#McCartney: a life in lyrics

[lastlennonista]

“This is, basically, a memory song that is a love song to John.”

-Paul McCartney

“Here, Today” McCartney: A Life in Lyrics From Pushkin+ Early Listen

He’s out here just saying it now. No warning. Just talking about love songs to John as if we haven’t had to listen to heteronormy bullshit for 50+ years of Beatle press alongside divisive Lennon vs. McCartney rhetoric (Thanks, Jann!).

Be still my beating heart.

(In contrast, from the same podcast, Paul’s thoughts on the anti-love song to John, Too Many People:

“Too Many People is on an album called Ram. It was at a time when John was firing missiles at me. I dunno what he hoped to gain other than punching me in the face. This kind of annoyed me obviously, and I suddenly decided to turn my missiles on him.”)

[girlonfilms]

Paul McCartney to launch new podcast

Paul McCartney is going to tell the stories of 12 of his most beloved songs in a new podcast series. Continue reading Untitled

[greensparty]

BEST PODCAST OF 2023

There’s literally a podcast for any subject and/or genre, therefore this category is hard to rank. But here are the ones I dug the most this year:

Honorable Mentions:

The Video Archives Podcast with Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary

Walking the Floor with Chris Shiflett

TV Guidance Counselor

Completely Conspicuous

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics

Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

Listening to SNL alums Carvey and Spade talk with guests about SNL and comedy is like getting a LOL comedy show each time. I could listen to this all day!

[barelyaveragebarley]

John: The dream is over, now how do you sleep at night?

Paul: well tbh I can't sleep believing that love is a lie and every night I hope and pray I'll be coming home (to you) and my nights are long and lonely and I wake up still dreaming about you and honestly i'm suffering daytime and nighttime so as night draws in again a perfect day will end only if you'll be my secret friend...this is completely unrelated to anything John has said btw

[stargiirl27]

lyrics from the song Born Again by Tyler Childers because the idea of them finding each other in every lifetime got to me

[foryouwereinmysong]

Well, now that Paul has his Höfner back, maybe he could concentrate on finding his blue school exercise book again? The one he lost after putting it in his bookshelf and that contains the first lyrics he and John wrote down (another Lennon/McCartney original). And then maybe just publish the whole thing? please thank you

[paulmccartneyexplodingonstage]

I picked up a copy of The Lyrics at my local bookstore the other day, and I’m reading the page about Let Me Roll It when-

and like the whole passage is insane (yeah hm i wonder who you might have a hard time revealing feelings to paul in this self-admittedly inspired by john song 🤔)

but HELLO UNPROMPTED BE MORE CHILL REFERENCE???? YOU’RE TELLING ME PAUL FUCKING MCCARTNEY KNOWS WHAT BE MORE CHILL IS???? DO YOU THINK HE SHIPS BOYF RIENDS—

[radio-4-is-static]

The last song that was written, the last lyrics that were written was (for) the song “Hooked.” It starts off with the line, “I’ve got the fear / I’ve got the human fear.” And I realize that so many of the songs had an underlying theme of fear to them. But not necessarily succumbing to fear, but more like overcoming fear. “The Doctor” is about the fear of leaving an institution, and “Bar Lonely” is the fear of leaving a relationship. “Night or Day” is the fear of committing to a relationship. But fear is fascinating because fear is universal. We all experience fear. We all experience the same fears. But how we respond to it is individual. And that’s how we find who we are, our personalities. And overcoming fear feels good. That’s why we watch horror films or ride rollercoasters — because you overcome fear and then feel very alive for having done so.

