♪♪
PAUL McCARTNEY: Yeah.
♪♪
We were told that, you'll never make it from Liverpool.
You'll never make it.
Of course, that just strengthened our resolve.
"We'll show you, mate."
You know? Yeah.
We thought we were different.
Yeah. We knew we were different.
And then that, um... found its way into the music.
♪♪ Lovely Rita playing ♪♪
♪♪ Ah ♪♪
♪♪ Lovely Rita, meter maid ♪♪
PAUL: (on recording) ♪♪ Lovely Rita, meter maid ♪♪
♪♪ Nothing can come between us ♪♪
♪♪ When it gets dark I tow your heart away ♪♪
♪♪ Standing by a parking meter ♪♪
♪♪ When I caught a glimpse of Rita ♪♪
♪♪ Filling in a ticket in her little white book ♪♪
♪♪ In a cap she looked much older ♪♪
♪♪ And the bag across her shoulder ♪♪
♪♪ Made her look a little like a military man ♪♪
♪♪ Paul humming music ♪♪
PAUL: Hm. RICK RUBIN: It's just so interesting.
The choices you're making in the playing.
♪♪
I think the bass is really straight.
Pretty straight, yeah.
I come in and ruin it.
Good thing you wrote it.
♪♪ Lovely Rita, meter maid ♪♪
♪♪ Where would I be without you? ♪♪
♪♪ Give us a wink and make me think of you ♪♪
♪♪ Lovely Rita meter maid ♪♪
It feels almost like the bass is doing
like what an orchestra would do, you know.
It's adding all of the other counterpoint...
Yeah. ...and extra rhythm.
But then when the vocal comes in, I get out the way.
(humming)
But then I come back, I'm too tempted‐‐
(rapid humming) Yeah, yeah.
But, uh, I like doing that, you know.
You started as a guitar player though.
Yeah, me and John were the guitar players. Yeah.
I used to think I could be lead guitar.
Yeah.
Because at home, I could, I could play nice little songs.
But I got terrible stage fright at a place in Liverpool
um, called Broadway, funnily enough.
Oh, it just came my time to play the solo
and I, aah,
I, like, froze, you know,
sticky fingers and nothing would work.
And after that, I thought, right, no more lead.
That's it, you know, we'll give that to somebody else.
Wow.
But yeah, I did start on guitar, originally acoustic,
and then, uh, when we went to Hamburg,
I bought a little electric guitar, very cheap.
But it looked good. Yeah.
Looked kind of rock and roll.
Kind of red thing,
Rosetti Lucky 7.
But it was terrible.
But I could‐you know, it worked until we got to Hamburg
and then it fell apart.
So then I would, I was turning my back on the audience
and playing piano.
But it was good. Good practice.
For a bass player, we had Stuart,
who was a friend of John's from art school,
but he ended up wanting to stay in Hamburg
because he fell in love.
So then it was a question of me, John, or George becoming the bass player,
and the two of them said, well, I'm not doing it.
(both laugh)
So it was‐I was left.
Were you already writing songs at this point or not really?
Yeah. Yeah.
Even from the Hamburg days?
Before.
Really? Yeah.
I wrote, um, my first one when I was like 14.
Wow.
And that was just a little, little guitar thing.
Uh, do you want me to show you? Yes.
Okay. Let's go.
I will find a guitar.
♪♪
Yeah, I liked the idea that the baseline would go up.
♪♪
Then I wanted this to come down.
♪♪
So you get that little thing. That was the big thing for me.
Yeah. So it was just‐‐
♪♪ I woke up late this morning ♪♪
♪♪ My head was in a whirl ♪♪
♪♪ Only then I realized ♪♪
♪♪ I lost my little girl ♪♪
♪♪ Her clothes were not expensive ♪♪
♪♪ Her hair didn't always curl ♪♪
♪♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪♪
♪♪
But it is interesting, the first song I should write
has got a little contra vocal thing going.
Absolutely.
I'm fingering down on that‐‐
Two parts going on at the same time right out of the box.
Yeah. Unusual for a young kid.
Yeah. You know, and it's a funny thing
as you get older, you think,
well, how did I know that?
Yes. And I, I haven't got an answer.
♪♪ vocalizing ♪♪
♪♪
When John and I had got together
and I told him about that little song that I'd written,
and I'd written a couple of others.
And he said, so have I.
