I was 7 when I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and I've been a fan ever since. After their breakup, I followed the careers of all four of them, but mostly Paul McCartney who certainly had the most commercial success of the four and who has maintained the respect and love of fans and critics to this day. Recently I had the occasion to consume three different McCartney artifacts. I'll start with the 2-volume hardcover set Lyrics, in which, over several hundred pages, McCartney presents the lyrics to over 150 of his songs, from the early days of the Beatles to his most recent solo albums, and writes brief commentaries about each.
Of course, he leaves out lots and lots of songs, and to my mind, he included too many from his 21st century works. But his commentaries are spotty. Some give us nice tidbits: Helen Wheels was the name of his Land Rover; Got to Get You Into My Life was about wanting to smoke dope, wanting literally to get more pot in his life; Picasso's Last Words was based on a bet with Dustin Hoffman; The Two of Us, despite seeming to be a bittersweet song about Paul and John, was actually written about Linda. But too often the commentary winds up being about a time or place or person, sometimes only tangentially related to the song under discussion. It feel like he started the project with energy and good intentions, and things eventually sort of sputtered out. Some fans have posted long lists of historical points that, based on previous evidence, he seems to get wrong. The bulk of the pages in the two large volumes are taken up with photos and drawings and handwritten lyrics. Much as I love the Beatles, and McCartney in particular, I'm glad I got this from the library and didn't spend $100.00 on it. Apparently there is now a paperback edition in one volume that costs $30.00 (pictured above), but still, though it was fun to flip through, this seems on the whole to be a non-essential work.
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