Paul McCartney has said he remembers the moment of his birth, describing details from the hospital where he was born during a conversation with Good Hang with Amy Poehler.
The Beatles icon discussed his earliest memories and what he recalls from his birth at a Liverpool hospital.
“These things, you don’t know if you’ve made it up,” McCartney said. “But I have this feeling that I kind of remember being born.”
He went on to describe the hospital itself. “I was born in a place in Liverpool called Walton Hospital, which was a real old Victorian thing; I think it had been something else before a hospital.”
McCartney then recalled the sensory details from the experience. “So I kind of remember white tiles, very sort of hygienic white tiles and chrome instruments and a clanging, because I was a forceps birth. They had to pull me out.”
The remarks came as McCartney talked about his earliest life experiences.
McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 at Walton Hospital in Liverpool. The hospital had originally been built in the late 19th century as West Derby Union Workhouse before it became a hospital. His mother Mary worked there as a nurse in the maternity ward before his birth.
His father, James McCartney, was absent from the birth because he was working as a volunteer firefighter during World War II. James was also a cotton broker and an accomplished musician who played trumpet and piano, having led Jim Mac’s Jazz Band in the 1920s. Paul’s brother Michael was born 18 months later, on 7 January 1944.
The McCartney family lived at 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton from the time of Paul’s early childhood until 1964. Music was a constant presence in the household, as Paul’s father encouraged both Paul and Michael to pursue musical interests. When Paul was young, his father bought him a trumpet, which he later traded for a Framus Zenith acoustic guitar for £15 when skiffle became popular.
