WEBVTT - Yesterday

0:00:14.824 --> 0:00:22.064
<v Speaker 1>Pushkin. Hi, everyone, it's Paul Muldoon. Before we get to

0:00:22.144 --> 0:00:24.784
<v Speaker 1>this episode, I wanted to let you know that you

0:00:24.864 --> 0:00:29.384
<v Speaker 1>can binge all twelve episodes of McCartney A Life and

0:00:29.464 --> 0:00:35.184
<v Speaker 1>Lyrics right now, add free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber.

0:00:35.904 --> 0:00:40.224
<v Speaker 1>Find Pushkin Plus on the McCartney A Life and Lyrics Show,

0:00:40.304 --> 0:00:49.384
<v Speaker 1>pedge in Apple Podcasts, or at pushkin dot Fm, slash Plus.

0:00:49.984 --> 0:00:55.944
<v Speaker 2>Yesterday, Oh my trouble seems so far.

0:00:58.784 --> 0:01:01.664
<v Speaker 3>Not sloud Dodge.

0:01:03.424 --> 0:01:19.344
<v Speaker 2>Really still day Uga kusum Meason you the sunwritten resou.

0:01:20.904 --> 0:01:22.144
<v Speaker 3>What she.

0:01:23.824 --> 0:01:23.944
<v Speaker 4>In?

0:01:24.224 --> 0:01:25.384
<v Speaker 3>Yesterday?

0:01:30.104 --> 0:01:33.744
<v Speaker 1>I'm Paul Muldoon For a while now, I've been fortunate

0:01:34.104 --> 0:01:37.664
<v Speaker 1>to spend time with one of the greatest songwriters of

0:01:37.744 --> 0:01:38.384
<v Speaker 1>our era.

0:01:38.624 --> 0:01:41.664
<v Speaker 4>And will you look at me? I'm Donald two. I'm

0:01:41.704 --> 0:01:43.384
<v Speaker 4>actually a performer.

0:01:43.384 --> 0:01:46.944
<v Speaker 1>That is Sir Paul McCartney. We worked together on a

0:01:47.024 --> 0:01:49.544
<v Speaker 1>book looking at the lyrics of more than one hundred

0:01:49.584 --> 0:01:54.144
<v Speaker 1>and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many hours

0:01:54.384 --> 0:01:55.624
<v Speaker 1>of our conversations.

0:01:55.984 --> 0:01:59.224
<v Speaker 4>It was like going back to an old snapshot album

0:01:59.424 --> 0:02:04.144
<v Speaker 4>looking back on work I hadn't ever analyzed.

0:02:04.504 --> 0:02:10.104
<v Speaker 1>This is McCartney A Life in Lyrics as class a

0:02:10.144 --> 0:02:14.584
<v Speaker 1>memoir and an improvised journey with one of the most

0:02:14.824 --> 0:02:29.064
<v Speaker 1>iconic figures in popular music. In this episode, Yesterday.

0:02:26.064 --> 0:02:32.184
<v Speaker 3>Yesterday, All my trouble seems so far way.

0:02:34.064 --> 0:02:41.824
<v Speaker 5>God looks as tho thereesday. Oh, I believe in Yesterday.

0:02:42.824 --> 0:02:45.944
<v Speaker 1>What you heard at the top of the episode was

0:02:46.184 --> 0:02:51.784
<v Speaker 1>a supercut of Yesterday covers just a tiny fraction of

0:02:51.864 --> 0:02:55.864
<v Speaker 1>the renditions that exist out there, the most covered song

0:02:55.944 --> 0:02:57.864
<v Speaker 1>of all the I think, perhaps, isn't it.

0:02:59.584 --> 0:03:02.584
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that the magic didn't sort of end with our recording,

0:03:02.624 --> 0:03:06.184
<v Speaker 4>but it sort of continued. One of the fun things

0:03:06.544 --> 0:03:09.664
<v Speaker 4>I said to We had a publicist I was a

0:03:09.744 --> 0:03:14.624
<v Speaker 4>friend of mine, and I suddenly thought, three thousand persons,

0:03:15.744 --> 0:03:18.864
<v Speaker 4>I've never heard them. So I said to him, get

0:03:18.904 --> 0:03:23.104
<v Speaker 4>me the top ten I'll do for now. So he

0:03:23.224 --> 0:03:24.984
<v Speaker 4>got me Sinatra.

0:03:25.984 --> 0:03:33.504
<v Speaker 6>Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be.

0:03:35.504 --> 0:03:41.384
<v Speaker 4>Elvis. There's a shadow hanging over Marvin Gay.

0:03:41.864 --> 0:03:50.864
<v Speaker 3>Yesterday came all too suddy. Did she.

0:03:52.784 --> 0:04:00.344
<v Speaker 4>Have to go? I don't know, Ray, Charles, unbelievable people

0:04:00.584 --> 0:04:07.184
<v Speaker 4>who's tune it? Oh God, this is incredible. But Sinatra, Elvis,

0:04:07.304 --> 0:04:11.464
<v Speaker 4>and Marvin all altered the lyric.

0:04:12.064 --> 0:04:18.224
<v Speaker 7>I must have said something wrong alone.

0:04:19.264 --> 0:04:28.544
<v Speaker 4>Today because there were much old men they said why

0:04:28.704 --> 0:04:32.464
<v Speaker 4>she had to go. I don't know. She wouldn't say

0:04:33.384 --> 0:04:35.904
<v Speaker 4>I must have done something.

