Speaker 1: Pushkin.
Speaker 2: The conditions for our tours had deteriorated as the success
Speaker 2: had come along. The crowds had got louder, the venues
Speaker 2: had got bigger, and so now we were getting a
Speaker 2: little bit fed up with him. The guys variously had said,
Speaker 2: oh God, this is terrible, dis terrible. George had said that,
Speaker 2: John had said that, I think even Ringo it's sort
Speaker 2: of expressed displeasure of the whole thing. I generally just
Speaker 2: sort of soldiered on, but after this candlestick Park, I
Speaker 2: just finally said.
Speaker 1: Oh, fucking he, this is like just so bad. I
Speaker 1: agree with all you guys, we should just give up
Speaker 1: to it.
Speaker 2: These circumstances were at the time that I'd been doing
Speaker 2: too much of everything. Fell asleep, had a dream where
Speaker 2: my mom, who died ten years previously, came to me.
Speaker 1: And she said, let it be.
Speaker 2: Seeing her beautiful, kind face, I immediately felt at ease
Speaker 2: and loved, and she said words, she said.
Speaker 3: Being word, just y, I love, Yes, let it be,
Speaker 3: Let it be, Let it be, Let it be.
Speaker 4: Oh, I could.
Speaker 1: Tell you, but let it be.
Speaker 4: I'm Paul, will do. And I've been fortunate to spend
Speaker 4: time with one of the greatest songwriters of our era and.
Speaker 1: Will you look at me?
Speaker 2: I'm going on to I'm actually a performer.
Speaker 4: That is sir Paul McCartney. We worked together on a
Speaker 4: book looking at the lyrics of more than one hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many hours
Speaker 4: of our conversations.
Speaker 2: Oh she's a songwriter, My god, Well.
Speaker 4: Crypt homie, this is McCartney. A life lyrics, a masterclass,
Speaker 4: a memoir, and an improvised journey with one of the
Speaker 4: most iconic figures in popular music. In this episode let
Speaker 4: it Be. It was nineteen sixty eight and the Beatles
Speaker 4: were recording the White Album in Tensions were high in
Speaker 4: and out of the studio. The band's members were beginning
Speaker 4: to pursue individual interests and songwriting styles. Lennon and McCartney's
Speaker 4: friendship was becoming increasingly strained. The group was still mourning
Speaker 4: the nineteen sixty seven death of their manager Brian Epstein.
Speaker 4: The Beatles were barreling toward their eventual breakup.
Speaker 2: We were heading towards the breakup of the Beatles, and
Speaker 2: it was a period of change because John and Yoko
Speaker 2: had got together and that was bound to have an
Speaker 2: effect on the dynamics of the group.
Speaker 4: As the love between John Lennon and the artist Yoko
Speaker 4: Ono was intensifying, the two became utterly inseparable. John insisted
Speaker 4: Yoko be present in the studio, So things.
Speaker 2: Like Yoko being in the in the middle, literally in
Speaker 2: the middle of the recording session was, you know, something
Speaker 2: you had to deal with. And the idea was that
Speaker 2: if John wanted this to happen, then it should happen.
Speaker 1: And there's no reason why not.
Speaker 5: Well except that there is a reason why not. You know,
Speaker 5: you're there to do some work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and anything that disturbed us is disturbing. At a
Speaker 2: deference to John, we will allow this and not make
Speaker 2: a fuss.
Speaker 1: And yet at the same time.
Speaker 2: I don't think any of us particularly liked it.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: An interference in the workplace. We had a way we worked.
Speaker 2: The four of us worked with George Martin and an
Speaker 2: engineer and that was basically it, and we'd always done
Speaker 2: it like that, So not being very confrontational, I think
Speaker 2: we just bottled it up and just got on with it.
Speaker 5: And you had to make it work because the idea
Speaker 5: of the Beatles, it was something that you wanted to
Speaker 5: continue with. I suppose it's hun profile. I mean it
Speaker 5: was such a great thing.
Speaker 2: I mean it was the idea of the Beatles was
Speaker 2: also just a straight practical thing of this was our job.
Speaker 2: This is what we did in life. We were the Beatles.
Speaker 2: That meant if we didn't tour, we recorded, and that
Speaker 2: meant if we recorded, we wrote.
Speaker 6: When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary
Speaker 6: comes to me speaking words of wisdom, Let it be.
Speaker 7: And in my old redondness, she is standing right in
Speaker 7: front of me speaking words of wisdom.
Speaker 3: Let it be, Let it be.
Speaker 4: Paul McCartney says this impulse to avoid confrontation, to be
Speaker 4: accommodating may have been passed done from his parents, who
Speaker 4: valued kindness and good manners and taught so values to
Speaker 4: their children.
Speaker 2: We were encouraged to be good guys in our family,
Speaker 2: so that you know, if we were at a bus
Speaker 2: stop and there were women in the queue, my dad
Speaker 2: would raise his trophy to them good morning, and he
Speaker 2: encouraged us to raise our school caps good morning.
