1997

What happened for Paul in 1997

From Club Sandwich N°84, Winter 1997:

There are years of living dangerously and years of living quietly. And then there’s 1963, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1982, 1989-90, 1993 and 1997 – years of living famously.

From Day One, 1997 has been a blast. On New Year’s Day Paul McCartney got to make his wife a Lady (not that he needed the tap of Edward the Confessor’s sword to confirm that). And then, WHOOOOOOOOOOSH, where did this year go?

It went, as will many other years to come, hell-bent on the train to triumph. At the time, dead early on, I believed it was going to be like being on tour without moving anywhere. And so it was, and is. Never mind Beautiful Night, we’re talking Beautiful Year.

Thirty years after Sgt Pepper and Paul is still setting the pace, laying down yardsticks and milestones with Flaming Pie. What a result that has been. And is being. I remember when I was working on The Beatles Anthology with dear Derek, and the critics were musing how the Fabs would sound if they were recording now; at the time, neither Derek nor I nor anyone else – except one guy – knew that the answer was a pie gently cooking in the oven.

I don’t know what to say about Flaming Pie that hasn’t been said, and that can top Q magazine’s opinion that it is “the sound of a pop genius”. Suffice that the guy who claims that “the hardest act to follow is yourself” just followed himself, and made it look easy. Everyone likes it, from my Auntie Pam to President Clinton.

Mister President, of course, “guested” on that VH1 special, the Internet show for which Paul set another world record – three million questions logged on the Net to the most sought-after man on the globe.

And talking of millions, watch that ‘Yesterday’. I happen to know that pretty soon those people who compile the numbers on these things will reveal that it was in 1997 that ‘Yesterday’ passed the seven millionth airplay mark in the USA alone. (For the mathematics junkies out there, that’s the equivalent of 25 plays an hour, every hour, 24 hours a day, every day since 1965.)

And what else? The year of 1997 will go down as the time when Go Veggie began to Go Global, as Lady Mac’s dream took hold and started to spread around the world, saving lives and making sense. Watch my words: this is the food of the future, and the future kicked in this year. And while you’re watching, prepare to check out the stunning advance in photography that Linda has started through her collaboration with Brian Clarke at their exhibition of stained-glass photography in Switzerland. Speaking in my honoured capacity as a stained-glass window, it’s lusciously breathtaking.

And what else? It’s been the year of Standing Stone, of course. Triumph or what? At the time of writing it has spent five – no, scrub that – six weeks at number one in the classical charts. Six centuries from now people will still be playing it, wondering how it could have come from a man who cannot “read music”. (Hah!)

And then there was the Concert For Montserrat, in which some of the greatest forces in rock and roll gathered to play their legends out, only to find themselves effortlessly topped by one flex of a pick on ‘The End’ chords.

And what else? John Schlesinger’s eye-moistening video for ‘Little Willow’; that kiss in the video for ‘The World Tonight’; Buckingham Palace besieged once again by Macca fans; Pies signed in Oxford Street; the man inside revealed in Geoff Wonfor’s human and humorous film In The World Tonight; standing ovations at the halls Albert and Carnegie, 40 years after Clubmoor; and Paul and Linda’s “greatest achievements” all being, well, stellar.

And, to end the year, a video for ‘Beautiful Night’ that knocks your socks and rocks off, as it continues Paul’s unwavering theme of love conquering all.

But the highlight? For me, that was watching Paul beat off the challenge of nominees including Noel Gallagher, Beck and Paul Weller and proudly make his way through a roomful of his peers at the Park Lane Hotel in London to receive Q’s Songwriter Award.

That’s what matters, the songs. Always has, always will.

“Was the Q award for his career?,” a pal asked me, “or just for this year?” For this year, my friend.

This year – and any other.

By Geoff Baker, Paul McCartney’s publicist

Last updated on July 4, 2020