling. And the other thing is,
of course then the tune, the melody. But I'm coaxing
out of this thing. I'm getting to this, you know,
(09:19):
Alan Dale place strolling minstrel place de body down. Then
I'm also trying to make this tune fit these words
in feeling. I'm trying to get this chew to have
(09:40):
heart and there's tune to be as appealing as this
thought of finding love is.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Weird, weird.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
All I would have is just a little path through
pencil notes with the lyrics. But if I come out
with this thing in this case, I will. It's more
than satisfying. It's quite a thrill because you know you've
done it. Yes.
Speaker 8 (10:24):
One of the most fascinating things, one of the most
mysterious things, it seems to me, is how one knows that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I think, just when it's good, it's good. You just
know this is I've just written a good tune. This
melody is good and these words fit it. And so
someone listening to this will relate to this. I just
know it because you've cooked this recipe and you just
(10:55):
know it's going to taste good. You don't know how
offer it to people, and do you know they're going
to taste it and go this taste good?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
McCarty's Love Songs take their inspiration and from everything and everywhere,
but he's often drawn on the edge old tradition of
writing to amuse. The song My Love, for instance, was
written to his first wife, Linda McCartney.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And where I Go, where I Know my heart can
stay with mine. It's a fuel love song to Linda,
and it talks about some of the things I value
(11:48):
in a song manner. You know, when I go away,
I know my heart and stay with my love. You know,
that's the idea of faithfulness.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
But into just.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Those lines bad for instance, I don't know, even at
the breakup of the Beatles, when the couple was getting
pretty bare, when me and Linda would go away to Scotland,
there was plenty there, you know. So it's just other
(12:24):
ways of saying, you know, when we were down and out,
she'll still be there. I might go away, She'll be
there when I get back. I'm just doing a reaffirmation
of my love for Linda. But I also hope that
other people, because it doesn't just say my Linda, it is.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
My love, so that other people will be able to
relate to it and go, yeah, wow, that's great, she.
Speaker 9 (12:54):
Said for me too.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There's also my Valentine, which Paul McCartney wrote for his
wife Nancy. What if it rained, we didn't care.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
She's the that someday soon the sun was gonna shine.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
My Mountine is the most definite story. I had fallen
in love with my lady Nancy, but we weren't an
item yet, and in my case I always got looking
over my shoulder for paparazzi. But we went on holiday
(13:36):
to Morocco to a quiet little hotel I knew of.
And because we weren't tonight and we didn't stay together
in the same room, Nancy got a room and I
had a room, and my brother and his wife were
on holiday with us. They had a room. And it
rained the whole bloody time. Might as well have stayed
(13:59):
in Manchester, you know, it just rained. But we had
a great time, and the lovely thing was I was
getting to know none. And as you do in those
kind of occasions, I apologize to her for the rain,
like it was my fault. I so I'm really sorry
(14:19):
that I'm really sorry about all this rain. She said,
doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
What him in rain. We didn't care.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
She said that someday soon some who's gonna shine And
the attitude of it doesn't matter. We're so sort of sweet.
There's really resonated with me. I thought that's great. You know.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Paul McCartney had many muses throughout his career. Sometimes the
music was inspired by was a little hairy, as was
the case in Martha, My Dear, Martha, my.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
Dear, the last spend my days in conversation, Remember me, Martha,
my love, don't forget me, Martha, my dear.
Speaker 7 (15:31):
Martha, my dear.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It was about my dog. She was an English sheep dog.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Here.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'd never had a dog, and I'd always kind of
wanted one, but we hadn't been able to have one
because my mom and dad both worked so they were
out all day and we were at school, so we never.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Had a dog.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But when I grew up, was in the Beatles and
had a house on my own and actually had someone
looking after the house, then I could get a dog,
I felt, you know. So I went along to a
place and selected this little dog, and it was beautiful.
There's a little fluffy puppy. They're very cute puppies. Well,
(16:14):
all dogs are cute puppies, but this particularly cute. She
was a lovely little dog, and I just adored her.
You know, we became great friends. Every time I came home,
there was this little wiggly bundle of fluff loving to
see me.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I used to take her out to the country of
long walks, take her out to Regent's Park where she
would see a dock on the lake and forget that
you couldn't walk on water, so she'd run into it,
be like a cartoon. Well, oh, it was very nice,
and I remember John being very sort of sympathetic to me.
(17:07):
I think he warned me seeing me with a pet.
