Paul McCartney - hey jude live back in the us, 2002

"Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" to comfort Julian Lennon, John’s 5-year-old son, during his parents’ divorce. Julian only found out the song was about him years later... and by then, Paul had been closer to him during that painful time than his own father was. John even mistakenly thought the song was about him and Yoko at first. So the world’s most famous comfort song is literally a little boy’s heartbreak... and he didn’t even know it was for him until he was grown up."

Paul McCartney - we can work it out live unplugged the official bootleg, 1991

"Unlike other artists who appeared on the show with acoustic instruments plugged into amplifiers, McCartney's instruments were entirely unplugged. Microphones were carefully placed close to guitars, pianos, etc. to pick up the sound (this can be seen on the album cover, where a large rectangular microphone is pictured in front of McCartney's acoustic guitar)."

Paul McCartney - band on the run live tripping the live fantastic, 1990

"Band on the Run" is a classic Wings track from their 1973 album of the same name, written by Paul McCartney during a challenging period in Lagos, Nigeria. It became one of McCartney's biggest solo-era hits, blending rock energy with a narrative escape theme. In 1990, McCartney revived it for his first major solo world tour (1989–1990), which marked his return to live performances after a decade-long hiatus due to family priorities and legal issues with the Beatles' catalog."

Paul McCartney - band on the run live wings over america, 1976

"Basically, there are two things that rock bands do: they make an album and they go on tour. Since Paul McCartney fervently wanted to believe Wings was a real rock band, he had the group record an album or two and then took them on the road. In March of 1976 he released Wings at the Speed of Sound and launched a tour of America, following which he released Wings Over America, a triple-album set that re-created an entire concert from various venues. It was a massive set list, running over two hours and featuring 30 songs, and it was well received at the time, partially because he revived some Beatles tunes, partially because it wasn't the disaster some naysayers expected, and mostly because - like the tour itself - it was the first chance that millions of Beatles fans had to hear McCartney in concert properly (the Beatles had toured, to be sure, and had played before millions of people between 1963 and 1966, but as a result of the relatively primitive equipment they used and the frenzied, omnipresent screaming of the mid-'60s teen audiences at their shows, few of those present had actually "heard" the group)."

Paul McCartney - all my loving live back in the us, 2002

"In a candid and perhaps unguarded moment, Paul McCartney told Guitar Player in 1990, "What do they say? 'A good artist borrows, a great artist steals' – or something like that. That makes The Beatles great artists because we stole a lot of stuff." McCartney wasn't admitting to theft. He was saying that The Beatles didn't operate in a vacuum and they assimilated what was happening around them to create original music. Their "yeah, yeah, yeahs" had previously been used by Elvis Presley and The Isley Brothers and their introduction to "I Feel Fine" mimics Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step". When McCartney woke up one morning with a beautiful melody in his head, he was sure he had nicked it. After friends told him it was original, he recorded it as "Yesterday". I would speculate that McCartney had heard Nat "King" Cole's "Answer Me, My Love". The mood and the tempo are similar and Nat even sings, "You were mine yesterday, I believed that love was here to stay." Written in 1963, "All My Loving" was McCartney's first attempt at writing an MOR standard, but play "Kathy's Waltz" from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. You might think that a modern jazz group was improvising around "All My Loving", but "Kathy's Waltz" was recorded in 1959."

Paul McCartney - silly love songs live wings over america, 1976

"He did the best thing possible, which was to write songs about things that appealed to him, whether it was silly love songs or rock’n’roll. He wanted to experiment and be free to do what took his fancy. Things in everyday life. Cooking. Making breakfast."

Paul McCartney - freedom live, 2002

"McCartney performed the song on his 2002 Driving USA Tour and it appeared on the live album Back in the U.S. However, he chose not to perform it on subsequent tours, such as his 2005 The ‘US’ Tour, as he felt the song had acquired a militaristic meaning with the Bush administration’s Operation Iraqi Freedom. In an interview, McCartney stated: “And I thought it was a great sentiment, and immediately post-9/11, I thought it was the right sentiment. But it got hijacked. And it got a bit of a militaristic meaning attached itself to it, and you found Mr. Bush using that kind of idea rather a lot in [a way] I felt altered the meaning of the song.”

