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Macca On Creativity And Originality

“Front Row”, BBC Radio 4, Monday 26th December 2005.

Paul McCartney: … But from the very earliest days of writing songs we would always think ‘wait a minute, that’s from West Side Story, we can’t have that’. So we’d have to just switch it, and just say, erm, y’know, sort of, whatever the melody was, turn it round, or just do something, just find tricks. Either rewrite it or just change those two notes and it suddenly isn’t from whatever it was y’know. So er, I’m – I’m always – I’ve got like one antenna always looking to see if someone else has written this before.

Paul McCartney: … So I’m just working around that kind of thing, which to me always reminds me of the deep south.

Interviewer: Well it’s got echoes of “People Get Ready” the Curtis Mayfield song.

Paul McCartney: Oh, that’s probably what it is.

Interviewer: The Impressions.

Paul McCartney: So you mean I nicked it? Well it’s too-

Interviewer: Subconsciously, possibly.

Paul McCartney: -late now. Ha ha. No, yeah it has, it has. Well, it’s a style.

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