The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

A lovely pair of books, smartly presented. Good mixture of explanatory text with photos and copies of original handwritten lyrics. The Beatles-era doesn’t get as much coverage as I thought it would, his Wings and solo stuff gets good coverage, which is no bad thing if you are a fan of his.

This is a lovely easy read, for me anyway. Chapters are not too long, you can pick up at any chapter & its still a good read. Really lovely, honest explanations of his lyrics to the songs of his career & personal life. I would recommend.

A thoroughly well written and interesting book that gave me facts about songs which I found fascinating.

What a fabulous present for A Paul Mccartney/Beatles fan. Rather expensive but well worth buying paperback as can dip in and out. Only downside I would say is the print is rather small especially as would think a lot of people who would be interested would be in the older age group

An inside look at Macca's lyrics. Splendid.

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?

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.

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.

Ler "The Lyrics" é ter uma visão privilegiada do que passava pela cabeça de Sir Paul McCartney quando cada letra foi escrita! Uma visão única, pelos olhos e mente do próprio gênio. Você pode optar por ir direto até "aquela" música ou passear por todas elas em ordem alfabética. Não faltarão surpresas nem descobertas. Se você é fã do Beatles, Wings ou dele como artista solo... leia. Se não é, não sabe o que está perdendo!

Increíble en todos aspectos.

This tremendous book has taken me a full week to read and experience cover to cover. What a joy it has been! It is a very candid book about Paul's songwriting processes and the circumstances, relationships, cultures and philosophies that brought them to life. You will also learn a tremendous amount about Paul's worlds, loves and inspirations. Nothing has been whitewashed, his various comments on Jane Asher and John Lennon were startling. As this never pretended to be an autobiography, selective parts of his public life have been omitted as he is of course entitled to do. Such a great book for a McCartney fan, it is at least as good as the Beatles' Anthology, if not better due to the deeper dives.

Content of the book is top notch, gives the reader a glimpse into Sir Paul McCartney's creative process & his musical universe. But the production quality of the paperback edition is exceptionally bad. The paper quality is sub standard and the fonts are so tiny & small that - you may start having a headache while reading this edition.My advice is - go for the Hardcover version of this book which is a collector's delight due to its superior production, paper and print quality.

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