· By Andre Woolery
Paul McCartney, Sleep's Creative Power
McCartney's Dream Melody
Paul McCartney woke up one morning in early 1964 with a complete melody in his head. He was staying at the Wimpole Street home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher's family. He rushed to the piano beside his bed and played it immediately to capture it before forgetting. The tune was so perfect he worried he'd accidentally stolen it from someone else. For weeks, he played it for people in the music industry asking if they recognized it.
No one had heard it before. The melody was entirely original, created by his sleeping brain. McCartney used placeholder words about scrambled eggs for months until the real lyrics came during a trip to Portugal in May 1965. He finally titled it "Yesterday."
The song became one of the most covered songs in history. It topped charts worldwide and won countless awards. McCartney later said he was a great believer in dreams.
His sleeping brain solved the creative problem his waking mind couldn't. The melody arrived complete, fully formed, ready to become one of the greatest songs ever written.
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To explore the full framework behind this story, pull card #71 in the Creative Mastermind Deck
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