Paul wrote for his wife Linda, about their life together
and their family. Introduced and edited by the poet Adrian Mitchell,
this volume grants rare insight into one of the most important figures in
popular culture of the last fifty years.
Paul McCartney
Poems and Lyrics 1965 - 1999
Blackbird Singing will be released in the UK
by Faber & Faber on 19 March 2001.
Price: £14.99 Hardcover. ISBN
0-571-20789-8
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.
This unique collection of poems and lyrics offers up
classics such as "Eleanor Rigby", "Band on the Run", "Hey Jude", and "Penny
lane" - songs that have spoken out to every generation since the 1960s.
But also includes poems never seen before, some intensely personal
elegies that
Paul wrote for his wife Linda, about their life together
and their family. Introduced and edited by the poet Adrian Mitchell,
this volume grants rare insight into one of the most important figures in
popular culture of the last fifty years.
First with and then without John Lennon, Paul McCartney
has written some of the best-known words of the 20th Century including A
Day In The Life, Hey Jude, Let It Be, Eleanor Rigby and For No One.
His last recorded words with The Beatles "and in the end the love
you take is equal to the love you make" epitomises his pride that the
songs of The Beatles affirmed the positive spirit of the times.
In 1990 he developed an interest in orchestral music which has found success
around the globe through his compositions The Liverpool Oratorio, Standing
Stone and Working Classical. Alongside this bold expression,
McCartney has further diversified by exploring his passion for painting,
creating more than 500 canvases, exhibiting in Germany, Britain and America,
and publishing an extensive volume of his work.
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 H.M. The Queen for his services to
music.
Despite all his feats and awards and successes, Paul McCartney says that
his greatest achievements are his four children.
Adrian Mitchell was born in London in 1932. He writes poems, plays with songs, and fiction for adults and children. His books of poems include Out Loud, Blue Coffee, Heart on the Left, All Shook Up and, for children, Balloon Lagoon. He has given more than 1,000 performances of his poetry all over the world and has edited anthologies including The Orchard Book of Poems and Dancing in The Street. His plays and adaptations have been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and many regional and alternative theatres. He first met Paul McCartney in January 1963.