Love, dad and I

He had a lot of music in him, my dad

“He had a lot of music in him, my dad. He taught me and my brother harmony; not the concept, not written down, but he would say, “This tune is the harmony to that tune,” so I learned very early how to sing harmony, which was one of my big roles in the Beatles. Whenever John sang I automatically sang in harmony with him, and that’s due to my dad’s teaching. One of the thrills of being in the music-publishing business now is that I know an awful lot of those old songs through him.”   (Paul McCartney 1996)

A happy Dad

“Being the former Secretary of the Speke Horticultural Society, it was no problem getting dad to pose in the middle of his prized apple tree in our back garden on a nice summer’s day. More of a problem was getting a smile. After Mum died, life wasn’t easy for Dad bringing up two teenage sons on his own, so I must have done something pretty impressive (or very silly) to get this lovely, relaxed feeling of a happy Dad.” (Mike McCartney – fonte: http://thegilly.tumblr.com)

Just make some tea

“Jim [McCartney] began to want to sit in with them, offering advice and hints about how he used to do it in the good old days of Jim Mac’s Band. Why didn’t they play some really good tunes? Like “Stairway to Paradise”? He’d always thought that was a really lovely number. He told them about how he used to run his band and how they should present their numbers. They said no thanks, very much, just make some tea, eh, Dad?” H. Davies – The Beatles

Jim McCartney

“I knew he [Robert Fraser] was gay and he knew I wasn’t gay so we were quite safe in our own sexuality, we could talk to each other. Actually I remember one of the touching conversations we had was about his mum and dad. I said,”My mum died when I was young but I think my dad’s great. He’s a real fine man and I’ve got a lot of respect for him and I’m not ashamed to admit it.”. Feeling slight peer pressure as I did admit it (…) and we had a little moment where we both admitted we loved our parents, which then was not the thing you did. I don’t think I ever had it with the Beatles, it certainly was not a common thing”.     Paul McCartney