“AS A WRITER who thinks of himself as part craftsman, the idea of writing a Bond theme is akin to being asked to make a bit of furniture for the In October 1972, McCartney was introduced to 007 film producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who gave him a copy of Ian Fleming’s novel. He read it in a day, and finished the theme song the next, with Linda contributing the middle reggae section. It all came easy, though McCartney admitted working the title in was a bit tricky. “I thought, ‘Live and let die’ — okay, really what they mean is live and let live, and there’s the switch. So I just thought, when you were younger you used to say that, but now you say this.” Wings recorded it, with Henry McCullough’s Les Paul power chords and a dynamic George Martin orchestration giving it spy game flair.
