WFMU has a kid-oriented show, Double Dip Recess, and I just heard the above song on this week's archive for the show. I'd heard the song before, but had forgotten how close the Children's Television Workshop people stuck to the original, both musically and lyrically.
Years ago, I remember a nice guy I was working with saying that he had always thought that the song was about the Virgin Mary―a not unreasonable conclusion―but that he'd recently found out it was about marijuana. I said I was pretty sure it was neither, that McCartney was writing about his own mother, who'd died when he was a tween. I think I was right, but didn't really push the matter because I've learned that there are off-putting ways of being right.
For the record, "Got to Get You Into My Life" actually is about weed.
2 comments:
It's kind of nice to imagine young kids listening to the radio, isn't it? That was a great version of the song.
John and Paul both having lost their mothers at a young age was what brought them together as friends and a remarkable collaboration.
You're right that there are ways of being right that aren't quite right.
Well I'm sure that it's parents who actually tune into the station, but kids could get into the programming. I remember we had a Sesame Street album with that song on it. Also a Bruce Springsteen parody called "Born to Add" and Cookie Monster doing an Isaac Hayes/Barry White act.
They were a great team, partly because of the losses they'd both undergone. Even after their personal conflicts of the 70s John Lennon said that McCartney was a great pick as collaborator.
It's a delicate balance that I'm still finding.
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