Macca’s gems: Souvenir

McCartney's 1997 Flaming Pie album is filled with gems, including one of my all-time favorites of his: Souvenir. The track can best be described as a comfort song, in terms of lyrics it’s a bit like Somebody Who Cares (another hidden gem from the 1982 album Tug of War), where Paul offers his help to someone who just have had it with everything ; as it is immediately apparent from the first verse:

When you're fed up shedding too many tears
And you're memories seem like just so many souvenirs
I will come to you to ease the pain

The song has a very relaxed feel, with an electric guitar flowing through the verses like a meandering small stream, almost dreamy, and sympathetic with the object of the song. Passion comes to the fore in the chorus, with a much rawer guitar sound, there where McCartney lends a helping hand:

If you want me tell me now
If I can be of any help, tell me how
Let me love you like a friend
Everything is gonna come right in the end



Like more songs by McCartney, such as Bluebird and Hi, Hi, Hi, Souvenir is also written during a holiday in Jamaica:

I write quite a bit on holiday, when the pressure’s off, and one afternoon in Jamaica I sat down and started writing a song that turned out to be ‘Souvenir’. It was a real lazy holiday, very laid back, so there was no tension at all in the writing of this song. The phone went in the middle of me making the demo, and then a tropical downpour happened, but I kept on recording and love the demo for its atmosphere.

And it's that mood that McCartney wants to keep when he records the song a year later in his studio in Sussex. To do that, he transfers the original demo to a multi-track tape to use it ‘as a guide for the studio recording and then each element of the original was carefully replicated’.

Macca plays on almost all instruments, supported by producer Jeff Lynne on guitar and keys. In addition, a three-person horn section can be heard, giving the song a sound that reminds me a lot of Letting Go, from the Wings album Venus & Mars from 1974: it has the same R & B, soul feel about it.

I had a sort of Wilson Pickett, R&B number in mind with this. I could imagine some soul guy really getting to grips with it. It's a favourite of mine and I'm looking forward to some R&B singer doing it.

The song works towards a modest climax, and then just before the end it returns to the relaxed mood of the rest of the song. This final touch is the scratchy sound of an old 78-rpm record, in which McCartney's voice is also distorted, similar to the beginning of the Beatles song Honey Pie. It is precisely these small playful elements that make the song just perfect.

Video: Souvenir

More gems:

New: A Typical McCartney Stuck-In-Your-Head Tune
Great McCartney Gems From The Eighties
My Valentine

André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

Nieuwere post Oudere post