0:04:35.464 --> 0:04:37.744
<v Speaker 1>Wrong, rather than I did something wrong.

0:04:38.864 --> 0:04:41.384
<v Speaker 4>So I don't do things wrong. I'm Sinatra, I'm alver

0:04:41.544 --> 0:04:45.624
<v Speaker 4>some wrong. I must have done something wrong. I loved that.

0:04:45.744 --> 0:04:49.624
<v Speaker 4>It was like disclaimer, I must have.

0:04:49.624 --> 0:04:52.064
<v Speaker 3>Must have said something wrong.

0:04:54.064 --> 0:04:56.224
<v Speaker 2>Now, a long, long.

0:04:55.824 --> 0:05:00.864
<v Speaker 1>Long covered by so many of the great artists of

0:05:00.904 --> 0:05:06.144
<v Speaker 1>the twentieth century and beyond, Paul McCartney's Yesterday has taken

0:05:06.184 --> 0:05:10.704
<v Speaker 1>its place among the timeless standards of our age. So

0:05:11.184 --> 0:05:14.824
<v Speaker 1>it's fitting that when the melody first came to Paul,

0:05:15.384 --> 0:05:19.944
<v Speaker 1>he assumed the song had already been written by someone else.

0:05:20.664 --> 0:05:23.344
<v Speaker 1>He was in his early twenties and living at his

0:05:23.504 --> 0:05:27.184
<v Speaker 1>girlfriend Jane Asher's family home in London.

0:05:27.344 --> 0:05:31.504
<v Speaker 4>Asher's House, fifty seven Wimball Street. I stayed there and

0:05:31.544 --> 0:05:33.624
<v Speaker 4>it was only afterwards I thought I'd ever paid rent.

0:05:34.584 --> 0:05:36.824
<v Speaker 1>Well, that was a terrific must have been a terrific

0:05:36.944 --> 0:05:37.624
<v Speaker 1>boom to you.

0:05:37.984 --> 0:05:40.224
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, in terms of your career, it was. It was

0:05:40.344 --> 0:05:43.224
<v Speaker 4>very good. Yeah, it was very nice. Yeah. The mom

0:05:43.424 --> 0:05:47.344
<v Speaker 4>was a great cook and a fun lady and liked me.

0:05:48.464 --> 0:05:54.824
<v Speaker 4>The father was an eccentric, super intelligent doctor and The

0:05:54.904 --> 0:06:02.784
<v Speaker 4>kids were my girlfriend, her brother Peter, and her sister Claire.

0:06:03.664 --> 0:06:06.704
<v Speaker 4>So you know, it was like the Barretts of Wimpole Street,

0:06:07.064 --> 0:06:11.464
<v Speaker 4>The Barretts oft Wimpell Street. The year is eighteen forty five.

0:06:12.464 --> 0:06:14.064
<v Speaker 4>The place London.

0:06:15.424 --> 0:06:18.904
<v Speaker 1>The Parretts of Wimple Street was a nineteen thirty play

0:06:19.104 --> 0:06:24.064
<v Speaker 1>about star crossed lovers. It was so popular that during

0:06:24.104 --> 0:06:28.504
<v Speaker 1>the course of McCartney's life, it was adapted for film, musical,

0:06:28.544 --> 0:06:30.384
<v Speaker 1>theater and television.

0:06:30.824 --> 0:06:34.024
<v Speaker 7>The action takes place in Elizabeth Barrett's bed sitting room

0:06:34.184 --> 0:06:36.784
<v Speaker 7>in her father's house at fifty Wimpole Street.

0:06:36.944 --> 0:06:39.464
<v Speaker 1>The story is set on the very London street where

0:06:39.544 --> 0:06:43.424
<v Speaker 1>McCartney lived with the Asher family for three years in

0:06:43.464 --> 0:06:44.984
<v Speaker 1>the mid nineteen sixties.

0:06:45.304 --> 0:06:47.824
<v Speaker 4>The fact that it was in Wimpole Street was, you know,

0:06:47.864 --> 0:06:51.024
<v Speaker 4>it didn't go unnoticed. So it was this lovely family

0:06:51.104 --> 0:06:57.584
<v Speaker 4>in this great old Georgian building in Wimpole Street, and yeah,

0:06:57.584 --> 0:07:00.024
<v Speaker 4>it was great, it was really nice. So they very

0:07:00.104 --> 0:07:05.504
<v Speaker 4>kindly let me stay in the upstairs, the attic room,

0:07:05.544 --> 0:07:09.824
<v Speaker 4>perfect for an artist. I've managed to get a piano

0:07:09.904 --> 0:07:17.344
<v Speaker 4>in there, a small sawn off piano, and I went

0:07:17.424 --> 0:07:27.504
<v Speaker 4>to sleep one night and dreamed. But you somewhere in

0:07:27.584 --> 0:07:35.864
<v Speaker 4>my dream I heard this tune, and when I woke up,

0:07:35.944 --> 0:07:38.064
<v Speaker 4>I thought, I love that tune. It's great. I love

0:07:38.104 --> 0:07:38.624
<v Speaker 4>that one.

0:07:39.144 --> 0:07:44.144
<v Speaker 1>The melody lilting and grand was clear in McCartney's mind,

0:07:44.704 --> 0:07:48.544
<v Speaker 1>but he couldn't remember who had written it. Perhaps it

0:07:48.624 --> 0:07:51.544
<v Speaker 1>was one of the classics he had heard in his childhood.

0:07:51.864 --> 0:07:55.384
<v Speaker 4>What is it? Now? Is it? Is it? A Fredister?

