Deep Deep Feeling

“Deep Deep Feeling” is a track from 2020 album “McCartney III“.

‘Deep Deep Feeling’ is the longest song on ‘McCartney III’ clocking in at nearly eight and a half minutes. It’s also one of the most experimental tracks on the album. Paul used his Brenall 1/4″ reel-to-reel to layer guitar parts and create what he referred as the “guitar orchestra”. The often resulted in there being 40 guitar tracks for each chord. Paul did consider editing the track’s length. But, as the sessions came about by accident, he decided to leave it uncut and let the album be about him having fun.

From Spotify Storyline. Storyline is a feature of Spotify that gives behind-the-scenes information from artists about their songs, presented with a carousel of cards featuring a combination of text and images.

This was from a kind of jam that I had done, I’d wanted to get in a particular mood, a very sort of empty, spacey mood so I did that and then the vocals on top of it, I just made up stuff so it was just a combination of ideas that became an eight-minute song.

Paul McCartney, from NME, December 23, 2020

One of my favourite songs on the album is the midway point of ‘Deep Deep Feeling’, which is over eight minutes long. If people are expecting your lockdown album to feel like lockdown, that’s the track that feels the most claustrophobic to me, despite it being essentially about love.

That was one of the songs that I’d actually started last year. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a bit of time when I’ll go into the studio and just make something up, and so I try to just do something that I haven’t done before. This was one of those that I didn’t finish. To me, what it was about was, sometimes – I don’t how it happens of even what it is – when you’re feeling real love towards someone, sometimes it can manifest in a tingling over your whole body, and it’s a pretty funny feeling, and you almost don’t like it – ‘What the hell is this?!’ – like you’re about to be beamed up into a spaceship or something. On this song I was fascinated with the idea of that – that deep, deep feeling when you love someone so much it almost hurts. That was the start of that, but after I made it I thought, well, this isn’t for anything. It’s certainly not a three-minute single. What became nice about working in the studio was that in the evening Mary would be cooking, because she loves to cook, and we’d be sitting around before dinner, and she’d say, “Well, what did you do today then?” and I’d go, “Oh, ok, I’ll play it for you.” And I always wanted it to keep going. I just wanted it to go on forever. It’s a bit indulgent, and I was a little bit worried about that – I thought I really needed to cut it down, but just before I did that I just listened to it, and I thought, “Y’know what, I love this, I’m not going to touch it.”

Paul McCartney – from an interview with Stuart Stubbs, from Loud And Quiet magazine, October 2020

The editing work on “Deep Deep Feeling” – the cuts and sound textures – is incredible. Do you see this as a continuation of the experimental aspect of your career that began in the ’60s?

Yes, it is part of a thread for me. Round about the time, The Beatles were known for being ‘The Beatles’ – if you know what I mean. We were able to sidestep that with Sgt Pepper, which was very liberating. The McCartney records have always been very liberating. If you dare to experiment a little bit, it’s good for you. I’ve always loved that.

Paul McCartney, in UNCUT interview, January 2021

The craziest song [on the album] is “Deep Deep Feeling”. It goes on and on and on! There are millions of little changes in it. At one point, I thought I needed to edit it because it’s about eight minutes long. I grabbed earphones, played it and got so engrossed in it that I decided to leave it as is. I thought it might be indulgent. Making an album like this is, to some degree, indulgent. But then, it’s also about having fun.

Paul McCartney, in UNCUT interview, January 2021

With some of the songs that were more constructed, like Deep Deep Feeling, we’ll use Pro Tools like a canvas, almost. Throwing ideas at it, moving things around, changing tempos, keys, and seeing what gels together.

Steve Orchard – from Music Radar, December 18, 2020

With Deep Deep Feeling there were some parts where we did something like 12 or 18 tracks [of harmonies], I can’t remember without looking at the session, but it was a lot. Then we mixed those down to a stereo track that we could fly in at different points.

Steve Orchard – from Music Radar, December 18, 2020

“Deep Deep Feeling” being 8 minutes long and located roughly in the middle of the track list created a strangeness. The track list for “McCartney III” is different between the CD variants and the LP variants:

In 2021, for the “McCartney III Imagined” project, Robert Del Naja, known as 3D, from the band Massive Attack, reimagined “Deep Deep Feeling” by mixing it up with 1980 track “Temporary Secretary“.

Lyrics

Variations

• A Album version
• B "McCartney III Imagined" version

Officially appears on

Related films

Videos

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.