Paul McCartney: an Autobiography in Lyrics

Aspiring musicians struggling to compose lyrics need look no further for inspiration than Sir Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. Recently published in two volumes, over nine hundred pages detail how one of the world’s most prolific songwriters crafted 154 of his most meaningful songs. Each includes a backstory that reveals just how much of his personal life he channelled into his music; anecdotes, trivia, explanations and personal information in the book were captured in conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Princeton University professor Paul Muldoon. Muldoon paints a picture of a life-long optimist who is, in essence, a literary figure.

LIFE IN MUSIC

While the book has been described as a self-portrait, McCartney insists in the foreword that it is not an autobiography, and he has no intention of writing one. While he has never kept a diary, he says, he is accustomed to distilling life experiences in lyrics. “The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs,” McCartney says. “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. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.” 

TREASURE TROVE

Now seventy-nine, the whole of McCartney’s sixty-four-year career is represented in the book, from his first song written at fourteen through his time with The Beatles and Wings, to his solo work. The songs are listed alphabetically rather than chronologically, and the reader jumps back and forth through time. Photos, handwritten notes, drawings, paintings and other memorabilia from McCartney’s personal archive, much of which has never been seen before, accompany the songs. The book even includes the lyrics of an unrecorded Beatles song called Tell Me Who He Is.

INFLUENCES

The Lyrics explains the circumstances under which the songs were written and the people and places that inspired them. He lists his greatest influences as his parents, his late wife Linda, his high school English teacher Alan Durband, and of course John Lennon. Surprisingly, he also mentions Queen Elizabeth II, on whom he had a crush as a boy when he considered her “quite a babe.” 

REVELATIONS

Among the many revelations in the book is that John Lennon left The Beatles before McCartney did and, while the break-up of the band was painful, the two were on good terms before Lennon was killed. While it is commonly believed that the song Eleanor Rigby derived from a name on a gravestone in a cemetery near Liverpool, McCartney says that it was actually inspired by an elderly lady that he helped as a boy. Eight Days a Week, on the other hand, was an off-hand comment by a chauffeur he employed while he was banned from driving after speeding. Complaining about his long hours, the chauffeur said he’d been working “eight days a week.” McCartney thought it a great title for a song he was working on with Lennon.

PERSONAL MEANING

McCartney has many more than 154 songs in his repertoire, of course, and his fans will likely disagree with some of his choices! However, there is enough revealing material to keep most people happy. The intention, after all, was to share his personal recollections. In his own words: “I hope that what I’ve written will show people something about my songs and my life which they haven’t seen before. I’ve tried to say something about how the music happens and what it means to me and, I hope, what it may mean to others too.”