In 1968, the Beatles released The White Album, and with it, a song called “Martha My Dear.” Many listeners have interpreted the song as a message of love to Jane Asher, whom McCartney intended to marry in 1968. However, in 1997, he revealed that it was his dog that had been the inspiration behind “Martha My Dear.”
In 1965, Paul McCartney, who grew up without a dog, decided it was time to have one for his new home in London. He chose an Old English sheepdog, named her Martha, and the two quickly developed a strong bond.
“When I grew up and was in the Beatles, I had a house of my own in London,” Paul said in an interview. “More than that, I actually had a housekeeper looking after the house. The time was ripe to get a dog. I had always liked the look of Old English sheepdogs, so I went along to a place in Milton Keynes, about an hour north of London, and selected this little dog. I named her Martha. I just adored her. One of the unlikely side effects was that John became very sympathetic towards me. When he came round and saw me playing with Martha, I could tell that he liked her. John was a very guarded person, which was partly where all his wit came from. He’d had a very difficult upbringing, what with his father leaving home, his uncle dying, and his mother getting killed in a traffic accident. By the time I knew him, he could be very sarcastic. Not that I couldn’t be too. It was my own way of dealing with my mother’s death, I expect. We were both quite into the witty put-down. But seeing me with Martha, with my guard down, all of a sudden he started warming to me. And so he let his guard down too.”
Martha bit John Lennon in the arm three times. This was because he and Paul were play fighting and when Martha saw John attacking Paul, she ran to defend him. In an interview, McCartney recalled, “She was a dear pet of mine. I remember John being amazed to see me being so loving to an animal. He said, ‘I’ve never seen you like that before.’ I’ve since thought, you know, he wouldn’t have. It’s only when you’re cuddling around with a dog that you’re in that mode, and she was a very cuddly dog.”
In 1968, Paul wrote “Martha My Dear,” and many assumed it was about a woman. However, according to Paul, he made the lyrics general enough so they could be heard as a message to a woman or dog. “It’s a communication of some sort of affection but in a slightly abstract way. ‘You silly girl, look what you’ve done,’ all that sort of stuff. These songs grow. Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it’s actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me.” The song was recorded over two days on October 4 and 5, 1968 at Trident Studios in London.
Martha died in August 1981 in the McCartney’s farmhouse in Scotland at the age of 15. It was said that Paul stayed for many hours in the born where Martha died, holding her and crying
The Beatles started sounding good when George fired those three other tossers and did his own thing.
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