Paul McCartney reveals the 154 songs featured in forthcoming biography 'The Lyrics'
Paul McCartney has revealed the names of the 154 songs that are featured in his forthcoming career-spanning biography, ‘The Lyrics’.
The book, which was announced earlier this year and is due for release on November 2, will recount the musician’s life through his earliest boyhood compositions, songs by The Beatles, Wings and from his lengthy solo career.
It will also be presented with previously unseen drafts, letters and pictures from his personal archive.
Arranged alphabetically to provide a kaleidoscopic rather than chronological account, it establishes definitive texts of the songs’ lyrics for the first time and describes the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now.
In the foreword to The Lyrics, McCartney writes: “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.
“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.”
Today (August 23), McCartney shared the names of the 154 songs featured in the book, which you can see below.
Volume 1
‘All My Loving’
‘And I Love Her’
‘Another Day’
‘Arrow Through Me’
‘Average Person’
‘Back In The U.S.S.R’
‘Band On The Run’
‘Birthday’
‘Blackbird’
‘Café On The Left Bank’
‘Calico Skies’
‘Can’t Buy Me Love’
‘Carry That Weight’
‘Check My Machine’
‘Come And Get It’
‘Coming Up’
‘Confidante’
‘Cook Of The House’
‘Country Dreamer’
‘A Day In The Life’
‘Dear Friend’
‘Despite Repeated Warnings’
‘Distractions’
‘Do It Now’
‘Dress Me Up As A Robber’
‘Drive My Car’
‘Eat At Home’
‘Ebony And Ivory’
‘Eight Days A Week’
‘Eleanor Rigby’
‘The End’
‘Fixing A Hole’
‘The Fool On The Hill’
‘For No One’
‘From Me To You’
‘Get Back’
‘Getting Closer’
‘Ghosts Of The Past Left Behind’
‘Girls’ School’
‘Give Ireland Back To The Irish’
‘Golden Earth Girl’
‘Golden Slumbers’
‘Good Day Sunshine’
‘Goodbye’
‘Got To Get You Into My Life’
‘Great Day’
‘A Hard Day’s Night’
‘Helen Wheels’
‘Helter Skelter’
‘Her Majesty’
‘Here, There And Everywhere’
‘Here Today’
‘Hey Jude’
‘Hi, Hi, Hi’
‘Honey Pie’
‘Hope Of Deliverance’
‘House Of Wax’
‘I Don’t Know’
‘I Lost My Little Girl’
‘I Saw Her Standing There’
‘I Wanna Be Your Man’
‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’
‘I Will’
‘I’ll Follow The Sun’
‘I’ll Get You’
‘I’m Carrying’
‘I’m Down’
‘In Spite Of All The Danger’
‘I’ve Got A Feeling’
‘Jenny Wren’
‘Jet’
‘Junior’s Farm’
‘Junk’
‘The Kiss of Venus’
‘Lady Madonna’
‘Let Em In’
‘Let It Be’
‘Let Me Roll It’
‘Live And Let Die’
‘London Town’
‘The Long And Winding Road’
‘Love Me Do’
‘Lovely Rita’
Volume 2
‘Magneto And Titanium Man’
‘Martha My Dear’
‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’
‘Maybe I’m Amazed’
‘Michelle’
‘Mother Nature’s Son’
‘Mrs Vanderbilt’
‘Mull Of Kintyre’
‘My Love’
‘My Valentine’
‘Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five’
‘No More Lonely Nights’
‘The Note You Never Wrote’
‘Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight’
‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’
‘Oh Woman, Oh Why’
‘Old Siam, Sir’
‘On My Way To Work’
‘Once Upon A Long Ago’
‘Only Mama Knows’
‘The Other Me’
‘Paperback Writer’
‘Penny Lane’
‘Picasso’s Last Words’
‘Pipes Of Peace’
‘Please Please Me’
‘Pretty Boys’
‘Pretty Little Head’
‘Put It There’
‘Rocky Raccoon’
‘San Ferry Anne’
‘Say Say Say’
‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’
‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’
‘She Loves You’
‘She’s A Woman’
‘She’s Given Up Talking’
‘She’s Leaving Home’
‘Silly Love Songs’
‘Simple As That’
‘Single Pigeon’
‘Somedays’
‘Spirits Of Ancient Egypt’
‘Teddy Boy’
‘Tell Me Who He Is’
‘Temporary Secretary’
‘Things We Said Today’
‘Ticket To Ride’
‘Too Many People’
‘Too Much Rain’
‘Tug Of War’
‘Two Of Us’
‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’
‘Venus And Mars’
‘Warm And Beautiful’
‘Waterfalls’
‘We All Stand Together’
‘We Can Work It Out’
‘We Got Married’
‘When I’m Sixty-Four’
‘When Winter Comes’
‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’
‘With A Little Help From My Friends’
‘Women And Wives’
‘The World Tonight’
‘The World You’re Coming Into’
‘Yellow Submarine’
‘Yesterday’
‘You Never Give Me Your Money’
‘You Tell Me’
‘Your Mother Should Know’
To accompany the new book, the British Library has announced it will host a free display entitled ‘Paul McCartney: The Lyrics’ between November 5, 2021 and March 13, 2022.
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