Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Yesterday (1965)

Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

Chosen because June 18 is Paul McCartney's 80th birthday. 

1) Paul McCartney sings that yesterday all his troubles seemed so far away. Can you recall a time when your life seemed carefree? I don't think life is ever carefree, it's just that your cares are proportional to your stage of life. One of my coworkers has a 3-year-old son and he's been acting up lately. This new demand for constant attention coincides with the birth of his first cousin. His mother suspects the little man is feeling insecure because he's not "the baby" anymore. That's a major issue when you're three and don't have a lot of words to ask questions or express yourself. He hardly feels "carefree." He's dealing with some serious toddler shit!

2) He has always insisted the melody to "Yesterday" came to him in a dream. Did you dream last night? Not that I recall.

3) The lyrics were inspired, in part, by the death of Paul's mother when he was 14. Thirteen years later, he named his daughter Mary after her. Are you named after anyone? If you're a parent, did you name your children in honor of anyone? No. In fact, my dad had an aunt with a name very similar to mine and my mom didn't like her, so she changed the spelling of my name slightly. She didn't want anyone to think I was named after his toxic auntie.

4) Over the years, Paul has performed on bass, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and drums, but not the first instrument he owned: the trumpet. A present from his dad for his 14th birthday, he exchanged the trumpet for a guitar because, "you can't sing while playing the trumpet." Have you more recently a) exchanged a gift, b) donated a gift you didn't want to charity or c) regifted? Probably "b" or "c." I don't do "a" so much because it can be a hassle.

5) Paul grew up seeing how much his dad enjoyed placing a bet and then listening to the horse race from his favorite armchair in the living room, so he took his salary from making the film A Hard Day's Night and surprised his father with a racehorse. After father and son proudly watched Drake's Drum win at Liverpool's Aintree Racecourse, the horse retired to Paul's farm in Scotland. If money were no object, what gift would you give a loved one? I would handle ongoing prescriptions for my friend John. He doesn't like to talk about it so I don't know the details, but I know he finds paying for his daily heart meds a challenge.

6) Paul is considered one of the world's wealthiest entertainers, worth an estimated $1.2 billion. This month, as he approaches his 80th birthday, he is winding up a 16-city North American tour, during which he performs 30+ songs in a 2 hour, 40 minute show. If you had all the money you needed, would you continue to work? Or would you kick back and relax? I wouldn't work for salary anymore, but I'd borrow another page from Paul and devote myself to project I believe in. Paul took the abandoned building where he went to high school and turned it into the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. LIPA's mission is to "provide education for performers and those who make performance possible." Though instead of performing arts, I'd like to support work with animals. That's where my passion lies.

Sir Paul and the Queen @ the opening of LIPA in 1996

7) Paul first joined the Beatles when he was recruited into the band by John Lennon. They met as teenagers when Paul showed up at a church picnic where John's band was performing. Paul recalls pedaling over on his bike to hear them, his guitar flung over this back. When did you most recently ride a bike? Probably more than a decade. Unless a stationary bike counts, but I haven't been on one of those since February 2020 when covid hit and the health clubs closed.

8) Paul met his first wife, Linda, at a London club and then again four days later when she was a photographer at a press party for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. Think about one of your romances. Where did you meet? At work. He was very, very smart but was deficient in people skills. Everyone was so critical of him that I felt I had to be on his side. I'd tease him that he was a cyborg who looked human but behaved like a machine. We didn't become romantically involved until the company went under and we were both unemployed.

9) TV journalist Barbara Walters played matchmaker for Paul and his current wife, Nancy. During the summer of 2007, when Paul was vacationing in The Hamptons, Barbara repeatedly and intentionally invited them to the same parties and picnics. Have you had any success in a matchmaking scenario -- as either the matchmaker or one of the dates? Nope.