1 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: I wanted to become a person who wrote songs, and 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:11,640 Speaker 1: I wanted to be someone who's life was in music. 3 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,599 Speaker 2: I'm Paul muldoon and you're listening to McCartney a life 4 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 2: in lyrics. I'm a poet, a lover of the lyric, 5 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,880 Speaker 2: poem and the song lyric. And over the past several 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,800 Speaker 2: years I've been fortunate to spend time with one of 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,520 Speaker 2: the greatest songwriters of our era. 8 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:35,519 Speaker 1: And will you look at me? 9 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 3: It's happened. 10 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: I'm going on to I'm actually a performer, I'm I 11 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: actually am a songwriter. My god, well that. 12 00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 2: That crypt hoy, That is Sir Paul McCartney. Together we 13 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:51,879 Speaker 2: worked on the Lyrics nineteen fifty six to the Present, 14 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 2: which looked at more than one hundred and fifty tracks 15 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 2: from McCartney's songbook. 16 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: Letter. You can't really talk about music because it's music. 17 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: It's purposely not talking. It's playing it sounds, you know, 18 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: So it's quite nice, it's quite liberating. Things slip out 19 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 1: like they would in a session with a psychiatrist. 20 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 2: It took us a long time to get through the 21 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 2: songs we included in the book, and we recorded many 22 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 2: hours of conversations drawing our details from McCartney's memory and 23 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 2: hidden meanings from the music. 24 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: Well, the book on me this mon my head was 25 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: in the world. It was like going back to an 26 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:56,440 Speaker 1: old snapshot album, looking back on work I hadn't thought 27 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: much about for quite a few years. 28 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 2: For most of the conversations, we were sitting across from 29 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 2: each other, looking at print outs of. 30 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: The lyrics behind the shelter and the middle of around 31 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: in the selling poppies from Funnily enough, a lot of 32 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: Americans thought she was selling puppies. I say, puppies. There's 33 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: another interesting image, a tray full of puppies, and now 34 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:27,639 Speaker 1: she's sell poppies. I now she feels as interesting to 35 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: play she is. Anyway, that's very sort of sixties did 36 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 1: gees anyw. 37 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:44,640 Speaker 2: We never thought anyone would hear these tapes, most of 38 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 2: which were captured on small recording devices placed on the 39 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 2: table in front of us, or occasionally we recorded over 40 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 2: video chat. You might hear the clinking of teacups, doorbell chimes, 41 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:04,239 Speaker 2: or us chatting over lunch. We were just logging the stories, 42 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 2: preparing for the book and getting to know one another. 43 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: And at the top of the page, I've written another 44 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: Leonard McCartney original. 45 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 3: Yes, so you already had a sense even though you 46 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:24,400 Speaker 3: were what sixteen, you had a sense of your being 47 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 3: a teen and that you will have a future. 48 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it was more a sort of wish 49 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: than a sense. It's more in this thing if you 50 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: visualize it in my come Truely. 51 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 2: When we listened back to the tips, we realized there 52 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 2: was something very special happening in these conversations. They were, 53 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,040 Speaker 2: in a sense, an oral history of popular music. 54 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: And sometimes when I'm singing, I'll be for to get 55 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: that little voice. 56 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 2: Oh it was McCartney unfiltered. 57 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:17,040 Speaker 1: It helps me reach a place that's just yes. 58 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 2: Many times over the years, Paul McCartney has been asked 59 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 2: to write his autobiography. It's a request he's always denied, 60 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:33,560 Speaker 2: never feeling it to be the right time. But as 61 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 2: we ventured out on this journey, line by line, it 62 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:43,040 Speaker 2: became clear how much of McCartney's biography is indeed embedded 63 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:44,360 Speaker 2: in the lyrics. 64 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:46,840 Speaker 1: Has this Liverpool sprung from its people? 65 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,279 Speaker 2: I have the people sprung from Liverpool, going all the 66 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 2: way back to his childhood in Liverpool. 67 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:58,239 Speaker 3: Is so sorry, uncal. 68 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: Clouds work with my dad in Cotton firm, and they 69 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 1: would get pissed. A lot of the uncles were referred 70 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:15,640 Speaker 1: to as piss artists. They drink a bit. Yeah oh, 71 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,880 Speaker 1: Cloud would stand on the table and recite the Bible 72 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:26,599 Speaker 1: summaris shit, you know, keep everyone straight in the way 73 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:27,080 Speaker 1: of the light. 74 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 2: Even if the lyrics aren't strictly autobiographical, every song in 75 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 2: McCartney's repertoire is tied to vivid memories, his initial inspiration, 76 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,120 Speaker 2: his writing process, his performances. 77 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: Hey hey ha ha ha hey. 78 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:55,480 Speaker 2: And then there were the meanings that snuck their way 79 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 2: into the lyrics, the strange echoes and insights of which 80 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 2: McCarry and he wasn't aware when he put pen to paper, 81 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 2: but has since come to recognize in his own work. 82 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: Yesterday, all my trouble seems so far. I mean, the 83 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:19,720 Speaker 1: fact that I dreamed the song yesterday leads me to 84 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 1: believe that it's not just quite as cot and dried 85 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 1: as we think it is. And so I say, you know, 86 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: you just throw some words in a bowl and then 87 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:35,720 Speaker 1: pull them out. They will achieve some sort of resonance. 88 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:40,919 Speaker 2: Throughout our talks we also realized how much we held 89 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:44,720 Speaker 2: in common. We both lived our childhoods in black and 90 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 2: white and watched the world change into technicolor. 91 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,279 Speaker 3: Yourself in a bone. 92 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: On a river. Boy, were you lucky to grow up 93 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: in that, with that transition from black and white to color? 94 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 2: Yes, but you were inactive for some that that's one 95 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 2: of the reasons why it did go to the color 96 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:06,479 Speaker 2: was because of you. 97 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:11,480 Speaker 1: It's true. I mean, obviously I see how it happened 98 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: to me, not realizing that in me expressing how it 99 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: happened to me, I was making it happen. 100 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 2: We went song by song, but as you will hear 101 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 2: our conversations often spread from the songs themselves. As McCartney 102 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,320 Speaker 2: reflected on the lyrics that tell the story of. 103 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:41,560 Speaker 1: His life, I'm a coat and grab my hat because 104 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: it's an experiment, an ongoing experiment. As you follow the 105 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:50,240 Speaker 1: trail of redcruns, you're surprised, often to find yourself in 106 00:07:50,320 --> 00:07:51,120 Speaker 1: the next line. 107 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 2: This is McCartney, a life in lyrics, a masterclass, a memoir, 108 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 2: and an improvised journey with one of the most iconic 109 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 2: figures in popular music.