Dear Friend

Song facts

If we exclude the 53 seconds of “Mumbo Link“, “Dear Friend” is the closing track of Wings’ first album “Wild Life” released in 1971. If “Wild Life” has often been considered as a low-point in Paul McCartney’s career, “Dear Friend” is usually recognized as one of the best tracks of the album (the other one being “Tomorrow“).

The song has been written about John Lennon, as Paul explained in a Club Sandwich interview, 1994:

“Dear Friend” was written about John, yes. I don’t like grief and arguments, they always bug me. Life is too precious, although we often find ourselves guilty of doing it. So after John had slagged me off in public I had to think of a response, and it was either going to be to slag him off in public — and some instinct stopped me, which I’m really glad about — or do something else. So I worked on my attitude and wrote “Dear Friend”, saying, in effect, let’s lay the guns down, let’s hang up our boxing gloves.

From paulmccartney.com, October 29, 2018:

And then with ‘Dear Friend’, that’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up. I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I’m not going to cry in front of all you lot though! [Paul gestures to the five of us in the room sitting on the edge of our seats, captivated by the story!] But, for me, it is a bit like that. I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs [remastering works-in-progress] in the car. And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’. Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true!’ I’m trying to say to John, ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool.’ And luckily we did get it back together, which was like a great source of joy because it would have been terrible if he’d been killed as things were at that point and I’d never got to straighten it out with him. This was me reaching out. So, I think it’s very powerful in some very simple way. But it was certainly heartfelt. 

Some have seen this song as an answer to John Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep“, featured on the “Imagine” album. It seems however unlikely as “Imagine” was published in September 1971, while “Dear Friend” has been recorded in July 1971.

Last updated on November 2, 2018

Lyrics

Links

• http://johnrieber.com/2016/02/13/paul-mccartneys-wild-life-the-disastrous-debut-of-wings-mccartneys-plea-to-john-lennon/