Paul writes “Young Boy”

On this day, Paul McCartney wrote “Young Boy“, a song which would be included in his 1997 album “Flaming Pie“, during one of Linda’s cookery assignment (“Somedays” to be released on the same album has a similar story).

This was another song written when I’d set myself an arbitrary deadline. We were in Long Island and Linda was cooking with Pierre Franey for a New York Times article. I had taken my guitar, and was sitting around in a nearby room when a song came up. It wrote itself: I was thinking about all the young people I know, and remembering my own early days. There’s a funny side story to this: I left the room after I finished writing the song and when I went back in there a few minutes later I got a shock because a girl was lying on the couch. She’d been there all the time, and I hadn’t seen her.

Paul McCartney – From interview in Club Sandwich N°82, Summer 1997

From Club Sandwich n°82, Summer 1997:

[…] The date was 18 August 1994 and the location this time was the Long Island home of-famous chef and culinary author Pierre Franey, for whom Linda was making a meal, watched too by New York Times food writer Bryan Miller and a photographer. While his wife prepared an assortment of vegetarian dishes Paul took himself off to the den, began strumming some favoured chords (C, A minor, E minor) and out popped ‘Young Boy’ (albeit, at this time, ‘Poor Boy’), recalling not only his own earlier days but those of his son and his son’s friends who find themselves at that age where Great Questions are asked of oneself. Paul re-emerged into the kitchen while Linda was baking a cake and played his new song to the audience of four, telling the Times writer “I do it [songwriting] very simply at first, just to get the feeling. It’s just like cooking: a simple expression can be the best.”

Mark Lewisohn, in Club Sandwich n°82, Summer 1997

Going further

The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001

An updated edition of the best-seller. The story of what happened to the band members, their families and friends after the 1970 break-up is brought right up to date. A fascinating and meticulous piece of Beatles scholarship.

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