Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics, 1965-1999 - Hardcover

McCartney, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571207898 ISBN 13: 9780571207893

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2001

Synopsis

In his introduction to Paul McCartney's work Adrian Mitchell advises: 'Clean out your head. Wash out the name and the fame. Read these clear words and listen to them decide for yourself. Paul is not in the line of academic poets or modernist poets. He is a popular poet.' 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 preccupations 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. They demonstrate, against an acknowledgement of the essential solitariness of existence, an irrepressible belief in the power of words and music to make things better.

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Review

Before there was "let it go", there was "let it out and let it in" as Jude was urged to begin to know what love was. It is impossible to read any of Paul McCartney's lyrics without hearing the Beatles' musical refrain as it takes over the lines, dictating rhythm, pace and mood. In Blackbird Singing, his first poetry collection, early and later poems are brought together with some of his finest lyrics, including pop classics such as "Yesterday", "Lady Madonna" and "My Love". Lyrics such as "The Long and Winding Road" retain their poignancy on paper, while others resist being presented as verse and appear banal or trite: "Heart of the Country" and "Mull of Kintyre" teeter on the edge of embarrassment. One may feel that "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" seems naked and frail without the rousing brass section.

The collection is fondly edited by populist poet and fellow Liverpudlian Adrian Mitchell who pleads that readers clean out their heads, "wash out the name and the fame" and read what's here. "Dinner Tickets", a poem written about childhood and being caught with a sexy drawing of a female nude in his pocket allows McCartney's deeper vulnerability to slip through. "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" shows off the wordplay McCartney favours--clever, simple and effective: "Sunday's on the phone to Monday,/ Tuesday's on the phone to me." The later poems reveal a more mature, sincere voice, distant from the quirky catching rhymes of "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da". "Standing Stone" unravels a strong, gutsy fable about a man using the power of imagination to fend off the enemy: He erects a standing stone, "a weathered finger to the sky" and learns to be "at peace with peace", watching a "blue sky laced with tight white webs;/ fields of high rye tickled skylarks,/ levitating stars." "Irish Language" boasts a rare streak of irony as the narrator admires the way "those Irish chappies" swill the language round their mouths and dribble it through their fingers, ending with the beautifully timed punch line: "The Beatles were a bunch of Micks". The book closes with poems dedicated to his late wife which are tender, sparse and reach for a startling honesty:

"clenched inside a glove
we sucked
each other's energy

--Cherry Smyth

Book Description

Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999 by Paul McCartney is an unmissable collection of poetry and lyrics from the Beatles' singer and songwriter, including unforgettable classics alongside previously unseen writings.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0571207898
• ISBN 13: 9780571207893
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128
• Editor: Mitchell Adrian