Sir Paul McCartney has shared the "embarrassing" inspiration behind 'Yesterday'

In a recent episode of Paul's podcast, A Life In Lyrics, he discussed the "embarrassing" inspiration behind The Beatles' song Yesterday.

The song, released on their 1965 album, Help!, is a song that everyone knows but not many know the meaning behind the lyrics, "I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday."

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Paul shared that Yesterday was inspired by a conversation he regrets having with his mother, “Sometimes it’s only in retrospect you can appreciate it,” recalling an incident when he was “feeling very embarrassed because I’d embarrassed my mum.”

He described his mum’s 'posh' accent and how she pronounced 'ask', “I went ‘Arsk! Arsk! It’s ask, mum.’ And she got a little bit embarrassed. I remember later thinking, ‘God, I wish I’d never said that’. And it stuck with me. After she died, I thought, ‘Oh fuck, I really wish…’”

He also added that he wished he had an eraser to remove that moment. “That would be better,” he said. 

This conversation happens around 25 minutes into the podcast episode '' which you can listen to below.

His mother, Mary, died in 1956 at 47 years old. She passed away following an embolism following breast cancer surgery - Paul was only 14 years old when she died.

A Life In Lyrics launched in October last year with the first season covering songs such as Back In The U.S.S.R, Let It Be, Penny Lane, Live And Let Die, Helter Skelter, and more.