One of the highlights of Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 album Ram, ‘Dear Boy’ was a semi-autobiographical song about Linda’s first marriage.
Paul McCartney wrote it about Joseph Melvin See Jr, whom Linda had married on 18 June 1962. They had a daughter together, Heather Louise, but divorced in June 1965. See took his own life in March 2000 at his home in Tucson, Arizona.
Despite this, John Lennon thought the song, like others on Ram, was written with him in mind, an interpretation McCartney later refuted.
Dear Boy wasn’t getting at John, ‘Dear Boy’ was actually a song to Linda’s ex-husband: ‘I guess you never knew what you had missed.’ I never told him that, which was lucky, because he’s since committed suicide. And it was a comment about him, ’cause I did think, ‘Gosh, you know, she’s so amazing, I suppose you didn’t get it.’
Mojo, 2001
A significant portion of the song, however, was clearly written about Paul and Linda’s relationship, and the relief he felt at having someone’s help in the dark months following The Beatles’ break-up.
I stepped in, my heart was down and out
But her love came through and brought me round,
Got me up and about
The lyrics are among the most direct by McCartney, a songwriter who often shrouds his feelings in opaque metaphors or symbolism. In a 1971 interview he admitted that the words were autobiographical.
‘Dear Boy’ was my attempt at an autobiography about myself and how lucky I was to have Linda. I never realised how lucky I was to have her until I began writing the song.
‘Dear Boy’ was recorded over five separate sessions at Sound Recorders Studios in Los Angeles, in March and April 1971. It was the penultimate song to be recorded during the Ram sessions; only ‘Dear Friend’ was taped afterwards, but was left off the album.
A memorial service for Linda McCartney was held on 8 June 1998 at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London. The Brodsky Quartet played a series of songs written by Paul for his wife: ‘Golden Earth Girl’, ‘Dear Boy’, ‘Calico Skies’, and ‘My Love’.
Thanks for the information. Great melody, rhythmic and harmonic invention, production, lyric, fine singing, all perfectly packaged. Should be much better known and appreciated than it is, like so many of McCartney’s outstanding solo pieces. Why on earth do we (especially in the UK) so undervalue this man? Maybe the answer is that we are spoiled brats 😉 Music pours out of him and over the decades he has given us so much that we suffer from quality-fatigue. His creativity covers so many eras and genres and personae that it’s difficult to identify the “essential Macca” . He becomes a gigantic blur. Maybe we “can’t see the trees for the forest”, to borrow his own lyric – or to borrow Lennon’s, “got to be good looking ’cause he’s so hard to see”. It gets difficult to identify him facilely (as we like to do with pop artists) by some few career-defining hits in a style, and we give up trying to box the whole colossal product, resorting to labels that give us a grip on some part of it . So there are several different McCartneys lauded/derided by different critical factions who, mostly, are looking in different directions and cannot hear one another. But in my opinion each of these McCartneys has its own enduring value (yes, Silly Love Songs, frogs and all) and the real Macca is bigger than them all. Of course he is still hugely successful but that only serves to increase the peculiar critical sniffiness that persists among the snobs of cool. As someone else said, “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.”
I wonder if McCartney fans are aware of this blog, there is so little comment on Paul’s thread about his music, or maybe they feel that Lennon fans will come to bash any praise Paul may get.
Anyway, I love this song too. In fact all the tunes on Ram are superb.
When in doubt, blame the Lennon mafia.
I love the vocal harmonies in this song, something many people take for granted. It’s funny Linda’s voice is heading up many of the harmonies, and the words tell of a man who once also took her for granted, her ex husband, Joseph Melvin. Reminds me of songs like,” Lovely Rita Meter Maid “ Even though both songs are completely different lyrically. The vocal harmonies on both songs, I could never get tired of listening to them. Typical of the brilliance of McCartney, he makes it look so easy. George Martin taught him so much, and Paul worked so hard, it really shows. I also love the lead guitar by Paul, he just drills that one single note through and through. It was meant to make us think, and to appreciate the special ones in our lives.
Interesting that Dear Boy was the last song to be recorded, if you don’t count Dear Friend, which he left off the album. Too bad. Dear Boy/Friend would have made an awesome single.
First comment in this post is great if I read it correctly. In the Beatles and solo even to present, Paul has done so many different styles and genres, it’s hard to classify him though folks have tried to throughout the year. Just when you think you’ve boxed him in he crawls out, even now. You can hear The Beach Boys influence here but it’s very McCartneyesque. His albums, singles, b sides, outtakes, given away, unreleased tracks, boots, experimental, music in other genres and concert releases truly show his breadth and many times his depth. He has scads of forgotten or never known by the masses deep cut gems. Nevertheless, his complete catalogue probably won’t be fully appreciated except by his dire hard fans till after death if even then, sadly. The critics, disgruntled bandmates and biased book authors really damaged his career for decades and just in the last few years has he crawled out from under the worst of it.
Fascinating to listen to this song with some really good headphones. Mixed so differently than how a song would be normally – throwing Paul’s voice way off to the right, having the ‘background’ harmonies be front & center, and just as loud as the lead vocal: Paul. I always thought this song sounded like it was being sung through a paper cup, with what I believed was obvious and intended distortion. Which seemed typical of Paul, who was so experimental. I’ve always loved this song, but wow, the ‘mix’ is truly odd.