| Paul McCartney : A new Interview in an italian newspaper. | 25th November 2009, 0 comment. | |
The first interview to promote his new CD, Good Evening New-York City
The glory of the Beatles, has never protected me from the sadness of life."
Sir Paul spoke out of the pain in an italian newspaper Panorama.
When fate knocked on his door, the fate that took his wife Linda and two old friends, George Harrison and John Lennon. But Paul also speaks of the perfect song and his friendship with Michael Jackson.
"Hello, I'm Paul calling from England. How are you?". That's how he introduced himself without frills and without the court that precedes him, the man who invented the pop and the notion of the true pop star. "Dear colleagues, we would be nothing today without Paul McCartney, just employees with a tie around the neck," said Bono at the Grammy Awards ceremony. And no one dared to contradict him.
"That day I understood the meaning of my career when I prevent a few million people to wear a tie in the subway at 8 a.m," Sir Paul added: "I do not know any other word in Italian , let's switch to English. "
We must first ensure that you are Paul McCartney and not a double ...
Well I give you some news from me: First, I am alive. The story of a car accident in which I am dead, was invented by an American DJ. To give a certain credibility to the legend, he then created a link between my bare feet on the cover of Abbey Road and a funeral ceremony in India. You know, at the time of the hippies were rumored that they had seen a flying red hippo and nobody said they were fools. In America, I was asked a thousand times if I was Paul or his clone. I prepared a ready-made answer: "I am neither Paul nor his clone, but I went out last night with your wife."
Nevertheless, remains a curiosity: why on the cover of "Abbey Road" are you barefoot?
I had a pair of uncomfortable shoes that hurt my toes. After few minutes I decided to walk barefoot.
Last summer, he returned to play at Shea Stadium in New York (demolished, rebuilt, and now called Citi Field) 44 years after the historic Beatles concert. Nostalgia?
Back on the crime scene is a perversion for all the artists. The magic of this night can be heard on the GOOD EVENING NEW YORK CITY CD and a DVD which I'm really proud of. They came to see me all over the country and this time I swear, everyone was able to hear the songs.
The first time, however, how it really happened?
It was a disaster. It seems strange to think that nobody has ever heard one of the most famous concerts in history. In 1965, we reported to some people that the amplifiers were ridiculous, barely louder than the Cavern Club in Liverpool. The result was that we did not hear anything on stage. Ditto for viewers, except those seated on the first two rows. There were 40.000 crazy fans in front of guys who wore a helmet. From the outside it has been a surreal spectacle. It was a unique moment in any case. From where I was, I saw hundreds of young girls in tears that have literally torn their hair. And I thought, but do you cry for us or because it hurts you?
About the return on the crime scene, how did you end up playing on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, for the "David Letterman Show" (the full concert appears on the bonus DVD of "GOOD EVENING NEW YORK CITY ")?
After a few seconds of the first song I closed my eyes for about ten seconds. When I opened I "saw" George Harrison on my left. For a few seconds it was as if I found myself on the rooftops of London as it happened in 1969.There were not really flashes , but echoes of the past. And the echoes, as everyone knows, last longer than flashes.
If you have any doubts about an episode of the Beatles era, do you ask Ringo Starr about it?
Yes, with horrific results. Our conversations about the past are more or less like: Ringo, do you remember when John jumped into the pool from the first floor of a hotel in Monaco? He said no, Paul ! George said that it happened the year before in Paris. They take us for fools and old men, but the Beatles era, with such intensity is at least the equivalent of three lives.
So I put Paul McCartney to the test: Does he remember how John Lennon reacted the first time that Paul made him listen to "Yesterday"?
He laughed, adding that he had the impression of hearing a melody well known. "And you think it could work?" It was his question. For several months, the title of the song was Scrambled Eggs.
What was your relationship with John in December 1980, before he was killed by Mark Chapman?
John was at a time when our relations were more than OK. Before and after the Beatles they had quarreled furiously on every imaginable topic. In 1980, we managed to talk for 10 minutes without insult.
Being a Beatle is what enabled to soften the hard times of life?
For some time, I thought that my position had the power to anesthetize the tragedies. But growing up, we learn the hard way that money and success does not put us away from our destiny. When the disease took away Linda, the only woman with whom I had a full complicity, I did not care royally at that time, having written Yesterday or Let It Be.
