The Dog-and-Pony Story Behind “Jet” by Paul McCartney & Wings

In interviews Paul McCartney gave during the promotion of his album Band on the Run, he stated that “Jet” was the name of a black Labrador puppy. In later years, he told the story of how it was the name of a Shetland pony he owned. Both stories could be true, but either way, it doesn’t make a difference to the meaning of the song “Jet’s” lyrics. McCartney also talks about his father-in-law in relation to the words. David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” played a role as well. Dress it all up with a cool saxophone riff and some fist-pumping, arena-rock hooks and you’ve got one of McCartney’s most memorable singles. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Jet” by Paul McCartney & Wings.

Jet, Jet
Jet, I can almost remember their funny faces
That time, you told them you were going to be marrying soon
And Jet, I thought the only lonely place was on the moon

Jet the Puppy

McCartney wasn’t sure there was a single on his 1973 album Band on the Run. Al Coury, head of marketing at Capitol Records, convinced him to edit “Jet” down to a length more condusive to FM radio play. In 1973, McCartney told author Paul Gambaccini in Paul McCartney: In His Own Words: “We’ve got a Labrador puppy who is a runt, the runt of a litter. We bought her along a roadside in a little pet shop out in the country one day. She was a bit of a wild dog, a wild girl who wouldn’t stay in. We have a big wall around our house in London, and she wouldn’t stay in. She always used to jump the wall. She’d go out on the town for the evening, like Lady and the Tramp. She must have met up with some big black Labrador or something. She came back one day pregnant. She proceeded to walk into the garage and have this litter. … Seven little black puppies, perfect little black Labradors, and she’s not black, she’s tan. So we worked out it must have been a black Labrador. What we do is if either of the dogs we have has a litter, we try to keep them for the puppy stage so we get the best bit of them, and then when they get a bit unmanageable, we ask people if they want to have a puppy. So Jet was one of the puppies. We give them all names. We’ve had some great names. There was one puppy called Golden Molasses. I rather like that. Then, there was one called Brown Megs, named after a Capitol executive. They’ve all gone now.”

Jet, Jet
Jet was your father as bold as the sergeant major
How come he told you that you were hardly old enough yet
And Jet, I thought the major was a lady suffragette

Jet the Shetland Pony

Paul and his wife Linda recorded the song at EMI Studios at Abbey Road. Paul played guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and sang, while Linda played moog and sang. Denny Laine added guitar and vocals, and the saxophone parts were supplied by Howie Casey. In 2021, McCartney wrote in The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present: “Jet’ was actually the name of a pony, a little Shetland pony that we had for the kids on the farm. My daughter Mary was born in 1969, so in 1973, when the song was written, she was 4. Stella would have been 2, so they were little. But to know that Jet is a pony is about as important, or unimportant, as knowing that Martha in ‘Martha My Dear’ is a sheepdog.”

Jet, Jet
Ah, mater want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater, much later
Jet
And Jet, I thought the major was a lady suffragette
Jet, Jet

The Father-in-Law

David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” came out a year before “Jet.” Paul liked the word “suffragette” and felt it fit with the syllables he needed to complete the song. In 2017, McCartney told Triple J Radio, “There’s no telling where you’ll get ideas from, and we happened to name this little black puppy Jet. Again I was noodling around, looking for an idea and thought that’s a good word ‘jet’. So, I wrote the song about that. Not about the puppy, just using the name. And now it’s transformed into a sort of girl. It was kind of—a little bit about the experiences I’d had in marrying Linda. Her dad was a little old-fashioned, and I thought I was a little bit intimidated, as a lot of young guys can be meeting the father figure. And if the dad’s really easygoing, it makes it easy. It wasn’t bad, but I was a bit intimidated. It was probably my fault as much as his. Anyway, the song starts to be about the sergeant major, and it was basically my experience, roughly translated. I never do a song with the actual words that actually happen because then that’s like a news story. Oh, Linda, I was going to see your dad, and he was intimidating. A bit boring. So, I mask it and mold it into a song, something you can sing reasonably.

He added in The Lyrics: “He was a cool guy—very accomplished—but he was a little bit too patriarchal for my liking. I got on well with him, but he was a bit strict.”

Ah, mater want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater want Jet to always love me
Ah, mater, much later
Jet with the wind in your hair
Of a thousand laces
Climb on the back, and we’ll go for a ride in the sky
And Jet, I thought that the major was a little lady suffragette

Some Unlikely Fans

The Carpenters had a hit with their version of “Ticket To Ride” in 1969. In 2010, McCartney told Clash magazine, “I remember Richard and Karen Carpenter ringing me up to tell me about ‘Jet’—they were like the last people on Earth I thought who’d like ‘Jet’! But they were like, ‘Oh, great record, man!’ So, you know, it was actually resonating with people.”

Jet, Jet
And Jet, you know I thought you was a little lady suffragette
Jet
A little lady
My little lady, yes

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Photo by Per-Åke Uddman/KB/TT/Shutterstock