Paul McCartney Shares New Revelation About The Beatles' 'Let It Be'

Paul McCartney has spoken about how The Beatles' 1970 hit "Let It Be" came to him after his mom said the phrase to him in a dream; however, there's an even more subconscious inspiration for the song the Macca didn't realize until recently.

“In those days [at school], I had to learn speeches off by heart. So I could still do a bit of ‘to be or not to be’, or ‘O that this too too solid flesh’,” Macca recalled in an episode of the Life In Lyrics podcast. “And it had been pointed out to me recently that Hamlet, when he has been poisoned, he actually says, ‘Let it be’ – act five, scene two. He says ‘Let be’ the first time, then the second time he says, ‘Had I but time — as this fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest — oh, I could tell you. But let it be Horatio.’"

“I was interested that I was exposed to those words during a time when I was studying Shakespeare so that years later the phrase appears to me in a dream with my mother saying it,” he continued. “It was great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing ‘Let It Be.’”

McCartney's mom passed away from cancer in 1956, when he was 14 years old.

In another episode of Life In Lyrics, McCartney explained the meaning behind a famous "Eleanor Rigby" lyric. Listen to the podcast above.