Linda McCartney

Released: October 26, 1998

Songwriter: Paul McCartney Linda McCartney

Producer: Paul McCartney

You say I'm lazy
You say I don't fit
Takes one to know one
You make me sick
You say I'm simple
You say I'm a hick
You're fucking no one
You stupid dick

Oppression won't win
The light comes from within

I need a sense of cause
Wanna smell the flowers
You need complete control
You wanna build more towers

You try to change me if you could
I see the trees, you saw the wood
You say I'm different
You say we don't click
I say you're crazy
You make me sick

Oppression won't win
The light comes from within

I say you're greedy because you scheme
You say I'm foolish because I dream

Oppression won't win
The light comes from within

I need a sense of cause
Wanna smell the flowers
You need complete control
You wanna build more towers

I say you're greedy because you scheme
You say I'm foolish because I dream

Oppression won't win
The light comes from within

Before she met Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman McCartney (1941-1998) was a professional photographer. Despite the name, she had no connection to the Eastman Kodak fortune – rather, her family were Jewish immigrants who moved to America at a time when it was common for Jewish-Americans to choose English last names as a way to assimilate.

In May 1967, Paul was in the audience at a small music club when he struck up a conversation with Linda. In May 1968, he made an excuse to see her the next time he was in New York. Within a month, they were inseparable, and they stayed devoted to each other until she died of cancer in 1998.

Paul’s biographer called the marriage “by far the happiest and most durable in pop.” With Paul as a coach, Linda went on a notorious rise from totally untrained musician, to a (self-acknowledged) mediocre member of Wings, to the respected counter-melody, co-writer, and muse of Paul’s late-career music. In 1975, she added “activist” to her resume, when she and Paul became the most famous converts to vegetarianism at the time.

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