Don't you know that that was not that diplomatic a moment to tell me?" I was slightly pissed that he told me, and I was probably turning it into a timing issue. He said, "I didn't think you would take it like that." I said, "Well, come on, man, I'm human. You just told me something that I've worked on is crap."Anyway, I tried to do something else - just something fun, like [playing on] wine glasses, anything, just some goof-off thing that I didn't need any talent for But I couldn't even do that I said, "You know what, I'm going home Sorry, guys. Goodbye." I didn't storm out, but I just sort of said, "I can't cut it I got home and it totally just wrecked my mood. But I had a good evening, got over it all and came in the next day and said, "Put that track on, I'm doing the bass." I did the bass in, like, one take But then we had the talk I said, "I'm so spoiled. George Martin is the diplomat of all diplomats."MB: If George Martin didn't like something, what would he say?McCARTNEY: He would say, "Oh, perhaps we ought to try another approach on this. What I was thinking was, we might try, for instance, a string quartet on 'Yesterday'." And I'd go, "Oh, no!" He said, "But look, we could try it I could be wrong.
And if you don't like it, take it off." I told Nigel this, and he said, "I understand But I'm not George Martin. This is who I am, and if we're to get on, we've got to find a way."So after that one little incident, it was like, "Fuck off, Nigel! Fuck off!" It was great. We just shouted at each other after that.Though the past two decades or so of McCartney's solo career have often proved embarrassingly mawkish - see everything from "Ebony and Ivory" to the September 11 anthem "Freedom" - he had an impressive run in the Seventies. He followed up McCartney with the pastoral psychedelia of Ram, then formed the hit machine that was Wings. Though songs like "Band on the Run" and "Let 'Em In" could be placed alongside McCartney's best work with the Beatles, Wings would become synonymous with the overblown arena rock of the day - and with easy-listening trifles like "Silly Love Songs." McCartney was also widely mocked for insisting that Linda - an accomplished photographer but not a trained musician - sing with the band.What the critics failed to acknowledge was that "Silly Love Songs" is a master-crafted easy-listening trifle, the platonic ideal of easy-listening trifles And as for the overblown arena rock, well, fashions change. Backstage at this summer's Live 8 London concert, Bono greeted McCartney by asking, "You know what the fucking hippest band is this year?" When McCartney shrugged his shoulders, Bono exclaimed, "Wings!""I thought, 'If only Linda could hear this,'" McCartney says with a bemused shrug. "The vindication!"MB: Being younger, does Heather have very different musical references? Are there certain things she loves that you hate, or vice versa?McCARTNEY: She was brought up with a lot of classical music - her dad was a classical-music freak - so she knows a lot of Wagner and things like that But the strangest area is the Beatles Certain things she won't know at all.
I thought it was a generational thing, but her younger sister does know the Beatles It must have been where her life was at, at the time She had a complex life and troubled childhood. And I guess she sort of skipped a beat while everyone else was listening to the Beatles.MB: Was she really into punk or something like that?McCARTNEY: No, her younger sister was punk rock. Heather liked AC/DC.MB: So was there one Beatles song she didn't know that just shocked you?McCARTNEY: Yeah! Once "Get Back" was playing somewhere. She recognised my voice and asked, "Is this you?" I said, "Yes, darling. It's called 'Get Back.' It's quite famous."MB: Michael Jackson bought much of the Beatles' publishing catalogue in the Eighties. Now that he's having financial difficulties, have you considered buying it back?McCARTNEY: No Everyone else thinks I should, though The thing is, I get some money from the publishing already. And in a few years, more of the rights automatically revert to me.
