Speaker 1: Pushkin Hi everyone, it's Paul Moldoin. Before we get to
Speaker 1: this episode, I wanted to let you know that you
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Speaker 1: Lyrics right now, add free by becoming a Pushkin Plus subscriber.
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Speaker 2: I remember one time when I was a kid and
Speaker 2: me and my friend Ian James, we were at a
Speaker 2: fairground in our flecked jackets and I had a little
Speaker 2: flap on my breast pocket.
Speaker 3: I've really fancied myself.
Speaker 2: And we came back from this fairground tradition and I
Speaker 2: had a major headache. So I sat down and we
Speaker 2: put on Elvis record All Shook Up.
Speaker 3: Love Amar Shook Up.
Speaker 2: Yay, And by the end of that record, my headache
Speaker 2: at gons So you know, the healing power of music
Speaker 2: is undeniable. Love Ama Shook Up.
Speaker 1: And Paul will do for a number of years. I've
Speaker 1: been fortunate to spend time with one of the greatest
Speaker 1: songwriters of the era.
Speaker 3: And will you look at me, I'm going on to
Speaker 3: I'm actually a.
Speaker 1: Performer, that is Sir Paul McCartney. We worked together on
Speaker 1: a book looking at the lyrics of more than one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty of his songs, and we recorded many
Speaker 1: hours of our conversations.
Speaker 2: It was like going back to an old snapshot album
Speaker 2: looking back on work I hadn't ever analyzed.
Speaker 1: This is McCartney, a life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir,
Speaker 1: and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic
Speaker 1: figures in popular music in this episode, hey hey hey, Jude, Hey,
Speaker 1: Hey hey Hey. In the spring of nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: John and Cynthia Lennon's marriage fell apart. He had been
Speaker 1: having a secret affair with the artist Yuko Ono and
Speaker 1: decided to leave his wife and five year old son, Julian.
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney had known Cynthia Lennon since the early days
Speaker 1: in Liverpool and he was like an uncle to Julian.
Speaker 2: I was traveling Monday to see Julian Lenon, yes mother Cynthia,
Speaker 2: and I used to.
Speaker 3: Call him Jewels.
Speaker 2: So the song started off when I was in the
Speaker 2: car driving out, which was a forty five minute drive
Speaker 2: out of central London, and people had sort of suggested oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I fancied Cynthia was going to well, people
Speaker 2: can suggest anything like but I didn't. I was just
Speaker 2: going out just as a friend, just sort of see them.
Speaker 2: And so in my mind, hey, Jules, what's as So
Speaker 2: don't make it bad?
Speaker 3: You know, I know this is tough for you, but
Speaker 3: take us that song and make it better.
Speaker 4: Remember do letter deal. Then you can start do make
Speaker 4: it better.
Speaker 2: Your dad's just left you, so it was like trying
Speaker 2: to be encouraging, so it was an encouraging song.
Speaker 3: Remember to let it into your heart, Remember to let
Speaker 3: love into your heart. I make it better.
Speaker 1: This is often the case with McCartney's songwriting. He started
Speaker 1: with a specific inspiration, then followed the story of the
Speaker 1: song where it led him.
Speaker 2: What often happened for my songs is it starts off
Speaker 2: with someone being worried about something in life, a specific
Speaker 2: thing like a divorce. But then I start to just
Speaker 2: morph it because I still get it fed up with
Speaker 2: the theme and I like to just move away from
Speaker 2: because nobody knows what this is about. So I'm just
Speaker 2: saying make it better. And to somebody called Jude, I
Speaker 2: don't know a clutch and called.
Speaker 1: Ju Yes, because people would not have known at the
Speaker 1: time to that after years discussed.
Speaker 2: Yes, so then I start moving. You were made to
Speaker 2: go out and get her. Now there's a woman arrival
Speaker 2: on the scene. So now he's said about a breakup
Speaker 2: or something. So remember now to let her under your skin,
Speaker 2: and then you begin to make it better. And anytime
Speaker 2: you feel the pain, now it's mixed. It could be
Speaker 2: about Julian or it could be about this new woman relationship.
Speaker 4: Hey, dude, don't be afraid. You were made to.
Speaker 2: Go and get her.
Speaker 4: The minute you let her under your skin, than you
Speaker 4: begin to make it better.
Speaker 3: And it's anyone.
Speaker 2: I like my songs to be every man or every
Speaker 2: woman because I know people are going to listen to them,
Speaker 2: and I like the fact that they put their own
Speaker 2: interpretations on them. And I'm glad when the lyrics get
Speaker 2: a bit screwed up they misheal them because it's yours.
