The song Paul McCartney wrote after visiting Jamaica: “Bringing in the influence of reggae”
It’s not uncommon to hear critics and fans claiming that The Beatles invented nearly every genre of music. If you listen hard enough, the traces of most genres can be traced back to The Beatles in some way or another, most genres except reggae.
Amidst their prolific era of songwriting genius in the late 1960s, reggae was a genre they rightly steered well clear of. But in the 1970s, when the band went their separate ways and Paul McCartney felt the liberation of writing songs that didn’t need approval from his bandmates, he decided to finally indulge his curiosity and write a song loosely inspired by the genre.
“I started to write songs for Wings from 1971 onwards, when we got started, and I tried to keep them away from The Beatles’ style,” he explained. Adding, “There were avenues I could go down that I wouldn’t have gone down with The Beatles, like bringing in the influence of reggae, which Linda and I got into in Jamaica. I fancied doing something crazy, and Wings allowed me a little bit more freedom.”
The song profiting from this newfound freedom didn’t overtly lean into Jamaican influences with crassness. Instead, McCartney used the rhythm profiles of reggae music to inspire ‘Arrow Through Me’, a song that reunited him with his trusty bass guitar yet simultaneously thrust him into a state of sonic experimentation. Unsurprisingly, he ventured into this new world of reggae-inspired arrangements by writing a song in the subject matter he knows best: romance.
He explained, “So, this is a love song in which Cupid’s arrow is referenced, but it’s a malevolent arrow. It’s possible I’d seen an illustration of Cupid and thought, ‘Cupid fires a bow, but I’ll switch it. It won’t be love; it will be the opposite.’
Something about that lyrical sentiment felt inherently rhythmic for McCartney. Because he laid it on top of what might be his grooviest arrangement to date, with horn flourishes providing a catchy vignette in the chorus. And it’s the horn section in this song that feels somewhat inspired by Jamaica and reggae music, for something about their tone feels somewhat akin to a steel drum sound, elevating the overall palette of it.
The joyful arrangement and personal inspiration of the song make it one of McCartney’s all-time favourites. He explained, “I have always had a soft spot for this song. There’s a nice horn riff in it, and it’s funky. Sometimes you write to get a sort of feeling rather than a perfectly ‘correct’ lyric. Sometimes the lyric can be secondary to the feeling. This one has as much, or more, to do with the feel of the song, the groove.”
Within all of that though, it still feels inherently McCartney. Vocal ad libs and melody flourishes bring all the best part of his creative sensibilities to the fold and makes you wonder just how brilliant a Beatles track could have been if they had followed his lead into this soundscape.