0:07:55.744 --> 0:07:58.624
<v Speaker 4>Things are called portal things? It what is it? What

0:07:58.824 --> 0:07:58.984
<v Speaker 4>is it?

0:08:02.104 --> 0:08:02.344
<v Speaker 2>Well?

0:08:02.744 --> 0:08:05.304
<v Speaker 4>So I kind of fell out of the bed and

0:08:05.304 --> 0:08:08.224
<v Speaker 4>the piano was right now to the left of my bed,

0:08:09.104 --> 0:08:12.384
<v Speaker 4>So I just sort of thought, well, I'll I'll try

0:08:12.464 --> 0:08:16.664
<v Speaker 4>and work out how this song goes. What it is,

0:08:17.024 --> 0:08:20.464
<v Speaker 4>It's got to be some outstanding that I've just heard

0:08:20.544 --> 0:08:24.784
<v Speaker 4>years ago and I've forgotten forgotten it. So I worked

0:08:24.784 --> 0:08:29.624
<v Speaker 4>out chords and the two opening chords are kind of nice,

0:08:29.704 --> 0:08:32.184
<v Speaker 4>so I got very lucky there, so I didn't have

0:08:32.224 --> 0:08:38.704
<v Speaker 4>to go to those chords. So it's just a melody,

0:08:38.904 --> 0:08:40.704
<v Speaker 4>and I say i'd heard it in my head. It

0:08:40.784 --> 0:08:53.984
<v Speaker 4>was very clear, and it was just a little and

0:08:54.424 --> 0:08:59.584
<v Speaker 4>in order to solidify it in my memory, I just

0:08:59.984 --> 0:09:02.944
<v Speaker 4>blocked it out with some words which are scrambled egg

0:09:03.464 --> 0:09:05.384
<v Speaker 4>on my baby hal of your legs.

0:09:08.504 --> 0:09:13.584
<v Speaker 1>Scrambled that these provisional lyrics. Was that something you did

0:09:13.664 --> 0:09:15.864
<v Speaker 1>quite a lot, or it was.

0:09:15.824 --> 0:09:19.664
<v Speaker 4>This, well, it was it was a kind of rare thing. Right.

0:09:19.864 --> 0:09:23.784
<v Speaker 4>We did that sometimes, but not often because you know

0:09:23.824 --> 0:09:27.024
<v Speaker 4>it mainly were just sitting there writing it. So you'd

0:09:27.064 --> 0:09:32.264
<v Speaker 4>get your final lyrics pretty quickly. Yeah, your only lyrics.

0:09:32.664 --> 0:09:37.144
<v Speaker 4>You never really revised our stuff. Alan Ginsburg first thought,

0:09:37.224 --> 0:09:40.344
<v Speaker 4>best thoughts. Right, then he goes and revises every single

0:09:40.704 --> 0:09:43.664
<v Speaker 4>we ever wrote. But I like the theory. So I

0:09:43.704 --> 0:09:47.464
<v Speaker 4>had this tune and I think the first person I

0:09:47.544 --> 0:09:51.744
<v Speaker 4>saw was John I said, what's this? Been bugging me?

0:09:51.784 --> 0:10:01.544
<v Speaker 4>What's this song? I think you'd hear moment, So I

0:10:01.624 --> 0:10:05.504
<v Speaker 4>just thought of it. I treamed it. He said, I

0:10:05.544 --> 0:10:08.624
<v Speaker 4>don't know. I never heard it. So then I went

0:10:08.704 --> 0:10:13.424
<v Speaker 4>to George Martin. Must have been doing sessions at the time.

0:10:14.344 --> 0:10:17.864
<v Speaker 4>He'll know it because he's got a much wider knowledge

0:10:18.104 --> 0:10:27.184
<v Speaker 4>as he would know. I said, what's this? So what

0:10:27.184 --> 0:10:31.384
<v Speaker 4>I well, I dreamed it. Anyway, After a couple of

0:10:31.384 --> 0:10:35.144
<v Speaker 4>weeks of this, it became clear that no one knew

0:10:35.184 --> 0:10:39.504
<v Speaker 4>it and it didn't exist except in my head, and

0:10:39.624 --> 0:10:46.664
<v Speaker 4>so I claimed it. It's like finding it on the street.

0:10:52.064 --> 0:10:54.664
<v Speaker 1>There may have been a degree of luck to McCartney

0:10:54.704 --> 0:10:58.104
<v Speaker 1>waking up with this melody fully formed in his head.

0:10:58.864 --> 0:11:02.584
<v Speaker 1>But if writing the song was like finding it on

0:11:02.624 --> 0:11:07.184
<v Speaker 1>the street, all of Paul's musical influences, all the way

0:11:07.264 --> 0:11:10.304
<v Speaker 1>back to his childhood, had paved the way.

0:11:10.904 --> 0:11:15.144
<v Speaker 4>I've always have loved good tunes, and my dad played

0:11:15.184 --> 0:11:18.424
<v Speaker 4>them on his piano. I listened to them. My cousin

0:11:18.464 --> 0:11:24.344
<v Speaker 4>Betty introduced me to my funny Valentine. I loved sort

0:11:24.344 --> 0:11:28.024
<v Speaker 4>of classic pieces that I would hear. I would love

0:11:28.104 --> 0:11:31.304
<v Speaker 4>cheeky geek friend as their all these things. I just

0:11:31.344 --> 0:11:32.424
<v Speaker 4>sort of these classics.

