Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo picks his favourite Paul McCartney song
Paul McCartney turned 80 earlier this year, a landmark achievement for the pop and rock legendary icon celebrated worldwide. McCartney helped change the future of pop music in the Beatles, and when they sadly, yet understandably, split up in 1970, he didn’t stop there. Instead, he pressed on in a solo career with an unrivalled determination.
Recently, many famous musicians picked their favourite McCartney-penned track to celebrate the legendary rock hero’s birthday. For instance, Mac DeMarco selected ‘The Back Seat Of My Car’ from Macca’s solo album Ram, Lindsay Buckingham chose ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ from the Beatles’ Revolver, while Jarvis Cocker opted for ‘Martha My Dear’ from the Fab Four’s The Beatles (The White Album).
Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo also revealed his favourite McCartney song as part of the feature. He said: “I didn’t like it at first, and now I really like ‘Live And Let Die.’ I heard it a few different times, and I love it. Thinking about him writing that after he’d been in the Beatles. Like, who are they? Are they the best pop band that ever happened? A lot of people would say that’s true.”
He added: “I started thinking about the way the song was structured and the lyrics and the instrumentation. I judged everything by the material all those guys made before they split up. I’m hoping the things you heard on their solo records were representative of what they brought to the band. Tomorrow you ask me the same question, and I’d give you a different song.”
‘Live and Let Die’ was the theme song from the James Bond film of the same name, released in 1973 and starring Roger Moore. McCartney wrote the song with his wife Linda and performed it with his band Wings. It also served as the moment at which McCartney was reunited with the Beatles’ producer George Martin.
Mark Mothersbaugh also revealed an interesting story that shows that the admiration went both ways. He said: “Can I tell you a McCartney story? I got a call, and I think it was because of his son. Paul had been a Devo head. As a matter of fact, he heard our ‘Private Secretary’ song, and then he did his ‘Temporary Secretary’, and he used a Midwestern accent when he sang it. I thought that was interesting.”
He added, “But many years later, this was probably six or eight years ago or something — I got asked to put together a playlist for his party. Whatever year it was, I had just found out about YouTube — I had kept ignoring stuff; I was so busy making things I didn’t want to get obsessed with the internet. Then I found out you could go on and pull these songs off. I made this playlist originally as a joke because Devo was playing in Brazil. I took ‘One Note Samba’, and I was curious how many versions of it there were, and I found 40-50. I put them all on this one CD. I loved that CD, and I sent that to Paul, 80 minutes of the song. He called up and thanked me for it later.”
Stream the song, below.
