The Paul McCartney Song That Can Make the Singer ‘Very Emotional’ While Performing
Paul McCartney has written many songs with personal meanings, often based on an emotional topic. However, the former Beatle claims he can perform most of his songs live without getting emotional. Still, there is one song that makes Paul McCartney tear up now and then.
Paul McCartney says he can usually perform his songs without getting emotional
Many of McCartney’s songs are based on sensitive topics. Several of his songs express mourning for people he’s lost. “Let it Be” is about his mother, and “Maybe I’m Amazed” is about his wife, Linda. In an interview with Esquire, McCartney says he doesn’t typically get emotional while performing these songs because he knows it’s about something different for many audience members.
“I’m really doing them just because they’re songs. I mean, when I do ‘Let it Be’ I’m not thinking about my mum. If there’s one thing I know it’s that everyone in that audience is thinking something different. And that’s 50,000 different thoughts, depending on the capacity of the hall. Obviously, when I do ‘Here Today’ as I do, that is very personal. That is me talking to John. But as you sing them you review them. So I go, [sings] ‘What about the night we cried?’ And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, yeah: Key West’. We were all drunk. We’d delayed Jacksonville because of a hurricane. We got parked in Key West and we stayed up all night and we got drunk – ‘Let me tell you, man, you’re f***ing great’ – so I know that’s what I’m talking about. I know the night. I do think of that.”
1 song catches McCartney by surprise
Paul McCartney does admit one song of his can make him emotional. That song is “Here Today,” which he dedicated to John Lennon, who died in 1980. Lennon and McCartney had a close relationship, even after The Beatles broke up, and McCartney put a few lines in the song that he would never have said to Lennon. The singer says if he sees other audience members crying, it can catch him off guard.
“If I ever spot anyone crying during ‘Here Today’, that can set me off. I mean, on one level it’s only a song and on another, it’s a very emotional thing for me. And when I see some girl totally reduced to tears and looking at me singing it catches me by surprise. This really means something to her. I’m not just a singer. I’m doing something more here.”
McCartney wrote ‘Here Today’ as a ‘love letter’ to John Lennon
In an interview with BBC, McCartney revealed that “Here Today” was meant to be a “love letter” to Lennon. It was meant to be a conversation between the two, and McCartney wanted to say things to him that he didn’t when he was alive. He told Lennon that he loved him and it was something he never told him in person and regretted not doing so.
“Here Today” was featured on McCartney’s 1982 album Tug of War. While not released as a single, it reached number 46 on Billboard’s mainstream rock charts.
