Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Muse Behind the Song: Linda McCartney



Linda's life as a muse began all the way back at the age of 5, when she was still Linda Eastman. Her father Lee Eastman, a New York show business attorney, asked one of his clients, Jack Lawrence, to write a song for his daughter. The result was a song titled "Linda," first performed by Buddy Clark. But Linda is most famous as the muse of Paul McCartney, who once said that every love song he wrote was for Linda. Starting with The Beatles beautiful song "I Will" and continuing with Wings "My Love" and Paul's "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Calico Skies," to name but a few of the sigh and swoon-worthy songs that Paul wrote for his Lovely Linda, you can actually hear what love sounds like.

Here's a 7-year-old Linda with Jack, holding the music sheet for the song he wrote for her.


“Across a crowded room, as they say, our eyes met and the violins started playing … There was an immediate attraction between us. As she was leaving — she was with the group the Animals, whom she’d been photographing –- I saw an obvious opportunity. I said: “My name’s Paul. What’s yours?” I think she probably recognised me. It was so corny, but I told the kids later that, had it not been for that moment, none of them would be here. Later that night, we went on together to another club, the Speakeasy. It was our first date and I remember I heard Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale for the first time. It became our song.” - Paul

















Locking eyes early on with Paul at the Sgt. Pepper launch party.



Paul and I loved each other. He told me he fell in love with me the first time we met, and that was so sweet of him to say, whether or not it was true. What really mattered so much to me was that he always would tell me that he was falling more and more in love with me as time went on. - Linda

Wedding Day.