Paul McCartney is the host of the podcast “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics”, in which he tells the stories of various songs from his repertoire. The last episode touched on the topic of composition “Yesterday”, one of the most famous in the history of music – the song has been recorded in new versions by other artists over 2,000 times. They registered theirs, among others: Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra Whether Dionne Warwick.
The song was written in 1965 and talks about how McCartney would like to turn back time to feel happy. Over the years, it has been suggested to him that he wrote this song about his mother’s death, but he categorically denied it. In recent years, however, he has realized that there may be something to this case.
“Some people suggested to me that it was a song about losing a mother. I always replied: ‘No, I don’t think so’,” he said. “But the more you think about it: ‘Why did she have to go?/ I don’t know, she didn’t tell.’ Losing my mother to cancer, no one said anything. We didn’t know what happened at all,” says the artist about his mother’s sudden death in 1956 year when he was only 14 years old.
This motivation for creating the lyrics would be revealed by one line of the lyrics: “Did I say something wrong?/Now I miss yesterday.” McCartney reminds us that sometimes we are only able to notice such things in hindsight. “I remember very clearly one day feeling very embarrassed because I had embarrassed my mother,” he says.
“We were in the yard and she spoke very loudly. She was of Irish descent and worked as a nurse. (…) I know she said something like: ‘Paul, will you ask him if he’s going…’ – he says and recalls how this situation happened. Young McCartney immediately felt that he had offended her and felt very sorry. “I remember later thinking: ‘God, I regret saying that,'” he recalls. That’s why he recently believes that in In fact, this situation may have inspired him to create “Yesterday”.
Let us recall that in the famous “Let It Be” the creator also sings about his mother, whom he recalls in his thoughts when he finds himself in a difficult situation.
Let us recall that in the past Paul McCartney said that “Yesterday” was written moments after waking up and he had a dream about the melody. For a long time, the artist allegedly asked his friends if they knew the song because he was almost sure that he had plagiarized it. Initially, the lyrics of the song were: “Scrambled eggs/ Oh how I love your legs”, In May 1965, he went on vacation with his then girlfriend Jane Asher and there he decided that the piece would be based on words yesterday (yesterday), and the word must necessarily be used next to it suddenly (suddenly). He was to create the entire text on this basis.
“Yesterday” is the only song by The Beatles in which only one member of the band (McCartney) sings and plays, accompanied by a string quartet.