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The nearest thing to Paul McCartney’s autobiography: his guide to the Beatles’ songbook

13 November 2021

9:00 AM

13 November 2021

9:00 AM

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present Paul McCartney, edited by Paul Muldoon

Allen Lane, pp.912, 75

Whatever your favourite theory of creativity, Paul McCartney has a cheery thumbs-up to offer. You think the secret is putting in the hours? ‘We played nearly 300 times in Hamburg between 1960 and 1962.’ Or could it be a wide range of cultural inputs to assimilate and remix? The Arty Beatle hoovered up Shakespeare, Dryden, not just Desmond but Thomas Dekker, Berio and Cage and rock’n’roll and light jazz, and sublimated them all.

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