sgt pepper? i hardly know ’er!

mya 🪲 they/them 🍏 27 🌱 bug fanatic!! main: philosophy-juice twt: _eggshellseas_ saw paul in edmonton, 2014 (first concert :)) & in montréal, 2025

[eggshell-seas]

Does anyone know some good sources (ideally ones I can find online) about Paul's relationships / girls he dated in Liverpool from 1957-1960 ish?? For a fic I'm writing :)

And/or good sources in general for super detailed accounts and info regarding those years!!

[toadbit]

Every once in a while I think maybe it’s time to scale back my invasive interest in Paul McCartney’s private life. Thankfully Paul McCartney himself just said it’s okay and that in fact I should be trying harder

[toadbit]

On a more serious note I do genuinely believe he’s asking to both be taken at his word and for his work to be considered holistically without the baggage of secondhand interpretation (i.e. Beatles biographers and historians).

I also think he’s implicitly asking for his work to be read for innuendo about gay sex. Still being dead serious btw.

[snapdraqons]

you've heard of "he would not fucking say that" now get ready for "he would not be that comfortable with his own sexuality"

[poisedwalrus]

@epiphainie ദ്ദി(。•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

[beatleswings]

PAUL McCARTNEY, LINDA McCARTNEY and RINGO STARR backstage at The Forum in Los Angeles, California. June 21, 1976.

[fab-faux]

Never Know: “My body’s shaking”

I’ll admit I had low expectations for the new album but I’ve been incredibly impressed with the musicality and production of The Boys of Dungeon Lane. I’m in awe of Paul’s ability to pluck these melodies out of thin air, and after a listen or two, feel as if they have been in the McCartney catalog for decades. How can he hitting this great stride at 83 years old? It illustrates that getting older doesn’t mean you stop growing or that creativity dies. I hope all of us will be this lucky.

I’m really into a lot of songs on this record but I wanted to talk about Never Know because, not only is it my favorite, but a lyric triggered a connection that’s worth exploring, so here we go…

First, this song feels heavily inspired by past musical Beatle business (tape loops, close harmonies, mellotron, electric piano, recorder à la Fool on the Hill) but the lyrics feel placed in the early 70s timeline of the breakup and escape to Scotland. Let’s take a look:

I want to be the one | That's rooting for you | Lying in the sun again | I want to feel your touch | The things that you do | Have always meant so much to me

I don’t think he’s literally talking about lying in the sun (although he’s likely using a double meaning here), I read this as John being the sun. ☀️ The charismatic genius he bet his life on. When all is right with the world, he’s typically basking in John’s glow. Almost all of John’s attention and warmth, creatively and personally, has been on Paul up to this point. But now the sun shines on Yoko and he’s longing to be the partner who is John’s main support and focus again.

I want some love and peace | We need it right now | Your wonders never cease to be

At this point in time, John and Yoko are heavily engaged in their Peace activities. And Paul seems to be saying: okay, so you’re promoting a facade of love and peace to the world but, to me, you’re attacking my whole existence. Don’t I deserve love and peace right now too?

I love you, but you know | My heart is breaking over you | When you got me on the run | My body's shaking, oh, oh, oh | My mind is black and blue | I love you, but I never know

Here’s where this song took at turn that, in my mind, made me more certain that this is a “John Song.” The lyric “you got me on the run” alludes to his and Linda’s escape to Scotland to spin out, mourn, and heal in private. And the reason I think that is because of the line “my body’s shaking,” which instantly reminded me of the quote below from the book Wings: the Story of a Band on the Run

And this interview from All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words calls out shaking a little later in the timeline.

I'm gonna take the time | To prove that I care | Don't mind as long as I'm with you | I've got to make you see | I'll always be there | I only want to be with you

Following the story laid out in the previous lyrics, this last verse seems to be present day Paul being ever so self-aware that one of his greatest weaknesses is not being able to show/tell people that he loves them or that they are important to him. And he’s come to the understanding that this is what John needed to hear/know to believe that Paul never stopped loving him, knew a good thing when he saw it (warts and all), and was still committed to their partnership. So this song is just another one of those attempts to make John (somewhere across the universe) see that Paul “will always be there.”

Great song.

[woman-respecter]

simon and garfunkel beef squashed, the blowjob brothers from oasis reunited i think, taylor invited karlie to her wedding. paul mccartney it’s time to learn necromancy.

