How do you define a songwriter as influential and important as Paul McCartney with just one song? A number of compositions from throughout The Beatles catalogue would certainly be in the running. Perhaps the striking piano chords and calming lyrics of ‘Hey Jude’ define his style, or maybe the soft strums and hopeless lyrics to ‘Yesterday’. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ would surely be up there, as would ‘Let It Be’.
Or maybe we should look outside of his work with the Fab Four, to his time with Wings, to his work as a soloist, and even to his songwriting for other people. There’s the pure joy of ‘Silly Love Songs’, the iconic ‘Band on the Run’, and one of the strangest collaborations of all time in ‘FourFiveSeconds’. With a career that stretches over half a century, there is no shortage of work to put forth as quintessential McCartney.
If you’re deliberating which song you’d throw in the ring, know that it probably won’t match up with what seems to be Pete Townshend’s pick. During a conversation with Rolling Stone, The Who singer shared his particular love for McCartney’s work with producer George Martin post-Beatles and for the more serious approach that came with it. He went on to give his opinion on McCartney’s 1982 collaboration with Stevie Wonder, ‘Ebony and Ivory’, which is more positive than you might expect.
The synth-infused duet finds McCartney and Wonder tackling racism through the image of a keyboard. “Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony,” they sing, “Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord why don’t we?” The track devolves into strangely altered vocals and percussion as the central image is repeated over and over. Though ‘Ebony and Ivory’ would perform well on the charts at the time of its release, it fared less favourably with critics and with its legacy. The song still attracts criticism four decades on.
“When ‘Ebony and Ivory’ came out, everybody was saying, ‘Christ, have you heard it? It’s terrible,’” Townshend recalled, but he had a slightly different opinion on the track, unafraid to declare his love for it. “Well, I heard it, and I thought it was fuckin’ amazing!’ he remembered. He also thought that it was characteristically McCartney, which could be seen as a complement or a dig depending on your opinion on ‘Ebony and Ivory’.
The song was also accompanied by a strangely edited video which placed McCartney and Wonder side by side at a piano, which only seemed to add to Townshend’s love for the track. “He’s actually taken black and white,” he enthused, “put a bit of tinsel around it, managed by hook or by crook to get Stevie Wonder to sing it, sit on black and white piano keys on a video… It’s wonderful! It’s gauche! It’s Paul McCartney!”
While most people wouldn’t consider this song to typify McCartney’s work, opting to focus more on his more enduring and experimental creations with The Beatles, or even his other work since then, Townshend clearly adored ‘Ebony and Ivory’ and how it reflected his style. It’s certainly a bold pick. While it won’t be up there alongside ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘Let It Be’ on lists of the greatest songs ever anytime soon, Townshend was clearly unafraid to go against public opinion, seemingly seeing McCartney at his best while writing in this style.
