Paul McCartney says there is ‘no meaning’ behind one of his most-loved lyrics

One of the most-loved songs in Paul McCartney‘s discography has “no meaning” behind its memorable lyrics.

The Wings frontman would confirm as much in a question-and-answer session with fans last year. McCartney says his love for ballads, as well as rock and roll, was the reason he wrote the lyrics. There was nothing particular which had inspired the selection of words, with The Beatles member saying he just “ran into the words”. He would go on to liken the writing of the Ram classic to how Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. The “surrealist” nature of Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey was explained by McCartney, whose fondness for the bizarre has made its way into more than a handful of his best works. When in the mood for writing something a little “crazy”, McCartney opted for butter pies and hands across the sky.

Asked by a fan not only for an explanation of what a butter pie was but also if there was any meaning behind the butter not melting, thus being put into the pie, McCartney confirmed there was no deeper message. He shared: “No, there’s no meaning behind it. Because I like surrealist art, I also like surrealist words. 

“A great example of this is Lewis Carroll writing Alice in Wonderland – it’s a crazy thing, you’ve got a cat sitting in a tree that grins and talks, and you’ve got Alice falling down a hole and meeting the red queen, and so on. That whole tradition was something that I loved, and when I met John [Lennon] I learned that he loved it to. So, it was something that became a bond between us.”

McCartney would also confirm that Admiral Halsey, while a real person, had very little to do with butter pies. He continued: “I’d always liked writing love songs, ballads, and rock ‘n’ roll songs, but then one of my other little side interests was to invent surrealist stuff. Admiral Halsey was someone I’d read about – he’s a character from American history – and I just liked the name.

“I was playing around with that and making up a fictional story, and I just ran into the words ‘and butter pie’. Well, there’s no such thing as a butter pie, that I’ve ever heard of anyway. So, it was a surrealist image, like in surreal art where you have a thing called a ‘hair cup’, which is just a cup that’s made out of fur.

“You wouldn’t think to drink from it, it’d be disgusting, but as an image it’s interesting and shocking. ‘Butter pie’ is that kind of equivalent, but in a song. I kept with that image and thought, by way of a surreal explanation, ‘the butter wouldn’t melt so I put in a pie’.

“I was very into surrealism at that particular time, so I wrote songs like Monkberry Moon Delight which is again totally surreal. The word ‘monkberry’ actually came from our kids! That was how they said milk when they were little – ‘can I have some monk?’ – you know, in the way that kids get funny names for things. So, Monkberry Moon Delight to me was like a milkshake! 

“I haven’t done that recently – maybe it’s time to go back to it? It was just a thing that I liked doing, because it was fun and not too serious. If you’re not in the mood for writing a love song then it’s not wise to try and write one, but you might be in the mood to write something a little crazy.”