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Released in 2007

Nod Your Head

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on January 18, 2021


Album This song officially appears on the Memory Almost Full Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 2007

Master album

Related session

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Other singles from Memory Almost Full

Related interview

Nod Your Head” is a song from Paul McCartney’s 2007 album, “Memory Almost Full“.

Well, that End Of The End brought the party down, didn’t it? It was going to be the last track on the album, but we thought we couldn’t leave everyone going, ‘Oh God, I’m not going to listen to that again.’ So we had a little stompy rocker called Nod Your Head and we thought we’d let them off the hook. I think it’s good to talk about difficult subjects and then to get off it and just rock out. So that was the feel of making the album. Get some personal thoughts out (Gratitude, The End Of The End), talk about my childhood, talk about love, about beautiful memories. Try and get everything said, but with a feeling of optimism and enthusiasm. I thought if I could accomplish it all then that would be a good thing to do.

Paul McCartney – interview with Mail On Sunday, May 12, 2008

From Wikipedia:

“Nod Your Head” is a song by Paul McCartney and the closing track to his 2007 album Memory Almost Full. The song was released as a free download single from that album on 28 August 2007 via the iTunes Store. It was packaged with a music video for the song. McCartney played all the instruments on the song.

Following “Ever Present Past” and “Dance Tonight“, “Nod Your Head” is the third song released from Memory Almost Full even though it was released primarily as a free track through iTunes.

Interview with David Khane, from Mix Online, October 1, 2007:

“Nod Your Head”: Though the recording sounds like a band, it’s all McCartney. The recording started on piano, followed by drums, and then bass and guitars. The drums featured a Violet Design Flamingo mic capturing room sound, which was compressed. “I just crushed it and kept moving it around until I was getting the air I wanted in a room mic while he was warming up. And that sound has a lot to do with the sound of the mic,” Kahne says. “Also, the take wasn’t coming together, and we redid it, and did it, and did it, and it wasn’t working. It got a little tense, and then the next take he got it. But he started goofing around, and he started yelling while he was playing, and that yelling is still a really cool part of the song.

“Nod Your Head” [can be] read­ily interpretable as a feverish tribute to oral sex. […] “‘Nod Your Head’ wasn’t conceived as that, but obviously these things achieve double meanings – it’s a reasonable assumption,” McCartney says coyly. “If you’re building your case against me for sexual perversion, that could be submitted as evidence, but I would deny it strongly.

From RollingStone, November 7, 2013

Lyrics

If you really love me baby

Better then staying in bed

If you really love me baby

Nod your head


If you really love me baby

Till you fall down dead she said

If you ever want to make it

Nod your head


Nod it up

Nod it down

Side to side

Round and round


If you ever want to prove it

And you're hanging on a thread

If you ever want to shake it

Nod your head


If you think the life you're leading

Is better than the life you led

If you like the life you're living

Well nod your head


Well nod it up

Nod it down

Side to side

Round and round


If you really love me baby

Better then staying in bed

If you really love me baby

Nod your head

Officially appears on

See all official recordings containing “Nod Your Head

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “Nod Your Head

Related film

Videos

Live performances

Nod Your Head” has been played in 4 concerts.

Latest concerts where “Nod Your Head” has been played


Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 2) 1990-2012

This new book by Luca Perasi traces Paul McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1990 to 2012 in the form of 250 song entries, filled with details about the recordings, stories behind the sessions and musical analysis. His pop albums, his forays into classical and avant-garde music, his penchant for covering old standards: a complete book to discover how these languages cross-pollinate and influence each other.

The second volume in a series that has established itself as a unique guide to take the reader on a journey into the astonishing creativity of Paul McCartney.

Read our exclusive interview with Luca Perasi

Buy on Amazon

Paul McCartney writing

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