Sir Paul McCartney admits ‘Let It Be’ was subconsciously inspired by William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’.
The Beatles legend has spoken about the origin of the 1970s classic before, suggesting his mother Mary McCartney said “let it be” to him in a dream.
He has now revealed the saying from Hamlet might have been on his mind as he used to have to recite the plays of Shakespeare at school.
Hamlet’s speech includes the line: “But let it be. Horatio, I am dead.”
Speaking on his ‘Paul McCartney: A Life in Lyrics’ podcast, he said: “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’.
“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.'”
He added: “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.”
The 81-year-old music legend previously explained how the idea for the song came to him in a dream about his mother during the intense writing sessions for The Beatles’ 1968 ‘White Album’.
His mother Mary Patricia McCartney died of cancer in 1956, when he was 14.
He later said: “It was great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing ‘Let It Be’.”
In another interview, he clamed she said to him in the dream: “‘It will be all right, just let it be.'”