Eat At Home

Written by: Paul and Linda McCartney
Recorded: October 1970 – April 1971
Producer: Paul and Linda McCartney

Released: 21 May 1971 (UK), 17 May 1971 (US)

Available on:
Ram
Thrillington

Personnel

Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar
Linda McCartney: backing vocals
David Spinozza/Hugh McCracken: guitar
Denny Seiwell: drums

One of five co-written songs on Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 album Ram, ‘Eat At Home’ was written about their love of domestic life together.

Linda and I were newly married, with a baby, and we were desperately trying to escape the hurly-burly and just find time to be a family. We were completely cut off on our farm in Scotland, a place I’d bought a few years before but Linda really fell in love with. So we just made our own fun. We drew a lot. We wrote a lot. We inspired each other. Linda took a lot of photographs, and I think Scotland helped her find a new side to her work, moving away from musicians and capturing nature and the everyday of family life.

[AmazonRight]In 1975 Paul McCartney was asked about the song, and said it was “a plea for home cooking – it’s obscene”. Certainly the lyrics are a barely-disguised come-on, with eating used as a euphemism for sex.

From a musical perspective, ‘Eat At Home’ owes much to the example of Buddy Holly, a huge influence on The Beatles when we were growing up and starting to write our own songs. One of the aspects I rather enjoy is that I modified Buddy Holly’s tendency to mimic a speech hesitation by introducing a sheep’s baa into the phrase ‘eat in be-e-e-e-d’. I was proud of that!

‘Eat At Home’ was released as a single in several European countries in 1971, with ‘Smile Away’ on the b-side. Although not issued in the US or UK, it reached number seven in the Netherlands and eight in Norway.

Wings later performed ‘Eat At Home’ during their European tour.

Join the Fab Forum discussion on Eat At Home »