Line #135 Music/PaulMcCartney


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Paul_McCartney_3915.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300: Still the Cute One.]]
3
4	->'''Reporter:''' I'd like to direct this question to messrs. [[Music/JohnLennon Lennon]] and [=McCartney=]. In a recent article, ''Magazine/{{Time\|Magazine}}'' magazine put down pop music. And they referred to "[[Music/PastMasters Day Tripper]]" as being about a prostitute, and "[[Music/RubberSoul Norwegian Wood]]" as being about a lesbian. I just wanted to know what your intent was when you wrote it, and what your feeling is about the ''Time'' magazine criticism of the music that is being written today.
5	-> '''Paul [=McCartney=]:''' [[DeadpanSnarker We were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians, that's all.]]
6	-->-- [[http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1966.0828.beatles.html 1966 interview]]
7
8	Sir James Paul [=McCartney=], [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CH MBE]] (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician who gained worldwide fame as co-lead vocalist and bassist for Music/TheBeatles. His songwriting partnership with Music/JohnLennon remains the most successful in history.
9
10	[=McCartney=] began his career as a member of the band The Quarrymen in 1957, already a skilled songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. That band evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Starting with the album ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' (1967), he gradually became the Beatles' ''de facto'' leader. His songs with the Beatles "And I Love Her" (1964), "Yesterday" (1965), "Eleanor Rigby" (1966) and "Blackbird" (1968) rank among the most covered songs in history. Along the way, despite his innocuous, sentimental reputation, he helped also create one of the earliest examples of UsefulNotes/HeavyMetal with "Helter Skelter."
11
12	Shortly before the Beatles disbanded in 1970, [=McCartney=] debuted as a solo artist with the album ''Music/McCartney''. The following year, he released ''Music/{{Ram}}'' and formed the band Music/{{Wings\|Band}} with his first wife, Linda. After leading Wings throughout the 1970s, [=McCartney=] resumed his solo career in 1980.
13
14	Beyond music, he has been known for promoting subjects such as vegetarianism and donating to charity, and arguing against others such as animal cruelty/hunting, land mines and fracking.
15
16	He ended at #18 in ''Series/OneHundredGreatestBritons''.
17
18	----
19	!!Studio Discography ([=McCartney's=] discography with Music/TheBeatles and Music/{{Wings\|Band}} are on those bands' pages):
20
21	* 1970 - ''Music/McCartney''
22	* 1971 - ''Music/{{Ram}}'' [[note]]Credited to Paul and Linda [=McCartney=][[/note]]
23	* 1980 - ''Music/McCartneyII''
24	* 1982 - ''Music/TugOfWar''
25	* 1983 - ''Music/PipesOfPeace''
26	* 1984 - ''Film/GiveMyRegardsToBroadStreet''
27	* 1986 - ''Press to Play''
28	* 1988 - ''Снова в СССР'' [[note]]Russian for [[CallBack "Back in the USSR"]][[/note]]
29	* 1989 - ''Flowers in the Dirt''
30	* 1993 - ''Off the Ground''
31	* 1997 - ''Flaming Pie''
32	* 1999 - ''Run Devil Run''
33	* 2001 - ''Driving Rain''
34	* 2005 - ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard''
35	* 2007 - ''Memory Almost Full''
36	* 2012 - ''Kisses on the Bottom''
37	* 2013 - ''New''
38	* 2018 - ''Egypt Station''
39	* 2020 - ''[=McCartney III=]''
40	** 2021 - ''[=McCartney III=] Imagined'' [[note]]A collaborative album featuring remixes and covers of songs from ''[=McCartney III=]''[[/note]]
41
42	----
43	!!Live Discography:
44
45	* 1990 - ''Tripping the Live Fantastic''
46	* 1991 - ''Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)''
47	* 1993 - ''Paul Is Live''
48	* 2002 - ''Back in the U.S.''
