Paul McCartney has finally revealed the inspiration behind a lyric from one of his most famous singles, ‘Yesterday’.
The Beatles legend spoke about the inspiration behind the track on his podcast, ‘A Life In lyrics’, specifically the lyrics “I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday”, which features twice in the song.
‘Yesterday’ featured on the Beatles’ 1965 album ‘Help!’, and is one of the most performed tracks of all time, having been covered over 2,000 times by other artists.
“Sometimes it’s only in retrospect you can appreciate it,” McCartney said firstly of the track. “I remember very clearly one day feeling very embarrassed because I embarrassed my mum”.
“she talked posh” – McCartney On Lyric Inspiration
In the podcast, Paul McCartney spoke further about the song, and its inspiration.
He said, “We were out in the backyard and she talked posh. She was of Irish origin and she was a nurse, so she was above street level. So she had something sort of going for her, and she would talk what we thought was a little bit posh. And it was a little bit Welshy as well – she had connections, her auntie Dilys was Welsh”.
“I know that she said something like ‘Paul, will you ask him if he’s going … ’,” he added.
“I went ‘Arsk! Arsk! It’s ask mum.’ And she got a little bit embarrassed. I remember later thinking ‘God, I wish I’d never said that’. And it stuck with me. After she died I thought ‘Oh f***, I really wish … ’”.
In other McCartney news, a bass guitar which was stolen from the singer 1972, has been returned to him. More on that from Nova here.
Last week, it was confirmed that Sam Mendes would direct a biopic on each member of the Beatles. The films are to be released in 2027. More on that here.
