Sir Paul McCartney is releasing a new album this month and some lucky fans got a preview at Abbey Road where he recorded many of the Beatles’ hits
Sir Paul McCartney shocked and delighted fans with a return to Abbey Road studios – playing them his new album and admitting it was “emotional” talking it through with memories of his life and career.
The Beatles legend returned to the venue where the Fab Four recorded many of their biggest hits to launch his LP The Boys of Dungeon Lane which will be released later this month.
A few dozen lucky competition winners were led into Studio two which had been set with a stage filled with framed bird sketches, a chair and a guitar.
Sir Paul then emerged from a control room and walked down some stairs and said with a grin: “Hello and welcome. This is a listening party. I’m going to play the album and then try to find something to say about it!”
But Paul found plenty of words to accompany the 14 tracks and even had anecdotes about the choice of venue.
He said some strings and woodwind parts of the LP had even been recorded at Abbey Road recently and then looking back to the Beatles days said: “We were here forever, we spent days and days in this studio.
“We used the tradesman’s entrance, up the stairs is the posh entrance for people like George Martin!”
Both on the song lyrics and in the talk he regularly referenced Liverpool and growing up in the city, where he would meet John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison and go on to before the fab four, amongst the most famous people in the world.
After playing the single Days We Left Behind, which was released in March he said: “It is a little emotional because I’m talking about John and George and Ringo.
“It is a story about memories, various bits and pieces from my childhood. The great thing about memory songs is you get to relive the memory.
“You are lucky if you get songs like this one, they spill out of you. My missus Nancy loves this song.”
The Mirror was one of a handful of publications also given VIP access inside the London studio to listen to Paul discuss how the formative years had shaped a lot of the songs. As well as playing the songs through speakers, he occasionally picked up the guitar and showed how some songs had been formed but joked he “hadn’t practiced” for the event.
One story which did not make the song Days We Left Behind was when he was once down by the Mersey shore near Dungeon Lane bird watching and he had seen “two older boys” coming along and feared the worst. Sure enough they stole his watch.
Paul recalled: “But I called the police and they found them so I got my watch back! After that I vowed I was going to learn Karate so if it happened again I could kick them, but I never got round to it.”
Instead of trying new hobbies, Paul would grow close to John, George and Ringo and tour the world in the Beatles.
New album track Down South refers to when he would hitchhike with George to places like Wales with their guitars as they began to learn and write songs.
Paul laughed describing when they once got a very slow lift from a milk float.
“I got the passenger seat and George was sitting on the battery, all of a sudden he jumped up screaming. His metal zip had connected with the battery and he got burned. He had a zip burn.”
The album, Paul’s first for five years, contains 14 tracks and also includes a duet with Ringo and a love song written about his wife Nancy Shevell.
The duet with Ringo, called ‘Home To Us’ talks about when they “lived on a housing estate” and “although it was a bit rough it didn’t matter to us”.
Ringo recorded vocals for the whole song so the finished recording has them singing a line each and then duetting in the chorus.
After the song finished, an emotional Paul punched the air as the crowd applauded and said: “So there we are, me and Ringo finally!”
The album was produced by Andrew Watt, who has also made hit albums with the Rolling Stones and Ozzy Osbourne. The pair worked in-between Sir Paul’s live tours, using his home studio in Sussex as well as studios in Los Angeles.
For the love song Ripples In A Pond he said he thought he would test Watt and asked him to make the song “sound like Justin Bieber” and the result is a track more like pop than anything else on the album.
Paul, 83, has also written songs about his parents for the first time, and in Salesman Saint he does that in part inspired by the present.
He said: “Quite a few of the songs go back in time, I have never really written about my mum and dad and with all the turbulence going on now it got me thinking.
“I was born in the war. My dad was a fireman and he had to put out the bombs. And my mum was a nurse and a midwife and did a lot during the war. But they carried on.
“People in places like Gaza are going through these terrible times now, but they are just having to carry on.”
Apart from the strings and orchestration much of which was recorded at Abbey Road, McCartney played all the instruments on the album, including drums, except on the track called Home To Us where Ringo is on the sticks.
For that reason the album is likely to draw comparisons with his 1970 solo debut album, McCartney, where he also played all the instruments.
US music industry magazine Billboard which has also heard the LP called it “delightfully Beatle-esque in parts” in terms of melodies and instrumentation. And there is a huge variety of styles and types of songs across the LP.
Because of the nostalgic nature of the album and his age, it might suggest to some people that this could be the last album Paul releases. But this seems unlikely as Paul also referenced how he has many ideas still to be turned into full songs.
Referring to First Star Of The Night, Paul told how the song was first recorded on his iPhone.
He added: “I put it down on my phone. It’s terrible though cos you put lots of things down but you never finish it. Well this one I did!
“My phone has thousands of little ideas, one of Steve’s(McCartney’s engineer) jobs is going through my phone to see if there is anything good or if it is a load of you know what.”
He later added: “I don’t work, I play, it’s my hobby. I do it anyway.”
Returning to Abbey Road would be a real trip down memory lane for Sir Paul, in keeping with the spirit of the new album.
The Beatles named their 11th album Abbey Road after the studios there. The album, released in September 1969 was the last album the group recorded, although Let It Be was ultimately the last album completed and released in 1970. Abbey Road contains songs including Come Together, Golden Slumbers and Here Comes The Sun.
READ MORE: Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunite to release brand new duetREAD MORE: Paul McCartney’s new album packed with nostalgia for first new music in five years
The Boys of Dungeon Lane track listing:
As You Lie There
Lost Horizon
Days We Left Behind
Ripples in a Pond
Mountain Top
Down South
We Two
Come Inside
Never Know
Home to Us
Life Can Be Hard
First Star of the Night
Sailsman Saint
Momma Gets By
* The Boys of Dungeon Lane is released on May 29 via MPL/Capitol Records.
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