Paul McCartney says he and John Lennon were ‘cocky’ but backed it up with two early songs

Paul McCartney says he and long-term writing partner John Lennon were “cocky little bastards” when they started writing, and one song backed it up.

The Beatles member, who would form Wings after the Fab Four disbanded, has confirmed that he and Lennon had an attitude problem in their early years. But McCartney says he and Lennon backed this up by writing one song in particular. In an interview with The Rest is History, McCartney, who is promoting his upcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, confirmed that he and Lennon fancied their chances as songwriters from an early age and were capable of backing it up rather quickly. McCartney was asked at what point he realised he and Lennon’s material had gotten “really good”.

McCartney replied: “I think we always thought they were good because we were cocky little bastards. But as they developed and we started to get a bit more mature in the writing, we wrote a song together called From Me to You and it was pretty straightforward, but in the middle of it, it went to a chord we’d never used before.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, we’re getting sophisticated. We’re in C to A minor, now we’re doing a G minor. Wow!’ I mean, what would always happen is one of us would come in with the idea, and then the two of us would finish it up. So something like Norwegian Wood, which was a John idea, and then we sat down and finished it together. I think after that, we thought, ‘Ooh, we’re getting somewhere.'”

McCartney also revealed this week that a Lennon solo song is one of ten that had “soundtracked his life”. Speaking with Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 2, McCartney shared the ten songs that mean the most to him. The interview between Kay and McCartney will be broadcast later this month. Kay said of his chat with McCartney: “Yes, Paul McCartney! Paul McCartney has done Tracks of My Years – it was awesome.

“As a music fan myself, sitting down with one quarter of The Beatles. Paul McCartney, who has had an amazing solo career as well. Paul McCartney, who is very very very highly regarded with his songwriting and everything else that he does. It was special. We were excited and you know what, Paul did not disappoint.”

• Gene Vincent – Be-bop-a-Lula
• Chuck Berry – Maybelline
• Buddy Holly – That’ll Be the Day
• Elvis Presley – All Shook Up
• The Kinks – You Really Got Me
• The Human League – Don’t You Want Me
• Prince – Kiss
• Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man
• The Beach Boys – God Only Knows
• John Lennon – Imagine

The UK premiere of the full interview will be at 6pm on Radio 2 and BBC Sounds in a special programme on May 25. The show will then be available on BBC Sounds. Viewers will be able to watch the exclusive interview on BBC iPlayer from 7pm.

It is not the first time McCartney has mentioned Dylan, with the pair once bumping into each other at an airport, where the Wings frontman at first didn’t recognise the All Along the Watchtower songwriter.

McCartney said: “I did, yeah. I was going through an airport, and this kind of homeless guy comes shuffling up to me in a grey hoodie. And I’m going, ‘Yeah? Can I help you?’ [Dylan voice], ‘Hey, Paul. It’s Bob.’ I must say, you know, he was very incognito. I would not have recognised him at all.”