John was a cat guy. He loved his cats.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
And when you say warmed to you, yeah, I remember
you know him.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I just remember a sort of when he came around
and I'd be playing with Martha. I could tell that
he liked it.
Speaker 8 (17:30):
You know, I heard this time of course of good mind.
But I don't know if I knew at the time
that Martha wasn't dark.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
No, not many people knew that, except the fans who
had seen me with with my only issue dog was
called Martha again. You know, I like the sort of
mystery of songwriting and creating things because it's not like
having to write a historical essay it doesn't have to
(18:05):
be true, which to me is a great thing. Mother.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
Might you have always been my sporation. Be good to me,
my love, don't forget.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Me nots might.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
All this singing about love over the years has made
some harder boiled music fans and critics dismissive. McCartney has
contended with accusations of being sentimental, schmaltzy, of lacking sophistication.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I think a lot of people who are cynical about
it haven't been lucky enough to feel it, you know.
Often sort of wonder what the critic who damns it
looks like, what his life, his or her life looks like.
(19:10):
I often want to get a photograph of them and go, oh,
it's him, not listening to him, because you can't have
outlive them anyway, you know, they come and go.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
While some of McCartney's critics are tired of love as
a subject, others are more specifically disdainful of an over
earnest attempt at the sound of love, schmaltz and musical
grandeur the way many classic love songs are produced. When
(19:44):
Paul McCartney wrote The Long and Winding Road, he initially
recorded it as a straightforward ballad, a strict down ode
to the mysterious journey of love, the love and.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Winding badly.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Do your.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Will never disappear.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I've seen that road before.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It's a bit creepy, you know, this road of stretching
and winding, and I had it also in my mind.
There is a road on our farm in Scotland which
leads to the road End, as they call it. It's
called the road End, which is the tea junction. So
this idea of life being a long winding road that
(20:48):
never ends, will never disappear. I've seen that road before.
Lead me to your door, so give me a clue here.
You know. It's like John when he went up in
the helicopter with Marishi, said he hoped he'd slip in
the answer, let.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Me know the word. Many times I've been alone, and
many times I'm right.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
We recorded it and I'll inclined. That's what he didn't
think the record was sort of glamorous enough, so he
wanted it to be made more glamorous, and I think
everyone went okay.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Klein suggested that the band work with producer Phil Spector,
who's more involved or chestral arrangement. Dazzled with sentiment.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Love Wandy doo yr.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Well never disappeared.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
I've seen that role before.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
This became the Beatles' final number one song in America,
but some took issue with the grand production. At least
one journalist complained that Specter's production made the song unlistenable.
It wasn't the first time critics but complain about McCartney's
love songs, and it wouldn't be the last.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I was being accused of just writing silly love songs
and was in danger of starting to buy into this
idea that you should just be a bit tougher and
a bit more worldly, and then asking me, really, that's
(23:03):
exactly what love is. It's worldly. So this idea came
to me, you know, you think of people would hardy
not well? I look around me and I say it doesn't.
So some people want to fill the world with sailly
(23:24):
love songs. What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
People want to build the world.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
What's silly love songs?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 7 (23:37):
I'd like to know, does he want.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
To go.
Speaker 10 (23:44):
Again instead about lowering songs about love?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Just get on with it, get into it, and don't
be embarrassed. Because even though you can't say this is
a soppy subject. It actually is the opposite. It's actually
very deep and meaningful and basis of most religions and
(24:26):
most philosophy. This thing people can feel for each other
that makes life better if they can engage in it.
(24:51):
So yeah, I mean that there's no more to this
than that. That doesn't come in a minute. Love doesn't
come in a minute. Sometimes it doesn't come at all.
I only know that when I'm in it. It isn't silly.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Love isn't silly.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Was there's a response to someone who actually did say.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
This, response to a lot of people who would say
that about it. Yeah, that was kind of I was
given that reputation, you know, and I had to stand
up for it. I think it is easier to get
(25:50):
good criticism if you rail against things and probably swear
a lot, because it just makes you seem stronger. Oh
there's fucking weather. It's fucking unbelievable that I fucking hate thonder,
I fucking hate lightning.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
What the fuck is God doing this for?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
What's the point? I told her? Rather well, said, says
the critic was marvelous. You go, Oh, it's a lovely day.
