Paul McCartney’s Lyrics-what happened?

I have been one of the biggest fans of Paul for my entire life. I’m 62. I understand that he can’t sing like he used to ( by a long shot) but why has his ability to write lyrics gone so downhill. Compare “E. Rigby” to “Come On To Me”!

 

Look at it in a reverse way.
Compare Domino's to She's a Woman.

 

He's always had a mix of great to not so good lyrics.

 

People keep buying his music. If nobody bought it, then maybe he would try to write better (and I'm saying this honestly, not trying to trash the guy; he has more talent in his pinky that I do in my entire body).

Also he's been writing songs for 65 years. It isn't always easy, and at some point you'd think that the writing would suffer. I mean, he's probably written 1000 songs. They can't all be great!

 

Not everybody can turn out life changing lyrics for every song. Dylan, Lennon (before he died) Simon, etc...all their lyrics aren’t what they used to be.

Personally I care way more about music than lyrics so I’m not bothered with it, or I don’t try to judge it so much.

 

I think his strength and gift was always to make the lyrics appear natural in the context of the melody. The lyrics themselves were always second rate.

 

There's far too much pressure on you to do genius work, particularly the more people who call you a "genius". Imagine sitting at your table with a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and that nagging reminder that, "C'mon, man, you're the guy who wrote 'Yesterday'..."

Before he was "the guy who wrote 'Yesterday', he never had that distraction. Didn't even have it then, until people started telling him how much better it was than he would have thought.

Now, he's had it for fifty years.

 

What happened is he died, and some other fellow took over...an imposter, if you will. This happened in 1997, by the way...all the conspiracy theorists were correct, they were just a few decades off...

 

I don't think lyrics were ever his thing. He was never as obsessed with words as John Lennon was. He's always been more about the music. That said, he's a good writer when wants to be or needs to be.

 

Lyrics were never his strong point. I agree, as John Lennon said, that he could write a good lyric when he wanted to, however, after the Beatles ended his lyric quality began dropping. While there are some good post-Beatle ones and many decent ones, his best lyric writing came during the Beatles years.

I'm far more curious as to why his genius melody writing and inventive chord progressions have dropped off in recent years. Far from his groundbreaking music writing of the past, in recent years he's been writing more common melodies and chord progressions not to mention more common bass parts and vocal harmonies.

I rationalize this decline as being from age. Who knows why really?

 

It's well known that he often used dummy/placeholder lyrics to remember a melody ("scrambled eggs") til he could think of something better ("Yesterday")...maybe at some point he just started to go with the placeholders?

 

Music is about melody, not lyrics. Paul's gift is in the melody. And most of the time, his lyrics are darn good anyway.

 

I think Macca is a great lyricist.

 

I agree but do you want to tell me that the melody to Come On To Me or Fuh You makes up for the lyrics?

 

Melody for both is great. Yet, it doesn't have to. The lyrics are fine.

 

IMHO, the majority of Paul McCartney’s best lyrics occurred when he had a co-writer that provided a source of mutual inspiration, friendly competition, and creative collaboration.

In two words: John Lennon

And Vice-Versa

 

In Paul McCartney case, you should look at all he has accomplished, especially with the beatles, he may have writers block,
I've always preferred John's Lyrics anyways ........

 

Why does it have to? Why can't it just be what it is? Why can't they both just be what they are? ...after all, sometimes it is nice to just listen to "silly love songs".

 

Sometimes..not always.

" One two three four five, let's go for a drive" (Driving Rain )

 

The best answer so far.

 

Me, I think Paul had become a better lyricist in the 21st century.
"Come To Me" is the exception, not the norm. And it's better than "Why Don't We Do It In The Road".

 

"Lightning hits the house of wax
Poets spill out on the street
To set alight the incomplete
Remainders of the future

Hidden in the yard
Thunder drowns the trumpets blast
Poets scatter through the night
But they can only dream of flight
Away from their confusion

Underneath the wall
Buried deep below a thousand layers lay
The answer to it all

Lightning hits the house of wax
Woman scream and run around
To dance upon the battleground
Like wild demented horses"

Tell me this ain't poetry!

 

Road gets to the point though.All 14 words of it.

 

I wanna be your lover, baby
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your lover, baby
I wanna be your man

Love you like no other, baby
Like no other can
Love you like no other, baby
Like no other can

I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanna be your man
I wanba be your man


We have a winner.

 

And that was a collaboration: it took two geniuses to write that