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
I think people who create and write, it actually does flow-just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It's simple.
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 not unusual for writers to look backward. Because that's your pool of resources. If you were to write something now, I bet there's a pretty good chance you'd call on your teenage years, your experiences then, stuff you learned then.
A lot of artists use memories. A lot of prose writers, a lot of poets, a lot of songwriters, refer back to something. Generally it's all you've got, unless you're brilliant and can write totally in the now.
Sometimes you write a song in a certain era and it's got a certain kind of significance.
Sometimes when you write a thing you think, 'Oh, this is good', and it's not a modesty or an immodesty thing, you just... it's just the same with anything; when you write a piece you just figure, 'Oh yeah, I'm on a roll here. This is good; I'm getting the hang of this'. Some pieces are better than others.
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.
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 lost my voice. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.
I think a domestic situation can change you and your attitudes. I suppose if you did get a bit content, then you might not write savage lyrics.