Paul McCartney has never written a real memoir. It seems like now he’s going to sing one.
I told you two days ago that McCartney had a new album, “The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
This will be his 19th solo studio album (including Wings) since the Beatles broke up in 1970. Fifty six years of solo Paul.
Now McCartney’s announced it formally. He says: “Looking back on your life, you go, ‘Wow, did we really do that?’. All of that comes flooding back… it’s like a dream.”
Dungeon Lane is a street in Liverpool, like Penny Lane, where the Beatles grew up.
McCartney, who is almost 84, is in a reflective mood. For the last few months he’s been celebrating his other group, Wings.
But now he’ll put the Beatles’ early days before 1962 into an album. He’s only done this once before, really, with a great song called “My Ever Present Past.”
It’s likely he’ll include a song that’s never been on an album, called “In Liverpool.” (See below.)
Paul says on his website that the title comes a line in one of she songs: Speaking about Days We Left Behind, “This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool. It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class. We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”
Tomorrow night and Saturday night, Paul plays the small — for him — Fonda Theater in Los Angeles. Maybe he’ll play some of the new songs.
Lyrics:
Spent my early life in Liverpool
Something I’m not likely to forget
No, no, no
People blend with places
And faces that I know, but never met
Upstairs on the bus there sits a man
He’s talking to himself, or so it seems
Listing names of old comedians
And laughing at ’em
Down the pierhead where the speakers meet
Each of them, his own imagined crowd
Giving us his version of the book
God has written
I spent my early life in Liverpool
Something I’m not likely to regret
No, no, no
People blend with places
And faces that I know, but never met
And in the street, before they built the road
Raising jam jars for a worthy cause or two
Prince the dog, with one eye to his name
Wants to follow
I spent my early life in Liverpool
Something I’m not likely to forget
People blend with faces
And places that I know, but never met
People blend with places
And faces that I know, but never met
Walking with the boys of Dungeon Lane
Aimlessly towards the cast iron shore
Swapping tales about the Chinese farm
And getting caught
Swapping tales about the Chinese farm
And getting caught
Down the sports field of the Institute
Lives Soft Sid, the harmless village fool
Greets the kids who pass the other side
Saying, “Hello, children”
I spent my early life in Liverpool
Something I’m not likely to forget
