Press interview with Paul McCartney • Dec 2, 1972 for Melody Maker

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Paul banned again!

Paul McCartney – whose “Give Ireland Back To The Irish” was banned by the BBC last February – has again fallen foul of the Beeb. His latest single, out tomorrow (Friday), has been banned by Radios One and Two. Title of the piece, written by Paul and his wife, Linda, is “Hi, Hi, Hi” by Wings.

BBC publicity officer Rodney Collins told the MM: “The ban has nothing to do with drugs. We thought the record unfit for broadcasting because of the lyric. Part of it goes: ‘I want you to lie on the bed and get you ready for my body gun and do it, do it, do it to you’. Another part goes: ‘Like a rabbit I’m going to grab it and do it till the night is done’.“

“Hi, Hi, Hi” was broadcast by Tony Blackburn once last week, but this was a “mistake” say the BBC.

McCartney interview – page 10.

‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ … those lyrics are a heavy trip. Anyway, it sold as many as ‘Tumbling Dice’, so there! There was a critical thing about it, but listen, the point is we were all babies once and there are still a lot around who like to sing the song.

For me there were lots of silly little interesting things about the song, like I never knew beyond the first verse before. I knew ‘Mary had a little lamb and its feet were white as snow, and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go’ and I knew they sang the la las. Then after that I knew it followed her to school, but I never knew that the whole story was about the teacher chucking the lamb out of class. I thought it was just a great end where it gets chucked out. Everyone’s wondering why this lamb is hanging about ’cause Mary loves the lamb. To me that’s like a heavy trip those lyrics. It’s very spiritual when someone hangs around because it’s loved. I’m sure no one ever thinks about those kind of things.

Paul McCartney