PAUL McCARTNEY REMEMBERED A JOHN LENNON QUIP WHILE THEY RECORDED ‘I SAW HERE STANDING THERE’

ByBeatles Magazine

Nov 26, 2023 #Paul McCartney, #The Beatles

Paul McCartney fondly remembered a John Lennon quip from the recording of The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.”
During a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Paul discussed The Beatles’ raw tapes. “The talk between the takes — I’ve always loved that,” he said. “We always had this two-track tape recorder running in case we came up with a little jam. ‘Take 36, what was that like?’
“But it was actually a chronicle of our dialogue,” he said. “There’s one bit I particularly liked: We were doing ‘I Saw Her Standing There.’ I went, ‘I can’t do it. I haven’t got my plec.’ We didn’t call them ‘guitar picks,’ we called them ‘plectrums.’ John said, ‘Where is it?’ — this in our thick Liverpool accents. ‘I think I left it in my suitcase.’ John goes, ‘Ah, soft a**.’ ‘Soft a**? I’ll give you a soft a**.’”

A reporter said the aforementioned exchange sounded like schoolyard banter. “The Beatles became more worldly,” he said. “But it’s nice to see the school stuff, the banter. To answer your question, is there any more? There’s a few things. Is it worthwhile? I don’t know.”
Paul started writing “I Saw Her Standing There” before he met John. Then, he showed John the track at his house in Liverpool.
The two then worked on “I Saw Her Standing There” together, refining the lyrics. Like many of the band’s early songs, “I Saw Her Standing There” sounds suggestive, but it was still innocent enough to garner massive radio play during a more repressive time.