Paul McCartney on playing guitar with Paul Mescal: 'He knew it better than I did!' Mark SavageMusic correspondentGetty ImagesFamily and friends are at the heart of McCartney's latest album"Hey, I know you!" exclaims Paul McCartney, gripping my hand as we walk into his office in central London.I'm instantly disarmed. And while I'm realistic enough to know he doesn't really hold treasured memories of our previous encounters, I'm impressed by his ability to defuse the tension of Meeting A Beatle.We gather in Soho at lunchtime. Instead of Wild Honey Pie or Savoy Truffle, McCartney has opted for a simple bagel (topping: a terrifying blend of Marmite and hummus), which he prepared in a kitchenette next to his assistant's desk.As he eats, he scans a printed list of film titles – mainly vintage comedies – looking for something to play at his family movie night."It's hard to find something I haven't seen," he laments.Lunch finished, we settle next to a Wurlitzer jukebox in the corner of the room.
McCartney places his phone face down on the table – revealing a case printed with a colourful holiday photo."Is that the family?" I ask."Yeah, that's my grandkids. Four of Stella's and four of Mary's.""They're all very bright," he beams, pointing to each one in turn and listing their Ivy League achievements. "Yale, Brown, Brown, NYU, Yale again.""Are you an indulgent granddad?""Yeppp!" he confirms.
I love them."Dave Benett/Getty Images for Stella McCartneyCommitted family man: McCartney pictured in 2024 with daughters Stella (left) and Mary... Daily Express/Getty Images... and with Stella and Mary and late wife Linda (second from left) in 1974. He adopted Linda's daughter Heather (right) McCartney has always been known as the sentimental Beatle.
A committed family man who wrote a love song defending the concept of love songs ("It isn't silly, love isn't silly," he protested).So it's no surprise that family and friends are at the heart of his latest album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane.Over 14 tracks, and almost as many musical styles, he delivers a suite of "memory songs" that reflect on his childhood in Liverpool, birdwatching on the banks of the Mersey and knocking about with his Beatles bandmates John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison."I like to go over memories, because it brings me back to the time," he says. "It brings me back to the people."An air of opportunity Born in 1942, McCartney grew up in a time of transition. The aftermath of World War Two weighed heavily on Liverpool, one of the most heavily bombed cities outside London, but a busy regeneration programme and a booming dock trade fostered an air of opportunity."Things were pretty good, actually," says McCartney.
"My uncles and aunties and my parents were so relieved that Hitler wasn't sending these bombers any more - so it was piano, it was music, it was jokes."It didn't matter that you weren't that well off. They made it okay."McCartney's father Jim infused the house with music, bashing out self-taught tunes on an old piano. He was also a storyteller who loved wordplay – something that later informed his son's lyrics."He loved to do crosswords, and he would be very keen for me to know certain words that you wouldn't otherwise have known," the musician recalls."So I was the only kid in my class who could spell 'phlegm'."From the archive: Inside the 1950s house that shaped Paul McCartney's lifeMcCartney pays tribute to his parents on the new song Salesman Saint, a tender ballad with bursts of the dancehall jazz they'd have heard on the radio while subsisting on a diet of "tea and cigarettes".By contrast, the album's opening track, As You Lie There, finds the 83-year-old in full-on scream mode as he recalls the surging intensity of a teenage crush.It was the first song written for the album, back in 2020, as McCartney shared a cup of tea with Andrew Watt – a producer for Lady Gaga and Katseye, who's become the go-to collaborator for ageing rockers like Ozzy Osbourne and The Rolling Stones."It was a green tea," the singer discloses.
"I was in LA, so I thought they're not going to be able to make a good cup of builder's."As they shot the breeze, McCartney started strumming."One of my recent tricks is to find any weird chord that may intrigue me," plucking the opening notes of As You Lie There on an acoustic guitar."I played this, and I got lucky because I don't know what that chord is."Somebody classically trained will be able to tell me it's a 'G demented', or whatever, but that started something."MPL CommunicationsMcCartney made his new album over the course of five years with US producer Andrew WattAnother song, Lost Horizon, was rescued from an early 2000s demo that McCartney's late engineer Eddie Klein had cherished."It was his job to archive all my old tapes and he said, 'This one's good, you should listen to it.'"If Eddie liked it, I knew it was good. So we played it, and it was very complete."Sometimes, if you were working to a cassette, you'll have half the lyrics, maybe a little suggestion for the chorus - but this [song] was all there. So we copied exactly what was on that cassette, with a little extra guitar."This raises the question: Are there other undiscovered gems sitting in the archive waiting to be released?"Hopefully there are no more," he laughs.
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