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 and the raw riff. 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. I like some of the Wings material…this one to me is in the top tier.

Let Me Roll is in my top two of McCartney’s Wings songs along with Juinor’s Farm. It’s a song our band played a lot and it’s powerful live. I’m not a huge fan of Wings but I’ve been digging into them after finishing a huge McCartney book called The McCartney Legacy.

McCartney wanted to record this album somewhere remote and not in the same old studios in London. He picked Lagos Nigeria to record partly thinking that his family could hit the beach and have a nice time. That didn’t happen for Wings. Before they were set to go guitarist Henry Mccullough quit and a week later drummer Denny Seiwell quit.

At that point, Paul had only two other Wings members. Linda McCartney and Denny Laine. A big problem at the time was that money was tight. The reason money was Paul hadn’t seen his royalties from any of his Wings albums or even Let It Be because all of it had gone into Apple. The same with John, George, and Ringo. Everything was tied up with Allen Klein.

The three set off to Lagos and recorded at the EMI studio there which was severely underequipped. Ginger Baker had a studio down there and was unhappy that Paul didn’t record at his place. They did end up going there and recording Picasso’s Last Words there.

Wings were not welcomed by Feti Kuti, a huge musician there, because he thought Paul was there to steal their music. Around 40 angry people including Kuti went into the studio to confront Paul so Denny Laine called Ginger Baker. He came out to diffuse the situation. You know it was pretty bad when Baker plays the peacemaker.

Also, Paul and Linda were told NOT to wander off of the compound they were staying at because it was unsafe. Paul and Linda took a chance and left at dark and started to walk down a dirt road and a car pulled up and robbed them at knifepoint. Linda probably saved their lives by letting the robbers know who Paul was…they were lucky they were not killed.

They managed to record most of the album there and saved most of the overdubbing until they got back to London. When Paul’s back was to the wall…he pulled off what I think is his best solo album.

Paul McCartney:  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.”

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

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

29 thoughts on “Paul McCartney – Let Me Roll It”

  2. Great song from my favorite solo Beatles album. Another good story is that Paul met Dustin Hoffman when the latter was making Papillon. Hoffman challenged him to write a song about anything. They found a newspaper article on Picasso and Paul started making a song up. “Look he’s doing it,” Hoffman said and “Picasso’s Last Words” wound up on the album.

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  3. This is one of my favourites as well Max. I had the 45 and ended up playing it over and over. I did not know the story at all. wow I can’t imagine where we’d be if that night stroll had turned out differently.

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  5. one I like a lot too, wouldn’t put it in my top 2 of his, but when you’re dealing with McCartney and his catalog – even post-Beatles – even top 10 or 12 is pretty excellent stuff. A great talent but as the story points out, not the brightest of people on other matters at times… why go to Nigeria in the middle of a civil war? He’s quite fortunate to have gotten back to Europe.

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    1. He is very fortunate! Linda probably saved his life.
      Hell Dave…the guy still rides the subway and flies commercial…but this was a totally different thing.

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  10. Great tune and he looks and sounds so good in this video. This cracked me up: “You know it was pretty bad when Baker plays the peacemaker.” Why the *hell* did they take so many chances down there? Did they talk about it in the book you just read?

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    1. It’s Paul being Paul. I just saw a recent picture of him on a NY subway…by himself. In one way Lisa…I kind of admire it but no way would I have gone out like that right after they had a civil war there.
      Lisa….they were shooting people on the beaches…mobster style…so I have no clue why he decided to do it.

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      1. Good thing Ginger was there or it could have turned out quite differently. People love to give guff to Ginger and his way, but I greatly admire him for many reasons and a man like him can literally mean the difference between life and death in some circumstances.

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  12. love that album, and every track on it. I think the story was they recorded it, the master tapes got stolen, and they had to re-record it – in which case maybe the frustration was a driving force on the feel of the album, def Paul’s most powerful album.

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      1. I only really know those two (which are fine) plus the 2CD Wingspan compilation. The compilation is pretty inconsistent. He had uber-cheesy singles and a killer b-side – ‘Daytime Nightime Suffering’.

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      2. I just read a huge book on him from 69 to 73…so as they went over every thing I listened to everything between McCartney to Band On The Run… One thing I never realized….he experimented a lot on different things…really more than Lennon did. He took a lot of chances in the studio…

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      3. I read Revolution in the Head by Ian McDonald. I was surprised that a lot of the weirdest instrumental parts on Beatles records were from McCartney. On the other hand, there’s not that much musical experimentation on Lennon’s solo stuff, although he was certainly provocative lyrically at times. While McCartney had out there stuff like Temporary Secretary.

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