Did Paul's Voice Really Change?
-
RMartinez:
Nancy R:
RMartinez:
Hendrix Ibsen:
1989, in Drammenshallen. It was the first concert on the 1989/90 tour. Hey, that was a great concert! But I also remember my buddy, who stood beside me, he said that McCartney uses much effort, when he sings, we thought this was cool, that he was involved and gave everything, but this may have damaged his voice? I've thought about it later. he sang with so much power. No wonder his voice is a little scruffy in later years...
Yeah, I can see that when a singer gets older, the words they sing take on a different meaning. Still, Paul's songs, even the Beatle ones, are pretty timeless. He was 24 when he wrote Yesterday which has words a 75 year old probably should be singing.
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
I don't think it was about his mom. It was originally about scrambled eggs, then he just needed some words.
You're joking, right? I hope so.
-
Nancy R:
RMartinez:
Nancy R:
RMartinez:
Hendrix Ibsen:
1989, in Drammenshallen. It was the first concert on the 1989/90 tour. Hey, that was a great concert! But I also remember my buddy, who stood beside me, he said that McCartney uses much effort, when he sings, we thought this was cool, that he was involved and gave everything, but this may have damaged his voice? I've thought about it later. he sang with so much power. No wonder his voice is a little scruffy in later years...
Yeah, I can see that when a singer gets older, the words they sing take on a different meaning. Still, Paul's songs, even the Beatle ones, are pretty timeless. He was 24 when he wrote Yesterday which has words a 75 year old probably should be singing.
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
I don't think it was about his mom. It was originally about scrambled eggs, then he just needed some words.
You're joking, right? I hope so.
Show me an interview where he said it was about his mom. You can't just say things and have them be true. If it is, fine. But I have never read ANYWHERE McCartney saying that Yesterday was about his mom. None of these mention it being about his mom: http://www.beatlesebooks.com/yesterday http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=82 http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/yesterday/
-
Let It Be was about his mom, not yesterday.
-
"ding! ding!" we have a winner.
-
RMartinez:
Nancy R:
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
I don't think it was about his mom. It was originally about scrambled eggs, then he just needed some words.
RMartinez:
Show me an interview where he said it was about his mom.
Bruce M.:
Let It Be was about his mom, not yesterday.
The following is a quote from Ray Coleman's book "MCCARTNEY. YESTERDAY AND TODAY" which was written with Paul's co-operation:
It seemed such a pensive, melancholy song to be gestating across three key calendar years of Beatlemania, 1963 to 1965. These were heady times, in which the Beatles secured a multitude of awards, won the hearts and heads of millions around the world, and became the most influential force, musically and sociologically, since Elvis Presley. Touring America and being feted in his homeland, Paul McCartney never forgot the melody, but now the lyrics for a song he had called 'Yesterday', while poignant, seemed at odds with the euphoria that surrounded the Beatles. George Martin believes the words are 'the weakest part of the song' and represent a yearning by Paul for less frenzied times. 'Even though he was only twenty-two [when he finally recorded it], he had lived more than twenty-two years,' Martin says. 'It was a pretty complicated life at this time. They were in the middle of the trauma of being world heroes; this song happened two-thirds of the way through their touring years.' So Paul had already had his fill of hotel rooms, fans outside the door, and the prison of being famous. The threats, the tiresome aspect of being on the road, the noise, the hullabaloo - 'They got really sick to the teeth with it. So his lyrics are: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away."' Paul, however, rejects George Martin's theory that 'Yesterday' was a reaction to the mayhem of Beatlemania. 'That's George's theory about a lot of stuff,' Paul laughs. 'George also analyses "When I'm 64" as a young guy's view of hell. I don't quite agree with some of his analyses on these things. On "Yesterday", I don't think it was that at all, really. To us, it didn't seem too crazy. I think that to George, to people who looked at our lives, it looked crazy. To us, it was all we knew. It was very nice. We were earning a lot of money. It was fast and active. But so are my kids' lives and your kids' lives. You say to yourself: "My God, how do they do it?" Tearing about .. . but that's what you do at that age. I think that maybe it's a little bit too easy to think that I was yearning for quieter times.' Contrasting with any reaction to the success of the Beatles, a darker reason for the lyrics emerges from Paul McCartney's own reflections on his past in this song. He believes he may possibly have written 'Yesterday' as a catharsis for the death of his mother when he was aged fourteen. Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be There's a shadow hanging over me Yesterday came suddenly. Why she had to go, I don't know She wouldn't say I said something wrong. Now I long for yesterday.. .
