David Vance SubstackRead More
It’s 1964. Paul McCartney wakes up with a complete but unusual melody running through his head and he rushes to the piano to play it. He like it but is convinced that he has subconsciously plagiarised it. So he plays the tune to his fellow Beatles but they think it sounds original. McCartney is not convinced but keeps working on it. He adds words to go with the melody. “Scrambled Eggs, oh baby how I love your legs” This would soon become “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away” but for now he had the idea, the melody, and was about to create one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs ever written,
He needed proper lyrics. He was on a holiday with his then girlfriend Jane Asher in Portugal when the full lyrics suddenly came to him.
The Melody “appeared” and now the words “appeared” – but from where?
His imagination, his memory, from somewhere else? Years later, he suggested that the lyrics were influenced by his regret over a remark he made to his mother, Mary, when he was 13, not long before her sudden death in 1957. McCartney felt that his mother’s sudden passing left a significant mark on his life and that the lyrics “Why she had to go/ I don’t know she wouldn’t say/ I said something wrong/ now I long for yesterday” may reflect his feelings about her death. We can’t be sure.
It wasn’t the only song that was inspired by his Mother – “Let it Be” opens with the words “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me..”
This was to be the only Beatles song where only one Beatle played – Paul.
George Martin added a string quartet – adding to the feeling of poignancy of the song.
“Yesterday” was recorded in June 1965 and released on the 1965 album “Help”
It has gone on to sell millions of records and embedded itself as an all time classic.
And here it is…this is a live version of the song that came in a dream and conquered the world
