Sir Paul McCartney reveals that parents inspired the Beatles and solo songs

Sir Paul McCartney said his parents were the “original inspiration” for many of his songs and a huge influence on how he approached his music.

The revelation of the former Beatle came in a series of insights he provided for an exhibit of memorabilia from his collection at the British Library.

Includes family photos from his early years in Liverpool, drawings and a postcard from the Beatles in Hamburg.

Curator Andy Linehan said the breadth of the archive is “quite exceptional”.

The show includes 35 unpublished objects from the singer’s personal collection and his quotes about them.

He said that although there had been “so many” influences on his songwriting, his parents had the biggest impact.

“Thinking about the songs I’ve written at every stage of my career, I realized that my parents, Jim and Mary McCartney, were the original inspiration for so much I’ve written,” he said.

“My mom was very reassuring and, like so many women, she was also the one who kept our family going.

“It kept morale high.”

He also said that his father “was loaded with colorful expressions, as so many people in Liverpool still are today.”

“He loved playing with words, juggling them in his head and had a lot of little sayings that were sometimes nonsense, sometimes functional, but always quite lyrical,” he added.

“When he shook your hand, he said, ‘Put it there if it weighs a ton.'”

Sir Paul later used those words in the chorus of his song Put It There, which he released as a single in 1990.

His original drawing for the single’s artwork is included in the exhibition, along with a collection of photographs taken by his family, including one of him writing the song I Saw Her Standing There with John Lennon at his home in Forthlin Road in Liverpool.

Mr. Linehan said it was “quite exceptional” for Sir Paul to have kept so much archival material “in such an orderly fashion”, while fellow curator Greg Buzwell added that they offered a glimpse into the “freestyle” approach of the musician to songwriting.

“Paul wrote for inspiration,” he said.

“He just saw something and said, ‘I’ll write something about it.’

“I think he took inspiration from almost everything.”

The free exhibition opens Friday at the London library and runs until March 13, 2022.

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