0:11:33.344 --> 0:11:40.664
<v Speaker 5>Heaven. I'm in heaven and my heartbeats all that I

0:11:41.024 --> 0:11:42.104
<v Speaker 5>can hardly.

0:11:42.104 --> 0:11:50.464
<v Speaker 3>Be, and I seem too fine the happiness I when

0:11:50.544 --> 0:11:53.704
<v Speaker 3>we're all together dancing cheap.

0:11:56.744 --> 0:12:03.504
<v Speaker 4>Heaven. I'm in heaven, but answer me and only back

0:12:03.584 --> 0:12:10.024
<v Speaker 4>to heaven. So I had a lot of information in

0:12:10.064 --> 0:12:13.464
<v Speaker 4>my head of those tunes. My dad just in the

0:12:13.464 --> 0:12:17.704
<v Speaker 4>New Year's Eve, and that would be three hours of songs,

0:12:18.384 --> 0:12:21.424
<v Speaker 4>and the pretty much didn't repeat them, just did them all.

0:12:22.024 --> 0:12:29.544
<v Speaker 4>So all that info is in my head. It was magical.

0:12:29.864 --> 0:12:33.904
<v Speaker 4>Yesterday was definitely magical. People I've said to me, do

0:12:33.904 --> 0:12:37.224
<v Speaker 4>you believe in magic? And I say I have to

0:12:37.904 --> 0:12:42.344
<v Speaker 4>because of that song. I have to. How the hell

0:12:42.384 --> 0:12:46.824
<v Speaker 4>did that come into my brain? Now, if you really

0:12:46.824 --> 0:12:50.184
<v Speaker 4>want to try and work it out, I think I'd

0:12:50.224 --> 0:12:56.744
<v Speaker 4>loaded my computer so strongly with teacher cheek star dust

0:12:57.664 --> 0:13:00.664
<v Speaker 4>when I fall in Love, these beautiful songs I'd heard

0:13:00.704 --> 0:13:03.824
<v Speaker 4>all my childhood. I mean, I can still remember standing

0:13:03.864 --> 0:13:06.824
<v Speaker 4>in the kitchen of fourth Lynn Road and hearing When

0:13:06.824 --> 0:13:09.864
<v Speaker 4>I Fall in Love by Nak and Cole as I

0:13:09.904 --> 0:13:17.904
<v Speaker 4>was reaching for an HP bod and thinking, my god,

0:13:17.944 --> 0:13:20.264
<v Speaker 4>this is good, this is class.

0:13:20.904 --> 0:13:28.984
<v Speaker 1>When I fall in love, it will be forever.

0:13:32.904 --> 0:13:35.464
<v Speaker 3>I'll never fall.

0:13:37.224 --> 0:13:43.184
<v Speaker 4>In love, so you know, that's all. That's all I

0:13:43.224 --> 0:13:47.744
<v Speaker 4>can think is that all of that data used modern

0:13:48.064 --> 0:13:53.704
<v Speaker 4>terminology had gone into my very sophisticated computer. The human

0:13:53.744 --> 0:13:57.544
<v Speaker 4>brain had jumbled up, done all that sort of stuff,

0:13:58.344 --> 0:14:06.984
<v Speaker 4>and somehow, as a dream it just tumbled out this song.

0:14:07.584 --> 0:14:13.224
<v Speaker 3>Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be.

0:14:15.544 --> 0:14:23.424
<v Speaker 5>There's a shadow hanging over yesterday, came said.

0:14:29.264 --> 0:14:29.504
<v Speaker 3>Why.

0:14:31.624 --> 0:14:36.024
<v Speaker 1>Usually McCartney's lyrics have come to him along with his

0:14:36.144 --> 0:14:40.664
<v Speaker 1>melodies in a flash of inspiration, almost all at once.

0:14:41.464 --> 0:14:46.064
<v Speaker 1>The lyrics of the tune he dreamed, however, required more

0:14:46.304 --> 0:14:47.864
<v Speaker 1>conscious deliberation.

0:14:48.304 --> 0:14:53.544
<v Speaker 4>And I went with j Nasher to Portugal the holiday

0:14:54.504 --> 0:14:57.784
<v Speaker 4>and it was hot, so dusty. Day we landed in Lisbon,

0:14:59.344 --> 0:15:03.384
<v Speaker 4>we took a car ride three four hours down to

0:15:03.424 --> 0:15:08.864
<v Speaker 4>Albifaira on the coast, and we were going to stay

0:15:09.824 --> 0:15:14.064
<v Speaker 4>at Bruce Welsh's house. It was his flat. They were

0:15:14.184 --> 0:15:17.824
<v Speaker 4>very generous guys, and he was in the shadow. He

0:15:17.864 --> 0:15:21.264
<v Speaker 4>was in Cliffridge's shadows. And so I'd met Bruce a

0:15:21.304 --> 0:15:23.144
<v Speaker 4>few times. He said, if you ever want to know,

0:15:23.704 --> 0:15:26.424
<v Speaker 4>it was like you kidding what You let me have

0:15:26.504 --> 0:15:32.304
<v Speaker 4>your flat? So we were heading down to it, and

0:15:32.344 --> 0:15:33.664
<v Speaker 4>so I had a lot of time in the back

0:15:33.664 --> 0:15:37.464
<v Speaker 4>of the car doing nothing, just sort of swaying around.

0:15:38.584 --> 0:15:42.864
<v Speaker 4>And you didn't have iPads or iPhones, thank god, you

0:15:43.024 --> 0:15:46.584
<v Speaker 4>just had yourself. So I was just looking at the countryside.

