Paul McCartney: Chaos And Creation At Abbey Road

A few years ago I was speaking with an accomplished songwriter friend and I told him that I had just seen Paul McCartney in concert and how it was an 11 on a scale of 10. ” Of course, that’s like seeing Beethoven,” he replied. Yeah, Sir Paul may eventually be viewed that way, but no matter how you look at his career, he’s given us some of the most memorable and enjoyable music ever.

Here’s a great video of a television show that Paul did at Abbey Road Studios where he talks about how he came up with the idea for many of his songs (like “Blackbird,” “Lady Madonna,” and especially, the Mellotron part in “Strawberry Fields”).

It’s very cool to see some of the old Abbey Road gear, as Paul plays bits from his famous and latest tunes (this was more or less a promo for his latest album at the time). He also builds a song up from scratch where he plays all the instruments.