The misogynistic story of Linda McCartney’s isolated ‘Hey Jude’ vocals
In music history, but especially in Beatles history, it seems that so many people are so keen to point and laugh at the women. There is the classic, bland and outright incorrect theory that Yoko Ono’s mere presence caused the band to split, and then there’s this, the story of Linda McCartney’s endlessly mocked addition to ‘Hey Jude’.
Of course, this comes as no surprise. Women’s contribution to the world of rock is absolutely immeasurable. Sister Rosetta Tharpe invented the whole thing, while names like Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush, Patti Smith, Betty Davis and countless more pushed the genre forward, pioneering sounds and racing ahead of the pack. Yet still, it’s a boys club, largely due to the fact that the classic ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ image always seems to take a man’s shape.
Women’s work is so often forgotten or belittled. In the world of The Beatles, take Yoko Ono as the ultimate example. A particularly irritating faction of fans paint the artist as a villain, claims that she split the band up, or that she ruined it all for the sake of her desperate bid to be famous. They’re ignorant of the fact that Ono was already a famous name long before she met John Lennon. She was already notable in the incredible respected art circle that, really, Lennon was the one trying to break into.
With her vast experience in sonic art long before the couple got together, do you really think a song like ‘Revolution 9’ would have ever been dreamt up if it wasn’t for Ono’s inspiration and influence? Surely we should be celebrating these women for what they gave to the band, rather than constantly acting as if they brought nothing but claiming they caused damage.
Linda McCartney got similar treatment. When the Beatles split and Paul moved into a solo career, quickly releasing RAM, which was credited to both the husband and wife, onlookers were quick to claim that surely Linda couldn’t have actually helped write those songs.
Her contributions to Paul’s solo works, or to their work is Wings, is constantly belittled or misbelieved as if a woman could never write, or could never stand next to a man as looming as Paul and be his peer. But she was, and that’s proven time and time again despite the continued mocking.
This one is a more blatant example, though. During a 1990 concert in Knebworth, Paul McCartney was joined on stage by Linda to do a setlist packed with Beatles tracks. Soon after, the sound desk recording of the concert, isolated to just Linda’s backing vocals, was being shared around and mocked for the wobbly sound and dud notes.
People claimed it as a kind of ‘got ya’, as if this isolated track once and for all proved that Linda was untalented. However, Paul jumped to her defence, sharing video footage of the concert that shows the singer dancing around during the song, so naturally, the vocals are wobbly and jagged because she was moving.
No one sounds good singing while shaking their limbs about, but still, the misogynistic crowd couldn’t resist a jab.
