Man on the Run (2025) Movie Script
1
[Paul McCartney] Um, okay.
One, two, three, four.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Silly Love Songs"]
You'd think that people would've
had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me,
and I see it isn't so
Some people want to fill the world
with silly love songs
And what's wrong with that?
[song stops abruptly]
[Scott Osbourne] What's the most
important thing that you value?
Just personal peace.
Can you develop that a little more fuller?
Not really.
-[quiet chatter]
-[Paul] Okay.
You know, we've just gone around,
like, for an hour with nothing.
-[quiet chatter]
-Yeah, I know.
But let's sort of move on now.
That's the-the only time that works,
really, is on the last line.
Paul, forget the last line.
[Paul] If I hear someone
damning Paul McCartney,
I tend to agree with them.
So when everyone was saying
I broke up the Beatles
and I was just overbearing
and all of that,
I kind of bought into it.
I thought, "That's, you know,
the kind of bastard I am."
It leaves you in
this kind of no-man's-land.
But, um, the truth.
John had come in one day
and said he was leaving the Beatles.
He said, "It's kind of exciting.
It's like telling someone
you want a divorce."
[chuckles]
But, uh, I was thinking,
"What do I do now?"
Because it'd been my whole life, really.
You know, I've had growing up, going to
school, and then becoming the Beatles.
It was a puzzle I had to kind of unravel.
[The Beatles sing "The End"]
Oh, yeah
All right
Are you gonna be in my dreams tonight?
[cheering]
[John Lennon] You can be bigheaded and
say, "Yeah, we're gonna last ten years."
You know, we're lucky
if we last three months.
[laughter]
-The Beatles!
-[crowd cheering wildly]
[fans screaming excitedly]
Love you, love you...
[Paul] We can't keep playing
the same sort of music until we're 40.
Who knows? At 40, we may not know
how to write songs anymore.
["The End" continues]
And in the end
[song ends]
[seagulls calling]
[Paul McCartney sings
"Momma Miss America"]
[radio static warbling]
[Roby Yonge] It is 22
before the hour of 1:00.
There is something strange
going on with the Beatles.
The fact that the Beatle Paul may be dead.
The past few weeks, the question
"Is Paul McCartney dead?"
has made headlines across
the United States and around the world.
[reporter] The Beatles are actually
gathered around what looks like a grave.
On the back of the album,
Paul has his back to us.
There was even one report
that McCartney was killed three years ago
in an auto accident
and a double put in his place.
[Mike Douglas] Michael McGear,
is your brother
Paul McCartney alive?
[Michael McCartney] It's a hoax.
It's a con.
You got nothing at all to base it on.
[Douglas] When was the last time
you saw your brother?
[Michael] The last time?
Yes.
-It was his funeral, I think.
-[laughter]
[Jimmy McGeachy] The Mull of Kintyre
on the west coast of Scotland.
It's, uh, a Gaelic name for "end of land."
The biggest thing
about the town, really, is, um,
people would just say,
"Oh, yeah, the Beatle's in town.
He's up on the farm."
-[dog barking]
-[reporter] That's pretty good.
Get down, get down on the ground.
Well, I suppose 'cause you live here.
And don't try filming it,
or you might get in some trouble.
[chuckles] I think what happened is I
think I might have thrown a bucket at him,
and I think he took a picture.
I decided I'd better go after him.
And I say, "Look, what we'll do
is we'll pose a photo for you
in return for the bucket-throwing photo."
'Cause I didn't want
the sort of drama to be,
"There's where he is.
He's throwing buckets."
[chuckles]
[Paul McCartney plays "Singalong Junk"]
[reporter] Knowing Paul McCartney
is a millionaire,
I could just imagine
the sort of place he'd have.
But I was wrong.
Paul, his wife Linda
and their two children
live in their little broken-down
old farmhouse,
which even a poor farm laborer
would think twice about accepting.
[Paul] We got up there to escape,
but I couldn't escape.
The Beatles had just finished,
and that was my life.
I thought, "I'll never write
another note of music ever."
I felt very depressed.
So I said, "Well, I'll have
a wee dram of scotch.
Why not?
I might have another one.
I've got nowhere to go."
So this lasted a couple of months,
and I got into drinking too much.
But I was very lucky because I had Linda.
[fans screaming excitedly]
-[crowd clamoring]
-[excited screaming continues]
[fanfare music playing]
[fanfare ends]
[excited screaming]
[newsreel narrator] London,
weepy time down south.
The last bachelor Beatle
was no longer a bachelor.
Paul McCartney married
New Yorker Linda Eastman.
Paul's new stepdaughter Heather
was among the advance guard
who battled away through the shrieking,
sobbing press of devoted fans
who surged round the newlyweds
as they made for their car.
[dramatic sobbing]
[reporter] Why are you girls crying?
Why are you crying?
[sobbing continues]
Control yourself a minute and tell me
how you feel about him getting married.
-Oh, I don't care.
-Oh, I-I... I think it's-it's...
Oh, it's lovely.
Shouldn't you two be at school today?
-Yes.
-Yes.
[reporter 2] Mrs. McCartney,
congratulations.
What does it feel like
to have just married the--
probably one of the most
eligible bachelors in the world
-to the envy of all the, uh, ladies?
-[dog barking]
Well, it feels great to be married.
But it's funny, you think,
oh, it's so easy just to--
they run off and live happily ever after.
Cinderella and the prince.
You know, it's not that easy.
He said, "I've got this farm.
I know you won't like it."
But it was so beautiful up there.
[bleating]
Way at the end of nowhere.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Hey Diddle"]
Civilization dropped away.
It was quite a relief.
-[birds chirping]
-[humming and gentle guitar music]
[Paul] It was just as if
we'd been plunked into this new life,
and we just had to figure it out.
Hey diddle, I want you back
Diddle, I want you back...
[Linda] I think I said,
"Well, let's just go get lost.
Just get away
and go back to the beginning."
[Paul] We'd had a baby, Mary.
Linda had a five-year-old,
so I adopted her,
and I started making music again.
She can't be found,
but love doesn't care
Doesn't care...
[Mary McCartney] There was
a lot of heartbreaking stuff going on,
but Mum was like,
"Look, let's just sing,
create music, be together."
[Linda] We have horses and sheep,
and we plant our own vegetables.
[Paul] We went vegetarian.
[Linda] And it's the only place we go to
where we can just stay very natural
in this unnatural world.
[scatting]
[Mick Jagger] I'm not very good
at fixing roofs, so I can't really relate.
[laughs]
He wanted to be grounded
in an ordinary life
because being in the Beatles was
free of any kind of grounding whatsoever.
[song ends]
[quiet chatter]
[John] I think they might think
I'm gonna hot up the revolution.
You know, I want to cool it down.
We're selling it like soap, you know,
and you've got to sell
and sell until the housewife thinks,
"Oh, uh, well, there's peace or war.
That's the two products."
[Paul] The Beatles had broken up,
but pretty much nobody knew.
Our manager at the time said,
"Well, don't tell anyone.
I'm gonna go to Capitol Records.
I'm gonna improve your deal."
And we all kind of agreed we won't tell.
Even though John was
getting off on it all.
The Beatles, it's a monument or a museum.
And one thing this age
is about is no museums.
And the Beatles turned into a museum,
so they have to be scrapped.
[reporter] Is there not
a more positive way of-of demonstrating
in favor of peace than sitting in bed?
-[overlapping chatter]
-[wild vocalizing]
[Paul] John was starting
to write his own stuff.
I was starting to write mine.
We were just growing apart, really.
So then I had to look inside myself
and look at my world and find something
that wasn't the Beatles.
[Chris Welch] He had two great allies
when he set off on his new musical career.
One, of course, was Linda,
and the other was a blank sheet of paper.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"The Lovely Linda"]
La, la, la, la, la, la, lovely Linda...
[Paul] At the beginning of the album,
there's a squeak of a door.
[imitates squeak]
And that was our back door.
I thought, "Well, that's cool."
It showed that we were at home.
So I had myself a 4-track machine,
and we just actually plugged
the microphones right into the back.
[baby fussing]
And that would be track one.
Don't cry, little baby.
Don't cry.
Daddy's gonna play you a lullaby.
And then I'd put a guitar on that.
[Paul McCartney sings
"That Would Be Something"]
And then I'd put a bass on that.
So I just made up
a lot of tracks like that.
I love to just make stuff up.
It keeps me free.
That would be something
It really would be something
That would be something
to meet you in the falling rain, mama
Meet you in the falling rain...
[Peter Doggett] He more or less
invented lo-fi recording.
Alternative rock begins
with McCartney, if you like.
[Aubrey Powell] Underneath that,
what was he really doing?
Experimenting.
[Paul beatboxing]
Meet you in the falling rain, mama
Meet you in the falling rain
[Paul] Suddenly, it became an album.
It meant I hadn't given up.
-[song ends]
-[recorder clicks]
[child babbling indistinctly]
[Paul] The only way I've ever written
is going off somewhere.
In the very early days, it was the toilet.
After that, I would just find
a cupboard under the stairs
to, like, escape the world.
So you can have
your most private thoughts.
Well, now, well, now.
[dramatic guitar music playing]
You strum a chord, and then
you kind of see where it leads you,
like breadcrumbs.
It's just memories.
Maybe regrets.
Or even the future.
[crowd cheering]
You sometimes fictionalize the characters.
But obviously, in a way, it's always you.
If you've got some sort of problems,
you work them out in the song.
It really is
the ultimate therapy, I think.
[music stops abruptly]
[Chris Thomas] I remember
I was in Abbey Road one day.
Paul was in number two
listening to the record,
so I popped my head in there.
And he sort of gestured,
you know, come in,
and I stood there
and I listened to this song.
I said, "Who have you got
playing on that?"
And he said, "Oh, I did it all myself."
And it's like, "What?"
[laughing]
[Paul McCartney sings
"Maybe I'm Amazed"]
Maybe I'm amazed
at the way you love me all the time
Or maybe I'm afraid
of the way I love you...
[Paul] It's not that I have any doubts
about loving you,
but conversation in my head,
it's more intense.
I'm mixing in fear of being a grown-up.
Baby, I'm a man,
maybe I'm a lonely man
who's in the middle of something
that he doesn't really understand
Baby, I'm a man,
and maybe you're the only woman
who could ever help me
Baby, won't you help me understand?
Ooh...
-[vocalizing]
-[electric guitar solo playing]
We were always gonna say Beatles
haven't split up when we clearly have.
I just thought,
"This is going on too long."
[reporter] Is anybody coming
to read this statement?
[woman] No, this is the only statement.
[Paul] And then all hell broke loose.
Oh, oh
[vocalizing]
Oh, oh
[vocalizing]
-[cameras clicking]
-[photographers clamoring]
[song ends]
[tires squealing]
Once upon a time,
they called themselves the Beatles.
Today, Paul McCartney called it quits.
He says he's going to
write songs by himself.
[Bob Simon] Historians may one day
view it as a landmark
in the decline of the British Empire.
The Beatles are breaking up.
-Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.
-[excited chatter]
[John] He called me
in the afternoon of that day
and said, "I'm leaving the group, too."
I said, "Good," you know.
'Cause he was the one
that wanted the Beatles most.
[Paul] John was quite annoyed with me.
He wanted to be the one to say it.
So in my mind, I said,
"Well, why didn't you?"
John broke up the Beatles,
you know, but I got the rap.
And that's a bit of a weight to bear.
[Michael] When you've been
in the biggest group in the world,
what do you do after that? [laughs]
You got to remember that we were just
two little Liverpool lads going nowhere.
When we were children,
we stood on the banks of the River Mersey
and said, "Dad, what's that?"
"That's over the water, boys."
And that meant that that was unobtainable.
We're so sorry
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey"]
Uncle Albert
We're so sorry
if we caused you any pain
We're so sorry
Uncle Albert
But there's no one left at home
and I believe I'm gonna rain...
[Paul] Having left Liverpool
and having got a new life in London,
sometimes I felt a tiny regret
at having left.
[lively chatter]
Wouldn't it be great
to go back to the old days?
Uncle Albert on the table, drunk,
and my dad just sat around
giving us pea sandwiches.
[chuckles] If we're lucky.
They probably can get where I am now.
It's an unfortunate reality,
that distance.
[crowd singing]
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile, so
pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag
and smile, smile, smile
[Paul] I was on my own for the first time.
[lively chatter]
Am I any good on my own?
["Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey"
continues]
I was in bed with Linda one night.
On the spur of the moment, I said,
"Well, if I form a new band,
do you want to be in it?"
And she kind of, "Um, yeah."
[chuckles] It's as simple as that.
Okay, well, that's-- we got two members.
Hands across the water
Water
Hands across the sky
[Linda] But I'm a photographer.
I don't play anything.
He said, "Well, here's middle C.
You can play keyboard."
Hands across the water
Water
Hands across the sky
[vocalizing]
[Doggett] His first album, McCartney,
was a Paul McCartney album,
and so people bought it.
But they couldn't get their heads around
what Paul was trying to do.
There was a real air of disappointment.
Maybe he's not a major talent after all.
[Paul] I thought,
"Well, having done the simple album,
this time,
let's treat it like a proper record."
-[man] Okay, then, let's see.
-[guitar strumming]
[Paul] Let's see.
[Linda] We'll take a few
over here now, so...
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Heart of the Country"]
Gonna go, gonna go
Gonna tell everyone I know...
[Paul] The new album,
it really was celebrating ordinary life.
You know, heading out on your own,
make a family.
Living in a home
in the heart of the country
You took that, huh?
[man] Yeah, I started screwing around
a little bit.
[Paul belches loudly] Screwing around
a little bit.
Yeah, I think you'd better
play at us, then.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Eat at Home"]
Sit down.
Come on, little lady
Lady, let's eat at home...
[Denny Seiwell] I couldn't wait
to get to work.
I just knew he was
the best known musician on the planet.
But, well, this is not
your typical session.
[Paul and Linda vocalizing wildly]
[interviewer] Since you've
been married, Paul, um,
when did you first discover
Linda could sing?
[Paul] On the wedding night.
[laughter]
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Long Haired Lady"]
Do you love me like you know
you ought to do...
[Paul] I liked her voice.
Her style was not operatic.
It was not blues.
Or is this the only thing
you want me for...
[Paul] But that gives it a special sound.
It was more just singing.
Sweet little lass you are
my long-haired lady
[vocalizing]
[Paul] Now, what I thought was, use that
for the middle eighths, certainly.
[Linda] Uh-huh. Maybe we should sing
on top of that, double track, then.
[Paul] Sing on top of that, both of us?
-[Linda] Yeah.
-[Paul] Why not?
Ah, sing your song
Love is long, love is long
Ah, when you're wrong
love is long, love is long...
[laughing]
[Seiwell] Paul had been making music
with the Beatles his whole life,
and now he's making music
with somebody else.
Love is long...
He was really happy.
[song fades]
We knew that something was troubling him,
but he didn't bring it into work.
[Paul] You know, the fairy tale was
we make all this money,
we make all these lovely songs,
and then we just split up, and that's it.
But it wasn't going that way.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Monkberry Moon Delight"]
[Doggett] All the contracts
that the Beatles signed in '68
were based on the idea
that the Beatles would never break up.
There was no way to extricate
just one of them from the partnership.
[Paul] Nobody likes to be hemmed in.
I think the worst thing about it, though,
basically John had hired a manager
who I didn't like.
[Doggett] Allen Klein was classic
New York, a lawyer but also a crook.
He would get a cut off the top,
and then he would take a cut
off the bottom as well.
But from John Lennon's point of view,
he loved Klein.
John said, "Maybe he's a bastard,
but he's gonna be our bastard."
[Paul] I saw through it.
The way things were going,
Allen Klein would just swallow up
all the Beatles' fortune.
[vocalizing]
He is, um, obligated into Apple
for a considerable number of years,
so, uh, his disassociating himself
with me,
um, has really no effect.
[eerie music playing]
[Paul] I remember
I had a very strange nightmare.
Allen Klein is a dentist,
and I've got to have a tooth out.
And I wake up.
Hmm.
So I thought I had to fight it.
My brother-in-law,
he and his dad were a huge help.
They said to sue them.
And I said, "Well, I'll sue Allen Klein,
but I can't sue the Beatles.
These are my mates."
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Too Many People"]
They're gonna hate me for it.
The public's gonna hate me for it.
I'm gonna hate me for it.
But otherwise, I would never get out.
Too many people going underground
Too many reaching for a piece of cake...
[Bob Wellings] Good evening. Tonight,
a musical surprise, as the Beatles topple.
The legal attempt by Paul McCartney
to dissolve the business partnership
of the Beatles began today in London.
He says their accounts are
in such poor shape,
nobody is sure
where all the millions went.
You took your lucky break
and broke it in two...
Three of the singing Beatles
put the fourth member of the quartet,
Paul McCartney, through a new kind
of hard day's night today.
McCartney was depicted
by his fellow Beatles
as arrogant, short-tempered
and a spoiled child.
Too many people preaching practices
Don't let 'em tell you
what you wanna be...
Look, I know
they're your in-laws and all--
Yeah, but I don't go with Klein.
From now on,
the Eastmans handle all my work.
Oh, for Christ's sake,
don't be an idiot, man.
We've got to stick together.
[Welch] There was even a play,
I think, in the West End.
And they sort of depicted Paul as being
the one who broke up the Beatles.
We've got to stick together.
Otherwise, we'll be eaten alive.
Forget the Eastmans.
All's fair in love and business.
From now on,
the Eastmans handle all my work!
-Christ--
-No further comment!
[Sean Ono Lennon] The earth was
swallowing everything up.
It was monumental, I think, for the world,
the Beatles breaking up,
and especially for the world
of the band members.
[John Lennon and Yoko Ono sing
"I've Got a Feeling"]
Everybody had a good time
Everybody had a soft dream
Everybody saw the sunshine
Everybody had a hard year
Surprise, surprise.
[Sean Ono Lennon] He was tough, my dad.
You know, I think Paul was tough, too.
He just has a gentle manner about him.
[interviewer] What did you think
of Paul's album?
[John] I thought Paul's
was rubbish, you know.