Speaker 8: He was.
Speaker 2: That kind of polite, gentlemanly guy, even though they were
Speaker 2: working class. All my family, I think were like that,
Speaker 2: and when.
Speaker 6: They're broken hearted people living in the world agreed there
Speaker 6: will be an answer.
Speaker 3: Let it be.
Speaker 2: I like that, it's nice to be nice.
Speaker 1: I like courtesy.
Speaker 2: I value politeness, courtesy, and don't particularly like confrontation. If
Speaker 2: it's absolutely necessary, then you do it.
Speaker 1: But I mean generally speaking, we.
Speaker 2: Would try, all of us, I think, would try not
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 7: There is still a chest and they will see there
Speaker 7: will be an answer.
Speaker 3: Let it be.
Speaker 4: Let it be as a refrain is a moral message,
Speaker 4: echoing other hits that were popular when Paul McCartney was
Speaker 4: growing up, Like k Sarah Sarah, when.
Speaker 5: I was just a little hugerl I asked my mother
Speaker 5: what will I be?
Speaker 3: Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?
Speaker 7: Here's what she said to me, Kay, s.
Speaker 2: I've always known that people in listening to your song
Speaker 2: may take a message away, So that if your song
Speaker 2: is a good message love is all you need, then
Speaker 2: that's a good message to put out rather than sympathy
Speaker 2: for the devil.
Speaker 8: Plead to meet you will get day. But what you
Speaker 8: with the nature of Magame.
Speaker 2: You know, mis not a bad boy at all, It's
Speaker 2: exactly opposite. But his image is to show is of that.
Speaker 2: Whereas we just didn't really have a bothered with that.
Speaker 4: Whereas the Rolling Stones wrote songs about sex, drugs, and
Speaker 4: rock and roll, the Beatles wrote lyrics that were more
Speaker 4: likely to be parent approved, or that would at least
Speaker 4: sound familiar to parents who are listening to other classics.
Speaker 6: The time kaya, whatever will be, will be?
Speaker 3: The future is not ours.
Speaker 7: To see, okayeta seta.
Speaker 3: What will be will be?
Speaker 1: Whatever will be will be?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well do you think in any way it might
Speaker 5: be feeding into this a little bit? No?
Speaker 2: I mean there were loads of songs that were about stuff,
Speaker 2: that were encouraging you to be good, and I think
Speaker 2: Cassah is one of them.
Speaker 1: When I was a little girl, I asked my mother,
Speaker 1: what would I be? Will be this? The mother said,
Speaker 1: who knows? You know?
Speaker 2: Case Rah, what will be will be? But that's not
Speaker 2: let it be.
Speaker 4: Paul McCartney's mother had passed away when he was only fourteen,
Speaker 4: and both heard death and her absence strongly influenced the
Speaker 4: young songwriter, so it's not a surprise that in such
Speaker 4: a time of stress, it would be his mother who
Speaker 4: would come to comfort him in a dream. His mother,
Speaker 4: whose name was in fact Mary, and I.
Speaker 2: Sort of fell into the dream feeling great, and woke
Speaker 2: up feeling still feeling great, and thinking, oh, I'm remembering
Speaker 2: the dream and remembering how she looked and how it felt,
Speaker 2: and what she said. And I remembered particularly that she
Speaker 2: said the words let it be. Because of this dream,
Speaker 2: I woke up and thought, that is that's a great
Speaker 2: subject for a song, and I will start it with
Speaker 2: my present circumstances. When I find myself in time to
Speaker 2: trouble Mother Mary comes to me, it's just exactly what
Speaker 2: has just happened, speaking words of will let it be.
Speaker 3: Let it be, let it be, let it be, Let it.
Speaker 4: Be for all. Paul McCartney knew the words let it
Speaker 4: be had come from his subconscious or as a message
Speaker 4: from beyond the grave, but after the song was released,
Speaker 4: he realized that he may have encountered these words long
Speaker 4: before he wrote the lyrics, back when he was a
Speaker 4: schoolboy at the Liverpool Institute for Boys. There, in the
Speaker 4: English class of Paul's favored and most formative teacher, Alan Durband,
Speaker 4: the students read Shakespeare's Hamlet for the first time.
Speaker 2: So in those days it had to learn speeches off
Speaker 2: by heart. So I could still do a bit of
Speaker 2: a bill, not to be all over this two two
Speaker 2: solid flash. And it had been pointed out to me
Speaker 2: recently that Hamlet isn't He actually says, let it be.
Speaker 2: I don't recall back five scene two. It just happened
Speaker 2: to so we can give you the exact quote. He
Speaker 2: says let be the first time, but then the second
Speaker 2: time he says, had I got time as this fell?
Speaker 1: Sergeant death is strict in his arrest.
Speaker 2: Oh, I could tell you, but let it be, Horatio.
