Jet (Paul McCartney & Wings) - What Is It About?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MrMudPuppy, Jan 9, 2007.

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  1. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    It is quite possible that the lyrics made great sense, and were even possibly quite profound at the point of creation...

    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Mr_Vinyl

    Mr_Vinyl Forum Resident

    I think it was John who always envied Paul's ease with melodies, and Paul was envious of John's lyrics.
     
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  3. Mr_Vinyl

    Mr_Vinyl Forum Resident

    I remember him saying, I think, that it was about his dog...
     
  4. Peter_R

    Peter_R Maple Syrple Gort Staff

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    I always like this song, but I never put too much thought in the lyrics.

    A new perspective I've had on it since January of this year: the instrumentation/arrangement sounds to me like a Bowie pastiche/tribute.


    YMMV
     
  5. the sands

    the sands Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    Reminds me a bit of William S. Burroughs cut-up technique.
     
  6. Benjamin Edge

    Benjamin Edge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milwaukie, OR, US
    I call it his "Solar Prestige a Gammon" or his solo "Sun King."

    ~Ben
     
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  7. Gardo

    Gardo Audio Epistemologist

    Location:
    Virginia
    Most of this interpretation seems pretty credible to me. In fact, I recall reading something along these lines in a review of the album way back when. “Mater” was also said to be a dig at Lennon’s “Mother.” And in this context, “ah, traitor” seems like a continuation of “you took your lucky break and broke it on two” on Ram’s “Too Many People.”

    Makes a lot of sense to me, as a kind of answer to “How Do You Sleep?”
     
  8. DocShipe

    DocShipe Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    I’ve always thought it was Paul writing about Linda’s first marriage where she eloped at a young age with a bit of Paul’s experience with Linda’s dad—the Sargent Major.
     
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  9. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    I think you guys are looking too deep (and it's "ah mater". not "ah traitor"). While the song's title was inspired by Paul's dog, I don't think it's any more than a case of specific words and phonetics sounding good with the melody...and *seem* to be telling some kind of a story but are really saying nothing.
     
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  10. Benjamin Edge

    Benjamin Edge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milwaukie, OR, US
    Sort of like the gibberish lyrics heard in The Beatles' "Sun King" (which John Lennon wrote)...

    ~Ben
     
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  11. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    it's about a jet, and the sgt. major who flies it, right?
     
  12. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    I thought it was about a suffering jet. Whatever it's about it's a flamin great song.
     
  13. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    ..well, John's was literally gibberish...Paul used actual words to make no sense.
     
  14. Benjamin Edge

    Benjamin Edge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milwaukie, OR, US
    Elton John's "Solar Prestige a Gammon" was another song with random words put together that made no sense!

    ~Ben
     
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  15. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Who cares? Just give me that power hook!
     
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  16. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    Lyrics never were McCartney’s strong suit. Great song tho!
     
  17. DocShipe

    DocShipe Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    Well “story” might be too strong a word for what Paul does lyrically, and agree that the “ah mater” bit is in there because it sounds good. That said, there are more bits to Paul’s songs that actually refer to something—the “brother John” bit in “Let ‘em In”; the marital tension in “Friends to Go”—and I tend to think “Jet” falls in this camp. Remember reading in some Macca bio—maybe the Sounes book—about some tense early dinners with Linda’s dad, and I tend to think of the song as a sort of ode to Linda’s rebellious spirit (while also out Bowie-ing Bowie). Regardless, one of Macca’s best.
     
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  18. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    No it was the name of one of their pony/horses back then
     
  19. Benjamin Edge

    Benjamin Edge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milwaukie, OR, US
    An English sheepdog, to be precise.

    ~Ben
     
  20. jwb1231970

    jwb1231970 Ordinary Guy

    Location:
    USA
    I think if you google you’ll see it’s the horse
     
  21. idleracer

    idleracer Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    :kilroy: It's just a lot of consonants and vowels that sound nice together like countless other McCartney songs.

    :D For the record, I've always thought that "Hands across the water, Heads across the sky" is about a double-exposed photograph. If you have a photo of a landscape with a lake in front, and superimpose a photo of someone from the waist up on to it, it's approximately what you wind up with.
     