– Alex Kapranos on the story behind Franz Ferdinand's latest album The Human Fear for AP

[tavolgisvist]

Paul about Dear Friend

At the time of writing this song, in early 1971, he’d [John] called the McCartney album ‘rubbish’ in Rolling Stone magazine. It was a really difficult time. I just felt sad about the breakdown in our friendship, and this song kind of came flowing out. ‘Dear friend, what’s the time? / Is this really the borderline?’ Are we splitting up? Is this ‘you go your way; I’ll go mine’? ... I’d been keeping largely quiet about John and The Beatles split-up in the press. I didn’t really have many accusations to fling, but being John, he was flinging quite a few in interviews. He had accused me of announcing the Beatles breakup to promote the McCartney album, but I was just answering Apple’s press questions honestly. I didn’t want to do interviews to promote it, and Peter Brown at Apple had asked questions like, ‘Are you planning a new album or single with The Beatles?’ My answer was ‘No.’ I saw no point in lying. John would say things like, ‘It was rubbish. The Beatles were crap.’ Also, ‘I don’t believe in The Beatles, I don’t believe in Jesus, I don’t believe in God.’ Those were quite hurtful barbs to be flinging around, and I was the person they were being flung at, and it hurt. So, I’m having to read all this stuff, and on the one hand I’m thinking, ‘Oh fuck off, you fucking idiot,’ but on the other hand I’m thinking, ‘Why would you say that? Are you annoyed at me or are you jealous or what?’ And thinking back fifty years later, I still wonder how he must have felt. He’d gone through a lot. His dad disappeared, and then he lost his Uncle George, who was a father figure; his mother; Stuart Sutcliffe; Brian Epstein, another father figure; and now his band. But John had all of those emotions wrapped up in a ball of Lennon. That’s who he was. That was the fascination. I tried. I was sort of answering him here, asking, ‘Does it need to be this hurtful?’ I think this is a good line: ‘Are you afraid, or is it true?’ – meaning, ‘Why is this argument going on? Is it because you’re afraid of something? Are you afraid of the split-up? Are you afraid of my doing something without you? Are you afraid of the consequences of your actions?’ And the little rhyme, ‘Or is it true?’ Are all these hurtful allegations true? This song came out in that kind of mood. It could have been called ‘What the Fuck, Man?’ but I’m not sure we could have gotten away with that then.

(Paul McCartney about Dear Friend in The Lyrics, 2021)

“That’s the only one that’s at all about the Beatles situation,” he says. “Throw the wine – shut up, stop messing about.”

(Paul McCartney, Nov 1971, interview with Steve Peacock for Sounds)

[got-ticket-to-ride]

For one thing, there is still speculation if John Lennon really wrote "In My Life" for Paul Mccartney. This is me purely theorizing.

I've always wondered why Paul was so pissed at Phil Spector's changes for the Let It Be album, and dismissed it to Paul's "artistic controlling" personality (which is quite understandable).

But what if it was because of the erasure of the baroque sounding part in "Long and Winding Road" which sounds similar to the one in "In My Life"?

Was Paul trying to remind John of his words? "In my life, I love you more"?

The Long and Winding Road's naked version from 2003 shows the rawness of the song.

"Don't keep me standing here…

Lead me to your door...

*piano*

But still they lead me back to the long, winding road."

Also going back to the origin of the song's title (source Barry Miles) : Paul McCartney said he came up with the title "The Long and Winding Road" during one of his first visits to his property High Park Farm, near Campbeltown in Scotland, which he purchased in June 1966.

The old man farm dream was never fulfilled in the end.

Check my other post about "In My Life"

[shy-girl04]

But of all these friends and lovers

There is no one compares with you

And these memories lose their meaning

When I think of love as something new

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life I love you more

Lennon & McCartney, In My Life, Rubber Soul

[maie-ashraf1d]

Resenting everything about you just because I wasn't loved.

Start with I love you by Jesse McCartney

[poprocklyrics]

There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed. Some forever, not for better, some have gone and some remain.

In My Life, The Beatles

[i-am-the-oyster]

I’ve just listened to the introductory episode of the podcast A Life in Lyrics. It’s going to be an edited version of the tapes that went into making Paul’s Lyrics book. Which is the best thing it could be I think.

Muldoon is doing that awful “poet reading his poetry dramatically” voice in the intro episode, but I’m hopeful that he’ll be talking normally in the conversations.

[beatlesblogger]

Paul McCartney & Paul Muldoon Announce a New Podcast

The podcast, which is called McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, starts on September 20. It promises listeners a fly-on-the-wall opportunity to sit in on recordings of conversations made over many years between Paul McCartney and poet Paul Muldoon as they dissected the people, experiences, and art that inspired his songwriting. The conversations between the two were a central part of their process in…