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Junk
Paul McCartney’s Junk is such an interesting sweet little gem of a song. I listened to Paul McCartney’s original for the first time, and I have to say Mona and Lisa add so much beauty and flair to it with their wonderful harmonies in their Duo Session version. Love it, Kudos to MLT!
The melody lingers in my head long after I hear it. The lyrics are short and sweet and with the melody leaves a melancholic feeling for me. When I am in my parents old house where we all grew up, there are so many fond memories associated with all the furniture and furnishing in the house, all items over time become junk, and yet are so valuable, rich with memories and stories. I feel that sometimes visiting antique shops full of “junk”, antiques on the one hand that are now old and useless out of context, but on the other hand full of memories and so valuable to the people these items were once associated to.
I have a couple of 100+ years old pocket watches from 1904 and 1909 that are still running strong and keeping time, and it fascinates me when I think about how many hands it went through during it’s time , all the people and their lives, the stories associated with them. If these watches survive me and last another 50 or 100 years, I will be yet another owner and story in the watches history.
My antique sterling silver 1904 Elgin railroad pocket watch that still keeps time. Valuable “junk”.
What’s your take on the meaning of the song?
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12 Replies
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I always thought of the song as a love song. It was released in 1970 when Paul and Linda were still early on in their marriage. To me the song shows that simple things (junk) can remind us of the one we loved. Mike.
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Great song and the Twins versions hits just the right spot.
This song was going around in my head as I woke up this morning, although I had listened to it a few times yesterday evening so perhaps that’s why.
The meaning is somewhat ambiguous, and perhaps open to different interpretations which might read too much into the words.
According to PMc (Club Sandwich 55/56, Winter 1990/91)…
{i}Linda was very helpful, because she used to say, ‘I love to hear you play the guitar’. I was no longer sitting in a room on my own, like I used to be. So I’ll strum along when I watch telly. ‘Junk’ came along that way. Handlebars, sentimental jubilee, jam jars: I like images like that. There are certain words you like. I always used to say that candlestick was my favourite word. Certain words either make colours in your head or bring up a feeling. So the song was a pot-pourri of nice words that I had to make some sense out of, so it was ‘buy buy, sell sell, Junk says the sign in the yard’. To lump it all together I got the idea of ‘Junk’. It was a nice way to write a song.[/i]
Given that the song is a slow waltz, it did remind me of another song with a somewhat similar (f more openly sentimental) feel, written only a few years later…. “An Old Fashioned Waltz” by Sandy Denny…
[i]Roses are red and violets are blue,
Primroses pale on a velvet green hue,
Warm summer days by cool waterfalls,
Like the music we hear,
Those things we’ll always hold dear,
Like an old fashioned waltz,[/i] -
Why, why says the junk in the yard. Does the junk know it’s true value and wonder why the shop wants to sell, sell?
I am not very familiar with this song, so I am listening to this Duo Session to get more familiar with it. Another beautiful performance. These two are talented beyond belief. Mona’s bass is very smooth. She looks like she is having a lot of fun. Well, they both do.
This song reminds me of the little things in life that we each value as treasures. I have some items from my childhood that I have held onto. Years ago, when my wife and I were doing our spring cleaning, she suggested some of these items could be tossed. I began picking up each one and telling her it’s meaning, and she understood why I valued them.
(I also pointed out that her “junk” pile was overpowering mine)Thanks, Alan Wood. l liked the excerpt of Paul’s memory of writing this song. I love how he describes his thought process. “Certain words either make colours in your head or bring up a feeling.”
Jung, that’s a pretty sharp looking watch. Imagine the stories it could tell.
I wonder if it’s first owner ever wondered if it would still be working one hundred years later. That’s incredible.JP
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JP, thanks. When I hear that old watch tick along it feels like I am hearing the sounds of another time 100 years ago. I also wonder what that watch maker, who meticulously assembled the watch and got the balance wheel running back in 1904, would have thought if he knew his creation would be still running 117 years later. These are little time machine capsules really when I look inside the watch to see all those old parts still working after all those years.
Thanks Alan for sharing that, it is interesting to see what led Paul McCartney to write that song.
I feel the same way Mike, sometimes simple little things that are just junk, can be invaluable when they can remind us of people we loved.
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I’m reminded of the saying one mans junk is another mans treasure.
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So True !!! Michael
Just ask Fred E Sanford and Son
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Great show Sanford and Son was Joe. Loved Fred Sanford, use to make me laugh so much.
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Sanford and Son was one of the few Norman Lear shows that I never got into, but I did enjoy the jazzy theme song. I like to imagine Mona taking a crack at that bass harmonica part.
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Ah loved Sanford and Son…yeppers, that theme song was catchy….
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Imagine walking into a used bookshop and finding an old book for sale containing the signatures of many past presidents going back to Lincoln and famous US generals who fought in the civil war, and other famous entertainers etc. Well that’s exactly what happened as shown in this short video below. What an amazing story of some special “junk” you can find if you are lucky.
https://youtu.be/enH8n4K_4us?t=1
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That’s a pretty swell piece of junk, Jung! I can imagine each U.S. president signing it while thinking, “Why in the world is there a presidential autograph book? Well, I don’t want to be the one to break the chain…”
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I first heard this song in the movie Jerry Maguire. Cameron Crowe directed it and his wife Nancy Wilson (from Heart) did the original music. Junk was played during their (Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger) first kissing scene on the porch. It’s hard to believe this movie was made in 1996 when Mona and Lisa were only two years old.
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