And that was, that was the big difference.
I talked to other people,
and they sort of said, "Well, what do you do?"
I said, "Oh, I've got a hobby,
I kind of, I've written a couple of songs."
And most people would just ignore that and go,
"Oh okay, you know, what sports do you like," and move on.
But, uh, when I said that to John, he said, "Yeah, so have I."
I said, "Oh yeah, great.
"Well, let me see yours,
I'll show you mine," kind of thing, you know.
And that was it.
We, we started writing together
with that in mind, you know.
♪♪ This Boy playing ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ That boy ♪♪
You know, we were trying to make money.
We were kind of guys, none of us was rich,
so we would play pubs and ballrooms.
The Aintree Institute would have, like, a dance.
RICK: Hmm.
PAUL: But when we'd got Brian Epstein as our manager,
Brian said, you could play cabaret clubs,
but you'll have to smarten up. Hm.
Because we were a bit rock and roll. Yeah.
He says you'll have to sort of smarten up,
and you'll have to do your more sort of ballady songs.
It can't just be a straight rock and roll set.
Mm‐hmm.
But you could see this at a cabaret club.
Yeah, for sure.
You know, ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Beatles.
(Rick laughs) Lights go down, little spots come up.
♪♪ Back again ♪♪
Let's see.
And then we get John's‐‐
JOHN LENNON: (on recording) ♪♪ Oh, and this boy ♪♪
RICK: No music.
♪♪ Would be happy ♪♪
♪♪ Just to love you ♪♪
♪♪ But oh my ♪♪
♪♪ That boy ♪♪
♪♪ Won't be happy ♪♪
(singing along) ♪♪ Till he's seen you cry ♪♪
♪♪ This boy ♪♪
RICK: That was beautiful. Yeah.
♪♪ Wouldn't mind the pain ♪♪
♪♪
You know, we wanted to, um, show different sides of ourselves.
We could've just been one guy sings the vocal
and we'll back him up.
But we kept wanting to stretch it a little bit.
So this whole song is just a three‐part harmony thing.
♪♪ This boy ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ This boy ♪♪
Those were exciting things to do, you know,
to, to branch out like that.
Then we wanted to add these other layers,
which as the Beatles went on, we added more and more.
♪♪ Something playing ♪♪
GEORGE HARRISON: (on recording) ♪♪ Something in the way she moves ♪♪
♪♪ Attracts me like no other lover ♪♪
♪♪ Something in the way she woos me ♪♪
♪♪ I don't want to leave her now ♪♪
(indiscernible chatter)
♪♪ You know I believe and how ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ Somewhere in her smile she knows ♪♪
What is going on with the bass?
Like, it's the greatest thing I've ever heard.
Oh. How did this happen?
I mean‐‐ How does this exist?
It's very tempting when you're on the bass to sort of go‐‐
(imitating bass guitar)
And I probably started simple.
(imitating bass guitar) Yeah.
And then you might find that the bit we were kind of liking,
it's a nice little melody.
♪♪
♪♪ You're asking me will my love grow ♪♪
It's doing so much work
that really is in the service of the record.
It's pretty adventurous, you know.
Did you have that all worked out before the‐‐
No.
So tell me what happens the day of this recording.
What happens?
Um... George comes in, shows us the song.
That would just be with a guitar and all just 'round,
a couple of chairs 'round a little circle.
It was all fairly instant. Yeah.
You know, it's just we've got to do this song.
We've got to do it. Let's just try it every which way,
until we settle on, oh yeah, this feels good.
It's the interaction.
Yeah.
♪♪
(humming)
Yeah.
♪♪
♪♪ song ends ♪♪
Classic George song.
Alright. (claps)
Do you remember after finishing the song, thinking‐‐
It's a good one. Did you feel that?
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think you know the good songs.
Yeah. Yeah.
Would it be whoever wrote the song
would sort of have the vision for the project for that?
Normally was, yeah. And then I'd butt in.
(laughs)
And they'd hate me for it.
I'd go, "But it's a good idea, boys."
If you had a good idea, it's like‐‐
Mm‐hmm. Got to get 'em in.
Yeah. Got to get them in.
I mean, it was kind of an awkward thing, you know,
that if you had a good idea for something,
you'd say it. Yeah.
But often the other guy would sort of say, well, you play it.
Yeah.
