Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999

Description

To many readers some of this book will be instantly recognisable as the songs that have formed the backdrop to every generation since the 1960s. Their lyrics have been learned, almost subliminally, by heart; 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Band on the Run', 'She's Leaving Home', 'Penny Lane' . . . But among the familiar are poems that have never before been seen. Sharing the preoccupations of the songs and including moving elegies to Paul's wife, Linda, they give us unique access to the inner life of one of the most influential figures in popular culture of the last fifty years.

Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool on 18 June 1942. He was raised in the city and educated at the Liverpool Institute, where he did better at English Literature than he did at formal music lessons. First with and then without John Lennon, Paul McCartney has written some of the best-known words of the twentieth century. A Freeman of the City of Liverpool and Lead Patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Paul McCartney is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and a Fellow of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. In 1996 he was knighted by HM the Queen for his services to music.