
5: Yesterday—and the song that got away
In this chapter in our podcast series, we explore the origin of Paul’s song, Yesterday. In a surprising twist, we also investigate the significance of another song that Paul has often referred to—the one song that he wished he had written. And with this discovery, we explore the hidden meaning of Yesterday, perhaps his most famous song.
Sources
Playboy interview; Paul McCartney; 1984
Recording the Beatles; Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew; Curvebender; 2006.
Beatlesongs; William J. Dowling; Simon & Shuster, New York, 1989.
Here, There and Everywhere, Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey; Gotham Books; New York; 2006
Paul McCartney, Many Years from Now; Barry Miles; Secker &Warburg; 1997
McCartney, Christopher Sandford; Carroll and Graf Publishers; 2006
Paul McCartney, the Life, Philip Norman; Little Brown and Company; 2016
Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles, Dominic Pedler; Omnibus Press; 2003
The Beatles, Hunter Davis; McGraw-Hill; 1968
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions; Mark Lewisohn; Hamlyn (a division of the Octopus Publishing Group); 1988
All You Need Is Ears, George Martin, with Jeremy Hornsby; St. Martin’s Griffin; 1979
This is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession; Daniel J. Levitin; Plume; 2007
“MOJO COLLECTIONS”; interview of Paul McCartney
The Beatles Anthology; Chronicle Books, 2000
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Rosetta Stone; The British Museum
McCartney: Yesterday and Today, Ray Coleman; Boxtree, 1996.
The Beatles as Musicians. The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul, Walter Everett; Oxford University Press; 2001.
A Hard Day’s Write – The Stories Behind Every Beatles’ Song, Steve Turner; Carbon, 1994.
In Search of the Sources of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Yesterday,’ Ian Hammond; Journal on Media Culture; Old Sweet Songs; http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME05/Oldsweetsongs.shtml
Paul McCartney in Casual Conversation with Jarvis Cocker at LIPA; August 15, 2018
Thanks to Andreas Dress on Unsplash for this episode’s image.
This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.