# Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, CH, MBE (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, poet, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. He became famous as a founding member of The Beatles and Wings.

## Quotes

* She's lovely, great. She was very friendly. She was just like a mum to us.
** About Queen Elizabeth II, in an interview after the Beatles received their MBEs from her (26 October 1965)
* I really wish the people that look sort of in anger at the 'weirdos,' at the happenings, at the psychedelic freak-out, would instead of just looking with anger, just look with nothing; with no feeling; be unbiased about it. They really don't realize that what these people are talking about is something that they really want themselves. It's something that everyone wants. You know, it's personal freedom to be able to talk and be able to say things And it's dead straight! It's a real sort of basic pleasure for everyone. But it looks weird from the outside.
** From the TV show "It's So Far Out It's Straight Down", 18.1.1967
* Some fella said to me, "Have you had LSD, Paul?" And I said "Yes." And it was only 'cuz I was going to just be honest with him. There's no other reason. I didn't want to spread it or anything, you know. I'm not trying to do anything except answer his question. But he happened to be a reporter, and I happened to be a Beatle.
** Pop Chronicles: Show 39 - The Rubberization of Soul: The great pop music renaissance. Part 5, interview recorded 5.14.1968
* Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that Can't Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far.
** The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969), p 107
* We probably seem to be anti-religious...none of us believes in God.
** Hit Parader (January 1970)
* I wasn't really dead.
** "The Chris Farley Show" sketch on Saturday Night Live, regarding the Paul is Dead hoax.
* “You’re up on your beautiful Appaloosa stallion. It’s a fine spring day. We’re riding through the woods. The bluebells are all out, and the sky is a clear blue." I had barely got to the end of the sentence when she closed her eyes and gently slipped away. She was unique, and the world is a better place for having known her. I love you, Linda.
** Last words to his wife, Linda, as recounted by McCartney in a statement released to the press three days after her death; as quoted in "Linda's Death 'Heartbreak' for McCartney" by Emma Ross, Tucson Citizen (April 21, 1998), p. B1
* When I see bacon, I see a pig, I see a little friend, and that's why I can't eat it. Simple as that. But I'll eat Linda's veggie bacon. All her food was so good.
** Animal Times interview, Fall, 1998
* Steve Martin came around for a barbecue once. I was grilling and he said, “Oh, no, I can’t have any of that.” I asked why not and he said, “Sorry, I’m vegetarian.” I said, “You didn’t know we are?! Everything on the grill is veggie!” He said, “Ahhh” and ate three veggie burgers and then asked where he could buy them.
** Animal Times interview, Fall, 1998
* Criticism didn't really stop us and it shouldn't ever stop anyone, because critics are only the people who can't get a record deal themselves.
** The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 96
* We're constantly being asked all sorts of very profound questions. But we're not very profound people. People say, 'What do you think of the H-bomb, of religion, of fan worship?' But we didn't really start thinking about these things until people asked us. And even then we didn't get much time to consider them. What do I think of the H-bomb? Well, here's an answer with the full weight of five O levels and one A level behind it: I don't agree with it.
** The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 109
* I don't have any desire to learn. I feel it's like a voodoo, that it would spoil things if I actually learnt how things are done.
** Of arranging, The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 175
* While the others had got married and moved out to suburbia, I had stayed in London and got into the arts scene through friends like Robert Fraser and Barry Miles and papers like The International Times. We opened the Indica gallery with John Dunbar, Peter Asher and people like that. I heard about people like John Cage, and that he’d just performed a piece of music called 4’33” (which is completely silent) during which if someone in the audience coughed he would say, ‘See?’ Or someone would boo and he’d say, ‘See? It’s not silence—it’s music.’ I was intrigued by all of that. So these things started to be part of my life. I was listening to Stockhausen; one piece was all little plink-plonks and interesting ideas. Perhaps our audience wouldn’t mind a bit of change, we thought, and anyway, tough if they do! We only ever followed our own noses—most of the time, anyway. ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was one example of developing an idea.
** The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 212
* With life and all I've been through, I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good's become God with 'o' out, and evil's become Devil with a 'd' added. That's my theory of religion.
** The Beatles Anthology (2000)
* For cruelty to animals, vegetarianism is the great thing to get rid of that. For the planet, to prevent depleting the water and the land and everything, it’s a great idea. And I think it’s a great thing for your health, and doctors nowadays agree with that. There are plenty of great books and organizations, so no matter where you are, there is someone to help you. That’s your first step, and I think your second step is just look in the supermarket for good vegetarian food, and I think it’s so much more readily available now.
** Sir Paul McCartney and PETA VP Dan Mathews Reflect on Two Decades of Activism (April 2005)
* We thought we'd be really big in Liverpool.
** On the Beatles' early expectations of their success (2007 interview with Larry King)
* What a fucking great band we were.
** Discussing The Beatles in the documentary, All Together Now (2008)
* I tend not to say much on the phone now. If I leave a message, it's benign. You edit yourself according to the new circumstances of the new world. I think it would be quite good to get some sort of laws.
** Discussing phone hacking
* I'd like to be able to go on holiday and not to have to hold my belly in for two whole weeks.
** Of his fear that paparazzi would take unflattering photos

