«"Mama's making a living while Daddy's getting high," sings Paul McCartney at the end of his magnificent new album,» The Boys of Dungeon Lane» . He's told this story throughout his career—a ballad about a stern, lonely, yet resilient older woman who goes unnoticed. He's always written songs about these women, from "Eleanor Rigby" and "Lady Madonna" to "Another Day" or "Jenny Wren." They're Paul's favorite type of people to sing about—or maybe just his favorite type of people.
This has always set McCartney apart from other songwriters of his generation. Sixty years ago, he wrote "Eleanor Rigby" as a mere 24-year-old Beatle with the world before him. But he continues to write about her all these years later, now that he's older than Eleanor Rigby ever was. "Momma Gets By" sounds like the completion of a cycle—the culmination of his life's story.
More from Rolling Stone
-
Paul McCartney recalls how his family took him in during Beatlemania.
-
Ariana Grande, Ravin Lenae, Blood Orange and all the songs you need to know this week.
-
Paul McCartney wants to find Prince's cover version of The Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road.".
The woman in "Momma Gets By" works to pay the rent and support her family. Her lazy husband ignores her, but she doesn't grumble; she just copes. Why? "She loves him," Paul sings over and over. "With all her heart and soul." He hits the most fragile high notes so you can hear his true voice, the one he has now, seasoned by the years. He wants no one to miss the opportunity to hear all the long and winding paths in his voice.
Paul has always been fascinated by older people, even when he was a beloved symbol of blazing youth. In the Summer of Love, he gave the world a romantic story about a couple at the unimaginable age of sixty-four. But the song "When I'm 64" was younger, much younger than it is today. In a few weeks, he'll be 84. And, damn, we still need him and feed him.
Dungeon Lane continues its historic streak of success—the fact that Sir Paul, at 83, can just pick up a guitar and have songs like this flow? This is the man who wrote "Love Me Do."« sixty-nine years ago . That's the fifties, if your math is wrong. But here he is, in the twenties, still at the peak of his form. In Dungeon Lane , maybe only two or three mediocre songs out of fourteen - if Drake could make an album with that kind of hit-to-miss ratio, he would actually have more hits than the Beatles.
The last two decades of McCartney's career have been a golden age, beginning with his resurgence in 2005 with the album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard . "First Star of the Night" is a love ballad that makes octogenarian romance sound like heaven on earth. It fits seamlessly with 2020's "The Kiss of Venus" or 1974's "Venus and Mars"—McCartney can't miss a beat when he's in stargazing mode. "Mountain Top" and "Lost Horizon" are seductive psychedelic journeys that he turns into love songs because, well, he's Paul.
He also sings about Beatle memories, as all four of them loved to do whenever they entered the studio. Over the course of their solo careers, John, Paul, George, and Ringo have produced more "remember when we were the Beatles?" songs than actual Beatle songs. "Home to Us" and "We Two" take us back to Liverpool with Ringo; "Days We Left Behind" and the magnificent "Down South" sing of the early years with his friends. (Fact: no other band does this! Mick Jagger would rather let Keith shave his balls blindfolded than sing about the fun he had with Brian Jones.)
«"Momma Gets By" is an alternate timeline where Eleanor Rigby finally gets her dream wedding—though it's not quite like the one she dreamed of, she's still holding on. McCartney refuses to offer any irony here because there isn't any. He won't patronize her, he won't pity her, and he won't let you do either. He refuses to turn this into a sad song. (He could easily do that if he wanted—he's quite good at it.) But he sees her daily struggle as a noble resistance to the world, keeping her "heart and soul" alive.
Sixty years later, "Eleanor Rigby" is a song everyone knows, but it only becomes more enigmatic with the passage of time. Let's reiterate: Paul was 24 when he wrote it. Sorry, that's just absurd. He was a Beatle, the most handsome guy in the world, the most glamorous pop star in the world. Swinging London was his playground, full of parties, exhibitions, and nightclubs. But he couldn't stop thinking about tired, lonely Eleanor, hiding in the back of the church, picking rice. (What a look for a 24-year-old!) Even the priest doesn't notice her. But he gave this outcast one of his most beautiful melodies, inspiring George Martin's innovative string arrangement.
