A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
In 1970, the Beatles broke up. Paul McCartney and his family left the chaos of Abbey Road for a quieter life on a farm in Scotland, but soon the itch came back. He wanted to get back to writing silly love songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SILLY LOVE SONGS")
WINGS: (Singing) And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know 'cause here I go again.
MARTÍNEZ: Paul McCartney's new band was called Wings, and they became one of the biggest hitmakers of the 1970s. McCartney chatted with us about his new book, "Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run." And we started where the Beatles ended.
PAUL MCCARTNEY: I didn't really see it coming. The sort of giveaway was that we weren't spending a lot of time with each other. Once we started to, you know, get girlfriends and wives, once John, for instance, hooked up with Yoko, that was, you know, telling. I could see that he now wanted to go in another direction. And I'd just hooked up with Linda. I didn't need to go in another direction. We could have just continued as we were. But things were changing. But at the time, it was quite a shock.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you were willing to, you know, keep giving this a try, it sounded like.
MCCARTNEY: Yeah. Sure. And with the Beatles, it would have been great. I was trying to encourage us to sort of go back and sort of start from square one, but in actual fact, I did that with Wings. It was a kind of strange move, really, but the alternative was to have a big - what they would have called a supergroup. I mean, looking back on it now and reading the Wings book, it was like, my God, I'm a maniac.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
MCCARTNEY: I am a total maniac.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JET")
WINGS: (Singing) I can almost remember their funny faces that time you told them you were going to be marrying soon. And, Jet, I thought the only lonely place was on the moon. Jet. Ooh.
MARTÍNEZ: Tell me, though - post-Beatles, now you're on your farm, your sheep farm in Scotland. You're with Linda, the kids. Where were you creatively at that point?
MCCARTNEY: I was in a simpler frame of mind, and I think I was in a freer state of mind. I remember thinking - when I was with the Beatles, we had our office in London, and at Christmastime, someone would buy me a Christmas tree. And then when I was up in Scotland, I thought, this is great. No one's going to buy me a Christmas tree. I've got to go and get my own.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
MCCARTNEY: I mean, you know, something as simple as that...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Yeah.
MCCARTNEY: ...Felt like total freedom. It was like, this is great. I love this.
MARTÍNEZ: So it sounds like the juices started to flow, for sure.
MCCARTNEY: Yeah. You know, it really was like a rebirth. And then the craziest thing was my lovely wife, Linda. We would sing around the house, and I always remember thinking, wow. She's really got something.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
MCCARTNEY: But she's completely inexperienced.
MARTÍNEZ: I mean, did you have to pitch her to be in the band, or did she want to be?
MCCARTNEY: No, she was very cute. She could tell I wanted to put a band together. And I said, do you want to be in it? She sort of said, yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIVE AND LET DIE")
WINGS: (Singing) When you were young and your heart was an open book, you used to say live and let live. You know you did. You know you did. You know you did. But if this ever-changing world in which we're living makes you give in and cry, say live and let die.
MCCARTNEY: We had a lot of fun.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
MCCARTNEY: It was crazy. There were certainly moments that were fraught with danger. And, you know, it was...
MARTÍNEZ: Oh. Like what? Like what moments? Please tell me.
MCCARTNEY: Oh, my God. We were playing crazy little gigs. I had a song that we used to do called "Wild Life." The intro is on piano, so Linda had the intro. I used to say, we'd like to do a song now called "Wild Life." One, two, three. One, two, three. Nothing. And I look over at Linda, and she's looking kind of, you know, perplexed. Oh, hell. How does this go? So I think, oh, OK. I'll show her. So I walk over and I go, OK. And I've forgotten it. So we're - bloody hell. The tours (ph). Well, the - luckily, the audience thought this was, like, a sort of gag.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
MCCARTNEY: Is this rehearsed?
(SOUNDBITE OF WINGS SONG, "WILD LIFE")
MCCARTNEY: And then suddenly it clicked in, and Linda remembered it. And she started it, and we did the song.
(SOUNDBITE OF WINGS SONG, "WILD LIFE")
MARTÍNEZ: When Wings, you know, was touring British universities, playing covers, playing Wings songs, but no Beatles songs, I mean, it sounded like in the book that you really kind of rejected any of the doors that would open by you being a Beatle.
MCCARTNEY: Well, you know, at the time, I thought, I'm trying to make a new band here. I'm trying to do this new thing. You know, and promoters would say, well, would you just - please just do "Yesterday." And we said, no. We're not doing it. We did it that way in order to build a Wings repertoire.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
MCCARTNEY: Once that happened, it was around about '76, when we had a record - "Band On The Run." Suddenly, now we had songs that the audience would recognize that were our songs, Wings songs. So then I felt easier about, oh, yeah. You know, here's a Beatles song. So now I intersperse them, but I felt I had to establish the identity of Wings first.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAND ON THE RUN")
WINGS: (Singing) If I ever get out of here, thought of giving it all away to a registered charity. All I need is a pint a day if I ever get out of here.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Sir Paul McCartney. His new book is "Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run." Paul, thank you very much.
MCCARTNEY: Thank you. It's been fun. And listen - NPR is great and must always survive and educate us all in the ways of life.
MARTÍNEZ: Perfect. Perfect way to end it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAND ON THE RUN")
WINGS: (Singing) Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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