Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Paul McCartney on the Inner Groove of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

"Then the this-little-bit-if-you-play-it-backwards stuff. As I say, nine times out of ten it's really nothing. Take the end of Sgt. Pepper, that backward thing, 'We'll fuck you like Supermen.' Some fans came around to my door giggling. I said, 'Hello, what do you want?' They said, 'Is it true, that bit at the end? Is it true? It says, "We'll fuck you like Supermen."' I said, 'No, you're kidding. I haven't heard it, but I'll play it.' It was just some piece of conversation that was recorded and turned backwards. But I went inside after I'd seen them and played it studiously, turned it backwards with my thumb against the motor, turned the motor off and did it backwards. And there it was, sure as anything, plain as anything. 'We'll fuck you like Supermen.' I thought, Jesus, what can you do?"

"We write songs. We know what we mean by them. But in a week someone else says something about it, says that it means that as well, and you can't deny it. Things take on millions of meanings. I don't understand it.

"A fantastic example is the inner track on the back of Sgt. Pepper that plays for hours if your automatic doesn't cut off. It's like a mantra in Yoga and the meaning changes and it all becomes dissociated from what it is saying.

"You get a pure buzz after a while because it's so boring it ceases to mean anything."

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