[i-am-the-oyster]

I can't believe I haven't seen either of these parts of the lyrics for Mountain Top mentioned yet

"I love you so much more Thank you will ever know"

That's not in the song, is it?

----

"check on" was originally "find out"

No one ever needs to find out What we do

[eggshell-seas]

hi! when you get this, list 5 songs you like to listen to. then send this ask to the last 10 people in your notifs (positivity is cool!!)     

(if you wanna play! no worries if not!)

Aw fun!! Some songs I've been loving the last week:

As You Lie There - Paul McCartney (OBVIOUSLY. And the whole album, but this is definitely the one I've listened to the most and probably still my favourite on the album.)

Imagine Barcelona - Arkells

Sentimental Woman - Fleetwood Mac (suuuper underrated early Fleetwood Mac song)

49 Bye-Byes - Crosby, Stills & Nash

Heaven - Talking Heads

Honourable mention to every single song on A New World Record by ELO; I've been OBSESSED with that album the past few weeks.

[giveyourhearttosomebody]

[downthepub]

Yoko and her Chief Botherer

Linda and her Chief Botherer

[faultlessspills]

the magic and mystery of Glastonbury, Mountain Top, and The Kiss of Venus

"Glastonbury is a gateway to the Unseen. It has been a holy place and pilgrim-way from time immemorial, and to this day it sends its ancient call into the heart of the race it guards, and still we answer to the inner voice. She is all beauty, our English Jerusalem. The paths that lead to her are ways of loveliness and pilgrimages of the soul. The long road from London spans the breadth of England and leads from one world to another. The narrow and difficult streets of the city give place to the Great West Road—a name magical in its very syllables, and magical too in its great undulating breadth for those who have eyes to see. It turns off from the heavy traffic of Chiswick, lifts to a bridge, and London is left behind. Wide sky stretches over its sunlit, wind-swept spaces, and so broad is it that cloud-shadows skim its surface and it has a horizon of its own. The traffic is swift-moving and silent. We are in another world—a new world, the world that is just dawning over the eastern hills of civilization."

from Avalon of the Heart by Dion Fortune, 1971

Take me to the mountain top Show me how the waters drop Down into the valley stream below Anytime I walk with you Magic mushrooms peeping through Seem to want to talk and say "hello" Pumpkin pies in the skies Also try to hypnotise You and me everywhere we go Little girl, you're tripping Everybody's flipping out Need to get a grip and slip away Or do you want to stay? When you've got some time to spare Let me take you to the fair Stars will glitter when the moon is new We can take the second bus No one but the two of us Ever needs to check on what we do Butterflies multiply Flutter by our surprise 'Round our heads yellow, red, and blue Now we're really tripping Everybody's flipping out Need to get a grip and slip away Little girl, you're tripping Everybody's flipping out Need to get a grip and slip away Or do you want to stay?

Mountain Top, Paul McCartney, 2026

“It’s like Coachella and Glastonbury…kind of people going off for the weekend to trip out and get stoned. And we go to quite a few festivals these days. We would’ve gone to Glastonbury this year, but it’s not on this year. I was trying to get that feeling of a young girl at the festival, tripping out.”

Paul McCartney on Mountain Top, from The Boys of Dungeon Lane listening session, 2026

The kiss of Venus has got me on the go She scored a bullseye in the early morning glow Early morning glow Packed with illusions, our world is turned around This golden circle has a most harmonic sound Harmonic sound And in the sunshine, when we stand alone We came together with our secrets blown Our secrets blown Now moving slowly, we circle through the square Two passing planets in the sweet, sweet summer air Sweet summer air And in the sunshine, when we stand alone We came together with our secrets blown Our secrets blown Reflected mountains in a lake Is this too much to take? Asleep or wide awake? And if the world begins to shake Will something have to break? We have to stay awake Packed with illusions, our world is turned around This golden circle has a most harmonic sound Harmonic sound And in the sunshine, when we stand alone We came together with our secrets blown Our secrets blown The kiss of Venus has got me on the go She scored a bullseye in the early morning glow Early morning glow The kiss of Venus has got me on the go

