Paul McCartney Interview with Radio Luxembourg promoting The Beatles album | 20 November 1968

About the Interview: After The Beatles had com-pleted The White Album, Paul McCart-ney gave an exclusive interview to Radio Luxembourg in which he discussed his opinions of select tracks from the new double LP. When the interview was aired, it was interspersed with tracks from the new album. The official UK release of The White Album was just two days away. Q: Paul, Id like you to talk about the LP in general. Paul: What do you want me to say about it, Tony? Q: The songs I think are per-haps a surprise to some people, because I think a lot of people expected another step from Sgt Pepper. Paul: Well it is another step, you know, but its not necessarily in the way people expected. Uhh On Sgt Pepper we had more instrumentation than wed ever had. More orchestral stuff than wed ever used before, so it was more of a production. But we didnt really want to go over-board like that this time, and weve tried to play more like a band this time only using instruments when we had to, instead of just using them for the fun of it. Q: Is this for any sort of concept of being able to do the things live? Paul: Uhh, yeah. And also for the concept that we like playing together. Thats the main concept. (laughs) Q: The first track on the LP is Back In The USSR. Could we just talk about this particular track because its a wild, rocking thing. Paul: Yeah. Umm, thats a track which it just sort of came. Chuck Berry once did a song called Back In The USA, which is very American, very Chuck Berry. Very sort of, uhh you know, youre serving in the army And when I get back home Im gonna kiss the ground and you know Cant wait to get back to the States. And its a very American sort of thing, Ive always thought. So this one is like about In my mind its just about a spy whos been in America a long long time, you know, and hes picked up And hes very American. But he gets back to the USSR, you know, and hes sort of say-ing, Leave it till tomorrow, honey, to disconnect the phone, and all that. And Come here honey, but with Russian women. You see, what it is It concerns the attributes of Russian women. Q: Obladi Oblada. Paul: I like most kinds of music. So I havent got a bag as they say (jok-ingly) except the big black one in the hall outside. And Obladi Oblada, and USSR, and Martha are three different songs alto-gether. And in fact all of mine are on the LP. Im pretty diverse because I mean, I havent got ONE sort of thing. So this Ive no idea why its Jamaican or anything. Just cuz I like that kind of thing. Q: Did you write this song on your own? I mean, is this a combination of

Lennon/McCartney? Paul: I think it was mainly me. Mainly me. (jokingly) Johns a bit more Nigerian influenced. (laugh-ter) Q: Happiness Is A Warm Gun. This is a ballad thats very interesting. Perhaps although you didnt sing this particular song youd like to talk about it, Paul. Paul: Id like to talk about it cuz I like it, you know. Its a favorite of mine. Umm, the idea of the Happiness Is A Warm Gun thing is from an advert in an American paper. It said, Happiness is a warm gun, sort of thing, and it was Get ready for the long hot summer with a rifle, you know, Come and buy them now! It was an advert in a gun magazine. And it was so sick, you know, the idea of Come and buy your killing weapons, and Come and get it. But its just such a great line, Happiness Is A Warm Gun that John sort of took that and used that as a chorus. And the rest of the words I think theyre great words, you know. Its a poem. And he finishes off, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, yes it is. Q: It sounds like hes probably fairly serious about PAUL: Oh, its as serious as anyone ever gets, you know. Its not deadly serious, you know what I mean Its just words, and if you sort of really taxed him on it and said, Would you be willing to die for these words, Im sure he wouldnt. Im sure its not REALLY serious but theyre good words. Id stick up for anyone whos sort of worried about em, you know. Its just good poetry. Q: Martha My Dear. Paul: You see, I just start singing some words with a tune, you know what I mean. I dont ever write a song thinking, Now Ill write a song about I do sometimes, but mainly I dont. Mainly Im just doing a tune and then some words come into my head, you know. And these happened to be Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation. It doesnt mean any-thing, you know, but those just happened to come to my head. So thats what this song is about it is about my dog. I dont mean it, you know. I dont ever try to make a serious social comment, you know. So you can read anything you like into it, but really its just a song. Its me singing to my dog. (laughs) Q: Paul, how long a time has it taken you all to get this whole LP together I mean, write the songs? Paul: Well, since we were in India we started writing this batch of songs. And weve written a few since. And this is mainly the Indian batch that weve sort of finished. Q: Blackbird I think is quite a beautiful song. Paul: Thank you, Tony. Well, its simple in concept because you couldnt think of any-thing else to put on it. And thats what I was saying about the Sgt Pepper thing Maybe on Pepper we would have sort of worked on it until we could find some way to put violins or trumpets in there. But I dont think it needs it, this one. You know, its just Theres nothing to the song. It is just one of those pick it and sing it and thats it. The only point where we were thinking of putting anything on it is where it comes back in the end. sort of stops and comes back in but instead of putting any backing on it, we put a blackbird on it. So theres a blackbird singing at the very end. And somebody said it was a thrush, but I think its a blackbird! (laugh-ter)

