Being a rock star, funnily enough, oftentimes requires a bit of work – it’s not just the voice or hedonistic lore which sees you sailing through to the hall of fame. What nearly always cements icons are the virtuosic lyrics accompanying their unmistakable sound, which is none more so true for Paul McCartney, renowned for his vibrant storytelling, frequently drawn from even the most mundane tribulations of real life, across The Beatles’ sprawling back catalogue.
That may be true of some of the Fab Four’s most esteemed hits, including ‘Penny Lane’ and – hitting the nail squarely on the head – ‘A Day in the Life’, but it seems that upon McCartney’s departure into solo territory, he decided a slightly different tack was needed.
Indeed, over half a century on from Macca’s revered album RAM, its track ‘Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey’ attests to having some of the zaniest, and admittedly confusing, lyrics of the Liverpudlian legend’s career. There’s no denying its Beatles influence – the song’s racing five-minute span is almost like a whistlestop homage to each of the band’s iconic sounds and eras, interwoven by dizzying images of cups of tea accompanied by butter pies, surely suggesting some contrived metaphorical meaning.
Turns out there’s maybe less profundity in it than you’d think. McCartney revealed his inspiration behind the song in 2021, explaining, “There’s no meaning behind it. Because I like surrealist art, I also like surrealist words.”
He admits the song struck him differently from his other work as he’d “always liked writing love songs, ballads, and rock ‘n’ roll songs” but was enamoured by a “side interest” in “invent[ing] surrealist stuff”. It simply took Admiral Halsey, an American historical figure, to spark his imagination. “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.”
Although there may not be much substance behind it, there’s a lot to be gained from this abstract style of lyricism, according to McCartney. “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,” he advises.
“It also depends on how seriously you want to sing a song. If the lyrics are a bit zany then you end up having fun with the vocal, like you’re a character.” It’s easy to see how a thread runs through McCartney’s life and career, from ‘Eleanor Rigby’ to ‘Sgt Pepper’ and his vaunted solo ventures – the mastery of storytelling and imagination.
