Sir Paul McCartney reveals parents inspired Beatles and solo songs

Sir Paul McCartney has said his parents were “the original inspiration” for many of his songs and a huge influence on the way he approached his music. The ex-Beatle’s revelation came in a series of insights he has provided for an exhibition of memorabilia from his own collection at the British Library.

It includes family photos from his early years in Liverpool, drawings and a postcard of the Beatles in Hamburg. Curator Andy Linehan said the breadth of the archive was “quite exceptional”. The show includes 35 previously unseen items from the singer’s personal collection and his own quotes about them.

He said that although there had been “so many” influences on his songwriting, his parents had the largest impact.

“Thinking about songs that I’ve written at every stage of my career, I came to realise that my parents, Jim and Mary McCartney, were the original inspiration for so much that I’ve written,” he said.

“My mum was very reassuring and, like so many women often are, she was also the one who kept our family going.

“She kept our spirits up.” He also said his father “was loaded with colourful expressions, as so many Liverpool people still are today”.

“He loved to play with words, juggle them in his head, and he had loads of little sayings that were sometimes nonsensical, sometimes functional, but always rather lyrical,” he added.

“When he was shaking your hand, he would say, ‘Put it there if it weighs a ton’.”

Sir Paul later used those words in the chorus of his song Put It There, which he released as a single in 1990.

His original drawing for the single’s artwork is included in the exhibition, alongside a collection of photographs taken by his family, including one of him writing the song I Saw Her Standing There with John Lennon at his home on Forthlin Road in Liverpool.

Mr Linehan said it was “quite exceptional” for Sir Paul to have kept so much archive material “in such an ordered manner”, while fellow curator Greg Buzwell added that they offered a glimpse into the musician’s “freestyle” approach to songwriting.

“Paul wrote from inspiration,” he said. “He’d just see something and say, ‘I will write something about that’. “I think he took inspiration from just about everything.”