"Paul persuaded me to join the band. I would never have had the courage otherwise. It was fun at the beginning. We were playing just for fun, with Paul's group"
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What looks like a modest origin story is also a quiet study in how power moves through intimacy. Linda McCartney frames her entry into the band not as ambition fulfilled but as courage borrowed: "Paul persuaded me" is a soft verb that carries an entire architecture of influence. Persuasion suggests warmth rather than coercion, yet it also acknowledges asymmetry. Paul is the gravitational center; her permission to step into the spotlight arrives through personal trust, not industry validation.
The line "I would never have had the courage otherwise" does double duty. It reads as vulnerability, but it also preempts the harsher narrative that critics later supplied: that she was there because of him. Linda accepts the fact of the gate while reclaiming the emotional reality of walking through it. In a culture eager to mythologize lone genius, she describes creativity as relational: courage can be contagious.
Then she narrows the lens to mood and scale: "It was fun at the beginning... just for fun". That repetition acts like a defense mechanism against the machinery that would soon swallow the project. Wings began as a domestic experiment after the Beatles' implosion, when "band" was less brand than refuge. "With Paul's group" is the sharpest tell. Even in reminiscence, she refuses to rewrite the hierarchy; she also refuses the heroic narrative of self-made entry. The subtext is almost punk in its plainness: origin myths are messier than fans prefer, and joy often starts as something smaller than a career.
The line "I would never have had the courage otherwise" does double duty. It reads as vulnerability, but it also preempts the harsher narrative that critics later supplied: that she was there because of him. Linda accepts the fact of the gate while reclaiming the emotional reality of walking through it. In a culture eager to mythologize lone genius, she describes creativity as relational: courage can be contagious.
Then she narrows the lens to mood and scale: "It was fun at the beginning... just for fun". That repetition acts like a defense mechanism against the machinery that would soon swallow the project. Wings began as a domestic experiment after the Beatles' implosion, when "band" was less brand than refuge. "With Paul's group" is the sharpest tell. Even in reminiscence, she refuses to rewrite the hierarchy; she also refuses the heroic narrative of self-made entry. The subtext is almost punk in its plainness: origin myths are messier than fans prefer, and joy often starts as something smaller than a career.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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