Sitting In Paul McCartney's 1966 Aston-Martin DB6

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Sitting In Paul McCartney's 1966 Aston-Martin DB6
Josh Max , CONTRIBUTOR
NOV 25, 2015

James Bond’s Aston-Martin DB5, driven in 1964’s “Goldfinger,” had machine guns in the front fenders, an ejector seat, tire slicers in its wheels and other handy accessories.

But did 007 write “Hey, Jude” in it? No. And for some of us, that counts for more than tossing a live wire onto a metal railing and electrocuting Odd Job.

Furthermore, James Bond is a fictitious character and Paul McCartney’s a real, live bloke who wrote one of the Beatles’ most well-known songs in his 1966 Aston-Martin DB6, hand-built to the cute Beatle’s specifications.



For the few people who still don’t know the story behind the “Hey, Jude,” it was originally titled “Hey Jules.” The song was composed  in 1968 for Julian Lennon, whose Mom Cynthia was going through a divorce from John Lennon and who Paul was on his way to console. The left-handed bassist brought with him, so legend has it, a single red rose and, most likely, Words of Wisdom.

It so happened that Paul McCartney’s ex-DB6 (he sold it in 1971) was an hour’s drive from Aston-Martin’s Graydon headquarters where I’d just had a tour one rainy English morning. Invited to have a peek, a tire-kick and a sit, off I trekked to dig the Fabness of Paul’s old whip.



It is a fine little firecracker, handsome, elegant and suitably posh. Finished in “Goodwood” Green with leather upholstery and optional chrome wheels with three-ear spinners, the car housed a reel to reel tape recorder (now removed) mounted in the dashboard. It’s a surprisingly tiny set of wheels, especially given Paul’s 5’11 height, and it’s also hefty at 3,417 pounds. But its 282 horses making a top speed of 152 MPH, its pencil-thin wooden steering wheel and shift, old-school toggle switches, snug back seat and all-black interior make it a smart, elegant ride befitting of a Beatle who, that year, also composed “Lady Madonna,” “Blackbird,” “Back In The U.S.S.R,” “I Will” and others. Martha, Paul’s sheepdog made notorious in “Martha, My Dear,” occasionally rode in the back seat, too.

Did Fab Four energy envelope me as I circled the car and finally sat in it, hoping perhaps to feel a shiver similar to the shiver the music of the legendary group evokes in me, you and millions of others here and there to this day?



No. But I was never that sort of Beatle-nut – I wear no t-shirts, own no mugs and would not scream “Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul!” if I saw the man emerge from a restaurant or stage door.

Then again, I don’t think I’d mind having the glass Paul broke during one of the takes of “Norwegian Wood,” or the squeaky drum pedal Ringo used on “All I’ve Got To Do.”

What remains in The End is the music.

And the Bond car from “Goldfinger?”  It was stolen in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1997, and is still missing.

-Josh Max