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Released in 1986

Footprints

Written by Paul McCartney • Eric Stewart

Last updated on May 2, 2020

Album This song officially appears on the Press To Play Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1986

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1985, when Paul McCartney was 43 years old)

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Other "Press To Play" songs co-written with Eric Stewart

“Footprints” is a song from 1986 album “Press To Play” co-written with Eric Stewart, a delicate ballad, which was, like most songs on “Press To Play“, surely overproduced.

From “Club Sandwich 42 – Autumn 1986“:

“It came from an image of a magpie looking for food out in the snow. Eric and I changed the magpie into an old man, although the magpie came back for the third verse. The old man is out there looking for Yule logs or something, like the character in ‘Good King Wenceslas’.. .The song goes into what his story might have been, the heartaches there might have been…” Indeed, the lines ‘His heart keeps aching in the same old way/He can’t help feeling that she might come back some day‘ recall the sentiments and melodic sweep of ‘Another Day‘. A Spanish guitar sparkles and there’s even a spinet, a small harpsichord with a string for each note more readily associated with Sir John Betjeman than Paul McCartney.

[Paul] usually comes up with the most brilliant ideas just right off the top of head. I remember a time, it was snowing here in winter, and we were supposed to be writing together so I said, “I’m going to try and make it down there”. The snow was three feet deep and I got down to his place and the sun was shining outside and was gorgeous and I walked to this little studio at the back of his house and I walked through this little door and I said to Paul, “It’s beautiful outside, Paul look at this beautiful…”, and he sang “It’s beautiful outside”. That was the basis of the song “Footprints” and we started writing it. His brain worked in that way which really got my brain working as well when I was doing my solo stuff, so a great debt is owed to Paul by a lot of people but especially by me.

Eric Stewart, from an interview for Alliance Resource, October 2017
From the “Press To Play” sleeve – These coloured diagrams by Paul show the position of the voices and instruments in the mix of each track.

Lyrics

It's beautiful outside, an old hand gathers wood,

Can he see me sitting here? His mind is somewhere else.

His friends have flown away, he's left out in the cold.

He won't sit by my fire, he says he likes it in the snow.

Where footprints never go, he likes it in the snow.

It's getting dark outside, the old man's going home,

Has he someone waiting there? Or is he living on his own?

Where footprints never go, he likes it in the snow…

White blanket, hiding the traces' of tears she didn't see,

Oh white blanket covers the memory

Of all that used to be. All that used to be.

But his heart keeps aching in the same old way.

He can't help feeling that she might come back some day.

It's beautiful outside, a magpie looks for food.

The old hand throws a crumb,

Do you think he's found a friend?

Where footprints never go, he likes it in the snow…

White blanket, hiding the traces' of paths he didn't take.

Oh white blanket covers the memory

Of moves he didn't make.

Oh white blanket, hiding the traces' of tears she didn't see.

Snow white blanket simply covers the memory

Of all that used to be.

But his heart keeps aching in the same old way.

He can't help feeling that she might come back someday.

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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Paul McCartney writing

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