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Paul McCartneyAround 1964 (released 1965)

The melody of "Yesterday"

One of the most recorded songs in popular music began, by its writer's account, as a melody he woke up with.

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Der Traum

Nach den unten genannten Quellen in eigenen Worten nacherzählt, nicht zitiert.

Paul McCartney has said that he woke up one morning, in the London house where he was living at the time, with a complete melody in his head. He went to the piano by the bed and played it so as not to lose it.

The tune came so easily that he was convinced he must have heard it somewhere else. For weeks he played it to friends and people in the music business, asking whether they recognised it. Nobody did. Until the lyrics came, he sang it with placeholder words about scrambled eggs.

Woher die Geschichte stammt

The finished song, "Yesterday", was recorded by the Beatles and released in 1965. McCartney told the story of its origin in his authorised biography, written with Barry Miles, and in many interviews. We summarise it rather than quote it.

The story is his own account, and it is consistent across the times he has told it. We cannot know more about the dream itself than what he chose to share.

Wie der Traum gedeutet wurde

Forschung

Dream researchers and psychologists have long been interested in cases where people wake with a new idea or melody. The NEXTUP model proposes that dreaming explores unexpected links between memories, which fits the experience of a tune that feels both new and strangely familiar. It does not mean the dream created the song on its own; McCartney was a working musician steeped in melody.

Fragen zu deinen eigenen Träumen

  1. Have you ever woken with an idea, phrase or tune that felt ready-made?
  2. What do you do with ideas that arrive half-asleep: write them down, or let them go?
  3. What have you been working on so much that it might follow you into sleep?

Symbole in diesem Traum

Hattest du einen Traum, der dir im Gedächtnis geblieben ist?

Meinen Traum erzählen

Quellen

Jede Deutung auf dieser Seite stammt aus diesen Werken. Noch sind nicht alle Seitenangaben geprüft. Ausstehende Prüfungen sind gekennzeichnet.

  1. Barry Miles (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt.

    als Quelle angeführt, nicht vervielfältigt

    • Fundstelle: chapter on the writing of "Yesterday" (Fundstelle noch nicht geprüft)

    Authorised biography written with McCartney's cooperation; includes his own account of waking with the melody of "Yesterday". Cited and summarised, never quoted at length.

  2. Antonio Zadra, Robert Stickgold (2021). When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep. New York: W. W. Norton.

    als Quelle angeführt, nicht vervielfältigt

    • Fundstelle: the NEXTUP model (Fundstelle noch nicht geprüft)

    NEXTUP model: dreaming explores weak, unexpected associations between memories.

  3. Deirdre Barrett (2001). The Committee of Sleep. New York: Crown.

    als Quelle angeführt, nicht vervielfältigt

    • Fundstelle: chapters on music and creativity (Fundstelle noch nicht geprüft)

    Harvard psychologist on dreams and creative problem solving, with historical examples.