Video: Paul McCartney once disguised himself as a street busker

By Josh Morrissey on June 19, 2012@joshmorrissey

In 1984 Paul McCartney filmed a movie called Give My Regards To Broad Street, but the movie ended up being pretty bad (Rotten Tomatoes gives it a whopping 23%). The plot was that Paul was trying to make a new album but lost the tapes and had to get them back by midnight. While the movie was no good, we did get one gem from the filiming. Paul pretended to be a street busker and played guitar in front of the Leicester Square Station in London for people who had no idea they were being serenaded by one of The Beatles.

In 1984 Paul had this to say to David Hinckley of the NY Daily News:

“Y’know, they just made me up and dropped me off. I told ’em we’d never get away with it, but they kept putting dirt on and rufflin’ up me hair — I was looking better and better — and I figured, why not.

So I was standin’ there plunkin’ chords, doing this silly version of the song, and no one noticed it was me. No one wants to look a busker in the eye of course, ‘cus then they’d get his life story. So they’d toss coins and I’d be going, ‘Yesterday, all my troubles — thank you, sir — seemed so far away.’

This fabulous drunk Scotsman, who didn’t know me from Jesus, came up, threw his arm around me and gave me all his coins. I started doing these little dances and some punks came by, studs and leather, and they were dancing, too. Not because this guy’s a Beatle, but because this was something happening.

After we did it I made sure the money was donated to the Seaman’s Mission, because otherwise I knew someone would say ‘And I’ll bet he kept the moeny too, the old skinflint! So the next day on the telly this woman said ‘And Paul McCartney busked at the rail station last night and he kept the money too’ I guess it’s a better story that way.”