‘My Post-Beatles Getting-Out-of-Town Song’: ‘Junior’s Farm’ by Paul McCartney & Wings
- edgarstreetbooks
- Jun 10
- 2 min read
‘100 Greatest 70s Pop Songs’ Book Excerpt
Frank Mastropolo
“Junior’s Farm” was written by Paul McCartney and recorded by his band, Wings. The roots of the 1974 №3 hit go back to McCartney’s purchase of a Scottish estate called High Park Farm. In his memoir The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney said the estate provided a respite from the business of being a Beatle.
“It was such a relief to get out of those business meetings with people in suits, who were so serious all the time,” McCartney wrote, “and go off to Scotland and be able just to sit around in a T-shirt and corduroys. I was very much in that mindset when I wrote this song.
“The basic message is, let’s get out of here. You might say it’s my post-Beatles getting-out-of-town song.”
To prepare for a 1974 US tour, McCartney needed a place to relax — and for Wings to rehearse. McCartney rented the Lebanon, TN home of Curly Putman, who wrote “Green, Green Grass of Home.”
“We had two houses. One, the band, Wings, stayed in. I let them rent my place for six weeks for a pretty good little chunk of money,” Putman told The Tennessean. “I won’t say how much, because I can’t remember, but it helped pay for my farm.
“And my son, Troy, he was about 14, 15, and my wife and I decided we’d go to Hawaii and let Paul McCartney pay for it.
“I had a double-car garage. That’s where they set their band up and rehearsed. We got back from Hawaii, and I was anxious to get back home, of course.
“We were walking up the driveway, and they saw us coming, and Paul and the band started playing ‘Green, Green Grass of Home.’ It was an experience.
“Junior was me. I didn’t know at first that he did this for me, but Claude Putman Jr. is my real name.”
“‘Junior’s Farm’ remains a good live song, and we usually put it in at the start of the set,” McCartney wrote.
“It’s got a lot of elements that work well — a recognizable introduction and a good steady rock and roll beat, and then these interesting, slightly surreal lyrics and a rousing chorus of ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’
“That gets people in the mood to set out, ‘just in the nick of time,’ for their own version of ‘Junior’s Farm,’ whatever that might be — wherever they want to disappear and hide out and just lie low.”
Frank Mastropolo is the author of 100 Greatest 70s Pop Songs, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
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