Even now almost 40 years after John's death, Paul thinks about what John would possibly think, or what his feedback on songs would be.Ģ. His relationship to his childhood friend was a constant force in his life that drove creativity, from writing songs together early on to after The Beatles' breakup and having a sort of competition. Paul's friendship and partnership with John Lennon is irreplaceable. It feels like someone has asked Paul McCartney, "Tell us about your song 'Coming Up," which may lead to thoughts about some other song or event, and everything feels very organic.īy organizing the 154 songs alphabetically, readers can see some common threads between all of the songs that may have been less apparent had they been organized chronologically:ġ. But because the book is essentially conversations that the two had together, the organization alphabetically actually works. I saw a livestream Q&A with Paul McCartney and editor Paul Muldoon, where the latter explained by doing it alphabetically, it was more of a kaleidoscope of McCartney's life. I was originally skeptical of how the lyrics are organized, which is alphabetically. Moreover, there's a lot of other stuff to look at and not read, meaning photos and archival material like handwritten lyrics or drawings. But reading it is like sitting down and having a conversation with Paul McCartney himself it flows easily and is a lot of fun. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is an actor, a painter, a poet, and an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education he is active in campaigns against landmines, seal hunting, and Third World debt.Īt 863 pages, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present seemed a bit daunting, almost like reading Mark Lewisohn's special edition, two volume book Tune In. His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, including all of the songs written by Buddy Holly, along with the publishing rights to such musicals as Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and Grease.Īn iconic figure in contemporary culture, he is regarded internationally as an entertainer and humanitarian. (Three charity singles have since surpassed it in sales the first to do so-in 1984-was Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose participants included McCartney.) Wings' 1977 single "Mull of Kintyre" became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK, and remains the UK's top selling non-charity single. His song "Yesterday" is listed as the most covered song in history and has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American television and radio. McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million singles.
He has worked on film scores, classical music, and ambient/electronic music released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist and taken part in projects to help international charities.
After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman McCartney, and songwriter/singer Denny Laine. McCartney and John Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history". He gained worldwide fame as one of the founders and members of The Beatles. Sir James Paul McCartney MBE, known as Paul McCartney, is an English singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, entrepreneur, painter, record producer, film producer, and animal-rights activist. With images from McCartney’s personal archives―handwritten texts, paintings, and photographs, hundreds previously unseen― The Lyrics , spanning sixty-four years, becomes the definitive literary and visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Here are the origins of “Let It Be,” “Lovely Rita,” “Yesterday,” and “Mull of Kintyre,” as well as McCartney’s literary influences, including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and Alan Durband, his high-school English teacher. Spanning two alphabetically arranged volumes, these commentaries reveal how the songs came to be and the people who inspired them: his devoted parents, Mary and Jim his songwriting partner, John Lennon his “Golden Earth Girl,” Linda Eastman his wife, Nancy McCartney and even Queen Elizabeth, among many others. From his early Liverpool days, through the historic decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his long solo career, The Lyrics pairs the definitive texts of 154 Paul McCartney songs with first-person commentaries on his life and music. Excerpted in The New Yorker A work of unparalleled candor and splendorous beauty, The Lyrics celebrates the creative life and the musical genius of Paul McCartney through 154 of his most meaningful songs.
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