Music

Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s sons team up for new song Primrose Hill

James McCartney’s acoustic ballad, co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, draws from a childhood vision in Scotland

Sean Ono Lennon and James McCartney announced their new song Primrose Hill on social media. Photograph: Instagram

Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Wed Apr 17 2024 - 12:29

The most famous songwriting credit in history, Lennon-McCartney, has been resurrected – though for a song written by The Beatles’ sons.

Primrose Hill, a single by Paul McCartney’s son James, has been co-written with Sean Ono Lennon: an acoustic ballad with a shuffling backbeat and ruminative guitar soloing.

McCartney explained the song in an Instagram post: “I had a vision as a child in Scotland, on what was a lovely summers day. Letting go, I saw my true love and saviour in my mind’s eye. Primrose Hill is about getting the ball rolling with me & finding this person.”

His father Paul promoted it on social media, sending “lots of love” to Ono Lennon.

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McCartney, born to Paul and Linda McCartney in 1977, released two solo albums in 2013 and 2016, and said he was now “really getting the ball rolling and I am so excited to continue to share music with you”. Primrose Hill follows the release of a solo single earlier this year, Beautiful. He has previously co-written songs with his father and played with him on albums such as 1997’s acclaimed Flaming Pie.

“It’s hard to live up to The Beatles,” he said in a 2013 interview with the Daily Mail. “When Wings toured they got slated. Even Dad found it hard living up to The Beatles. I started out playing under an alias because I wanted to start quietly. I had to serve my time as a musician and wait until I had a good body of songs and for a time when both myself and my music were ready. I don’t want to sit around. I want to earn my own living.”

Ono Lennon has also carved out his own musical career since early appearances on albums by his mother Yoko Ono. He joined the alt-rock band Cibo Matto, who then backed him – along with Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey – for his debut album Into the Sun in 1998. Lennon went on to collaborate with artists as varied as Albert Hammond jnr, Soulfly, Mark Ronson and Jurassic 5, and has released further solo work alongside film scoring.

Activity remains lively around The Beatles, meanwhile. Following the release of what was billed as the final new Beatles song, Now & Then – which topped the UK charts in November – and the three-part Peter Jackson-directed documentary Get Back, a reissue of the 1970 film Let It Be has been announced to air on Disney+ in May. Directed by Michael Lindsay Hogg, it charted the making of the album of the same name, and leftover footage from the shoot formed Jackson’s documentary series.

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“I’m absolutely thrilled that . . . Let It Be has been restored and is finally being rereleased after being unavailable for decades,” Jackson said in a statement. “I’ve always thought that Let It Be is needed to complete the Get Back story.”

Fans can also get their hands on a unique piece of McCartney memorabilia – the open-top bus that he and Wings travelled in for their 1972 European tour.

“If we’re gonna be in Europe in the summer going to places like the south of France, it’s just silly to be in some little box all day gasping for air,” McCartney reasoned at the time. “So we came up with this idea to have an open deck, upper deck kind of thing. We’ve got some mattresses up there so we can just cruise along, fantastic, it’s great, just lie around and get the sun.”

Fully restored and in working order, the double-decker in Yellow Submarine-style livery is expected to sell for up to £200,000 (€234,000) at auction on April 22nd. – Guardian

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