‘I just can’t do it”: The one piece of advice Paul McCartney would always regret giving
Anyone who’s been in the music world for more than five years could practically be a wise sage by most metrics. The entire industry moves at lightning speed half the time, so when there’s someone who could make multiple hits at a time, anyone would want to listen to them to hear the secrets to their success. But whereas Paul McCartney has been one of the biggest hitmakers of all time since his 20s, he admitted that he wasn’t looking out for himself when it came to teaching the younger generation of musicians.
Granted, Macca’s greatest strength has been leading by example. He helped show John Lennon some of his first authentic guitar chords after learning the banjo chords his mother taught him, and by learning the ins and outs of music theory along the way, he helped open people’s eyes to what could be done in the music world rather than the same tired chord progressions.
So, for anyone who was impressionable at the time, McCartney was the teacher that anyone could learn from. He didn’t always know what he was talking about in terms of the proper names for any strange jazz chord, but towards the end of The Beatles’ career, he also had enough sense to be a good businessman in the record industry.
He knew that it would break his heart having to go to war with the rest of his bandmates, but he also made out like a bandit by not having to sign over control of his solo career. Everyone else may have felt that Allen Klein had their best interests at heart, but Macca had enough street smarts to know a scumbag when he saw one and did everything that he could to move as fra away from that situation as possible.
But if he did lose money, he did at least make up for it by getting into the world of music publishing. He had already acquired the rights to songs by his heroes like Buddy Holly. It was a lucrative business getting residuals whenever Holly’s songs were used in media, but McCartney didn’t realise the trouble he would be in when the rights to The Beatles’ catalogue got snatched by Michael Jackson before he could make an offer.
Since McCartney was the one who encouraged ‘The King of Pop’ to get into that industry in the first place, he remembered kicking himself for ever encouraging Jackson to go after the biggest names in music, saying, “I think it’s dodgy to do something like that. To be someone’s friend, and then buy the rug they’re standing on…The trouble is I wrote those songs for nothing and buying them back at these phenomenal sums, I just can’t do it.”
While it’s safe to say that McCartney wouldn’t exactly be comfortable hopping on any more Jackson songs after ‘The Girl is Mine’, Jackson was always reverent towards the band’s music when he could be. Although Macca took issue with the use of the song ‘Revolution’ being used in a car commercial, Jackson always had a great deal of respect for his friend’s work, even managing to pull off a pretty decent version of ‘Come Together’ for the album History.
But as much as McCartney is still heralded as one of the greatest icons in music history, it’s easy to see why he would be disgruntled to this day. Any artist sees their songs like they’re their musical children, so to see them fall into someone else’s hands probably brings a little bit of heartache every time Macca played one of his old tunes.
