The Paul McCartney Lyric That Would Have Made His Auntie Proud

It is to Paul McCartney‘s credit that he has never based his songwriting or recording tendencies on what people expect from him. He follows his muse wherever it takes him, and that’s why his albums tend to be packed with variety.

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For example, the 1975 Wings album Venus and Mars is a mostly rocking affair, as McCartney reestablished the band as a full unit. But he also included on that album “You Gave Me the Answer,” which hearkens back to a much earlier era of music.

“Answer” the Call

After a few years of false starts and disappointments, Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings hit its stride in a major way with the 1973 album Band on the Run. Ironically, that album was delivered by a piecemeal unit, as the group had been decimated by defections to just three members.

Coming off that triumph, McCartney looked to once again beef up the Wings roster so they could tour effectively. The band added two new members for the 1975 album Venus and Mars, which leaned into a hard-rocking sound so listeners knew what the reconfigured Wings lineup could deliver.

It would have been easy for McCartney to churn out the typical rock album formula of mostly slashing uptempo tracks, along with a ballad or two thrown into the mix. But he deviated from that slightly by also recording “You Gave Me the Answer,” which sounds as if it were beamed in from another era.

A few times in his Beatles days, McCartney had paid tribute to the vaudeville/music hall traditions that had enchanted him when he was a lad in the pre-rock era. As he explained in Paul McCartney in His Own Words, it was a style a certain member of his family seemed to appreciate:

“I remember I was up in Liverpool once, just mucking around with this type of thing. If you play guitar, you like to do impressions. And I was singing an old tune and my Auntie Millie said to me, ‘You know, that’s just like Jack Buchanan!’ He was one of my favourites, old Jack. I used to like all those blokes.”

Behind the Lyrics of “You Gave Me the Answer”

Not only is the sound of the song, with its jazz band horns and vocals made to sound as if they’re being delivered through a megaphone, indebted to an earlier time, but the lyrics of “You Gave Me the Answer” also deliver the kind of gentility you might expect from a previous time. McCartney clearly knows and admires the era he’s referencing here.

While the narrator isn’t shy about expressing the depth of his feelings, he doesn’t want to presume as much from his intended: You gave me the answer to love eternally / I love you and you, you seem to like me. It’s the kind of polite, restrained approach that wasn’t normally in the mix for pop songs circa 1975.

McCartney hints at a devotion to traditional values: I can’t forget the airs and graces. He also suggests this girl might not be to the manor born, but her actions are nothing short of regal: You’ll never be crowned by the aristocracy / To their delight, you’d merely invite them in for a cup of tea.

It’s the kind of song you could imagine tripping off the pen of Cole Porter and sung by Fred Astaire as he glided across the silver screen. “You Gave Me the Answer” demonstrates Paul McCartney’s songwriting and performing skills transcend the boundaries of time.

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