FEATURE:
Paul McCartney at Eighty
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney and his daughter Stella
Twenty: The Playful, Child-Like and Whimsical Sides to the Songwriter
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WHEN researching for features…
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney and his daughter Mary in Scotland in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney
to mark Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday in June, I have been discovering new things about him. I have always known it, but I love the fact that he can write these deep and haunting songs like Eleanor Rigby (from The Beatles’ 1966 album, Revolver), alongside the more upbeat and fun. Since the early days of The Beatles, McCartney has always had this whimsical and child-like side. Maybe it was more from McCartney than anyone else in the band. Sometimes John Lennon was less keen on McCartney’s more child-like side. The band were hammered and drilled when it came to recording Abbey Road’s Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. A daft song, its lyrics are pretty dark. That said, it has a sense of fun and the silly. I think some of The Beatles’ best moments came when McCartney was writing these more playful tunes. It didn’t really start to happen until the band became more experimental. Written with John Lennon, Yellow Submarine was an early sign of the more child-like view of Macca. Sung by Ringo Starr, it is a song not intended for the band’s female audience or related to the band’s romantic lives. It is a step into something more fantastical. This continued on Good Day Sunshine (on Revolver). Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) has When I’m Sixty Four. Written years earlier, this is a very young McCartney writing a song about being old. As I look to his upcoming eightieth birthday, I wonder what he thinks of the tracks today!
Although these types of songs did not connect with critics as much as some of hid classics, I find McCartney to be at his most charming and delightful when, for instance, he is discussing northern characters growing old. Although the lyrics are not child-like, the sentiment and mood of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is! Again, not a great favourite among the other Beatles or critics as such, it is a supreme Pop writer branching out and diversifying. I think one of the reasons why I fell for The Beatles as a child is because I could relate to songs like Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. I will end by discussing McCartney’s 2019 children’s book, Hey Grandude! Maybe his perspective is different now when he is writing for children or has that child-like view – as a grandfather and older man -, but I feel there was this desire, maybe, for McCartney to return to childhood when writing some of these Beatles songs. Becoming famous and things being quite different and busier, maybe there was this escape and need to embrace something simpler and easier, songs such as All Together Now (from 1969’s Yellow Submarine soundtrack) is joyous! Even if these more whimsical and lighter songs do have elements of the sexual and saucy, there is a playful nature that has connected with children and adults alike. Being in a huge band like The Beatles and writing songs that weren’t necessarily targeted at the core audience or were instantly commercial, that was quite brave! For his cynicism, Lennon was definitely inspired by McCartney’s child side. Think about Hey Bulldog from Yellow Submarine or The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill from The Beatles. This was a man who, in spite of a harder edge, took something from McCartney that was more childish and sillier!
Thinking about McCartney’s solo output, right from his debut, McCartney, there was signs of this more childlike side. Teddy Boy is a song that springs to mind. 1982’s Tug of War contains Dress Me Up as a Robber, whereas we have songs such as Fine Line and English Tea (from 2005’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard) that are lighter, have whimsy and project something almost child-like. There is definite eccentricity and silliness on English Tea. Quaint almost! I love the tone and sound of Mr. Bellamy from Memory Almost Full and Back in Brazil from Egypt Station! For Wings, he wrote songs like Bip Bop (from 1971’s Wildlife). 1974’s Band on the Run has Jet. I almost see that as a chant that children can sing to. It is definitely on the more playful side of things. Think about McCartney II from 1980 and pieces like Check My Machine are the sound of a man experimenting with sounds and accents to create something that was entertaining to him. A songwriter who could project silliness, lightness or something that didn’t have to be serious or predictable! From his teens right through to now, Paul McCartney has kept this child-like innocence at heart. He is an artist whose material is as broad as anyone who has ever lived. I don’t hold onto this assumption that songs like When I’m Sixty Four or All Together Now are more throwaway and not worth as much as, say, Hey Jude or Yesterday. Indeed, Hey Jude was written for John Lennon’s son, Julian, when Lennon left his wife to be with Yoko Ono. Dealing with that upheaval, McCartney showed paternal instincts and opened one of his most enduring songs. Maybe his more whimsical songs are a way for him to stay young or deal with stressful times. McCartney also wants to connect with a younger audience and not come across as too serious or predictable.
His children’s book, Hey Grandude!, is McCartney continuing to see the world through this prism. Not that the more child-like element of his is dominant in his songwriting - you can feel and hear it on albums he made with The Beatles, Wings and his solo material. He has grandchildren, so it seemed almost inevitable he would write a children’s book. Even though he is approaching eighty, I feel that McCartney will continue to write children’s books and include albums tracks that have that playful side to them. It is one of the best and most interesting aspects of his career. I love When I’m Sixty Four and Yellow Submarine. I think that the brilliance of Paul McCartney is that he can write these heart-wrenching songs that take it out of you. He can also switch the mood and take you to this more escapist world. It is one of many reasons why the world loves him so much! A quality that definitely should not be overlooked or dismissed in any way at all. I think, as McCartney enters his ninth decade of life, he will continue to splice whimsy and the child-like with the serious and personal. It gives his albums that emotional variation that make them so rich. It is what makes the beloved Paul McCartney…
A worldwide treasure!