In his book «Song Lyrics» There's a photograph he took in 1966, looking out the window of the room where he lived in the attic of his girlfriend Jane Asher's parents' house. Looking at this view, you imagine Paul looking out at a city full of unrest. But he looked out that window and saw all the lonely people. It was in this room that he wrote "Eleanor Rigby.".
But he was always fascinated by the heroine's story. He followed her for decades, from "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People" to "Junk" and "Little Willow." His first solo single, "Another Day," came out in 1971: a day in the life of an ordinary office worker who has a job but struggles to keep her hopes and dreams alive. No one else would notice her, much less write a song about her. "I think it's mainly because I'm a voyeur," Paul told me in 2021. "Watching a woman, rather than just being with her and thinking, 'Oh, how do I feel about this?'" like “I drink a cup of coffee, go to the office with her papers, all this – I keep an eye on her throughout the day.».
The song "Momma Gets By" celebrates the values he cherished in his elders. But he didn't just talk about them. In the 1970s, when all the other English rock stars, including his bandmates in Fabric the Beatles, were lost in the Hollywood scene, chasing sex, drugs, and Brandy Alexanders, Paul was on a farm with Linda, far away in Scotland, raising a bunch of kids. He dug gutters, fed chickens, and made sure the roof didn't leak. He literally patched up the holes that let water in. It kept him busy.
He was the Beatle who disliked the intergenerational warfare of their time, and he even put his father's idol, Fred Astaire, on the album cover. «Sgt. Pepper» in 1967. In the song "When I'm 64," Paul and John play an aging couple, wonderfully intertwining their voices to boast:« We will save and accumulate! »"These two, frankly, were already planning on becoming a grumpy old couple when they were still two self-assured young men on top of the world. They deserved much more time to grow old together.
Anyone who hears the word "nostalgia" Dungeon Lane album , clearly not himself—he sings about bombs falling during World War II, food rations, hard work, illness, poverty, the good old days. Of course, he came from a family of immigrants—his maternal grandfather was from Ireland, and The Beatles emerged directly from Liverpool's Irish immigrant culture. "Salesman Saint" and "Life Can Get Hard" are touching and vivid stories of his parents and their generation struggling through dark times. He never let the world forget his mother, Mary, a nurse and midwife from Liverpool's toughest neighborhood. She died of cancer when he was a child, but he made sure the world knew her name, and through "Let It Be," the world knows her.
That's probably why he's so drawn to older women—the kind Mary McCartney never got to be. It's why he's always been obsessed with old romantic ballads, the kind his father, Jim, loved to play on the piano—the slow dances his parents never got to share in their old age. (Have you listened to "Baby's Request" lately? "From Back to the Egg» , the latest Wings album? Do yourself a favor this weekend.)
But the heroine of "Momma Gets By" has always been at the center of Paul McCartney's music, throughout his life. She could have been the muse of "Another Day" or "Blackbird," or she could have been "Jenny Wren," the star of the greatest song he wrote this century. Despite his heartbreak, he vows at the end, "Someday Jenny Wren will sing!" This song ends the same way—no one notices her quiet, everyday heroism, but nothing can extinguish her spirit.
Some of you aren't ready for this conversation, but the last two decades of McCartney's life after the breakup of The Beatles were the most creative period of his career. He created his best music after Abbey Road directly Now . Album Chaos and Creation 2005 did the same for him as Time Out of Mind made for Bob Dylan in 1997—he found his authentic, "old man's" voice and hasn't released a single bad album since. (I assure you, no one in the 1980s could have predicted such a future—Dylan and McCartney releasing great albums every few years? We would gave away all for one such album.)
The world is still trying to catch up and reclaim all the lost treasures that Sir Paul scattered back in the 1970s – remember his recent memoir about the band Wings or Morgan Neville’s wonderful documentary «Man on the Run» . But why wait? The fact that Paul McCartney still gives us powerful songs like "Momma Gets By," nearly seventy years after he picked up a guitar and launched his career, is cause for celebration.
The Best of Rolling Stone
-
«Ben E. King's "Stand by Me": 21 Must-Hear Covers.
-
25 Songs That Are Actually Horrifying
-
All 286 Taylor Swift songs, listed in descending order of popularity.
Subscribe to the RollingStone newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. .