The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present

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Nuorena kuolleen äidin rooli sanoituksissa on suuri, samoin Linda-vaimon. Nämä teemat alkavat kirjan mittaan jo toistua turhankin paljon. Avioeroon päättynyttä liittoa Heather Millsin kanssa ei mainita sanallakaan. Tällainen valikointi on tietysti täysin sallittua, mutta hieman rapauttaa rehellisyyden vaikutelmaa.

The problem, which only strikes you on lifting the second weighty volume, is how are you supposed to actually read a thing like this? By this point you’re into N, where Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five will be followed by No More Lonely Nights, The Note You Never Wrote and Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight, and there’s no narrative arc to carry you along. Even if you are a Paul fan, it is difficult to listen to his songs without noticing a fairly steep drop off in quality after he left the Beatles. The contrast highlights something that every Beatles fan knows: the interaction between the four of them—most especially, between John and Paul—are what made the group so special. Paul himself admits this. John Lennon is a constant presence in this book; their partnership (and friendship) was clearly the defining event in his life. The breakup of the Beatles hit Paul like a divorce (complete with legal squabbles and petty insults); and much as the divorced dad must learn to cook, Paul had to learn to write songs without the input of his great friend and partner. Then looked at 'Things We Said Today' which is has one of Paul's greatest lyrics. It is built around the Gershwin song 'Love Is Here To Stay' which Ira wrote in memory of his brother and songwriting partner George - so many implications at this, the first really difficult time in Paul's relationship with John - and we see not a mention. Paul Muldoon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fourteen full-length collections of poetry, including the recent collection Howdie-Skelp.Paul's parents influenced him greatly in many ways, even his mother who died from cancer when he was 14. Paul's upbringing is evident throughout his songwriting and his outlook in life and is really a part of who he is. I cannot help but realise that so much of what I do is still entangled with the fact that I was in The Beatles. In fact, I say to people that I still am in The Beatles. Well, maybe not in The Beatles, but I'm still a 'Beatle'. The philosophy we had was, and remains, very attractive; it's a whole-world picture - an insistence on the freedom of creative thought that we discovered and that I still love...And a lot of the Beatles stuff still is amazingly timely, so I'm happy to bathe in it. (p.618) I wish there was more on George Harrison and other people around Paul. I know Paul made the decision to concentrate on his lyrics rather than a full-blown memoir, which makes it harder for him to bring up certain stories. But one can't help to wish for some Paul and George moments, more about him and Ringo.

Finally, his politics bore me. I mean, the anti-Trump nonsense? This last year under Biden has been a real disaster, worse than any leader in any nation in the free world has ever been. And while Paul endorses the left, he admits that he has enough money to help family with medical problems so they can get immediate access to the best doctors without having to wait 6 months, which is the problem with socialist medicine. See Paul's a true capitalist - buying song rights and healthcare - while espousing socialism for the rest of us, which is the problem I have with politics in general, so better to say nothing at all. Everything I do seems to be painted with 'Beatle', and there is always some sort of echo that comes from that echo chamber...Some might regard this as a burden, and some celebrities, like Greta Garbo, have become hermits, but I'm very happy about it all because I think it was a great thing we achieved and I'm very proud of it...More often than I can count, I've been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. The one thing I've always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I've learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.' It's lovely to hear all about these songs that have become the playlist of my life. Some stories a committed Beatles fan would knows. And there is a bit of repetition. But damn is it worth it with the insane amount of new stories and anecdotes Paul brings in. David Kirby of The Washington Post praised the book and said that "Reading The Lyrics is like standing in a master chef’s kitchen as he prepares a dish, adding a dash of this and a spoonful of that and talking to us so winningly that we don’t realize till later that he has withheld an ingredient, one that, because he was so deeply engaged himself, he didn’t know he was withholding." [7] A trivial example is enough to illustrate the value in their collaboration. Paul released his song “Teddy Boy” on his first solo album. The version on that album is nice enough; it is a catchy tune. Yet, if you ask me, the practice version recorded by the Beatles during the “Let it Be” sessions is significantly better—partly because of the musicianship of Ringo and George, and partly because John improvises a silly vocal part (mostly nonsense) that helps to add a much-needed counterpoint to Paul’s lyrics. By itself, Paul’s song is a fairly inane tale of a boy and his mother, not dramatic enough to be moving; yet re-contextualized by John’s ironic commentary, Paul’s lyrics take on a comic aspect that helps to salvage the song.