While The Beatles were still together, they all worked on side projects. John Lennon released albums with Yoko Ono, while Paul McCartney and George Harrison both worked on movie soundtracks. Harrison also made an album called Electronic Sound, an avant-garde synthesizer experiment. Ringo Starr released Sentimental Journey two weeks before McCartney released the statement to the press that officially brought an end to the group.
After The Beatles broke up, they all began working on solo projects. Of course, the music press would over-examine the lyrics and pick out where each member of the Fab Four was singing about their former comrades or their situations. Some of these prods were warranted, while others were not. Jabs seemed to go back and forth from album to album until John Lennon and Paul McCartney met up in 1972 and talked about how it would be better for all involved if they stopped taking shots at each other in song. That certainly didn’t stop the press from looking for more underlying meanings in their songs. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Let Me Roll It” by Paul McCartney and Wings.
You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving in the palm of my hand
I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
“A Good Riff is a Rare Beauty”
In his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney cited that John Lennon liked to use echo on his voice the most of any Beatle. Trying to emulate Gene Vincent or early Elvis Presley recordings became a bit of a trademark on Lennon’s solo recordings. So, when McCartney upped the tape delay echo on his vocals on “Let Me Roll It,” the press was quick to point out how he was trying to sound like Lennon. McCartney fired back, “The single most significant element in this song is not the echo, though. It’s not the vocalization. It’s not the lyrics. It’s the guitar riff. The word that comes to mind is ‘searing.’ It’s a searing little thing. We can talk about lyrics till the cows come home, but a good riff is a rare beauty.
“This one is so dramatic that people in the audience gasp when they hear it. Because it stops so abruptly, it feels like everything freezes. Time freezes. When we do talk about the lyrics, I think it’s fair to say that to ‘Roll It’ has to do with rolling a joint. I don’t think that’s going to come as a surprise to anyone.”
I want to tell you
And now’s the time
I want to tell you that
You’re going to be mine
I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
From Beatle to Beatle …
The opening track of George Harrison’s 1970 album All Things Must Pass was “I’d Have You Anytime.” It contained the lyric, Let me roll it to you. McCartney wrote his song at High Park Farm in Scotland. In the liner notes for Wingspan, McCartney stated, “A song like ‘Let Me Roll It’ came about by playing around with a little riff; if I’m lucky, the rest of the song just comes to me.”
I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
… To Beatle
John Lennon’s 1974 album Walls and Bridges included a song called “Beef Jerky,” which contained a guitar riff not unlike McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It.” In 2010, McCartney told Clash magazine, “‘Let Me Roll It’ wasn’t to John. It was just in the style that we did with The Beatles that John was particularly known for. It was really actually the use of the echo. It was one of those: ‘You’re not going to use echo just cos John used it?’ I don’t think so. To tell you the truth, that was more rolling a joint. That was the double meaning there: ‘Let me roll it to you.’ That was more at the back of mind than anything else. ‘Dear Friend,’ that was very much ‘let’s be friends’ to John.”
You gave me something
I understand
You gave me loving in the palm of my hand
I can’t tell you how I feel
My heart is like a wheel
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
Let me roll it
Let me roll it to you
A Love Song at Heart
Whether it’s a dig at a former Beatle or a song about rolling a joint, McCartney feels at the heart of it all, “Let Me Roll It” is a love song. In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, he wrote, “The image of My heart is like a wheel so Let me roll it to you is one that anyone can connect with. Anyone can understand how exposed you feel when you offer your heart to, or reveal your affections for, another person. It’s very difficult. The hesitation we feel in that situation—of wanting to reach out but being reluctant to be completely open—is made physical in the abrupt starting and stopping of the riff. The constant cutting short of the momentum of the song mimes the subject matter. We all relate to that situation. A year or two back, I saw a musical called Be More Chill by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, about a nerdy boy who can’t say he loves someone. He has a speech impediment, a nervous stammer. ‘Let Me Roll It’ is a sort of long, drawn-out stammer.”
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