I-I think he'll make a better one
when he's frightened into it.
But I thought that first one
was just a lot of--
I told you-- light and crack.
[John Lennon sings "How Do You Sleep?"]
So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise...
[John] In school, I was different.
I was always different.
But most of the time, they were trying
to beat me into being a fucking dentist.
And then the fucking fans started
to beat me into being a fucking Beatle.
And the critics started to beat me
into being Paul McCartney.
Those freaks was right when they said
you was dead...
Paul thought he was the fucking Beatles,
and he never fucking was.
[Linda] Allen Klein was stirring it up
something awful.
They had him spinning about Paul.
It was really heartbreaking.
It reminded me of Ivan the Terrible,
you know, the movie.
The only thing you done was
"Yesterday"
[Paul] "The only thing you did
was 'Yesterday'"
was apparently Allen Klein's suggestion.
But at the back of my mind,
I was thinking,
"But all I ever did was
'Yesterday,' 'Let It Be,'
'Long and Winding Road,'
'Eleanor Rigby,' 'Lady Madonna.'
-Fuck you, John."
-Tell me
-how do you sleep?
-[song stops abruptly]
[Paul] How do I sleep at night?
Well, actually, quite well.
But, you know, you got to remember,
I'd known John since he was a teenager.
And that's kind of
what I loved about John.
He's a crazy son of a bitch.
He's a lovely, lovely, crazy guy.
[news theme playing]
First, hear this.
[Led Zeppelin plays "The Lemon Song"]
It's cool, it's groovy, it's number one,
the Led Zeppelin.
The Led, uh, what?
The, uh, Led Zeppelin, but I'm afraid
that you and other dads like you, Bob,
may never have heard of them.
But this British group has made
musical history today.
Readers of the Melody Maker have
voted them the top world group.
The significance is that the Beatles
have held this title for eight years,
but now the Beatles are out.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing "Ram On"]
[Doggett] Looking back to the early '70s,
Paul was remarkably uncool.
He was conservative,
he was lame, he was boring,
he was making music
for housewives and grannies.
People are now interested
in young musicians
rather than in, say,
what Paul McCartney had for breakfast.
Ram on
Give your heart to somebody
soon
right away
right away...
[Paul] Why is it called Ram?
Ram, forward, press on.
I also, a lot of people know,
I'm well into sheep, man.
[chuckles]
[Seiwell] Ram came out,
and the press just panned it.
[vocalizing]
[Sean Ono Lennon] It's crazy.
People are saying
that this record is a failure,
but Ram specifically wasn't trying
to be a Beatles record,
and I think that's the charm of it.
Yeah, Ram is a masterpiece. I love it.
[melodic whistling]
[Paul] Oh, I don't know what I'm doing.
How can I ever do anything
that's anywhere near as good
as the Beatles?
It's impossible.
-[audience cheering]
-And this, we're betting,
will make the top five this week.
It's by an English group
called The Moody Blues.
And if it makes the grade,
we'll be bringing them back
for a return appearance.
So here it is, the Shindig!
Pick of the Week, "Go Now!"
We've already said
[The Moody Blues sing "Go Now"]
goodbye
[Paul] I'd known Denny Laine from
when he was with The Moody Blues.
Since you got to go,
oh, you'd better go now...
[Denny Laine] I used to go
over to his place.
He loaned me a guitar once,
and I kept it for a year.
You know, we were kind of friends
in that way.
[Paul] I rang him one day and said...
[Laine] "Do you fancy
getting a band together?"
[Paul] Denny would play guitar,
and I could play bass, obviously.
And as far as the drummer's concerned,
you know, you got to have
a good engine behind you.
[Seiwell] Paul called me and he says,
"You know, I really miss my old band.
I'm thinking about
putting a band together."
[vocalizing]
[Laine] And I said, "Yeah, sure."
[laughs] That's all it was.
I don't want to see you go
but, darling, you'd better go now
[song ends]
[Seiwell] Driving up to Scotland,
you stop at the farmer's house
and ask him which lane
takes you up to Paul's place.
[Scottish accent] "Okay, laddie,
you take the wee cuttings up..." [grunts]
[normal accent] "Sure."
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Outtake I"]
[Laine] There it was
in the middle of nowhere.
They were all sheep people.
You know Scotland.
You can't have anything
but sheep up there,
the only thing that survive
in the mountains.
[sheep bleating]
[man imitates sheep bleating]
[sheep bleating]
[man imitates sheep bleating]
[sheep bleating]
[man imitates sheep bleating]
[man and sheep bleating]
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Outtake II"]
[scatting]
[Laine] He had a little studio that--
well, not a studio, it was like a barn,
which he called Rude Studio.
[upbeat music playing]
-[sheep bleating]
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
[Seiwell] He said,
"We're all gonna be a part of this.
What I make, you're gonna make."
He wanted us to be like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
He wanted us to be known
just like the Beatles were known.
I went, "Okay."
[Henry McCullough] Paul was
looking for a guitar player,
and Denny brought my name
into the picture.
He says, "Do you want to join a band?"
I think I know guitar players
would've chopped a finger off
to get that gig, you know?
I mean, he's not going to have
a bunch of fools around him,
Paul McCartney, I can tell you.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "Lucille"]
Well, I woke up this morning
Lucille was not in sight
I asked my friends about it,
but all their lips were tight
Lucille
please come back where you belong
Well, I'm singing to you, baby
Please don't leave me alone
[Linda] Let's go once more.
-[song ends]
-Yeah.
[Paul] I thought we should start
like the Beatles started, from square one.
Two, three
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "The Mess"]
[McCullough] So we went on the road.
[Paul] When we leave here,
we'll just pick up a map.
We'll say, "Where do you fancy today?"
-[interviewer] So who does the driving?
-[Paul] I did a bit.
We had the kids, the dogs,
like kind of wandering troubadours.
Oh, sweet darling
what a mess I'm in...
We turned up at Nottingham University
was the first one.
The roadie normally went in,
and he said, uh,
"We got Paul McCartney
in a van outside, mate.
Do-do you want him playing
lunchtime tomorrow?"
They said, "Get out of here.
I got more serious things to do."
They-They'd come out
in the van to sort of check.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll have him."
[Laine] Charge them 50 pence on the door
just because you do.
[chuckles] You know,
we ain't doing this for nothing. Yeah.
And then the great thing is we have
this whacking great bag of 50 pees,
and it'd be like, have you ever seen
Peter Sellers in Tom Thumb?
One for me and one for you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah
[Paul] But it was amazing,
'cause I'd been in Apple and the Beatles,
and you'd never seen money.
So this was me going back
to, like, the Cavern.
It was like there's a whole new life
starting again.
Hey
Now, now, now
Yeah, yeah-yeah...
In the meantime,
we just learned how to be Wings.
There will come a day
when we'll be at square a hundred.
[song ends]
[interviewer] After a private joust,
unannounced,
appearing at some British universities,
Wings started a 26-venue European tour
on Sunday night.
-Why start here?
-[Paul] We could get big gigs.
I mean, we've had offers to play
at Madison Square Garden.
I think, as far as I'm concerned,
see, I'm just some fella
who used to be in a group
called the Beatles.
The Beatles split up, so quite naturally
you look for something else.
And that's all I'm doing.
And it's a group called Wings,
and we're having a great time
doing the kind of things
the Beatles couldn't, never done.
[crowd cheering]
[man speaking Dutch]
...from England, Wings!
[cheering continues]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Big Barn Bed"]
Who's that coming round that corner?
Who's that coming round that bend...
[Paul] It's a particular kind
of excitement.
A good audience is an incredible thing,
like a roomful of 4,000 lovers.
[man speaking foreign language]
...England, Wings!
[man 2] Paul McCartney & Wings!
[man 3] Paul McCartney & Wings!
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed...
[speaking Swedish]
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
[vocalizing]
[Seiwell] We lived as a family.
I don't remember nannies.
They would pull out a drawer,
put a pillow in it,
and that's where the baby slept.
[Paul] We've got some mattresses up there,
you know, so we can just cruise along.
Fantastic.
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed...
People thought we were totally crazy,
but that was our way.
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
Keep on
woman
[song ends]
[Nick Lowe] It was, it was interesting
seeing people in the street,
you know, who'd see the bus going by.
But it's almost like their eyes would be
drawn like magnets to Paul's face.
It was quite odd.
So, there was one day when we stopped at
a motorway services to go and have a pee,
and I said to him, uh, "Are you coming?"
And he said, "No, no.
You know, I can't stand at a urinal,
you know, and have someone say,
'Oh, you're-you're here,' you know.
'Hello, Paul.'"
Yeah, yeah, yeah
"I trained myself," he said,
"when I was in the Beatles,
you know, for it not to be necessary."
You know, he wanted to engender this,
uh, we're all mates and on the same plane,
you know, which, of course,
we-we... we weren't at all.
[David Scott] The plants, still in pots,
were produced in court today.
They were found by a local policeman
who'd gone to check
the empty McCartney farm buildings.
He looked in the greenhouse
and thought he recognized the cannabis.
Well, I'm glad to have
got off like this, you know.
I'm glad it wasn't jail.
Did you think at one point
it might have been?
I thought it might be, you know, but
I would've been okay as long as I could
take my guitar in with me, you know,
write a few new songs and stuff.
But, uh, I wasn't looking forward to it.
It was said in court that you had
a considerable interest in horticulture.
Now, this might surprise
some of your friends.
Uh, when did this start?
A couple of years ago, you know.
And wh-where have you been doing
your gardening, et cetera?
At the farm, yeah.
My dad's a keen gardener, you know.
I think it's rubbed off.
It was said that those seeds
had been sent to you.
How did you come to grow them?
Yeah, well, we got a load of seeds,
you know, kind of in the post.
Uh, and we didn't know
what they were, you know.
We kind of planted them all,
and five of them came up like...
five of them came up illegal, you know.
As he left the court, McCartney, who'd
been given two weeks to pay the fine,
said, "The judge is a great guy."
[melodic whistling]
[Paul] I... I'm very enthusiastic.
And so the initial enthusiasm
is what gets things done.
But in my case, there's never anyone
around saying, "No, that's a stupid idea.
You shouldn't do that."
So I blame everyone else. [chuckles]
[Paul McCartney sings
"Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance"]
People call me a stick-in-the-mud
but it's certainly not true
Who could call me a stick-in-the-mud
when I polish my tonsils
put on my dancing shoes?
[lively big band music begins]
When I get that feeling
at the end of my toes
gotta go in a trance
I get an itchy feeling
at the end of my nose
Gotta sing, gotta dance...
[Doggett] In 1973, Paul made a TV special,
but some of it was just so bizarre.
[lively big band music continues]
[shoes tapping rhythmically]
Don't stop...
[Seiwell] He loved all that soppy shit.
Come on, give me a leg up.
Thanks, lad.
Sorry I've been so long.
I had a bit of bother below stairs.
[Seiwell] Like this Bruce McMouse thing
from the live show.
[chuckles] And not cool, totally not cool.
Hey, you're a nice little fellow,
aren't you?
Watch it, love.
The wife gets jealous. [chuckles]
-[rhythmic clapping]
-Don't stop...
[Powell] By '73, things had started
to turn ugly, generally.
People were dying.
[Welch] And there was a sense that
rock music was supposed to be
the voice of revolt or revolution.
It wasn't just all about fun.
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
don't, don't stop
[song ends]
[Paul] And I get that, you know.
But the thing is,
not everyone can do that.
And not everyone wants to do that.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mary Had a Little Lamb"]
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
[Lowe] "Mary Had a Little Fucking Lamb"?
Are you nuts?
And you could hear them singing
La-la, la-la...
[Seiwell] Now, you talk about somebody
that had a tough time
with "Mary Had a Little Lamb,"
it was Henry McCullough.
La-la...
[McCullough] We were in, uh, dance studios
trying to learn how to do
vaudeville dances and stuff, you know.
I'm a bloody guitar player.
Some people think
it was a great thing for me
to be involved in right from the start.
But that wears off, you know.
[song ends]
[Paul] Wings was a dud
when it first came out.
[Elton John] Well, since the breakup,
I think John's come out with
the best album with Imagine.
George, I really liked
All Things Must Pass.
I think it surprised a lot of people.
I mean, Ringo's lovely.
He made an album called
Beaucoups of Blues, which I really like.
McCartney's probably the most sort of
talked about more than anyone else
because people have been
really disappointed.
I'd rather hear Paul McCartney
rather than Linda McCartney, you know.
[interviewer] Probably you,
more than any other member of the band,
comes in for a lot of stick.
How-how do you react to this?
Well, I think it's getting better.
[reporter] Who's Linda Eastman?
That's it. Who is it?
[woman] What is it?
Technically, she's supposed
to be Paul's wife,
but she's his ruler, his guardian.
She says, he jumps.
Why? I don't know.
[Paul] "She can't do this, she can't sing,
she can't play piano,
she can't do anything."
"Oh, they're crazy, man.
What's he got his old lady
in the band for?"
[ominous music playing]
"Who the hell is this?"
[camera clicks]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mama's Little Girl"]
[Linda] People have an image of me
that's so far away of what I am.
I almost don't mind.
I don't want people to know
who I am anyway.
Looking like a rag doll
Mama's little girl...
I was just a-a divorced lady
living in New York with a child.
I was, like, a receptionist
at Town & Country magazine
and just started taking pictures a bit
for the fun of it.
And all of a sudden,
I just started getting work.
I could see and feel so much
looking through a lens,
because I forgot my insecurities.
I forgot myself.
That's how I know when to click.
[camera clicks]
And it was around that time I met Paul.
[Mary] Now that you look at
his photography and hers together,
even though they came from very different
walks of life, they're very like-minded.
Singing like a skylark...
Both of them, when they take a portrait,
it's really like
they're looking at a friend.
Picking up a mountain, yeah...
She was a-a complete individual.
He hadn't met anybody like that before.
[gentle guitar music playing]
The way I never was.
The way I never will be.
-Gorgeous.
-[Laine] Cheers to that.
[Linda] What am I doing
singing with Paul McCartney?
In a way, they're right. What am I doing?
There are a lot better singers.
[Stella McCartney] Yeah,
she wasn't a cookie-cutter example
of someone you put in a band.
What they, and she especially,
had to go through,
like when they isolated her voice and
ridiculed her, I mean, it breaks my heart.
You know, I know
that there was pain there.
I know she hurt.
She wasn't, like, cold.
But I think that shows
her bravery and her spirit.
That side to her boosted a side
that he perhaps had lost.
-[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "My Love"]
-Oh, my love
Oh, my love
Only my love
does it good to me
[electric guitar solo playing]
[Linda] That's why I'm there, really.
I'm not there 'cause
I'm the greatest keyboard player.
I'm there 'cause we love each other.
[Paul] She taught me a lot of things.
Anybody who bad-mouthed us
made us even more determined
to prove them wrong.
[song ends]
Welcome back.
A week ago today,
three of the original four Beatles,
John, George, Paul and Ringo,
finally parted company with their
fast-talking American manager Allen Klein.
I don't want to go into the details of it.
Let's say that possibly
Paul's suspicions were right.
[Sean Ono Lennon] The media and the fans
wanted to choose sides, you know.
The reality is they were actually
more similar than they were different.
Paul, uh, personally doesn't feel
as though I-I insulted him or anything,
'cause I had dinner with him last week.
-He's quite happy--
-They were friends, you know,
and they were swearing at each other--
If I can't, uh, if I can't, uh, have
a fight with my best friend,
I don't know who I can have a fight with.
[Paul] That was the kind of thing,
you know.
You'd be in an argument with John,
and it'd be getting a little bit heated,
and he would take his glasses
and he'd just put them down,
and he says, "It's only me.
I'm still the guy
that you loved in Liverpool.
It's only me."
[Douglas] Young man right here,
the first row.
[man] I'd like to know if you've heard
the new McCartney album,
and if so, how'd you like it?
-[John] The Wings one?
-Yeah.
Some of it's all right.
I thought it was getting better,
some of it wasn't as good
and some was better.
I think he's going in the right direction.
-You think he's getting it back?
-[John] I think he has to.
He's got it there somewhere.
[Fela Kuti sings
"Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)"]
[Paul] I was looking around for somewhere
exciting to record the next album.
I thought a good idea would be
to get a list off EMI
of all the studios they had
round the world.
It turned out they had a studio
in Germany.
They had one in Rio, China.
They had one in Africa.
[singing in Yoruba]
[Paul] Fela was so cool.
I'd never heard anything like it
in my life.
We just said, "Yeah, let's go to Africa."
Denny Laine and Linda
were very up for the idea.
The night before we were due to go,
the other guys,
they just rang up and said,
"We're not coming.
We're leaving the band."
[Seiwell] We really felt like
it was a family thing.
But for years, we're living on
a meager, meager retainer.
He wanted us to be like
John, Paul, George and Ringo,
but it was really Paul McCartney
and these other guys that played with him.
[McCullough] Half the band left within
the same week, and he never asked why.
I didn't want to be part of it anymore
because it wasn't really for real.
It was a dream.
That's what it was.
[crowd cheering]
[cheering stops abruptly]
[Paul] I wasn't on top of it.
You know, I wasn't
in the accounts department
looking at what everyone was getting.
In my mind, it's,
"Well, get better than me, then.
Write some great songs.
That's how you can solve your problem."
So after the initial reaction,
it was just, like, anger.
I went into my "fuck you" mode.
"I'm gonna make the best record
you've ever heard."
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mrs. Vandebilt"]
Down in the jungle, living in a tent
you don't use money,
you don't pay rent
You don't even know the time,
but you don't mind...
We were kind of watching the landing
with the pilot of the plane,
and there's this mist
all over the jungle, you know,
saying, "Is that the airport over there?"
"No."
"I think that's it.
Yeah, come on, that's it."
"Now, that's it a bit to the left,
isn't it?"
We're all going, "Oh, what have
we got ourselves into here?" you know.
When your light is on the blink
you never think of worrying...
It was a bit of a shock.
I thought Lagos was going to be
the rhythmic capital of Africa.
I had no research or anything.
It just sounded good.
What's the use of anything?
[song ends]
And then we went down to the studios.
