Sir Paul McCartney gives out his tips on songwriting at community chat event

(19 Nov 2014) A SONGWRITING MASTERCLASS FROM SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY
Sir Paul McCartney delighted a group of budding musicians by passing on songwriting tips at a community chat event in London on Wednesday (19 NOV. 2014)
The event, organized by model and actress Lily Cole through her Impossible website, saw the music legend talk about his latest song and share his memories of writing with Beatles band mate John Lennon.
McCartney spoke candidly about his work with Lennon, which he called the “ultimate collaboration.”
“I think we were both very lucky to find each other because we played perfectly off each other. An example I always give is I was starting this song called ‘Getting Better,’ and I’m going ‘It’s getting better all the time,’ and he goes ‘It couldn’t get much worse.’ ‘Hey, okay, come on then, let’s think about…’ You know, you’ve suddenly got the foil to what you’re doing. So the next line isn’t just ‘getting better’ still. It’s now like ‘okay, we’re going there are we? Great’ And so I would do that to his songs and he would do that to mine.”
Indeed, one of the band’s earliest tracks, 1963 smash-hit “I Saw Her Standing There,” came together in a similar way.
“My opening was ‘she was just 17, she’d never been a beauty queen,'” recalled McCartney. “I was stuck and didn’t like it, but I ploughed on knowing I’d come back to it. That was around about the time John and I were starting to write together, so I showed him the song – ‘she was just 17, she’d never been a beauty queen’ – and we both kind of cringed, you know, ‘maybe not.’ And then we came up with ‘You Know What I Mean,’ which a comedian friend of mine years later said ‘no Paul, I’m not sure we do know what you mean.’ ‘She’s just 17, you know what I mean?’ ‘No.”
Although the pair were responsible for some of the most iconic songs in the history of music, McCartney said there are plenty of Lennon/McCartney tracks that weren’t good enough for release.
“There’s a few knocking around. But I mean it’s difficult that because why we didn’t do anything with them is because we didn’t think they were any good. So why resurrect them? It gets tempting though because it was a Lennon/McCartney or something, so it’s got a certain interest value if nothing else. But they’re not very good.”
In addition to talking about his past work, McCartney explained to the audience that he’s still trying to break new ground.
His latest song, “Hope For The Future,” features in video game “Destiny,” which was released in September.
“I got asked would I would be interested in writing music for a video game and I was just intrigued by the idea of doing something different, something I’d never done before, so I was interested just to see what was involved.”
The song is set for release soon.
Lily Cole launched the Impossible website in 2013. It allows users to help each other by sharing their time, skills and possessions.

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