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6.55am
31 March 2008
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Paul McCartney is to publish a 960-page two-volume book described as “a self-portrait in 154 songs”.
The Lyrics will be published on 2 November 2021, and contains lyrics for 154 songs from 1956 to the present, arranged alphabetically. They include McCartney’s earliest compositions, plus his works with The Beatles, Wings, and from his lengthy solo career.
The two hardcover books will be contained in an outer slipcase, and will not be sold separately. An ebook edition will also be available. See more…
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6.58am
31 March 2008
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5.40pm
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20 August 2013
Offline Nice story about the editor and how he came to work on the book. https://bestclassicbands.com/p…..ty-3-6-21/
Lots of good stuff in the article, but here’s a quote I want to make sure I preserve.
To the students’ surprise, when the guest turned on his video feed, there was McCartney. “Who wants to present first,” he asked.
The paper noted that “McCartney listened to and critiqued songs written and produced by each of the class’s eight bands. “It turns out that Paul McCartney is a natural educator,” Muldoon told the paper. “One of the things few people might realize about him is that he is quite likely to have been a teacher had he not become a rock star.”
Natural educator, eh? Try telling that to George before the “big fight” 
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5.47pm
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17 December 2012
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Sad to say that this doesn’t interest me at all. I expect lots of familiar stories worded slightly different and little, if any, revelation.
I’d be more excited by a “Complete McCartney Lyrics” than another PR puff.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
1.33am
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1 May 2011
Offline I’m firmly of the opinion that Paul has nothing new to add to his anecdotes so expect to see the same Beatles accounts and them a bit of new info on the solo years, especially more recent material.
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8.28am
1 July 2020
Offline I need that… now… or I will die…
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11.22am
9 December 2017
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10.23pm
18 April 2013
Offline I’m not interested in this or III imagined.
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5.43pm
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14 April 2010
Offline Ron Nasty said
Sad to say that this doesn’t interest me at all. I expect lots of familiar stories worded slightly different and little, if any, revelation.
meanmistermustard said
I’m firmly of the opinion that Paul has nothing new to add to his anecdotes so expect to see the same Beatles accounts and them a bit of new info on the solo years, especially more recent material.
Agreed. I’ll wait for the reviews.
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1.33pm
9 December 2017
Offline Zig said
Ron Nasty said
Sad to say that this doesn’t interest me at all. I expect lots of familiar stories worded slightly different and little, if any, revelation.
meanmistermustard said
I’m firmly of the opinion that Paul has nothing new to add to his anecdotes so expect to see the same Beatles accounts and them a bit of new info on the solo years, especially more recent material.
Agreed. I’ll wait for the reviews.
Guys,
For this publication the lyrics and the poetry are more relevant than the biographical aspects. Paul McCartney’s lyrics and poetry (5) The both of you sound quite cynical. Oh and b.t.w. is a publication about Macca’s work only relevant if it conveys something new?
Rob Geurtsen
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1.39pm
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1 May 2011
Offline My comment was that I have no interest in buying it as there is nothing for me to do so. If anyone else wants to then great, feel free. I hope you enjoy it.
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3.43pm
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17 December 2012
Offline As I said in my original comment, if it was a “Complete McCartney Lyrics” I’d be interested. It isn’t. It’s just another selection of lyrics with an added commentary this time.
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1.46pm
26 January 2017
Offline I’m curious about the revelatory nature of this book. For someone like Joe who runs a Beatles publication, how many new details will come from the commentary to the point where its a valuable resource? I highly doubt 100% of it is redundant anecdotes that Paul has told in every interview since the anthology. For me I probably wouldn’t buy it unless I was doing a larger project on Paul where I needed quotes about his songwriting approach. As a songwriter myself, that is extremely interesting to me. I’ll likely keep an eye out for a way to get this at some point down the road but it is low my priority list for expensive Beatles stuff.
The book I’d drop everything to buy is the complete McCartney scores, a massive collection of all of the songs from his solo career in sheet music.
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20 August 2013
Offline @Old Soak, here’s the thread about the upcoming McCartney book.
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11.51am
11 September 2018
Offline Seeing as McCartney has announced the lyrics that will be included in the book, what are our thoughts?
I notice that he’s chosen to include a few ‘John’ songs, and will be interested to read what he says about their creation. And then of course, there is the ‘new song’ – Tell Me Who He Is
I enjoyed this quote from the Guardian’s Richard Williams –
“Tell Me Who He Is seems an enigmatic title – is the ‘he’ a love rival, or perhaps the messiah? – but until we’ve seen it, we won’t know whether this lyric was written by the Paul of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Silly Love Songs or the McCartney of Eleanor Rigby and Penny Lane .”
Considering the lyrics were said to have been written in the early 60s, I am not expecting anything too groundbreaking.
P.s. If this collection is 960 pages in total, we’re getting an average of 6.2 pages per song. That’s a good amount, I think.
8.45am
10 August 2011
Offline A real treasure trove.
I’m surprised by a little error right from the start: Sir Paul (or someone on his team) writes that the British and America albums were different up until around Help !
Not so. They were different until Sgt. Pepper came about. Makes me feel better about the errors found in the first editions of my own book. I mean, if Sir Paul himself can’t get it right!!!! 🙂
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12.31pm
9 October 2021
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
A real treasure trove (surprised to be starting a thread on this! apologies if it’s elsewhere).I’m surprised by a little error right from the start: Sir Paul (or someone on his team) writes that the British and America albums were different up until around Help !
Not so. They were different until Sgt. Pepper came about. Makes me feel better about the errors found in the first editions of my own book. I mean, if Sir Paul himself can’t get it right!!!! 🙂
I’m surprised that he wouldn’t know it; even light Beatles fans would know that.
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3.39am
11 September 2018
Offline Poor Paul. He can say/write anything about the Beatles, and there’s always somebody willing to come along and challenge/correct him. I wonder if he was referring to the titles of the albums, rather than the track listing?
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17 December 2012
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Nah, that wouldn’t work, @Tony Japanese; after The following people thank Ron Nasty for this post:
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
1.43pm
10 August 2011
Offline As I get deeper into the book (still just at letter B), I find myself truly enjoying it.
Paul explains why the protagonist may want to “disconnect the phone” along with pointing out the slightly naughty line in Back In The USSR , something that never, ever crossed my mind. (Maybe not that hard to figure out once you know there’s a naughty line in there.)
In Birthday , he pinched the “ch-ch-chance” from the Who’s “f-f-fade away” in turn pinched by David Bowie on “Ch-Ch-Changes.” He explains how a songwriter grabs a baton from one person and then passes it on to the next. Nice analogy.
Of lesser interest, but still entertaining are pictures I’ve never seen and the handwritten lyrics with cross-outs and re-writes.
Onto letter C.
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