49	* 2003 - ''Back in the World''
50	* 2007 - ''iTunes Festival: London''
51	* 2007 - ''Amoeba's Secret'' [[note]]Later included as part of the 2010 album ''Paul [=McCartney=] Live In Los Angeles''[[/note]]
52	* 2009 - ''Good Evening New York City''
53	* 2010 - ''Paul [=McCartney=] Live In Los Angeles'' [[note]]Includes tracks from the 2007 live EP ''Amoeba's Secret''[[/note]]
54	* 2012 - ''iTunes Live From Capitol Studios''
55
56	----
57	!!Electronic Discography:
58
59	* 1993 - ''Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest'' [[note]]The first of three albums [=McCartney=] recorded as part of The Fireman, an electronic duo he had formed with record producer and former Music/KillingJoke bassist Youth[[/note]]
60	* 1998 - ''Rushes'' [[note]]with The Fireman[[/note]]
61	* 2000 - ''Liverpool Sound Collage'' [[note]]A collaboration with Music/SuperFurryAnimals[[/note]]
62	* 2005 - ''Twin Freaks''
63	* 2008 - ''Music/ElectricArguments'' [[note]]also with The Fireman[[/note]]
64
65	----
66	!!Classical Discography:
67
68	* 1967 - ''The Family Way''
69	* 1977 - ''Thrillington''
70	* 1991 - ''Paul [=McCartney's=] Liverpool Oratorio''
71	* 1997 - ''Standing Stone''
72	* 1999 - ''Working Classical''
73	* 2006 - ''Ecce Cor Meum''
74	* 2011 - ''Ocean's Kingdom''
75
76	----
77	!!Say, live and let trope:
78	* AbbeyRoadCrossing: The cover of the concert album ''Paul Is Live'' features an older Paul digitally inserted into the original, iconic ''Abbey Road'' cover photo.
79	* AlbumTitleDrop:
80	** "She sprinkles ''flowers in the dirt'', that's when a thrill becomes a hurt", from the song "That Day Is Done".
81	** There's a partial one in the song "Fine Line": "There is a long way between ''chaos and creation''" (the album in question being ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'').
82	* AlternateRealityEpisode:
83	** Three albums released under the name "The Fireman", a "group" consisting of Paul and the record producer Youth. The first two albums were sound collages. ''Electric Arguments'', still rough and unpolished but a more conventional collection of songs, got [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/neilmccormick/3561922/Sir-Paul-McCartneys-Electric-Arguments.html strong reviews]].
84	** There was also his and Linda's 1971 (but not released until 1977 due to [[Music/WingsBand other obligations]]) ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrillington Thrillington]]'' project (an orchestral album consisting of covers of Paul's entire ''Ram'' album), credited to the pseudonym Percy "Thrills" Thrillington.
85	* AnimalMotifs: He references birds rather frequently in his lyrics, which he even acknowledged [[https://vermilioncountyfirst.com/2021/05/05/paul-mccartney-posts-bird-themed-spotify-playlist/ in a Spotify playlist he compiled]]. He named a band Wings, after all (though he says that was a reference to angels). It's a thread all throughout his career, from The Beatles ("Blackbird") to Wings ("Single Pigeon", "Bluebird") to his solo work ("Long Tailed Winter Bird") to songs he wrote for others ("On the Wings of a Nightingale" for Music/TheEverlyBrothers).
86	* AskAStupidQuestion: Creator/MarcMaron fell victim to this while interviewing Paul on [[Podcast/WTFWithMarcMaron his podcast]]:
87	-->'''Marc Maron:''' When you do a record like ''Music/EgyptStation'' now, do you think this is the best work you're doing of your life right now, or how do you look at it?
88	-->'''Paul [=McCartney=]:''' Well that’s kind of difficult, you know, because I was in Music/TheBeatles.
89	* AudienceParticipationSong:
90	** "Hey Jude", especially because of its ending.
91	** "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" is a joy to sing along with a stadium full of people.
92	* AutoErotica: "Back Seat of My Car".
93	-->''But listen to her daddy's song\
94	Making love is wrong\
95	Ooh, we're just busy riding\
96	Sitting in the back seat of my car''
97	* BeardOfSorrow: The only time during his life that Paul was known to sport a beard was the period in 1969-70 that coincided with the breakup of the Beatles. [[http://thequietus.com/articles/06414-paul-mccartney-review Confirmed by the man himself.]]
