"Hey, I'm Paul, from England." Without intermediaries, the Paul who has just telephoned from his car is McCartney himself, who immediately tells that he has just left to rehearse in his studio in South Sussex, about 100 kilometers from London, and that he is driving to your house
Can you really find a beatle waiting for a traffic light to give way to follow his path? The answer is simple. "I like to drive. And I like to be real. A lot of people usually go to work by car. Me too, "he says.
What Macca is talking about, when he says that he is walking on any English street, is to keep a cable to the ground. Something that sounds simple, although perhaps not so much for someone who once recognized that just after the separation of The Beatles felt like an astronaut after having spent a good time in space.
-It's extremely important. It has been throughout my life. I come from a very good family, from Liverpool. A very real family. That is something that I value very much, coming from people who are very real. I have always felt that I am very lucky that it was that way. And that's how I tried to maintain myself throughout my whole life.
-It's hard to think that it's easy being who you are.
-It is true. Sometimes it's hard to be Paul McCartney, because people see you first as someone famous, and only then do you consider them a real person. So, if I'm with my wife in a restaurant and someone comes to ask me for a photo or an autograph, I say 'sorry', sorry, but it is a private, romantic dinner ... And I ask you to understand me . I can shake your hand, talk to you, like an ordinary person, but I ask not to be considered a celebrity, because it is a personal moment, mine. Luckily, 99 percent understands it.
-The respect for intimate spaces, family ...
- There is a great thing in the family, in the contact with them, with my grandchildren. I have eight ... Beautiful! It's very similar to when The Beatles were already famous and I was returning home, in Liverpool, where they kept treating me like they did before that happened. It is very important to keep your feet on the ground.
Nothing bad. After all, we are talking about one of those four men who in the 60s could not even go out into the corridors of the Abbey Road studios without risk of being "attacked" by the hordes of fans that fueled beatlemania.
Now, far from that fever, at 76 years old man is still spinning around the world with his songs, and on the near horizon of his road map appears Argentina, where he will return to scale on March 23, in the Argentine Countryside of Polo, with its Freshen Up Tour, which already had its European chapter.
- You recently told me you're coming back from rehearsing with your band. What do you need to rehearse, after so much time playing together?
-We always do it before every time we have to go out and play. It's a way of being trained, of acquiring speed ... Sometimes we learn new songs - now we have those of Egypt Station - which is what takes us most of the time. In addition, we have a new wind section. And we also review the older songs; we play a lot, and it's good to be sure you remember everything.
- How difficult is it to present the newest songs, when you know that the public is going to look for the "A Hard Day's Night" chord or to sing "Hey Jude"?
- It's difficult, because we have to make sure to give the audience what makes them happy, and if you add a new song, something you have to take out. So, what do you get? But believe me there are worse problems. The idea, when I do a show, is that the audience leaves satisfied. And to see adult people and very young people, singing all together Hey Jude, it's really stimulating. And if that helps you recharge your energies, as it happens to me, even better.
- What did you feel when you reached "Egypt Station" at the top of the rankings, after 36 years?
-A lot of happiness. We are our judges, and when we finished checking the album I felt that it was very good. That same evening, what was going to be an outlet to share a few drinks transformed it into a celebration party.
- Does it have a special meaning to be fighting that place hand in hand with the newest artists?
- In truth, it is not about one taking place from another. We see people like Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Beyoncé or Drake ... They all have many opportunities and great hits in the charts. But it's good to be part of the same group. It's great to feel that an album that you're looking for that satisfies you, likes people as much as to make it a number one.
-You spoke of when you came back to Liverpool, in the days of The Beatles. What gives you back there today?
-Amo back. I have many reasons to do so, besides going to play. I like people, there is my school, I have many memories in every place I go. It's my childhood ...
And McCartney's childhood connects directly with his adolescence, and with the decade in which he starred in one of the most relevant artistic and social events of the twentieth century, which entered its final stretch 50 years ago, when the filming of Let It Be left to the naked differences that were projected beyond the walls of the recording studio.
