Paul McCartney has revealed that he was inspired by Shakespeare's plays, as taught to him by his English teacher in Liverpool.
The 77-year-old musician recalled how the teacher also drew his attention to the work of the 16th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote the Canterbury Tales in what is now known as Middle English. Chaucer's narrative poetry drew McCartney towards the idea of doing his lyric-writing.
Talking on the Clear + Vivid podcast, the Beatle said that he was one of only three students to pass his 11-Plus exam in his class, which meant he was able to enroll at the Liverpool Institute Grammar School.
"You really got a great education for free, it was a state school. I had this one guy who was English Literature teacher and he turned me on. He just showed me some things.
"He showed me actually the dirty bits in Chaucer. And for a 16-year-old boy it was ''wow, I'm loving this. I said: 'are you sure I should be reading this?' 'He says it's not in the curriculum, but.' 'With him as my teacher I did okay. It's the only exam I did well in."
The iconic musician admitted that the Beatles never learned how to interpret a written score. "We didn't really learn music in the Beatles. John (Lennon) and I, neither of us could read or write music. The same with George or Ringo, We just made it up.'
'There was no dots,' the musician recalled. 'You're not looking at that. You're thinking it, so I think it comes a bit more from your heart, I think that directness was quite a good thing for us. We didn't actually understand how to do things, so everything, therefore, was exciting.'
