Paul McCartney

JM: What I was gonna tell you before—what I wanted to save until we started recording was, by the time you're lucky enough to have a classic for your own catalog, you're already dealing with the fact that people are holding it up like, why can't you do another one like this? And I think that's the blessing and the blessing of having a classic.

I mean, do you really think that after someone's had all classics that—do you think that Paul McCartney gets upset when people talk about Let It Be, that they're not talking about Ram? 

CW: Hey, Ram is dope.

JM: There's a reason I said Ram.

CW: Ram feels like it could have come out today.

JM: Ram is the shit. And again, nobody cared about Ram. Nobody's ever cared about Ram. But you and I know that that [sings Ram On]. This guy could sing about cooking spaghetti. And it's incredible. I just got shivers imagining Paul McCartney singing about, [singing] "got spaghetti on the oven." I'd be like, yes, I'm with you. He can sing anything because his reportage is so beautiful. But I wonder if he goes, "ugh, again? Remember, I wrote No More Lonely Nights."

One thing you learn as you start to dig into music of the past is that it's just impossible for any one artist to have every one of their albums be received relative to how great they are. No one is spared. Not even Paul McCartney, who released a record after his time with the Beatles called Ram. And only now is it getting the recognition that it so richly deserves. I discovered it some years back while I was making Paradise Valley. And I'm gonna play for you a song that just blows me away because it's so sweet, and it's unique, and it's interestingly recorded! What a touch. What an unbelievable touch. [Plays "Ram On"]

Paul McCartney is the king of melodies. That's all there is to it. Hearing his melodic ideas, I don't know how you do it. I mean, it's easy to reverse[-engineer] a lot of people's songwriting. You can reverse-engineer. At its best, you go, "cool." But the greatest to do it, you can't really quite reverse-engineer what would have made someone think the thoughts they thought to create those melodies. [Plays "Listen to What the Man Said" by Wings]

Paul McCartney "Maybe I'm Amazed" has a guitar solo in it that's so lyrical and memorable, there could be no better solo for that song. And there are few better songs than that one. And they're Paul McCartney's anyway, so I'm not throwing anyone under the bus. I just looked up to make sure that it was Paul McCartney playing this solo, and it is. One of the best guitar solos ever on a rock song was played by Paul McCartney.