The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

A great book to just relax and pick your way through. A delight and with Mr McCartney telling you his thoughts on how he came to compose the song it is pure magic for any Beatles fan. A real coffee table book.

Amazing book at one of the best songwriters, ever! It contains lyrics, pictures and Paul explains about how the songs come together and how he writes them I simultaneously listened to the songs as i read about them, which gave me more of an insight into them. My favourite song by Paul has to be. Yesterday, which to me, epitomises his expertise and mastery in song writing.

Sir James Paul McCartney, CH MBE, the greatest living songwriter, admits to never having kept diaries, which isn’t strictly true, as there are photos of brief entries, but he does have a rather extensive catalogue of songs (and I’m sure someone else will count how many he has written or co-authored). Stretching to nearly 900 pages, he has now decided the time is right to tell us how 154 of those tunes from his vast treasure trove came about. Begun in August 2015 but not fully worked on until 2019, it’s presented in alphabetical order across two hardback volumes inside a slip case, each volume has it’s own dust jacket, but you can take those off and have two different covers. Inside you’ll find a plethora of photos (of which only a handful will have be seen by us), handwritten lyrics, mouth watering acetates and various other bits and pieces. Oh, and the songs and explanations how they came to be. Each one is four, six or eight pages, though ‘Yesterday’ is afforded ten, and the whole thing will keep you going for a while. But don’t think all the pages are taken up with text, as some have a page devoted to a photo of a record or something like a handbill; ‘In Spite Of All The Danger’ being an example of having both sides of the acetate spread over two pages. But at least you can see all of it. Those songs that are in these volumes range from ‘I Lost My Little Girl’ from 1956 through to a trio of selections from ‘McCartney III’. Now, Beatles devotees will know about songs such as ‘Too Bad About Sorrows’ and other tunes he wrote back in the late 50s and [very] early 60s, but what about ‘Tell Me Who He Is’? A mere eight lines long, it was discovered hidden away in a notebook and is alleged to be an unrecorded Beatles song. (Well, that’s what MPL is claiming and who are we to doubt that?) Expensive? Some might say it is but that’s for you to decide. Remember, anything Beatle related tends to carry a premium, though I can’t see many casual buyers forking out nearly £50 for this; it’s aimed at McCartney aficionados. And most of us will lap it up. It's a shame he didn't include everything he's written but maybe that task would have been too big. The resulting book certainly would have been. I wonder if Marjorie ever received a response from Paul for her fan letter on page 188?

Good

Interesting insight into the man. Was expecting it to be purely a commentary about the songs but is much more than that. I've read quite a lot of books on the Beatles etc and this one has given me a much better feel for McCartney as a person and what was running through his head when he wrote the songs. Well worth a read. (Bought it half price on Amazon so very happy but would have been a little steep at full price). Recommended to any McCartney or Beatles fan.

I originally bought this in Hardback when it was first published, for my partner who is a huge Paul McCartney fan. He wasn't keen on the format - thought it was too big and too expensive, so returned it! (Ungrateful?!) He's impossible to buy for so when it was released in Paperback I thought I'd give it another go as a Christmas present, and he's really enjoyed reading it. And he reads a lot of music books, so that's high praise indeed!

This is a great read and insight on Paul's life, work and general outlook and views on life. The main downside for me is when read as a book as opposed to a reference source, it tends to repeat the same detail and information throughout. In particular various aspects of his dad, mum and family, piano lessons, painting, approach to song writing and some Beatle anecdotes etc. Also some of the song selections are a bit curious, maybe as there's a sequel in vaults waiting to emerge at some point.........could happen :-) Still as it's been said by the man himself it's probably the nearest we'll ever get to some sort of autobiography and there's more than enough here to make this well worthwhile.

A Brilliant read and a great insight to the songs

Increíble en todos aspectos.

Super livre

Ich bin begeistert über diese Werk. Endlich lernt man die Texte und deren Bedeutung kennen.

Aún no lo he podido leer pero tiene muy buena pinta

ずっと欲しかった本で内容も期待通り。本当に素晴らしい内容でした。