It wasn't at all like Abbey Road.
[Geoff Emerick] There was no drum booth.
The microphone supply was
a cardboard box just full of old mics,
and there was a door
at the back of the studio.
You open this door,
and that was a pressing plant
where they pressed all the records.
There was like 50, 60 people
stamping out records.
[mysterious music playing]
[Paul] We were walking one night,
and people had warned us, said,
"Don't walk through this area."
So I said, "Okay, don't you worry."
So a car pulls up.
Car doors fly open, and six guys jump out,
and they're mugging us at knifepoint.
Linda is screaming,
"Don't touch him! Don't touch him!
He's a musician!"
As if that's gonna help.
All my demos, all my recordings went.
We got back to the studio,
and one of the guys in the studio said,
"You're lucky he didn't kill you."
"Thanks a lot. Should we make a record?"
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five"]
Oh, no one ever left alive
in nineteen hundred and eighty-five
will ever do
She may be right, she may be fine
She may get love,
but she won't get mine
'cause I got you
Whoa, I
Whoa, I...
[Laine] All we had was us.
We were in a strange land, strange place,
up against the odds in a way.
But it came together.
[vocalizing]
[Paul] You have to let stuff go in life.
The guys weren't gonna come to Lagos.
I got angry, then I let it go.
When the demos got stolen, I got angry.
But then I had to let it go.
[song ends]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Band on the Run"]
[Powell] We had a phone call
in the studio.
He had this idea.
Basically, a bunch of celebrities
breaking out from a prison wall.
I felt it was a very personal idea.
Suddenly, he's made a breakthrough.
Stuck inside these four walls
Sent inside forever
[indistinct chatter]
Never seeing no one...
[Paul] A lot of people were kind of
on the run round about those early '70s.
A lot of people
who'd opted out of society.
Everyone was a desperado.
There's a lot of that.
And you really must stay very still
for that one second, please.
If I ever get out of here
thought of giving it all away
to a registered charity
All I need is a pint a day
If I ever get out of here
If we ever get out of here
Ready? Freeze.
Denny, can you lift your head up
a bit, please? Okay.
Well, the rain exploded
with a mighty crash
as we fell into the sun
And the first one said
to the second one there
"I hope you're having fun..."
[Laine] He wanted to put the past
behind you and to keep moving forward.
You know, again,
a lot of people criticized Wings.
You know, that's just their take.
But it does force you to say,
"Well, okay, watch this."
For the band on the run
Band on the run...
[announcer] Paul McCartney's
runaway album, now on Apple.
[Casey Kasem] The Beatle with
the greatest individual chart success
since their breakup has been
Paul McCartney.
[commentator] This album is
much nicer than the previous ones.
[Paul] This time, I don't care if
people don't like it, 'cause I like it.
Yeah, the band on the run...
It was made up, you know.
It was like homemade Wings.
It was about trying to do
something different,
trying to break loose of all the sort of
traditions that you've grown up with.
It's about freedom.
-[lively chatter]
-[song ends]
Yeah, it was great.
Thank you very much. It was really great.
You really look like you do
in the pictures.
All right, fellas.
[interviewer] A lot of critics reckon
that it wasn't until Band on the Run
that you actually sort of came of age,
in fact, after your time in the Beatles.
-Would you agree with that?
-Uh, no.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
I'd like to present to you
Miss Mary McCartney singing
a song of her own choice.
Over to you, Mary. Opportunity knocks.
[chuckles]
Baa, baa, black sheep
have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir
three bags full...
[Mary] We were all
each other's own entertainment.
You know, we would do,
like, face painting or...
[chuckles] I don't know. We were just...
It was sort of anything goes.
[singing ends]
[Paul cheering]
[Mary] They both lost their mothers
at a very young age.
That is why family was
so important to them.
Because they realized
it could go at any point.
-[Paul McCartney sings "All of You"]
-Oh
When I get feverish high again
nobody's letting me by
I want someone who's holding my hand
in the nighttime
loving me right
Loving is all I need...
[Paul] My mum died when I was 14.
It just hit me so hard.
I would tend to throw myself into work.
That's just my character, you know.
[Michael] He can't keep still.
His mind's always on the go.
He's a workaholic.
[Paul] People use that word.
I don't know.
We don't work music, we play it.
So maybe I'm a playaholic. [chuckles]
All of you
On and on in my hand
Nobody may understand
woman of mine
Oh, right on time
Oh, woman, you're mine
-[vocalizing]
-[phone ringing]
[French accent] Uh, would you
excuse me for a moment?
As you can hear,
the phone's ringing in the background.
I must answer.
Excuse, please.
[normal accent] Hello?
[caller] May I speak
with Mrs. McCartney, please?
[Paul] Oh, she's out at the moment.
[caller] Can I ring her later?
[Paul] What time is it now?
[caller] It's just after 3.
[Paul] Just after 3 o' the clock?
[caller] Yes. I'll ring back, then.
[Paul] You do that. Alright cheerio.
[rhythmic clapping]
[laughter]
[Paul] We'd been waiting around
till we had, you know,
enough songs for a big world tour.
And that was the prize.
So I put a new band together,
Wings Mark II.
Right.
One, two.
One, two, three, four!
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "Soily"]
Well, people gathered here tonight
I want you to listen to me...
[Paul] I'd seen a guitar player who was
a very young guy, kind of whiz kid.
This was Jimmy McCulloch.
And Geoff Britton,
solid rock and roll drummer.
[Geoff Britton] Musically,
the band is great.
If you listen to One Hand Clapping,
it's the ballsiest thing
he's ever recorded.
And a commie with a tommy gun
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers
said it's oily
Yeah, soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers
said it's oily
And you know he's right
Oh, yeah
[band playing flourish]
[song ends]
-[Linda] No, it's the drum.
-[man] The drum--
[Paul vocalizing]
[man] It comes in--
[Linda] The drum comes in
one beat too early.
[Britton] No, it doesn't.
Comes in a bit too late.
[Paul] Okay, let's just do
another take of it.
-But that was good, though, innit?
-[Paul] Yeah.
Just do another take on it, I think.
[Britton] But basically
the ingredients were wrong.
He wants you all to be normal and equal.
You ain't normal and equal
because he's the world superstar
and you're a dogface nobody.
[bluesy rock song playing
with indistinct lyrics]
[Laine] That lineup
didn't last very long, either.
The music always comes first,
and if they don't fit into that world,
they got to go.
[Paul] It's funny, the lineup of Wings.
We got rid of Henry McCullough, and we get
in Jimmy McCulloch, spelled differently.
You got Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell.
We get rid of Geoff Britton,
who's English,
and get in Joe English, who's American.
[Laine] Well, hell, there you go.
It's just all too confusing.
But in a way, we invented Spinal Tap.
[laughs]
[singing indistinctly]
[Joe English] I always said to myself,
you know, I'm the glorified sideman,
but it never felt like that.
-It's more like a family.
-[dog barking]
[interviewer] Please introduce yourself
into the camera, please.
Hello, everyone. I'm Joe English.
And I'm from Rochester, New York,
in the good old U.S. of A.
I'm Joe English.
I'm from Glasgow, Scotland.
My name is Joe English,
and I was born in Liverpool.
My name is Joe English,
and I was born in New York City.
And just to be different,
my name is Denny Laine.
[all exclaiming]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Listen to What the Man Said"]
Anytime
any day
you can hear the people say
that love is blind
Well, I don't know,
but I say love is kind...
Whoa, beautiful.
Beautiful show.
[Paul] Growing up in Liverpool,
people didn't like bosses.
There's this thing.
It's like a bit us against them.
I wanted for us all to feel equal,
but people are looking at Wings
as my group.
So I just decided
I'd try and be a good boss.
That's what the man said
Bring up stage right, 50%.
So won't you listen
to what the man said...
We'll only have to do it again when
Paul gets here, so we might as well wait.
The wonder of it all, baby
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
-[reporter] You're what, 31 now?
-[Paul] Thirty-three.
Thirty-three, that's a bit old
for rock and roll.
-Do you think you're past your peak?
-It's ancient, ancient.
Well, I'll tell you what.
You come to the show.
-Do you think you're past your peak?
-And after the show-- I don't, no.
I wouldn't be here if I thought I was.
But you come to see the show,
and if you like the show,
you tell me if I'm over my peak
after it, okay?
-[electric keyboard playing]
-[Paul] With the new...
with the new setting on the, uh, Rhodes.
Is that the normal, uh, volume
and stuff there?
Should be turned full up on the bass and--
Okay, that's what
it normally is, actually.
[Powell] He was definitely anxious
about how it was going to be received.
This was the first time with big crowds.
You could understand, he felt
this great weight of responsibility.
Is this going to work?
-[excited screaming]
-[crowd chanting rhythmically]
[chanting grows louder]
[chanting stops abruptly]
[Paul] It was a scary moment.
Why do I carve out
these problems for myself?
[Paul McCartney plays "Kreen-Akrore"]
Just before the tour, we went to Hawaii.
I think it was just a holiday
or something.
And it was a strange house
that we'd rented.
[movie announcer] Don't Go Near the Water.
[Paul] The swimming wasn't off a beach.
It was off, like,
a sort of little cliff thing.
And then when I wanted to get out,
what you did,
you waited for the wave to come in,
and it brought you high enough
to get onto the top of the cliff.
Then the weather changed.
Well, this doesn't matter.
You know, I still know
how to get in and out.
So I went in, as usual, on my own.
Swam around for a little bit.
I thought, "Right, get out now."
And I jumped up, but now the wave
just sort of dumped me in the water.
[commentator] Beatles in a performance
all dressed in red carnations,
and Paul is wearing a black iris.
[Paul] So I'm swimming around
in white water now.
I'm getting a little bit tired.
I see the next wave coming in.
It swells up, and I go, "Okay, let's go."
[grunts] No, dumped.
So now I'm getting worried,
and I'm in this white water,
feel like I'm in a washing machine.
But I just had to push through all that.
So I say to God, "Okay, Lord,
I'll give it everything I've got.
Just dump me out."
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "Jet"]
Come on, now
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh, come on, baby
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah
Jet
Jet
Jet
I can almost remember
their funny faces
that time you told them
that you were gonna be marrying soon
And, Jet
I thought the only lonely place
was on the moon
Jet, ooh
Jet, ooh
Ah, mater
I want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater
I want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater
Much later
Ooh, she said
Whoo, she said
Oh, yeah, Jet...
[reporter] McCartney has just been told
that a planned tour of Japan
had been canceled because of a conviction
in Britain for possessing cannabis.
[Paul] Hello, people of Japan.
This is Paul McCartney of Wings
saying that, uh, we're very sorry
that we can't come to Japan
to play our music to you this time.
But if the Minister of Justice says
we can't come in, then we can't come in.
-[crowd cheering]
-Thank you!
All right!
[interviewer] How important is it to you
to perform before a live audience
in this way?
I mean, most people think of you as being
a very rich man who presumably would have
no need at all to perform
before a live audience ever again--
[Paul] Well, I'll tell you.
Uh, we were in Nashville,
and have you ever heard
of a guitar player called Jerry Reed?
And we were talking to him, and I was
saying that I was gonna go on the road.
And he said, "Man, if I was
Paul McCartney, I'd buy the road."
[laughter]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Let 'Em In"]
[John Hammel] Australia and Europe
was really the grounding
to get it great for America.
[indistinct chatter]
[Paul] It was what we'd been
building towards.
And, you know,
we felt we'd finally arrived.
[chuckles] Second time round.
Someone knocking at the door
Somebody ringing the bell
Someone's knocking at the door
Somebody's ringing the bell
Do me a favor
Open the door
and let 'em in
Ooh, yeah
[Powell] The response was Beatlemania.
Someone's knocking at the door...
I think the moment
he stepped onto that stage,
he felt, "You know what? I can do this.
I know what I'm doing.
I'm back."
Let 'em in
[commentator] Paul McCartney
is the only one of the four
to have survived
the first part of the 1970s.
He's a fleshier, heavier Beatle
these days.
Critically, his new groups haven't
been acclaimed like the Beatles,
but there can be no doubt
about their pulling power.
Sister Suzy
Brother John
Martin Luther
Phil and Don, yeah, yeah
Uncle Ernie
Auntie Jin
Open the door
Let 'em in
-Oh, yeah, yeah
-[song ends]
Wrong airport?
-We'll go to the other airport.
-No. No.
The limos and the police escort are there.
Rather than waiting for him
to try and get the--
-Let's just get taxis.
-[Linda] Let's take taxis, man.
Let's get two taxis.
Hello, cabbages!
-Hello, cabbages!
-Hello, Mary.
Not that!
Hello, cabbages!
And your kangaroo!
And don't boil yourself twice.
[woman] Did you get your lettuce?
Can I tell you something?
-Yeah, lettuce.
-Oh, lettuce.
-I thought you said "letters."
-Can I tell you something?
Yeah, I got, I got a whole head.
I like the shows a lot.
It's better than I thought it would be.
I'm not really one for being, quote,
"on the road."
I'm more of a homebody.
[Stella] She was, like, self-styled, and
it was the coolest fucking look on earth.
On earth.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[Linda] Which should I wear?
[woman] I'd like to see you wear that.
-[man] I like that. With jeans.
-With... with what skirt, though?
-[woman] Wear your jeans.
-[man] Wear your jeans.
[Stella] And it was, I'm sorry,
like, so ahead of its time.
There's people I know
that their entire music career
isn't based on the Beatles and Wings,
it was based on her.
And no cook and no driver.
I don't know how she did it.
Oh, man, that was such a groovy gig.
[lively chatter]
All right, all right, all right.
[reporter] The McCartney show
is getting two encore calls a night,
and the highlight
to every concert is "Yesterday."
At one time in Wings tours,
Paul refused to do any Beatles songs.
Now, with most of
the legal troubles behind him,
McCartney was comfortable selecting
Beatles tunes for the Wings show.
[Paul] I'll tell you the truth.
It was too painful.
It was too much of a kind of trauma.
It was like reliving a sort of
weird dream, doing a Beatle tune.
I'll see if you remember this one. Okay.
[playing "Waltzing Matilda"]
[crowd cheering]
Once a jolly swagman--
-[laughter]
-No.
It's not that one.
[Doggett] In America,
there was a huge nostalgia industry.
[reporter] How long have
you been a Beatle fan?
How long have there been Beatles?
[Doggett] There were bizarre film projects
and stage shows.
Fans started to organize
Beatles conventions
where people could buy records and so on.
[reporter] Even one-inch squares
of a sheet
on which Ringo Starr slept are available.
[Geraldo Rivera] Do you feel
any kind of, uh, hesitation
about the fact that you will always,
in all probability,
be identified as a former Beatle?
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Live and Let Die"]
When you were young
and your heart was an open book
you used to say, "Live and let live..."
[Doggett] There was a big thing about:
Will the Beatles reunite?
Because that somehow got out as a rumor.
Of course now, with Paul, uh, playing
at the Garden tonight and tomorrow night,
there seems to be a lot of speculation
that there's a chance
maybe John would show up.
[interviewer] There has been
a report recently
that you have said that you might
get back with the Beatles.
[interviewer 2] There's been a lot of talk
and rumors of the Beatles
getting back together again
for one last concert.
[interviewer 3] If the Beatles ever
got back together for one performance...
[interviewer 4] Are the Beatles
gonna get back together again?
[interviewer 5] Is it likely to happen?
[interviewer 6] Are there
any circumstances?
-[interviewer 7] Do you think that--
-The Beatles.
-[interviewer 8] The Beatles--
-[interviewer 9] The Beatles--
[interviewer 10] The Beatles--
-[interviewer 11] What about the Beatles?
-[laughter]
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
[Bob O'Brien] Paul McCartney's
first concert
at Madison Square Garden in over 12 years
has been going on
for more than two hours now,
and so far, no Beatle bulletins.
Will it happen tomorrow night?
We don't know,
but we will be there to find out.
[reporter] Promoters have been offering
millions of dollars
if they just step onto the same stage
for just one more concert.
[O'Brien] A West Coast promoter
has offered to pay the four
a cool $50 million for a reunion.
We're talking about a potential
to the Beatles of up to $100 million.
[reporter 2] Now the United Nations
is involved.
Two hundred and fifty million dollars.
What does it matter to ya?
When you got a job to do
you got to do it well
You gotta give the other fella hell
[song ends]
[Lorne Michaels] Now here it is,
as you can see,
a check made out to you, the Beatles,
-for $3,000.
-[audience laughter]
All you have to do is
sing three Beatle tunes.
"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah."
-That's $1,000 right there.
-[laughter]
[Paul] Me and Linda were over
to John's apartment at the Dakota.
He said, "Oh, this is a big show
over here, Saturday Night Live."
In my book, the Beatles are the best thing
that ever happened to music.
It goes even deeper than that.
You're not just a musical group,
you're a part of us.
We grew up with you.
[audience cheering]
[Paul] We got kind of excited.
We just go down, we show up. Hey!
-[Don Pardo] It's Saturday Night Live!
-[theme music playing]
[Paul] But it was like, why?
You know, I mean, it'd be great for them.
Would it be great for us?
We've come full circle,
and now we're off on another journey.
So we just decided to just have another
cup of tea and forget the whole idea.
[man] Rolling.
[imitates beep]
[quiet chatter]
The kind of thing we do at the sessions
all the time, you know.
Just bring horses in.
A lot of bands take themselves
quite seriously.
And we were like, "Eh, what the heck?
Yeah, we're musicians,
but we're having fun."
Yeah.
Come on, see the folks.
What's wrong with that?
Well, should we do
a little bit better one, Joe,
then go and have a listen to it?
It's that kind of,
the-the groove, the sort of...
Hey, I'm dancing
and I'm bopping in the disc
And, oh, what fun
You know, even through
the kind of spacey sections.
[Paul imitating drumbeat]
Wh-Whoa, this is all happening.
-[piano note plays]
-Here we go.
One, two, three, four.
[piano playing "Silly Love Songs"]
That's the tempo.
[Paul scatting to music]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Silly Love Songs"]
You'd think that people would've
had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me,
and I see it isn't so
Some people want to fill the world
with silly love songs
What's wrong with that?