98	* CallBack:
99	** "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five", the last song on the ''Band on the Run'' album, ends with a reprise of the chorus from "Band on the Run".
100	** The song right before it, "Picasso's Last Words", contains brief snippets of "Jet" and "Mrs. Vanderbilt".
101	* ChristmasSongs:
102	** "Wonderful Christmastime" (and its B-side, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae").
103	** Paul also recorded [[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/paul-mccartney-christmas-album/ an entire album's worth of instrumental versions of Christmas carols]] strictly for his family to listen to.
104	* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: ''[=McCartney=] II''. It's technically his second album only if you don't include Wings releases or ''Ram'', which was officially credited to Paul and Linda as a duo.
105	* CoverAlbum: ''Снова в СССР''. ''Run Devil Run'' and ''Kisses on the Bottom'' also qualify, though they contain three and two originals, respectively.
106	* CultSoundtrack: His soundtrack for the film ''The Family Way'', which is famous for technically being considered to be the first solo album by a member of the Beatles.[[note]]"Technically" because Music/GeorgeHarrison's ''Music/WonderwallMusic'' (1968), also a film soundtrack, also tends to be considered the first solo album by a member of the Beatles, ''Wonderwall Music'''s merits being that, unlike with [=McCartney's=] film score, Harrison directed and produced the recordings for the album, in addition to playing on some of it, plus ''Wonderwall Music'' was the first release on the Beatles' label Apple Records.[[/note]]
107	* CrossReferencedTitles: The album titles ''All the Best'' and ''Kisses on the Bottom'' combine to describe the way he usually signs autographs, "All the best, Paul [=McCartney=] X X X".
108	* DivorceAssetsConflict: Part of the extremely ugly end to his second marriage, with model Heather Mills. Mills got a large sum that was still less than a fifth of what she wanted, along with the judge's assessment that she had been [[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20186762,00.html "less than candid".]]
109	* ElvisLives: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with [=McCartney=], who is said to have died in the '60s and been replaced by a {{doppelganger}}.
110	* EmbarrassingFirstName: His full name is James Paul [=McCartney=]. You wouldn't think James was all that embarrassing, but no fewer than three post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarI British prime ministers have had the same aversion: James UsefulNotes/RamsayMacDonald, James UsefulNotes/HaroldWilson and James UsefulNotes/GordonBrown. Another was more enthusiastic, or maybe saw it as the lesser of two evils: Leonard UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan. Word of Biographer has it that everyone called him Paul to avoid confusion with his father, James 'Jim' [=McCartney=], and Paul named his own son James Louis, after his father and Linda's mother Louise.
111	* {{Epic Rocking}}:
112	** “What’s That You’re Doing?” [[note]]with Stevie Wonder[[/note]] from ''Tug of War'' is 6:19.
113	** “Motor of Love” from ''Flowers in the Dirt'' is 6:18.
114	** “C’mon People” from ''Off the Ground'' is 7:42 [[note]]if you include the hidden track “Cosmically Conscious”[[/note]].
115	** “Rinse the Raindrops” from ''Driving Rain'' is 10:08.
116	** “Anyway” from ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'' is 7:22 [[note]]if you include the hidden track “I’ve Only Got Two Hands[[/note]].
117	** “Road” from ''New'' is 7:39 [[note]]if you include the hidden track “Scared”[[/note]].
118	** ''Egypt Station’' has two cases; “Despite Repeated Warnings” is 6:58, while the medley of “Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link” is 6:22.
119	** “Deep Deep Feeling” from ''[=McCartney=] III'' is 8:25.
120	* FriendToAllLivingThings: A prominent vegetarian and animal rights activist.
121	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Find My Way" appears to end before the three-minutes mark before the minute-long coda starts.
122	%% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
123	* GratuitousFrench: The Beatles song "Michelle" contains several lines in French. Paul later did an entire song like this, "Ou Est Le Soleil", on his ''Flowers in the Dirt'' album.
