THE PROBLEM WAS, OUR GIGS FINISHED SO LATE THAT restaurants and pubs had closed by the time we got back to London, so the only way we could get a drink and something to eat was to ‘go down a club’, as they used to say. That became a way of life. We would drive home from a gig and immediately go to a club. The Bag O’Nails was one of my favourites. The Speakeasy. The Revolution. The Scotch of St James. The Cromwellian. Later when the other guys were married and living in the suburbs, I would often go by myself.

Album notes by Paul and John, 1968

It was in one of these clubs that I met Jimmy Scott, the Nigerian conga player whom I liked a lot. Jimmy had a couple of catchphrases he used all the time, one of which was ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, life goes on, bra’. Some people think ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ is a Yoruba phrase that means something like comme ci, comme ça. Some people think it’s a phrase Jimmy Scott made up. And there are others who think ‘bra’ refers to a brassiere, rather than an African version of ‘bro’.

I liked the comme ci, comme ça, que sera sera sentiment. So I set out to write a humorous little ‘character song’ about Desmond and Molly and their kids. It’s a combination of African and Jamaican elements. I’m pretty sure Desmond is named after Desmond Dekker, the Jamaican ska and reggae artist whose ‘Israelites’ was a hit later in 1969. He’d already had a big hit in the UK in 1967 with ‘007’.

When Desmond takes a ‘trolley’, I may be thinking of the San Francisco tram system. San Francisco is where The Beatles had done our last concert. There’s a world of difference between ‘Desmond takes a tram’ and ‘Desmond takes a trolley’. Some things either fit rhythmically or they don’t, and ‘tram’ is awkward in a song, whereas ‘trolley’ allows for more possibilities rhythmically. John and I used to have conversations about trying to write songs that had a very conversational tone. ‘Desmond takes a trolley to the jeweller’s store’ isn’t too flowery. It’s something you could actually hear people saying. That could be a secret of why the Beatles stuff is still very accessible to people. It’s because we’re just talking straight.

No matter how straight you’re talking, though, there’s still room for interpretation. Going back to the word ‘trolley’, I can see there’s actually a lot to be said for the ‘shopping cart’ reading. The idea of going to a jeweller’s store with a shopping cart to load up on stuff is pretty funny, particularly when Desmond comes back with a ‘twenty carat’ engagement ring. One way or another, it’s pretty everyday stuff.

That’s something I’m still looking out for. I’m very much switched on to the power of the ordinary. My camera is looking around and sweeping life for clues, for stories. When I’m on a bus or a plane or a train, my imagination starts going. I love simple truths. I love that the vast majority of people, whether they’re Mongolian or Indian or American, relate immediately to the idea of family and family life, to the image of a couple of kids running in the yard. If I plug into that, I’m going to relate to people.