The Kiss of Venus, Paul McCartney, 2020

"A Little Book of Coincidence in the Solar System by John Martineau is a mini-treatise on the planets and their orbits, and the revolutions of the sun and the moon. I read it recently, and it's an absolutely fascinating read because whoever designed this book visualised those orbits and revolutions. For example, geocentrically, Venus draws a pentagram around the Earth every eight years. When I first read the book, I was amazed to see these complex designs in the universe, and it made me think, 'Yes, it is magical — this life, the interdependence of everything, trees giving oxygen; there's so much magical stuff going on.' Speaking of magical, when I played the Glastonbury Festival in 2004, I loved the idea that we were probably on the confluence of ley lines, the lines that crisscross the globe and along which our ancestors are thought to have set up significant sites. I like that kind of history. Glastonbury is also said to be the place where King Arthur is buried. So, one way or another, it's a very special place and it has a very definite vibe. There's simply no denying that it has a distinct aura. Ever since the sixties I've been interested in constellations and cosmology and cosmic sounds. Martineau's book also goes into sound — the music of the spheres — where each of the planets sounds a different note. This, to me, is very 'hippie' — this whole idea of just enjoying the simple things in life and being in tune with nature. 'We came together with / Our secrets blown' — we're not trying to hide anything, we're naked out in the rain, and the cosmos is going on about its business. When you think of these larger things, it's all so humbling. Here we are, these little specks on this planet, which itself is a speck in the universe, and yet at the heart of it all, you have this pattern of the lotus flower which at least a couple of religions — Buddhism and Hinduism — have divined as an important symbol. Another thing I learnt from Martineau's book is that every so often Venus passes very close to the Earth; the phenomenon is known as 'the kiss of Venus’. That was enough to fire my imagination. That's really what got me going. ‘Two passing planets in the / Sweet, sweet summer air'. It's as if, as people, we're passing planets — a bit like ships that pass in the night. The phrase ‘Now moving slowly / We circle through the square' reminds me of ‘through the fair', a phrase used in a lot of ballads, including the traditional Irish ballad, ‘She Moved Through the Fair’. The idea of 'squaring the circle' — of doing something impossible — is also lurking somewhere in the undergrowth of that phrase. There's a sense in which every song is overcoming tremendous odds to get written at all.

Paul McCartney on The Kiss of Venus, from The Lyrics, 2021

My young love said to me, "My mother won't mind And my father won't slight you For your lack of kind." And she stepped away from me And this she did say: "It will not be long, love, Till our wedding day." As she stepped away from me And she moved through the fair And fondly I watched her Move here and move there And then she turned homeward With one star awake Like the swan in the evening Moves over the lake. The people were saying, No two e'er were wed But one had a sorrow That never was said And I smiled as she passed With her goods and her gear, And that was the last That I saw of my dear. Last night she came to me, My dead love came in So softly she came That her feet made no din As she laid her hand on me And this she did say "It will not be long, love, Till our wedding day."

She Moved Through the Fair, adapted by Padraic Colum, 1909

[bodhbdearg]

Most modern renditions of "She Moved Through the Fair" are based on a 1950s rendition by Margaret Barry, an Irish Traveller singer. Though Barry's version was based on another recording, the rawness of her singing inspired subsequent singers and helped make the song a beloved standard. Another example of Travellers being the ones to preserve and maintain songs that might otherwise have been forgotten.

The definitive version, of course, is this perfect bel canto by the late great Sinéad O'Connor: https://youtu.be/Tjh1hFg42AQ?is=oVGu8Bl5UXLW_02Q

[asurrogateblog]

the chord at the beginning of a hard day’s night and the chord at the end of a day in the life are married and make sweet sweet lesbian love

[wontyoucomeouttoplay]

New Weekly Article!

In this week's article (our first during Pride Month!): "Who cares if we look like a girl or boy? Paul McCartney and gender envy", reader Mason @waxywolf explores Paul McCartney's fashion sense in the 1970s and how, to modern eyes, it can look like a relaxed and fluid gender presentation. Mason explores the concept of "gender envy" and how Paul's image influenced his own gender journey. Not to be missed!

Have a wonderful week, Beatle People!! ✌️

Who cares if we look like a girl or boy?

Paul McCartney and gender envy

[ronanxing]

lets match mullets and cause gender envy

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Strawberry Fields Forever being John's leitmotif and The Fool On The Hill being Paul's (both IMO), and the way the instrumental break from Never Know actually evokes both songs at once, the recorder sound over those wistful chords.... JohnandPaul AS music.

[ceofjohnlennon]

A new scanned photo of John Lennon photographed by Jim Marshall at The Beatles' live concert at Cow Palace, August 31, 1965. Thank you, my friend Anne, for the scan! The new book by Jim Marshall looks amazing.

[conditioned-to-obey]

"Poor thing." (condescending) (flirting)