Recording "Junk"

In late December 1969, Paul McCartney began recording new material using a Studer J37 4-track tape recorder that had recently been installed at his home in London. In early January 1970, he took part in the final Beatles sessions.

Following a short trip to New York to visit Linda’s family, Paul resumed work on his solo project and spent this day, January 17, at home recording “Junk.”

“Junk” had originally been written in February 1968 while Paul and The Beatles were in India. After returning to London, he gradually refined and developed the lyrics.

On this day, he recorded three takes of the song:

• Take 1 lasted 2:37 and featured acoustic guitar, piano, and bass. This instrumental version evolved into “Singalong Junk,” as released on the “McCartney” album.
• Take 2 was shorter, at 1:46, and included acoustic guitar, bass, and a vocal track. It became the basis for “Junk,” the vocal version featured on “McCartney“.
• Take 3 was aborted and remains unreleased.

Both “Junk” and “Singalong Junk” received overdubs on February 18 at Morgan Studios.

Originally written in India at Maharishi’s camp and completed bit by bit in London. Recorded vocal, two acoustic guitars and bass at home and later added to (bass drum, snare with brushes, and small xylophone and harmony) at Morgan.

Paul McCartney – About the vocal version of “Junk” – From the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

This was take 1, for the vocal version, which was take 2, and a shorter version. Guitars, and piano and bass, were put on at home, and the rest added at Morgan Studios. The strings are Mellotron, and they were done at the same time as the electric guitar, bass drum, and sizzle cymbal.

Paul McCartney – About the instrumental version “Singalong Junk” – From the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

Linda was very helpful, because she used to say, ‘I love to hear you play the guitar’. I was no longer sitting in a room on my own, like I used to be. So I’ll strum along when I watch telly. ‘Junk’ came along that way. Handlebars, sentimental jubilee, jam jars: I like images like that. There are certain words you like. I always used to say that candlestick was my favourite word. Certain words either make colours in your head or bring up a feeling. So the song was a pot-pourri of nice words that I had to make some sense out of, so it was ‘buy buy, sell sell, Junk says the sign in the yard’. To lump it all together I got the idea of ‘Junk’. It was a nice way to write a song. There was also the ‘Singalong’ instrumental version, influenced by Phil Spector’s technique of taking off the lyric for a B-side and calling it ‘Singalong’.

Paul McCartney – From Club Sandwich 58, Summer 1991

If I may use a fancy word, the milieu of ‘Junk’ was influenced by the rag-and-bone shop, or junkyard, that was the main setting of [BBC sitcom] Steptoe and Son. That junkyard was as familiar to British audiences in the 1960s and ’70s as the rank in Bonanza or the mansion in The Beverly Hillbillies.

The song started, as so many do, with a chord sequence that I liked, and then the melody. I know it may sound strange, but the chord at the start of this song actually put me in mind of a scrapyard or the back of a shop. The kind of atmospheric place in which, if I were writing a novel, I’d like to set a scene. […]

But it’s mostly a love song. The ‘bicycles for two’ merge into the ‘sleeping bags for two’. Then there’s the line ‘Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window’, which sounds like one lover saying, ‘Bye-bye,’ and then the other plaintively asking, ‘Why, why?’ even as ‘the junk in the yard’ demands an explanation for the urge to acquire something, or somebody, new.

Paul McCartney – From “THE LYRICS: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

Session activities

1. Junk

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording • Take 1

2. Junk

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording • Take 2

3. Junk

   Written by Paul McCartney

   Recording • Take 3

Staff

Musicians on "Junk"

Musicians on "Singalong Junk"

Production staff

Going further

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