The A to Z of Paul McCartney

During an illuminating session at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios, Sir Paul discussed everything from Bill Haley to James Bay. Here are just 26 things we learned about McCartney from the interview…

Avant-Garde

He’s the most successful pop songwriter of all time, but Paul's avant-garde credentials are up to scratch. Innovators like John Cage helped to change his musical point of view in the 1960s (even if he did manage to add a couple of seconds to Cage's seminal piece 4’33”).

Black Hole

Songwriting is a black hole. There’s absolutely nothing there and then suddenly there's an idea, a tune and eventually that hole is filled with a song. Paul says he still gets the same buzz from completing a song as he did during The Beatles days.

Collaboration

Collaboration kept coming up during the Mastertapes interview, whether it was with Stevie Wonder on Ebony and Ivory, John Lennon and George Martin on A Day In the Life, or with Linda throughout the solo years.

DIY

After The Beatles, Paul went back to basics with his first solo album, using an old fashioned Studer four-track machine (the type Sgt. Pepper was recorded on) and playing everything himself. It helped him to feel musically liberated after working in a band.

Every Night

A song from McCartney’s first solo album (actually written during his Beatles days) that reflects the tensions in the group at the time but with an optimism running underneath. Paul and Linda escaped to their farm in Kintyre to avoid the disintegrating Beatles and the business quagmire that the group found themselves in.

Paul in Scotland, 1970. Photo by Linda McCartney.

Fela

McCartney met the great Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti, while recording the Band on the Run album in Lagos. He visited his infamous nightclub, The Shrine, and managed to get robbed during the visit, losing the demo tapes for the album.

Giving too much away

Simon Pegg asks Paul about the challenge of revealing too much of yourself in songs when you’re trying to live a life outside the public eye. “That’s one of the things I love about songs. You can start to reveal truths and feelings.”

How do you follow that?

The pressure to match the success of The Beatles was immense. He considered quitting altogether and turned to drink for a while (“…a few bevvies, a wee dram.”) before recognising that music was the only way forward.

Intros

The early days of Wings were fairly rough around the edges. Paul acknowledges that they were a bit ‘rubbish’ and indeed Linda could not play well (but neither could John when they started The Beatles). At this time, during a live show, the entire band failed to remember the intro of the song Wild Life, trying to kick it off, flailing and then staring at each other on stage. “The audience loved it. They thought it was our comedy bit.”

John and Jimmy

After the Beatles split, it would have been easy for McCartney to put together some sort of ‘supergroup’ with players such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Zeppelin drummer Bonham. Instead Paul took the low key Wings route. “I’m really glad we did that.”

Linda

“The two of us had this bond that could fight the world.”

Michael Jackson

“Michael was admirable.” Asked who got the final say during their collaboration, the man who wrote Thriller or the former Beatle, Paul claimed everything was equal with the King of Pop. “I could have tried to take the lead. But he was too good.”

Nerve

“You had to hold your nerve, but then you do in life…” The transition from The Beatles to Wings could have been a complete disaster. But Paul decided he just had to face the challenges and get on with it, rather than "go under".

Old Stuff

Paul Weller asks McCartney if it gets frustrating having to play older songs rather than new material. “I’m a realist, he replies.” During the Wings years he refused to play Beatles numbers and knew he faced disappointing the audience, but now he slips in a few new or unusual things he wants to play amongst the hits.

Paul recording Ram in New York, 1970. Photo by Linda McCartney.

If John came up with a brilliant song, I’d be ‘Ok, let’s try and be brilliant-er’.

McCartney on Lennon

Pitt, Brad

The audience for McCartney Mastertapes was understandably star-studded with Noel Gallagher, Simon Pegg, James Bay and Martin Freeman. Mr Pitt made a surprise appearance - he came with his friend Paul Weller.

Quarrymen, The

In the song Early Days, Paul describes his formative years alongside John Lennon as "dressed in black from head to toe/two guitars across our backs". A sort of "answer song" to the massive amounts of speculation and incorrect information that is still regularly released concerning The Beatles and their relationship in particular.

Rivalry

Legend has it that John Lennon heard Paul’s Coming Up on the radio and it inspired him to "up his game" during the recording sessions for Double Fantasy. “That happened in the group. If John came up with a brilliant song, I’d be ‘Ok, let’s try and be brilliant-er’.”

Something’ll Happen

In the early days of The Beatles, the band’s van skidded off the road and down an embankment during a blizzard. An unnamed Beatle said, "something’ll happen" and the phrase became the band's mantra.

Tranny

After the wild excesses of The Beatles, Wings went back to basics when they formed, touring the country in a "tranny" (a lowly Transit van) and knocking on the doors of student unions, asking to play. Eventually they graduated from universities to town halls, then stadiums and massive global success.

University (of McCartney)

"Professor McCartney" explained how he would like music to be taught in schools: “I would teach it so they would love it after the first lesson.” Watch the clip and learn enough chords in two-minutes to write "half a billion songs".

Vengeance

“Who enjoys a pasting?” Rather than shrug it off Paul remembers any adverse criticism and the names of those who gave him particularly vicious reviews. “Charles Shaar Murray will forever be hated by me.”

Wedding Bells

As the old song goes "Wedding bells are breaking up that old gang of mine". The song perfectly soundtracked the end of The Beatles. “We were growing up… it was depressing.”

X-Rated

“Screw me and I’ll screw you back, baby” Paul’s less than PG-rated thoughts towards some of his band members who quit Wings right before the recording of Band on the Run. Making a hit album without them was his revenge.

Yankee ways

McCartney used to mock John Lennon’s mid-Atlantic accent during their slightly fraught, post-Beatles relationship by declaring “All right Kojak” when Lennon’s voice became overly American.

Zen Master

Paul’s advice to young bands. “Here’s how you do it. Perfect the song before you get in the studio, then you’ll be a cheap date and the producer will love you.”

You can watch Paul McCartney's Mastertapes on the Radio 4 website and on iPlayer. Listen to an extended version of the interview - Broadcast Saturday 28 May at 10am.