124	* GratuitousLatin:
125	** From the Wings song "Jet": ''"Ah, mater, want Jet to always love me"''
126	** From his classic album ''Liverpool Oratorio'':
127	---> ''Non nobis solum\
128	Sed toti mundo\
129	Nati\
130	Toti mundo nati''
131	* GreatestHitsAlbum: He's had several. ''Wings Greatest'' covers mainly Wings, but has some early solo tracks. ''All the Best'' is under Paul's name, but half of the album contains Wings material. The two-disc ''Wingspan'' was a comprehensive collection, covering both Wings and Paul's solo output through 1984. ''Wingspan'' was supplanted in 2016 by ''Pure [=McCartney=]'', which is available in two and four-disc configurations and covers his career from 1970 to 2014.
132	* GriefSong:
133	** "Here Today", written after the death of Music/JohnLennon.
134	** Also, "Little Willow", written in memory of Maureen Starkey (Music/RingoStarr's first wife).
135	* HappilyMarried: Paul and Linda [=McCartney=] for 29 years, until Linda's death from cancer in 1998.
136	* HeroesLoveDogs: Has written at least two songs inspired by pet dogs: "Martha My Dear" from ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum'' and "Jet" from ''Music/BandOnTheRun''.
137	* HiddenDepths: [=McCartney=] may be best known for his SillyLoveSongs, but he also wrote one of the bleakest and saddest songs in the Beatles catalogue, "Eleanor Rigby".
138	* IAmTheBand:
139	** "Paul [=McCartney=] and Music/{{Wings\|Band}}". To the extent that the greatest hits album ''All the Best'' is attributed solely to [=McCartney=] despite being about half-Wings.
140	** On ''[=McCartney=]'', ''[=McCartney=] II'', and ''[=McCartney=] III'', Paul performs all the instruments and produced the albums himself. ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'' also fits, with Paul credited for a majority of the instruments in the album's liner notes, to the point that many people considered it to be essentially ''[=McCartney=] III'' before the actual ''[=McCartney=] III'' was released years later.
141	* IconicItem: His trademark violin-shaped Höfner 500/1 bass. As the page image above shows, he even has guitars that look like it. He chose the Höfner violin bass because it looked symmetrical and therefore was not as weird-looking for a left-handed player like Paul.
142	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: ''Kisses on the Bottom''. It's a line from "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," and in that context clearly refers to signing love letters with X's, but still... ''Paul''...
143	* IntercourseWithYou: "Hi Hi Hi" contains sexually suggestive lyrics, but was banned by the Creator/{{BBC}} for being about drugs.
144	* IntergenerationalFriendship: He's always had a knack for making new friends from his connections in the music industry, and that's continued even as he's grown far older than most of his peers. Decades-younger pals of his include Music/TaylorSwift, Music/KanyeWest and [[Music/FooFighters Dave Grohl]].
145	* InTheStyleOf: "Let Me Roll It" from ''Band on the Run'' is often regarded as Paul recording a John Lennon-style song.
146	* IronicNurseryRhyme: After the BBC refused to play his ProtestSong "Give Ireland Back to the Irish", an irritated Paul set "Mary Had a Little Lamb" to music and actually released it as a single.
147	* LeadBassist: The best known bassist of all time. And the "lead" part is prevalent in both Wings and the latter part of The Beatles.
148	* LetsDuet:
149	** In the early 80s, [=McCartney=] had big hits singing duets with Music/StevieWonder ("Ebony and Ivory") and Music/MichaelJackson ("The Girl Is Mine", "Say Say Say").
150	** He also contributed vocals for the song "Best Love" on Creator/SteveMartin's 2011 album ''Rare Bird Alert''.
151	** One of his songs from his late-80s partnership with Music/ElvisCostello was the duet "You Want Her Too" from ''Flowers in the Dirt''.
152	* LimitedWardrobe: These days, he usually performs in a long sleeved red shirt.
153	* LivingLegend: When he appeared on ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'', he was introduced to the audience in the only way possible:
154	-->'''Stephen:''' Ladies and gentlemen, you know my first guest tonight '''''because he's Paul [=McCartney=]'''''.
