Paul McCartney went back to Liverpool for something new to say

Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney's collaboration with producer Andrew Watt, arrived when McCartney was 83 and and he came out swinging: the opening track greets listeners with a dissonant, unresolved guitar chord that sets the album's tone. Harmonic instability runs through the entire record: chromatic mediants, deceptive cadences, and persistent pedal tones prevent even the most nostalgic songs from settling into comfort.

The album's lyrics focus on McCartney's pre-Beatles Liverpool youth, territory unfamiliar even to long-time fans. The songs pay deliberate sonic tribute to specific Beatles recordings: Mellotron strings echoing "Strawberry Fields Forever," a backwards laugh tape loop answering "Tomorrow Never Knows," a first-ever McCartney/Starr vocal duet so close in timbre the two voices are nearly indistinguishable.

Songs discussed:
Paul McCartney – "Mull of Kintyre"
Paul McCartney – "As You Lie There"
The Beatles – "Blackbird"
The Beatles – "Helter Skelter"
The Beatles – "You Never Give Me Your Money"
Paul McCartney – "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey"
Paul McCartney – "Band on the Run"
Paul McCartney – "Live and Let Die"
Paul McCartney – "Mountaintop"
The Beatles – "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"
The Beatles – "For No One"
The Beatles – "Because"
The Beatles – "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
The Beatles – "Octopus's Garden"
Paul McCartney – "Down South"
The Beatles – "Two of Us"
Paul McCartney – "We Two"
The Beatles – "Strawberry Fields Forever"
Paul McCartney – "Never Know Those"
The Beatles – "Tomorrow Never Knows"
Paul McCartney – "Salesman Saint"
John Lennon – "Working Class Hero"
John Cougar Mellencamp – "Small Town"
Paul McCartney – “Home to Us” (with Ringo Starr)
Paul McCartney – "The Days We Left Behind"
The Beatles – "When I'm Sixty Four"

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