0:15:46.624 --> 0:15:49.664
<v Speaker 4>It was very hot and very dusty to say, and

0:15:50.744 --> 0:15:53.864
<v Speaker 4>sort of half asleep. But one of the things I

0:15:54.024 --> 0:15:56.704
<v Speaker 4>like to do when I'm when I'm in that mode

0:15:57.624 --> 0:16:00.864
<v Speaker 4>is too I've got plenty of time now to try

0:16:00.904 --> 0:16:05.184
<v Speaker 4>and think. Okay, scrambled eggs ba ba ba, what can be?

0:16:06.544 --> 0:16:07.144
<v Speaker 2>Yesterday?

0:16:09.664 --> 0:16:14.544
<v Speaker 5>Love was such an easy game to play.

0:16:14.384 --> 0:16:17.304
<v Speaker 1>Here's the question, how do you know when it's right?

0:16:18.424 --> 0:16:23.904
<v Speaker 4>Why didn't you try enough? Stuff that's wrong? Scrambled eggs

0:16:24.384 --> 0:16:34.344
<v Speaker 4>is wrong, and you try punctually sounds like punching someone

0:16:35.024 --> 0:16:43.304
<v Speaker 4>immediately it's not right. Yesterday, Okay, you've got it. It

0:16:43.504 --> 0:16:50.064
<v Speaker 4>just slots in like a slot machine, you know. Yeah,

0:16:50.264 --> 0:16:56.424
<v Speaker 4>that's that's the word to use. And also a word

0:16:56.464 --> 0:17:01.624
<v Speaker 4>like yesterday suddenly implies longing and sadness.

0:17:02.304 --> 0:17:11.664
<v Speaker 6>Nine need a place to hide, really, yes, And I

0:17:11.744 --> 0:17:14.344
<v Speaker 6>also remember thinking people like sad songs.

0:17:15.504 --> 0:17:19.104
<v Speaker 4>Remember sort of thinking I like sad songs. People like

0:17:19.184 --> 0:17:22.704
<v Speaker 4>sad songs. It's kind of you know, it's a place

0:17:22.744 --> 0:17:28.584
<v Speaker 4>where we can put our sorrow a sad song for

0:17:28.664 --> 0:17:31.064
<v Speaker 4>the three minutes less. You know, a.

0:17:31.024 --> 0:17:33.784
<v Speaker 1>Suppose the more you've done, the more difficult it is.

0:17:33.904 --> 0:17:34.944
<v Speaker 1>I mean, do you feel that that?

0:17:38.904 --> 0:17:40.864
<v Speaker 4>Well? I think so. You know. It's like how much

0:17:41.144 --> 0:17:45.744
<v Speaker 4>gold can you find in a mind endless supply? Well,

0:17:45.784 --> 0:17:48.024
<v Speaker 4>there is an endless supply, but the quality of it

0:17:48.064 --> 0:17:51.904
<v Speaker 4>may not be quite as fine as the original vein.

0:17:52.944 --> 0:17:57.864
<v Speaker 4>But it doesn't matter because I had the original vein,

0:17:58.544 --> 0:18:01.264
<v Speaker 4>and I'm still enjoying digging it up just as much.

0:18:07.464 --> 0:18:11.624
<v Speaker 1>By the time McCartney and Sure reached Bruce Welch's flat

0:18:11.784 --> 0:18:16.064
<v Speaker 1>in southern Portugal, Paul had completed the lyrics.

0:18:16.344 --> 0:18:19.424
<v Speaker 4>When I got to Bruce's house, he said to me,

0:18:20.064 --> 0:18:22.984
<v Speaker 4>a couple of years ago, he said, don't you remember,

0:18:23.184 --> 0:18:24.864
<v Speaker 4>so you said, have you got a guitar? Have you

0:18:24.904 --> 0:18:26.984
<v Speaker 4>got a guitar? You got a ca He said, well, yeah,

0:18:27.424 --> 0:18:31.104
<v Speaker 4>but you're lefty. It's right down there, I said, because

0:18:31.104 --> 0:18:33.304
<v Speaker 4>I used to turn them upside down because I worked

0:18:33.304 --> 0:18:35.664
<v Speaker 4>with John a lot. So I had to grab his

0:18:35.704 --> 0:18:37.864
<v Speaker 4>guitar and I could so I could play ups that,

0:18:38.024 --> 0:18:42.024
<v Speaker 4>so could he. So I grabbed this thing, and I

0:18:42.064 --> 0:18:44.544
<v Speaker 4>know the chords because I've written them on the piano.

0:18:45.184 --> 0:18:48.784
<v Speaker 4>So I go, oh, wait a minute. I just had

0:18:48.864 --> 0:18:52.024
<v Speaker 4>idea coming down. So he said, you sang it for me,

0:18:52.984 --> 0:18:56.704
<v Speaker 4>he said, and that was the first public performance ever

0:18:57.144 --> 0:19:00.264
<v Speaker 4>of yesterday. You sang it to me in my flat

0:19:00.344 --> 0:19:05.464
<v Speaker 4>and Albafa and I played it when I got back

0:19:05.624 --> 0:19:08.944
<v Speaker 4>to England on my own guitar and completed the middle eight.

0:19:09.904 --> 0:19:22.744
<v Speaker 7>I said, the lyrics of Yesterday tell a story of loss,

0:19:23.184 --> 0:19:28.704
<v Speaker 7>the way heartbreak can make us nostalgic for a happier past.