155	* LongRunnerLineUp: After two groups that didn't qualify (The Beatles only lasted eight years after Ringo joined, and aside from the core three of Paul, Linda and Denny Laine the Wings were a RevolvingDoorBand) his current live band - and at times going along in the studio - qualifies, having been the same musicians since 2001.
156	* MagpiesAsPortents: "Two Magpies" from The Fireman uses the "One for sorrow, two for joy" line from the famous NurseryRhyme.
157	* MissingMom: Mary [=McCartney=] died from cancer when Paul was 14. This tragedy has undoubtedly inspired quite a few of his songs, including "Let It Be", and helped him bond with Music/JohnLennon, who lost his mother shortly after the two met to a traffic accident.
158	* MrFanservice: Although all the Beatles had some in ''Film/{{Help}}'', Paul had the most of it, between getting naked in the "The Exciting Adventure of Paul on the Floor" segment, and Paul on the beach in tight t-shirt and jeans.
159	* MythologyGag:
160	** Since Music/TheBeatles had famously played their last public concert as a band at Candlestick Park in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco in 1966, he was the obvious choice for the final event at the stadium in 2014 before its scheduled demolition, and he delivered a marathon two-and-a-half-hour concert, playing 40 songs in total, 24 of them Beatles tunes. He wrapped up the final encore with [[Music/LittleRichard "Long Tall Sally"]] (the final song the band had played at the 1966 show), followed by the "Golden Slumbers" portion of the side two ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' medley, finishing with "The End".
161	** ''Flaming Pie'' and its TitleTrack are named after a story that Music/JohnLennon used to tell reporters as a joke regarding how the Beatles got their moniker. According to the story, the band members were visited by a man on a flaming pie who told them that from now on, they would be known as "Beatles" with an "a."
162	* NeverLearnedToRead: He can't read sheet music.
163	* NewSoundAlbum: Plenty of his earlier solo stuff was SynthPop-ish, compared to his later music, which had a harder rock sound to it. Later on, his 2013 solo album, which he specifically had produced by a younger staff, was given a mostly electronic rock style rather than straight-up rock (as with his previous albums), complete with electronically distorted guitar audio. Fittingly, the album is called ''New''.
164	* OddFriendship: With Music/KanyeWest out of all people... the two have collaborated on quite a few songs, famously "[=FourFiveSeconds=]" with Music/{{Rihanna}}, and [[https://www.gq.com/story/the-untold-stories-of-paul-mccartney surprisingly, they still keep in touch despite Kanye's ongoing douchebag behavior]].
165	* OlderThanTheyLook: He's 80 years old as of 2022, and has aged remarkably well.
166	* OneManSong: "Teddy Boy", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Rocky Raccoon", "Hey Jude"
167	* OneWomanSong: "The Lovely Linda", "Michelle"
168	* ParentalSubstitute: Julian Lennon has admitted that he was ''much'' closer to Paul than his [[DisappearedDad own father]], especially during his early childhood and adolescence. When John deserted Julian and his mother, Paul stepped in as a role model and even wrote the song "Hey Jude" to console a young Julian over his parents' divorce.
169	--> '''Julian Lennon:''' Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit—more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad.
170	* {{Prison}}: [=McCartney=]'s infamous bust in 1980, when, as he and Wings were arriving in Japan on a tour, he was caught at customs with 218 grams of marijuana in his luggage. He spent ten days in jail and could have faced a seven-year sentence, but the Japanese government elected to deport him. Reports of [[Music/JohnLennon John's]] reaction to the bust range from "delighted with his ex-partner's misfortune to the point where he literally danced with joy" to "[[http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/lennons-rage-over-mccartney-drug-bust furious that his friend let himself get caught]] and increasingly anxious as Paul was detained"; at any rate, he called to provide moral support. According to Paul, his 10 days in jail had been the only time he wasn't with Linda during their marriage.
171	* ProtestSong:
172	** [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles "Give Ireland Back to the Irish"]], a 1972 single that was banned by Creator/TheBBC.
