1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:07,280 Speaker 1: I wanted to become a person who wrote songs and 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:11,719 Speaker 1: wanted to be someone who's life was in music. 3 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:19,680 Speaker 2: I'm Paul muldoon and you're listening to McCartney a life 4 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 2: in lyrics. I'm a poet, a lover of the lyric, 5 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 2: poem and the song lyric. And over the past several 6 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:31,880 Speaker 2: years I've been fortunate to spend time with one of 7 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 2: the greatest songwriters of our era. 8 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 3: And will you look at me? It's happened. I'm going 9 00:00:38,040 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 3: on to it. 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,240 Speaker 1: I'm actually a performer? Am I actually a songwriter? 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 3: My god? 12 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:45,080 Speaker 1: Well have that crypt on me? 13 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 2: That is sir Paul McCartney. Together we worked on the 14 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:53,199 Speaker 2: Lyrics nineteen fifty six to the Present, which looked at 15 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 2: more than one hundred and fifty tracks from McCartney's songbook. 16 00:00:59,040 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 3: Letter. 17 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 4: You can't really talk about music because it's music. It's 18 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:15,399 Speaker 4: purposely not talking. It's playing it sounds, you know, So. 19 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:21,560 Speaker 1: It's quite nice, it's quite liberating. Things slip out like 20 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: they would in a session with a psychiatrist. 21 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 2: It took us a long time to get through the 22 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 2: songs we included in the book, and we recorded many 23 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 2: hours of conversations, drawing our details from McCartney's memory and 24 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 2: hidden meanings from the music. Well, the book on me, 25 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 2: this smart my head was in the world. 26 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: It was like going back to an old snapshot album, 27 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: looking back on work I hadn't thought much about for 28 00:01:58,120 --> 00:01:59,120 Speaker 1: quite a few years. 29 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 2: For most of the conversations, we were sitting across from 30 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 2: each other, looking at print outs of. 31 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 4: The lyrics behind the shelter in the middle of around 32 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 4: in the selling poppies from Funnily enough, a lot of 33 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 4: Americans thought she was selling puppies. 34 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: I say, puppies. There's another interesting image, a tray full 35 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: of puppies, And now she's segn poppies. I now she 36 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:30,799 Speaker 1: feels as interesting to play she is. Anyway, that's very 37 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 1: sort of sixties did gez Well. 38 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 2: We never thought anyone would hear these tips, most of 39 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 2: which were captured on small recording devices placed on the 40 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 2: table in front of us, or occasionally we recorded over 41 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 2: video chat. You might hear the clinking of teacups, doorbell chimes, 42 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 2: or us chatting over lunch. We were just logging the stories, 43 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 2: preparing for the book and getting to know one another. 44 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:13,880 Speaker 1: And at the top of the page, I've written another 45 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,920 Speaker 1: Leonard McCartney original, Yes, so. 46 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 3: You already had a sense even though you were what sixteen, 47 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:25,960 Speaker 3: you had a sense of your being a teen and 48 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 3: that you will have a future. 49 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:29,919 Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it was more a sort of wish 50 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: than a sense. It was more this thing, if you 51 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: visualize it, it might come true. 52 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 2: When we listened back to the tips, we realized there 53 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:51,839 Speaker 2: was something very special happening in these conversations. They were, 54 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 2: in a sense, an oral history of popular music. 55 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:01,400 Speaker 1: And sometimes when I'm singing, I'll be for to get 56 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: that little voice. 57 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:09,840 Speaker 2: Oh it was McCartney unfiltered. 58 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:17,159 Speaker 1: It helps me reach a place that's just yes. 59 00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 2: Many times over the years, Paul McCartney has been asked 60 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 2: to write his autobiography. It's a request he's always denied, 61 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 2: never feeling it to be the right time. But as 62 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 2: we ventured out on this journey, line by line, it 63 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 2: became clear how much of McCartney's biography is indeed embedded 64 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 2: in the lyrics. 65 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:46,920 Speaker 1: Has this Liverpool sprung from its people? 66 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,359 Speaker 2: I have the people sprung from Liverpool, going all the 67 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,599 Speaker 2: way back to his childhood in Liverpool. 68 00:04:53,640 --> 00:05:02,039 Speaker 1: He is so sorry. Uncle Clouds work with my dad 69 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: in cotton firm and they would get pissed. A lot 70 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: of the uncles were referred to piss artists. 71 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:12,840 Speaker 2: They drink a bit. 72 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,360 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, Cloud would stand on the table and recite 73 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:26,680 Speaker 1: the Bible, you know, keep everyone straight in the way 74 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:27,159 Speaker 1: of the light. 75 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 2: Even if the lyrics aren't strictly autobiographical, every song in 76 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 2: McCartney's repertoire is tied to vivid memories, his initial inspiration, 77 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 2: his writing process, his performances. Hey hey ha ha ha hey. 78 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 2: And then there were the meanings that snuck their way 79 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 2: into the lyrics, the strange echoes and insights of which 80 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 2: mccam he wasn't aware when he put pen to paper, 81 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 2: but has since come to recognize in his own work. 82 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 1: Yesterday, all my trouble seems so far. I mean, the 83 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,800 Speaker 1: fact that I dreamed the song yesterday leads me to 84 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: believe that it's not just quite as cot and dried 85 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:26,039 Speaker 1: as we think it is. And so I say, you know, 86 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: you just throw some words in a bowl and then 87 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: pull them out. They will achieve some sort of resonance. 88 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 2: Throughout our talks we also realized how much we held 89 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 2: in common. We both lived our childhoods in black and 90 00:06:44,839 --> 00:06:51,719 Speaker 2: white and watched the world change into technicolor yourself in 91 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:53,280 Speaker 2: a Bone. 92 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,280 Speaker 1: On a River. Boy, were you lucky to grow up 93 00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: in that with that transition from black and white to color? 94 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 3: Yes, but you were an active for some of that. 95 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:04,240 Speaker 2: That's one of the reasons why it did go to 96 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 2: the color was because of you. 97 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: It's true. I mean, obviously I see how it happened 98 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:16,360 Speaker 1: to me, not realizing that in me expressing how it 99 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:18,920 Speaker 1: happened to me, I was making it happen. 100 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 2: We went song by song, but as you will hear 101 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 2: our conversations often spread from the songs themselves. As McCartney 102 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:36,440 Speaker 2: reflected on the lyrics that tell the story of his life. 103 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 4: I'm at and grab my hat because it's an experiment, 104 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:43,840 Speaker 4: an ongoing experiment. 105 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: As you follow the trail of breadcruns, you're surprised, often 106 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:51,200 Speaker 1: to find yourself in the next line. 107 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 2: This is McCartney, a life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir, 108 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:02,160 Speaker 2: and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic 109 00:08:02,240 --> 00:08:04,200 Speaker 2: figures in popular music.