“Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”: Paul McCartney, Diaspora and the Politics of Identity

Abstract

‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’ is a track on the Beatles eponymously titled double album, released in 1968. It is often considered to be a trite but enjoyable piece of fluff. In this article, I want to examine the track as the site of complex negotiations around identity and diaspora. The song was written by Paul McCartney, while the Beatles were staying at an ashram in India. The song’s title comes from a saying McCartney heard used by a Nigerian conga player acquaintance of his. McCartney himself was of Irish origin. Liverpool was a port city built on the slave trade, which, in the second half of the nineteenth century became home to large numbers of diasporic Irish, many of whom continued their journey to the United States. In the nineteenth century, the Irish were considered to be ‘white negroes’. The track’s narrative form appears to have been influenced by McCartney’s knowledge of calypso drawn from Liverpool’s diasporic Caribbean population. The pop-ska of the track’s music was taken from the Jamaican ska style that had become popular with British Caribbean communities in the early 1960s. At the same time, the beginning and end of the track has music hall influences. The lyrics’ characters, Desmond and Molly, could be Irish, Jamaican, even Nigerian, or any mix of these. The song was released at a time of great racial tension in Britain. Enoch Powell gave his notorious ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968. From this brief outline, we can see that, far from just being ‘Paul’s granny shit’, as John Lennon described it, the track can be read as an expression of the effects of the British Empire, and their impact on post-World War 2 Britain.

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Erratum

Notes

1. The impact of Trinidadian culture is perhaps most clearly seen and heard in the Notting Hill Carnival which started in 1964 with an impromptu procession led by a steelpan band.

2. This website, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (n.d.), also gives his birth place as Sapele. Details on Scott’s life are sketchy and I have the impression that he is often mixed up with other Nigerian conga players such as Ginger Johnson and Nii Moi “Speedy” Acquaye.

3. Hall (1978) “Racism and Reaction” in Five Views of Multi-Racial Britain, quoted in Fryer Staying Power, p. 382.

4. John Lennon wrote two songs about Ireland, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” which was directly inspired by the Bloody Sunday events, and “The Luck Of The Irish”. Both appear on the album Sometime in New York City, released in 1972.

5. In the United States, in the nineteenth century, the Irish were considered to be black, see Ignatiev (1995) How the Irish became White. The memory of this history, coupled with the Beatles’ liking for African-American music, may have contributed to the Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Robert Shelton commenting that: “From their appearances … I couldn’t identify them as whether they are actually white or black. I don’t have that knowledge”. (Shelton, quoted in Ward 2012, pp. 552–553). In Australia, likewise, the Irish had been considered black until around the time of federation in 1901, see Stratton (2004) ‘Borderline Anxieties: Whitening the Irish and Keeping Out Asylum Seekers’.

6. This paraphrase is taken from McGrath (2010) ‘Liverpool’s Black Community and the Beatles: black Liverpudlian angles on the Beatles’ history’.

7. Somewhat closer in Britain was the use of the calypso style by Guyanese singer and author, Cy Grant, who, in 1957, sang commentaries on the current affairs television programme, Tonight. In 1962-1963 the white, British comedian Lance Percival sang calypsos on the ground-breaking satirical programme, That Was The Week That Was.

8. On Chris Blackwell, Millie and ‘My Boy Lollipop’, see Stratton (2010) ‘Chris Blackwell and ‘My Boy Lollipop’: Ska, Race and British Popular Music’.

9. “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” is the only Beatles song to utilise a ska-style rhythm throughout. A ska-style instrumental section appears in “I Call Your Name”. There is also an early version of “You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)” which has a ska-style section in it. This was edited out by Lennon before the shortened version was used as the b-side of “Let It Be”.

10. It also signals a certain disregard for black people. As Wilmer (1993) writes of Nii Moi “Speedy” Acquaye in her obituary for him, “in Britain’s careless tradition of paying scant attention to the individuality of black people, he often experienced anonymous status”.

11. See The Ollie Halsall Archive (1998-2012). Halsall is one of the people who thinks that Scott played with Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames.

12. Some possibilities are outlined on a website run by Marco on the Bass (2011).

13. What happened to Scott is not a part of my discussion. However, it is filled with great irony. Having made a fine funk single in 1970 as Jimmy Scott and the Maximum Breed, Doh b/w Alulla, with each side also being called Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da Story (Part 1) and Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da Story (Part 2), Scott subsequently joined the ska-punk group, Bad Manners. He appears on their 1985 album Mental Notes. Scott died in 1986. According to Doug “Buster Bloodvessel” Trendle, of Bad Manners: “We’d just done this tour of America and he caught pneumonia. When he got back to Britain he was strip-searched at the airport because he was Nigerian. They left him naked for two hours. The next day he was taken into hospital and he died. Nobody is too sure how old he was because he lied about his age when he got his first British passport. He was supposed to be around 64”. Found on Marco on the Bass’s (2011) website.

14. There is an irony here in that Churchill was a life-long racist who believed in the superiority of the white race and campaigned against non-white immigration to Britain. Hansen writes that: ‘Commenting on the prospect of non-white immigration in 1954, Winston Churchill told the Jamaican Governor, Sir Hugh Foot, that Britain ‘would have a magpie society; that would never do’ (2000, p. 3).

15. See Robert Mullally (n.d.) ‘A Short History of the Irish in Jamaica’. See also Kelleher (2001) To Shed a Tear: A Story of Irish Slavery in the British West Indies. There is little reputable history on Irish slavery in colonial America and the Caribbean.

16. I owe the germ of this idea to my colleague and friend Nabeel Zuberi.

17. The album was called, not surprisingly, Rugby Songs. The songs, which also included evergreens such as “Why Was He Born So Beautiful”, were sung in unison by the Jock Strapp Ensemble.

18. See for example this webpage ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ in The Beatles Bible.

19. My personal favourite moment is the sight of Sir Elton John dancing with Sir Cliff Richard.