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  22. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Well done on writing that out, but I think the answer is a NO to that interpretation. Paul had more going on in his life to be constantly obsessing about John.
     
  23. soundboy

    soundboy Senior Member

    I thought it was a black lab. Martha was the Old English Sheepdog.
     
  24. phil1db

    phil1db Senior Member

    Well at least there are two of us -always always thought the same .Perhaps we are both mad . The start re his marriage to Yoko -oh yes

    "I can almost remember their funny faces
    That time you told 'em that you were going to be marrying soon"
     
  25. BeatlesObsessive

    BeatlesObsessive The Earl of Sandwich Ness

    I am somewhat reminded of the kerfuffle when Neil Diamond said that "Sweet Caroline" was written about his memory of the summer of 1960 and the presidential election and the picture in his mind of Caroline Kennedy that came to mind with the "where it began" lyric indicating when the romance with Kennedy's Camelot took shape in his own mind. Of course some took that to mean the WHOLE SONG is a love song about Caroline Kennedy as a child.

    By the same token... even if McCartney cites his dog Jet, or John's son Julian for Hey Jules don't make it bad... obviously the first sketchy ideas for a song that may leave you singing a chorus or having a verse in your head for a few months, weeks, or years... may eventually find you taking that song and working on it and filling in two other verses and wedding this to a chorus or musical interlude and FINISHING the song... which for most pop songwriters means hammering it into something recognizable as a story that people will follow along with whenever they hear your tune.

    Even if there had not been a Band on the Run album with its own unique history.
    Even if Wings hadn't lost members and gone off to Africa... I'm pretty sure that Helen Wheels and Jet would have been on the A or B sides of whatever the next records were. If some lightning bolt had struck.. even SOILY might have cohered into the sort of pub rock/glam flavored single the Paul might have made his stock in trade if he hadn't been diverted by Ireland and Mary. And as USELESS as lyrics and words are to McCartney as a composer. It is fascinating how in the cases where he has left the words that come flying out of his right brain on the page.. when he doesn't try to fix them too much.. he comes up with some interesting stuff!!!

    The lyrics are a total hodgepodge in a lot of ways but some of the best lines he's ever written... I can almost remember their funny faces that time you told them that you were gonna be marrying soon.. can you imagine John Mellencamp trying to shove that line in as gracefully as Macca does here. I don't know if this has anything to do with Yoko's interview a couple of years ago where she said she reassured John that his songs were as beloved as Macca but that Macca was more accessible to ordinary listeners because he rhymed "moon with June" .. so I don't know if that comes out of Yoko's head or if that was something that John and Paul would go back and forth over when they argued about Paul's "rubbishy lyrics" but of course he rhymes Moon and Soon here.. and in 1973.. the image of biplane flying adventurers, WWII pilots and WACS/WAVES female pilots, jet airplanes that were now ubiquitous to commercial flyers AND of course the just ending Apollo astronauts were all simultaneous and common images in popular culture at the time. I know that's an all time stretch... but even though he's just singing about a girl who is leaving home... you can also kind of imagine a story of this adventurous young feminist whose boldness and bravery are projected onto the world of flying and how the enduring image of the bold feminist icon Amelia Aerhart climbing into her plane and taking off into the unknown(though she has no need to as she can just hop onto her fiances motorbike, spitfire, sopwith, or space plane and let him handle it!) ... this gives us the ability to wonder if he's saying 'GETTE or JET... what are we supposed to be proclaiming.. the girl as an independent self determined spirit or the modern age into which she is boldly stepping.

    But back to Macca's tossing of verbiage.. without a lyric sheet .. i'd have NEVER guessed "Ah, Mater" ... but I always thought we were in MUMBO territory.. AAHHHHMAAYYYTAAAAAAAAAH... want 'Gette to always LUV ME... who NEEDS actual words there when the syllables just work. It's just like... Soily... SOILY... gah gack ah namma banna mega OILY(yeah I know.. makes MORE sense than the actual lyrics)!! or Tutti Fruity On Rooti!
     
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