- Album This song officially appears on the Pipes Of Peace Official album.
- Timeline This song has been written (or started being written) in 1980 (Paul McCartney was 38 years old)
Related interviews
Ex-Wings guitarist, Laurence Juber, talks about attending "Paul McCartney University"
Aug 09, 2010 • From Daytrippin' Beatles Magazine
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Song facts
“Average Person” is a track from 1983 album “Pipes Of Peace“. It was written in 1980, demoed with Wings in late 1980 during one of their latest sessions together, and recorded during the Montserrat sessions in February 1981.
“Average Person” is another of your story songs, like “Eleanor Rigby” and “Penny Lane”. What prompted you to start writing that kind of song in the first place?
I think a lot of them, besides “Eleanor Rigby”, tend to be comedy. It’s me doing the tongue-in-cheek thing, whereas “Eleanor Rigby” was more serious. I think that’s why it was more successful. I’ve still got a few that I haven’t released because I don’t think they are that good. It’s quite a fun thing to do, to just dream up a name of a character and just try and write the story of that character and then make it fit with another character. “Eleanor Rigby”, I did it with Father McKenzie and Eleanor. With some of these, I try and make too many fit. They’re not always the most successful.
Paul McCartney interview, UNCUT, October 2015
Both “Tug Of War” and “Pipes Of Peace” were always envisaged as albums amounting to more than simply a collection of songs, Paul has already explained the themes of each album, but originally both he and George Martin saw them shaping up as complete productions, utilising sound effects, creating visual vignettes on record. George Martin recalled a couple of occasions when they tried to create that effect: “We actually thought of ‘Average Person’ as being a stagey sort of thing — at one time we thought of making the album sound like a stage production – It was Paul’s idea, that theatrical aspect. We even tried him doing the vocal like a stage — I lined up a lot of mikes, and he actually did a funny walk on ‘l say, I say…’ kind of thing…“
Paul: “On ‘Average Person,’ we were trying to get the live show thing, more as if you were watching a picture, rather than just listening to a song, so we put a lot of sound effects to match the things. It was quite a production!“
From Club Sandwich N° 31, 1983
Last updated on May 10, 2020
The book "The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present", published in 2021, covers Paul McCartney's early Liverpool days, the Beatles, Wings, and solo careers, by pairing the lyrics of 154 of his songs with first-person commentaries of the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now.
"Average Person" is one of the 154 songs covered.
Lyrics
Look at the average person
Speak to the man in the street
Can you imagine the first one you'd meet?
Well, I'm talking to a former engine driver
Trying to find out what he used to do
Tells me that he always kept his engine
Spit and polished up as good as new
But he said his only great ambition
Was to work with lions in a zoo
Oh to work with lions in a zoo
Yes dear, you heard right
Told me his ambition was to work with lions every night
Look at the average person
Speak to the man on the beat
Can you imagine the first one you'd meet?
Well, I met a woman working as a waitress
I asked exactly what it was she did
Said she worked the summer crowd at seasides
Winter time she ran away and hid
Once she had a Hollywood audition
But the part was given to a kid.
Yes, the part was given to a kid
Yes sir, you heard it right
Hollywood ambition made a starlet grown up overnight
Well I bumped into a man who'd been a boxer
Asked him what had been his greatest night
He looked into the corners of his memory
Searching for a picture of the fight.
But he said he always had a feeling
That he lacked a little extra height
(Could have used a little extra height)
Yes mate, you heard it right
He always had a feeling that he might have lacked a little height.
Look at the average person
Speak to the man in the queue
Can you imagine the first one is you?
Look at the average person
Officially appears on
Official album • Released in 1983
4:33 • Studio version • A
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Electric guitar (?), Piano, Vocals
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar (?), Electric guitar (?)
- Ringo Starr :
- Drums
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
- Mike Stavrou :
- Recording engineer assistant
- Unknown musician(s) :
- Horns
- Session Recording:
- February 16-18th, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- July 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Sep 01, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon
Official album • Released in 1993
Studio version • A • 1993 remaster
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Electric guitar (?), Piano, Vocals
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar (?), Electric guitar (?)
- Ringo Starr :
- Drums
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
- Mike Stavrou :
- Recording engineer assistant
- Unknown musician(s) :
- Horns
- Session Recording:
- February 16-18th, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- July 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Sep 01, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon
Pipes Of Peace - Archive Collection
Official album • Released in 2015
4:34 • Studio version • A2015 • 2015 remaster
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar (?), Arrangement, Backing vocals, Bass, Electric guitar (?), Piano, Vocals
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar (?), Electric guitar (?)
- Ringo Starr :
- Drums
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Mixing engineer assistant, Recording engineer assistant
- Mike Stavrou :
- Recording engineer assistant
- Sam Okell :
- Remastering
- Alex Wharton :
- Remastering
- Unknown musician(s) :
- Horns
- Session Recording:
- February 16-18th, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- July 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Sep 01, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
Credits & recording details courtesy of Luca Perasi • Buy Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 on Amazon
Pipes Of Peace - Archive Collection
Official album • Released in 2015
4:05 • Demo • B • 2015 remaster
- Paul McCartney :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Performed by :
- Paul McCartney
- Alex Wharton :
- Mastering
- Session Recording:
- August 1980
- Studio :
- Rude Studio, Campbeltown, Scotland
Bootlegs
Unofficial album
Unofficial album
Unofficial album
Unofficial album
Unofficial album
Live performances
Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.
Going further
Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989
With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.
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In this song backing vocals are also by Denny Laine .
You can clearly heard him expecially tobthe end
Thanks Gianluca - will fix this ! Much work for me to do on "Pipes Of Peace". Pages still pretty empty at this stage :(