Paul McCartney Thinks He Smoked Too Much ‘Wacky Baccy’ While Recording ‘Back to the Egg’ at Lympne Castle

Paul McCartney thinks he smoked too much “wacky baccy” while recording his and Wings’ final album, Back to the Egg. The former Beatle and his band recorded the 1979 record at Lympne Castle.

Paul McCartney doesn’t know why he and Wings recorded most of ‘Back to the Egg’ at Lympne Castle

In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul explained that he knew the owners of Lympne Castle, a “grand old building” in the southeast of England. Harry and Deirdre Margary were “rather aristocratic” and “posh” people.

“We would write and record, and then they’d invite me in for a drink in the evening, and I’d go and have a little whisky before I went home,” Paul wrote. He remembers working on “Getting Closer” and much of Back to the Egg. However, Paul doesn’t remember why he and Wings recorded there. He and the band sort of just showed up one day and started.

“We recorded a whole bunch of stuff at Lympne Castle. Why? I don’t know,” Paul wrote. He suspects it was because the castle was close to where they lived at the time. The singer-songwriter and his band took a mobile truck to Lympne Castle and “more or less” went in and recorded the album.

Paul confessed he smoked too much ‘wacky baccy’ while recording ‘Back to the Egg’

Paul wrote that he and Wings finished recording Back to the Egg at Abbey Road Studios, but he liked the castle’s atmosphere. “You’d get these kinds of slightly oddball things happening and oddball songs coming out. I’m a bit more purposeful these days than I was then,” Paul wrote.

The “Maybe I’m Amazed” singer also thinks he probably smoked “a little too much wacky baccy at the time.” However, that was what was good about Wings. He and the band had the freedom not to make sense.

After The Beatles split and Paul formed Wings, his main mission was to make music that sounded completely different from his former band. He accomplished that and more. Experimenting in the recording studio liberated Paul.

‘Getting Closer’ has lyrics that don’t exactly make sense

Since Paul and Wings took chances and experimented, some of their songs, especially the tracks on Back to the Egg, have strange lyrics. Paul wrote that sometimes he likes certain words. He also isn’t bothered about making sense.

“‘Say you don’t love him’ – that’s not from any real experience, it’s not like I was being jilted or cuckolded or anything; it was a device to get me into the song,” Paul wrote. “‘I’m getting closer to your heart.’ I’m also arriving, driving towards where you are.

“‘Keeping ahead of the rain on the road / Watching my windscreen wipers / Radio playing me a danceable ode’. ‘Hitting the chisel and making a joint’ … You knew your audience would be amused by those little references, because rolling joints was still a little bit underground at that time.”

Paul and Wings might have had fun recording Back to the Egg, but it ended up being their last album.