Paul McCartney book "The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present" (November 2, 2021)

Consider that the book is not fully dedicated to the lyrics in truth... there are a lot of pages dedicated to the inspiration, to other facts surrounding the period in which the song was written, anecdotes, even recording anecdotes.

 

Exactly!

 

Once Upon A Long Ago!
Did not expect this one to get some recognition.
I have always loved these lyrics. Even though it took me years to understand that ... they are just beautiful, but don't actually mean much. Though one could argue about that. At least from the point of a 4thschool year English learner.

Picking up scales and broken chords
Puppy dog tails in the House of Lords
Tell me darling, what can it mean?

Making up moons in a minor key
What have those tunes got to do with me?
Tell me darling, where have you been?

 

That explains why it's not comprehensive -- too much work and dilutes the concept...somebody pointed out no "Oh! Darling" and I wondered why, but this makes sense...

Would be nice if he put up "On The Wings Of A Nightingale" for Don Everly's passing on socials or something...

 

Volume 2 ?

 

Maybe Love Me Do is special due many things....
Check My Machine has been re-appraised since McCartney II's reissue just like Temporary Secretary. And it's his longest solo track...

 

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
Magneto and Titanium Man
Martha My Dear
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
Maybe I’m Amazed
Michelle
Mother Nature’s Son
Mrs. Vandebilt
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 (Drink to Me)
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/Rock Show/Venus and Mars - Reprise
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

Some nice deep cuts. Getting Closer? The Salamander controversy may finally be addressed!

 

I am shocked: I thought this book was going to be "The complete lyrics".
It is not. It's just merely a selection.
I"m not going to buy it then. I'll wait for the "real" one that's gonna happen some day.

 

No it's not.

Secret Friend
Rinse the Raindrops
are both 10 minutes + songs.

 

It's a quasi-autobiography so he's picking the songs that pertain to key moments/events in his life and explaining how it all relates. It was never billed as complete lyrics.

 

I get that. I was just wrong in my assumptions.

 

Working on turning the songs in the book into a playlist on my iPhone.

 

Great idea. Think I'll do the same!

 

I don’t recall anywhere it’s been advertised as “The Complete Lyrics”.

 

As I said already: I was wrong in my assumptions.

Let's remember the title of the book is " The lyrics - 1956 To The Present. "
At what moment does one is supposed to understand this will not contain all the lyrics, with such a title ?

 

I guess I could see making that assumption based solely on the title, but if you had read the first sentence of the first post in this thread, you could have known six months ago that only 154 songs are included.

 

Common sense? How many hundreds of songs has the man written? There was no way it was going to be commentary on every one. It looks like a nice mix of obvious and not-so-obvious choices.

 

It is definitely an odd title, as anybody would imagine at first that this is a compendium of (all or most of) McCartney's lyrics, while it sounds like it's actually a book of Paul's reminiscences on some of his many songs.

 

Kinda surprised "Mama's Little Girl" didn't make the list. That song is one I
suspect would mean a lot to him. But, then, it was left off Red Rose Speedway back in 1973.

 

Only disappointed that riding to vanity fair isnt on the list!
Looking forward to this.

 

Love Me Do is one of the most popular Beatle songs, their 14th most played on Spotify. You might be surprised about how many people disagree with you. It also has a legacy as being the first Beatles song (perhaps one of the reasons it is still played so much to do this day)

Check My Machine is 20 years before its time. Many modern reviewers point the similarities to Gorillaz and other modern artists. It was also an underground hit in Brazil, thus the many comments in Portuguese in the comment section on Youtube.

 

Thank you for this. Great idea!

 

Honestly, that has to be the only reason "Love Me Do" gets so many streaming plays.

I mean, has anyone here ever encountered someone who'd put "LMD" in their list of the 14 best Beatles songs?

It's a likable little song, but even as someone who loves the "early years" Beatles as much as the more acclaimed "later years", it's not a great tune.

I mean, I don't even know if "LMD" would make my top 14 of Beatles songs from 1962-63!

 

Oklahoma was never like this.
Never like this, it was never like this.
Ever like this, say was it ever like this?
Oklahoma was never like this.
Oh, It was never like this.

I can't wait to hear the candid story behind this.