Beatles songs, Martha My Dear

PAUL 1968: 'You see, I just start singing some words with a tune, you know what I mean.
Mainly I'm just doing a tune and then some words come into my head, you know.
And these happened to be 'Martha My Dear, though I spend my days in conversation.' So you can read anything you like into it, but really it's just a song.
It's me singing to my dog.' (laughs)

PAUL circa-1994: 'When I taught myself piano I liked to see how far I could go, and this (song) started off as a piece you'd learn as a piano lesson.
It's quite hard for me to play, It's a two-handed thing, like a little set piece.
Then when I was blocking out words – you just mouth out sounds and some things come – I found the words 'Martha my dear.' So I made up another fantasy song… I mean, I'm not really speaking to Martha, it's a communication of some sort or affection, but in a slightly abstract way – 'You silly girl, look what you've done…' Whereas it would appear to anybody else to be a song to a girl called Martha, it's actually a dog, and our relationship was platonic, believe me.'