### Lyrics
#### The Beatles

Songs credited to Lennon–McCartney:
* Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday.
** "Yesterday", from Help! (1965)
* Why she had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.
** "Yesterday", from Help! (1965)
* Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday.
** "Yesterday", from Help! (1965)
* To lead a better life, I need my love to be here. Here, making each day of the year, Changing my life with a wave of her hand. Nobody can deny that there's something there.
** "Here, There and Everywhere" form Revolver (1966) - Full lyrics at Songfacts.com
* I want her everywhere and if she's beside me I know I need never care. But to love her is to need her Everywhere, knowing that love is to share each one believing that love never dies watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there.
** "Here, There and Everywhere" (1966)
* Lovely Rita, Meter Maid, nothing could come between us. When it gets dark I'll tow your heart away
** "Lovely Rita" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
* Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?
** "When I'm Sixty-Four" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
* Hey Jude, don't make it bad Take a sad song and make it better. Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it better.
** "Hey Jude" (1968)
* Obladi oblada life goes on bra Lala how the life goes on
** Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (1968)
* And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
** "The End"; The last full song track of Abbey Road (1969) the last Beatles album to be recorded before the band broke up. (Let It Be was the last album released, but had been recorded earlier.)
* The long and winding road that leads to your door Will never disappear, I've seen that road before it always leads me here, Leads me to your door.
** "The Long and Winding Road" from Let It Be (1970)

#### Wings

* I thought the only lonely place was on the moon.
** "Jet" from Band on the Run (1974)
* You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs I look around me and I see it isn't so Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know 'Cause here I go again... I love you.
** "Silly Love Songs", 1976

#### Solo

* Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord why don't we?
** "Ebony and Ivory" from Tug of War (1982)

## Quotes about Paul McCartney

* Even legendary musician Paul McCartney weighed in. In his foreword to a new book against Arctic drilling by Greenpeace activist Ben Stewart, McCartney wrote, "As the ice retreats, the oil giants are moving in. Instead of seeing the melting as a grave warning to humanity, they are eyeing the previously inaccessible oil beneath the seabed at the top of the world. They're exploiting the disappearance of the ice to drill for the very same fuel that caused the melting in the first place."
** Amy Goodman Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2017) p 237
* Among Sir Paul's accomplishments with the Beatles and as a massively successful solo artist, McCartney's talent as a bassist is often downplayed. Music fans of any real level or generation understand what a phenomenal songwriter McCartney was and still is. However, his bass playing on such Beatles' classics as "Nowhere Man," "Come Together," and "A Day in the Life" were innovative for the time. The latter is also an example of just how melodic his playing can be. McCartney's talent on the instrument is worth paying attention to the next time a Beatles tune comes on.
** Jeff Mezydlo of Yardbarker (February 2025)

## External links

* Paul McCartney Albums
* Official site
* The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Paul's Old School
* The Art of Paul McCartney - Exhibition 2002
* Official UK/US Discography