SONGS FROM LIFE

Paul McCartney’s songs are the story of his life. In this extract from his new two-volume tome, The Lyrics, the former Beatle reveals the love and loss behind two of his most iconic ballads.

- Paul McCartney, Allen Lane

More times than I can count, I’ve been asked to write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. Usually I was raising a family or I was on tour, which has never been an ideal situation for long periods of concentration. But the one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is write new songs. Some people, when they get to a certain age, like to refer to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have is my songs – hundreds of them – which serve much the same purpose.

I want to hold your hand

Yeah you got that something

I think you’ll understand

When I say that something I want to hold your hand

I want to hold your hand I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy inside

It’s such a feeling that my love

I can’t hide …

THERE was an eroticism behind it all. If I’d myself used that word when I was 17, there would have been a guffaw. But eroticism was very much a driving force behind everything I did. It’s a very strong thing. And, you know, that was what lay behind a lot of these love songs. ‘I want to hold your hand’, open brackets, [and probably do a lot more!]