Photo: Mary McCartney
McCartney’s most celebrated composition, 1965’s “Yesterday,” famously came to him in a dream. Now the most recorded song of the 20th century, fans have theorized that the mournful ballad was a subconscious expression of grief over his devastating early loss. McCartney, who resisted the notion for years, is now inclined to agree. “Every time I come to the line ‘I’m not half the man I used to be,’ I remember I’d lost my mother about eight years before that. It’s been suggested to me that this is a ‘losing my mother’ song, to which I’ve always said, ‘No, I don’t believe so.’ But, you know, the more I think about it — I can see that might have been part of the background, the unconsciousness behind this song after all. It was so strange that the loss of our mother to cancer was simply not discussed. We barely knew what cancer was, but I’m now not surprised that the whole experience surfaced in this song where sweetness competes with a pain you can’t quite describe.”
But the memories of his late mother weren’t always painful. In the winter of 1968, as business and interpersonal problems mounted and Beatles began their slow disintegration, Mary paid her son another dream visit. “I’d been doing too much of everything, was run ragged, and this was all taking its toll,” McCartney says inLyrics. “The band, me — we were all going through times of trouble…and there didn’t seem to be any way out of the mess. I fell asleep exhausted one day and had a dream in which my mum (who had died just over 10 years previously) did, in fact, come to me.” She provided solace from beyond, offering simple words of hope and fortitude:Let it be.
“When you dream about seeing someone you’ve lost, even though it’s sometimes for just a few seconds, it really does feel like they’re right there with you, and it’s as if they’ve always been there,” McCartney continues." I think anyone who’s lost someone close to them understands that, especially in the period of time just after they’ve passed away…But in this dream, seeing my mum’s beautiful, kind face and being with her in a peaceful place was very comforting. I immediately felt at ease, and loved and protected. My mum was very reassuring and, like so many women often are, she was also the one who kept our family going. She kept our spirits up. She seemed to realize I was worried about what was going on in my life and what would happen, and she said to me, ‘Everything will be all right. Let it be."
“Let It Be” would ultimately become the title track to the Beatles final LP in 1970, serving as the band’s philosophical epitaph. In the half-century since, it’s been embraced as a modern hymnal, inspiring faith in millions enduring their own times of trouble. McCartney chose the song to close out his climactic performance at the historic Live Aid benefit concert in 1986,broadcasting his mother’s divine message around the world.
The song would bring comfort to its composer once again in 1998, when a crowd of friends and loved ones sang “Let It Be” at a memorial service for McCartney’s wife Linda, who had succumbed to breast cancer after nearly 30 years together. The loss was a devastating echo of the tragedy he endured as a boy, but the music – and the loving message from his mother — provided for him, as it had for so many across the globe.
source: people.com
