Seize The Day

‘Seize The Day’ is a song on McCartney III, Paul McCartney’s solo album written and recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown.

I started this on the piano, at home on the farm and was letting the words spill out so I didn't know what the song was going to be about. I got to this line ‘Yankee toes and Eskimos can turn to frozen ice’ and thought what is this about? #TimsTwitterListeningParty #McCartneyIII

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) December 21, 2020

I think it’s best not to question lyrics too deeply, so instead of it making an amazing amount of sense it becomes a little bit surrealistic which I like. #TimsTwitterListeningParty #McCartneyIII

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) December 21, 2020

With songwriting, I get an idea, then I try to work out what it is I’m saying. I follow a trail, like a trail of breadcrumbs leading you out of the woods. I was in the first verse of ‘Seize The Day’, and completely at random – it’s always random – I came up with, “Yankee toes and Eskimos”. What’s this all about? I like it, but how the hell am I going to get out of this? Where are these breadcrumbs leading? Then out came, “Can turn to frozen ice”. That’s good! Not every day of your life is sunny, so when these cold days come, let’s seize the day – hang on to the good times. So it became philosophical, but I didn’t set out to write a philosophical song.

The chorus is about the cold cold days – ‘when the cold days come we’ll wish that we’d enjoyed today’. So that became ‘Seize The Day’ which is basically English for carpe diem! #TimsTwitterListeningParty #McCartneyIII

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) December 21, 2020

This song has a little bit of a feeling of covid times, because it is saying even though times are tough, let’s try and remember that we’ll be glad if we seize the day #TimsTwitterListeningParty #McCartneyIII

— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) December 21, 2020