Michelle – The Beatles

Paul has had this idea about writing a bit with some other language, with French in it. And he just sort of had a bit of a verse, and a couple of words, and the idea. I think he had some other name or something. He used to talk Double-Dutch French, you see, just to sing the bit. (imitates singing mock-French) He just brought it along and just sort of started fiddling around trying to get a middle-eight. We pinched a little bit from somewhere and stuck it in the middle-eight, and off we went.

ポールが「外国語で曲を作る」っていうアイデアを出したんだ。ここではフランス語だね。そこで僕らはいくつか言葉を並べてみた。多分彼は他にもいくつか別の名前か何かを考えていたんだと思う。彼はオランダ語とフランス語で話してて、歌もこんなふうに少しだけ(モック・フレンチの真似をする)。ミドルエイトが空いてたからちょっとした言葉を引っ張ってきたのさ。

Both of us. I wrote the middle with him.

共作だよ。ミドルは僕が彼と一緒に書いた。

‘Michelle’ was like a joke French tune for when you go to a party or something. That’s all it was. And then after a while you say, ‘Well, that’s quite a good tune. Let’s put some real words to it.’

「ミッシェル」はパーティーかなにかに行くために冗談めかして書いたフランスっぽい曲だよ。それだけさ。でも「いい曲じゃないか。詩をつけようよ」ってことになったんだ。

He and I were staying somewhere and he walked in and hummed the first few bars, with the words, and he says, ‘Where do I go from here?’ I had been listening to (blues singer) Nina Simone. I think it was ‘I Put A Spell On You.’ There was a line in it that went, ‘I love you, I love you.’ That’s what made me think of the middle-eight for ‘Michelle.’ So, my contributions to Paul’s songs was always to add a little bluesy edge to them. Otherwise, ‘Michelle’ is a straight ballad, right? He provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes.

どこかに滞在中に彼が最初の部分を口ずさんだんだ。適当な言葉と一緒にね。そして「これからどうしたらいいだろう？」って。その時僕は（ブルース歌手の）ニーナ・シモンを聴いてた。たしか「アイ・プット・ア・スペル・オン・ユー」だったと思うんだけど。そこに出てきた”I love you, I love you”っていう節が「ミッシェル」のミドルエイトにいいんじゃないかって考えた。ポールの曲にちょっとブルースっぽい雰囲気を加えるのが僕の役目みたいなもんだったのさ。でも「ミッシェル」はストレートなバラードだよね。彼は明るさとか楽観を、僕は悲しさやブルージーな音を曲に仕込むんだ。

I’ll never forget putting the bass line in ‘Michelle’ because it was a kind of Bizet thing. It really turned the song around. You could do that with bass. It was very exciting.

「ミッシェル」のベースラインのことは忘れられないよ。ビゼー風なんだ。これをベースでやってみた。とてもエキサイティングだったよ。