-
(I'm gonna just go and tuck myself into a little corner and hide...) ops:
-
Bruce M.:
Let It Be was about his mom, not yesterday.
Yes. There are countless interviews where McCartney said Let It Be was about his mom.
-
calicoskych2001:
RMartinez:
Nancy R:
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
I don't think it was about his mom. It was originally about scrambled eggs, then he just needed some words.
RMartinez:
Show me an interview where he said it was about his mom.
Bruce M.:
Let It Be was about his mom, not yesterday.
The following is a quote from Ray Coleman's book "MCCARTNEY. YESTERDAY AND TODAY" which was written with Paul's co-operation:
It seemed such a pensive, melancholy song to be gestating across three key calendar years of Beatlemania, 1963 to 1965. These were heady times, in which the Beatles secured a multitude of awards, won the hearts and heads of millions around the world, and became the most influential force, musically and sociologically, since Elvis Presley. Touring America and being feted in his homeland, Paul McCartney never forgot the melody, but now the lyrics for a song he had called 'Yesterday', while poignant, seemed at odds with the euphoria that surrounded the Beatles. George Martin believes the words are 'the weakest part of the song' and represent a yearning by Paul for less frenzied times. 'Even though he was only twenty-two [when he finally recorded it], he had lived more than twenty-two years,' Martin says. 'It was a pretty complicated life at this time. They were in the middle of the trauma of being world heroes; this song happened two-thirds of the way through their touring years.' So Paul had already had his fill of hotel rooms, fans outside the door, and the prison of being famous. The threats, the tiresome aspect of being on the road, the noise, the hullabaloo - 'They got really sick to the teeth with it. So his lyrics are: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away."' Paul, however, rejects George Martin's theory that 'Yesterday' was a reaction to the mayhem of Beatlemania. 'That's George's theory about a lot of stuff,' Paul laughs. 'George also analyses "When I'm 64" as a young guy's view of hell. I don't quite agree with some of his analyses on these things. On "Yesterday", I don't think it was that at all, really. To us, it didn't seem too crazy. I think that to George, to people who looked at our lives, it looked crazy. To us, it was all we knew. It was very nice. We were earning a lot of money. It was fast and active. But so are my kids' lives and your kids' lives. You say to yourself: "My God, how do they do it?" Tearing about .. . but that's what you do at that age. I think that maybe it's a little bit too easy to think that I was yearning for quieter times.' Contrasting with any reaction to the success of the Beatles, a darker reason for the lyrics emerges from Paul McCartney's own reflections on his past in this song. He believes he may possibly have written 'Yesterday' as a catharsis for the death of his mother when he was aged fourteen. Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be There's a shadow hanging over me Yesterday came suddenly. Why she had to go, I don't know She wouldn't say I said something wrong. Now I long for yesterday.. .
Fair enough. But come on, Paul is going back and now says a LOT of things about a LOT of songs that are just coming to him now after fifty years. The truth is, until this book, Paul never said once it was EXPLICITLY about his mom. I stand by my statements. The man has also recently claim co-authorship of Mr. Kite, which is rubbish.
-
Oh, and realizing fifty years after the fact that you MIGHT have written a song as a catharsis over the death of your mom is NOT the same thing as sitting down and writing a song about your mother. Like John did with Julia.
-
I always wondered if "Yesterday" was a covered up cheating on you girlfriend kind of song. A song about regret. But maybe it's just my imagination... ops:
-
I think I have also read that he maybe wrote the song after waking up in the home of Alma Cogan. After a party. But this is perhaps more rumors. Rumour has it also that McCartney plays bass on "I Knew It Right Away" by Alma Cogan. it's a cool song, catchy.
-
RMartinez:
But come on, Paul is going back and now says a LOT of things about a LOT of songs that are just coming to him now after fifty years. The truth is, until this book, Paul never said once it was EXPLICITLY about his mom. I stand by my statements. The man has also recently claim co-authorship of Mr. Kite, which is rubbish.
I am fully aware that nothing I am writing here will change your mind so I am just putting the record straight with some FACTS: Paul is not saying this now (or recently); the book I am talking about was published twenty years ago. Also, Paul claiming co-authorship of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" goes back at least to Barry Mile's biographie "Many Years From Now" which came out in 1997.
-
calicoskych2001:
RMartinez:
But come on, Paul is going back and now says a LOT of things about a LOT of songs that are just coming to him now after fifty years. The truth is, until this book, Paul never said once it was EXPLICITLY about his mom. I stand by my statements. The man has also recently claim co-authorship of Mr. Kite, which is rubbish.
