Jimmy Scott

Jimmy Anonmuogharan Scott Emuakpor, better known as Jimmy Scott, was a conga player. Born in Nigeria, he relocated to England in the 1950s, where he pursued a career as a jazz musician and became a sought-after percussionist. He performed with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames in the 1960s, supported Stevie Wonder during his 1965 British tour, played on the Rolling Stones’s “Beggars Banquet…”

Paul McCartney is said to have first encountered him at the Bag O’Nails club in Soho, London, where he heard Scott utter his signature phrase, “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah.” This expression inspired Paul to compose the song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” which was recorded and released in 1968.

In July of that year, Jimmy Scott was invited to contribute conga playing to “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” However, Paul’s decision to re-record the song led to Jimmy Scott’s part being omitted from the White Album’s released version. The version featuring his performance was eventually released on “Anthology 3” in 1996.

The use of Scott’s catchphrase as the foundation for the song became a matter of controversy. In November 1968, Scott was imprisoned for failing to pay alimony to his former wife. He requested that the police inform the Beatles’ office. Paul agreed to cover his legal expenses, provided that Scott relinquished his claim for a composing credit for the song.

Jimmy Scott continued a career in music until his passing in 1986, due to a pneumonia.

A fella who used to hang around the clubs used to say Jamaican accent , “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on,” and he got annoyed when I did a song of it, ’cause he wanted a cut. I said, “Come on, Jimmy, it’s just an expression. If you’d written the song, you could have had to cut.” He also used to say, “Nothin’s too much, just outa sight.” He was just one of those guys who had great expressions, you know.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Playboy, 1984

[Jimmy Scott] was a great friend of mine. In the Sixties we used to meet in a lot of clubs and spent many a happy hour chatting until closing time. He had a great positive attitude to life and was a pleasure to work with.

Paul McCartney – Message written in 1986 for the programme brochure for a memorial concert for Jimmy Scott – Quoted in “The Complete Beatles Songs: The Stories Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four” by Steve Turner, 2015

I had a friend called Jimmy Scott who was a Nigerian conga player, who I used to meet in the clubs in London. He had a few expressions, one of which was, ‘Ob la di ob la da, life goes on, bra’. I used to love this expression… He sounded like a philosopher to me. He was a great guy anyway and I said to him, ‘I really like that expression and I’m thinking of using it,’ and I sent him a cheque in recognition of that fact later because even though I had written the whole song and he didn’t help me, it was his expression.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da wasn’t me trying to be far out. It was just that I knew this guy Jimmy Scott, an African guy from the London club scene, and he had this great turn of phrase. He’d say, “Ob-la-di ob-la-da, life goes on, bruv!” and I took that and created a story around two characters. That choppy, reggae sound was appealing and quite a new thing

Paul McCartney – Interview with The Guardian, November 2008

THE PROBLEM WAS, OUR GIGS FINISHED SO LATE THAT RESTAURANTS and pubs had closed by the time we got back to London, so the only way we could get a drink and something to eat was to ‘go down a club’, as they used to say. That became a way of life. We would drive home from a gig and immediately go to a club. The Bag O’Nails was one of my favourites. The Speakeasy. The Revolution. The Scotch of St James. The Cromwellian. Later when the other guys were married and living in the suburbs, I would often go by myself.

It was in one of these clubs that I met Jimmy Scott, the Nigerian conga player whom I liked a lot. Jimmy had a couple of catchphrases he used all the time, one of which was ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, life goes on, bra’. Some people think ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ is a Yoruba phrase that means something like comme ci, comme ça. Some people think it’s a phrase Jimmy Scott made up. And there are others who think ‘bra’ refers to a brassiere, rather than an African version of ‘bro’.

I liked the comme ci, comme ça, que sera sera sentiment. So I set out to write a humorous little ‘character song’ about Desmond and Molly and their kids. It’s a combination of African and Jamaican elements. […]

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

[Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da] had a special meaning which he never told anyone. Even the Beatles didn’t know what it meant. When I once asked Paul what it meant he said he thought it meant ‘Comme ci, comme ça’, but that isn’t right. To Jimmy it was like a philosophy that he took with him through his life.

Lucrezia Scott – Jimmy Scott’s widow – Quoted in “The Complete Beatles Songs: The Stories Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four” by Steve Turner, 2015

Ob-la-di spells freedom for Jim

POP MUSICIAN Jimmy Scott told yesterday how a catch-phrase and a Beatle’s generosity saved him from a long term in prison. Jimmy, who used to play the conga drums with Georgie Fame, was jailed for failing to pay maintenance to his wife. If he could find the £139 he owed he would go free.

He had served a week in jail when Beatle Paul McCartney heard of his plight — and paid off the £139.

And one of the reasons for Paul’s action is that Jimmy inspired the song “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da,” the biggest hit on the Beatles’ new album.

For years, 38-year-old Jimmy would say farewell to his friends with the phrase: “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da — life must go on, bra.”

Explained Jimmy: “Ob-la-di is a word I made up from Afrikaans and I’ve used it for nearly 10 years. Paul asked me if he could use Ob-la-di as the basis of a song for his new album. He has written a completely new melody and all the words are different — except those seven in my farewell phrase. I agreed he could use the words and he invited me to the recording studio to listen to the song. Then I gave him the correct spelling of the title.“

At least six other groups have recorded the song. One version— by The Marmalade — is in the top twenty.

The phrase was such a part of Jimmy that he is known in the Pop world as “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.” At one stage he had his own Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da Band.”

This week, Paul flew to Spain on holiday.

Said Jimmy: “He has never asked for any of the money back.“

From The Sunday People – December 15, 1968

In 2008, Paul McCartney used another expression of Jimmy Scott for his song “Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight,” written in collaboration with Youth, for The Fireman’s album “Electric Arguments.”

The title of new Fireman track Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight derives from another Scott phrase.

Paul McCartney – Interview with The Guardian, November 2008

I told [Youth] about my friend Jimmy Scott, an African guy. He used to say “ob la di, ob la da,” and of course I put that in a song. But he had another one — you know in the ‘’60s, people were always saying things like “far out,” and “too much”…You would ask him how he was and he would say, “Nothin’ too much, just outta sight.” So that’s the first track on the album.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Entertainment Weekly, February 2009

Recording sessions Jimmy Scott participated in

Albums, EPs & singles which Jimmy Scott contributed to

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