0:19:29.064 --> 0:19:33.464
<v Speaker 1>Given the subject matter. It's even more remarkable that McCartney

0:19:33.584 --> 0:19:35.384
<v Speaker 1>was so young when he wrote it.

0:19:35.544 --> 0:19:39.224
<v Speaker 4>I was twenty four, so half of that it's twelve,

0:19:39.864 --> 0:19:46.744
<v Speaker 4>but you know, so world weary. These lyrics brilliant. I'm

0:19:46.784 --> 0:19:50.064
<v Speaker 4>not half the I used to be. God, it's been

0:19:50.064 --> 0:19:54.344
<v Speaker 4>a hard life, mind you. It had because I'd lost

0:19:54.344 --> 0:19:59.704
<v Speaker 4>my mother ten years before that, and someone did suggest

0:19:59.784 --> 0:20:03.904
<v Speaker 4>to me that this was a losing my mother's song,

0:20:04.504 --> 0:20:06.624
<v Speaker 4>which I always sort of said, no, I don't think

0:20:06.664 --> 0:20:10.664
<v Speaker 4>so you know what you said, think about it? Why

0:20:10.744 --> 0:20:13.544
<v Speaker 4>she had to go? I don't know. She wouldn't say

0:20:14.424 --> 0:20:16.904
<v Speaker 4>losing your mother to cancer. And no one said anything.

0:20:18.144 --> 0:20:20.104
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't simply wasn't discussed.

0:20:20.144 --> 0:20:22.264
<v Speaker 4>We didn't know what it was at all.

0:20:22.944 --> 0:20:34.944
<v Speaker 2>Why she had to go. I don't know she.

0:20:31.824 --> 0:20:36.144
<v Speaker 4>She had to go? Why I don't know. Did I

0:20:36.224 --> 0:20:40.144
<v Speaker 4>say something wrong? You know? It may be because there's

0:20:40.184 --> 0:20:43.264
<v Speaker 4>so much tumbled into your youth. Of course there is,

0:20:43.704 --> 0:20:47.984
<v Speaker 4>and your formative years that you can't appreciate it, or

0:20:48.344 --> 0:20:51.184
<v Speaker 4>sometimes it's only in retrospect you can appreciate it. And

0:20:51.904 --> 0:20:55.704
<v Speaker 4>I remember very clearly one day feeling very embarrassed because

0:20:55.704 --> 0:20:59.264
<v Speaker 4>I embarrassed my mom. We were out in the backyard,

0:20:59.624 --> 0:21:04.144
<v Speaker 4>and she talked posh compared to work. She was of

0:21:04.184 --> 0:21:08.104
<v Speaker 4>Irish origin and she was a nurse, so she was

0:21:08.664 --> 0:21:10.824
<v Speaker 4>above street level.

0:21:11.664 --> 0:21:13.624
<v Speaker 8>So she had something so going for and she would

0:21:13.704 --> 0:21:16.624
<v Speaker 8>talk which reasons was a little bit bosh and it

0:21:16.744 --> 0:21:19.424
<v Speaker 8>was a little bit well she as well, she had

0:21:19.464 --> 0:21:22.464
<v Speaker 8>to connection. So her Auntie dyllis as well, and so

0:21:22.504 --> 0:21:24.064
<v Speaker 8>she taught a little bit of said. I remember she

0:21:24.104 --> 0:21:27.224
<v Speaker 8>said something like, Paul, will you ask him? If he's

0:21:27.224 --> 0:21:31.024
<v Speaker 8>going to ask ask, it's.

0:21:30.984 --> 0:21:33.904
<v Speaker 9>Ask mom, you know, and she's got to got a

0:21:33.904 --> 0:21:37.384
<v Speaker 9>little embarrassed another later, thinking God, I wish I'd never

0:21:37.384 --> 0:21:41.984
<v Speaker 9>said that, and it stuck with me, you know, after

0:21:42.024 --> 0:21:42.504
<v Speaker 9>she died.

0:21:42.944 --> 0:21:45.704
<v Speaker 4>Oh, I really wish I got a couple of those

0:21:45.704 --> 0:21:50.824
<v Speaker 4>little things that I know the people would forgive me

0:21:51.144 --> 0:21:54.384
<v Speaker 4>because they're not big things. Of course they're little things,

0:21:54.424 --> 0:21:56.664
<v Speaker 4>but they're little things that I just think of. I

0:21:56.704 --> 0:21:59.504
<v Speaker 4>could just take a robber, just wrob that little moment

0:21:59.584 --> 0:22:04.784
<v Speaker 4>out be better. And when she died, I wonder I said.

0:22:04.544 --> 0:22:08.104
<v Speaker 8>Something wrong and will we harken back to that crazy

0:22:08.144 --> 0:22:08.544
<v Speaker 8>little thing?

0:22:09.424 --> 0:22:14.584
<v Speaker 5>I said, Sunday love?

0:22:15.584 --> 0:22:22.064
<v Speaker 4>But yeah, so so I don't know these does this happen?

0:22:23.064 --> 0:22:30.944
<v Speaker 4>Do you find yourself unconsciously putting songs into girl lyrics

0:22:30.984 --> 0:22:34.624
<v Speaker 4>that are really your dead mother, And what do you think.

0:22:35.544 --> 0:22:39.384
<v Speaker 4>I suspect it might be true. I think so quite.

0:22:39.624 --> 0:22:41.664
<v Speaker 4>It sort of fits if you look at the lyrics.