And then George Harrison died of cancer. When have you been made a witness of his illness?
Everything was clear from the beginning, but quickly, we forgot his condition. We acted like a family where things are hidden. This is the latest way to avoid suffering, not to hear the pain that comes and paralyzes you. When I think about it gives me the shivers, and this sensation will probably follow me for ever ...
Sir Paul, how do you live as a "legend" ?
I do not look back and I never read my diaries. If I stop and I think about people, how many of them told me that the Beatles music changed their lives, I feel a little anxious. " Hear the songs on the radio today as forty years ago is something that goes beyond all imagination. Everything comes and goes, but not the Beatles. In their music there is something that speaks to the heart and ears of the people. And I am surprised to think that behind all this I am also present.
Especially when you think that Paul didn't want to be the bassist for the group.
We were in Hamburg around 1961. Stuart Sutcliffe, bassist at that time, fell in love with a girl named Astrid and he dropped everything. He decided that in life he had just to make love and paint. Two noble activities, but not very profitable. But we were happy for him ... we thought that music was the most important thing and that being a bassist was th job of a loser in the band. The guy is shy and a bit "awkward seated in a corner of the stage in the darkness. And I did not want to be this guy there. So I agreed and, after all, I restored the dignity of the bassist in a role that wasconsidered minor, by then.
Is it true that your property is over 750 million pounds?
I do not know, so I can give you the phone number of my lawyers.
Is there still something normal and ordinary in the life of Paul McCartney?
Almost everything, believe me. Change starts when I'm onstage, and there are 40 thousand people in a frenzy to expect. This, I confess, is not part of the life of a man of sixty seven years old. But I love spending time on tour. I usually get up at 6 o'clock and a half, I prepare breakfast for my daughter (Beatrice, age 6). My scrambled eggs are the pride of the house. Then I took her to school.
What is the size of the stereo equipment at the McCartney home?
My relationship with technology has never actually started. While the world has gone to listen to digital music, I just recently bought a stereo equipment. And to tell the truth it is the only thing I like to listen.
In "GOOD EVENING NEW YORK CITY" you play on a ukulele given to you by George Harrison.
George had learned to play during the holidays at his villa in Hawaii. Each time he came home with the instrument, we used to try to improvise together. Fortunately, there are no records of these " ukulele jams. Our career would have probably suffered irreparable damage.
How did collaboration with Michael Jackson start? Was it a spontaneous meeting between two pure talent or a business meeting organized by the record companies?
On Christmas Day, in 1981, I think, the phone rang at home around 10 o'clock in the morning. A voice whispers: Mr McCartney would you like to hear some of my songs? And it bothered me, I did not know the guy personally, so I said if you want to send me tapes, do. Then, he semed embarrassed as told me: Sir, I am Michael Jackson, you do not recognize me? Since this day a great friendship was born. Michael was a man not prepared for life because his life was music. He did not walk, he danced. He never talked, he sang. His advice to musicians are not technical but poetic. Things like: When you take this note on the piano, do not be hard, play as if you had the most beautiful sunset in front of you. You'll see it will sound totally different.
The music of the Beatles was visionary and psychedelic. No one other than the Beatles was more able to write catchy without falling into banality. What was your secret?
Today records produced seem like they were recorded in a steel mill. We hear sounds, rhythms and melodies that are zero. This, far more than illegal downloading, has triggered the crisis in the recording market. But why should I pay for a CD of noises? So yes I prefer the sound of my drill.
So what was the Beatles method ...
I do not want to sound pretentious, but our work on the songs was amazing.
There was greater attention to detail, manic obsession to have nice choruses, the desire to experiment and repeat the same refrain 30 times until it reaches the perfect balance between the voice. All those things matter, like the determination of an artisan, then you get the perfect song. The four of us had the greatest respect for music. We treated our songs with the care and attention of architects for their greatest masterpiece. No modern construction can withstand competition with the great works of the past. For behind the great works, there is always an excellent job. Behind much of the music of today, there is no work.
And everyone knows it.
Source : Blog Panorama.it/ Italian translation by Philippe Prioton/ Copyright : MaccaBlog.co.uk
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