4 Paul McCartney Lyrics That Still Stop Us in Our Tracks

Few songwriters have had the kind of career that Paul McCartney has had. From being a core member of what is widely considered one of the greatest bands ever, to achieving solo success, to starting another band of his own, it seems there hasn’t been a time in his life that hasn’t been musical. Here are some of the best lyrics from McCartney’s extensive catalog.

“Let It Be”

“And when the broken-hearted people / Living in the world agree / There will be an answer, let it be.”

McCartney famously wrote this song inspired by a dream he had in which his dead mother appeared to him. It was she who gave him those words of wisdom. McCartney has also shared that Shakespeare might have inadvertently inspired this song as well. In Hamlet, Hamlet tells a friend, “But let it be. Horatio, I am dead.”

“Penny Lane”

“Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes / Wet beneath the blue suburban skies.”

McCartney revisits his childhood in Liverpool with “Penny Lane”, which was written by both him and John Lennon. McCartney wrote the song in his home near EMI Studios in London, and Lennon helped finish the third verse. As McCartney told Barry Miles, “… All the places were still there, and because we remembered it so clearly we could have gone on.”

“Maybe I’m Amazed”

“Maybe I’m amazed at the way you love me all the time / Maybe I’m afraid of the way I love you.”

“Maybe I’m Amazed” is often thought to be one of McCartney’s best love songs. It appears on his first solo album and was written just before The Beatles broke up. It is likely about McCartney’s wife Linda, who helped him through that time. McCartney and Linda were later a part of Wings together.

“Ever Present Past”

“Searching for the time that has gone so fast / The time that I thought would last / My ever present past.”

McCartney looks back at his life in “Ever Present Past”, which appears on his 2007 album, Memory Almost Full.

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘nostalgia,’” he told Rolling Stone of this song. “I would use the word ‘memory.’ … If you’re using your imagination, you tend to look into the past.”

Photo by: Jack Kay/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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