The five best songs Paul McCartney wrote about Linda
Musical history is packed with some truly iconic couples, but of them all, there was arguably no love as pure and sweet as the one shared by Paul and Linda McCartney.
While other duos brought drama or gossip that people are still hung up on today, the McCartneys were characterised simply by their peace. For 29 years, before Linda’s devastating death, they enjoyed a beautiful life together that encapsulated both simple domestic bliss and exciting adventures.
They were collaborators and toured the world together in Wings, writing songs together and playing them to huge crowds. But mostly, they were just two spouses who completely adored one another. From the moment they met was set, and as they refused to ever be parted for too long, it never faded.
Paul McCartney was always the king of the love song, proven during his time in The Beatles. But after he met Linda, they only got more poignant and more moving as he found his ultimate move. Singing straight up, “la la la la lovely Linda,” she became the face of all his sweetest words as well as the harmony performing them with him.
Out of them all, though, these five stand out as the most adoring of all Paul’s tunes about his beloved wife.
The five best songs Paul McCartney wrote about Linda:
‘Two Of Us’
“Two of us riding nowhere / Spending someone’s hard-earned pay,” McCartney sings in one of his lightest love songs. On the Let It Be record, this opening tune is undeniably one of his sweetest tunes.
It’s a gorgeous little holiday song that he started crafting when he and Linda first started dating. At first, it was only ever going to be about that and about their adventures around the globe and the joy at returning home each time with their love still in tow and their life just as fun, whether they were on a trip or moving through their day-to-day life. In that simple image of the two standing side by side in their raincoats, it captures the cuteness of their instant attachment.
However, as the Beatles were beginning to split during the making of the record, it took on a new meaning. “You and me chasing paper / Getting nowhere,” Paul sings in a line that was added later, representing his complex relationship with John Lennon as well.
By the time it came out, it was an ode to them both – to his lifelong friendship with Lennon, but originating as a song looking forward to a life of adventure with Linda.
‘Maybe I’m Amazed’
While it might feel obvious to pick such a huge anthem, the tenderness held in ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ feels genuinely and timelessly staggering. Written during Paul McCartney’s period of depression following the break-up of The Beatles, it was a moment where he retreated home and was held up by his family life and namely the love and support of Linda, as he said with awe in an interview, “she believes in me – constantly.”
But ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ isn’t just a song of love or thanks, it’s a complete outpouring of the fear McCartney was feeling at the time and his total gratitude that Linda was helping him hold it. “Maybe I’m amazed at the way I really need you,” he practically wails as he looks at his uncertain life outside of the band with anxiety, but then looks towards Linda as a remarkable strength and anchor, making him feel like everything will be fine, or at least helping him make sense of it all. Barrelling towards one of his most emotional and impactful sonic climaxes, it’s a love song for the ages and a ballad like no other.
‘Every Night’
“You’ve gotta imagine having your three best mates suddenly be against you,” Linda McCartney once remarked about Paul’s experience following the band’s breakdown. If it wasn’t for her impact, it genuinely seems like perhaps Paul would have fully retired from music and run away from public life in his devastation and depression. But similar to ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, ‘Every Night’ praises Linda for not letting that happen, and that she held his hand through the hard times.
But unlike the loud, balladic adoration on ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, ‘Every Night’ is more lo-fi and more outright. “Every day, I don’t want to get up / Get out of my bed,” McCartney sings, laying out the depressive period he was in where he truly didn’t want to do anything, go anywhere, see anyone, at all. The only thing he wanted was his love, singing, “I just want to stay in and be with you.”
Here, his love for Linda is almost wordless. It’s simply a light-hearted whistle, a little ditty of joy in the chorus as the one light in the dark of a hard time, just as Linda herself was.
‘Long Haired Lady’
When McCartney first decided to record with a full band again for his solo project, Linda was the first involved. Ram became a collaboration between the two as he taught her to play keys, got her in on vocals and was writing some truly gorgeous songs about their life together, capturing the fun and joy that they were basking in.
The best of them all is undeniably ‘Long Haired Lady’, where the couple bounce sections of the song back and forth between them. But in Paul’s sections, the adoration is so sweet it’s almost sickly. “I belong to the girl with the flashing eyes,” he proudly sings, throwing out statements like “I’m the lucky man she will hypnotise.”
But the sweetest moment comes when they join their voices at the end. “Love is long,” they sing on repeat as the ultimate ode to their domestic bliss and married life, looking forward to the years they’ll spend together.
‘My Love’
Paul and Linda McCartney were famously attached at the hip. In their entire 29-year marriage, the longest period they spent apart was 11 days, when Paul was arrested in Japan. But overwhelmingly, they had a rule that they didn’t spend nights apart. The reason? “I guess it’s because we just adore each other.”
But in reality, the song was crafted way earlier in their relationship. Paul actually started writing it back in 1969, a few years after the pair had met and in the year that they would marry. When the track then came out later in 1973 from their joint band Wings, critics slammed it for being too overtly sentimental, as if overt sentiment isn’t what love is all about.
There is something about this song that feels reminiscent of the best romantic works across the board. “And when I go away / I know my heart can stay with my love / It’s understood / It’s in the hands of my love,” Paul sings, drawing similarity to EE Cummings gorgeous line, “I carry your heart with me(I carry it in my heart) I am never without it,” saying beautifully, “anywhere I go you go…”
