In the mid-60s, the Beatles tuned in to the world’s most audacious experimental musicians. Paul McCartney reveals how many of the Fab Four’s ‘far-out’ masterpieces were inspired by their sonic breakthroughsIt is a sunny October afternoon and I am sitting in a long wood-panelled hallway in an old converted townhouse in London waiting to be called into the office of Paul McCartney. I am dressed in my best clothes and trying not to let nerves get the better of me. I am here to ask him about an aspect of his career that is rarely discussed but which, I believe, helped cement his reputation as a world-conquering compositional force and which made the Beatles the most interesting and influential band of all time.In the mid-1960s, as well as topping the charts, turning a generation of teenage girls hysterical and finding themselves the focus of obsessive media attention, the Beatles were also engaged with, and educating themselves about, the work of classical music’s most audacious and important composers. Continue reading...