Shortly before the interview began, Paul McCartney was joking around. “I’m sorry, Seth, I’m writing. We, la, la …“
But 50 years after the Beatles, he’s still creating, and not letting the epidemic get in the way.
CBS News
Correspondent Seth Donne asked, “A lot of people are making sourdough bread at Lakdan. Paul McCartney, does he make an album?”
“The other thing people are doing is cleaning their rooms, so that’s what it was.” Said McCartney. “I just started, like cleaning my cupboards. Like, ‘Wait a minute, what was the song I started last year but never finished? Let’s take a look at it. Let me finish it.’ Should. “
It turns out that Sir Paul McCartney, now 78, has more interesting cabinets than most of us, and the fixing needed to set a new record: “McCartney III,” released Friday. This is a kind of DIY album. It helps that McCartney has his own recording studio near his farm in England, and Is There was some practice. For “McCartney III”, he was not only the lyricist but also the producer, and was played Each Means.
“I don’t like working with this band, because I know what I want to hear and I don’t have to tell anyone,” McCartney said. “I just said, ‘Let’s do some drums.’ I would sit on the umbrella and I would think, ‘Well, I wanted to Doo doo doo .. doo doo dooOh, so it’s all in my mind. “
The result is an album called by critics “Experimental,” “Freewheeling,” And a “Playing gem.”
Donna asked, “Do you miss the reaction in a working session with a musician?”
“No. It’s a different kind of thing. I would sometimes ask one of my engineers, ‘What do you think?’ Or maybe the boys have a suggestion.
“And I will say, ‘No!’
Capital records
If making a record is different now, it’s about the age of covid. Both and McCartney were already coveted before their meeting; The cameraman drove things remotely from the other room. And McCartney did almost no other personal interview. Have not. “I don’t want to give it to anyone, I don’t want to take it,” he said. And when people start saying, ‘I don’t want to wear a mask, violating my civil liberties,’ I said, ‘Ah, no, that’s it. Stupid. ”
McCartney was living on his farm in England, across the Atlantic, with his wife, Nancy Chevel, recording and spending what he calls “Rockada” with his daughter, Mary, and their eight grandchildren. .
Some evenings, at dinner, he would play samples for them: “So, Granddad had a lot of fun in the studio.”
Donnie asked, “Is this really Sir Paul McCartney? Do you feel that this is the authenticity that comes to you in the sense that there are no more highly produced albums?”
“It may be true, it may be true, in fact, yes,” he replied.
It follows two more solo albums. Both were initially criticized, though later praised. For a boy who has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice!) And has won 20 Grammy Awards, Donnie saw him almost suddenly through the process: “I have either a guitar or a piano. Let’s start with, and I’m just really noodling about it. ‘Ah, here’s a tune. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh yes, that’s great. ‘So I love it, because you start without anything, and then, all of a sudden, maybe a few hours later, you get a whole song, and it’s like this – Wow! And it still amazes me. “
In what way? “It always reminds me, like a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.
“Yesterday’s song, which I wrote, I dreamed of that song, and I woke up and it was in my mind. Well now she is Magic. I couldn’t believe it was mine for the first two weeks. “
“what do you mean?” Donna asked.
“I thought it was an old song I had heard somewhere, probably from my father’s generation.”
“Just in your head?”
“Someone is going, ‘Oh, no, he’s from West Side Story!’ I will go Er! But no one ever knew what it was. And, finally, they said, this is yours! “
During the 1960’s, along with the Beatles author John Lennon, he released about 300 songs.
McCartney said, “We never had a dry session. We would come in, sit down, about three or four hours later we had a song. Let’s look at it, wow, how lucky was that? Or could it be skill?” He laughed.
“It was always fun. We got used to it. After the first 50 songs we wrote together, we kind of knew how it would work. So, if it was a song that I would bring, I would.” Just do two lines, and he’ll keep it up. I started ‘It’s getting better all the time …’ and he went on, ‘It can’t get any worse.’
Along with Ringo Starr and George Harrison, the Beatles gained notoriety from humble, hardworking class roots in Liverpool, England.
Donnie asked, “Can you believe that what you did many years ago still translates, resonates, is still the gold standard today?”
“It’s crazy,” McCartney replied. “I remember when I was a kid and when the Beatles were just starting out, I remember my cousin saying to me, ‘Do you think any of your songs will ever live up to the standard?’ And I remember saying, ‘Yeah, think.’
“You think you knew?”
“I did not Know. I guess. But I just realized that what we were writing was something memorable. “
“What is it about music that touches people so deeply?”
“I’m not sure I have the answer,” McCartney said. “Something to do with the structure of the song. There should be no extras. That’s the right amount of things that should be on that record. But I wonder how it’s going. I’m surprised, maybe I’m surprised. Yes. “
“I heard somewhere …”
“Oh, yeah, great idea for a song!”
“Maybe I’m Surprised” was on her 1970 solo album “McCartney”, the first of the trilogy., Which set him apart from the Beatles. They split in 1969, citing artistic and business differences. John Lennon continued his lone career until he was shot and killed in front of his home four decades earlier this month.
Donnie asked, “I wonder if all these years – 40 years later – you’re acting on it?”
“I’m not sure I am,” McCartney said. “It’s very difficult for me, and I sometimes have thoughts and thoughts, ‘I don’t know, why don’t I cry every day?’ Because it’s too bad. ”
“Do you ever?”
“Not every day, you know? There will be times when I have memories and I just think, ‘Oh my God, that was so stupid.’
“Do you think he’s still writing, producing like you?”
“Yeah. He wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down. You know, he was still making great music. The question is, would we be together again?”
What is the answer? “I don’t know!” Said McCartney. “We don’t know. We were friends. It was a great thing about it. You know, I don’t know how I dealt with it.” Because I don’t think I’ve dealt with it. You know, in a way, you know … I wouldn’t be surprised if a psychiatrist finds out that I’m a little denial. Because it’s too much. “
McCartney tells us he still has dreams about John Lennon, and thinks about him when he writes.
“What if you’re in the car and the Beatles song comes along?” Donna asked. “What do you do? You turn it on? Shut it down?”
“Turn it on! Turn it over! Sing with it. It always takes me back to the session, you know, it always reminds me, ‘Oh yeah, I remember John was there, Ringo was there.’ Was where we did it. “Yeah, yeah … ‘That’s great, it takes you like a flashback.”
Today, when he gets new ideas for tunes, he records them as a voice memo on his phone.
Donnie asked, “I wonder how many hits your iPhone still has?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” McCartney said. “I wrote it on a summer album on a song from a new album called ‘Kissing Venus’, and I got it started – The kiss of Venus, of, of, of, of – And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s fine, I’ll record it, I’ll finish it someday.’ But then I said to myself, ‘No, what did you get? You didn’t find anything [right now]. Sit here and finish that bloody song! ”
It turns out, in the lockdown, Paul McCartney not only presented a record, but created a reminder for the rest of us, which, not surprisingly, he gave to the music: “Sip the day.”
When the cold days come,
And the old ways disappear
There will be no more sun,
And we wish we had kept that day
seize the day
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Story by Mikila Buffano and Alan Goulds. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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