It's nice. I like the rain.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Soppy bastard.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
So that's a contrary that bold John had a lot
of that.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
I think often people who do it it's a shield right
against life.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
The lyrics to Silly Love Songs have McCartney leaning into
his sappiest nature, shrugging off is rock star persona. The
song is even set to a disco track. He sounds
like he's celebrating every romantic cliche he can deploy, and really,
(27:21):
what's wrong with that?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I like to know.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The rang go.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
Again?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's so beautifully direct.
I love you.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
A friend of mine outlawed the word love in asant
I thought, I get it. You know, it's been news
many times before, and so you know, for maybe a
day or two you're trying and avoid it, thinking, yes,
good idea, and you should just avoided with them now
(28:21):
because I'm known for that, and because I wrote the
song saying what's wrong would silly love songs?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I mean it's something I think about, you know, I
think about this whole planet and the whole human race.
And then in China right now there's these two people
and they love each other and they getting married and
(28:51):
committing the whole lives to each other, or in South
America right now, there's a mother having a baby and
loving this baby, and the father is loving this baby.
So the point I'm making, you know, fairly obvious, is
(29:12):
that this love thing is global and goes throughout not
only humans but animals, goes throughout creatures. So a mother
horse can love its fall. So it really becomes very important,
(29:36):
which outweighs the fact that it might be soppy. So
you're always trying to say it in a kind of
non soppy way, nearest I ever got to it do
with silly love songs, you know, which is I'm purposely
being soppy, you know, But now I think it is.
It's staggeringly important word feeling because it's going on everywhere
(30:04):
in the whole of existence right now.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I would have had it not the silly love song.
Speaker 7 (30:15):
I'm growing easy, and so.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Some people will.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
Silly love songs.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Wrong with.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Silly love songs from Wings at the Speed of Sound,
released in nineteen seventy six. In the next episode, that
strange and awesome jewel A Day in the Life.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Welcome fell out of bed, dragged a calm across my head.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
That's next time on McCartney A Life in Lyrics.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
Looking up, I noticed I was late fam Code Grandma McCartney.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
A Life in Lyrics is a co production between iHeartMedia
n p L and Pushkin Industries
Pushkin. Hi, everyone, it's Paul muldoon. Before we get to
this episode, I wanted to let you know that you
can binge all twelve episodes of McCartney A Life and
Lyrics right now, add free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber.
(00:35):
Find Pushkin Plus on the McCartney A Life and Lyrics Show,
pedge in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot fm, slash plus.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
The vast majority of people in this city believe in
love because they're getting married, or they getting engaged, or
they're going to see a film. This idea of love
is very strong and sometimes gets knocked because it also
can be seen as sloppy. But the romantic thing is
(01:14):
one of the things I write about a lot. One
day with the bluebird, with the beaches. They're marvelous, the wonderful,
the beautiful, idyllic world that we love to just be in,
even if he's just in a dream, or even if
he's just watching a film. That's a feeling. When a
(01:34):
film does that to you, it gives you that, oh
my god, life's great.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'm Paul will do for a while now. I've been
fortunate to spend time with one of the greatest songwriters
of the era, and.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Will you look at me I'm going on to I'm
actually a performer.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is Sir Paul McCartney. We work together on a
book looking at the lyrics of more than one hundred
and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many hours
of our conversations.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It was like going back to an old snapshot album
looking back on work I hadn't ever analyzed.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
This is McCartney, a life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir,
and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic
figures in popular music. In this episode Silly Love Songs,
looking back on McCartney's prolific career, it's obvious that the
(02:47):
dominant theme across his music is love. I guess this
is true across the history of music. Love songs always
topped the charts, songs about wanting love, falling in love,
being in love, rejecting love. We seem unable to exhaust
the subject, though a few Paul McCarthy. These critics have
(03:10):
accused him of trying to, so much so that he
eventually felt compelled to write Silly Love Songs, a love
song about writing love songs.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And what's wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I like to know the rang.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Again.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
From his earliest days as a songwriter, Paul McCartney was
drawn to songs about romance.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
As a.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
SENDMA to you, remember that, always be in love with you,
treasure these.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Your zose certain set of subjects to write things about.
Love is very much wall revenge, breakups, desire, you know,
and that covers an awful lot of territory those few categories.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Unlike the small sy love songs of their parents' generation,
the Beatles love songs were fresh and cheeky, filled with
the light hearted fun of young love. In the early
Beatles records, nearly every song was a love song, but
often carrying some twist or clever take on tired romance cliches.
(04:47):
For example, McCartney was able to use the love song
as a vehicle for a critique of materialism My.