Speaker 3: Now you know, I've let it go and so now you.
Speaker 2: Should make of it what you will.
Speaker 1: McCartney himself had been struggling. It was a stressful time.
Speaker 1: The Beatles were beginning to drift apart. Even as they
Speaker 1: were finding their own record label, Apple Core. McCartney had
Speaker 1: just separated from his fiance, the actress Jane Asher, and
Speaker 1: was falling in love with the photographer Linda Eastman. As
Speaker 1: much as he was writing words of consolation for little Julian,
Speaker 1: he himself may have been in need of encouragement.
Speaker 2: So anytime you feel the pain, did you refrain? Don't
Speaker 2: carry the world on your shoulder.
Speaker 4: And any time you feel the pain fame, don't carry
Speaker 4: the world on.
Speaker 3: Your shoulder.
Speaker 4: Well, you know that is.
Speaker 2: A food.
Speaker 4: Ing is world on its golder.
Speaker 2: That's something that I'm quite keen on, that idea that
Speaker 2: to be cool.
Speaker 3: You've got to betray yourself. Oh yeah, what the fucky man?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, told Jesus if nothing gets to me baby, hey, wow,
Speaker 2: how cool is And to me it's always well, no,
Speaker 2: it's not because we can see through it. Cool is
Speaker 2: actually great if you can be it for real. But
Speaker 2: that's sort of faking. If you just try and play
Speaker 2: it cool, then it's not happening. You'll be making you
Speaker 2: well a little colder, and that's not a good idea.
Speaker 3: So it's a bit of advice.
Speaker 2: When I was a robber in Boston place, you gathered
Speaker 2: around me with your fun embrace.
Speaker 1: Hey, Dude. In the studio, the Beatles always preferred being
Speaker 1: playful to playing. At Cole they did a few takes
Speaker 1: of Hey Jude, but Paul McCartney remembers knowing in the
Speaker 1: moment which one they would use.
Speaker 4: Hey Dude, don't make it bad, Take a sad song
Speaker 4: and make it batter.
Speaker 1: He had accidentally begun the song while Ringo was out
Speaker 1: of the room, but Ringo managed to return from the
Speaker 1: toilet at just the right moment, hitting his drum entrance perfectly.
Speaker 4: At any time you feel the pain of hajo.
Speaker 1: It was the most spirited take, though not without mistakes.
Speaker 1: If you listen really carefully, you may hear one of
Speaker 1: the band members swearing when Paul flubs the piano part.
Speaker 3: Reamen to le and ask him then you.
Speaker 4: To making.
Speaker 1: Just as the subject of the song shifted for the writer,
Speaker 1: the meaning transformed for those who heard it. When Paul
Speaker 1: McCartney played a draft of Hey Jude for John Lennon
Speaker 1: and Yoko Ono, John thought the song was addressed to
Speaker 1: him instead off to his son. From Lennon's point of view,
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney was encouraging his friend to stop waiting for
Speaker 1: someone to perform with and to go out and get her.
Speaker 4: So let it out and let it in. Hej you waiting.
Speaker 3: To I like singing that.
Speaker 4: Don't you know? That is just you?
Speaker 3: Don't you know? S's you? Hey, Jude, you do.
Speaker 1: Junie is on shoulder.
Speaker 3: The movement you need is on your shoulder. Now, I
Speaker 3: thought that was me just blocking in.
Speaker 2: And when I played it to John and Yoko in
Speaker 2: my music room on my psychedelic piano, I'm sitting facing
Speaker 2: this way, a little standing behind me, almost on my shoulder,
Speaker 2: and they're listening and answer pleasing myself.
Speaker 3: I'm playing this new song and I turn.
Speaker 2: Around Toton you need is on your shoulder and turned
Speaker 2: on to John and said, don't worry, I'll change that,
Speaker 2: and he looked at me, said you want you know
Speaker 2: it's the best line in it.
Speaker 1: John Lennon wasn't the only one who heard something deeply
Speaker 1: personal in the song who would feel as if Paul
Speaker 1: was singing directly to him. The song became a call
Speaker 1: to anyone who had gone through difficult times and needed
Speaker 1: cheering up.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I just think that everyone goes through
Speaker 2: periods in their life when things are going wrong. You know,
Speaker 2: they're losing people their children are ill or whatever, and
Speaker 2: it's just so much pain. In regard to all of that,
Speaker 2: I'm empathizing and trying to encourage someone who is going
Speaker 2: through a really bad time, because I know when I've
Speaker 2: been going through bad times. I don't know, like Linda's
Speaker 2: illness and consequent death and the breakup of the Beatles,
Speaker 2: all these sort of things, these moments in your life.
