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Released in 1989

We Got Married

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on April 29, 2021

Album This song officially appears on the Flowers In The Dirt Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1989

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1984, when Paul McCartney was 42 years old)

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Other songs recorded with producer David Foster

Related interview

“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.”

Lyrics

Going fast, coming soon,

We made love in the afternoon.

Found a flat, after that

We got married.

Working hard for the dream,

Scoring goals for the other team,

Times were bad, we were glad

We got married.

Like the way you open up your hearts to each other,

When you find a meeting of the minds.

Just as well love was all we ever wanted,

It was all we ever had.

Further on in the game,

Waiting up till the children came.

Place your bets, no regrets,

We got married.

We got married.

We got married.

Nowadays every night flashes by

At the speed of light,

Living life, loving wife

We got married.

I love the things that happen

When we start to discover

Who we are

And what we're living for,

Just because love was

All we ever wanted

It was all we ever had.

It's not just a loving machine,

It doesn't work out

If you don't work at it.

Variations

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “We Got Married”

Related film

  • We Got Married

    1990 • For Paul McCartney • Directed by Aubrey Powell

Live performances

“We Got Married” has been played in 106 concerts and 4 soundchecks.

Latest concerts where “We Got Married” has been played

See all concerts where “We Got Married” has been played

Going further

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

"We Got Married" 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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Paul McCartney writing

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