"McCartney: A Life In Lyrics" Podcast To Be Released In September

The Beatles were not the first musical group or artist to popularize lyrics that went beyond the joy or heartbreak of love and relationships. Folk groups in the 50s and 60s had perfected the protest song, and then Bob Dylan added his genius to that art form.

But The Beatles were the first group to entice listeners to apply brain power to deciphering meaning to lyrics -- either obvious, cryptic, or abstract.

Since the time The Fab Four were an active group, numerous books have been written about the meaning of their lyrics. 

Now, we can hear from the proverbial horse's mouth in September. Pushkin and iHeartPodcasts are releasing McCartney: A life In Lyrics.

Paul McCartney is teaming up once again with poet Paul Muldoon, his collaborator on the #1 bestseller The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. This time, McCartney will invite listeners into his creative process with a new podcast co-produced by Pushkin Industries and iHeartPodcasts, out September 20, 2023.

McCartney: A Life in Lyrics is being billed as a combination master class, memoir, and improvised journey with one of the most beloved figures in popular music, where each episode focuses on one song from McCartney’s iconic catalog – spanning early Beatles through his solo work.

The podcast offers listeners a unique opportunity to sit in on conversations between McCartney and Muldoon where they dissect the people, experiences, and art that inspired McCartney’s songwriting. The stories are richly interwoven with contemporary music and soundscapes, providing a revelatory and entertaining window into a true creative genius.

“When we listened back to the tapes, we realized there was something very special happening in these conversations,” Muldoon explains in the prologue episode, out now. “It was McCartney unfiltered.”

Season 1 features 12 episodes that include timeless favorites like “Eleanor Rigby,” “Back in the USSR,” “Let It Be,” “When Winter Comes,” “Penny Lane,” “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” “Here Today,” “Live and Let Die,” “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Jenny Wren,” “Too Many People,” and “Helter Skelter.”

Superfans can binge all the first season immediately at release with a Pushkin+ subscription. Season 2 will follow with an additional 12 episodes in February of 2024.

McCartney and Muldoon have previously collaborated with great success in the #1 New York Times bestseller The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which provided the genesis of more than 50 hours of recorded conversations. The Lyrics will be released in paperback on November 7, 2023, with additional new chapters. 

Born in Liverpool in 1942, Paul McCartney was raised in the city and educated at the Liverpool Institute. Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh in 1951. He now lives in New York. A former radio and television producer for the BBC in Belfast, he has taught at Princeton University for thirty-five years. He is the author of fifteen collections of poetry, including Joy in Service on Rue Tagore, published by FSG and Faber and Faber in 2024.

“Paul McCartney is one of the most groundbreaking, gifted artists of all time, and his songs have elevated and given meaning to so many moments in so many of our lives – so the chance to launch a podcast that tells the stories behind those songs … it’s a once-in-a-lifetime project,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group. “‘McCartney: A Life in Lyrics’ will be a first-hand, first-of-its-kind account of his creative process – that has shaped and inspired multiple generations across the globe. We simply could not be more excited to partner with Sir McCartney, Paul Muldoon, executive producer Malcolm Gladwell and Pushkin Industries to bring these stories to listeners everywhere.”

New episodes of McCartney: A Life in Lyrics will be released weekly starting September 20, 2023 on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify, and wherever podcasts are available.

Pushkin+ subscribers will be able to binge the entire season on the very first day. McCartney: A Life in Lyrics will be distributed by iHeartPodcasts.

Here's a bit of Beatles lyrics trivia: The inspiration for "Yellow Submarine" came to Paul McCartney in a dream; he woke up from a nap and wrote the song. Many listeners assumed the song was written while McCartney was under the influence of drugs, especially given the popularity of drugs at the time. McCartney has continued to deny being on drugs while creating "Yellow Submarine."