 | |
| Editor | Paul Muldoon |
|---|---|
| Author | Paul McCartney |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Paul McCartney's lyrics |
| Published | November 2, 2021 |
| Publisher | Liveright,Penguin Books Ltd,C.H. Beck |
| Publication place | US |
| Pages | 960 |
| ISBN | 978-1-63149-256-3 |
| Website | Official website |
The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present is a book released in November 2021 by the English musicianPaul McCartney and the Irish poetPaul Muldoon. It is published byLiveright /W. W. Norton & Company in the United States of America,Penguin Books Ltd in the United Kingdom, andC.H. Beck in Germany.
Muldoon's conversations recorded with McCartney for the book turned into a podcastMcCartney: A Life in Lyrics, released throughout 2023 and 2024.[1]
The book consists of McCartney's discussions with Muldoon of the lyrics of 154 of his songs written during his time as a member of the rock bandsthe Beatles andWings and as a solo artist.[2][3] The songs are arranged alphabetically over two volumes. The book also includes many previously unseen photographs, paintings and handwritten texts.[2] Muldoon spoke with McCartney over five years in two- to three-hour sessions during the creation of the book and felt that McCartney's "insights into his own artistic process confirm a notion at which we had but guessed—that Paul McCartney is a major literary figure who draws upon, and extends, the long tradition of poetry in English".[3][4] Muldoon felt that their conversations mimicked McCartney's writing sessions withJohn Lennon as they were both "determined never to leave the room without something interesting".[4]
McCartney had always previously declined to write anautobiography, recalling that he had been asked "More often than I can count" as "the time has never been right". McCartney has said that he has never kept a diary to recall the past but does have "my songs, hundreds of them, which I've learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life".[5]
The book received mostly positive reviews.David Hepworth ofThe Guardian wrote that "Whereas the other Beatles wrote fitfully after the group broke up, Paul kept getting out his pencil, taking his guitar into a quiet corner and writing yet another song, less on the basis of inspiration than the feeling that it was a muscle he must use or lose. It's this more than 10,000 hours spent setting himself the eternal puzzle of getting from the beginning of a song to its end that enabled him to dazzleDustin Hoffman by writing "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)" in front of him. 'Can you write a song about anything?' Hoffman asked. Yes, Dustin, he clearly can." He was also impressed by the people mentioned by McCartney: "The index is a reminder of the fact that, having been actively famous for 60 years, Paul McCartney has met everyone he’s had a mind to meet. Having learned fromCraig Brown's recent book thatMalcolm Muggeridge came to see the Beatles play in Hamburg, I no longer bat an eyelid at the revelation that in 1964 Paul rocked up unannounced at the door ofBertrand Russell."[6]
David Hajdu ofThe New York Times noted that "McCartney shows how deeply he is steeped in literary history and how much his output as a songwriter has in common with the works of the likes ofDickens andShakespeare." He concludes: "Aaaah … we realize:Paul really is a word man, the more literary and cerebral Beatle."[7]
David Kirby ofThe Washington Post praised the book and said that "ReadingThe Lyrics is like standing in a master chef’s kitchen as he prepares a dish, adding a dash of this and a spoonful of that and talking to us so winningly that we don’t realize till later that he has withheld an ingredient, one that, because he was so deeply engaged himself, he didn’t know he was withholding."[8]
Blake Morrison wrote in a review for theGuardian that the stories recalled by McCartney are unusual and entertaining:
Getting it down, he used dummy words: what became "Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away" began as "scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs". The backstories to the songs are often as interesting as the lyrics. With "Ticket to Ride" he and John were also thinking about a trip they'd made toRyde, on theIsle of Wight; "Blackbird", with its "broken wings", was written after theassassination of Martin Luther King; "Hey Jude" was originally "Hey Jules" and written for the youngJulian Lennon after John had divorcedCynthia; the portrait of a community in "Penny Lane" took its bearings fromDylan Thomas'sUnder Milk Wood while "She's Leaving Home" 'was almost like a shooting script forthe Wednesday Play'.
Morrison concluded in his review that "Stripped of the music, the words on the page can look random or banal. But at best he's a wonderfully versatile lyricist: troubadour, comedian, elegist, social commentator, pasticheur. And anyone with even half an interest in the Beatles will findThe Lyrics fascinating."[9]
The book has been translated into eight different languages: German (translator Conny Lösch), Dutch (translator Robert Neugarten), Spanish, Portuguese, French (translators Hélène Borraz, Raphaël Meltz and Louise Moaty), Finnish, Swedish and Italian (translators Franco Zanetti and Luca Perasi).
| McCartney: A Life in Lyrics | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | iHeartPodcasts, MPL, Pushkin Industries |
| Cast and voices | |
| Hosted by | Paul Muldoon |
| Starring | Paul McCartney |
| Production | |
| Length | 19–39 minutes |
| Publication | |
| Original release | 2023-10-04 |
Muldoon's conversations recorded with McCartney for the book turned into a podcastMcCartney: A Life in Lyrics, with a two series co-produced byiHeartPodcasts,MPL Communications, andPushkin Industries.[1][10] Season 1 was released on audio streaming platforms between October and December 2023. Season 2 was released between February and April 2024.[11]
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