It’s the sort of thing you dream about – a rock star husband, but specifically, one who adores you so much that you find your way into each and every song. Or, in the case of Linda and Paul McCartney, you find yourself actually in the band.
Some people love to shrug off Linda McCartney’s musical impact. In his immediate post-Beatles day, as Paul tried to clear away the clouds of depression and decide if he even wanted to make music anymore, it was Linda who encouraged him forward. On his post-split debut, McCartney, she is the only other musician credited as the artist retreated to his family to heal from the heartache.
On Ram, the album on which Paul seemed to get his excitement back, Linda is credited as a songwriter on several tracks as her involvement levelled up. By the time Wings got going, she was an essential part of the troupe.
But obviously, Linda’s influence is more than just contributing words to a song. Really, all the words were hers as McCartney dedicated track after track after track to his new wife, from the anthemic and adoring ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, the cheeky fun of ‘Eat At Home’, to the simple instrumental of ‘Valentine’s Day’.
“Linda was, and still is, the love of my life,” McCartney said in his devastating statement when Linda passed away in 1998. He added, “I am privileged to have been her lover for 30 years, and in all that time, except for one enforced absence, we never spent a single night apart. When people asked why, we would say, ‘What for?’”
Everyone around them saw it too, as Barry Miles, the biographer who spent heaps of time around McCartney throughout different eras of his life, said, “I’ve never met a more loving family. They were always saying how much they loved each other.”
That complete and utter love is heard in every single song he wrote for his wife, but never clearer than in ‘Long-Haired Lady’, a track that is dream-like and dazed like the haze of adoration, but also captures the fun of their collaboration.
“Do you love me like you know you ought to do?” Linda’s voice cuts through, bringing in her input but also bringing the joy of the studio into the song as you can almost hear the smile on her face as they work on the track together.
But as McCartney takes the mic back, this luxuriating song is the dream of so many, holding so many incredibly sweet compliments that anyone would love to hear. “Who’s your favourite person, dear phenomenal lady? / I belong to the girl with the flashing eyes,” he sings, piling the adoration onto her appearance, her personality and her magnetism.
The most beautiful part comes in the breakdown, though, as the couple, together, simply repeat “my love is long” as a promise that the feeling would not fade. Though illness sadly stopped that, ‘Long-Haired Lady’ stands as a remembrance of their relationship and the devotion they shared.