173	** "How Many People?" from ''Flowers in the Dirt''
174	** "Looking For Changes" from ''Off The Ground'' is a sharp one against animal lab testing. "Big Boys Bickering" takes the anger up to eleven.
175	* PunnyName: The 1973 Wings single "Helen Wheels", which sounds like "hell on wheels", and even includes it in the lyrics.
176	* RearrangeTheSong: The ''Film/GiveMyRegardsToBroadStreet'' soundtrack. Although it spawned the hit single "No More Lonely Nights", most of the album was Paul rearranging old songs from both his Beatles and solo careers.
177	* RefugeInAudacity: Despite having full knowledge that it would be banned by the BBC (which it was), "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" was released as a single by Wings. Their ''first'' single.
178	** "Fuh You", from ''Egypt Station'', also might count
179	* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: His reaction to the "Paul Is Dead" rumors. He even named one album "Paul Is Live" as a sly reference to it.
180	--> "I wasn't really dead." (Paul to Creator/ChrisFarley on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'')
181	* RereleaseTheSong: "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Coming Up" were solo songs which also saw live releases by Wings. "Another Day / Oh Woman, Oh Why", his debut single, was also made available for Record Day 2012.
182	* RooftopConcert: Naturally, played with the other three Beatles in the band's final performance on the roof of Apple Corps, but Paul has also done it solo, having played on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater on ''The Late Show with Creator/DavidLetterman''.
183	* SelfParody: A variation. The album cover for ''Paul Is Live'' is based on the album cover for The Beatles' ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', but it only features Paul walking his dog, Arrow. The cover was also deliberately constructed as a response to the ''Paul is Dead'' legend; several of the "clues" proving Paul's death from the original cover have either been deliberately changed or removed.
184	* SelfTitledAlbum: ''[=McCartney=]'' (his solo debut, in which he belatedly announced the breakup of the Beatles) and the later ''[=McCartney=] II'' and ''[=McCartney=] III''.
185	* SignificantAnagram: While it's unclear whether it's intentional, ''Memory Almost Full'' can be rearranged to spell "For My Soulmate LLM" (Linda [=McCartney's=] full married name was Linda Louise [=McCartney=]).
186	* SignificantReferenceDate: He married his third wife, Nancy Shevell, on October 9, 2011, which would have been Music/JohnLennon's 71st birthday.
187	* SillyLoveSongs: TropeNamer, a [[TakeThatCritics Take That to his critics]], and a shining example of Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad.
188	* SingingSimlish: "Wo wo wo wo, wo wo wo wo, my love does it good." Not Paul's best moment as a lyricist.
189	* SoloSideProject: He wrote the score for the film ''The Family Way'' while still being a Beatle.
190	* SongStyleShift:
191	** "A Day in the Life". Partly because Paul only wrote the middle bit; the outer bits were John's.
192	** "Band on the Run"
193	** "Live And Let Die"
194	** "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", although this is because (as with "A Day in the Life") it is actually two (or three) song-fragments combined to make one whole song.
195	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Linda, his wife, performed along on some of his albums and during his tours, despite not being musically gifted at all.
196	* TheStoner: Paul smoked a lot of marijuana, especially in the 70s and 80s.
197	** "Let Me Roll It" is a nod to [[http://www.avclub.com/articles/let-me-roll-it-is-about-rolling-a-joint,104404/ rolling a joint]].
198	** See WanderlustSong below.
199	* TheStoryteller: His lyrics (especially compared to other Beatles') are notable for often telling stories rather than pondering about abstract subjects. He's also a master storyteller during interviews. His age and career certainly help.
200	* StrongFamilyResemblance: [[http://beatlepress.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/paul_james_mccartney.jpg His son James]] is basically [[PaletteSwap a blond version of himself]].
201	* {{Supergroup}}: Performed a new original song called "Cut Me Some Slack" with the surviving members of Music/{{Nirvana}} for the "12 12 12" benefit concert. It rocked.
202	* TalkingToTheDead: "Here Today" is written as a conversation between Paul and a deceased John Lennon.