I'd like to know
'Cause here I go
again
I love you
Sing it if you know it.
I...
We kind of proved ourselves, and the word
spread that, like, this was a good show.
Never mind the Beatles.
[reporter] Splashed across the cover
of this week's Time magazine,
and the sound of his new band
is sweeping the land
with a new sound for a new generation.
[Paul] They say a lot of people think,
"Oh, well, you could never come back,
you know, once you've been in
the Beatles," but there's a lot of people
who don't even care
that it's not the same as the Beatles.
And I'm basically one of them,
or else I wouldn't have dared come.
[crowd cheering]
[excited chatter]
[reporter] McCartney has returned
to the U.S. victorious,
and with a band that provides
the popular music event of the year.
Love doesn't come in a minute
Sometimes it doesn't come at all
I only know that when I'm in it
oh, it isn't silly
No, it isn't silly
Love isn't silly at all
Yeah, yeah...
[Paul] There is a joy
in having a band and playing live.
In a way, it's the payoff.
You've written it
in a little cupboard somewhere,
you've rehearsed it,
and if they like it, it's really special.
That's what we set out to do
when we started Wings,
from square one
to when it arrived at square a hundred.
I thought, "Yeah, it's the payoff."
Oh, yeah
[crowd cheering]
-Yeah, yeah
-[song ends]
See you next time.
[O'Brien] Right now I'm speaking to you
from a backstage phone
at Madison Square Garden,
and sorry to say this week's hottest rumor
will remain just that.
Just Paul McCartney & Wings,
and for everyone here tonight,
that seemed to be plenty.
From Madison Square Garden,
this is Bob O'Brien reporting.
[cheering]
Honest, I know him. I know him, honest.
It's all right! He's with the group!
He's with the group!
[playful clamoring]
Well, that wasn't bad.
[laughter]
[indistinct chatter]
It's the first time I ever saw a Beatle,
you know, and it was really...
Since I was a kid, you know,
I really wanted to do that,
and it was really great.
It's really a group now,
compared to what the Beatles were.
It's Wings.
It's unbelievable.
[Chrissie Hynde] I'm not so sure
how much celebrity and fame and success
actually changes an individual.
I think the world around you changes.
But I think the person
pretty much remains the same.
[reporter] In Liverpool, the club
which took the Cavern's name
now caters for new bands,
and the punks who go there don't revere
Paul or the memory of the Fab Four.
We got, uh, a birthday card
for John Lennon on his birthday.
-What, this year?
-Yes. Oh, yes, October.
And what do you do with that?
Throw it in the bin. [laughs]
[Paul] When you are 17, 18,
it's very difficult to identify with
people who are the older age group.
I know when I was 18, I thought 25
was like the end of the world, you know.
But now I'm past 35.
I don't kind of think
in those terms anymore.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mull of Kintyre"]
Mull of Kintyre
Oh, mist rolling in from the sea
My desire
is always to be here
Oh, Mull of Kintyre...
[Laine] I go out to Paul's house
at breakfast...
...and I said,
"Is that an authentic Scottish song?"
And he said, "No, I just made it up."
He was iffy about it,
but at the same time, knowing Paul,
if somebody says no,
he'll want to do it more.
So we just looked around
and came up with a lyric.
Far have I traveled
and much have I seen...
Recorded it outside.
You couldn't get that sound anywhere else.
[Paul] Then I thought,
"Got to have bagpipes on it."
[Laine] I would think that the bagpipes
suggested themselves.
Come on.
[Paul] So I got the local pipe-band
to come up.
[McGeachy] Paul said,
"Just play what you feel."
He wants to hear
what a pipe-band would sound like.
[Paul] So we had a couple of McEwans
and off we went.
[bagpipes playing to music]
[Hynde] Personally,
I'm a fan of timelessness.
It transports you,
and you're not in a scene,
and you're not in a year.
He makes timeless music.
Whereas, if you listen to a punk record,
it does feel dated.
the Mull of Kintyre
Mull of Kintyre
Oh, mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh, Mull of Kintyre
Mull of Kintyre
Oh, mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh, Mull of Kintyre
[McGeachy] You know, that night, I said,
"Oh, it could be a hit, this one.
Aye. No, it could be, uh, definitely."
"Mull of Kintyre" is already
the biggest-selling single record
in this country of all time.
[whooping]
[vocalizing]
[song fades]
[McGeachy] He takes that risk,
doesn't he, musically, you know?
Always.
He'll buck against the trend
and... and have a go.
And there it is, you know,
"The Mull of Kintyre."
And we're hearing it.
[Paul] What we're doing this year, though,
is we're kind of taking it
a little bit easier.
'Cause we're pregnant.
I'm pregnant, too, you know, and I've got,
I've got to take it easy.
[Linda chuckles]
[Paul] And looking back on it,
you tend to forget the bad moments.
Joe got very homesick.
He just kind of came one day, he said,
"I really want to go back to America."
So what can you say?
Jimmy didn't last much longer himself.
He died soon after that.
It was, uh, an overdose.
He was always a little dangerous,
Jimmy, you know.
And in the end, he was
too dangerous for his own good.
I always felt it was probably
the best lineup.
People may disagree, but I always felt
comfortable with that band.
[Laine] Wings from then on
is just a version of.
It's not the real deal.
Same name, different vibe.
-Just trying to get some words together.
-[drumbeat playing]
[scatting]
[piano playing upbeat music]
[interviewer] You always made
strenuous efforts to make it clear
that Wings wasn't just
a backing group, didn't you?
That-that it was a complete band.
-[Paul] Yeah.
-[interviewer] Well, um, why?
[Paul] I don't know.
I mean, I think I've been accused
of treating people just like sidemen,
which I've never meant to do.
[music continues]
[vocalizing]
[Laurence Juber] When Wings started,
he felt the need for a band
because he came out of a band
and that was, you know,
in his comfort zone.
[Steve Holley] I couldn't help thinking,
"He can play everything.
You know, I mean,
he doesn't need anybody else."
[Thomas] When I was working
on Back to the Egg,
I didn't feel as though
I was even particularly producing it.
I didn't know how stuff worked
with Wings before.
It seemed a square peg in a round hole.
Right on down at the bottom of the sea
Tell me, are you receiving me?
My name is Morse Moose,
and I'm calling you
[man] Yeah, yeah!
Or something like that.
[reporter] Paul McCartney's last LP,
Back to the Egg, flopped.
Three million sit in a warehouse
with no buyers in sight.
[Paul] When I left school, I didn't want
to get a job, so I joined a group.
Now it's turned out to be quite a job.
[indistinct chatter]
[Jagger] Nothing goes on forever.
That's the nature of the beast.
'Cause being in a band is
totally different than being in a family.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Arrow Through Me"]
[Hynde] Paul's kind of a people person.
He's good around people,
and he likes people.
He's been able
to weather the storm pretty well.
Linda was-- she didn't like
being in the limelight.
Some of us are very uncomfortable with it.
Ooh, baby
you couldn't have done
a worse thing to me
if you'd have taken an arrow
and run it right through me, ooh...
[Linda] I used to just take pictures
and wander.
It's so complicated
when you marry a Beatle.
[Juber] She was getting tired.
You know, having four kids
and the prospect of more touring,
I think, was, you know, wearing on her.
[Paul] Now, we finish, uh,
the week before Christmas
just in time to get
a bit of shopping done.
Then we have one show
on the 29th of December in London.
It's a charity show, a few days,
a lot of different groups.
[Paul] Okay, over here, there is
a little creature has just appeared.
And this fella here is not John Lennon,
as has been suggested.
Ooh, baby
you wouldn't have found
a more down hero...
That was the worst night
of my playing life ever.
So there's no bottom coming off the bass.
The monitors were incredibly bad.
And I got breaking out in a sweat.
In no way I could control it.
I just knew this was bad.
Come on, get up, get underway
and bring your love...
And we said, "Well, you know,
what else should we do?
Go around the world ten more times?"
Maybe we had enough of all this touring.
Let's face it, you know, I'd been doing it
since I was like about 18 or something.
The enthusiasm, I think, had peaked.
Whoa, whoa, oh, yeah
[waves sloshing]
So the strangest thing was
we arranged to go to Japan.
Two, three, four.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"With a Little Luck"]
You're playing an A
with a B on the bottom.
Another strange thing is
we hadn't really rehearsed enough.
Now, all the other tours,
we rehearsed a lot.
You're singing the same...
[man] I can't harmonize like that--
So you remember, on the record it's...
With a little luck, with a little luck
With a little luck, a little luck,
a little luck
With a little luck, with a little luck
With a little luck, a little luck,
a little luck
From the top.
And one, two, three, four.
I'd planned to sort of get there and then
do some quick rehearsals and just hope.
But it was a, it was a bit of a nightmare.
[Paul McCartney plays
"Temporary Secretary"]
I was sort of having dreams,
thinking, "Where am I?
What song is it we're doing?
We don't know it."
I didn't know you're directing, love.
[Paul] You know, I'm like thinking,
"Oh, my God, what have I got myself into?"
[train rattling, whistle blowing]
When I was a kid,
I sometimes would go on a train,
and I'd have a second-class ticket.
And if the train was empty,
I'd sit in a first-class compartment.
And I always used to get caught.
Well, morning.
It was almost as if
I wanted to get busted.
So, anyway, everyone said,
"Whatever you do,
don't take any pot into Japan.
Seven years hard labor penalty."
But we were in New York, and, um...
we had this pot.
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"Cuff Link"]
[reporter] Wings have been scheduled
to give 11 concerts.
Over 100,000 tickets have been sold.
[Mary] I remember
going through the airport,
and they were taking lots of pictures.
There were a lot of press around.
We were going through customs,
and they brought a case up,
and they unzipped the case.
[song ends]
[Juber] This was the last suitcase,
and the customs guy got
this kind of quizzical expression.
[Paul McCartney plays "On the Way"]
[song stops abruptly]
[Mary] Oh, this might be a problem.
I remember them
looking at each other, going,
"Which one of us is gonna do this?
'Cause one of us needs to stay
with the kids."
[Paul] Oops.
[chuckles] Yeah.
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"Morse Moose and the Grey Goose"]
[Thomas] I hadn't been in the room
more than about 30 seconds
and the phone rang up, and it was Denny.
And he said, "Switch on your television."
I said, "Which channel?"
He said, "It doesn't matter."
[in Japanese] This afternoon,
the Prosecutor's office
and Tokyo district court
approved his detention.
[reporter in English] Japan is
particularly strict on drug taking,
coming down hard
on Japanese caught with pot--
[Paul McCartney sings
"Wonderful Christmastime"]
Simply having
a wonderful Christmastime
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"Old Siam, Sir"]
[Juber] Everywhere you looked,
there were posters for the tour.
And the next morning,
all the posters had gone.
[reporter] In the morning, well-rested,
he said, but worried about the children,
McCartney went off for another session
with the drug investigators.
I still don't know what's happening
or when he's getting out.
Everybody's heard but me.
Four nights in a Tokyo jail.
Still in a Tokyo jail, his sixth day.
This is his seventh night behind bars.
And for the singer and his wife,
Japanese justice seems to be
working very, very slowly.
[crowd clamoring and screaming]
-[song ends]
-[crowd chanting and screaming]
[Paul] There are times in your life
you just think, "Okay, you're an idiot."
And that's one of them. I was an idiot.
I was in a little cell on my own.
You know, I was Steve McQueen
in The Great Escape.
[ball continues bouncing]
First night, I didn't sleep.
Third night, I had
a blinding headache all night.
Just not wanting to be in there.
I was being told
I might be in there seven years.
We hadn't been separated at all
since we'd been married.
I had visions of her and the kids
just growing up outside Tokyo.
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"We're Open Tonight"]
[ball continues bouncing]
I used to really imagine
the best possible thing I could imagine
would be sitting under my oak tree
in my garden.
That was absolutely the height of bliss.
You don't cherish all of those moments
unless they're taken away from you.
It was one of the points
where I thought, "Wait a minute.
If I ever get out of here, do I really
want to be doing what I'm doing?"
[static hissing, growing louder]
[Paul McCartney sings "Coming Up"]
[reporter] Paul McCartney,
the former Beatle, was mobbed by fans
when he got out of jail in Tokyo today.
The Japanese prosecutor's office
said he had suffered enough,
and instead of holding him for trial,
they kicked him out of the country.
You want a love to last forever
one that will never fade away
I wanna help you with your problem
Stick around, I say
Coming up
Ooh, ooh
Coming up...
[Pardo] Day 122.
Paul McCartney without marijuana.
[audience laughter]
Hey, I bet it is-- it's real hard to dance
when you're not stoned.
-Am I right?
-[laughter]
Ooh
Yeah
[interviewer] You just put out
a new album. It's a solo album.
Coming up
I say
Coming up...
What's happened to Wings?
Will you be getting back together
with them?
I should think so, yeah.
We're kind of talking about it
and thinking about it.
You want a better kind of future
one that everyone can share
You're not alone, we all could use it
Stick around, we're nearly there
Coming up
Ooh, ooh
Coming up...
[Juber] It's hard to tell exactly
what his state of mind was at the time,
but Paul was in the studio
mixing that stuff
within a week of getting back from Japan.
Coming up, yeah...
[Holley] Part of McCartney II
was history repeating itself.
McCartney I came about pretty rapidly
after his decision to finish
with the Beatles.
Coming up
I would imagine he was questioning
the whole situation at that point.
[song ends]
[Paul] It was a liberation for me.
You don't have to be that Paul McCartney
fellow that we expect all the time.
[Tim Rice] Is it true to say that-that
you don't really have
any concrete ambitions now?
You don't think,
"Well, I'd like to get into
a totally different field of writing."
-Maybe you'd like to write--
-[Paul] Yeah, I do.
I do. You know, I have a lot of ambitions.
Awkward thing is, whenever I do
interviews, someone says that, you know,
-"What's left, Paul?"
-Yeah, "What's next?" Yeah.
You know, "What's left?" [chuckles]
-Well, I think--
-[coughs]
Or the other one is,
"Paul, if, just if..."
That's the other question.
Um, it's a little bit
of an in-joke, that one.
[Mary] I have this memory in New York,
like, being a young kid
and us all going around to visit
John and Yoko at the Dakota.
It was a good feeling.
It was like a family reunion.
[keyboard playing "Waterfalls"]
[Paul] He heard "Coming Up" on the radio,
and he thought,
[groans] "Now I've got to come up
with something," you know.
[Sean Ono Lennon] If you look through
my dad's LP collection,
our copy of McCartney was played
and quite worn, actually.
You can tell that
they were listened to, as a fan.
It never surprised me because it was like,
can you be surprised by your brother,
from age 15 on?
[Paul] One of the great blessings
in my life is that we made up.
It's-it's beautiful and it's sad
at the same time.
You know, we'd loved each other
all our lives.
Um...
[news announcer] We interrupt this program
to bring you a News 4 special report.
Well, you heard the sad news
a few moments ago
that former Beatle John Lennon
has been murdered here in New York.
We have more details now for you.
He was shot and killed
in front of his home
in Manhattan's Upper West Side.
-Police say...
-[broadcast fades]
[Paul McCartney plays "Waterfalls"]
[song ends]
[Stella] I remember that moment.
I remember the phone ringing.
I remember some...
the biggest reaction I'd ever seen...
...and him leaving the kitchen
and going outside.
That was, um, heartbreaking,
like, truly heartbreaking.
What was your reaction
to the death of, uh, John Lennon?
Or John Lennon's--
Uh, I was very shocked, you know.
It's terrible news.
When did you--
How did you find out about it?
I got a phone call this morning.
[Sean Ono Lennon] I always noticed
the look in his eyes
and-and the tone of his voice
really felt like someone who was
unable to process what was going on.
He just seemed almost, uh...
robotic.
Which I think some people took possibly
as coldness, but I never took it as that.
'Cause I understood even then
what it was like
when something that terrible happens.
[interviewer] Go on now, yeah.
Drag, isn't it?
-Okay, cheers. All right. Let's go.
-Paul. Paul, a question.
-[Paul] Thank you. Goodbye.
-Go.
[indistinct chatter]
[Sean Ono Lennon] When the Beatles
broke up, he had to grow up.
But in a way, I feel like my dad passing
was probably the real growing up moment.
They had a once-in-a-millennium chemistry
that I don't think
we're likely to see again.
[horn honks]
[Paul] I know.
But, um, time can take the edge off.
Paul McCartney is stepping up
his own security.
This means his band Wings
won't be touring.
It's led to one of its members,
Midland-born Denny Laine, to quit.
[playing gentle guitar music]
Come on, Charlie, let's take it to 'em.
How we doing...
[Laine] There is no end.
It's just that we didn't go out
on the road again or make another album.
But me, Paul and Linda were still intact.
You are my sunshine
my only sunshine
You make me happy
when skies are gray
You'll never know, dear
how much I love you
So please don't take my sunshine away...
[Paul] In Wings,
we always thought we were failing
because we always matched everything
to the Beatles.
The first person to rediscover it for me
was my nephew.
He said, "Oh, you know the album I love?"
Thinking it might be Sgt. Pepper
or something, he said, "Ram."
"You do?"
[Stella] It was all just so pure and real.
Must have taken such strength
to have chosen that way.
And I think you hear it in the music.
You know, those, I believe, for all of us,
were probably the best years of our lives.
So please don't take my sunshine
away
[song ends]
[Linda] As you get older,
your ego gets more satisfied
and you realize you don't have to rely on
people's praise all the time.
You start relying on,
"Well, I'm not that bad.
Well, I'm not a mean person."
So you just start developing, I think,
outward, then inward.
[Paul] When we were up in Scotland,
putting together this new life...
...it was a question of having to grow up.
And what a good aim, to grow up.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Let Me Roll It"]
I doubted whether it was possible
to follow the Beatles.
But looking back on it now,
I think we made what seemed like
an impossible dream come true.
That was the magic of it.
You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving
in the palm of my hand
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
[song fades]
[Paul McCartney] Um, okay.
One, two, three, four.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Silly Love Songs"]
You'd think that people would've
had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me,
and I see it isn't so
Some people want to fill the world
with silly love songs
And what's wrong with that?
