Paul McCartney on Lennon’s best song and feeling humble working with Stones
Sir Paul McCartney says Imagine by his late great friend John Lennon is a song with a “beautiful vision” which is still relevant today with the world at war. The Beatles icon, 83, has chosen ten songs to describe his life and extraordinary career for Radio 2 and ended the selection with Lennon’s most famous track, a call for peace.
Paul said: “It’s just one of John’s great songs. There’s so many tracks you can choose. You start getting John, well, what about George? George has got some incredible ones. But you’ve got to slim it down for the programme. I just think that song of John’s is magical.
“And a lot of other people do. It’s one that people like to sing. And I can just, in my mind, having worked with John so often, I can kind of see him writing it. To see him doing that piano part. And I just think it’s a beautiful vision of how the world could be. Unfortunately, when I hear that, the back of my mind thinks it’s not going to happen. Or wouldn’t it be great? How lucky would we be if all those things happened? You know, but never mind.
“It’s a beautiful dream. It’s a beautiful ambition. And I think a lot of people love to think about that, love to imagine that kind of reality, particularly with a lot of stuff going on these days.”
READ MORE: Paul McCartney’s new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane track by track in his own wordsREAD MORE: The Beatles get back to Savile Row as they launch brand new museum
Speaking to Vernon Kay on Radio 2, Paul also picks songs from the likes of Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley as well as more surprising choices from The Kinks and The Human League.
He said he prefers to still listen to music on vinyl and insisted it sounds better that way. Asked if he has a record player, Paul replied: “Yeah. A lot of people don’t have a turntable these days. And I once asked an engineer, I said, what’s the thing about vinyl? He said, well… if you’re talking about frequencies, there’s super high frequencies, some that we can’t even hear, and there’s some super low frequencies. He said, well, vinyl’s got them all. But whereas a CD cuts them off, because you don’t need them. So it’s not as rich.
“My daughter just gave me a Cat Stevens LP this morning. This very morning. Yeah, you know, I think vinyl is great.”
Paul, who is busy promoting his own new album, also discussed working on the forthcoming Rolling Stones LP Foreign Tongues. He admitted he got a kick out of being in the studio with them, having been friendly rivals in the Sixties.
He explained: “The producer I did my new album with is Andrew Watt. I was having dinner. Me and my wife, with Ronnie Wood and Sally, his wife, and we’d be talking about, ‘What are you doing, what’s going on?’.
“He said, we’re going to make a new record, but we’re not sure about who’s going to produce it. I said well, this guy Andrew’s really good, you know, you should maybe try him out.
“So Ronnie went back and mentioned it, and it turned out Mick[Jagger] was thinking about him anyway. So Andrew has done the last (Stones)album and this one. And at one point, Andrew said, ‘do you want to play bass on it?’ I said, ‘yeah, I’ll do that. Why not?’ So I showed up as a session player just with my bass.
“It was really good feeling, you know, because I wasn’t a star. I was just the bass player.
“I learned the song, none of us were reading notes, and started rehearsing it with them and playing, and it’s on their new album. But it was great.
“I’m standing there and playing, and I’m thinking I’m playing with the Stones’. I should be blasé and go, yeah, I’ve known them for years. But it was special, because now suddenly I’m playing with them.
“You better believe when I got home that evening I was.’I just played with the Stones. It was great’. And it was great. I loved it. It was a really good session.”
Sir Paul didn’t choose any modern female stars like Taylor Swift among the tracks of his life. but he praised their music and said he was on hand if they wanted advice, but he doubted they needed any from a “grandad” like him.
He said: “There’s a lot of girl singers, there wasn’t when we were kids. It was like all guys for a long time, so I’ve met a few of these girls and admired what they’re doing. I think they’re good singers. Taylor’s very good. She’s, you know…clever.
“The worldwide fame that Taylor Swift has and that we had….I don’t think she needs any advice, to tell you the truth.”
He added: “But, you know, I do meet them. We had a party. My wife and my daughter Stella are very good at getting cool people to a party. So a lot of those girls were at this party, and I ended up chatting to them all because, you know, there was Taylor, there was Billie Eilish, there was Olivia Rodrigo, there was Sabrina Carpenter, and they’re really cool people. They’re very good. So basically, answering your question, I like their voices. If they needed any advice, yeah, I would be happy to give it, but I don’t think they do.”
Paul’s new album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane is released at the end of this week. The title is a nod to Dungeon Lane, an area down by the shoreline of the Mersey where Paul would play out with friends as a child.
It is a place Paul still sees when returning home, serving as a symbolic gateway to a world he lived in before he was famous, and before the Beatles had formed in 1960.
But Paul insists the new album isn’t only about nostalgia.
He said: “In truth, when I do an album, I don’t really plan it. I write a lot of songs, and when I’ve got enough, I then start to think, this could be an album. So I select the ones that kind of seem I like best and seem to go together. But on this album, I did find myself, probably about half the album is nostalgic. I’m thinking of memories. I’m thinking of places that I remember. And I like that because it takes me back then and I’m sort of with those people again. You know, and I’m in those situations again. That’s what memories and nostalgia can do for you.
“Some people will sort of say, oh, nostalgia, I don’t like it. But I never understand that. I think there’s so many beautiful memories, if you’re lucky.
“I grew up in a very loving family in Liverpool. So I was very lucky to have these great uncles and aunties and cousins. And I thought everyone had that kind of family. A lot of people do, but not everyone. So, you know, when I met John and I’m talking to him, his dad left home when he was three years old. And Ringo’s got the same kind of story. His dad left home. So I realised how lucky I was, you know, to have this great upbringing with these great people.”
* Paul McCartney’s Tracks Of My Years is on at 6pm on Radio 2 and BBC Sounds in a special programme on Bank Holiday Monday. The Boys Of Dungeon Lane is out on Friday(May 29).
Paul’s 10 tracks are:
- Gene Vincent – Be-bop-a-Lula
- Chuck Berry – Maybellene
- Buddy Holly – That’ll Be The Day
- Elvis – All Shook Up
- The Kinks – You Really Got Me
- The Human League – Don’t You Want Me
- Prince – Kiss
- Bob Dylan – Mr Tambourine Man
- The Beach Boys – God Only Knows
- John Lennon – Imagine
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