A song written by legendary musician Paul McCartney has been dropped from his setlist permanently after it was “hijacked’ by politicians.
The song in question features Eric Clapton on guitar and was put together just a week after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. McCartney, who had been in New York City at the time of the tragedy, released the studio version in under a week to support those affected by the attack. But McCartney would later drop the song from his setlist for good, citing the hijacking of the song by politicians looking to score points with an emotionally volatile time for the United States. The song Freedom featured often in McCartney’s set after 9/11, but it has not featured since McCartney shared his thoughts on the use of his track.
He said in 2007: “I’d very much like it to come back, because to me it’s a We Shall Overcome. That’s sort of how I wrote it. It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got freedom, I’m an immigrant coming to America, give me your huddled masses.’ And that’s what it means to me, is, ‘Don’t mess with my rights, buddy. Because I’m now free. I used to live in an oppressive regime. I’m from Sierra Leone, but now I’m an American, and don’t try to take that away from me.’
“And I thought it was a great sentiment, and immediately post-9/11, I thought it was the right sentiment. But it got hijacked. And it got a bit of a militaristic meaning attached itself to it, and you found Mr. Bush using that kind of idea rather a lot in [a way] I felt altered the meaning of the song.
“But it was great on the tour immediately post-9/11. It was great to sing it for the American people. It was great for us, it was very healing, it was very, ‘Stand up and be counted.'”
McCartney would go on to defend the song from those who claim it to have a “uncharacteristically militant” sentiment to it. The Let It Be hitmaker explained: “McCartney: That’s true. [But] it was not militant.
“It was written from the point of view of, as I say, someone coming from a repressive, like let’s say, European Jew coming to America. He just got away from Hitler. That kind of thing. Or that– in all its forms. That particularly happens in America. It happens here in the UK, but America I would reckon is global target of people escaping oppression.”
McCartney performed Freedom a total of 55 times over 2001 and 2002. The final performance of the song to date featured on McCartney’s November 5, 2002 show in Mexico City, Mexico. It is unlikely that the veteran songwriter will ever perform Freedom live again.
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