We Got Married

Song facts

“We Got Married“, released on “Flowers In The Dirt” in 1989, had been recorded in September / October 1984 with American producer David Foster; and as such was the oldest track on the record, and featured David Gilmour on guitar, and Dave Mattacks on drums. David Foster considered the song to be the weakest of the three songs recorded during those sessions (the other ones being the unreleased Lindiana, and I Love This House); the rough mix is available on the bootleg Pizza And Fairy Tales.

Overdubs were added in …

At some point, it was considered to be issued as a single, and a video had been prepared. It became a regular song in the setlists of The Paul McCartney World Tour in 1989 / 1990.

Paul McCartney in “Club Sandwich 52, Summer 1989“:

It’s like a celebration of marriage… So often people shy away from subjects like marriage… They concentrate on puberty. Well, at the age of 46, puberty’s fairly far away! The game is up, folks!…I do actually start it in puberty: ‘Going fast, coming soon/We made love in the afternoon/Found a flat, after that/ We got married’. That reminds me of John and Cynthia at art school… Dave Gilmour’s on there playing lovely guitar. I like it. It’s kinda grown-up.

Paul McCartney in “Club Sandwich 70, Summer 1991“:

A great song, ‘We Got Married’, for many it was the standout track on Flowers In The Dirt. But it wasn’t a single. It nearly was, but not quite. Capitol considered issuing it in the United States in 1990, when the World Tour was heading back to America for its first venture around the stadiums. Because of this, the label pressed up some promotional CD singles featuring an edited version of the album cut and MPL put together a promotional video. But then minds were changed and something else happened instead.

So the video for ‘We Got Married’ is another of rarities in the McCartney archive: well worth looking at but scarcely seen – hence a prime contender for another look-see in this column.

Directed by Aubrey Powell, produced for Propaganda Films by Steve Swartz and edited by Todd Chestnut (that must be an American name), the ‘We Got Married’ film prominently features in concert and on-stage footage. These terms do have different meanings, incidentally, for, while in the USA, Paul and Band took time out to perform more or less an entire show before a minimal audience, not as an advertised tour date but expressly so that close-ups and other camera angles could be shot for insertion into concert films. Knowing that nothing can irritate an audience as much as cameramen clambering all over the stage, obstructing the view and distracting the concentration, Paul realised it would be a good idea if the director get all of his fancy shots done in a private “mock up” show instead.

Like other films of the same era and ilk, ‘We Got Married’ also shows some off-stage moments: long limousines in the falling rain, fans wielding flowers, flocking to the concert venues and waiting on line outside the arenas, photographers jostling for the best pictures, and, highly appropriately, momentary monochromatic glimpses (from the deservedly popular pre-show film) of Paul and Linda on their wedding day – the silver anniversary of which, it would be remiss of us not to note, was celebrated this year, 1994.

But, as we said, ‘We Got Married’ never came out as a single in the USA. Imagine everyone on the video production team going to all that effort just so that Club Sandwich could review it four years later…

Paul McCartney, in People Music, March 24, 2017:

“It’s a pretty little song, heartfelt. It’s not totally autobiographical but it captures being first married, first in love like Linda and I were. We didn’t get a flat together, little details like that are me as a songwriter just throwing in stuff that feels good. But basically it’s our life story, me and Linda. I have great memories of it, because it reminds me of her. It’s a song about getting married and the thrill of it—the first bloom of that for me is encapsulated in the song. The great thing was Dave Gilmour [of Pink Floyd] agreed to play guitar on it. That was really nice, I thought he did a great job on guitar. Very soulful.”

Last updated on April 29, 2021

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