[song stops abruptly]
[Scott Osbourne] What's the most
important thing that you value?
Just personal peace.
Can you develop that a little more fuller?
Not really.
-[quiet chatter]
-[Paul] Okay.
You know, we've just gone around,
like, for an hour with nothing.
-[quiet chatter]
-Yeah, I know.
But let's sort of move on now.
That's the-the only time that works,
really, is on the last line.
Paul, forget the last line.
[Paul] If I hear someone
damning Paul McCartney,
I tend to agree with them.
So when everyone was saying
I broke up the Beatles
and I was just overbearing
and all of that,
I kind of bought into it.
I thought, "That's, you know,
the kind of bastard I am."
It leaves you in
this kind of no-man's-land.
But, um, the truth.
John had come in one day
and said he was leaving the Beatles.
He said, "It's kind of exciting.
It's like telling someone
you want a divorce."
[chuckles]
But, uh, I was thinking,
"What do I do now?"
Because it'd been my whole life, really.
You know, I've had growing up, going to
school, and then becoming the Beatles.
It was a puzzle I had to kind of unravel.
[The Beatles sing "The End"]
Oh, yeah
All right
Are you gonna be in my dreams tonight?
[cheering]
[John Lennon] You can be bigheaded and
say, "Yeah, we're gonna last ten years."
You know, we're lucky
if we last three months.
[laughter]
-The Beatles!
-[crowd cheering wildly]
[fans screaming excitedly]
Love you, love you...
[Paul] We can't keep playing
the same sort of music until we're 40.
Who knows? At 40, we may not know
how to write songs anymore.
["The End" continues]
And in the end
[song ends]
[seagulls calling]
[Paul McCartney sings
"Momma Miss America"]
[radio static warbling]
[Roby Yonge] It is 22
before the hour of 1:00.
There is something strange
going on with the Beatles.
The fact that the Beatle Paul may be dead.
The past few weeks, the question
"Is Paul McCartney dead?"
has made headlines across
the United States and around the world.
[reporter] The Beatles are actually
gathered around what looks like a grave.
On the back of the album,
Paul has his back to us.
There was even one report
that McCartney was killed three years ago
in an auto accident
and a double put in his place.
[Mike Douglas] Michael McGear,
is your brother
Paul McCartney alive?
[Michael McCartney] It's a hoax.
It's a con.
You got nothing at all to base it on.
[Douglas] When was the last time
you saw your brother?
[Michael] The last time?
Yes.
-It was his funeral, I think.
-[laughter]
[Jimmy McGeachy] The Mull of Kintyre
on the west coast of Scotland.
It's, uh, a Gaelic name for "end of land."
The biggest thing
about the town, really, is, um,
people would just say,
"Oh, yeah, the Beatle's in town.
He's up on the farm."
-[dog barking]
-[reporter] That's pretty good.
Get down, get down on the ground.
Well, I suppose 'cause you live here.
And don't try filming it,
or you might get in some trouble.
[chuckles] I think what happened is I
think I might have thrown a bucket at him,
and I think he took a picture.
I decided I'd better go after him.
And I say, "Look, what we'll do
is we'll pose a photo for you
in return for the bucket-throwing photo."
'Cause I didn't want
the sort of drama to be,
"There's where he is.
He's throwing buckets."
[chuckles]
[Paul McCartney plays "Singalong Junk"]
[reporter] Knowing Paul McCartney
is a millionaire,
I could just imagine
the sort of place he'd have.
But I was wrong.
Paul, his wife Linda
and their two children
live in their little broken-down
old farmhouse,
which even a poor farm laborer
would think twice about accepting.
[Paul] We got up there to escape,
but I couldn't escape.
The Beatles had just finished,
and that was my life.
I thought, "I'll never write
another note of music ever."
I felt very depressed.
So I said, "Well, I'll have
a wee dram of scotch.
Why not?
I might have another one.
I've got nowhere to go."
So this lasted a couple of months,
and I got into drinking too much.
But I was very lucky because I had Linda.
[fans screaming excitedly]
-[crowd clamoring]
-[excited screaming continues]
[fanfare music playing]
[fanfare ends]
[excited screaming]
[newsreel narrator] London,
weepy time down south.
The last bachelor Beatle
was no longer a bachelor.
Paul McCartney married
New Yorker Linda Eastman.
Paul's new stepdaughter Heather
was among the advance guard
who battled away through the shrieking,
sobbing press of devoted fans
who surged round the newlyweds
as they made for their car.
[dramatic sobbing]
[reporter] Why are you girls crying?
Why are you crying?
[sobbing continues]
Control yourself a minute and tell me
how you feel about him getting married.
-Oh, I don't care.
-Oh, I-I... I think it's-it's...
Oh, it's lovely.
Shouldn't you two be at school today?
-Yes.
-Yes.
[reporter 2] Mrs. McCartney,
congratulations.
What does it feel like
to have just married the--
probably one of the most
eligible bachelors in the world
-to the envy of all the, uh, ladies?
-[dog barking]
Well, it feels great to be married.
But it's funny, you think,
oh, it's so easy just to--
they run off and live happily ever after.
Cinderella and the prince.
You know, it's not that easy.
He said, "I've got this farm.
I know you won't like it."
But it was so beautiful up there.
[bleating]
Way at the end of nowhere.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Hey Diddle"]
Civilization dropped away.
It was quite a relief.
-[birds chirping]
-[humming and gentle guitar music]
[Paul] It was just as if
we'd been plunked into this new life,
and we just had to figure it out.
Hey diddle, I want you back
Diddle, I want you back...
[Linda] I think I said,
"Well, let's just go get lost.
Just get away
and go back to the beginning."
[Paul] We'd had a baby, Mary.
Linda had a five-year-old,
so I adopted her,
and I started making music again.
She can't be found,
but love doesn't care
Doesn't care...
[Mary McCartney] There was
a lot of heartbreaking stuff going on,
but Mum was like,
"Look, let's just sing,
create music, be together."
[Linda] We have horses and sheep,
and we plant our own vegetables.
[Paul] We went vegetarian.
[Linda] And it's the only place we go to
where we can just stay very natural
in this unnatural world.
[scatting]
[Mick Jagger] I'm not very good
at fixing roofs, so I can't really relate.
[laughs]
He wanted to be grounded
in an ordinary life
because being in the Beatles was
free of any kind of grounding whatsoever.
[song ends]
[quiet chatter]
[John] I think they might think
I'm gonna hot up the revolution.
You know, I want to cool it down.
We're selling it like soap, you know,
and you've got to sell
and sell until the housewife thinks,
"Oh, uh, well, there's peace or war.
That's the two products."
[Paul] The Beatles had broken up,
but pretty much nobody knew.
Our manager at the time said,
"Well, don't tell anyone.
I'm gonna go to Capitol Records.
I'm gonna improve your deal."
And we all kind of agreed we won't tell.
Even though John was
getting off on it all.
The Beatles, it's a monument or a museum.
And one thing this age
is about is no museums.
And the Beatles turned into a museum,
so they have to be scrapped.
[reporter] Is there not
a more positive way of-of demonstrating
in favor of peace than sitting in bed?
-[overlapping chatter]
-[wild vocalizing]
[Paul] John was starting
to write his own stuff.
I was starting to write mine.
We were just growing apart, really.
So then I had to look inside myself
and look at my world and find something
that wasn't the Beatles.
[Chris Welch] He had two great allies
when he set off on his new musical career.
One, of course, was Linda,
and the other was a blank sheet of paper.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"The Lovely Linda"]
La, la, la, la, la, la, lovely Linda...
[Paul] At the beginning of the album,
there's a squeak of a door.
[imitates squeak]
And that was our back door.
I thought, "Well, that's cool."
It showed that we were at home.
So I had myself a 4-track machine,
and we just actually plugged
the microphones right into the back.
[baby fussing]
And that would be track one.
Don't cry, little baby.
Don't cry.
Daddy's gonna play you a lullaby.
And then I'd put a guitar on that.
[Paul McCartney sings
"That Would Be Something"]
And then I'd put a bass on that.
So I just made up
a lot of tracks like that.
I love to just make stuff up.
It keeps me free.
That would be something
It really would be something
That would be something
to meet you in the falling rain, mama
Meet you in the falling rain...
[Peter Doggett] He more or less
invented lo-fi recording.
Alternative rock begins
with McCartney, if you like.
[Aubrey Powell] Underneath that,
what was he really doing?
Experimenting.
[Paul beatboxing]
Meet you in the falling rain, mama
Meet you in the falling rain
[Paul] Suddenly, it became an album.
It meant I hadn't given up.
-[song ends]
-[recorder clicks]
[child babbling indistinctly]
[Paul] The only way I've ever written
is going off somewhere.
In the very early days, it was the toilet.
After that, I would just find
a cupboard under the stairs
to, like, escape the world.
So you can have
your most private thoughts.
Well, now, well, now.
[dramatic guitar music playing]
You strum a chord, and then
you kind of see where it leads you,
like breadcrumbs.
It's just memories.
Maybe regrets.
Or even the future.
[crowd cheering]
You sometimes fictionalize the characters.
But obviously, in a way, it's always you.
If you've got some sort of problems,
you work them out in the song.
It really is
the ultimate therapy, I think.
[music stops abruptly]
[Chris Thomas] I remember
I was in Abbey Road one day.
Paul was in number two
listening to the record,
so I popped my head in there.
And he sort of gestured,
you know, come in,
and I stood there
and I listened to this song.
I said, "Who have you got
playing on that?"
And he said, "Oh, I did it all myself."
And it's like, "What?"
[laughing]
[Paul McCartney sings
"Maybe I'm Amazed"]
Maybe I'm amazed
at the way you love me all the time
Or maybe I'm afraid
of the way I love you...
[Paul] It's not that I have any doubts
about loving you,
but conversation in my head,
it's more intense.
I'm mixing in fear of being a grown-up.
Baby, I'm a man,
maybe I'm a lonely man
who's in the middle of something
that he doesn't really understand
Baby, I'm a man,
and maybe you're the only woman
who could ever help me
Baby, won't you help me understand?
Ooh...
-[vocalizing]
-[electric guitar solo playing]
We were always gonna say Beatles
haven't split up when we clearly have.
I just thought,
"This is going on too long."
[reporter] Is anybody coming
to read this statement?
[woman] No, this is the only statement.
[Paul] And then all hell broke loose.
Oh, oh
[vocalizing]
Oh, oh
[vocalizing]
-[cameras clicking]
-[photographers clamoring]
[song ends]
[tires squealing]
Once upon a time,
they called themselves the Beatles.
Today, Paul McCartney called it quits.
He says he's going to
write songs by himself.
[Bob Simon] Historians may one day
view it as a landmark
in the decline of the British Empire.
The Beatles are breaking up.
-Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.
-[excited chatter]
[John] He called me
in the afternoon of that day
and said, "I'm leaving the group, too."
I said, "Good," you know.
'Cause he was the one
that wanted the Beatles most.
[Paul] John was quite annoyed with me.
He wanted to be the one to say it.
So in my mind, I said,
"Well, why didn't you?"
John broke up the Beatles,
you know, but I got the rap.
And that's a bit of a weight to bear.
[Michael] When you've been
in the biggest group in the world,
what do you do after that? [laughs]
You got to remember that we were just
two little Liverpool lads going nowhere.
When we were children,
we stood on the banks of the River Mersey
and said, "Dad, what's that?"
"That's over the water, boys."
And that meant that that was unobtainable.
We're so sorry
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey"]
Uncle Albert
We're so sorry
if we caused you any pain
We're so sorry
Uncle Albert
But there's no one left at home
and I believe I'm gonna rain...
[Paul] Having left Liverpool
and having got a new life in London,
sometimes I felt a tiny regret
at having left.
[lively chatter]
Wouldn't it be great
to go back to the old days?
Uncle Albert on the table, drunk,
and my dad just sat around
giving us pea sandwiches.
[chuckles] If we're lucky.
They probably can get where I am now.
It's an unfortunate reality,
that distance.
[crowd singing]
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile, so
pack up your troubles
in your old kit-bag
and smile, smile, smile
[Paul] I was on my own for the first time.
[lively chatter]
Am I any good on my own?
["Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey"
continues]
I was in bed with Linda one night.
On the spur of the moment, I said,
"Well, if I form a new band,
do you want to be in it?"
And she kind of, "Um, yeah."
[chuckles] It's as simple as that.
Okay, well, that's-- we got two members.
Hands across the water
Water
Hands across the sky
[Linda] But I'm a photographer.
I don't play anything.
He said, "Well, here's middle C.
You can play keyboard."
Hands across the water
Water
Hands across the sky
[vocalizing]
[Doggett] His first album, McCartney,
was a Paul McCartney album,
and so people bought it.
But they couldn't get their heads around
what Paul was trying to do.
There was a real air of disappointment.
Maybe he's not a major talent after all.
[Paul] I thought,
"Well, having done the simple album,
this time,
let's treat it like a proper record."
-[man] Okay, then, let's see.
-[guitar strumming]
[Paul] Let's see.
[Linda] We'll take a few
over here now, so...
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Heart of the Country"]
Gonna go, gonna go
Gonna tell everyone I know...
[Paul] The new album,
it really was celebrating ordinary life.
You know, heading out on your own,
make a family.
Living in a home
in the heart of the country
You took that, huh?
[man] Yeah, I started screwing around
a little bit.
[Paul belches loudly] Screwing around
a little bit.
Yeah, I think you'd better
play at us, then.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Eat at Home"]
Sit down.
Come on, little lady
Lady, let's eat at home...
[Denny Seiwell] I couldn't wait
to get to work.
I just knew he was
the best known musician on the planet.
But, well, this is not
your typical session.
[Paul and Linda vocalizing wildly]
[interviewer] Since you've
been married, Paul, um,
when did you first discover
Linda could sing?
[Paul] On the wedding night.
[laughter]
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Long Haired Lady"]
Do you love me like you know
you ought to do...
[Paul] I liked her voice.
Her style was not operatic.
It was not blues.
Or is this the only thing
you want me for...
[Paul] But that gives it a special sound.
It was more just singing.
Sweet little lass you are
my long-haired lady
[vocalizing]
[Paul] Now, what I thought was, use that
for the middle eighths, certainly.
[Linda] Uh-huh. Maybe we should sing
on top of that, double track, then.
[Paul] Sing on top of that, both of us?
-[Linda] Yeah.
-[Paul] Why not?
Ah, sing your song
Love is long, love is long
Ah, when you're wrong
love is long, love is long...
[laughing]
[Seiwell] Paul had been making music
with the Beatles his whole life,
and now he's making music
with somebody else.
Love is long...
He was really happy.
[song fades]
We knew that something was troubling him,
but he didn't bring it into work.
[Paul] You know, the fairy tale was
we make all this money,
we make all these lovely songs,
and then we just split up, and that's it.
But it wasn't going that way.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Monkberry Moon Delight"]
[Doggett] All the contracts
that the Beatles signed in '68
were based on the idea
that the Beatles would never break up.
There was no way to extricate
just one of them from the partnership.
[Paul] Nobody likes to be hemmed in.
I think the worst thing about it, though,
basically John had hired a manager
who I didn't like.
[Doggett] Allen Klein was classic
New York, a lawyer but also a crook.
He would get a cut off the top,
and then he would take a cut
off the bottom as well.
But from John Lennon's point of view,
he loved Klein.
John said, "Maybe he's a bastard,
but he's gonna be our bastard."
[Paul] I saw through it.
The way things were going,
Allen Klein would just swallow up
all the Beatles' fortune.
[vocalizing]
He is, um, obligated into Apple
for a considerable number of years,
so, uh, his disassociating himself
with me,
um, has really no effect.
[eerie music playing]
[Paul] I remember
I had a very strange nightmare.
Allen Klein is a dentist,
and I've got to have a tooth out.
And I wake up.
Hmm.
So I thought I had to fight it.
My brother-in-law,
he and his dad were a huge help.
They said to sue them.
And I said, "Well, I'll sue Allen Klein,
but I can't sue the Beatles.
These are my mates."
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Too Many People"]
They're gonna hate me for it.
The public's gonna hate me for it.
I'm gonna hate me for it.
But otherwise, I would never get out.
Too many people going underground
Too many reaching for a piece of cake...
[Bob Wellings] Good evening. Tonight,
a musical surprise, as the Beatles topple.
The legal attempt by Paul McCartney
to dissolve the business partnership
of the Beatles began today in London.
He says their accounts are
in such poor shape,
nobody is sure
where all the millions went.
You took your lucky break
and broke it in two...
Three of the singing Beatles
put the fourth member of the quartet,
Paul McCartney, through a new kind
of hard day's night today.
McCartney was depicted
by his fellow Beatles
as arrogant, short-tempered
and a spoiled child.
Too many people preaching practices
Don't let 'em tell you
what you wanna be...
Look, I know
they're your in-laws and all--
Yeah, but I don't go with Klein.
From now on,
the Eastmans handle all my work.
Oh, for Christ's sake,
don't be an idiot, man.
We've got to stick together.
[Welch] There was even a play,
I think, in the West End.
And they sort of depicted Paul as being
the one who broke up the Beatles.
We've got to stick together.
Otherwise, we'll be eaten alive.
Forget the Eastmans.
All's fair in love and business.
From now on,
the Eastmans handle all my work!
-Christ--
-No further comment!
[Sean Ono Lennon] The earth was
swallowing everything up.
It was monumental, I think, for the world,
the Beatles breaking up,
and especially for the world
of the band members.
[John Lennon and Yoko Ono sing
"I've Got a Feeling"]
Everybody had a good time
Everybody had a soft dream
Everybody saw the sunshine
Everybody had a hard year
Surprise, surprise.
[Sean Ono Lennon] He was tough, my dad.
You know, I think Paul was tough, too.
He just has a gentle manner about him.
[interviewer] What did you think
of Paul's album?
[John] I thought Paul's
was rubbish, you know.
I-I think he'll make a better one
when he's frightened into it.
But I thought that first one
was just a lot of--
I told you-- light and crack.
[John Lennon sings "How Do You Sleep?"]
