Paul McCartney unveils unheard demo for ‘Distractions’

Taken from the upcoming re-issue of 'Flowers In The Dirt'

Sir Paul McCartney has unveiled the previously unheard demo for ‘Distractions’ from his classic album, ‘Flowers in The Dirt’. Hear it first on NME below.

The demo is taken from the former Beatles‘ eighth solo album – the latest in a series of reissues from the music icon.

Recorded and mixed by Paul McCartney at Rude Studio, Campbeltown, Scotland 1987, ‘Distractions’ was a centre-piece on side one of the 1989 LP.

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“I like a good love song, you know,” said Sir Paul of his inspiration behind the track. And it’s always nice to be in the mood to write a ballad and that was the case when I sat down to write this. It just occurred to me that if you love someone, one of the problems is that you don’t always spend enough time with that person. Because you’ve got things to do, you’ve got work or you’ve got other obligations to other people or whatever. And so I thought, yeah you could call those distractions from the main event kind of thing. That was basically what this is:

“What is this thing in life that persuades me to take time away from you?
“… Distractions, like butterflies…”

He continued: “I elaborated on that theme, it’s just someone wishing they could spend more time with their loved one. And you know for me at that time it was about Linda. But people often say to me, ‘Who did you write this about?’ and even though then I would have been writing specifically about Linda – because she was the object of my affection – I liked the idea that it could also be the sort of dream of romance. It could just be an ideal – we all love someone and wish we could spend more time with that someone.

“A romantic ideal! I know that a young couple won’t hear this about me and Linda, the guy will hear it about him and his girlfriend, the girl will hear that it’s about her and her boyfriend, and I like that. I like that about my songs, that people use them for their own purpose. And I think that’s a very romantic idea.”

Hear the demo below and download it for free here.

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The re-issue of ‘Flowers In The Dirt’ will be released on 24 March and is available for pre-order here.

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