At that time, a couple of letters recently auctioned, the first dated in January, and the second in April, both from 1969, reflected an initial agreement with John Eastman to handle the affairs of The Beatles, which later John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr preferred to leave without effect, to go in search of the manager of the Rolling Stones, Allan Klein.
However, McCartney assures that nothing was officialized, and that he did not have to see that in the middle of the contractual round trip -on March 12- he and John Eastman's daughter, Linda, would become married, in the same way that They did it, eight days later, Lennon and Yoko Ono.
"We only talked about that, and they wanted to go the other way ... But we did not sign anything with anyone. Either way, it's complicated to blame someone. There are always several reasons why things happen. But people prefer to find a single cause and simplify things so they do not have to think too much ... The important thing is that we separate, and that we leave a fantastic legacy behind, that sometimes, these days, people become even stronger. Something good we did.
-But there is something, in how things happened, that usually makes you appear as the most calculating brain of The Beatles, and John the most romantic soul. Did you ever feel that you had to deal with that?
-That always happens. To say that John is like that, Paul is such a thing, George is such another ... And the truth is that we all have a little of everything. John was calculating, but at the same time he was often romantic. I was romantic, but other times I was very calculating. The same for George and Ringo ... We all had different sides in our personalities. And the profile that The Beatles showed in public could be perceived and interpreted in a way that did not always reflect the truth. Each one had a little of each thing and of the other.
-Paul McCartney, you were part of The Beatles, you formed a family, you composed a couple of symphonic and choral works, at 76 you are still spinning around the world. Anyone could assume that there is nothing left for you to achieve. Is it really like that?
- In the material, I think that there is nothing that I regret not having achieved. But I could say that peace would be a beautiful thing, if it were achieved. See people supporting each other, helping each other to be well; I think that would be a really fantastic thing. If I could choose, that would be what I would like to see.
"Linda would be supporting the claims of women"
The day of the interview, scheduled for March 12, coincides with the 50th anniversary of McCartney's marriage to Linda Eastman. With her, the beatle had four children, and shared his life until his death, at age 56, in 1998, because of breast cancer, and the reference is inevitable.
-Could you imagine Linda in these times of #MeToo and struggle for gender equality?
-Definitely yes. She was very strong, and believed in the defense of rights. I think it would be supporting the claims of women. It would be a strong voice, as it always was, when it spread vegetarianism, veganism ... It would be beautifully strong.
-It is always common to talk about how difficult it was for John that his relationship with Yoko was accepted. But what happened to Linda, when they started working together on music? Was it easy for people to believe in what they were doing together?
-No way. It was really difficult. It was a time when I was looking for a band, after The Beatles, which was almost impossible. Somehow, she and I were starting over. We were learning how to make a band together. It was very difficult. But when you listen to the Wings discs now, I think we finally proved we could do it. We had to fight a little, but we did it. We are happy to have won the battle.
Stainless Classics and several novelties in the "Freshen Up Tour"
The Freshen Up Tour, with which McCartney returns to Buenos Aires for the fourth time to present itself, with sold out locations, on March 23 at the Argentine Polo Field, had its starting point on September 17, 2018, in the Canadian city of Quebec.
Since then, it has added 18 shows, in nine countries, including Japan, Austria, Denmark, Scotland, England and France, to which five dates will be added in South America (Chile, Argentina and Brazil), and another 16 in the United States. United, between the end of May and the beginning of July.
Accompanied by the solid quartet comprising Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Paul Wickens and Abe Laboriel Jr., plus a section of winds, as usual, in the first stage of the tour the Beatle presence on the list of themes is balanced, in Some measure, with themes of Wings and their different solo albums, with three titles of the more or less recent Egypt Station.
Any change for the new landing in Argentina? "If there is one, it will be very small, because the set list of the European section was already updated. And it's a show that you have not seen in South America yet. We learned some more songs, in case we want to change something, "says McCartney.
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