‘Maybe I’m Amazed’: The song that Cillian Murphy thinks is “perfect”
Before Cillian Murphy portrayed gangster Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders and embarked on a prolific collaborative career with director Christopher Nolan, spanning his portrayal of the Scarecrow in The Dark Knight trilogy to J Robert Oppenheimer in the titular blockbuster, the Irishman had aspirations of becoming a famous musician.
Murphy began writing songs from the age of ten and joined numerous bands in his late teens and early 20s, alongside his brother, Páidi; together, they shared a mutual fixation with The Beatles.
Building on this creative inspiration, the brothers eventually founded an acid-jazz group called The Sons of Mr Green Genes, named after a Frank Zappa album, where they “specialised in wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos,” as Murphy told The Guardian. The band found relative success, conducting interviews with curious journalists and eventually being offered a five-album deal with the label Acid Jazz in London.
But Murphy chose the actor route, in the end, persuaded by his parents, who were “terrified they were going to lose both of us into the jaws of the rock ‘n’ roll monster”.
While his hopes of becoming a rock star rested in the back of his mind as he began securing his first acting roles, Murphy has no regrets about letting such hopes fall by the wayside. “I’m glad we bailed,” he admitted, “Because I know a few guys who were in bands that didn’t make it and it seems to do something to your soul.”
Though his musician days are long behind him, Murphy’s musical tastes have always remained a topic of excitement. Just before Peaky Blinders premiered on BBC 2, Two Paddocks asked Murphy for his “top ten tunes”. Among his choices are the Velvet Underground’s ‘Rock & Roll’, which he claims “has never failed to stir a little bit of rebellion” in him with every listen.
Then Van Morrison’s ‘Sweet Thing’ follows, with Murphy positioning it as one of the most romantic songs ever penned. Nods to Massive Attack’s ‘Hymn of the Big Wheel’ and the Strokes’ ‘Someday’ make the cut, as well. Intriguingly, no mention of a Beatles tune is made, but Murphy does opt to include two of their solo hits, naming Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ as a “perfect” song.
Released on McCartney’s 1970 solo debut album, McCartney, ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ was written just before the Beatles’ disbandment the year before. The lyrics capture him stuck between worlds, reliant on his partner to pull him out of loneliness and despair, with a crying plea of, “Baby, won’t you help me to understand?” A defining rock ballad, the song is one of McCartney’s shining moments as a songwriter and continues to define his musicianship, outside of the Fab Four.
“McCartney wrote and played everything on his first solo album (McCartney) after the Beatles break-up,” Murphy explains of his choice, calling the tune “one of his rockier love songs, which I much prefer. Amazing guitar solo too. Pretty much a perfect song”.
A pick from John Lennon follows on Murphy’s list: ‘God’, taken from his debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. “A nice counterpoint to ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’,” Murphy surmises. The track records a list of notions Lennon does not believe in: the I-Ching, magic, the Bible, tarot, etc, followed by historical figures he holds in equal disbelief, including Jesus, John F Kennedy and Buddha.
“The lyrics are exceptionally bold and brave, heartbreaking and hopeful,” Murphy says. “And the vocal is so raw.” The actor names its repeated opening line: “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
While the world may never see Murphy as a fully-fledged rock star, his music tastes reflect a varied fascination with the greats, offering a glimpse into his timeless favourites.
