Paul McCartney’s Lyrics-what happened?

It's apparently the only time British slang is unacceptable.
God I'm sick of seeing "The Other Me" cried about.

 

Same here.

 

The man was a poet

 

Arbiter of truth...are we? We just have a vast difference of opinion on this subject, which is fine and what keeps good forums fueled. It's not a "right" or "wrong" issue.

And I will happily stand corrected on your nationality or allegiance. Just unusual for an American to refer to other Americans as "U.S. People". But not worth firing word rockets over...

 

Imagine no beef jerky...

 

See, you do love the solo years - you've just paraphrased "C Moon"!

 

I feel that way too. People always talk about how relatable John's music is, but I've only ever been able to see it as him dealing with his own specific issues, which is fine of course. Just not my cup of tea. With George I view his lyrics as being about how he's trying to improve himself but is always struggling with duality, which is something I think many can relate to. Even Paul when he wants to can be very good at conveying a personal feeling while making it broad enough where it had a bigger effect on me than John's lyrics have.

One thing often misinterpreted about George's lyrics is what he meant by Living in the Material World:

CRAWDADDY: What about your albums like, "Living In The Material World," the whole concept of maya. It’s so ironic that you got caught up in it.

GEORGE: Oh yeah. I’m living in it. But people interpret it to mean money, cars, that sort of thing – although those are part of the material world. The material world is like the physical world, as opposed to the spiritual. For me, living in the material world just meant being in this physical body with all the things that go along with it.

 

I've also heard that the line "Oklahoma was never like this" in the song Press refers to the musical Oklahoma!, with the idea that Paul is contrasting the difficulties of his and Linda's marriage with the relationships presented in the musical (which I have never seen, so I have no idea what the plot is or anything like that).

 

It is! I read that in Club Sandwich.

 

Pretty much every historical figure who has been put on a pedestal falls under at least two of those categories though. MLK for example cheated on his wife several times. Humans are complicated, but I don't think that means their messages are any less worthwhile. If George made absolutely no effort to practice what he preached then I'd agree, but he did take spirituality seriously, took the time to put on the Concert For Bangladesh, tried not to get too drawn into being a rock star, and donated a lot of his money to charities and friends in need. Profits from the Living in the Material World album itself go towards the Material World Foundation.

 

A 77 year old man who continues doing 3 hour shows around the globe and writing, recording and releasing new albums.

I suspect he’s a harder worker than many of us here!

 

And let's not forget that he's better paid than any of us here for sure....

 

Fair enough. I suppose I just have a problem with being preached at. Particularly when it comes to something as joyful as music.

 

No, he's writing for other geriatrics who drag their kids along to the concerts.

 

Oh ! I wasn't aware of that 'lyric'.

 

This is slightly off-topic but bear with me...
There's a fairly recent video on YouTube where Macca is talking about some of his most "iconic" songs. When he speaks about Let it Be , he says it was inspired by him seeing his mother in a dream where she told him to " let it be ". I am sure I read somewhere that he originally said it was Mal Evans who appeared in the dream saying those words.

 

I think when people dismiss "Mother" as "John screaming about his problems," they say more about themselves than they do about the music. It's one thing to say you find Plastic Ono Band difficult or unpleasant, but characterizing it as "screaming about problems" suggests a refusal even to understand the intent behind the art. Opinions about art made without trying to understand the art itself are a special kind of useless.

 

No. In a 1969 recording session, he jokingly says "Brother Malcolm comes to me."

 

John was way more preachy. He wrote Imagine for heavens sake!

 

I understand John's intent: to bare his soul within his art, which was inspired by his primal therapy. It doesn't change the fact that "Mother" and songs like it are:
a) John screaming
and
b) about John's problems

 

Yes, but it all breaks down when it's time to do lyrics. He's extremely capable of writing good-to-great ones, but seldom can be bothered. So many excellent Macca melodies have been sabotaged by substandard words.

 

This is such a tired trope.

 

Thanks guys! I’ve been wondering forever what that line meant. I thought maybe Paul was unusually very fond of OK as a state or something! Haha

 

It’s the brazen ignorance displayed when it’s cited, that causes the irritation.

 

On the one hand, “Come On To Me” is
just Paul being Paul - no different than
when Beatles were a band. It's no
"Eleanor Rigby", but then it's not exactly
"Birthday" or "All Together Now" is it ?
(see what I did there?)

On the other hand, it is fair to say we
may never get another Eleanor Rigby,
simply because that song was written
by a 24 year-old musician in the year
1966, and “Come On To Me” by a 76
year-old in the year 2018.

I saw an interview recently with
Bob Dylan in which Bob was asked
if he could still write a song like
"It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)".
Bob contemplated carefully, as if
searching deep to find even a
glimmer of possibility that he perhaps
could still write like that. Within a
few seconds however, he soberly
conceded with the most honest
answer anyone could possibly offer :
"No", he stated flatly. Deliberating
further he continued, "I can do other
things, but I can't do that." He knows
that as each of us moves through the
stages of life, we see things differently,
we feel things differently, and we know
things differently. We can't return, we
can only look behind from where we
came.