Macca takes a trip down a MUSICAL MEMORY LANE
He’s never penned a memoir, but a new book that draws on the lyrics of 154 songs spanning his life reveals tantalising new details about Sir Paul and his fellow Beatles
THe secrets are in the songs. Sir Paul McCartney, who has always declined to publish an autobiography, has now relented — in his own unique style.
In the lyrics: 1956 to the Present, two volumes comprising no fewer than 912 pages which are set to go on sale next month, Sir Paul gives us a glimpse into the inspiration for, and hidden meanings of, 154 treasured songs.
In doing so, he provides a fascinating new insight into his life at the time they were written, and the lives of his fellow Beatles.
the songs are, according to the publisher, ‘arranged alphabetically to provide a kaleidoscopic rather than a chronological account’.
‘I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks,’ Sir Paul said in an extract from the memoir published in the Sunday times yesterday.
‘What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. the one thing I have always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. and these songs span my entire life.’
this, then, is a book for dipping into and sampling at leisure. It allows us to see some of the most familiar songs ever written in new and surprising ways.
they range from his earliest efforts, when he was barely into his teens, to songs from his latest album, McCartney III, which was released last year.
What they uncover will not only thrill Beatles obsessives but fascinate anyone who has ever sung along to a lennon and McCartney tune. Which must, surely, include half the world or more.
Here, CHRISTOPHER STEVENS explores the stories behind some of the Beatles’ best-loved songs.
grabbing a guitar and, in the scout hut, performing Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock, the definitive history is in Craig Brown’s biography of the band — One Two Three Four: The Beatles In Time.
This quotes Lennon’s memories: ‘I half thought to myself: “He’s as good as me. If I take him on, what will happen?” It went through my head that I’d have to keep him in line. But he was good. He also looked like Elvis.’
Everyone agrees that John didn’t extend the invitation himself. He sent his friend Pete instead.
‘Pete caught up with me when I was out on my bicycle,’ Paul remembers, ‘and said: “They want you in the band.”
‘I paused and said: “I’ll give it some consideration.” I wasn’t exactly playing hard to get. But I was a careful young fellow. I wondered whether I really wanted to be in a band. Was this a good thing, or should I be trying to study for school? ‘Anyway,’ he adds, ‘I did get back to them and said: “Yeah”.’