You know, there was there was a lot of freedom.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we did that a lot.
Like, I think I talked to George a lot about the solo on Taxman.
And I think that's what happened.
He said, "Well, you play it."
♪♪ Taxman ♪♪
♪♪
No wonder George said you do it.
But what was the insp‐‐ Like, what were you‐‐
I don't know, just free, free.
I mean, and a little bit of Indian in there, too.
Yeah.
I wouldn't have thought about it or written it or anything.
It would just be like, oh, it's, the track's so cooking... Yeah.
...that if we're going to have a solo, it should be just ridiculous.
(imitating guitar riff)
Amazing. You know.
♪♪ Yeah, I'm the Taxman ♪♪
PAUL: Nice bass lick as well.
♪♪ If you drive a car, I'll tax the street ♪♪
♪♪ If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat ♪♪
♪♪ If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat ♪♪
♪♪ If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet ♪♪
It was funny because it was like a double‐edged sword.
People sort of saying, well, couldn't you just play straighter,
you know, and I'm going, I don't know.
I think it lends something doing all this.
I did get sort of reprimanded once or twice,
for just being too busy. Yeah.
But you know, by that time I'd heard James Jamerson.
♪♪ singing "What's Going On" ♪♪
♪♪
He was great.
He had melodic baselines, and I love that.
It kind of opened my eyes to it. It was like, oh yeah, wow.
Yeah. You can groove, make it move, you know.
Because originally, the bass player
in the groups in Liverpool, it was the fat guy.
(laughs)
And he would just stand at the back‐‐
(imitating bass guitar)
And the guitar player... (imitating guitar riff)
He had all the fancy stuff.
But later, when I heard people like James Jamerson,
I realized, wow, you can,
you can really do a big thing with a bass.
You can actually control the band with the bass.
It's interesting.
And it's, it's in some ways, is why we're having this conversation is
the fascination with how important the bass is
in the context of these songs.
And the songs are so ubiquitous in our culture
that we don't really think of them in pieces.
Hm. Do you know what I mean?
We just think of them as that song.
That song, yeah. You know. Yeah, yeah.
It really happened quite organically in the studio.
Um... you know, my famous occasion
with bass radically altering
the whole attitude of the song was when John came in‐‐
♪♪
♪♪ Here come old flat‐top ♪♪
♪♪ He come groovin' up slowly ♪♪
♪♪ He got joo joo eyeball ♪♪
♪♪ He one holy roller, he got‐♪♪
I said, uh, uh, uh, uh, wait a minute, wait a minute,
that's a Chuck Berry song.
That's a Chuck Berry song,
which is called You Can't Catch Me.
Which not only is like that‐‐
♪♪
♪♪ Yeah, come on ♪♪
The opening line is, "Here come old flat‐top."
♪♪ Here come old flat‐top ♪♪
♪♪ He was moving up with me ♪♪
♪♪ Then come waving goodbye ♪♪
♪♪ In a little old souped‐up jitney ♪♪
♪♪ I put my foot in my tank ♪♪
♪♪ And I began to roll ♪♪
♪♪ Moaning siren, 'twas a state patrol ♪♪
♪♪ So I let out my wings ♪♪
♪♪ And then I blew my horn ♪♪
♪♪ Bye‐bye New Jersey, I've become airborne ♪♪
RICK: It actually is the Chuck Berry song.
It actually is the Chuck Berry song, so I said, "Oh man,"
I said, you know, "Look, it's a great song. I love it."
I said, "But we got to do something to get away from that."
So I just suggested we slowed it down.
So instead of the‐‐
♪♪ up‐tempo music playing ♪♪
We go... (humming Come Together)
♪♪ Come Together playing ♪♪
(imitating drum beats)
Which now gave it a kind of real nice swampy back and forth.
♪♪ Here come old flat top he got ♪♪
And it changed his attitude to it.
♪♪ Come Together playing ♪♪
I just want to hear the vocals,
just to understand where it's... the writing style.
JOHN LENNON: (on recording) ♪♪ Here come old flat top ♪♪
♪♪ He come grooving up slowly ♪♪
♪♪ He got joo joo eyeball ♪♪
♪♪ He one holy roller ♪♪
♪♪ He got hair down ♪♪
♪♪ To his knee ♪♪
♪♪ Got to be a joker he just do what he please ♪♪
♪♪
The signature of the song.