So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise...
[John] In school, I was different.
I was always different.
But most of the time, they were trying
to beat me into being a fucking dentist.
And then the fucking fans started
to beat me into being a fucking Beatle.
And the critics started to beat me
into being Paul McCartney.
Those freaks was right when they said
you was dead...
Paul thought he was the fucking Beatles,
and he never fucking was.
[Linda] Allen Klein was stirring it up
something awful.
They had him spinning about Paul.
It was really heartbreaking.
It reminded me of Ivan the Terrible,
you know, the movie.
The only thing you done was
"Yesterday"
[Paul] "The only thing you did
was 'Yesterday'"
was apparently Allen Klein's suggestion.
But at the back of my mind,
I was thinking,
"But all I ever did was
'Yesterday,' 'Let It Be,'
'Long and Winding Road,'
'Eleanor Rigby,' 'Lady Madonna.'
-Fuck you, John."
-Tell me
-how do you sleep?
-[song stops abruptly]
[Paul] How do I sleep at night?
Well, actually, quite well.
But, you know, you got to remember,
I'd known John since he was a teenager.
And that's kind of
what I loved about John.
He's a crazy son of a bitch.
He's a lovely, lovely, crazy guy.
[news theme playing]
First, hear this.
[Led Zeppelin plays "The Lemon Song"]
It's cool, it's groovy, it's number one,
the Led Zeppelin.
The Led, uh, what?
The, uh, Led Zeppelin, but I'm afraid
that you and other dads like you, Bob,
may never have heard of them.
But this British group has made
musical history today.
Readers of the Melody Maker have
voted them the top world group.
The significance is that the Beatles
have held this title for eight years,
but now the Beatles are out.
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing "Ram On"]
[Doggett] Looking back to the early '70s,
Paul was remarkably uncool.
He was conservative,
he was lame, he was boring,
he was making music
for housewives and grannies.
People are now interested
in young musicians
rather than in, say,
what Paul McCartney had for breakfast.
Ram on
Give your heart to somebody
soon
right away
right away...
[Paul] Why is it called Ram?
Ram, forward, press on.
I also, a lot of people know,
I'm well into sheep, man.
[chuckles]
[Seiwell] Ram came out,
and the press just panned it.
[vocalizing]
[Sean Ono Lennon] It's crazy.
People are saying
that this record is a failure,
but Ram specifically wasn't trying
to be a Beatles record,
and I think that's the charm of it.
Yeah, Ram is a masterpiece. I love it.
[melodic whistling]
[Paul] Oh, I don't know what I'm doing.
How can I ever do anything
that's anywhere near as good
as the Beatles?
It's impossible.
-[audience cheering]
-And this, we're betting,
will make the top five this week.
It's by an English group
called The Moody Blues.
And if it makes the grade,
we'll be bringing them back
for a return appearance.
So here it is, the Shindig!
Pick of the Week, "Go Now!"
We've already said
[The Moody Blues sing "Go Now"]
goodbye
[Paul] I'd known Denny Laine from
when he was with The Moody Blues.
Since you got to go,
oh, you'd better go now...
[Denny Laine] I used to go
over to his place.
He loaned me a guitar once,
and I kept it for a year.
You know, we were kind of friends
in that way.
[Paul] I rang him one day and said...
[Laine] "Do you fancy
getting a band together?"
[Paul] Denny would play guitar,
and I could play bass, obviously.
And as far as the drummer's concerned,
you know, you got to have
a good engine behind you.
[Seiwell] Paul called me and he says,
"You know, I really miss my old band.
I'm thinking about
putting a band together."
[vocalizing]
[Laine] And I said, "Yeah, sure."
[laughs] That's all it was.
I don't want to see you go
but, darling, you'd better go now
[song ends]
[Seiwell] Driving up to Scotland,
you stop at the farmer's house
and ask him which lane
takes you up to Paul's place.
[Scottish accent] "Okay, laddie,
you take the wee cuttings up..." [grunts]
[normal accent] "Sure."
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Outtake I"]
[Laine] There it was
in the middle of nowhere.
They were all sheep people.
You know Scotland.
You can't have anything
but sheep up there,
the only thing that survive
in the mountains.
[sheep bleating]
[man imitates sheep bleating]
[sheep bleating]
[man imitates sheep bleating]
[sheep bleating]
[man imitates sheep bleating]
[man and sheep bleating]
[Paul and Linda McCartney sing
"Outtake II"]
[scatting]
[Laine] He had a little studio that--
well, not a studio, it was like a barn,
which he called Rude Studio.
[upbeat music playing]
-[sheep bleating]
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
[Seiwell] He said,
"We're all gonna be a part of this.
What I make, you're gonna make."
He wanted us to be like...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
He wanted us to be known
just like the Beatles were known.
I went, "Okay."
[Henry McCullough] Paul was
looking for a guitar player,
and Denny brought my name
into the picture.
He says, "Do you want to join a band?"
I think I know guitar players
would've chopped a finger off
to get that gig, you know?
I mean, he's not going to have
a bunch of fools around him,
Paul McCartney, I can tell you.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "Lucille"]
Well, I woke up this morning
Lucille was not in sight
I asked my friends about it,
but all their lips were tight
Lucille
please come back where you belong
Well, I'm singing to you, baby
Please don't leave me alone
[Linda] Let's go once more.
-[song ends]
-Yeah.
[Paul] I thought we should start
like the Beatles started, from square one.
Two, three
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "The Mess"]
[McCullough] So we went on the road.
[Paul] When we leave here,
we'll just pick up a map.
We'll say, "Where do you fancy today?"
-[interviewer] So who does the driving?
-[Paul] I did a bit.
We had the kids, the dogs,
like kind of wandering troubadours.
Oh, sweet darling
what a mess I'm in...
We turned up at Nottingham University
was the first one.
The roadie normally went in,
and he said, uh,
"We got Paul McCartney
in a van outside, mate.
Do-do you want him playing
lunchtime tomorrow?"
They said, "Get out of here.
I got more serious things to do."
They-They'd come out
in the van to sort of check.
"Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll have him."
[Laine] Charge them 50 pence on the door
just because you do.
[chuckles] You know,
we ain't doing this for nothing. Yeah.
And then the great thing is we have
this whacking great bag of 50 pees,
and it'd be like, have you ever seen
Peter Sellers in Tom Thumb?
One for me and one for you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah
[Paul] But it was amazing,
'cause I'd been in Apple and the Beatles,
and you'd never seen money.
So this was me going back
to, like, the Cavern.
It was like there's a whole new life
starting again.
Hey
Now, now, now
Yeah, yeah-yeah...
In the meantime,
we just learned how to be Wings.
There will come a day
when we'll be at square a hundred.
[song ends]
[interviewer] After a private joust,
unannounced,
appearing at some British universities,
Wings started a 26-venue European tour
on Sunday night.
-Why start here?
-[Paul] We could get big gigs.
I mean, we've had offers to play
at Madison Square Garden.
I think, as far as I'm concerned,
see, I'm just some fella
who used to be in a group
called the Beatles.
The Beatles split up, so quite naturally
you look for something else.
And that's all I'm doing.
And it's a group called Wings,
and we're having a great time
doing the kind of things
the Beatles couldn't, never done.
[crowd cheering]
[man speaking Dutch]
...from England, Wings!
[cheering continues]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Big Barn Bed"]
Who's that coming round that corner?
Who's that coming round that bend...
[Paul] It's a particular kind
of excitement.
A good audience is an incredible thing,
like a roomful of 4,000 lovers.
[man speaking foreign language]
...England, Wings!
[man 2] Paul McCartney & Wings!
[man 3] Paul McCartney & Wings!
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed...
[speaking Swedish]
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
[vocalizing]
[Seiwell] We lived as a family.
I don't remember nannies.
They would pull out a drawer,
put a pillow in it,
and that's where the baby slept.
[Paul] We've got some mattresses up there,
you know, so we can just cruise along.
Fantastic.
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed...
People thought we were totally crazy,
but that was our way.
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
Keep on
sleeping in a big barn bed
Keep on
woman
[song ends]
[Nick Lowe] It was, it was interesting
seeing people in the street,
you know, who'd see the bus going by.
But it's almost like their eyes would be
drawn like magnets to Paul's face.
It was quite odd.
So, there was one day when we stopped at
a motorway services to go and have a pee,
and I said to him, uh, "Are you coming?"
And he said, "No, no.
You know, I can't stand at a urinal,
you know, and have someone say,
'Oh, you're-you're here,' you know.
'Hello, Paul.'"
Yeah, yeah, yeah
"I trained myself," he said,
"when I was in the Beatles,
you know, for it not to be necessary."
You know, he wanted to engender this,
uh, we're all mates and on the same plane,
you know, which, of course,
we-we... we weren't at all.
[David Scott] The plants, still in pots,
were produced in court today.
They were found by a local policeman
who'd gone to check
the empty McCartney farm buildings.
He looked in the greenhouse
and thought he recognized the cannabis.
Well, I'm glad to have
got off like this, you know.
I'm glad it wasn't jail.
Did you think at one point
it might have been?
I thought it might be, you know, but
I would've been okay as long as I could
take my guitar in with me, you know,
write a few new songs and stuff.
But, uh, I wasn't looking forward to it.
It was said in court that you had
a considerable interest in horticulture.
Now, this might surprise
some of your friends.
Uh, when did this start?
A couple of years ago, you know.
And wh-where have you been doing
your gardening, et cetera?
At the farm, yeah.
My dad's a keen gardener, you know.
I think it's rubbed off.
It was said that those seeds
had been sent to you.
How did you come to grow them?
Yeah, well, we got a load of seeds,
you know, kind of in the post.
Uh, and we didn't know
what they were, you know.
We kind of planted them all,
and five of them came up like...
five of them came up illegal, you know.
As he left the court, McCartney, who'd
been given two weeks to pay the fine,
said, "The judge is a great guy."
[melodic whistling]
[Paul] I... I'm very enthusiastic.
And so the initial enthusiasm
is what gets things done.
But in my case, there's never anyone
around saying, "No, that's a stupid idea.
You shouldn't do that."
So I blame everyone else. [chuckles]
[Paul McCartney sings
"Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance"]
People call me a stick-in-the-mud
but it's certainly not true
Who could call me a stick-in-the-mud
when I polish my tonsils
put on my dancing shoes?
[lively big band music begins]
When I get that feeling
at the end of my toes
gotta go in a trance
I get an itchy feeling
at the end of my nose
Gotta sing, gotta dance...
[Doggett] In 1973, Paul made a TV special,
but some of it was just so bizarre.
[lively big band music continues]
[shoes tapping rhythmically]
Don't stop...
[Seiwell] He loved all that soppy shit.
Come on, give me a leg up.
Thanks, lad.
Sorry I've been so long.
I had a bit of bother below stairs.
[Seiwell] Like this Bruce McMouse thing
from the live show.
[chuckles] And not cool, totally not cool.
Hey, you're a nice little fellow,
aren't you?
Watch it, love.
The wife gets jealous. [chuckles]
-[rhythmic clapping]
-Don't stop...
[Powell] By '73, things had started
to turn ugly, generally.
People were dying.
[Welch] And there was a sense that
rock music was supposed to be
the voice of revolt or revolution.
It wasn't just all about fun.
Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't
don't, don't stop
[song ends]
[Paul] And I get that, you know.
But the thing is,
not everyone can do that.
And not everyone wants to do that.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mary Had a Little Lamb"]
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
[Lowe] "Mary Had a Little Fucking Lamb"?
Are you nuts?
And you could hear them singing
La-la, la-la...
[Seiwell] Now, you talk about somebody
that had a tough time
with "Mary Had a Little Lamb,"
it was Henry McCullough.
La-la...
[McCullough] We were in, uh, dance studios
trying to learn how to do
vaudeville dances and stuff, you know.
I'm a bloody guitar player.
Some people think
it was a great thing for me
to be involved in right from the start.
But that wears off, you know.
[song ends]
[Paul] Wings was a dud
when it first came out.
[Elton John] Well, since the breakup,
I think John's come out with
the best album with Imagine.
George, I really liked
All Things Must Pass.
I think it surprised a lot of people.
I mean, Ringo's lovely.
He made an album called
Beaucoups of Blues, which I really like.
McCartney's probably the most sort of
talked about more than anyone else
because people have been
really disappointed.
I'd rather hear Paul McCartney
rather than Linda McCartney, you know.
[interviewer] Probably you,
more than any other member of the band,
comes in for a lot of stick.
How-how do you react to this?
Well, I think it's getting better.
[reporter] Who's Linda Eastman?
That's it. Who is it?
[woman] What is it?
Technically, she's supposed
to be Paul's wife,
but she's his ruler, his guardian.
She says, he jumps.
Why? I don't know.
[Paul] "She can't do this, she can't sing,
she can't play piano,
she can't do anything."
"Oh, they're crazy, man.
What's he got his old lady
in the band for?"
[ominous music playing]
"Who the hell is this?"
[camera clicks]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mama's Little Girl"]
[Linda] People have an image of me
that's so far away of what I am.
I almost don't mind.
I don't want people to know
who I am anyway.
Looking like a rag doll
Mama's little girl...
I was just a-a divorced lady
living in New York with a child.
I was, like, a receptionist
at Town & Country magazine
and just started taking pictures a bit
for the fun of it.
And all of a sudden,
I just started getting work.
I could see and feel so much
looking through a lens,
because I forgot my insecurities.
I forgot myself.
That's how I know when to click.
[camera clicks]
And it was around that time I met Paul.
[Mary] Now that you look at
his photography and hers together,
even though they came from very different
walks of life, they're very like-minded.
Singing like a skylark...
Both of them, when they take a portrait,
it's really like
they're looking at a friend.
Picking up a mountain, yeah...
She was a-a complete individual.
He hadn't met anybody like that before.
[gentle guitar music playing]
The way I never was.
The way I never will be.
-Gorgeous.
-[Laine] Cheers to that.
[Linda] What am I doing
singing with Paul McCartney?
In a way, they're right. What am I doing?
There are a lot better singers.
[Stella McCartney] Yeah,
she wasn't a cookie-cutter example
of someone you put in a band.
What they, and she especially,
had to go through,
like when they isolated her voice and
ridiculed her, I mean, it breaks my heart.
You know, I know
that there was pain there.
I know she hurt.
She wasn't, like, cold.
But I think that shows
her bravery and her spirit.
That side to her boosted a side
that he perhaps had lost.
-[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "My Love"]
-Oh, my love
Oh, my love
Only my love
does it good to me
[electric guitar solo playing]
[Linda] That's why I'm there, really.
I'm not there 'cause
I'm the greatest keyboard player.
I'm there 'cause we love each other.
[Paul] She taught me a lot of things.
Anybody who bad-mouthed us
made us even more determined
to prove them wrong.
[song ends]
Welcome back.
A week ago today,
three of the original four Beatles,
John, George, Paul and Ringo,
finally parted company with their
fast-talking American manager Allen Klein.
I don't want to go into the details of it.
Let's say that possibly
Paul's suspicions were right.
[Sean Ono Lennon] The media and the fans
wanted to choose sides, you know.
The reality is they were actually
more similar than they were different.
Paul, uh, personally doesn't feel
as though I-I insulted him or anything,
'cause I had dinner with him last week.
-He's quite happy--
-They were friends, you know,
and they were swearing at each other--
If I can't, uh, if I can't, uh, have
a fight with my best friend,
I don't know who I can have a fight with.
[Paul] That was the kind of thing,
you know.
You'd be in an argument with John,
and it'd be getting a little bit heated,
and he would take his glasses
and he'd just put them down,
and he says, "It's only me.
I'm still the guy
that you loved in Liverpool.
It's only me."
[Douglas] Young man right here,
the first row.
[man] I'd like to know if you've heard
the new McCartney album,
and if so, how'd you like it?
-[John] The Wings one?
-Yeah.
Some of it's all right.
I thought it was getting better,
some of it wasn't as good
and some was better.
I think he's going in the right direction.
-You think he's getting it back?
-[John] I think he has to.
He's got it there somewhere.
[Fela Kuti sings
"Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)"]
[Paul] I was looking around for somewhere
exciting to record the next album.
I thought a good idea would be
to get a list off EMI
of all the studios they had
round the world.
It turned out they had a studio
in Germany.
They had one in Rio, China.
They had one in Africa.
[singing in Yoruba]
[Paul] Fela was so cool.
I'd never heard anything like it
in my life.
We just said, "Yeah, let's go to Africa."
Denny Laine and Linda
were very up for the idea.
The night before we were due to go,
the other guys,
they just rang up and said,
"We're not coming.
We're leaving the band."
[Seiwell] We really felt like
it was a family thing.
But for years, we're living on
a meager, meager retainer.
He wanted us to be like
John, Paul, George and Ringo,
but it was really Paul McCartney
and these other guys that played with him.
[McCullough] Half the band left within
the same week, and he never asked why.
I didn't want to be part of it anymore
because it wasn't really for real.
It was a dream.
That's what it was.
[crowd cheering]
[cheering stops abruptly]
[Paul] I wasn't on top of it.
You know, I wasn't
in the accounts department
looking at what everyone was getting.
In my mind, it's,
"Well, get better than me, then.
Write some great songs.
That's how you can solve your problem."
So after the initial reaction,
it was just, like, anger.
I went into my "fuck you" mode.
"I'm gonna make the best record
you've ever heard."
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mrs. Vandebilt"]
Down in the jungle, living in a tent
you don't use money,
you don't pay rent
You don't even know the time,
but you don't mind...
We were kind of watching the landing
with the pilot of the plane,
and there's this mist
all over the jungle, you know,
saying, "Is that the airport over there?"
"No."
"I think that's it.
Yeah, come on, that's it."
"Now, that's it a bit to the left,
isn't it?"
We're all going, "Oh, what have
we got ourselves into here?" you know.
When your light is on the blink
you never think of worrying...
It was a bit of a shock.
I thought Lagos was going to be
the rhythmic capital of Africa.
I had no research or anything.
It just sounded good.
What's the use of anything?
[song ends]
And then we went down to the studios.
It wasn't at all like Abbey Road.
