Paul McCartney announced the publication of a memoir, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present arriving on November 2. The two volumes are a self-portrait of the legendary singer-songwriter in 154 songs.
The Lyrics contain McCartney’s earliest compositions as a teenager, his work with John Lennon and The Beatles as well as Wings material and more from Paul’s solo career. The volumes are arranged alphabetically for a kaleidoscopic view rather than a chronological one and establish the definitive texts of the songs while delving into what inspired them, the circumstances in which they came to fruition and commentary from McCartney himself on what he thinks of the songs now.
“We learn intimately about the man, the creative process, the working out of melodies, the moments of inspiration,” as per a press release. “The voice and personality of Paul McCartney sings off every page. There has never been a book about a great musician like it.”
“I hope that what I’ve written will show people something about my songs and my life which they haven’t seen before,” Paul said about the project. “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.”
Read an excerpt from Paul’s writing in The Lyrics below:
“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.”
“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,” The Lyrics editor Paul Muldoon said about the project. “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.
Watch a trailer for Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present below:
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