Speaker 2: I know you really feel lows. You've got a pit
Speaker 2: in your stomach all the time. So to me, the
Speaker 2: idea sometimes behind songs is to try and reach that
Speaker 2: person and say, look, you know how about this thought.
Speaker 3: So I'm always trying to do that.
Speaker 2: I notice, I notice I'm always trying to say, look,
Speaker 2: it's going to be okay, you know it will be
Speaker 2: all right. I'm trying to be the voice of encouragement.
Speaker 4: Hey, you do make it bad, take make it MANA.
Speaker 1: Hat Jude is a song that's able to shift and
Speaker 1: take on new meaning with each rendition. What started as
Speaker 1: a song for Julian Lennon took on new resonance for
Speaker 1: each listener who could apply it to whatever struggle they
Speaker 1: were facing in their own lives. It also struck a
Speaker 1: chord with other musicians who covered the song and gave
Speaker 1: it their own spin. This included the man whose song
Speaker 1: cured Paul's headache all those years ago, Elvis Presley.
Speaker 4: Hate You, No let Me down?
Speaker 1: Take a sad song and make manner.
Speaker 4: No many you let her into your here.
Speaker 3: You can stop each time you sing it? Are you
Speaker 3: singing it for the first time? It's a bit that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm singing a twenty something composers lyrics and I'm
Speaker 2: evaluating them, listening to see.
Speaker 3: How he does.
Speaker 2: And I'm marking myself and I must say generally good
Speaker 2: marks and generally approve because I'm going, oh, just little
Speaker 2: things like for well, you know, instead of.
Speaker 3: For you know, well, it's just for well, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just going I've had that.
Speaker 2: I often have to stop myself doing that because there's
Speaker 2: ninety thousand people here and you're supposed to be relating
Speaker 2: to them when you're actually awful.
Speaker 3: Oh is that good?
Speaker 1: The spirit of Hey Jude is present in its lyrics,
Speaker 1: but it's equally present in Paul McCartney's vocal profer ormance
Speaker 1: of the song. What begins as a song for a
Speaker 1: child in pen becomes an act of self compassion In
Speaker 1: the words of the music critic Tim Riley, McCartney begins
Speaker 1: by singing to comfort someone else, finds himself weighing his
Speaker 1: own feelings in the process, and finally, in the repeated
Speaker 1: refrains that nurture his own approbation, he comes to believe
Speaker 1: in himself.
Speaker 4: Age you.
Speaker 1: As McCartney's original sense has carried across generations, Hey Jude
Speaker 1: itself has also maintained its intergenerational appeal. The idea of
Speaker 1: taking a sad song and making it better is something
Speaker 1: pretty much everybody can get behind, just as we can
Speaker 1: all sing along with the songs rising out fro.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, when I do concerts, I have
Speaker 2: people in the audience from every generation older than my generation,
Speaker 2: people of my generation, people of my children's generation, and
Speaker 2: people of their children's generation. And it always surprises me
Speaker 2: because I think in rock and roll, we all expected
Speaker 2: that it wouldn't last very long. So I do find
Speaker 2: it incredible that I can see a five year old
Speaker 2: who knows the words as well, sometimes even better than
Speaker 2: I do, and then I can see their parents enjoying it,
Speaker 2: and possibly they've come to it through their parents. As
Speaker 2: you go on to the eldest generation. You know, people
Speaker 2: who are a few years ahead of me. They all
Speaker 2: lived through this time, through the sixties, and through the
Speaker 2: excitement and the freedom. So we all are experiencing this
Speaker 2: thing together. No matter what age we are, the feeling
Speaker 2: is still the same and it never ceases to amaze me.
Speaker 1: Hey Jude was the first single from the Beatles' own
Speaker 1: record company, Apple Core, and at over seven minutes, it
Speaker 1: was the longest single to ever hit number one. The
Speaker 1: Beatles released Hey Dude in nineteen sixty eight in the
Speaker 1: Next Leader Meta Life, My Need McCartney's favorite McCartney song.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 1: Here, There and Everywhere That's next time on McCartney A
Speaker 1: Life in Lyrics. McCartney A Life in Lyrics is a
Speaker 1: co production between iHeartMedia, NPL and Pushkin Industries