[Geoff Emerick] There was no drum booth.
The microphone supply was
a cardboard box just full of old mics,
and there was a door
at the back of the studio.
You open this door,
and that was a pressing plant
where they pressed all the records.
There was like 50, 60 people
stamping out records.
[mysterious music playing]
[Paul] We were walking one night,
and people had warned us, said,
"Don't walk through this area."
So I said, "Okay, don't you worry."
So a car pulls up.
Car doors fly open, and six guys jump out,
and they're mugging us at knifepoint.
Linda is screaming,
"Don't touch him! Don't touch him!
He's a musician!"
As if that's gonna help.
All my demos, all my recordings went.
We got back to the studio,
and one of the guys in the studio said,
"You're lucky he didn't kill you."
"Thanks a lot. Should we make a record?"
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five"]
Oh, no one ever left alive
in nineteen hundred and eighty-five
will ever do
She may be right, she may be fine
She may get love,
but she won't get mine
'cause I got you
Whoa, I
Whoa, I...
[Laine] All we had was us.
We were in a strange land, strange place,
up against the odds in a way.
But it came together.
[vocalizing]
[Paul] You have to let stuff go in life.
The guys weren't gonna come to Lagos.
I got angry, then I let it go.
When the demos got stolen, I got angry.
But then I had to let it go.
[song ends]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Band on the Run"]
[Powell] We had a phone call
in the studio.
He had this idea.
Basically, a bunch of celebrities
breaking out from a prison wall.
I felt it was a very personal idea.
Suddenly, he's made a breakthrough.
Stuck inside these four walls
Sent inside forever
[indistinct chatter]
Never seeing no one...
[Paul] A lot of people were kind of
on the run round about those early '70s.
A lot of people
who'd opted out of society.
Everyone was a desperado.
There's a lot of that.
And you really must stay very still
for that one second, please.
If I ever get out of here
thought of giving it all away
to a registered charity
All I need is a pint a day
If I ever get out of here
If we ever get out of here
Ready? Freeze.
Denny, can you lift your head up
a bit, please? Okay.
Well, the rain exploded
with a mighty crash
as we fell into the sun
And the first one said
to the second one there
"I hope you're having fun..."
[Laine] He wanted to put the past
behind you and to keep moving forward.
You know, again,
a lot of people criticized Wings.
You know, that's just their take.
But it does force you to say,
"Well, okay, watch this."
For the band on the run
Band on the run...
[announcer] Paul McCartney's
runaway album, now on Apple.
[Casey Kasem] The Beatle with
the greatest individual chart success
since their breakup has been
Paul McCartney.
[commentator] This album is
much nicer than the previous ones.
[Paul] This time, I don't care if
people don't like it, 'cause I like it.
Yeah, the band on the run...
It was made up, you know.
It was like homemade Wings.
It was about trying to do
something different,
trying to break loose of all the sort of
traditions that you've grown up with.
It's about freedom.
-[lively chatter]
-[song ends]
Yeah, it was great.
Thank you very much. It was really great.
You really look like you do
in the pictures.
All right, fellas.
[interviewer] A lot of critics reckon
that it wasn't until Band on the Run
that you actually sort of came of age,
in fact, after your time in the Beatles.
-Would you agree with that?
-Uh, no.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
I'd like to present to you
Miss Mary McCartney singing
a song of her own choice.
Over to you, Mary. Opportunity knocks.
[chuckles]
Baa, baa, black sheep
have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir
three bags full...
[Mary] We were all
each other's own entertainment.
You know, we would do,
like, face painting or...
[chuckles] I don't know. We were just...
It was sort of anything goes.
[singing ends]
[Paul cheering]
[Mary] They both lost their mothers
at a very young age.
That is why family was
so important to them.
Because they realized
it could go at any point.
-[Paul McCartney sings "All of You"]
-Oh
When I get feverish high again
nobody's letting me by
I want someone who's holding my hand
in the nighttime
loving me right
Loving is all I need...
[Paul] My mum died when I was 14.
It just hit me so hard.
I would tend to throw myself into work.
That's just my character, you know.
[Michael] He can't keep still.
His mind's always on the go.
He's a workaholic.
[Paul] People use that word.
I don't know.
We don't work music, we play it.
So maybe I'm a playaholic. [chuckles]
All of you
On and on in my hand
Nobody may understand
woman of mine
Oh, right on time
Oh, woman, you're mine
-[vocalizing]
-[phone ringing]
[French accent] Uh, would you
excuse me for a moment?
As you can hear,
the phone's ringing in the background.
I must answer.
Excuse, please.
[normal accent] Hello?
[caller] May I speak
with Mrs. McCartney, please?
[Paul] Oh, she's out at the moment.
[caller] Can I ring her later?
[Paul] What time is it now?
[caller] It's just after 3.
[Paul] Just after 3 o' the clock?
[caller] Yes. I'll ring back, then.
[Paul] You do that. Alright cheerio.
[rhythmic clapping]
[laughter]
[Paul] We'd been waiting around
till we had, you know,
enough songs for a big world tour.
And that was the prize.
So I put a new band together,
Wings Mark II.
Right.
One, two.
One, two, three, four!
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "Soily"]
Well, people gathered here tonight
I want you to listen to me...
[Paul] I'd seen a guitar player who was
a very young guy, kind of whiz kid.
This was Jimmy McCulloch.
And Geoff Britton,
solid rock and roll drummer.
[Geoff Britton] Musically,
the band is great.
If you listen to One Hand Clapping,
it's the ballsiest thing
he's ever recorded.
And a commie with a tommy gun
Soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers
said it's oily
Yeah, soily, soily
Well, the cat in the satin trousers
said it's oily
And you know he's right
Oh, yeah
[band playing flourish]
[song ends]
-[Linda] No, it's the drum.
-[man] The drum--
[Paul vocalizing]
[man] It comes in--
[Linda] The drum comes in
one beat too early.
[Britton] No, it doesn't.
Comes in a bit too late.
[Paul] Okay, let's just do
another take of it.
-But that was good, though, innit?
-[Paul] Yeah.
Just do another take on it, I think.
[Britton] But basically
the ingredients were wrong.
He wants you all to be normal and equal.
You ain't normal and equal
because he's the world superstar
and you're a dogface nobody.
[bluesy rock song playing
with indistinct lyrics]
[Laine] That lineup
didn't last very long, either.
The music always comes first,
and if they don't fit into that world,
they got to go.
[Paul] It's funny, the lineup of Wings.
We got rid of Henry McCullough, and we get
in Jimmy McCulloch, spelled differently.
You got Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell.
We get rid of Geoff Britton,
who's English,
and get in Joe English, who's American.
[Laine] Well, hell, there you go.
It's just all too confusing.
But in a way, we invented Spinal Tap.
[laughs]
[singing indistinctly]
[Joe English] I always said to myself,
you know, I'm the glorified sideman,
but it never felt like that.
-It's more like a family.
-[dog barking]
[interviewer] Please introduce yourself
into the camera, please.
Hello, everyone. I'm Joe English.
And I'm from Rochester, New York,
in the good old U.S. of A.
I'm Joe English.
I'm from Glasgow, Scotland.
My name is Joe English,
and I was born in Liverpool.
My name is Joe English,
and I was born in New York City.
And just to be different,
my name is Denny Laine.
[all exclaiming]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Listen to What the Man Said"]
Anytime
any day
you can hear the people say
that love is blind
Well, I don't know,
but I say love is kind...
Whoa, beautiful.
Beautiful show.
[Paul] Growing up in Liverpool,
people didn't like bosses.
There's this thing.
It's like a bit us against them.
I wanted for us all to feel equal,
but people are looking at Wings
as my group.
So I just decided
I'd try and be a good boss.
That's what the man said
Bring up stage right, 50%.
So won't you listen
to what the man said...
We'll only have to do it again when
Paul gets here, so we might as well wait.
The wonder of it all, baby
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
-[reporter] You're what, 31 now?
-[Paul] Thirty-three.
Thirty-three, that's a bit old
for rock and roll.
-Do you think you're past your peak?
-It's ancient, ancient.
Well, I'll tell you what.
You come to the show.
-Do you think you're past your peak?
-And after the show-- I don't, no.
I wouldn't be here if I thought I was.
But you come to see the show,
and if you like the show,
you tell me if I'm over my peak
after it, okay?
-[electric keyboard playing]
-[Paul] With the new...
with the new setting on the, uh, Rhodes.
Is that the normal, uh, volume
and stuff there?
Should be turned full up on the bass and--
Okay, that's what
it normally is, actually.
[Powell] He was definitely anxious
about how it was going to be received.
This was the first time with big crowds.
You could understand, he felt
this great weight of responsibility.
Is this going to work?
-[excited screaming]
-[crowd chanting rhythmically]
[chanting grows louder]
[chanting stops abruptly]
[Paul] It was a scary moment.
Why do I carve out
these problems for myself?
[Paul McCartney plays "Kreen-Akrore"]
Just before the tour, we went to Hawaii.
I think it was just a holiday
or something.
And it was a strange house
that we'd rented.
[movie announcer] Don't Go Near the Water.
[Paul] The swimming wasn't off a beach.
It was off, like,
a sort of little cliff thing.
And then when I wanted to get out,
what you did,
you waited for the wave to come in,
and it brought you high enough
to get onto the top of the cliff.
Then the weather changed.
Well, this doesn't matter.
You know, I still know
how to get in and out.
So I went in, as usual, on my own.
Swam around for a little bit.
I thought, "Right, get out now."
And I jumped up, but now the wave
just sort of dumped me in the water.
[commentator] Beatles in a performance
all dressed in red carnations,
and Paul is wearing a black iris.
[Paul] So I'm swimming around
in white water now.
I'm getting a little bit tired.
I see the next wave coming in.
It swells up, and I go, "Okay, let's go."
[grunts] No, dumped.
So now I'm getting worried,
and I'm in this white water,
feel like I'm in a washing machine.
But I just had to push through all that.
So I say to God, "Okay, Lord,
I'll give it everything I've got.
Just dump me out."
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing "Jet"]
Come on, now
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh, come on, baby
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah
Jet
Jet
Jet
I can almost remember
their funny faces
that time you told them
that you were gonna be marrying soon
And, Jet
I thought the only lonely place
was on the moon
Jet, ooh
Jet, ooh
Ah, mater
I want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater
I want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater
Much later
Ooh, she said
Whoo, she said
Oh, yeah, Jet...
[reporter] McCartney has just been told
that a planned tour of Japan
had been canceled because of a conviction
in Britain for possessing cannabis.
[Paul] Hello, people of Japan.
This is Paul McCartney of Wings
saying that, uh, we're very sorry
that we can't come to Japan
to play our music to you this time.
But if the Minister of Justice says
we can't come in, then we can't come in.
-[crowd cheering]
-Thank you!
All right!
[interviewer] How important is it to you
to perform before a live audience
in this way?
I mean, most people think of you as being
a very rich man who presumably would have
no need at all to perform
before a live audience ever again--
[Paul] Well, I'll tell you.
Uh, we were in Nashville,
and have you ever heard
of a guitar player called Jerry Reed?
And we were talking to him, and I was
saying that I was gonna go on the road.
And he said, "Man, if I was
Paul McCartney, I'd buy the road."
[laughter]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Let 'Em In"]
[John Hammel] Australia and Europe
was really the grounding
to get it great for America.
[indistinct chatter]
[Paul] It was what we'd been
building towards.
And, you know,
we felt we'd finally arrived.
[chuckles] Second time round.
Someone knocking at the door
Somebody ringing the bell
Someone's knocking at the door
Somebody's ringing the bell
Do me a favor
Open the door
and let 'em in
Ooh, yeah
[Powell] The response was Beatlemania.
Someone's knocking at the door...
I think the moment
he stepped onto that stage,
he felt, "You know what? I can do this.
I know what I'm doing.
I'm back."
Let 'em in
[commentator] Paul McCartney
is the only one of the four
to have survived
the first part of the 1970s.
He's a fleshier, heavier Beatle
these days.
Critically, his new groups haven't
been acclaimed like the Beatles,
but there can be no doubt
about their pulling power.
Sister Suzy
Brother John
Martin Luther
Phil and Don, yeah, yeah
Uncle Ernie
Auntie Jin
Open the door
Let 'em in
-Oh, yeah, yeah
-[song ends]
Wrong airport?
-We'll go to the other airport.
-No. No.
The limos and the police escort are there.
Rather than waiting for him
to try and get the--
-Let's just get taxis.
-[Linda] Let's take taxis, man.
Let's get two taxis.
Hello, cabbages!
-Hello, cabbages!
-Hello, Mary.
Not that!
Hello, cabbages!
And your kangaroo!
And don't boil yourself twice.
[woman] Did you get your lettuce?
Can I tell you something?
-Yeah, lettuce.
-Oh, lettuce.
-I thought you said "letters."
-Can I tell you something?
Yeah, I got, I got a whole head.
I like the shows a lot.
It's better than I thought it would be.
I'm not really one for being, quote,
"on the road."
I'm more of a homebody.
[Stella] She was, like, self-styled, and
it was the coolest fucking look on earth.
On earth.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[Linda] Which should I wear?
[woman] I'd like to see you wear that.
-[man] I like that. With jeans.
-With... with what skirt, though?
-[woman] Wear your jeans.
-[man] Wear your jeans.
[Stella] And it was, I'm sorry,
like, so ahead of its time.
There's people I know
that their entire music career
isn't based on the Beatles and Wings,
it was based on her.
And no cook and no driver.
I don't know how she did it.
Oh, man, that was such a groovy gig.
[lively chatter]
All right, all right, all right.
[reporter] The McCartney show
is getting two encore calls a night,
and the highlight
to every concert is "Yesterday."
At one time in Wings tours,
Paul refused to do any Beatles songs.
Now, with most of
the legal troubles behind him,
McCartney was comfortable selecting
Beatles tunes for the Wings show.
[Paul] I'll tell you the truth.
It was too painful.
It was too much of a kind of trauma.
It was like reliving a sort of
weird dream, doing a Beatle tune.
I'll see if you remember this one. Okay.
[playing "Waltzing Matilda"]
[crowd cheering]
Once a jolly swagman--
-[laughter]
-No.
It's not that one.
[Doggett] In America,
there was a huge nostalgia industry.
[reporter] How long have
you been a Beatle fan?
How long have there been Beatles?
[Doggett] There were bizarre film projects
and stage shows.
Fans started to organize
Beatles conventions
where people could buy records and so on.
[reporter] Even one-inch squares
of a sheet
on which Ringo Starr slept are available.
[Geraldo Rivera] Do you feel
any kind of, uh, hesitation
about the fact that you will always,
in all probability,
be identified as a former Beatle?
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Live and Let Die"]
When you were young
and your heart was an open book
you used to say, "Live and let live..."
[Doggett] There was a big thing about:
Will the Beatles reunite?
Because that somehow got out as a rumor.
Of course now, with Paul, uh, playing
at the Garden tonight and tomorrow night,
there seems to be a lot of speculation
that there's a chance
maybe John would show up.
[interviewer] There has been
a report recently
that you have said that you might
get back with the Beatles.
[interviewer 2] There's been a lot of talk
and rumors of the Beatles
getting back together again
for one last concert.
[interviewer 3] If the Beatles ever
got back together for one performance...
[interviewer 4] Are the Beatles
gonna get back together again?
[interviewer 5] Is it likely to happen?
[interviewer 6] Are there
any circumstances?
-[interviewer 7] Do you think that--
-The Beatles.
-[interviewer 8] The Beatles--
-[interviewer 9] The Beatles--
[interviewer 10] The Beatles--
-[interviewer 11] What about the Beatles?
-[laughter]
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
[Bob O'Brien] Paul McCartney's
first concert
at Madison Square Garden in over 12 years
has been going on
for more than two hours now,
and so far, no Beatle bulletins.
Will it happen tomorrow night?
We don't know,
but we will be there to find out.
[reporter] Promoters have been offering
millions of dollars
if they just step onto the same stage
for just one more concert.
[O'Brien] A West Coast promoter
has offered to pay the four
a cool $50 million for a reunion.
We're talking about a potential
to the Beatles of up to $100 million.
[reporter 2] Now the United Nations
is involved.
Two hundred and fifty million dollars.
What does it matter to ya?
When you got a job to do
you got to do it well
You gotta give the other fella hell
[song ends]
[Lorne Michaels] Now here it is,
as you can see,
a check made out to you, the Beatles,
-for $3,000.
-[audience laughter]
All you have to do is
sing three Beatle tunes.
"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah."
-That's $1,000 right there.
-[laughter]
[Paul] Me and Linda were over
to John's apartment at the Dakota.
He said, "Oh, this is a big show
over here, Saturday Night Live."
In my book, the Beatles are the best thing
that ever happened to music.
It goes even deeper than that.
You're not just a musical group,
you're a part of us.
We grew up with you.
[audience cheering]
[Paul] We got kind of excited.
We just go down, we show up. Hey!
-[Don Pardo] It's Saturday Night Live!
-[theme music playing]
[Paul] But it was like, why?
You know, I mean, it'd be great for them.
Would it be great for us?
We've come full circle,
and now we're off on another journey.
So we just decided to just have another
cup of tea and forget the whole idea.
[man] Rolling.
[imitates beep]
[quiet chatter]
The kind of thing we do at the sessions
all the time, you know.
Just bring horses in.
A lot of bands take themselves
quite seriously.
And we were like, "Eh, what the heck?
Yeah, we're musicians,
but we're having fun."
Yeah.
Come on, see the folks.
What's wrong with that?
Well, should we do
a little bit better one, Joe,
then go and have a listen to it?
It's that kind of,
the-the groove, the sort of...
Hey, I'm dancing
and I'm bopping in the disc
And, oh, what fun
You know, even through
the kind of spacey sections.
[Paul imitating drumbeat]
Wh-Whoa, this is all happening.
-[piano note plays]
-Here we go.
One, two, three, four.
[piano playing "Silly Love Songs"]
That's the tempo.
[Paul scatting to music]
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Silly Love Songs"]
You'd think that people would've
had enough of silly love songs
But I look around me,
and I see it isn't so
Some people want to fill the world
with silly love songs
What's wrong with that?
