Five Questions for Paul McCartney

Trying not to bore you, Sir Paul, with the same ol’ interrogation

The Beatles broke up fifty years ago this spring and since that time I can’t imagine there are many fresh and original questions to ask Paul McCartney, whether they’re to do with his career in the 1960s or later. Really, the man must be tired of hearing the same questions in different guises after all this time. However, I’ve come up with five that I believe are original and have never been asked. Paul, if you see this, I look forward to seeing what you have to say in the comments section.

1. The Anthology version of “And I love Her” features John, I presume, strumming his guitar. Hearing that song open with that rhythm guitar was quite a surprise. It’s an an almost-completed performance. The guitar solo isn’t quite there and you flub some lines, and yet it sounds good. So I was surprised on first hearing this demo that you didn’t just polish it up and release it. But at some point along the way you, or someone else, decided the song needed to undergo a radical overhaul. My two-fold question: How did the released version of the song come to be, and are there any other examples of songs that underwent a dramatic change that the public doesn’t know about? (I’m assuming there’s lots more in the vaults beside the Anthology.)
2. It occurred to me only today (!) as I listened to “Maybe I’m Amazed” that at the time you recorded the song you were still a Beatle. I say this because you never said you were leaving the group until April 1970. My question has less to do with “Maybe I’m Amazed” and more with your state of mind at the time. Did you begin work on the album with the mindset that it was to be a solo record, or was your state of mind such that you had already decided that McCartney would represent your break from the Beatles?
3. “Mull of Kintyre.” It’s been said — or so I’ve heard from a source I no longer recall — that you approached John with this song and asked him to sing on it. He declined the offer but made a suggestion: add bag pipes. If John did make that suggestion and you acted on it, it means that “Mull of Kintyre” is the closest the 1970s got to getting another Lennon and McCartney song! Anyway, is the rumor true? Did you approach John to sing on this song?