Earlier this month, the 83-year-old McCartney held a preview listening party of his new record at Abbey Road’s Studio Two, where most of the Beatles’ discography was recorded.Mary McCartney/Supplied
Paul McCartney is 83. It is only natural that he looks back on his pleasing, introspective new album instead of forward. The runway is longer, if nothing else.
Liverpool’s Penny Lane was in McCartney’s ears and eyes in 1967; The Boys of Dungeon Lane, with its mawkish moments, Beatlesque nostalgia and Wings-style rockers, is in the same neighbourhood. How does one get there? McCartney takes public transportation, for old times’ sake.
“The morning bus is where we two would meet, I sat beside you on an empty seat,” McCartney rhymes on the strummed Down South. “We talked about guitars and rock ’n’ roll, they were the subjects that would never get old.”
He’s singing about John Lennon, his mate in the Beatles. Tragically, Lennon never grew old – he was assassinated in 1980. Another verse recalls a hitchhiking trip taken by McCartney and the late George Harrison. The title Down South refers to London, below Liverpool on the map. The lads shared rides before they were fab:
“It was a good way to get to know you, before we learned to twist and shout.”
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The Beatles twisted, shouted and shook the world. Sixty or so years after Beatlemania ended, McCartney releases The Boys of Dungeon Lane, his first album since 2020’s McCartney III. Earlier this month he held a preview listening party of the record at Abbey Road’s Studio Two. That’s where most of the Beatles’ discography − from I Saw Her Standing There to The End − was recorded.
McCartney is not interested in letting the Beatles go, and he’s earned that right.
The album-opening As You Lie There, about the girl who got away, toggles between spoken-word wistfulness and vintage Wings rowdiness. “I used to walk past your house, every night I’d look up at your window,” McCartney says . “The light was on. I saw your silhouette on the blind.”
A bit creepy, from the guy who once sang “she was just 17, you know what I mean.”
McCartney is not interested in letting the Beatles go, and he’s earned that right.Universal Music Group/Supplied
On the crunchy rocker Lost Horizon, McCartney reminisces about a time when his future was wide open, with no end in sight: “Every day we spent there was the start of the first day of forever.”
Ringo Starr, the other surviving Beatle, shares vocals with his former bandmate on Home to Us, an ELO-style number about Liverpool. A line about a mom burning the toast is McCartney’s best breakfast-based reference since a famous Beatles song that was almost called “Scrambled Eggs.”
Momma Gets By is a sentimental, cinematic story-song with strings and piano. Imagine Eleanor Rigby singing My Love. With the waltzing Salesman Saint, McCartney remembers his parents and the 1940s, complete with the whimsical inclusion of swinging big-band horns.
The album’s lead single, Days We Left Behind, was released in March. Notes are picked on an acoustic guitar; memoires are preserved in black and white.
'The Boys of Dungeon Lane' features mawkish moments, Beatlesque nostalgia and Wings-style rockers, writes Brad Wheeler.Universal Music Group/Supplied
Nothing ever stays
Nothing comes to mind
No one can erase
The days we left behind
After McCartney’s recent performance of the song on Saturday Night Live, critics complained about the octogenarian’s strained singing. His vocals sound better on the record − multiple takes and studio tricks can do wonders.
No one can erase the days (and a gift for melodies) McCartney clearly hasn’t left behind. His current day, as represented by The Boys of Dungeon Lane, isn’t so bad either.