♪♪
Ringo.
♪♪
It's just the bass and the drums. It's a groove, isn't it?
♪♪
♪♪ ...Ono sideboard ♪♪
♪♪ ...spinal cracker ♪♪
♪♪ He got‐♪♪
PAUL: Yeah.
♪♪
♪♪ ...in his armchair you can feel his disease ♪♪
(singing along) ♪♪ Come together ♪♪
♪♪ Right now ♪♪
♪♪
PAUL: That's it.
I'm playing that piano.
♪♪
Guitars.
♪♪
That's John and George.
RICK: Together? PAUL: Both. No, that's George.
John's probably playing the rhythm.
Yeah, John's playing the rhythm, yeah.
♪♪
♪♪ Yeah ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ Come together ♪♪
♪♪
Bass sounds incredible. Yeah.
Really rockin'.
♪♪
And we sort of knew we'd got something funky.
Yeah. And that was always the aim.
Like, if you could take whatever the little song was you had
and just put that little extra something on it.
Did it feel like it happened most of the time?
Yeah. It seems like it.
Lis‐listening to the records, it sounds like that.
I know. Yeah.
I mean, for me, I've grown to be a fan of the Beatles.
Yeah. Yeah. Because then I was just a Beatle.
But now that the Beatles' volume of work is finished...
Yes.
I, I listen back to it,
and, you know, like that you just think, what was that bassline?
Now this is good because I actually, now I know‐‐
Now you understand how it works. Now I know what I played, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You talked a little bit about becoming a fan of the Beatles again.
Yeah. So tell me first about,
Beatles break up.
Mm. In that moment,
what's your feeling about your last ten years of music?
I knew we'd done something great.
Yes. We'd had a lot of fun in the studio,
and I was sad to see it break up. Yeah.
I thought I'd be in this band forever.
Hm.
But various things were happening.
There was a lot of heavy business stuff
that had, that had influenced decisions.
Mm‐hmm. So we, we split up,
and, uh, I was heartbroken, really.
And I kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth.
I went up to a farm in Scotland
and just became a sort of hippie farmer, which was great.
♪♪ Motorcars ♪♪
♪♪ Handlebars ♪♪
♪♪ Bicycles for two ♪♪
♪♪ Broken‐hearted jubilee ♪♪
When you've been a musician all that time,
the idea of just not doing it was a bit sad.
I just wanted to keep going with music.
Yeah.
You know, it was a very difficult thing to shake off
if you're this invested like you and I are.
Yeah.
You just can't sort of say, oh, I'll do it tomorrow.
Can't imagine it. Can't imagine.
So I just went right back to basics, and it wasn't easy.
♪♪
♪♪ Da, da, ya, da, da, da da, da, da ♪♪
Never finished the lyrics.
No, this is jazz.
(laughing)
I had some recording equipment at home.
I had an amp, guitar, piano, a little drum set.
So I just thought, well, I'll just record some stuff, you know.
And literally yourself, meaning not even an engineer.
Nobody was there except you. No. Nobody.
♪♪ ...the junk in the yard ♪♪
♪♪ Da, da, ya, da, da, da da, da, da ♪♪
♪♪
Wow.
♪♪
♪♪ song ends ♪♪
Beautiful.
This was the first album that you made in this way.
Everything at home, all by yourself.
Yeah.
I mean, once you do something like this,
it's a nice little home project.
Yeah.
It's like, you know, if you've built a table,
you've got some time off, I'll build a chair, something.
You know, it's just that good feeling you're doing something for yourself.
Yeah.
But then, you know, you've suddenly got
enough tracks for an album.
♪♪ Maybe I'm Amazed playing ♪♪
♪♪
PAUL: (on recording) ♪♪ Baby, I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time ♪♪
♪♪ Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you ♪♪
♪♪ Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time ♪♪
♪♪ You hung me on a line ♪♪
♪♪ Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you ♪♪
♪♪ Baby, I'm a man, maybe I'm a lonely man ♪♪
♪♪ Who's in the middle of something ♪♪
♪♪ That he doesn't really understand ♪♪
♪♪ Baby, I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman ♪♪
♪♪ Who could ever help me ♪♪
♪♪ Baby, won't you help me to understand? ♪♪
♪♪ Ooh‐ooh ♪♪
PAUL: Once you've been to the top,
going back down to the bottom of the ladder,
and clawing your way back up, is, uh, is a bit of a number.
