“When I was a kid I used to love baseball, and at high school, I’d watch the Brooklyn Dodgers, But I didn’t play much. Liked horseback riding a lot, but that’s about it. School sports I liked, swimming, hockey and lacross.
“I didn’t do photography until way after I graduated from school, where I didn’t do very well. I was a rebel. The school was about 20 miles outside of New York City, and I was into Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry, so all I did was sit in the car and listen to the radio and worry my parents.”
I was just a fanatic and loved pop. All pop. All my teen years were spent with an ear to the radio. Being a girl well if I’d been a male I might have thought “Yeah I’ll be a singer.” But I was a girl and liked Buddy Holly and wasn’t really into, like Brenda Lee. She had a great voice and so did Connie Francis, but I loved the Everlys and Buddy and Chuck.
“In high school with a few other girls we used to cut classes every now and then. They had this music tower up in the high school and we used to go up there and sing ‘Blue Moon,’ and vocal harmonies. Some of them tried an amateur talent show, but I never thought to get into it. I was never disciplined enough. No music lessons no. My parents tried to get me to play the piano and I guess the teacher put me off. Every time my parents were out, that was the time I said I’d practised, only I never did.
“I was really into rock and roll and they were teaching me sort of… well the one thing I learned was ‘Ocean Blue’ by Gilbert and Sullivan. I loved that one.” - Linda McCartney 1975