Dear Mr. McCartney,
I grew up hearing your music everywhere around me. My parents had your records with The Beatles, and I played them too, endlessly singing along with the rest of the world. Your Wings and solo material came out of the car speakers though most of my first ten years, hit after hit. To say that your influence on music in general is profound and permanent is an
understatement. That is why it’s somewhat of a surprise that your music and your influence seemed to wane through the last couple decades, maybe starting with that little duet period with Michael Jackson (?).

It is as if you and David Bowie and Elton John and many of the other English greats just kind of started going through motions on record, doubting yourselves and losing touch with that most natural thing that made you great.

For a Christmas gift, I got _Chaos and Creation in the
Backyard_, and I thought it was a very nice record. A glimmer of hope. I have heard stories that Nigel Godrich gave you a little slap on the wrist and put you in front of a mirror to remember who you are, and what you do best. Chaos came close, it’s a very good record, but Memory Almost Full is as close as you’ve
come yet. I can tell you’ve been thinking about the past, maybe with all that’s going on in your current life, it’s a reflective time. You reference your past, and the past in general several times on
Memory, and you seem to lift a certain feel from your past for each song, like a Sir Paul recipe book.

That’s only natural, I suppose, as you are tied to your past, like it or not. It is a musical past that seems to float out of your mind and into the tapping fingers of the entire world. Indeed, you seem to have that thing that is Paul McCartney flowing back through you as easily as it did when you wrote “Silly Love Songs,” or “Junior’s Farm,” or “Oh, Darling.” There are sounds again, those sounds that you once demanded…those dry snappy drums, those thin and sloppy guitars, that wistful delivery in your voice, I can almost see your eyebrows up and your mouth in a round “O”. Mostly, and this is no secret, you remember that you are a bass player, and maybe the best in the world, playing to the song and weaving in and out of the melody. Never obtrusive, always tasty, always the perfect tone and touch. The only fault I can find with this record is when you try to incorporate a sound “younger” than your own. You always excelled at borrowing from the past, as in “When I’m 64” or “Your Mother Should Know”, but there are a few little bits on this record that seem to try to incorporate something maybe “Beckish” or younger
than you, and it falls a little flat. Like the last track “Nod YOur Head”. I don’t like that one as much.

My wife, a therapist, is always talking about statistical drop-offs in risk-taking and creativity after the age of 35 in most people. She says the most groundbreaking art and music occurs in people before that age, and then they plateau, they lose ability, interest, spark, etc. Maybe they run out of ideas, maybe it’s a chemical thing, or a wisdom thing. At any rate, it seems with A Memory Almost Full and at 65, you have defied that notion of “burn out“. It’s good. It’s a good thing to have a new good record by
you. Only you can do the things that you do and have it be right.

While you have this rekindled inspiration, please call David and Elton over to tea and set them straight. We need another Ziggy and a Brick Road or two. Oh, and, if you come stateside soon stop by our place in Rock Island for some jams and conversation.

Yours,
Patrick