“Why am I doing all these songs about memories?” Paul McCartney asked himself, sitting in front of a small, rapt invited audience at Abbey Road Studio 2 on Tuesday afternoon. “Well, it’s where your big bank of information is.”
McCartney has memories of a life lived like nobody else, and over the course of 90 minutes at an exclusive album listening party, he regaled the lucky few with anecdotes and recollections that have inspired his forthcoming album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane: his early life in Liverpool, including pre-Beatles adventures with John Lennon and George Harrison; teenage crushes; encounters with hard knock scouse ruffians; the sacrifices of his parents. “Quite a few of the songs on this album go back in time,” he said. McCartney also revealed a vocal performance from Ringo Starr on “Home to Us” – the first time the living Beatles have ever duetted on a song. “Me and Ringo, finally!” he said, punching the air at the song’s end.
It’s not like he’s never looked back, but McCartney is clearly in a stage of life where the past is becoming more and more of preoccupation, and a creative source. The flurry of McCartney nostalgia – Peter Jackson’s Get Back; his post-Beatles documentary Man on the Run; his photography book 1964: Eyes of the storm; BBC’s McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass; the Sam Mendes’ forthcoming Beatles biopics – has clearly bled into the themes of his songs in the same way that reuniting with The Beatles on 1995’s Anthology series influenced his 1997 album Flaming Pie. But where that was more of a musical influence, it seems he is returning to his most innocent self as he is about to turn 84.
