Every Night

From Wikipedia:

“Every Night” is a song by the English musician Paul McCartney, released on his debut solo album McCartney in April 1970. He wrote the song while he was on holiday in Greece, and recorded it at EMI Studios in London on February 22, 1970. McCartney first performed it live on 23 November 1979 in Liverpool.

Lyrics and music

The lyrics of “Every Night” reflect the difficult situation McCartney was dealing with at the time the song was written, which was in light of the imminent breakup of the Beatles; the words do, however, convey some optimism for the future.

According to James McGrath, the last line, “But tonight I just wanna stay in / And be with you,” is the key to the song, in that it “quietly challenges the uneasy relationship between rock and domesticity.” McGrath points out that Bob Dylan’s song from the previous year, “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You,” ended on a similar note. The vocalized bridge begins with the same melody that begins McCartney’s Beatles song, “You Never Give Me Your Money“.

“The structure of ‘Every Night’ is different from many McCartney songs [as rather than] a true chorus, the vocal refrain of ‘every night’ occurs at the beginning of each verse. The repeated section, which could be nominally classed as [the] chorus, [comprises] ‘oo’ vocalisations.” (From Allan, Adrian (2019). Paul McCartney After the Beatles: a musical appreciation)

Origin

Paul McCartney would recall having come up with the first two lines of “Every Night” in the mid-1960s, but the song only began to develop during the January 1969 Twickenham Studios sessions for the Beatles’ Get Back/Let It Be: specifically on 21 and 24 January 1969 McCartney and his bandmates jammed around McCartney’s initial musical idea, giving the song a brief run through with John Lennon on slide guitar. McCartney completed the song while in the Corfiot village of Benitses where he and his wife Linda McCartney vacationed in May–June 1969, along with McCartney’s stepdaughter Heather McCartney. […]

Paul McCartney and Wings performed “Every Night” during their last UK tour in 1979, as well as at the Concert For The People of Kampuchea, a charity concert organized on December 29, 1979.

Paul also recorded a version of “Every Night” for his MTV Unplugged concert in 1991 and performed it during the short 1991 summer tour. He brought back it for his 2002 / 2003 concerts and regularly played it during soundcheck since 2010.

This came from the first two lines, which I’ve had for years. They were added to in 1969 in Greece (Benitses) on holiday. This was recorded at EMI with:

1. vocal and
2. acoustic guitar
3. drums
4. bass
5. lead guitar (acoustic)
6. harmony to the lead guitar
7. double-tracked vocal in parts
8. electric guitar (not used)
8-track.

Paul McCartney, from the press release of “McCartney”, April 1970

This was really nice to do on Unplugged. I always enjoyed ‘Every Night’ and particularly associate it with first being with Linda. I remember sitting outside a Greek villa on a lovely night and playing it [in 1969]. Phoebe Snow did a great version, because of which a lot of people don’t know it’s my song. I like that: it suggests that the song is strong — it’s not just my voice or personality that helped, somebody else can get some emotion out of it, too. But I suppose, in a way, I wanted to reclaim it.

We all enjoyed playing it, and got the idea for the a cappella singing, which worked very well in the small TV studio. It’s a good trick for live work: anybody who stops their song and sings it a cappella always goes down well. So I really liked doing this one, although, of course, I sang the wrong words, which is a feature of the Unplugged album!

Paul McCartney – From Club Sandwich 58, Summer 1991

Going back to earlier songs, ‘Every Night’ could stand up to being remade. Other people have made good recordings of it, and I remember that when I played the McCartney album to Ringo he said that he preferred my original solo version, when I had first sung it to him.

Paul McCartney – From interview with Club Sandwich, Winter 1994

I didn’t think it was going to be an album. It was just me recording for the sake of it. Then I started trying to put a few songs in it, alongside the instrumentals. I got things like ‘Every Night’, and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, so it started to have validity as a collection.

Paul McCartney – From “Conversations with McCartney” by Paul du Noyer, 2016

Getting ‘out of your head’ used to be every boy’s dream. When we were kids the idea was to get home from work and then go out and get wasted. Get sloshed. It’s how we spent much of our teenage years in Liverpool, where beer or scotch and Coke were our drinks of choice. Many of our friends carried on getting sloshed every night after we’d left for London, where we discovered new entertainments. You’d live for the evenings and the weekend. That informs those first lines in the song: ‘Every night I just want to go out / Get out of my head’.

The phrase ‘Get out of my head’ means at least two things — ‘I want to give up living in my own little world. I want to get out there, into the world.’ But ‘out of my head’ is also a term for getting drunk or high.

Then come the consequences, ‘Every day I don’t want to get up / Get out of my bed’. That’s the result of the night before. When you’re young, the ideal world would involve not having to do anything. Just go out, get drunk, sleep in late.

But the point is: you can’t do that forever. You get older, grow up a bit and your priorities change. It becomes, ‘Even though I normally want to go out and get wasted, and even though I normally just want to stay in bed all the time, you’ve made a difference in my life. And so tonight, I just want to stay in and be with you.’ It’s a love song, but rather than it being the sort of fantasy ‘happily ever after’ love, this is a more realistic and redemptive love.

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

There are a couple of musical allusions in this song. It came out in 1970. There’s maybe a little nod in the direction of Bob Dylan, whose ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You’ had appeared on Nashville Skyline in 1969. You never know what you pick up. And then, the second verse, ‘Every day I lean on a lamppost / I’m wasting my time’. The ‘leaning on a lamppost’ comes from that old song by George Formby. He’s a performer whom most young people would not know today, but was a favourite of my father and George Harrison, and his lyrics often got used in everyday conversation. And, of course, the ‘leaning on a lamppost, in case a certain little lady comes by,’ all plays into the idea of this song. I’m leaning on a lamppost because I’m romantically inclined.

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

Lyrics

Variations

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Related film

Videos

Live performances

“Every Night” has been played in 139 concerts and 109 soundchecks.

Latest concerts where “Every Night” has been played

Going further

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

"Every Night" is one of the songs featured in the book "The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present," published in 2021. The book explores Paul McCartney's early Liverpool days, his time with the Beatles, Wings, and his solo career. It pairs the lyrics of 154 of his songs with his first-person commentary on the circumstances of their creation, the inspirations behind them, and his current thoughts on them.

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Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73

In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician. Informed by hundreds of interviews, extensive ground up research, and thousands of never-before-seen documents THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1 is an in depth, revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal lives beyond the Beatles.

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