‘Temporary Secretary’: Paul McCartney is a timeless inspiration to Arooj Aftab
Pakistani-American singer-songwriter Arooj Aftab grew up with limited access to the usual canon of pop-rock figureheads that most young Western artists are alternately inspired by and inspired to rebel against. By the time she left Pakistan and moved to America in her late teens, Aftab’s interest in experimental jazz and electronic music had already formed, making her potential entryways into “classic rock” all the more unconventional.
And so, in a world in which ‘Yesterday’, ‘Hey Jude’, and ‘Band on the Run’ continue to reductively define the often experimentally batshit career of one Sir Paul McCartney, it’s a bit refreshing to hear that someone became a fan by responding, first and foremost, to one of his weirder and riskier moments.
“The first time I heard ‘Temporary Secretary’, I was in my late twenties somewhere in Brooklyn,” Aftab told Stereogum in 2022, recalling her introduction to the second track on Paul’s 1980 solo album, McCartney II. “I immediately thought I was listening to Aphex Twin or some underground electronic artist with a moniker that had more weddings than letters. I was absolutely floored when my friend sighed and said, ‘I love McCartney.’ I made him eject the CD and show me it was in fact the Englishman behind ‘Hey Jude’.”
When some folks think of synthesiser Macca, the mind races to Christmastime and simply having a wonderful attempt at cherishing the campest period in the calendar. However, McCartney II, and ‘Temporary Secretary’ in particular, reveal a much more interesting and less depressing electronic playground for the ex-Beatle and soon-to-be ex-Wing (ex-Winger? ex-Wingman?) to climb around on.
Still a couple of years shy of his 40th birthday, McCartney wasn’t in a laurel resting stage of his career just yet. This album – in which he plays basically all the instruments – takes some fun forays into unexpected late ‘70s influences: funk (‘Tug of War’), post-punk (‘Frozen Jap’), and even a dash of psychobilly (‘Bogey Music’). Lyrically, he also helped plant the seeds for one of the biggest R&B hits of the 1990s (“Waterfalls”).
The most interesting experiments on McCartney II, though, are probably the former Beatle’s reactions to the new electronic movement, with elements of Devo, Brian Eno, Giorgio Moroder, and Kraftwerk clearly informing tracks like ‘Front Parlour’, ‘Summer’s Day Song’, and the song that caught Arooj Aftab’s ear, ‘Temporary Secretary’.
“I’ve always respected Sir Paul McCartney,” Aftab explained, “But I had no idea he could summon this type of masterpiece; a cantorial mix of slime and crunch. On the album artwork, Paul looks whimsically puzzled — I wore the same expression when I first heard this bouncy 1980 anthem.”
Opening up with a plinky plonky synth part straight from Trans Europe Express, ‘Temporary Secretary’ is undeniably a “weird” song with no immediately clear sonic cousins in the Beatles or Wings discographies, but McCartney didn’t seem to view it as a throw-away experiment. It was one of three singles released off McCartney II and, lyrically speaking, isn’t actually a far cry from the more playful character studies of the late Fabs. The sought-after secretary could just as easily be the one who came in through the bathroom window. The fellow is seeking her, um, services, which could also be played by Maxwell Edison or perhaps Mean Mr Mustard.
‘Temporary Secretary’ is no anthem. It has no meaningful message, and nobody is likely to request it at a wedding. But at the dawn of a new decade, unknowingly recorded not long before he would lose his greatest songwriting partner, this song does find McCartney still willing to throw a curveball at an audience that would have been much happier with the same old, same old. And while he might not have won over a ton of new devotees in 1980, the instant fandom of a talented artist like Arooj Aftab proves that some curveballs take longer than others to find the strike zone.