203	* TakeThat:
204	** "Too Many People" from ''Music/{{Ram}}'' is a rather veiled Take That towards Music/JohnLennon. The photo on the inside sleeve of ''Ram''--a beetle...er, ''screwing'' another beetle--is less veiled, though Paul intended it as a reference to the acrimonious collapse of the Beatles instead of specifically insulting John. Lennon, always more willing to get nasty than [=McCartney=], took his revenge with "How Do You Sleep?" on ''Music/{{Imagine}}''.
205	** WordOfGod is that only the line "too many people preaching practices" was about John and Yoko, and "you took your lucky break and broke it in two" was about John's part in the Beatles' dissolution. John thought the whole album was about them.
206	** "Silly Love Songs" is one big TakeThat at critics who accused Paul of wallowing in saccharine pop songs about love.
207	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''[=McCartney=]'' and ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard''.
208	* ThisIsASong: "Silly Love Songs".
209	* UnpluggedVersion: Paul's ''Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)'' album is among the first unplugged albums ever released and was the very first MTV Unplugged performance/album.
210	* UpdatedRerelease: His post-Beatles discography has seen two rounds of these, 1993's ''Paul [=McCartney=] Collection'' and the ongoing, [[SarcasmMode creatively-titled]] ''Paul [=McCartney=] Archive Collection''.
211	* [[UrbanLegends Urban Legend]]: The whole ''Paul Is Dead'' conspiracy theory [[note]] See [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead the Other Wiki]] for more details[[/note]]. Which the man himself has [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] a few times, most notably on the ''Paul Is Live'' album cover (itself also an example of SelfParody).
212	* {{Veganopia}}: {{Subverted}}. One of the most famous vegetarians in showbusiness, but lacto, not completely vegan.
213	* VisualPun: The cover photo of ''New'' is a stylised version of the album's name in neon. This is a pun because "neon" means "new gas".
214	* VocalEvolution: Paul's singing voice has gotten raspier, lower and deeper over the years, particularly after the mid-[[TheEighties 1980s]].
215	* WanderlustSong: "Wanderlust", sort of. It seems like it would be this, and one can certainly read the lyrics as being a wanderlust song, but it's actually about an incident where the captain of a boat [=McCartney=] had chartered said he couldn't carry any weed. Paul responded by [[http://books.google.com/books?id=CxGme_8G2MsC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=wanderlust+mccartney+weed&source=bl&ots=TJ5gpdVMXv&sig=N5ahnGUeHsDBUuC6z5Pt2mQMBFc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4uYxUsO_E7K54AOt8YDYCA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=wanderlust%20mccartney%20weed&f=false finding another boat]].
216	* WeUsedToBeFriends:
217	** A personal and professional relationship with Music/MichaelJackson abruptly ended when Jackson bought the publishing rights to the Lennon/[=McCartney=] catalogue. [=McCartney=]'s specific reason for being angry at Jackson seemed to change through the years, however, from MJ "buying the rug he was standing on", to some of the choices he made in exploitation of the songs (e.g. putting certain [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] songs in certain commercials) to simply not giving [=McCartney=]--despite the fact that [=McCartney=] is one of the wealthiest men in showbiz--a raise in the royalties.
218	** Paul and Linda's relationship with Denny Laine of Music/{{Wings\|Band}} didn't end well, either, although Paul and Denny seem to have reconciled.
219	** And, of course, Paul's relationships with the other Beatles melted down rather spectacularly in the late 1960s. They all later managed to patch up their differences to some degree following that, but there was reportedly never the same closeness.
220	* WigDressAccent: During Beatlemania he took to wearing disguises so that he could wander the streets without being mobbed (and occasionally play pranks on the other Beatles and Brian Epstein). In one amusing incident, he was recognized by a bartender who wasn't fooled when Paul asked for "a drop o' the hard stuff" in an Irish accent. See also [[http://meetthebeatlesforreal.blogspot.com/2009/12/paul-and-linda-attend-georges-show.html Paul and Linda incognito]] at a Music/GeorgeHarrison concert.
221	* WordSaladLyrics: Paul was fond of these; "Junior's Farm" and "Jet" are two prime examples.

Context Music / PaulMcCartney