Shirley Manson names her favourite Paul McCartney song
The musical output of Paul McCartney is so vast and far-reaching that there are many tracks that you sometimes forget even belong to the Beatles legend. In celebration of Macca’s 80th birthday, several musicians weighed in with their favourite tune of his, spanning across his solo records and his releases with both the Beatles and Wings.
Amongst those was singer Shirley Manson, who said: “It was Scotland in the 1980s, and four of us schoolgirls were huddled around a record player, pouring over one of our dad’s record collections,” Manson said. “We were all short skirts and long legs thrust into tucker boots, smoking Winston cigarettes and drinking weird mixtures of sneakily appropriated alcohol from our parents’ drink cabinets.”
She added: “That was when I heard ‘Venus And Mars’ for the first time. I’ve never really figured out what the lyrics mean. I don’t care. I just like how the words sound together and the gorgeous, wistful melody.”
‘Venus and Mars’ was the third single to be released from the Wings album of the same name. It was released alongside ‘Rock Show’ as a medley, and they are also the first two tracks on the 1975 album. The album continued the commercial success of wings and allowed the band to continue their worldwide touring schedule.
Manson continued: “As the evening wore on, we ran out of booze and even more devastatingly, we ran out of cigarettes. Being the resourceful teenagers we were, we came up with the less than bright idea of squeezing the inside of the butts from the ashtray onto three layered pieces of baby pink toilet paper.”
Rounding off the story, Manson said: “We then rolled the whole sorry mess into something that resembled a chubby cigar and attempted to smoke it. The whole thing disintegrated in our hands, and we very nearly started a small fire. Whenever I hear ‘Venus And Mars’, this is what I recall. Teenage bodies and teenage dreams. Venus and Mars are alright tonight.”
Shirley Manson is a Scottish singer best known for her work as the lead singer of the American rock band Garbage, formed by the legendary record producer Butch Vig. Born in Edinburgh, Manson would travel between the US and Scotland in order to work with the Wisconsin-formed band, although now she has relocated to Los Angeles and instead keeps a second home back in Edinburgh. Mason has also performed as an actress in 17 episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.