Paul McCartney - hey jude live, 1990

"I started with the idea "Hey Jules," which was Julian, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces"

Paul McCartney - here there and everywhere, 1984

"On the back of the LP cover, a remark alerts the listener: This record is longer than usual but due to the available playing time on a vinyl disc, some editing of the soundtrack has been necessary to retain full volume and dynamic range. Even longer versions exist on cassette and compact disc."

Paul McCartney - hello goodbye live, 2002

"McCartney has performed "Hello, Goodbye" on many of his tours as a solo artist. These include 2002's Driving World Tour and 2003's Back in the World Tour, when he opened his concerts with the song, and the On the Run Tour in 2011–12. In addition, throughout his 1989–90 world tour, McCartney segued the coda onto the end of "Put It There". This medley was included on McCartney's 1990 triple album Tripping the Live Fantastic, while a full live rendition of "Hello, Goodbye" appeared on Back in the U.S. in 2002."

Paul McCartney - things we said today live, 1990

"McCartney wrote the song in May 1964 while cruising the Caribbean aboard a yacht called Happy Days with his then-girlfriend Jane Asher. Music critic Ian MacDonald said, “The sombre lyric—provoked by the frustrating interruptions of a relationship between two career people—matches the lowering gloom of the music.“

Paul McCartney - can't buy me love live, 1989

"Paul McCartney's return to the stage in 1989 for the Flowers in the Dirt tour was heavily hyped, since it was not only his first extensive tour since the '70s, but also marked the first time he incorporated large portions of the Beatles' catalog into his set list."

Paul McCartney - so bad, 1983

"McCartney largely composed the song by improvising on the family piano with his children around him."

Paul McCartney - yvonne, 2000

"By the time Paul was writing the music for his Press To Play album, he was in full collaboration with Eric [Stewart], who ended up co-writing eight of the album’s tracks with Paul. One of the out-takes from Press To Play that Paul wrote with Eric, a song with the working title “Yvonne,” ended up given to him instead of going on Paul’s album. Eric changed the title to “Yvonne’s The One” and recorded it with 10cc nearly a decade later for their 1995 Mirror, Mirror album. The 10cc version features Eric on vocals and Paul guesting on rhythm guitar."

Paul McCartney - ballroom dancing, 1982

"Like most people, I’ve got memories that go back to when I was a teenager, like when George Harrison and I used to go to the local dance and neither of us would ever dare to ask a girl to dance until the last waltz. It was then that we thought, ‘Oh God, we’ve wasted all our money when all we came here for was to touch a girl. We’ve got to do it. Okay, let’s waltz, come on.’ We were always too shy but we’d always try and grab someone for that last dance. But most times we’d get refused. We never really got into ballroom dancing but that was where you went if you wanted to dance."

Paul McCartney - richard cory cover live, 1976

"Richard Cory" is a song written by Paul Simon in early 1965, and recorded by Simon and Garfunkel for their second studio album, Sounds of Silence. The song was based on Edwin Arlington Robinson's 1897 poem of the same title. The inspiration for this song comes from the poem that was required reading in English class while Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel were students at Forest Hills High School in New York City."

Paul McCartney - getting better live, 2002

"he's playing for the crowd even more than usual, filling out the set list with sentimental favorites"

The Techniques - world without love, 1964

"McCartney wrote the song when he was 16. When he moved into the London home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher in 1963, sharing a room with her brother Peter Asher, who asked McCartney if he could use the song after he and Gordon Waller had signed a recording contract as Peter and Gordon. McCartney described John Lennon's reaction to the song: "The funny first line always used to please John. 'Please lock me away –' 'Yes, okay.' End of song." Lennon said of the song that "I think that was resurrected from the past. ... I think he had that whole song before the Beatles. ... That has the line 'Please lock me away' that we always used to crack up at."

Paul McCartney - let it be live, 1990

"Let it Be was always Paul’s song, he wrote it and it was about his mother Paul was the lead singer, however, I did hear a rehearsal demo where John did sing the opening, more like playfully singing and it was John sort of helping Paul work out the construction of the song but it was always intended to be Paul as the lead singer, often times during rehearsal’s other Beatles members would sometimes playfully sing each other’s songs, either as a joke or in helping each other out as a team, but the final recording was all Paul and the others as back up vocals and instruments."

Paul McCartney - bluebird, 1973

“a metaphor for the transcendent power of love and the liberation of the human spirit from mental and physical bondage”