Podcast Corner: McCartney and Muldoon mull over Beatles lyrics
Paul McCartney and Paul Muldoon: wordsmiths both
Presumably one of the most gifted books last Christmas was poet Paul Muldoon’s collaboration on Paul McCartney’s ‘self-portrait in 154 songs’, The Lyrics. As one can imagine, hours of interviews were distilled to a still extensive 900 or so pages that certainly make a case for McCartney as the greatest songwriter of all time.
Some of those conversations have been further pored over for McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, a podcast from Pushkin (Broken Record, Not Easy, Revisionist History). Two seasons and 24 episodes - and songs, presumably - are planned, with the first two arriving last week.
While the content itself might be retreading the book, it’s a delight hearing a giddy McCartney talking through the making of ‘Eleanor Rigby’, its mathematical orchestration, and how, for example, “Father McKensie” made it in lieu of the original lyrical choice, “Father McCartney” as it was a little too close to home.
Such moments of genius are borne from the Beatles resorting to the phone book. ‘Back in the USSR’, the Beatles’ parodic response to Chuck Berry’s ‘Back in the USA’ of a decade previous, holds surprises even for Muldoon. “I don’t think I ever understood at the time that ‘B.O.A.C.’ was in the first line. I’m not sure I ever understood what it was. Now does that horrify you,” he asks McCartney, who replies: “No, not at all. I mean, I’m still finding things in these lyrics.”
That the sound of this line is a bit of a strain to hear will tell you how a podcast was not the first plan for their conversation. It’s a minor quibble. Think of this as Song Exploder does the Beatles.
Hosted by Steven Cockcroft, from Belfast, and Jason Carty, from Dublin, this show has clocked up over 150 episodes and just started its eighth season. The first episode looks at John Lennon’s statement that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. Except he never actually said that.
A four-parter on BBC Sounds, this spinoff of Nothing is Real explores the Fab Four’s connections with Ireland.
We wonder if Paul McCartney is a big podcast listener because he’s appeared on lots of good ones in recent years: The Adam Buxton Podcast in December 2020; Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend from June 2023; and Table Manners in May 2021, appearing with his daughter Mary.
There are fewer shows with Ringo Starr, though he was on Broken Record in September 2021, reminiscing about, among other points, the Rolling Stones’ late drummer Charlie Watts.
