Paul McCartney
He reveals meaning of “Yesterday” lyric
Paul McCartney – here in Australia in 2023 – sees the song he composed “Yesterday” with new eyes.
© imago images/AAP/MICHAEL ERREY
Is “Yesterday” about a past love? Paul McCartney himself has now drawn attention to a completely different meaning of the song.
Was Mother Mary the real inspiration for “Yesterday”?
“Some have suggested to me that [‘Yesterday’] a song about the loss of my mother. I always said: ‘No, I don’t believe that,'” says the Beatles icon, referring to the moving lyrics of “Yesterday”. But now McCartney is no longer so sure about this question. Instead, he suspects that Some lines of the song could have been unconsciously inspired by his mother, including the passage: “Why’d she have to go? I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.”, which translates to: “Why did she have to go? I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.”
Paul McCartney ruefully recalls moment with mother Mary that he would like to delete
As the podcast continues, McCartney then recalls a specific moment when he exposed his mother while she was still alive. “I still remember being very embarrassed one day because I had embarrassed my mother.”
The McCartneys, along with a few other people, were in the backyard of their home when Mother Mary pronounced the word “ask” with a particularly long “a.” In English, this is associated with a particularly elegant articulation, such as that used by the BBC or members of the Royal Family.
The young McCartney told his mother at that moment with the harsh words: “I went ‘Arsk! Arsk! It’s ask, mum.” (in German: “I said: ‘Arsk! Arsk! It means ask, mother”) – and obviously wished later, after her death, to be able to take exactly that back and undo it.
“I remember thinking later, ‘God, I wish I’d never said that.’ And it stuck with me,” McCartney explains. That would be among “a few little things” that the Beatle wished later in his life “that it would be better if I just had one [Radiergummi] would have taken and erased this little moment. And when she died, I wondered if I had said something wrong.”
This then became the moving “Yesterday” lyric: “I said something wrong. Now I long for yesterday,” which translated into German means: “I said something wrong. Now I long for yesterday.” She appears twice in “Yesterday”. “It somehow fits when you look at the lyrics,” says McCartney looking back.
Four biopics planned about the lives of the Beatles
Even 44 years after the end of the iconic Liverpool band, The Beatles have remained constantly in the news in recent weeks. It was only announced last Tuesday that the British director and Oscar winner Sam Mendes (58) was making four films about the four Beatles members John Lennon (1940-1980), McCartney, George Harrison (1943-2001) and Ringo Starr (83 ) plans. “Yesterday” composer McCartney was happy about the return of his bass guitar, which was stolen from him in 1972.