“More often than I can count, I was asked if I would write an autobiography, but the timing was never right,” McCartney said in a statement.
“The only thing I ever managed to do, whether at home or on the road, was to write new songs. I know that some people, when they reach a certain age, like to go to the diary to remember events of the day-to-day of the past, but I do not have these notebooks. What I have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I have learned that have almost the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life. “
The financial terms for “The Lyrics”, which has a list price of $ 100, were not released. Publishers have long sought a memoir by McCartney, although he has frequently talked about the past and participated in projects like Barry Miles’ biography “Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now” and the 1990s documentary and book “The Beatles Anthology ”. Keith Richards, of the Rolling Stones, has been equally open about himself, but his 2010 memories, “Life”, still sold millions of copies.
No Beatle has written a standard and complete account of his life. Lennon published two short stories, poems and drawings and was considered the most gifted of words, but he was murdered in 1980, at the age of 40. Another Day In the Life by Ringo Starr is centered on photographs and quotes, because, the drummer said, a traditional memoir would require several volumes. George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001, published the scrapbook / retrospective “I, Me, Mine” in 1980.
According to McCartney’s editors, his songs will be organized in alphabetical order and will include McCartney’s comments on when and where they were written and what inspired them. The American edition of the book will be divided into two volumes, contained in a single box.
“Presented with this is a treasure trove of material from McCartney’s personal archive – sketches, letters, photographs – never seen before, which makes this also a unique visual record of one of the greatest composers of all time,” according to the announcement. Wednesday.
McCartney is usually more acclaimed for his melodies than for his lyrics, but he wrote some of the most cited songs in recent history, including “Let It Be”, “Hey Jude” and “Eleanor Rigby”. Muldoon said in a statement that his conversations in recent years “confirm a notion we had only guessed – that Paul McCartney is an important literary figure who builds on and extends the long tradition of English poetry”.
Muldoon is known for poetry collections like “Moy Sand and Gravel” and “Horse Latitudes”, and also has a musical background. He made oral presentations supported by the music collective Rogue Oliphant; published a book of rock lyrics, “The Word on the Street”; and collaborated on the title track of “My Ride’s Here” by Warren Zevon. He even mentioned McCartney in a poem, “Sideman”:
“I will be McCartney for your Lennon / Lenin for your Marx / Jerry for your Ben and / Lewis for your Clark”