Paul McCartney – Let Me Roll It

This song has always reminded me of a John Lennon type song because of the heavy use of echo. The song was on arguably Paul’s best album Band on the Run. The song was the B side to the song Jet in 1974.

Paul said:  “[“Let Me Roll It”] was a riff, originally, a great riff to play, and whenever we played it live, it goes down great. We’d play it on two guitars, and people saw it later as a kind of John pastiche, as Lennon-ish, Lennon-esque. Which I don’t mind. That could have been a Beatles song. Me and John would have sung that good.”

From Songfacts

Many have interpreted this song as an olive branch offering to John Lennon after all the bitterness arising from his Beatles breakup song, “How Do You Sleep?.” However, in an interview with Clash magazine in 2010 McCartney explained this was more of a drugs song. Said Macca: “‘Let Me Roll It’ wasn’t to John, it was just in the style that we did with The Beatles that John was particularly known for. It was really actually the use of the echo. It was one of those: ‘You’re not going to use echo just cos John used it?’ I don’t think so. To tell you the truth, that was more [about] rolling a joint. That was the double meaning there: ‘let me roll it to you.’ That was more at the back of mind than anything else. ‘Dear Friend,’ that was very much ‘let’s be friends’ to John.”

Let Me Roll It

You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving in the palm of my hand

I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you

I want to tell you
And now’s the time
I want to tell you that
You’re going to be mine

I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you

I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you

You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving in the palm of my hand

I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you

Author: badfinger20 (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball fan, old movie and tv show fan... and a songwriter, bass and guitar player. View all posts by badfinger20 (Max)