Paul McCartney, scribe of legendary love songs, doesn’t think writing about love is cheesy

Paul McCartney knows a thing or two about writing love songs. But the former Beatle has faced criticism from some who feel he’s perhaps written too many love songs, with some that skew “soppy.”

Paul McCartney knows a thing or two about writing love songs. But the former Beatle has faced criticism from some who feel he’s perhaps written too many love songs, with some that skew “soppy.” “I think a lot of people who are cynical about it haven’t been lucky enough to feel it,” McCartney said on Tuesday’s episode of his “A Life in Lyrics” podcast. McCartney said he often wonders about “the critic who damns” his legacy of love songs, but also mentioned that “they come and go,” while the power of his music tends to outlive said naysayers anyway. Throughout the podcast episode, McCartney focused on how universal the feeling of love is as part of his impetus for writing so many songs about it. This of course includes his own experience of finding love, particularly with his late wife Linda McCartney. In his Wings era, he even wrote “Silly Love Songs,” an intentionally cheeky love song about… yes, writing love songs. The 1976 hit was his answer to those noisy critics at the time. “I was being accused of just writing silly love songs and was in danger of starting to buy into this idea that you should just be a bit tougher and a bit more worldly. But then I suddenly realized that’s exactly what love is. It’s worldly,” he said on the podcast.