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by: Paul McCartney
Amazon.com's Price: $23.00 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811
EAN: 9780756773663
ISBN: 0756773660
Label: Diane Pub Co
Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
Number Of Pages: 185
Publication Date: 2004-01
Publisher: Diane Pub Co
Sales Rank: 1051235
Studio: Diane Pub Co
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A landmark event and cause for international celebration—never before collected, the poems and lyrics of Paul McCartney.
To actually read Paul McCartney's poems, whether exuberant love ballads or poignant messages of deepest grief, is to revel in the sheer power of language and to appreciate the electrifying confluence of dream and song. His words are as pure and magical as we remember them. Here, in his first collection of poems and lyrics, McCartney emerges with a dreamlike yet thoroughly mature voice that confirms his stature as one of the most original and best-loved poets of our time.
While readers will be familiar with many of these lyrics—like 'Yesterday,' 'Penny Lane,' and 'Hey Jude,' all of which are part of the twentieth century's most cherished songbook—this volume also contains dozens of poems never seen before, including the autobiographical 'In Liverpool,' and the moving tribute 'Ivan,' an elegy for his dear friend Ivan Vaughn, which broke the dam and inspired a torrent of original poems written throughout the 1990s. McCartney's emotional range and brilliant wordplay remain remarkably consistent throughout the lyrics and poems. As Adrian Mitchell insightfully writes in his introduction, 'Sometimes his poems are light as feathers. They can tickle or fly or delight the eye. Sometimes he writes four lines as heavy as a double-decker bus, or the heart itself.'
Inspired by his late wife, Linda McCartney, Blackbird Singing gives us extraordinary access to the inner life of one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century culture. Whether commenting on the strange unpredictability of life ('Little Willow') or the heinous folly of nuclear weapons ('Chasing the Cherry'), no one is more able than McCartney to use language to soar above the selfishness and intolerance that can bring us down. The poems here demonstrate, against an acknowledgment of the solitariness of existence, an irrepressible belief in the power of words and music 'to take a sad song and make it better.'
Amazon.com Review:
It is nearly impossible to scan any of Paul McCartney's lyrics without hearing the Beatles' music in the background, dictating rhythm, pace, and mood. But as Blackbird Singing demonstrates, the effort is worth making. This first collection brings together early and late poems, along with some of Sir Paul's greatest hits (including the words to 'Yesterday,' 'Lady Madonna,' 'Penny Lane,' and 'Hey Jude.') In his introduction, editor and fellow Liverpudlian Adrian Mitchell urges readers to 'wash out the name and the fame' and examine what's on the page. If you can do this, you're in for a pleasant surprise.
True, some of the lyrics appear trite on paper--'Heart of the Country' and 'Mull of Kintyre' are notable offenders. Even 'Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' seems naked and frail without the rousing brass section. But McCartney's deeper vulnerability comes to the surface in 'Dinner Tickets,' a poem about his childhood. And 'Standing Stone' recounts a 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.' 'Irish Language' boasts a rare streak of irony as the narrator admires the way 'those Irish chappies' swill the language around in their mouths and dribble it through their fingers. The song ends with a beautifully timed punch line: 'The Beatles were a bunch of Micks.' Blackbird Singing closes with poems dedicated to the author's late wife that are tender, sparse, and startlingly honest. --Cherry Smyth
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Different Perspective On McCartney's Work
Nice collection of McCartney's writings. Some of the works gathered in this anthology are actual poems Paul McCartney wrote with the intention they be read or recited, but this book also presents the lyrics to many of his most famous and beloved songs, and showcases these oft-heard sentences as poetry. What impressed me was how well so many songs stand up as poems. A nice side effect of reading this book is we can see which among the many "Lennon/McCartney" songs done during the Beatles' era were ... Read More
Rating:  - Collection on a blackbird-Sir Paul, the poet.
Sir Paul McCartney as musician, songwriter, actor, producer, knight, yes. How about poet as opposed to songwriter? Most definitely, as his school teacher turned him on to Shakespeare and Chaucer. And as "Blackbird" is one of my favourite Beatles songs, I thought it appropriate a title for this collection of poetry and even songs by the Beatles, Wings, and his solo material. However, I also learned in the intro that he was inspired by a message he was giving to a black women during the civil rights ... Read More
Rating: - I LOVE YOU SIR JAMES PAUL MCCARARTNEY....LIKE A SON!
GOOD BOOK...........READ IT
Rating: - McCartney is a musician, but his words are pure poetry...
This book looks like very little on the surface, especially if you know by heart (or own) the lyrics to many Beatles/McCartney songs. But this anthology is more than just lyrics, because the short selection of lyrics that were edited into this are ones that look and sound like poems. Actually there are many new (and many ones I had never read) poems in here, and most are not even songs ("Mother Nature's Son", "Here, There, and Everywhere", "For No One", and "Helter Skelter" aren't to be found in this). ... Read More
Rating: - A Wonderful Book!
Blackbird Singing is a wonderful book. I always like Paul's music. After I read this book, I like his words, too. People
always say John wrote good lyrics and Paul wrote good music.
But I found out Paul could write very good lyrics and poems.
They are just simple and beautiful, such as "Ivan", "Dinner Tickets", "Eleanor Rigby", "Yesterday", and etc. They are just
fantastic words no matter you read or sing them. One thing I only can say is Paul should include more his poems and song ... Read More
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