But I had Linda by my side,
and she'd helped me through that period.
She was very, a great strength.
♪♪
♪♪ Baby, I'm amazed at the way you helped me... ♪♪
Bringing the energy.
♪♪ You right me when I'm wrong ♪♪
I wonder if that's tucked in there, I never heard that before.
No. No, you left it out?
I don't know.
It might be this. Yeah, it might be‐‐
Sounds like I mixed it out. I can't remember.
♪♪ Oh ♪♪
♪♪ Ooh‐ooh‐ooh ♪♪
♪♪ Yeah‐yeah, yeah ♪♪
♪♪
That got it.
♪♪ Oh ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ Yeah‐yeah, yeah ♪♪
♪♪
That's when the audience applauds, you go, wait for it, wait for it.
♪♪ Maybe I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time ♪♪
♪♪ And maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you ♪♪
I'd seen something that made me think,
oh, John's got a new record out,
and it's called Lennon.
I thought, wow, that's great.
Oh boy. I missed that boat.
Yeah. You know.
And it turned out not to be so. Wow.
So I said, well, that's a great idea though.
Yeah. You just call it your surname.
Yes. So I said, I'll have that.
So I just named my first record McCartney.
♪♪ That he doesn't really understand ♪♪
♪♪ Baby, I'm a man... ♪♪ Whoa.
♪♪ You're the only woman who could ever help me ♪♪
♪♪ Baby, won't you help me to understand? ♪♪
♪♪ Ooh ♪♪
You were feeling good that day.
♪♪
When was the moment when it switched from,
okay, the old band broke up,
there's some bad feelings, business stuff,
and now I'm moving on.
I'm starting at the bottom myself, over again.
When could you look back and realize,
oh, what we did back then was really good and special?
I think once I'd got over the fact
that the Beatles had broken up.
Um, once I could allow myself to do a Beatles song in, in our show.
Would that have been five years or ten years or‐‐
No, I think it was, it was a few years.
I wanted a whole new thing. Yes.
Whole new sound, new songs. Yeah.
So once we'd got that... Yes.
I felt vindicated and I thought, okay,
now, why don't‐I can, I can now safely put a Beatles song in.
Yes. And, uh, then you started to think,
ooh, what about that one?
And I never would do a John song. Hmm.
Because I would just only go to songs that I'd instigated.
Yeah. Um‐‐
But after a while, I got so comfortable with it,
I thought, yeah, I'll do a John song.
I love that song.
I want to read to you one little thing.
Yeah.
It says, "Paul is one of the most innovative bass players
"that ever played bass, and half of the stuff that's going on now
"is directly ripped off from his Beatle period.
"He has always been a bit coy about his bass playing,
but he's a great, great musician."
Did I write that? That is John Lennon.
That's John? Yeah.
Alright.
Come on, Johnny.
Yeah. That's beautiful.
I hadn't‐I hadn't heard that before.
It's interesting considering obviously,
you're two leaders of something, and just competitive situation.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So to hear that.
He'd never said that to me. Yeah.
So, but it's nice to hear that he said it to someone.
That's amazing.
♪♪ Helter Skelter playing ♪♪
♪♪ When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide ♪♪
♪♪ Where I stop, and I turn, and I go for a ride ♪♪
♪♪ 'Til I get to the bottom, and I see you again! ♪♪
♪♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪♪
♪♪ Well, do you, don't you want me to love you? ♪♪
♪♪ I'm coming down fast, but I'm miles above you ♪♪
♪♪ Tell me, tell me, tell me ♪♪
♪♪ Come on, tell me the answer! ♪♪
♪♪ Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer ♪♪
♪♪ Come on! Helter skelter ♪♪
♪♪ Helter skelter ♪♪
♪♪ Yeah ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ Oh, will you, won't you want me to make you? ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ I'm coming down fast, but don't let me break you ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer! ♪♪
♪♪ You may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ Look out! ♪♪
♪♪ Helter skelter ♪♪
♪♪ Ooh ♪♪
♪♪ Look out! ♪♪
♪♪ 'Cause here she comes ♪♪
♪♪
♪♪ When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top of the slide ♪♪
♪♪ And I stop, and I turn, and I go for a ride ♪♪
♪♪ And I get to the bottom, and I see you again! ♪♪
♪♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah! ♪♪