0:22:42.384 --> 0:22:52.584
<v Speaker 5>I know for Yesterday Yesterday love was such an easy

0:22:52.864 --> 0:22:59.424
<v Speaker 5>game to play. I need a place to head away.

0:22:59.864 --> 0:23:01.664
<v Speaker 3>Oh really.

0:23:02.824 --> 0:23:16.104
<v Speaker 2>Yesterday.

0:23:16.744 --> 0:23:21.024
<v Speaker 1>When it came time to record Yesterday, McCartney opted for

0:23:21.264 --> 0:23:25.984
<v Speaker 1>simple but striking orchestration with the help of George Martin.

0:23:26.344 --> 0:23:29.784
<v Speaker 4>It was just me and guitar, solo, Me and guitar,

0:23:30.304 --> 0:23:33.424
<v Speaker 4>and George Martin said it would be really good to

0:23:33.504 --> 0:23:36.704
<v Speaker 4>try a string quartet, and I very firmly said no,

0:23:37.544 --> 0:23:44.344
<v Speaker 4>we're a rock combo. So George, being very smart and

0:23:44.424 --> 0:23:48.824
<v Speaker 4>wonderful and having the best bedside manner of any producer

0:23:48.904 --> 0:23:53.984
<v Speaker 4>you would ever want to meet, said well, let's try it,

0:23:54.584 --> 0:23:57.784
<v Speaker 4>and if you don't like it, we'll take it off. Yeah,

0:23:58.424 --> 0:24:01.184
<v Speaker 4>but that's fair enough. So we did retried it, and

0:24:01.304 --> 0:24:04.224
<v Speaker 4>I remember sitting up in the control room and hearing

0:24:04.264 --> 0:24:08.024
<v Speaker 4>it and going, oh my god, George was so right.

0:24:08.864 --> 0:24:14.544
<v Speaker 4>It lent a depth to the song and it sort

0:24:14.544 --> 0:24:19.464
<v Speaker 4>of made it seem kind of important, and so I

0:24:19.504 --> 0:24:21.624
<v Speaker 4>really liked it. And we said, of course you, we'll

0:24:21.704 --> 0:24:22.104
<v Speaker 4>keep it.

0:24:22.744 --> 0:24:27.584
<v Speaker 10>And what I loved was then George would then say, well,

0:24:27.584 --> 0:24:31.184
<v Speaker 10>if he voiced it for a string quartet, that note

0:24:31.184 --> 0:24:34.464
<v Speaker 10>would go there down there on the cello, and this

0:24:34.584 --> 0:24:37.824
<v Speaker 10>middle note in the chord would come here with viola,

0:24:38.304 --> 0:24:41.144
<v Speaker 10>and this next note higher up, we'll go to the

0:24:41.184 --> 0:24:43.504
<v Speaker 10>second violin, and the sort of top note we'll go

0:24:43.544 --> 0:24:44.344
<v Speaker 10>to the top volum.

0:24:44.864 --> 0:24:49.144
<v Speaker 4>So he spread it out and he said, you know

0:24:49.224 --> 0:24:53.944
<v Speaker 4>that's how Bach would have voiced it. Yes, And I thought, wow,

0:24:54.584 --> 0:24:57.704
<v Speaker 4>it's like a revolution idea because our chords are always

0:24:57.744 --> 0:25:01.384
<v Speaker 4>within one octave knock and roll corde to just play

0:25:01.424 --> 0:25:05.784
<v Speaker 4>the whole chord straight as a clutch kind of thing.

0:25:07.224 --> 0:25:10.544
<v Speaker 4>And so he'd spread it out and that was a

0:25:10.584 --> 0:25:12.544
<v Speaker 4>bit of an eye opener to me.

0:25:13.504 --> 0:25:21.784
<v Speaker 1>Oh, yesterday, gainsaidly, relying as it does on Paul's voice

0:25:22.184 --> 0:25:27.184
<v Speaker 1>his guitar. Yesterday was the first Beatles song that featured

0:25:27.504 --> 0:25:29.664
<v Speaker 1>just one of the band members.

0:25:31.864 --> 0:25:34.024
<v Speaker 7>Thank you, thank you very much.

0:25:35.384 --> 0:25:38.384
<v Speaker 2>We'd like to carry on now with a song from.

0:25:38.224 --> 0:25:40.984
<v Speaker 5>Our new album in England and it'll be out in

0:25:41.064 --> 0:25:45.264
<v Speaker 5>America shortly, and it's a song with featuring j just Paul,

0:25:45.824 --> 0:25:47.424
<v Speaker 5>and it's called Yesterday.

0:25:51.944 --> 0:25:54.024
<v Speaker 1>One of the things that makes it such a great song,

0:25:54.144 --> 0:25:57.584
<v Speaker 1>surely is that it's presented in simple terms. But it's

0:25:57.624 --> 0:26:03.984
<v Speaker 1>a very complex personality that's describing let's say, his predicament.

0:26:06.664 --> 0:26:11.264
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, well, you know, I'm pretty complex character. You know,

0:26:11.864 --> 0:26:17.184
<v Speaker 4>you don't come from being a schoolboy in Liverpool to

0:26:17.344 --> 0:26:21.784
<v Speaker 4>where I am now without some complexity sneaking in someone

0:26:23.104 --> 0:26:31.304
<v Speaker 4>rather like yourself, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, but

0:26:31.424 --> 0:26:34.584
<v Speaker 4>the song, you know, I think the thing that you

0:26:34.704 --> 0:26:42.184
<v Speaker 4>want to try and get is complex simplicity or simple complexity.

