The three classic musicians The Beatles channelled into ‘Lady Madonna’
Inspiration is a mystery – no one quite knows how it works. However, one thing is for certain, no idea comes from no where. What is inspiration if not a tapestry of everything else a person has ever seen, heard, been through and experienced, all translated through their own singular mind. In the case of The Beatles’ track ‘Lady Madonna’, the inspiration seemed to be the amalgamation of three corners of Paul McCartney’s world.
Released only as a stand-alone single, ‘Lady Madonna’ is one of many Beatles tracks where the process from initial idea to final product was inspired at every turn. Lyrically and conceptually, it was inspired by an image McCartney had seen. Against the backdrop of 1968, The Beatles were famous at an odd time, with several global conflicts buzzing around them.
While stories of the band’s successes were in the news, so too were harrowing accounts and impactful images of everything else going on. The song’s heart came from that as the singer saw an image of a mother and baby in Vietnam, capturing a moment’s tenderness amidst a violent conflict. “She looked very proud, and she had a baby,” McCartney said of the image, “I saw that as a kind of Madonna thing, mother and child.” So that’s where that came from.
But musically, too, the track is a perfect example of how inspiration works. While we often, and rightfully, talk about the Beatles as geniuses, it’s also true that no genius is an island. Innovation is not the isolated task it’s often painted out to be; there are always hands on people’s backs, helping to push them forward. In this case, it seemed that three of McCartney’s biggest heroes were behind him as the inspiration for the track, sonically, was born from a lifetime of listening to others.
The first is an obvious one: Elvis. McCartney has spoken time and time again about the immeasurable impact The King had on him and on all of the Beatles. “You heard people saying, ‘I’ve never heard anything like that before, man.’ And it was that,” McCartney said, attempting to articulate the influence Presley had on his whole generation.
Not only did Elvis’ music live in McCartney’s heart, as he claimed those songs “burned themselves into my being.” But he lived, quite literally, in the Beatle’s performance as he sang ‘Lady Madonna’ in what he used to call his “Elvis voice,” borrowing from the King when he wanted to really croon.
The second influence gathered around the track was Humphrey Lyttleton. Moved to go for a more 1950s classic arrangement, McCartney recalled ‘Bad Penny Blues’, Lyttleton’s huge 1956 jazz hit. As an example of how inspiration floats in unannounced, for some reason, in the studio, the band simply remembered this track existed and borrowed from it.
The third idol that seemed to appear at the front of McCartney’s mind while making this track was Fats Domino. Once again, it’s interesting how inspiration and our own personal scopes of ideas all come down to other things we’ve heard. People end up with their own personal language for explaining their ideas, and in McCartney’s Fats Domino was a key reference for trying to articulate a certain energy.
“‘Lady Madonna’ was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing,” he said, “It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression. It took my other voice to a very odd place.”
Those three inspirations together created the track, a perfect example of how prior influences become new ideas.
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