Speaker 7: Let it be, Let it be, Let it be.
Speaker 4: With these words, the Prince of Denmark clutching his fatal wound,
Speaker 4: except that his death is eminent, that he will not
Speaker 4: live to tell his tragic story.
Speaker 2: But I was interested that I was exposed to those
Speaker 2: words during a time when I was.
Speaker 1: Studying Shakespeare. It so did.
Speaker 2: Years later, the phrase appears to me in a dream,
Speaker 2: with my mother saying, now, of course, I must realize
Speaker 2: that it's it's me saying it through her. It's kind of,
Speaker 2: I think, very interesting.
Speaker 4: The phrase let it be seems simple enough when we
Speaker 4: first hear it, but we might each take it to
Speaker 4: mean something different.
Speaker 2: Please God, let it let it be. I want a
Speaker 2: rand new car. Let it be, you know, knock it off,
Speaker 2: pack it in, let it be, just don't don't bother,
Speaker 2: you know, just let it be.
Speaker 5: And there's let's leave things as they are.
Speaker 2: It's okay, which is pointed out to me, is the
Speaker 2: answer to to be or not to be?
Speaker 1: M let it be?
Speaker 4: With to be or not to be Hamlet's famous question.
Speaker 4: It was also, in a sense the question that was
Speaker 4: beginning to haunt the Beatles as a group. Their future
Speaker 4: existence as a band was entirely uncertain. In that way,
Speaker 4: both meanings of the phrase let it be are fitting.
Speaker 4: Let it be as hopeful plea, let it be as
Speaker 4: stoic resignation, let it be Eddy.
Speaker 2: The bed.
Speaker 4: In this song with a title that has multiple meanings,
Speaker 4: there's another lyric Paul McCartney left open to interpretation to.
Speaker 7: The sound of music, Mother Mary, God to me singing wisdom.
Speaker 4: By calling his mother by her first name, Mary, McCartney
Speaker 4: opens the door to a more sacred aspect of the song.
Speaker 2: As I called her mother Mary rather than my mom Mary.
Speaker 2: I think no I knew enough to know that. Okay,
Speaker 2: we've got a sort of double meaning going here. I
Speaker 2: think you're aware of that when you write these things.
Speaker 2: But it was kind of good because it opens the
Speaker 2: song to a religious crowd who want to take it
Speaker 2: like that, so it gets performed my gospel. Yes.
Speaker 4: Paul McCartney's father was Protestant and his mother Catholic, though
Speaker 4: when it came to their children's schooling, the priority was
Speaker 4: a good education.
Speaker 9: The fact that she was a nurse had meant that
Speaker 9: she'd been called to a lot of schools, and she
Speaker 9: thought the Prodestant school's education was better.
Speaker 2: So she wanted the best education for her kids, and
Speaker 2: no doubt my dad, being Protestant, would say, yeah, the
Speaker 2: better and agree with them. The Catholic aspect, it was
Speaker 2: really only one thing was that we'd been christened to
Speaker 2: save our immortal souls, which I was always rather pleased with.
Speaker 2: I'm glad my immortal soul is safe, and you know,
Speaker 2: so I thank her.
Speaker 1: For doing that.
Speaker 4: Why let it be wasn't written with a particular religious angle,
Speaker 4: It certainly can in a spiritual dimension. The words of
Speaker 4: wisdom delivered by Mother Mary are repeated throughout the song
Speaker 4: as the music swells, and they take on the quality
Speaker 4: of a chant, a prayer, or another type of holy incantation.
Speaker 3: Mother Mother Mary constantly.
Speaker 2: You know someone said, what's your religion? I wouldn't just
Speaker 2: sort of say Christian, but I take Christian, Buddhist, Jewish.
Speaker 2: There are many great teachings in all.
Speaker 4: The religion, in its spiritual ambiguity. Let it Be offers
Speaker 4: a sort of common grant and to break from the
Speaker 4: conflicts of different belief systems. And at a time when
Speaker 4: the divisions within the Beatles were becoming only more pronounced,
Speaker 4: the song called for and made possible a few moments
Speaker 4: off togetherness because it is a.
Speaker 1: Song of hope.
Speaker 2: Sure you know about all people are going to sort
Speaker 2: of come together. You do think is there ever going
Speaker 2: to be a time when people agree? And you know,
Speaker 2: realistically you have to think, well, probably not, No, probably not.
Speaker 1: But it's a great dream.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful dream, and the more you push towards it,
Speaker 2: the more it may happen.
Speaker 4: Let It Be released in nineteen seventy as the title
Speaker 4: song from the Beatles' last album. In the next episode,
Speaker 4: we go to the rolling hills of Scotland, where Paul's wife,
Speaker 4: Lynda McCartney helped him to discover his love of nature
Speaker 4: and the joys of fixing up their farm. McCartney a
Speaker 4: life in Lyrics is a co production between iHeartMedia NPL
Speaker 4: and Pushkin Industries.