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Now Rainbow Friends Below Ryan.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It just bangs in, there's no intro, can't Bobby comes
right in, so it's very instant, very simple, and then
it goes into you know, by your diamond ring, by
you anything. But it's still won't part.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
Of me love because I don't care you that the money,
the money love, so it's.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Just you know, materialism versus love. It really is quite
a simple idea. You know, you can have all the
money in the world, but that's not kind of by
you love. But I found it a neat little way
to say it quickly.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That said, the young lads from Liverpool were interested in
both love and money, and they caught on that writing
about love would be a quick way to reach a
big audience.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You know, nowadays people have a slightly sort of more
hyphalutin idea of what you're doing when you're writing soult
and what we were doing when we were writing them.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Close and I'll kiss you.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
There was a certain formula the pronoun I you me him, her, my,
she love me, I saw her standing I'll get you,
or my look, I want to hold your hand.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
But you probably weren't feeling that was formulaic at the time,
were you.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
No? Not really no, no, we weren't. But looking back
on it, all they were all I may love. Because
you wanted to contact the fans, there were songs to
contact the people with.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The Beatles did contact people on a massive scale, and
as they developed their musical style, ernest love songs remained
front and center. Take for instance, McCartney's I Will from
the White album.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Who Knows hal long I've loved you?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
You know?
Speaker 7 (07:37):
I love you still?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Will I wait, lo me loud?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Did you want me too? I will see I wasn't
actually wait for anyone. But it's a very romantic idea.
So it's me as the Troubadour. It's me, you know,
wandering around show and Forrest, you know, play.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Alan a Dale the lud playing Troubadour Risk from the
nineteen seventy three Disney film Robin.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I love that movie. I love that thing.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
It's that kind of thing. It's me as that guy.
And then so you know, if if you want me to,
I will. And then for if I ever saw you,
I didn't catch your name, I never really mattered. I'll
always gonna say.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
So you I did got your name.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It's too like an amorphous person. Instead of every man,
it's every girl. And I'm very much think that I
don't have to have a face. It's a dream of
a face.
Speaker 6 (08:55):
Very mad.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I will.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
We feel the same for me. It's so satisfying to
get in touch with that feeling. And the other thing is,
of course then the tune, the melody. But I'm coaxing
out of this thing. I'm getting to this, you know,
(09:19):
Alan Dale place strolling minstrel place de body down. Then
I'm also trying to make this tune fit these words
in feeling. I'm trying to get this chew to have
(09:40):
heart and there's tune to be as appealing as this
thought of finding love is.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Weird, weird.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
All I would have is just a little path through
pencil notes with the lyrics. But if I come out
with this thing in this case, I will. It's more
than satisfying. It's quite a thrill because you know you've
done it. Yes.
Speaker 8 (10:24):
One of the most fascinating things, one of the most
mysterious things, it seems to me, is how one knows that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I think, just when it's good, it's good. You just
know this is I've just written a good tune. This
melody is good and these words fit it. And so
someone listening to this will relate to this. I just
know it because you've cooked this recipe and you just
(10:55):
know it's going to taste good. You don't know how
offer it to people, and do you know they're going
to taste it and go this taste good?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
McCarty's Love Songs take their inspiration and from everything and everywhere,
but he's often drawn on the edge old tradition of
writing to amuse. The song My Love, for instance, was
written to his first wife, Linda McCartney.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And where I Go, where I Know my heart can
stay with mine. It's a fuel love song to Linda,
and it talks about some of the things I value
(11:48):
in a song manner. You know, when I go away,
I know my heart and stay with my love. You know,
that's the idea of faithfulness.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
But into just.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Those lines bad for instance, I don't know, even at
the breakup of the Beatles, when the couple was getting
pretty bare, when me and Linda would go away to Scotland,
there was plenty there, you know. So it's just other
(12:24):
ways of saying, you know, when we were down and out,
she'll still be there. I might go away, She'll be
there when I get back. I'm just doing a reaffirmation
of my love for Linda. But I also hope that
other people, because it doesn't just say my Linda, it is.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
My love, so that other people will be able to
relate to it and go, yeah, wow, that's great, she.
Speaker 9 (12:54):
Said for me too.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
There's also my Valentine, which Paul McCartney wrote for his
wife Nancy. What if it rained, we didn't care.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
She's the that someday soon the sun was gonna shine.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
My Mountine is the most definite story. I had fallen
in love with my lady Nancy, but we weren't an
item yet, and in my case I always got looking
over my shoulder for paparazzi. But we went on holiday
(13:36):
to Morocco to a quiet little hotel I knew of.