Q: Rocky Raccoon. Paul: I was sitting on the roof in India with a guitar John and I were sitting round playing guitar, and we were with Donovan. And we were just sit-ting around enjoying ourselves, and I started play-ing the chords of Rocky Raccoon, you know, just messing around. And, oh, originally it was Rocky Sassoon, and we just started making up the words, you know, the three of us and started just to write them down. They came very quickly. And eventually I changed it from Sassoon to Raccoon, because it sounded more like a cowboy. So there it is. These kind of things you cant really talk about how they come cuz they just come into your head, you know. They really do. And it s like John writing his books. Theres no I dont know how he does it, and he doesnt know how he does it, but he just writes. Its like any writer, you know. I think people who actu-ally do create and write you tend to think, Oh, how did he do that, but it actually does flow just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down, you know. And thats what happened with this. I dont know anything about the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and Indians or anything. But I just made it up, you know. And the doctor came in stinking of gin and proceeded to lie on the table. So, there you are. Q: I suppose the idea to do the thing with some sort of a American-Western accent also happened this way, did it? Paul: Oh that. Yeah, that was just a joke, you know, as most of it is. Q: Also, another one of yours called, I Will. Weve covered the areas where the songs just seem to come to you, and just happen this way, and you get ideas. Obviously this particular track happened the same way. The twangy guitar is used again on this one. Umm, theres a slight influence Paul: Weve always been a rock & roll group, I suppose, you know. Its just that were not just com-pletely rock & roll. Thats what I was try-ing to say before about Obladi, USSR, theyre all different kinds of things. Were not just completely one kind of group. Cuz like, when we played in Ham-burg, we didnt just do rock all evening cuz we had to have these sort of fat old busi-ness-men com-ing in and say-ing (jokingly) or THIN old businessmen, as well, were coming in and saying Play a mambo. Can you do a rhumba? And we couldnt just keep saying no, you know, so we had to get into mambos and rhumbas a bit. So this kind of thing is like a pretty sort of smoochy ballad I Will. But we have to do that kind of stuff, you know, so we always played a lot of kind of things. I dont know if its getting off the subject, but thats why theres great variety in this LP cuz in everything we do, you know, we just havent got one bag, The Beatles, you know. And cuz on one hand youll get something like I Will and then youll get Why Dont We Do It In The Road, you know. Just completely different things completely different feelings and But its me singing both of them. Its the same fella. Uhh, and Ive wrote both of them, you know. So you cant explain it. I dont know why I do Why Dont We Do It In The Road shouting it like that and then do this sort of smoochy laughing American Girl From Ipanema. Q: Birthday. This next track is back in the old rock and roll style, which I guess weve already really cov-ered, but once again this is a very loud type, if you like discotheque type Paul: Theres a story about that, Tony. What happened was The Girl Cant Help It was on television. Thats an old rock film with Little Richard and Fats Domino and Eddie

Cochran and a few others Gene Vincent. And we wanted to see it, so we started recording at five oclock. And we said, Well do some-thing, just do a backing track. Well make up a back-ing track. So we kept it very simple twelve bar blues kind of thing. And we stuck in a few bits here and there in it, with no idea what the song was or what was gonna go on top of it. We just said, Okay. Twelve bars in A, and well change to D, and Im gonna do a few beats in C. And we really just did it like that random thing. We didnt have time for anything else, and so we just recorded this back-ing. And we came back here to my house and watched The Girl Cant Help It. Then we went back to the stu-dio again and made up some words to go with it all. So this song was just made up in an evening. Umm, you know. We hadnt ever thought of it before then. And its one of my favorites because of that. I think it works, you know, cuz its just Its a good one to dance to. Like the big long drum break, just cuz, instead of well, nor-mally we might have four bars of drums, but with this we just keep it going, you know. We all like to hear drums plodding on. Q: Mother Natures Son is another track in which you use acoustic guitar. And theres probably more acoustic guitar used in this set of tracks than youve ever used before. Paul: Yes. Well, its the same thing again. We wrote them with gui-tars. And, on a lot of his, John picks the guitar because he learned off Donovan when we were in India Donovan showed him how to fingerpick. So he sort of stuck it in every-thing then. Q: (laughs) Paul: And while he was learning finger-picking, I was sort of play-ing acoustic as well, you know. Thats it Thats why theyve crept in like this. We decided not to try and cover them up like we might do normally, and just use acoustic guitar instead of, say, a piano or electric guitar or anything. So, the only thing about this one, however, it says Born a poor young country boy and I was born in Woolton hospital actually so its a dirty lie. Q: Helter Skelter. Paul: Umm, that came about just cuz Id read a review of a record which said, And this group really got us wild, theres echo on everything, theyre screaming their heads off. And I just remember thinking, Oh, itd be great to do one. Pity theyve done it. Must be great really screaming record. And then I heard their record and it was quite straight, and it was very sort of sophisticated. It wasnt rough and screaming and tape echo at all. So I thought, Oh well, well do one like that, then. And I had this song called Helter Skelter which is just a ridiculous song. So we did it like that, cuz I like noise. Q: Honey Pie. Paul: My dads always played fruity old songs like that, you know. And I liked em. I like the melody of old songs, and the lyrics actually as well. Theres some old lyrics, like, you know the woman singing about the man, and shes saying something about I wanna have his ini-tial on my monogram. You know what I mean? Theres good lyrics and just good thoughts that you dont sort of hear so much these days, you know. And so, I would quite like to have been a 1920s writer, cuz I like that thing, you know. Umm, you know, up in top hat and tails and sort of coming-on to em. So this kind of number, I like that thing. But, uhh So this is just me doing it, pretending Im living in 1925. Q: The final track I suppose is a wrap-up to the LP, and to the show tonight. And I

would imagine that a lot of people are probably going to record this track. Paul: Yes. Umm, its very much that kind of track, you know. John wrote it, mainly. It s his tune, uhh, which is sur-pris-ing for John cuz he doesnt normally write this kind of tune. Its a very sweet tune, and Ringo sings it great, I think. The arrangement was done by George Martin, uhh, cuz hes very good at that kind of arrange-ment, you know very sort of lush, sweet arrangement. And thats all I can say about it. Its very sweet. And in fact, its Goodnight.