FEATURE:
Paul McCartney at Eighty
IN THIS PHOTO: George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney outside McCartney’s Liverpool home at 20 Forthlin Road/PHOTO CREDIT: Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com
Part Twenty-Six: Following in His Footsteps…
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IN June…
IN THIS PHOTO: Outside 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Hickey/Alamy Stock Photo
we mark the eightieth birthday of the peerless Paul McCartney. Not to say that home and hearth is entirely responsible for how we turn out and approach the world. That foundation and inspiration is very important. For Paul McCartney, his childhood home was vital. Soaking up everything around him, this is where the world’s greatest songwriter started out. One can only imagine a young McCartney penning songs in a Liverpool hallowed space. NME reported how a very important address is being opened for aspiring and unsigned artists:
“Paul McCartney is opening up his childhood home for unsigned artists to use as a base to write, perform and gain inspiration from.
The Forthlin Sessions initiative, backed by the former Beatle‘s brother Mike, will see artists chosen by Mike and local partners to write music at the same place where Paul and John Lennon forged their distinguished songwriting partnership.
20, Forthlin Road in Liverpool is where the pair wrote hits including ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ (from 1963’s ‘Please Please Me’) and ‘When I’m 64’ (from 1967’s ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’). The property is now owned by the National Trust.
Mike told Sky News: “This house to me, is a house of hope. And I hope it will be for the young people that come through the doors.
“I would be in the other room learning photography, but whilst I’m doing all that I could hear guitar noises coming from this room,” he said.
“In there were what turned out to be two of the world’s greatest songwriters, McCartney and Lennon. They were rehearsing from a school book on the floor, that’s why this house is so unique.”
Paul and Lennon would play the piano in the living room or rehearse in the bathroom due to its better acoustics.
“I think it’s a brilliant idea,” Mike added. “Inviting young people to this house and giving them the opportunity of doing the same as us, coming from nothing and seeing where it takes them”.
Not to say that anyone who stays at the house and writes will turn into Paul McCartney. It is a rare opportunity for artists to share common space with McCartney. It does make me wonder whether we will ever see another songwriter like him. Maybe not to the same level in terms of musicianship and invention. That is not to say that those early Pop songs Macca wrote cannot be replicated or matched! In any case, I wanted to spend this feature wondering about 20 Forthlin Road. It may seem pretty ordinary from the outside but, over six decades ago, it was home to Paul McCartney. Imagining McCartney and Lennon at a young age thinking of songs and shooting the breeze is a wonderful thought! You can almost hear them talking and imagine what would have happened there! Today, I don’t think it would have been possible for McCartney to be as productive and inspired. With too many distractions and amore developed and busier local community than he grew up in, there wouldn’t have been the room for inspiration. Having McCartney and Lennon playing piano in the bathroom would have been quite a sight! In such a technological and busy age, it seems almost unimaginable how simple and sparse it would have been there!
PHOTO CREDIT: Paul McCartney
The fact that McCartney is opening up his childhood home shows how generous he is. Although McCartney has been writing songs for over sixty years, he would be the first to admit that his early years were among the most important. Before things got crazy with The Beatles, he was living in Forthlin Road and there was this simplicity. With no technology at his fingers, this was McCartney (and Lennon) working on songs and ideas in their raw state. In 2022, when we are surrounded by tech and crutches, I wonder whether songwriters who got there will be going back to basics. When McCartney turns eighty in June, there will be a lot of celebration and new spotlight. I wonder how many people will spend time discussing and writing about Paul McCartney’s childhood homes. I feel they are as important to his story and legacy as anything else. A crucial and monumental part of Liverpool music history, young artists will get the opportunity to stand in the same space as a young Paul McCartney. I myself – not that I am a songwriter – would love to go to Forthlin Road in Liverpool. The lucky songwriters who will get to spend time at McCartney’s childhood house will share this moment of history. It is unlikely that aspiring artists will…
HAVE that rare access and opportunity again.