No Less, Know More: Paul McCartney on "Daytime Nighttime Suffering"

Atwood’s Aidan Moyer ‘interviews’ Paul McCartney via the Wings newsletter, as Sir Paul revisits his seventies oeuvre for the forthcoming ‘Man On The Run’ documentary.

Stream: “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” – Wings

On an otherwise mundane morning Twitter scroll, I happened upon a Q&A and realized I’d accidentally ‘interviewed’ Paul McCartney.

Initially dismissing the blurb as ‘parallel thinking,’ I realized in real time that the inquiring mind who lobbed a question about “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” was me.

In anticipation of the forthcoming book and Amazon- MGM documentary ‘Man on the Run’, MPL has reinstated the ‘Wings Fun Club.’ Once a physical mailing list, the new Fun Club has begun fielding questions about the rotating cast of musicians surrounding a Paul/Linda McCartney and Denny Laine nucleus. The 1978-1981 lineup, consisting of guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley, cut “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” as the B-Side to the disco hit Goodnight Tonight. Despite its relative obscurity, Linda cited the track as a favorite in a 1991 tour booklet. Evidently, McCartney is still a fan:

Aidan asks: My favorite song of yours is “Daytime Nighttime Suffering,” and Linda said it was one of her favorites! Do you have a favorite ‘deep cut’ Wings song of your own?

Paul: I agree! ‘Daytime Nighttime Suffering’ is one of my favourites, as it was Linda’s. But another song I like a lot is “Arrow Through Me.” It is lovely to see these songs reappear from time to time, mainly when they are used in a film or TV show. I think a lot of young people discover my songs this way. Thanks for listening!

* * *

“Daytime Nighttime Suffering” was tucked onto the back of Wings’ foray into disco, “Goodnight Tonight.” Written over a weekend break in the Back to the Egg sessions, the song features a bouncy bass line and some of McCartney’s most understated poetry. Drawing from the ‘sympathetic narrator’ well that is a Macca staple (see: “Eleanor Rigby,” “Another Day,” “Blackbird,” “Jenny Wren”).

McCartney laments, “What does she get for all the love she gave you, there on the ladder of regrets? Daytime nighttime suffering is all she gets.”

In a couplet amongst McCartney’s best, he opines further:

“What does it pay to play the leading lady, when like the damsel in distress, daytime nighttime suffering is all she gets?”

Despite the turmoil, the narrator holds steady in his support of our beleaguered heroine:

“Come on River, overflow, let your love for neighbors grow. You are the River, I am the stream, flow mighty River through me.”

To this author’s ear, the narrative subtext emerges in a sonic flourish – the wail of a baby, the McCartneys’ own James (born in late 1977). Buried just before the second bridge, the crying hints that ‘The Leading Lady’ is Linda herself, rankled by an unforgiving toddler. Raising a family on the road weighed heavy on the McCartneys and Wings would soon retire from touring altogether.

One of McCartney’s “young people,” Atwood’s Aidan Moyer at the Bowery Ballroom on February 14, 2025. Screenshot of a video by Lindsay Nunez

Speaking to guitarist Laurence Juber in 2020, I asked about this “lost” period in Wings history. Juber offered the following:

“[Paul’s is] a massive oeuvre and the ‘Egg’ period is a small part of it. The album has certainly had an influence, and is more popular than Paul gives it credit for.I’ve encountered many fans who discovered The Beatles through that album. I refer to my ‘Macca period’ as getting my Masters in Music from McCartney University.”

Though Juber contests the Egg period is overlooked, “Arrow Through Me”, another Back to The Egg tune, was given new life as a sample on Erykah Badu’s “Gone Baby Gone” and on the soundtrack to the Zoe Kravitz reboot of High Fidelity. The track and its 1979 contemporaries are, indeed, favorites of McCartney’s younger fans, who clamor for the remaster of the latter Wings records in the dormant McCartney Archive Collection. Peter Lane tweeted, “Don’t be shy Paul bring back the archive collection… back to the egg box set… we’ve been waiting…”; user @queenieeye64 enthused, “DAYTIME NIGHTIME SUFFERING AND ARROW THROUGH ME MENTIONED IN 2025?!!!!”

When reached for comment on McCartney’s 2025 recollections, drummer Steve Holley replied, “Fabulous, and thank you! 🥁”

Man on the Run is available to stream on Amazon MGM February 25, 2026. Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is available to read on November 4, 2025.