Paul McCartney's book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, is probably as close to an autobiography as we'll get from Macca, who has repeatedly turned down doubtless-lucrative offers to pen his own world-changing story. "More often than I can count, I've been asked if I would write an autobiography," he writes, "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."
You can't really talk about music, because it's music. It's purposely not talking. It's playing sounds, you know.
Paul McCartney
So we have The Lyrics, in which McCartney looks back at his life through the lens of his work, specifically (and obviously), his lyrics. Presented in alphabetical, rather than chronological order, it's a fascinating way into the creative mind that shaped a generation, along the way creating the world of popular music as we know it today.
Now, McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, a major podcast series based on the extensive interviews McCartney conducted with Pulitzer prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, his collaborator on the project, has been announced. You can listen to a teaser for the full series, which launches in September, over at pushkin.fm.
When we listened back to the tapes, we realised there was something very special happening
Paul Muldoon
"You can't really talk about music," says McCartney, "Because it's music. It's purposely not talking. It's playing sounds, you know." What Macca can do, though is talk about his memories and inspiration. "It's quite liberating. Things slip out, like they would in a session with a psychiatrist."
As Muldoon explains, “When we listened back to the tapes, we realised there was something very special happening in these conversations. It was McCartney unfiltered... we never thought anyone would hear these tapes.” The trailer episode bears this out, with a relaxed McCartney happy to delve into his memory banks as he discusses a series of songs, along the way creating an oral history of his work and life.
"Uncle Albert worked with my dad, in the cotton firm," he fondly recalls, for example, "and he would get pissed. A lot of the uncles, we'd refer to as piss artists. Uncle Albert would stand on the table and recite Bible summaries. Keep everyone straight, in the way of the light."
"I wanted to become a person who wrote songs and wanted to be someone whose life was in music", McCartney also says. Mission accomplished, and then some.
Season 1 of McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, will feature 12 episodes that include discussions of classics like Eleanor Rigby, Back in the USSR, Let It Be, Penny Lane, Live and Let Die, Jenny Wren and many more.
For more details and to subscribe, head over to pushkin.fm.
