Paul McCartney has revealed the inspiration behind the lyric “I said the wrong thing” in the Beatles’ hit song Yesterday.
McCartney said the line may have been unconsciously inspired by the moment he mocked his mother for sounding “classy.”
Many people think that the lyrics “I said something wrong, now I miss yesterday” are about a breakup in a relationship.
However, McCartney explained on the A Life in Lyrics podcast that the lyrics may actually refer to a conversation that “embarrassed” his mother.
he said: “Sometimes it’s only when you look back that you can appreciate it. I distinctly remember feeling very embarrassed one day because I had embarrassed my girlfriend’s mother.
“We were out in the backyard, and she was speaking gracefully. She was from Ireland and was a nurse, so she had a status above the ground.
“So she had something in mind and said something that we thought was kind of classy. And it was also a little bit Welsh. She had connections. Yes, her aunt Dilys was Welsh.
“I know she said something like, ‘Paul, can you ask me if I’m going?’
“I went to ‘Arsk!’!” Arsk!it is listen mother. ”And she was a little confused. Later, she remembers thinking, “God, I wish I hadn’t said that.” And that stuck with me. After she died, I thought, “Oh my god, I really hope so.”
McCartney wrote the song when he was 24, nearly 10 years after his mother Mary died of cancer.
Yesterday was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1997 and was named the number one pop song of all time by Rolling Stone and MTV in 2000.
The song is also one of the most covered songs in the history of music recording, with 2,200 versions in existence.
The Beatles musician previously said his mother’s death helped him express his feelings of loss.
he said: “There is so much going on during our youth and formative years that we may not be able to understand it all.”
“There are some little things that I know people will forgive me for, because they’re not big things, they’re little things. But they’re little things, and even the rubber If I could get it off, it would be even better if I could just rub that moment away,” I think.
“And when she passed away, I wondered, ‘Did I say something wrong?’ Are we remembering that funny little thing?”
“So, I don’t know. Does something like this happen? Do you ever unknowingly include a girl’s lyrics in a song? [about a lost lover] Is it really your dead mother? I think that may be true. If you look at the lyrics, that’s pretty true. ”
McCartney’s podcast, A Life in Lyrics, explores the inspiration behind McCartney’s songwriting with poet Paul Muldoon over two seasons and 24 episodes.
