“It’s interesting and shocking”: How Paul McCartney got his first number one song with his weirdest effort
Finding some discrepancies within the discographies of the former Beatles members isn’t exactly unlikely. After all, each of them explored the boundaries of artistic expression to varying degrees—often alongside journeys of self-discovery and spirituality—and those revelations frequently enhanced their art. Paul McCartney was no different, once transforming his interest in surrealism into an unsuspecting hit.
While it’s easy to venture into how each of the band members explored abstraction through different surrealist and spiritual lenses, much of this disruption initially occurred during unexpected drug hazes and sudden epiphanies that opened up new mindsets. And while John Lennon was able to view the perils of his past through different lenses of clarity, McCartney’s experience was a little more direct.
However, on the opposite side, McCartney’s interest in accessing abstract facets like surrealism to explore different forms of art allowed him to have fun with boundless approaches and not have to follow formulas or box himself in to make music. A lot of this meant toying with subversion and challenging what we know to be true, with narratives that might seem unexpected on the surface but were really just deeper manifestations of psychology.
This, among other reasons, was what initially drew him to surrealist artists like René Magritte. In his eyes, Magritte understood life and all its complexities more than any other, his art reflecting the nature of emotional ambiguities and their importance in understanding value. As he once said: “What I love about Magritte is he turned the world upside down and inside out in terms of meaning and significance. Science and philosophy and religion are starting to converge on this idea that, whatever hat you put on, you are still you.”
Incidentally, McCartney factored some of this into his music, flirting with different surrealist words and phrases to create a song that would eventually become his first hit. The song, ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’, is a very lyrically strange track that combines different genres, starting as something more akin to a ballad before jumping into something oddly upbeat.
The narrative itself makes even less sense, following the story of Uncle Albert before transitioning into one about Admiral Halsey having tea and “butter pie”, which doesn’t exist. The first section appears to explore liberation before jumping into something that addresses other personal aspects like family issues. According to McCartney, the song is intentionally disjointed, spawning from his love for surrealism.
“I’d always liked writing love songs, ballads, and rock ‘n’ roll songs, but then one of my other little side interests was to invent surrealist stuff,” he explained, adding, “Admiral Halsey was someone I’d read about — he’s a character from American history — and I just liked the name.” Describing why he used the term “butter pie”, he said: “It was a surrealist image, like in surreal art where you have a thing called a ‘hair cup’, which is just a cup that’s made out of fur. You wouldn’t think to drink from it, it’d be disgusting, but as an image it’s interesting and shocking.”
McCartney’s attempt at shock factor earned him his first hit, which became the singer’s first hit post-Beatles and achieved the top spot in the United States. While the song isn’t the most accessible, audiences clearly resonated with McCartney’s newfound creative freedom, supporting him to push the boundaries of artistic expression after leaving the biggest band in history.
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