Paul McCartney’s 2021 two-volume book of song commentaries was *The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present*.
Published in November 2021, the book was created with Irish poet Paul Muldoon. Rather than presenting a conventional chronological autobiography, it uses McCartney’s own songs as the framework for telling his story and discussing his creative life.
The book examines the lyrics of 154 songs from McCartney’s years with the Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist. The entries are arranged alphabetically across two volumes and include McCartney’s recollections, explanations of songwriting choices, handwritten texts, paintings and previously unseen photographs. McCartney had often declined to write a standard autobiography, but described his songs as functioning like a personal record of his life.
Readers sometimes confuse it with *Many Years from Now*, Barry Miles’s 1997 authorized biography of McCartney, or with *Anthology*, the Beatles’ multimedia memoir project. *The Lyrics* is specifically McCartney’s lyric-centered collaboration with Muldoon.