And because we weren't tonight and we didn't stay together
in the same room, Nancy got a room and I
had a room, and my brother and his wife were
on holiday with us. They had a room. And it
rained the whole bloody time. Might as well have stayed
(13:59):
in Manchester, you know, it just rained. But we had
a great time, and the lovely thing was I was
getting to know none. And as you do in those
kind of occasions, I apologize to her for the rain,
like it was my fault. I so I'm really sorry
(14:19):
that I'm really sorry about all this rain. She said,
doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
What him in rain. We didn't care.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
She said that someday soon some who's gonna shine And
the attitude of it doesn't matter. We're so sort of sweet.
There's really resonated with me. I thought that's great. You know.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Paul McCartney had many muses throughout his career. Sometimes the
music was inspired by was a little hairy, as was
the case in Martha, My Dear, Martha, my.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
Dear, the last spend my days in conversation, Remember me, Martha,
my love, don't forget me, Martha, my dear.
Speaker 7 (15:31):
Martha, my dear.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It was about my dog. She was an English sheep dog.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Here.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'd never had a dog, and I'd always kind of
wanted one, but we hadn't been able to have one
because my mom and dad both worked so they were
out all day and we were at school, so we never.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Had a dog.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
But when I grew up, was in the Beatles and
had a house on my own and actually had someone
looking after the house, then I could get a dog,
I felt, you know. So I went along to a
place and selected this little dog, and it was beautiful.
There's a little fluffy puppy. They're very cute puppies. Well,
(16:14):
all dogs are cute puppies, but this particularly cute. She
was a lovely little dog, and I just adored her.
You know, we became great friends. Every time I came home,
there was this little wiggly bundle of fluff loving to
see me.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I used to take her out to the country of
long walks, take her out to Regent's Park where she
would see a dock on the lake and forget that
you couldn't walk on water, so she'd run into it,
be like a cartoon. Well, oh, it was very nice,
and I remember John being very sort of sympathetic to me.
(17:07):
I think he warned me seeing me with a pet.
John was a cat guy. He loved his cats.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
And when you say warmed to you, yeah, I remember
you know him.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
I just remember a sort of when he came around
and I'd be playing with Martha. I could tell that
he liked it.
Speaker 8 (17:30):
You know, I heard this time of course of good mind.
But I don't know if I knew at the time
that Martha wasn't dark.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
No, not many people knew that, except the fans who
had seen me with with my only issue dog was
called Martha again. You know, I like the sort of
mystery of songwriting and creating things because it's not like
having to write a historical essay it doesn't have to
(18:05):
be true, which to me is a great thing. Mother.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
Might you have always been my sporation. Be good to me,
my love, don't forget.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Me nots might.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
All this singing about love over the years has made
some harder boiled music fans and critics dismissive. McCartney has
contended with accusations of being sentimental, schmaltzy, of lacking sophistication.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I think a lot of people who are cynical about
it haven't been lucky enough to feel it, you know.
Often sort of wonder what the critic who damns it
looks like, what his life, his or her life looks like.
(19:10):
I often want to get a photograph of them and go, oh,
it's him, not listening to him, because you can't have
outlive them anyway, you know, they come and go.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
While some of McCartney's critics are tired of love as
a subject, others are more specifically disdainful of an over
earnest attempt at the sound of love, schmaltz and musical
grandeur the way many classic love songs are produced. When
(19:44):
Paul McCartney wrote The Long and Winding Road, he initially
recorded it as a straightforward ballad, a strict down ode
to the mysterious journey of love, the love and.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Winding badly.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Do your.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Will never disappear.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I've seen that road before.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It's a bit creepy, you know, this road of stretching
and winding, and I had it also in my mind.
There is a road on our farm in Scotland which
leads to the road End, as they call it. It's
called the road End, which is the tea junction. So
this idea of life being a long winding road that
(20:48):
never ends, will never disappear. I've seen that road before.
Lead me to your door, so give me a clue here.
