aul McCartney & Beck – “Find My Way”: Reinvention Through Collaboration
When Paul McCartney teamed up with Beck in 2021 for the remix of “Find My Way,” the result was a track that felt at once playful, adventurous, and deeply rooted in McCartney’s long history of reinvention. Originally released in 2020 on McCartney III, “Find My Way” was a bright, groove-driven pop-rock song created during the quiet isolation of lockdown. But in Beck’s hands, reimagined for McCartney III Imagined, it became something else entirely: a funky, danceable conversation across generations, proof that McCartney’s music remains endlessly adaptable.
The original “Find My Way” was written and recorded by McCartney alone at his Sussex studio during the pandemic. Playing every instrument himself — as he had on his 1970 debut McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II — he crafted a song that balanced optimism with uncertainty. Its central lyric, “You never used to be afraid of days like these, but now you’re overwhelmed by your anxieties,” spoke directly to the unease of the times, while the refrain, “You can find your way,” offered reassurance. Musically, it was lively and buoyant, built on a rolling rhythm guitar and infectious hooks.
Enter Beck, an artist whose own career has been defined by eclecticism. For McCartney III Imagined, released in 2021, McCartney invited a roster of contemporary musicians to reinterpret songs from McCartney III. Beck’s version of “Find My Way” stood out immediately, transforming the song into a slice of retro-futuristic funk. With rubbery bass lines, syncopated percussion, and layered electronic textures, Beck gave the track a dance-floor energy while retaining the warmth of McCartney’s original vocal.
The result was not just a remix, but a reimagining. Beck pulled the song into his own sonic universe while honoring its melodic heart, creating a version that sounded both timeless and thoroughly modern. McCartney’s voice, still remarkably supple in his late seventies, floats above Beck’s kaleidoscopic production with a kind of ageless authority. It is not just a collaboration but a dialogue: one artist passing a song forward, another reshaping it for a new era.
The visual counterpart to the remix also made headlines. A music video directed by Andrew Donoho featured a digitally de-aged McCartney strutting through neon-lit hotel corridors, dancing with uncanny energy. The surreal imagery sparked conversation about technology, legacy, and the way pop icons can be endlessly remade. For some, it was eerie; for others, it was a fittingly playful extension of a song that itself was about finding a path forward through uncertainty.
Critically, Beck’s remix of “Find My Way” was praised for its creativity and its respect for McCartney’s original spirit. Reviewers noted how seamlessly the collaboration bridged generations: McCartney, a figure who had been redefining popular music since the 1960s, and Beck, a restless innovator who had been challenging musical boundaries since the 1990s. Together, they proved that reinvention is not the sole privilege of youth — it is the lifeblood of enduring artistry.
In the broader story of McCartney’s career, “Find My Way” underscores his refusal to remain static. Even in his late seventies, he was not content to simply revisit past glories but continued to seek out new voices, new sounds, and new ways of framing his work. For Beck, the collaboration was another chapter in his long tradition of drawing from musical history while reshaping it into something uniquely his own.
Today, “Find My Way” — both in its original and Beck’s reimagined form — stands as a reminder of McCartney’s ongoing vitality and adaptability. It captures the optimism that has always been part of his songwriting, but also the curiosity that has kept his music alive for more than half a century. In Beck’s remix, that optimism finds a new groove, one that pulses with the energy of reinvention.
In the story of Paul McCartney, “Find My Way” is more than just a late-career single. It is a reaffirmation that music is always moving forward — and that as long as he is part of it, he will keep finding new ways to light the path.