In an interview recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Paul talks songwriting with Mark Radcliffe.
Originally broadcast on Saturday 17 September 2005 on BBC Radio 2 as part of their “Sold on Song” series.
Enjoy!
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41 Replies to “Paul McCartney Reveals his Songwriting Secrets – BBC Radio "Sold on Song" – 17 September 2005”
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He says here that he wrote "She Loves You" in a hotel bedroom with John, but in his carpool karaoke he says that he wrote it in his childhood home with John and then they showed it to Paul's dad. Does anybody know which it actually is?
Hugely refreshing interview. Especially as a songwriter myself. It’s nice to know that the greats have similar process, doubts and obliviousness to how it all comes into being
The pinwheel twist
10:40 Lou reed!
It’s Billy’s voice.
'i love eggs from my head down to my legs'!
I would love to know how many hours Lennon and McCartney spent writing together prior to the recording of Love me Do..obviously nobody knows the answer but would be much obliged if anybody knew how frequently the wrote together before their success.
????
Absolutely fascinating
Dear God,
Thank you for Paul McCartney.
Best regards,
Dan.
Victoria Canada
Cool!
Cool!
Interesting that Paul borrowed Bruce's guitar whe he plays a left hand guitar.
I've heard all the interviews snippets and seen all the clips. I think this is the purest. Bravo!
When Paul started talking about their early terrible songs and he mentioned "Dreamers do" is he referring to "Like Dreamers do" off the the Decca tape? Because man I I absolutely love that song, maybe not their best but their energy and dynamic as a group at that time was incredible, especially from 61"-62" if that is their terrible stuff than I give up trying to write my own music lol I get he was doing the heavy Elvis impression in those early recordings but it just sounded so classic.
In other words, quit watching YouTube videos about songwriting and go write something. Finish it even if it’s crap.
Amazing. I sure wish I could’ve been around him when he was young and I was young. He’s from Liverpool. I’m from Livermore.
When you have it you have it and he has it for music.
THANK YOU ??
Huh. I remember from somewhere that he wrote Paperback Writer on a dare. He'd said he could write a song about anything and someone pointed to the first thing they saw, which was a cheap paperback novel.
Good simple advice from a legend.
Paul has a song for every beat of his heart!
Great interview. Learned more in the last 6 months, than in the last 58 years.
Imagine writing with a guy named john lennon, perhaps im gonna write more that i thought i could.
Song writing is a job. It has a deadline. Youll never write one if you dont have a deadline set.
This is not the first time Paul has appropriated other people's melodies. He always said he played the solo in Michelle and never mentioned that the solo was written by George Martin (and played by Harrison) and the chorus was by John. Thus Michelle should be credited as Lennon-McCartney-Martin. By the way, Martin's solo became the most popular fragment of the song in arrangements for orchestras.
This is what I have done all my life as Paul helped inspire. I would love to send Paul several musical ideas that we could sing.
Its In The Wrist Action
Paul real secret was writing songs that didn't mean anything.
sid banes…. please
The Pinwheel Twist?
One of the most intelligent Beatle interviews of that time.
Thoughtful questions asked with answers actually listened to.
Lennon and McCartney showed a multitude of singers and musicians back in the 60's that writing their own songs was possible.
We owe the 60's and 70's musical renaissance to them.
I'd give everything short of the roof over my head for those cassettes of unused McCartney ideas
1:20 Strum that Piano but of course.
Think he meant to say Kingsley Amis, Martin would have been a baby at that point and the thought of one of his books inspiring a Beatles song is stretching it, to say the least.
She loves you was never my favorite, either. Now Yesterday, that was one of them. The 'scrambled eggs' lyric might work, in the right (wrong?) kind of setting. Just sayin'. The first line was kind of funny, what was the rest?
The not very good ones are very useful to read, hear and study somewhere around 11:50 before EMI: they came from the same source but the stories that inspire show the listener the song.
If what he said is true, I find it odd that no one vetoed Maxwell's Silver Hammer. To hear the others talk about it, you would think they were having their teeth pulled.
I loved this interview. What an absolutely genuine, modest and self-effacing man Paul McCartney is – given that he's one of the most popular songwriters and performers ever. And the interviewer deserves credit too, for posing such tantalisingly open questions…
Wish there was a "love" button.