Picasso's Last Words Archives

Picasso's Last Words One of the wonderful songs on the classic 1973 album Band on the Run by Paul McCartney and Wings is “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me).” Having heard the song many times, I was not too surprised to learn that the song was based on Picasso’s actual last words. But I was amazed to discover that Dustin Hoffman gave McCartney the topic of the song and encouraged the songwriter to write a song about the painter’s last words.

In the video below, both McCartney explain how “Picasso’s Last Words” arose out of Hoffman’s curiosity about the song-writing process. During a dinner party held by Paul and Linda McCartney in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Hoffman asked McCartney how he wrote songs. Then, Hoffman asked McCartney to write a song.

As the two men discussed topics, Hoffman remembered reading about painter Pablo Picasso’s last words in a recent Time magazine. The April 23, 1973 issue featured an article entitled “Pablo Picasso’s Last Days and Final Journey,” wherein it was reported that Picasso had said to his friends, “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.” Then, Picasso went to bed and died in his sleep.

Hoffman, remembering the story, asked McCartney to base a song on those words. And McCartney came up with an excellent song. Below, both Hoffman and McCartney explain how “Picasso’s Last Words” was created.

Below is a video of McCartney and Wings performing “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me),” with lead vocals from both McCartney and Denny Laine, before the group follows up with the song “Richard Cory.”