Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBEis an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame with the rock band the Beatles, one of the most popular and influential groups in the history of pop music. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is one of the most celebrated of the 20th century. After the band's break-up, he pursued a solo career and formed Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth18 June 1942
CityLiverpool, England
And when at last I find you/ Your song will fill the air.
Domesticity is the enemy of art. I don't know if that's true. You can write good happy songs. So, I don't think it's necessarily happiness. But I think self-satisfaction is maybe the enemy. It's kind of better to think, "Tomorrow night I'm gonna sing it better." There is this forward effort. It feels to me right, it feels human.
It's a powerful thing hearing your friend on a very beautiful song.
I think that selling rights is a bad move commercially, not just morally. It cheapens the songs. When people come to my concerts, they often hold up candles when we do "Let It Be." I don't think they'd do that anymore if the song suddenly became part of an Oldsmobile ad.
Sometimes you write a song in a certain era and it's got a certain kind of significance.
The most important ingredient to making a song work is the magic. You've got a melody, you've got words, but on the more successful songs, there's a sort of magic glow that just happens and you can feel it happening. It just makes the songs sort of roll out.
I think when you're making an album, as the songs are piling up, one of the good things about it is that you will often write the song that you need.
Pete Ham in the group was a very good writer. He wrote the Nilsson song "Without You", which is a seriously good song. But the poor fellow topped himself. He was a lovely bloke, I can still see him now. It was a terrible loss.
I'm only 49 years old. I'm still in the middle of this whole thing. I don't feel like it's finished at all. I'm still planning to write better songs.
There are two things John and I always do when we're going to sit down and write a song. First of all we sit down. Then we think about writing a song.
John could write a mean song. He had a lot of venom in him. Whereas I had a happy childhood.
Every love song I write is for Linda.
I'm always writing songs, and I've got a bunch that I want to record.
I'm not into, Hey, what's your sign? or any of that. But I don't know how I got here, and I don't know how I write songs. I don't know why I breathe.