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Started Feb 22, 1995

Recording "Young Boy"

For Paul McCartney

Last updated on September 6, 2020


Master session

Location

  • Recording studio: Steve Miller's home studio, Sun Valley, Idaho, USA

Timeline

Master release

AlbumSome of the songs worked on during this session were first released on the "Flaming Pie" Official album

Some of the songs from this session also appear on:

Young Boy” was recorded with Steve Miller, when Paul visited him in his own studio, in Idaho.

“Young Boy” was another of these “set yourself an arbitrary deadline” goal. In fact, it started to be just a “Poor Boy”. “Just a poor boy looking for a way to find love”. The “Poor Boy” reminded me like an old Elvis song and “Poor Boy” just had too many connotations. So “Young Boy” was better, I liked the word better, “Young Boy”.

And I started making up this song, you know, just thinking about all the young people I know who are in that position, who are just starting off on a romance or starting to find their partner or whatever. And I just became a subject, you know, I remember it well enough myself. “Looking for a way to find love”… I mean I remember this whole process of finding out somebody who’s for me. But how am I ever going to meet her? Just 300.000.000 of them. It’s very perplexing at that age – fingers crossed – that’s all you can do.

First of all, I called up Steve Miller. I said, Look I have a song, a song called “Young Boy”, I think we could do it great, how about it, he said, “Come out”. He’s got a studio in Sun Valley Idaho. I said, “yeah, alright, I’m off”.

Paul McCartney, in the “Flaming Pie Radio Special”

I invited him over to my studio and we recorded “Young Boy” which was really a lot of fun. It was really a neat trip for me because it was completely different than anything than I would normally play and record. And so I got to play lead on top of, you know, some different changes and stuff and singing some different kinds of harmonies it was really fun. For me, it’s sort of like being around Mozart or something. It’s a remarkable experience because Paul is so talented. He plays drums, he plays bass, he plays guitar, and he was in the Beatles, a great band… And he writes classical music and he’s just an amazingly creative person to be around. He’s absolutely pleasant, very polite, really fun to work with, and we have nothing but a good time every time we get together.

Steve Miller, in the “Flaming Pie Radio Special”

Those sessions with Steve Miller started on Feb 18, 1995. Work on “Young Boy” started on Feb 22.


Session activities

  1. Young Boy

    Written by Paul McCartney

    Recording


Going further

Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium

We owe a lot to Chip Madinger and Mark Easter for the creation of those session pages, but you really have to buy this book to get all the details!

Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium is the ultimate look at the careers of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr beyond the Beatles. Every aspect of their professional careers as solo artists is explored, from recording sessions, record releases and tours, to television, film and music videos, including everything in between. From their early film soundtrack work to the officially released retrospectives, all solo efforts by the four men are exhaustively examined.

As the paperback version is out of print, you can buy a PDF version on the authors' website

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

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