I am fully aware that nothing I am writing here will change your mind so I am just putting the record straight with some FACTS: Paul is not saying this now (or recently); the book I am talking about was published twenty years ago. Also, Paul claiming co-authorship of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" goes back at least to Barry Mile's biographie "Many Years From Now" which came out in 1997.
You're right about ONE thing: you haven't changed my mind.
-
Two things are being discussed here as if they are the same thing and they are not. I can accept that later in life Paul surmised he may have written Yesterday subconsciously about his mom. But to say he wrote Yesterday in 1965, ie sat down and composed the song about his mother is just not true. He did not do that. And he never claims he did.
-
RMartinez:
Two things are being discussed here as if they are the same thing and they are not. I can accept that later in life Paul surmised he may have written Yesterday subconsciously about his mom.
RMartinez:
But to say he wrote Yesterday in 1965, ie sat down and composed the song about his mother is just not true. He did not do that. And he never claims he did.
Neither do I.
-
I think lyrically "Yesterday" can be about anything, it's a poetic strength of the song and what makes it so universal instead of specific, I'd say it can be a song about mom, if you want it to.
-
Vicki Anderson, a female r&b singer who used to perform in James Brown's revue in the '60s and early '70s, put her own spin on "Yesterday": She sang: "Why he had to go -- he didn't say. I must've said something wrong..."
-
Yes small adjustments. I know that some songwriters goes berserk if a word is changed in an interpretation. I think it works. The Crystals sing "Then He Kissed Me", The Beach Boys reworked the song to "Then I Kissed Her".
-
audi:
Vicki Anderson, a female r&b singer who used to perform in James Brown's revue in the '60s and early '70s, put her own spin on "Yesterday": She sang: "Why he had to go -- he didn't say. I must've said something wrong..."
Isn't that what Frank Sinatra sang? That is one story that Paul has stuck to. Yes, it's funny how he dis-remembers things.
-
calicoskych2001:
RMartinez:
Nancy R:
Wrote it when he was 22. He was still 22, just shy of 23 when he recorded Yesterday in June 1965. I believe the song was about his mother so it makes sense. ("I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.") Remember how he said to Mike, "What will we do without her money?"
I don't think it was about his mom. It was originally about scrambled eggs, then he just needed some words.
RMartinez:
Show me an interview where he said it was about his mom.
Bruce M.:
Let It Be was about his mom, not yesterday.
The following is a quote from Ray Coleman's book "MCCARTNEY. YESTERDAY AND TODAY" which was written with Paul's co-operation:
It seemed such a pensive, melancholy song to be gestating across three key calendar years of Beatlemania, 1963 to 1965. These were heady times, in which the Beatles secured a multitude of awards, won the hearts and heads of millions around the world, and became the most influential force, musically and sociologically, since Elvis Presley. Touring America and being feted in his homeland, Paul McCartney never forgot the melody, but now the lyrics for a song he had called 'Yesterday', while poignant, seemed at odds with the euphoria that surrounded the Beatles. George Martin believes the words are 'the weakest part of the song' and represent a yearning by Paul for less frenzied times. 'Even though he was only twenty-two [when he finally recorded it], he had lived more than twenty-two years,' Martin says. 'It was a pretty complicated life at this time. They were in the middle of the trauma of being world heroes; this song happened two-thirds of the way through their touring years.' So Paul had already had his fill of hotel rooms, fans outside the door, and the prison of being famous. The threats, the tiresome aspect of being on the road, the noise, the hullabaloo - 'They got really sick to the teeth with it. So his lyrics are: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away."' Paul, however, rejects George Martin's theory that 'Yesterday' was a reaction to the mayhem of Beatlemania. 'That's George's theory about a lot of stuff,' Paul laughs. 'George also analyses "When I'm 64" as a young guy's view of hell. I don't quite agree with some of his analyses on these things. On "Yesterday", I don't think it was that at all, really. To us, it didn't seem too crazy. I think that to George, to people who looked at our lives, it looked crazy. To us, it was all we knew. It was very nice. We were earning a lot of money. It was fast and active. But so are my kids' lives and your kids' lives. You say to yourself: "My God, how do they do it?" Tearing about .. . but that's what you do at that age. I think that maybe it's a little bit too easy to think that I was yearning for quieter times.' Contrasting with any reaction to the success of the Beatles, a darker reason for the lyrics emerges from Paul McCartney's own reflections on his past in this song. He believes he may possibly have written 'Yesterday' as a catharsis for the death of his mother when he was aged fourteen. Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be There's a shadow hanging over me Yesterday came suddenly. Why she had to go, I don't know She wouldn't say I said something wrong. Now I long for yesterday.. .
Thank you!