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An interview with Paul McCartney
On the eve of the Fab Four's first-ever look back at their magical decade, Paul McCartney
talked candidly with Amazon.co.uk contributor Johnny Black about his time with the most
influential band of our time.
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Amazon.co.uk: Looking right back to the beginning, all your heroes were American
rockers...
Paul McCartney: Well, actually, no, not all of them. I remember going to see Lonnie
Donegan in 1956 at the Empire in Liverpool. It was wonderful. After we saw him and the
skiffle groups, we just wanted guitars. Denny Wright, his guitar player, we really used to
love--he was great. Lonnie was the man at one time. He kind of started the English scene
in many ways, and he was highly instrumental in making us buy guitars.
Amazon.co.uk: Did you have any other unlikely influences?
McCartney: I've always loved the great songs of the '30s and '40s. "Stardust",
for example, has just always been one of my favourite melodies. I love Hoagy Carmichael. I
just think it's a fantastic tune. In the old days the writers would make a verse to
precede the song; this has one of the great preceding verses of all time that leads into
the song. John and I, when we first started, always used to admire the fact that these
older songs had these verses, so one or two of our songs had truncated opening verses.
"Here There And Everywhere" (from Revolver) has it with "To lead a better
life, I need my love to be here". That happens in a few of our songs, and it's a kind
of homage to the verse in the old standards.
Amazon.co.uk: But 1950s rock, presumably, was the Beatles' greatest inspiration. Do you
have a favourite track from that era?
McCartney: It changes every time I'm asked, but probably... "Jailhouse Rock" by
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller who were great songwriters. I just think that line "If
you can't find a partner, use a wooden chair" and all those little jail references;
Leiber and Stoller's production is great, and the snare in particular is fantastic on
Elvis's version--his vocal is better than many an opera singer on this track. A killer
vocal. What I particularly like about Leiber and Stoller is that they didn't just write
"Jailhouse Rock" or "All Shook Up", they also wrote "I Who Have
Nothing", a completely different type of song.
Amazon.co.uk: And a favourite from the 1960s?
McCartney: It's got to be "A Whiter Shade Of Pale". The first time I ever heard
it was the night I met Linda. We met at the Bag O'Nails, and we went on to The Speakeasy,
and they played the record there. We were with Keith Moon of The Who and Eric Burdon of
The Animals, and we were all trying to figure out who it was. We all thought it must be
Stevie Winwood, but it turned out to be Procol (Harum). We just said, "This is the
best song ever, man". And it became mine and Linda's song, so that's why I have a
special affection for it.
Amazon.co.uk: When you were signed to EMI, what was it like to go into the huge Abbey Road
studios?
McCartney: I remember coming in the very first time ever, like nervous children, and
George having just sustained a black eye at the Cavern from some guy who'd popped him one.
We were doing "Love Me Do", which John and I sang in unison, until John was to
break off and sing "Love me do..." just before the harmonica solo. George Martin
liked the way John was playing the harmonica, but the last word of the line and the first
notes of the harmonica overlapped on the same bar, so it wasn't possible for John to do
both. So George Martin asked me if I'd do that last line, so I ended up having to do this
little bit of lead vocal that I wasn't really prepared for. I can still hear the quiver in
my voice, from the pure fear of him throwing that at me.
Amazon.co.uk: How did the fame affect you?
McCartney: I think that what people want is for you to believe in yourself and to secretly
be conceited, but to not tell them. You're supposed to say, "Oh no, I don't think
we're awfully good". And then they could say, "Oh, but you're really
great". And we could say, "Oh, thank you, do you really think so?" But we
all know that's a little bit of bullshit so the truth is that I think we were great. I can
say that now because the body of the work has been done. The jury's in and I don't think
we have to argue.
Amazon.co.uk: How did you feel when you were so closely imitated by the Monkees?
McCartney: We had heard that this American publisher, Don Kirshner, was putting them
together so we knew that they were a totally fabricated group. So that was a given. We
understood--and they understood--what they were. They were very upfront about the fact
that they didn't play much on their records, and they used the best LA session men, like
Hal Blaine on drums, so we came to respect them.
Then Mickey Dolenz came to London on a visit and I hooked up with him and we spent an
evening getting sloshed together, and he said, "You guys are gods!" So I took to
him instantly. We got to know them and developed a bit of a friendship because they had a
good sense of humour. And some of their records, whoever was playing on them, they were
good records.
Amazon.co.uk: Do you have a favourite Beatles song?
McCartney: That's very difficult. "A Day In The Life" was brilliant. Basically
it's John's song, but I worked on it with him from the start. He told me his idea, which
was to base the lyric on newspaper articles, so we flipped through the newspaper and found
little articles, like one about holes in the street in Blackburn, Lancashire, and another
one about the Albert Hall. John cleverly linked the two things together with "now you
know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall", which got us banned because
the BBC thought we were being rude (which we weren't).
Amazon.co.uk: And a favourite Beatles album?
McCartney: I'd certainly put Abbey Road in the Top Five Beatles albums. Difficult to say
where in the top five. Rubber Soul was a great album, Revolver, Sgt Pepper, White Album...
Amazon.co.uk: When did it all fall apart?
McCartney: During the White Album. We were still writing great stuff, I'm a huge fan of
John's, so "Glass Onion" was a great song. But while we were writing that, and
the "Ballad Of John And Yoko", the group was definitely breaking up. So I just
remember when John came round to my house and he wanted me to help him finish up
"Ballad Of John And Yoko". He mainly had it all down--I didn't do much on
it--but he wanted me to help with the recording. He wanted to run in that day and record
it because he knew that between the two of us, I could play bass and drums and he could
play guitar, so he knew we could get it done. It was just a question of immediacy. I could
feel though that things were breaking up.
Amazon.co.uk: Any regrets?
McCartney: The great thing about The Beatles was that we came full cycle and even if
there's a little sadness coming to the end of a cycle, it was still a very cool thing to
have completed a cycle ... Interesting little thing--and I don't want this to be too much
sour grapes--but because I wrote "Yesterday" without John and I was the only
Beatle to play on the record... Now, I know that the older Beatle fans know I wrote it,
but these days, when younger kids look to see who wrote that, well, the credits say words
and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. So a couple of years ago, I actually asked
Yoko if, as a favour to me, after 30 years of John having his name in front, would she
mind if just on that one song, I was allowed to put words and music by Paul McCartney and
John Lennon. I didn't want to take John's name off, I figured John would have let me do
that but she wouldn't (so I'm not allowed to do that). So this is one of the reasons we
don't get on too well. |
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