I'd like to know
'Cause here I go
again
I love you
Sing it if you know it.
I...
We kind of proved ourselves, and the word
spread that, like, this was a good show.
Never mind the Beatles.
[reporter] Splashed across the cover
of this week's Time magazine,
and the sound of his new band
is sweeping the land
with a new sound for a new generation.
[Paul] They say a lot of people think,
"Oh, well, you could never come back,
you know, once you've been in
the Beatles," but there's a lot of people
who don't even care
that it's not the same as the Beatles.
And I'm basically one of them,
or else I wouldn't have dared come.
[crowd cheering]
[excited chatter]
[reporter] McCartney has returned
to the U.S. victorious,
and with a band that provides
the popular music event of the year.
Love doesn't come in a minute
Sometimes it doesn't come at all
I only know that when I'm in it
oh, it isn't silly
No, it isn't silly
Love isn't silly at all
Yeah, yeah...
[Paul] There is a joy
in having a band and playing live.
In a way, it's the payoff.
You've written it
in a little cupboard somewhere,
you've rehearsed it,
and if they like it, it's really special.
That's what we set out to do
when we started Wings,
from square one
to when it arrived at square a hundred.
I thought, "Yeah, it's the payoff."
Oh, yeah
[crowd cheering]
-Yeah, yeah
-[song ends]
See you next time.
[O'Brien] Right now I'm speaking to you
from a backstage phone
at Madison Square Garden,
and sorry to say this week's hottest rumor
will remain just that.
Just Paul McCartney & Wings,
and for everyone here tonight,
that seemed to be plenty.
From Madison Square Garden,
this is Bob O'Brien reporting.
[cheering]
Honest, I know him. I know him, honest.
It's all right! He's with the group!
He's with the group!
[playful clamoring]
Well, that wasn't bad.
[laughter]
[indistinct chatter]
It's the first time I ever saw a Beatle,
you know, and it was really...
Since I was a kid, you know,
I really wanted to do that,
and it was really great.
It's really a group now,
compared to what the Beatles were.
It's Wings.
It's unbelievable.
[Chrissie Hynde] I'm not so sure
how much celebrity and fame and success
actually changes an individual.
I think the world around you changes.
But I think the person
pretty much remains the same.
[reporter] In Liverpool, the club
which took the Cavern's name
now caters for new bands,
and the punks who go there don't revere
Paul or the memory of the Fab Four.
We got, uh, a birthday card
for John Lennon on his birthday.
-What, this year?
-Yes. Oh, yes, October.
And what do you do with that?
Throw it in the bin. [laughs]
[Paul] When you are 17, 18,
it's very difficult to identify with
people who are the older age group.
I know when I was 18, I thought 25
was like the end of the world, you know.
But now I'm past 35.
I don't kind of think
in those terms anymore.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Mull of Kintyre"]
Mull of Kintyre
Oh, mist rolling in from the sea
My desire
is always to be here
Oh, Mull of Kintyre...
[Laine] I go out to Paul's house
at breakfast...
...and I said,
"Is that an authentic Scottish song?"
And he said, "No, I just made it up."
He was iffy about it,
but at the same time, knowing Paul,
if somebody says no,
he'll want to do it more.
So we just looked around
and came up with a lyric.
Far have I traveled
and much have I seen...
Recorded it outside.
You couldn't get that sound anywhere else.
[Paul] Then I thought,
"Got to have bagpipes on it."
[Laine] I would think that the bagpipes
suggested themselves.
Come on.
[Paul] So I got the local pipe-band
to come up.
[McGeachy] Paul said,
"Just play what you feel."
He wants to hear
what a pipe-band would sound like.
[Paul] So we had a couple of McEwans
and off we went.
[bagpipes playing to music]
[Hynde] Personally,
I'm a fan of timelessness.
It transports you,
and you're not in a scene,
and you're not in a year.
He makes timeless music.
Whereas, if you listen to a punk record,
it does feel dated.
the Mull of Kintyre
Mull of Kintyre
Oh, mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh, Mull of Kintyre
Mull of Kintyre
Oh, mist rolling in from the sea
My desire is always to be here
Oh, Mull of Kintyre
[McGeachy] You know, that night, I said,
"Oh, it could be a hit, this one.
Aye. No, it could be, uh, definitely."
"Mull of Kintyre" is already
the biggest-selling single record
in this country of all time.
[whooping]
[vocalizing]
[song fades]
[McGeachy] He takes that risk,
doesn't he, musically, you know?
Always.
He'll buck against the trend
and... and have a go.
And there it is, you know,
"The Mull of Kintyre."
And we're hearing it.
[Paul] What we're doing this year, though,
is we're kind of taking it
a little bit easier.
'Cause we're pregnant.
I'm pregnant, too, you know, and I've got,
I've got to take it easy.
[Linda chuckles]
[Paul] And looking back on it,
you tend to forget the bad moments.
Joe got very homesick.
He just kind of came one day, he said,
"I really want to go back to America."
So what can you say?
Jimmy didn't last much longer himself.
He died soon after that.
It was, uh, an overdose.
He was always a little dangerous,
Jimmy, you know.
And in the end, he was
too dangerous for his own good.
I always felt it was probably
the best lineup.
People may disagree, but I always felt
comfortable with that band.
[Laine] Wings from then on
is just a version of.
It's not the real deal.
Same name, different vibe.
-Just trying to get some words together.
-[drumbeat playing]
[scatting]
[piano playing upbeat music]
[interviewer] You always made
strenuous efforts to make it clear
that Wings wasn't just
a backing group, didn't you?
That-that it was a complete band.
-[Paul] Yeah.
-[interviewer] Well, um, why?
[Paul] I don't know.
I mean, I think I've been accused
of treating people just like sidemen,
which I've never meant to do.
[music continues]
[vocalizing]
[Laurence Juber] When Wings started,
he felt the need for a band
because he came out of a band
and that was, you know,
in his comfort zone.
[Steve Holley] I couldn't help thinking,
"He can play everything.
You know, I mean,
he doesn't need anybody else."
[Thomas] When I was working
on Back to the Egg,
I didn't feel as though
I was even particularly producing it.
I didn't know how stuff worked
with Wings before.
It seemed a square peg in a round hole.
Right on down at the bottom of the sea
Tell me, are you receiving me?
My name is Morse Moose,
and I'm calling you
[man] Yeah, yeah!
Or something like that.
[reporter] Paul McCartney's last LP,
Back to the Egg, flopped.
Three million sit in a warehouse
with no buyers in sight.
[Paul] When I left school, I didn't want
to get a job, so I joined a group.
Now it's turned out to be quite a job.
[indistinct chatter]
[Jagger] Nothing goes on forever.
That's the nature of the beast.
'Cause being in a band is
totally different than being in a family.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Arrow Through Me"]
[Hynde] Paul's kind of a people person.
He's good around people,
and he likes people.
He's been able
to weather the storm pretty well.
Linda was-- she didn't like
being in the limelight.
Some of us are very uncomfortable with it.
Ooh, baby
you couldn't have done
a worse thing to me
if you'd have taken an arrow
and run it right through me, ooh...
[Linda] I used to just take pictures
and wander.
It's so complicated
when you marry a Beatle.
[Juber] She was getting tired.
You know, having four kids
and the prospect of more touring,
I think, was, you know, wearing on her.
[Paul] Now, we finish, uh,
the week before Christmas
just in time to get
a bit of shopping done.
Then we have one show
on the 29th of December in London.
It's a charity show, a few days,
a lot of different groups.
[Paul] Okay, over here, there is
a little creature has just appeared.
And this fella here is not John Lennon,
as has been suggested.
Ooh, baby
you wouldn't have found
a more down hero...
That was the worst night
of my playing life ever.
So there's no bottom coming off the bass.
The monitors were incredibly bad.
And I got breaking out in a sweat.
In no way I could control it.
I just knew this was bad.
Come on, get up, get underway
and bring your love...
And we said, "Well, you know,
what else should we do?
Go around the world ten more times?"
Maybe we had enough of all this touring.
Let's face it, you know, I'd been doing it
since I was like about 18 or something.
The enthusiasm, I think, had peaked.
Whoa, whoa, oh, yeah
[waves sloshing]
So the strangest thing was
we arranged to go to Japan.
Two, three, four.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"With a Little Luck"]
You're playing an A
with a B on the bottom.
Another strange thing is
we hadn't really rehearsed enough.
Now, all the other tours,
we rehearsed a lot.
You're singing the same...
[man] I can't harmonize like that--
So you remember, on the record it's...
With a little luck, with a little luck
With a little luck, a little luck,
a little luck
With a little luck, with a little luck
With a little luck, a little luck,
a little luck
From the top.
And one, two, three, four.
I'd planned to sort of get there and then
do some quick rehearsals and just hope.
But it was a, it was a bit of a nightmare.
[Paul McCartney plays
"Temporary Secretary"]
I was sort of having dreams,
thinking, "Where am I?
What song is it we're doing?
We don't know it."
I didn't know you're directing, love.
[Paul] You know, I'm like thinking,
"Oh, my God, what have I got myself into?"
[train rattling, whistle blowing]
When I was a kid,
I sometimes would go on a train,
and I'd have a second-class ticket.
And if the train was empty,
I'd sit in a first-class compartment.
And I always used to get caught.
Well, morning.
It was almost as if
I wanted to get busted.
So, anyway, everyone said,
"Whatever you do,
don't take any pot into Japan.
Seven years hard labor penalty."
But we were in New York, and, um...
we had this pot.
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"Cuff Link"]
[reporter] Wings have been scheduled
to give 11 concerts.
Over 100,000 tickets have been sold.
[Mary] I remember
going through the airport,
and they were taking lots of pictures.
There were a lot of press around.
We were going through customs,
and they brought a case up,
and they unzipped the case.
[song ends]
[Juber] This was the last suitcase,
and the customs guy got
this kind of quizzical expression.
[Paul McCartney plays "On the Way"]
[song stops abruptly]
[Mary] Oh, this might be a problem.
I remember them
looking at each other, going,
"Which one of us is gonna do this?
'Cause one of us needs to stay
with the kids."
[Paul] Oops.
[chuckles] Yeah.
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"Morse Moose and the Grey Goose"]
[Thomas] I hadn't been in the room
more than about 30 seconds
and the phone rang up, and it was Denny.
And he said, "Switch on your television."
I said, "Which channel?"
He said, "It doesn't matter."
[in Japanese] This afternoon,
the Prosecutor's office
and Tokyo district court
approved his detention.
[reporter in English] Japan is
particularly strict on drug taking,
coming down hard
on Japanese caught with pot--
[Paul McCartney sings
"Wonderful Christmastime"]
Simply having
a wonderful Christmastime
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"Old Siam, Sir"]
[Juber] Everywhere you looked,
there were posters for the tour.
And the next morning,
all the posters had gone.
[reporter] In the morning, well-rested,
he said, but worried about the children,
McCartney went off for another session
with the drug investigators.
I still don't know what's happening
or when he's getting out.
Everybody's heard but me.
Four nights in a Tokyo jail.
Still in a Tokyo jail, his sixth day.
This is his seventh night behind bars.
And for the singer and his wife,
Japanese justice seems to be
working very, very slowly.
[crowd clamoring and screaming]
-[song ends]
-[crowd chanting and screaming]
[Paul] There are times in your life
you just think, "Okay, you're an idiot."
And that's one of them. I was an idiot.
I was in a little cell on my own.
You know, I was Steve McQueen
in The Great Escape.
[ball continues bouncing]
First night, I didn't sleep.
Third night, I had
a blinding headache all night.
Just not wanting to be in there.
I was being told
I might be in there seven years.
We hadn't been separated at all
since we'd been married.
I had visions of her and the kids
just growing up outside Tokyo.
[Paul McCartney & Wings play
"We're Open Tonight"]
[ball continues bouncing]
I used to really imagine
the best possible thing I could imagine
would be sitting under my oak tree
in my garden.
That was absolutely the height of bliss.
You don't cherish all of those moments
unless they're taken away from you.
It was one of the points
where I thought, "Wait a minute.
If I ever get out of here, do I really
want to be doing what I'm doing?"
[static hissing, growing louder]
[Paul McCartney sings "Coming Up"]
[reporter] Paul McCartney,
the former Beatle, was mobbed by fans
when he got out of jail in Tokyo today.
The Japanese prosecutor's office
said he had suffered enough,
and instead of holding him for trial,
they kicked him out of the country.
You want a love to last forever
one that will never fade away
I wanna help you with your problem
Stick around, I say
Coming up
Ooh, ooh
Coming up...
[Pardo] Day 122.
Paul McCartney without marijuana.
[audience laughter]
Hey, I bet it is-- it's real hard to dance
when you're not stoned.
-Am I right?
-[laughter]
Ooh
Yeah
[interviewer] You just put out
a new album. It's a solo album.
Coming up
I say
Coming up...
What's happened to Wings?
Will you be getting back together
with them?
I should think so, yeah.
We're kind of talking about it
and thinking about it.
You want a better kind of future
one that everyone can share
You're not alone, we all could use it
Stick around, we're nearly there
Coming up
Ooh, ooh
Coming up...
[Juber] It's hard to tell exactly
what his state of mind was at the time,
but Paul was in the studio
mixing that stuff
within a week of getting back from Japan.
Coming up, yeah...
[Holley] Part of McCartney II
was history repeating itself.
McCartney I came about pretty rapidly
after his decision to finish
with the Beatles.
Coming up
I would imagine he was questioning
the whole situation at that point.
[song ends]
[Paul] It was a liberation for me.
You don't have to be that Paul McCartney
fellow that we expect all the time.
[Tim Rice] Is it true to say that-that
you don't really have
any concrete ambitions now?
You don't think,
"Well, I'd like to get into
a totally different field of writing."
-Maybe you'd like to write--
-[Paul] Yeah, I do.
I do. You know, I have a lot of ambitions.
Awkward thing is, whenever I do
interviews, someone says that, you know,
-"What's left, Paul?"
-Yeah, "What's next?" Yeah.
You know, "What's left?" [chuckles]
-Well, I think--
-[coughs]
Or the other one is,
"Paul, if, just if..."
That's the other question.
Um, it's a little bit
of an in-joke, that one.
[Mary] I have this memory in New York,
like, being a young kid
and us all going around to visit
John and Yoko at the Dakota.
It was a good feeling.
It was like a family reunion.
[keyboard playing "Waterfalls"]
[Paul] He heard "Coming Up" on the radio,
and he thought,
[groans] "Now I've got to come up
with something," you know.
[Sean Ono Lennon] If you look through
my dad's LP collection,
our copy of McCartney was played
and quite worn, actually.
You can tell that
they were listened to, as a fan.
It never surprised me because it was like,
can you be surprised by your brother,
from age 15 on?
[Paul] One of the great blessings
in my life is that we made up.
It's-it's beautiful and it's sad
at the same time.
You know, we'd loved each other
all our lives.
Um...
[news announcer] We interrupt this program
to bring you a News 4 special report.
Well, you heard the sad news
a few moments ago
that former Beatle John Lennon
has been murdered here in New York.
We have more details now for you.
He was shot and killed
in front of his home
in Manhattan's Upper West Side.
-Police say...
-[broadcast fades]
[Paul McCartney plays "Waterfalls"]
[song ends]
[Stella] I remember that moment.
I remember the phone ringing.
I remember some...
the biggest reaction I'd ever seen...
...and him leaving the kitchen
and going outside.
That was, um, heartbreaking,
like, truly heartbreaking.
What was your reaction
to the death of, uh, John Lennon?
Or John Lennon's--
Uh, I was very shocked, you know.
It's terrible news.
When did you--
How did you find out about it?
I got a phone call this morning.
[Sean Ono Lennon] I always noticed
the look in his eyes
and-and the tone of his voice
really felt like someone who was
unable to process what was going on.
He just seemed almost, uh...
robotic.
Which I think some people took possibly
as coldness, but I never took it as that.
'Cause I understood even then
what it was like
when something that terrible happens.
[interviewer] Go on now, yeah.
Drag, isn't it?
-Okay, cheers. All right. Let's go.
-Paul. Paul, a question.
-[Paul] Thank you. Goodbye.
-Go.
[indistinct chatter]
[Sean Ono Lennon] When the Beatles
broke up, he had to grow up.
But in a way, I feel like my dad passing
was probably the real growing up moment.
They had a once-in-a-millennium chemistry
that I don't think
we're likely to see again.
[horn honks]
[Paul] I know.
But, um, time can take the edge off.
Paul McCartney is stepping up
his own security.
This means his band Wings
won't be touring.
It's led to one of its members,
Midland-born Denny Laine, to quit.
[playing gentle guitar music]
Come on, Charlie, let's take it to 'em.
How we doing...
[Laine] There is no end.
It's just that we didn't go out
on the road again or make another album.
But me, Paul and Linda were still intact.
You are my sunshine
my only sunshine
You make me happy
when skies are gray
You'll never know, dear
how much I love you
So please don't take my sunshine away...
[Paul] In Wings,
we always thought we were failing
because we always matched everything
to the Beatles.
The first person to rediscover it for me
was my nephew.
He said, "Oh, you know the album I love?"
Thinking it might be Sgt. Pepper
or something, he said, "Ram."
"You do?"
[Stella] It was all just so pure and real.
Must have taken such strength
to have chosen that way.
And I think you hear it in the music.
You know, those, I believe, for all of us,
were probably the best years of our lives.
So please don't take my sunshine
away
[song ends]
[Linda] As you get older,
your ego gets more satisfied
and you realize you don't have to rely on
people's praise all the time.
You start relying on,
"Well, I'm not that bad.
Well, I'm not a mean person."
So you just start developing, I think,
outward, then inward.
[Paul] When we were up in Scotland,
putting together this new life...
...it was a question of having to grow up.
And what a good aim, to grow up.
[Paul McCartney & Wings sing
"Let Me Roll It"]
I doubted whether it was possible
to follow the Beatles.
But looking back on it now,
I think we made what seemed like
an impossible dream come true.
That was the magic of it.
You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving
in the palm of my hand
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
I can't tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
[song fades]