“A little bit racy”: The erotic film that inspired a classic Paul McCartney song
It doesn’t normally take much for Paul McCartney to make music out of something. Even though every one of The Beatles was gifted beyond belief whenever they strapped on their instruments, Macca seemed to be music incarnate whenever he played, usually taking the basics of rock and roll and turning it into pure beauty whether he had a guitar strapped on, sitting behind the piano, or standing in front of a microphone. There might be a few songs that could lean towards being ridiculous, but one adult film managed to get his songwriting going when working on this Wings classic.
When looking back on his time in Wings, though, McCartney had become a much different musical animal. He had spent years bouncing off of John Lennon, and now that he was the commander of a completely new group, it felt like he had free reign to make whatever he wanted, whether that was the granny shit music of ‘You Gave Me the Answer’ or busting out the Little Richard vocal chops on the back end of ‘Jet’.
By the time that they conquered the world on Band on the Run, though, McCartney had graduated into the arenas. Whereas Lennon had started advocating for political causes and Harrison was exploring his spiritual side, McCartney had become everyone’s favourite superstar alongside Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. So, with the public filling stadiums, the only logical thing for him to do was scale things back.
When making his rustic single ‘Mull of Kintyre’, McCartney got back in touch with simple melodies, only having two chords throughout the whole song and managing to make one of the catchiest tunes of his career if that song was a celebration of his home in Scotland. However, ‘Girls School’ was a chance for him to get slightly more suggestive than usual.
Then again, making a song about a fictional world was nothing new for McCartney. He had already made some of his best tunes about made-up characters like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Lovely Rita’, but when reminiscing on this tune, he remembered getting the idea from some adult entertainment that he was introduced to on tour.
According to McCartney, he got the title of the tune from a porno film and figured that he would write a song about that kind of scenario, saying, “If you’re in a rock and roll group, you’re always trying to write songs that are going to work live. I think this one came from seeing an ad for a porn film called Girl School. It might even have said something like (I’m trying to recall from forty years ago), ‘See Yuki and so-and-so romp to your delight’.’I just started to imagine all the characters and what they were all up to, and it was all a little bit racy.”
At the same time, it’s not like McCartney was looking to make some steamy music you would hear coming out of a particularly seedy strip club. This was still him at the peak of Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound, and many of the moments on the song come from him embracing the same kind of relentless energy that came from songs like ‘Listen to What the Man Said’ or ‘Beware My Love’.
But given the standard that Macca is known for today, it’s funny that this song even came out in the first place. He had already conquered the world as the lovable rock icon that everyone knew and loved, but listening back to this kind of tune, he could still outdo artists like Led Zeppelin at their own game when it came to seedy sex songs.
