Most of Paul McCartney‘s songs are about love. Paul writing a tune about abuse in the modeling industry is a bit of a surprise. The “Live and Let Die” singer connected the song’s lyrics to the way the music industry treated The Beatles.
Paul McCartney has the experience to write a song about male beauty
In 2020, Paul released McCartney III, the long-awaited sequel to McCartney and McCartney II. The record includes a folk tune called “Pretty Boys.” In the track, Paul compared a group of men to bicycles. Paul has a much more extensive history of singing about attractive women than attractive men. However, surely the cute Beatle would know a thing or two about male beauty! During a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Paul was asked about the origin of “Pretty Boys.”
“I’ve been photographed by many photographers through the years,” he said. “And when you get down to London, doing sessions with people like David Bailey, they can get pretty energetic in the studio.” Bailey is a photographer most known for his pictures of Swinging London for Vogue. Though Bailey is not primarily an erotic photographer, his work could get very risque from time to time.
The singer said the song is about how models are ‘there to be used’
Paul recalled a famous scene about modeling from a movie. “It’s like Blow-Up, you know?” he said, referring to a famous 1960s thriller about a photographer. “‘Give it to me! [Expletive] the lens!’ And it’s like: ‘What? No, I’m not going to.’ But I understand why they’re doing that. They’re that kind of artist. So you allow it.”
Paul had a mixed attitude towards photographers. “Certain photographers — they tend to be very good photographers, by the way — can be totally out of line in the studio,” he said. “So ‘Pretty Boys’ is about male models. And going around New York or London, you see the lines of bicycles for hire. It struck me that they’re like models, there to be used. It’s most unfortunate.”
Paul McCartney connected ‘Pretty Boys’ to the commodification of The Beatles
During a 2021 interview on the BBC podcast Paul McCartney: Inside the Songs, the “Silly Love Songs” singer gave more details about “Pretty Boys.” He recalled reading a newspaper article about a group of male models who alleged a pair of photographers had abused them. That might explain why “Pretty Boys” has such a melancholy tone. It’s far more serious than other pop culture portrayals of male models, like the comedies Zoolander and Zoolander 2.
Paul was not aware of the specifics of the case. However, he knew that photographers could get raunchy while working with their subjects. He wondered if male models entered the industry knowing how aggressive it could get. The “My Love” singer said that, while it was inspired by an actual series of allegations, “Pretty Boys” was still a work of fiction. He also said that the tune’s portrayal of male models becoming human commodities could just as easily apply to female models or The Beatles.
“Pretty Boys” is an unexpected detour from Paul that shows his range as a writer.