You know. It's like John when he went up in
the helicopter with Marishi, said he hoped he'd slip in
the answer, let.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Me know the word. Many times I've been alone, and
many times I'm right.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
We recorded it and I'll inclined. That's what he didn't
think the record was sort of glamorous enough, so he
wanted it to be made more glamorous, and I think
everyone went okay.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Klein suggested that the band work with producer Phil Spector,
who's more involved or chestral arrangement. Dazzled with sentiment.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Love Wandy doo yr.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Well never disappeared.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
I've seen that role before.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
This became the Beatles' final number one song in America,
but some took issue with the grand production. At least
one journalist complained that Specter's production made the song unlistenable.
It wasn't the first time critics but complain about McCartney's
love songs, and it wouldn't be the last.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I was being accused of just writing silly love songs
and was in danger of starting to buy into this
idea that you should just be a bit tougher and
a bit more worldly, and then asking me, really, that's
(23:03):
exactly what love is. It's worldly. So this idea came
to me, you know, you think of people would hardy
not well? I look around me and I say it doesn't.
So some people want to fill the world with sailly
(23:24):
love songs. What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
People want to build the world.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
What's silly love songs?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 7 (23:37):
I'd like to know, does he want.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
To go.
Speaker 10 (23:44):
Again instead about lowering songs about love?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Just get on with it, get into it, and don't
be embarrassed. Because even though you can't say this is
a soppy subject. It actually is the opposite. It's actually
very deep and meaningful and basis of most religions and
(24:26):
most philosophy. This thing people can feel for each other
that makes life better if they can engage in it.
(24:51):
So yeah, I mean that there's no more to this
than that. That doesn't come in a minute. Love doesn't
come in a minute. Sometimes it doesn't come at all.
I only know that when I'm in it. It isn't silly.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Love isn't silly.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Was there's a response to someone who actually did say.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
This, response to a lot of people who would say
that about it. Yeah, that was kind of I was
given that reputation, you know, and I had to stand
up for it. I think it is easier to get
(25:50):
good criticism if you rail against things and probably swear
a lot, because it just makes you seem stronger. Oh
there's fucking weather. It's fucking unbelievable that I fucking hate thonder,
I fucking hate lightning.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
What the fuck is God doing this for?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
What's the point? I told her? Rather well, said, says
the critic was marvelous. You go, Oh, it's a lovely day.
It's nice. I like the rain.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Soppy bastard.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
So that's a contrary that bold John had a lot
of that.
Speaker 9 (26:31):
I think often people who do it it's a shield right
against life.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
The lyrics to Silly Love Songs have McCartney leaning into
his sappiest nature, shrugging off is rock star persona. The
song is even set to a disco track. He sounds
like he's celebrating every romantic cliche he can deploy, and really,
(27:21):
what's wrong with that?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
What's wrong with that?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
I like to know.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The rang go.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
Again?
Speaker 1 (27:53):
There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's so beautifully direct.
I love you.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
A friend of mine outlawed the word love in asant
I thought, I get it. You know, it's been news
many times before, and so you know, for maybe a
day or two you're trying and avoid it, thinking, yes,
good idea, and you should just avoided with them now
(28:21):
because I'm known for that, and because I wrote the
song saying what's wrong would silly love songs?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I mean it's something I think about, you know, I
think about this whole planet and the whole human race.
And then in China right now there's these two people
and they love each other and they getting married and
(28:51):
committing the whole lives to each other, or in South
America right now, there's a mother having a baby and
loving this baby, and the father is loving this baby.
So the point I'm making, you know, fairly obvious, is
(29:12):
that this love thing is global and goes throughout not
only humans but animals, goes throughout creatures. So a mother
horse can love its fall. So it really becomes very important,
(29:36):
which outweighs the fact that it might be soppy. So
you're always trying to say it in a kind of
non soppy way, nearest I ever got to it do
with silly love songs, you know, which is I'm purposely
being soppy, you know, But now I think it is.
It's staggeringly important word feeling because it's going on everywhere
(30:04):
in the whole of existence right now.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
I would have had it not the silly love song.
Speaker 7 (30:15):
I'm growing easy, and so.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Some people will.
Speaker 7 (30:26):
Silly love songs.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Wrong with.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Silly love songs from Wings at the Speed of Sound,
released in nineteen seventy six. In the next episode, that
strange and awesome jewel A Day in the Life.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Welcome fell out of bed, dragged a calm across my head.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
That's next time on McCartney A Life in Lyrics.
Speaker 6 (31:13):
Looking up, I noticed I was late fam Code Grandma McCartney.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
A Life in Lyrics is a co production between iHeartMedia
n p L and Pushkin Industries
Host
Paul McCartney
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