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Released in 2018

Caesar Rock

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on October 19, 2021

Album This song officially appears on the Egypt Station Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 2018

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related interview

“Caesar Rock” is a track from 2018 album “Egypt Station“. From “Words Between The Tracks” YouTube series:

Caesar Rock. Okay there’s some times when I get in my studio with my engineer Steve [Orchard] and we just start making up stuff. We will just have no idea what we’re gonna do but we’ll play with things we are interested in. So I might just start off with a drum machine, do something and put a little piano on it, or put the bass on it, and then maybe some ideas on it.

It’s a nice way of working – I think of it as being kind of lazy, because it feels to me like you’ve got a day off. In truth, you haven’t, because you’re making a song. But there is this feeling of freedom: ‘You don’t really have to do this, it’s not a proper song, we’re making it up’.
 
I went in one day and we started making this song and then I was playing with a little auto-tune thing that I’d been familiarized with by working with Kanye. So I thought ‘I fancy having a go at this’ and in a way it’s a bit sacrilegious. I know a lot of people say: ‘Oh, no no no, you shouldn’t do that, that’s for hip hop and we wanna hear your voice pure’. But then I started thinking “are you kidding me”… You know you listen to some of the Beatles records, Tomorrow Never Knows, and we were never that, you know, nothing was that sacred.
 
So I had a go, and sang: “She’s a rock” and put that through the Auto-tuner. So it was “she’s a rock” but then we started referring to it as Caesar Rock because we were just having fun and so we just built it up. So I like that. I like this song because it’s slightly oddball, you know. It starts in one tempo and then it completely changes. That kind of thing sums it up: It’s a song where anything goes and I like it because of that. And then we got then a group of people in the studio, some of the engineers, some of the guys who were hanging around. I said okay, come on, we all gonna go in and just be this big chorus thing.

So I was going: “She’s a rock, yeah”. Then we were just adding things. And at the end I had this zany idea – because anything goes in a song like this – of: “I’ll just shout ‘she’s got loyalty’ and the answer will be ‘like a Royalty'”. Then, “she’s got symmetry” – “anonymity”. I mean, it was quite surreal lyrics, but we’re having fun with it.
 
And the other thing I loved about it just right at the end of the track – I still don’t know how this happened – but it must have been me that shouted “she’s got matching teeth”. And everyone was just “She’s got matching teeth?”… I like the idea of matching teeth. I mean I was playing with that as an album title, Matching Teeth. Yes! So I mean that was one we had a lot of fun with Caesar rock!

Paul McCartney

[…] I always think of things like these as being happy accidents. Like when someone played the tape machine backward in Abbey Road and the four of us stopped in our tracks and went, “Oh! What’s that?” So then we’d use that effect in a song, like on the backward guitar solo for “I’m Only Sleeping.” It happened more recently, too, on the song “Caesar Rock,” from my album “Egypt Station.” Somehow this drum part got dragged accidentally to the start of the song on the computer, and we played it back and it’s just there in those first few seconds and it doesn’t fit. But at the same time it does. […]

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics” book – From Paul McCartney on Writing “Eleanor Rigby” | The New Yorker, 2021
Each track of “Egypt Station” has been given individual artwork that was first published on Twitter on August 14, 2018

Lyrics

She’s a rock

She’s a rock

She’s a rock

If I could find the words

To talk about my woman

Well I would surely shout them out

But every time I feel my inspiration coming

It’s all too much to talk about

‘cos she breaks me up

She takes me down

She sends me sideways

She gets me every way I turn

If I’m back to school

She gotta be my favourite teacher

There’s such a lot for me to learn

She’s a rock, yeah

She’s a rock, yeah

She’s a rock, yeah

Somehow she always knows

Exactly what is needed

When I’ve been running round and round

And if she wants me

I know that I’ve succeeded

I’ll be heading back to town

She’s a rock

She’s a rock

She’s a rock

She got loyalty

Like the royalty

She got symmetry

Anonymity

She got all the looks

She got all the books

She got matching teeth

Variations

  • A Album version

Officially appears on

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Paul McCartney writing

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Robert Spinello • 6 years ago

I like this one a lot reminds me of Monkberry Moon Delight.

Pedro • 6 years ago

It should be released as a single love the voice in it

A delightful addition to those Weird McCartney songs (eg Robbers Ball, Monkberry Moon Delight, Oo You, Special Friend, etc.) which would be a fine addition to the Fireman catalogue as well. Love this track!

Mary Little • 6 years ago

This is an awesome website! I wish it had been around way back in the day, when most of my current McCartney news came from Club Sandwich. I do music research for a radio station in Oregon, and this site has been very helpful. Some day I plan to just sit and browse. I have always been a huge Paul fan, ( I'm sure there will be something about Paul McCartney written on my tombstone) but don't have as much time to see what my favorite singer is up to as I used to. Thank you for this site.

Mary

The PaulMcCartney Project • 6 years ago

@Mary thanks very much for the kind words ! :)

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