0:26:42.784 --> 0:26:48.624
<v Speaker 4>You want it to seem easy, and yet if anyone

0:26:49.344 --> 0:26:51.744
<v Speaker 4>gives it a second thought, you want there to be

0:26:51.784 --> 0:26:55.984
<v Speaker 4>a little bit of depth in it, you know, we're

0:26:56.024 --> 0:26:56.544
<v Speaker 4>talking about that.

0:26:56.584 --> 0:27:00.224
<v Speaker 1>The magic of this in a strange way, the ease

0:27:00.264 --> 0:27:02.984
<v Speaker 1>of it. What do you make though of those who

0:27:04.064 --> 0:27:09.064
<v Speaker 1>believe as many seem to then writing a song, actually

0:27:09.144 --> 0:27:13.664
<v Speaker 1>he must be a pretty simple thing today that.

0:27:13.664 --> 0:27:17.984
<v Speaker 4>It must be simple to do well. That's let's see

0:27:18.024 --> 0:27:22.064
<v Speaker 4>them do it well exactly. That's fair enough. Now. I

0:27:22.184 --> 0:27:24.544
<v Speaker 4>think the thing about it is if you if you

0:27:24.544 --> 0:27:30.944
<v Speaker 4>write good songs and you make it look easy, what

0:27:30.944 --> 0:27:34.344
<v Speaker 4>what you don't want to forget is what went on

0:27:34.504 --> 0:27:38.744
<v Speaker 4>before all the stuff that you put into it before

0:27:39.024 --> 0:27:45.144
<v Speaker 4>you try to write a song. I was looking at

0:27:45.184 --> 0:27:49.344
<v Speaker 4>a Saisan exhibition with a friend of mine and the

0:27:49.384 --> 0:27:53.744
<v Speaker 4>first picture in it was an academic drawing. He'd done

0:27:54.544 --> 0:27:59.344
<v Speaker 4>almost photographic, beautiful, nile nude, and he's just like jaw dropping.

0:28:00.024 --> 0:28:03.464
<v Speaker 4>Then as you go through he appears to go off

0:28:04.264 --> 0:28:07.504
<v Speaker 4>and in the end you come out. My friend came

0:28:07.504 --> 0:28:10.704
<v Speaker 4>out thinking he couldn't draw it off. He said, why

0:28:10.704 --> 0:28:14.664
<v Speaker 4>didn't he stick with that? He ended up with the bathers,

0:28:15.824 --> 0:28:18.184
<v Speaker 4>And if you look at the drawing on that, it

0:28:18.224 --> 0:28:21.744
<v Speaker 4>would appear to be hopeless. I mean it's you know,

0:28:22.864 --> 0:28:25.024
<v Speaker 4>someone would say I could definitely do the better than that.

0:28:25.984 --> 0:28:28.024
<v Speaker 4>This is what happens. But everyone who goes to an

0:28:28.064 --> 0:28:31.784
<v Speaker 4>academy can pretty much do that because they have to

0:28:31.784 --> 0:28:34.584
<v Speaker 4>to get the degree. But what he goes on to

0:28:34.624 --> 0:28:40.504
<v Speaker 4>do based on that skill is something else. And I

0:28:40.544 --> 0:28:42.784
<v Speaker 4>think that's what I'm talking about him. I'm not lying

0:28:42.784 --> 0:28:47.984
<v Speaker 4>to myself with saysan, but I think there's a lot

0:28:48.104 --> 0:28:53.424
<v Speaker 4>goes into it before you arrive at the song. All

0:28:53.464 --> 0:28:55.464
<v Speaker 4>the little songs you whistled as a kid, all the

0:28:55.504 --> 0:28:58.264
<v Speaker 4>little poems you read, all the little poems. You made

0:28:58.384 --> 0:29:01.144
<v Speaker 4>up all the little things you did, and now you're

0:29:01.144 --> 0:29:03.504
<v Speaker 4>going to write a song, and you do it and

0:29:03.584 --> 0:29:06.944
<v Speaker 4>it seems very easy. But it's easy because there's a

0:29:06.944 --> 0:29:08.424
<v Speaker 4>lot of stuff point before.

0:29:09.904 --> 0:29:17.984
<v Speaker 3>Yesterday. All my trouble seems so far away, that.

0:29:18.344 --> 0:29:23.344
<v Speaker 5>Looks as though there here to stay. Oh, I believe

0:29:24.304 --> 0:29:25.664
<v Speaker 5>in Yesterday.

0:29:27.024 --> 0:29:33.184
<v Speaker 1>Suddenly Yesterday from the Beatles nineteen sixty five album Help.

0:29:34.304 --> 0:29:38.704
<v Speaker 1>In our next episode, McCartney responds to adair from the

0:29:38.784 --> 0:29:40.664
<v Speaker 1>actor Dustin Hoffman.

0:29:40.824 --> 0:29:41.704
<v Speaker 4>Tree to me.

0:29:44.784 --> 0:29:45.904
<v Speaker 3>To take to ma.

0:29:50.304 --> 0:30:00.024
<v Speaker 1>Gje Picasso's last words, drink to me next time on

0:30:00.224 --> 0:30:06.584
<v Speaker 1>McCartney A Life in Lyrics. McCartney A Life in Lyrics

0:30:06.944 --> 0:30:11.664
<v Speaker 1>is a co production between Iheartmeat Media NPL and Pushkin

0:30:11.904 --> 0:30:12.584
<v Speaker 1>Industries