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Paul McCartney knew he'd never top The Beatles — and that's just fine with him

NPR Fresh Air

Terry Gross 00:00:00 - 00:01:04
This is fresh air. I am Tyria Gross. It is my great pleasure to say that my guest is Paul McCartney, and we're going to talk about his life and music through two new projects. He has a new two volume set of books called The Lyrics, collecting his lyrics and the stories behind them, starting with songs he wrote before The Beatles and ending with songs from his latest album, McCartney Three, which was released late last year. There's also the new documentary Get Back, which is about the three weeks The Beatles spent in 1969 writing, rehearsing and recording the songs on their album Let It Be and giving their final performance together on a rooftop in London's Saville Row. The band broke up before the album Let It Be was released in 1970. This documentary draws on footage that was not used in the 1969 film Let It Be that documented the same sessions. Get Back will premiere in three two hour installments over Thanksgiving weekend on Disney Plus. Let's start with a song that kicked off the Beatles first album.
Paul McCartney 00:01:04 - 00:01:27
One, two, three bombs. Well, she was just 17 but you know what I mean and the way she looked was way beyond compare so how could I land with another?
Terry Gross 00:01:35 - 00:01:54
Well, she Paul McCartney. Welcome back to Fresh Air. It is such an honor to have you back on our show. So did you know the Count Off would be left in that song when you recorded it? I love hearing the count off. It's kind of the equivalent of like an overture in a musical. It gets you really excited for what you're going to hear.
Paul McCartney 00:01:56 - 00:02:23
Yeah, that's one of the things about that song, really, and we use it just for practical purpose. Oh, by the way, hi, Terry listeners. Yeah, we use it for practical purposes, just to count ourselves in. But I think that was a particularly exuberant one that our producer thought it'd be a good idea to leave in. So I listen to smart people.
Terry Gross 00:02:23 - 00:02:29
So how did that become the B side of I want to hold your hand? Like, why wasn't it the A side?
Paul McCartney 00:02:29 - 00:02:39
I don't know. These are just decisions that are taken at the time. And I think I want to hold your hand was just stronger.
Terry Gross 00:02:39 - 00:03:08
You're right. Eroticism was a driving force behind everything I did. That's what lay behind a lot of these love songs. Meanwhile, your fans were having a lot of erotic thoughts about you. Can you talk a little bit about what the experience was like of being like an object of desire at a time when men are going through a time in your life that's typical of a highly sexualized period in a young man's life?
Paul McCartney 00:03:08 - 00:04:29
Yeah. The truth was, here's you got four young men in Liverpool and pretty much you were looking for a girlfriend and you were looking for sex. I mean, you know, that that's in your private life. And the truth was you weren't very successful. And you've got to remember also the period this was sort of post World War II in Liverpool, so it wasn't swinging London yet. So we were just yeah, just like most young guys, we just wanted to have a girlfriend because as kids we were apparently not very attractive. It was kind of the opposite for us. So I suppose that kind of as we got more and more popular and the girls started screaming and stuff, tell you the truth, we just enjoyed it. It was the fulfillment of all our dreams and this idea that eroticism lay at the back of a lot that we would write. It sounds more important when you actually quote it. It really was just young guys trying to get laid, as Americans would say.
Terry Gross 00:04:29 - 00:04:38
So how did it change your life and your self image when millions of teenage girls wanted you to make love to them?