Sir Paul McCartney says revisiting songs “turned into therapy session”

Sir Paul McCartney said revisiting the first song he had ever written was “interesting” and “kind of like a therapy session”.

The Beatles star, 79, was speaking in reference to the song called I Lost My Little Girl as he answered fans’ questions about his new book, The Lyrics.

Released on November 2, the book features 154 songs from all stages of his career, spanning The Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist, with song lyrics from titles such as Hey Jude, Blackbird, Penny Lane, Band On The Run, Live And Let Die and more.

Asked by a fan about the process of editing the book and “the lyrics or memories that came back to you and reminded you of a moment you forgot”, Sir Paul recalled writing his first song and of the timing of it.

“It wasn’t really a forgotten memory, but revisiting the first song I ever wrote I Lost My Little Girl was interesting.

“It kind of turned into a therapy session, because I thought I was happily writing a little pop song when I was 14, but if you look at the timing, I just lost my mom,” did he declare.

Sir Paul explained: “When you think about it, the song seems to have a much deeper meaning that I hadn’t noticed before: the possibility that it was subliminally written about it.

“I always said Let It Be was written after dreaming about my mother, but some of the lyrics from yesterday might also have something to do with my mother.

“Then there were some surprising memories that came back, like when I started talking about John and remembered the hitchhiking trips we had taken as kids and with George.

“I think the whole process of analyzing the songs led me to things that I hadn’t thought about recently, not because I didn’t want to, but because there never was any. hint, never a prompt, never a trigger to think of these things. “

He added: “It was the interesting thing in the making of this book.

“I had to go back in my memory to see how I wrote this song, why I wrote it and all the interesting side stories.

“It became more than songs: it became the memories the songs evoked.

“It was a great process, actually.

“Better to be with a psychiatrist! “

The lyrics also feature unseen personal photographs, drafts and drawings from Sir Paul’s personal archives, with each song accompanied by a commentary offering insight into his creative process.

The lyrics of the unrecorded Beatles song Tell Me Who He Is will also be included, after the handwritten lyrics of the lost song from the early 1960s were discovered in one of Sir Paul’s notebooks.

The lyrics were edited and presented by Irish poet Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize winner, and were shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year award.

Sir Paul’s answers to fan questions will be posted on his official website, PaulMcCartney.com, on November 2.

The lyrics: 1956 To The Present by Paul McCartney will be released on November 2, 2021.