Paul McCartney Announces New Book of Lyrics

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present is out November 2

February 24, 2021

Paul McCartney has announced new a book of lyrics. The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present compiles 154 of McCartney’s works, from childhood compositions to the Beatles years, to Wings and his current solo albums. The book was edited by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Muldoon, who also penned the introduction. Watch a trailer for the book below.

“I hope that what I’ve written will show people something about my songs and my life which they haven’t seen before,” McCartney said in press materials. “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.”

He added:

More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. 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.

In addition to lyrics, the book includes never-before seen photographs, letters, drafts, and more. “Based on conversations I had with Paul McCartney over a five year period, these commentaries are as close to an autobiography as we may ever come,” Muldoon said in press materials. “His 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.”

Read Pitchfork’s Guide “These Are the Best Beatles Books.”

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