Rating: 
Summary: success for Paul
Review: Paul is alive and well in my poets garden. Among the tomatoes and peppers is a living walrus who has generated a dynamic work for all time. Yes! Paul is the only surviving Beattle to make use of Beattlemania and his emotions are laid bare in this book. He still reaches out to the public today. Recently I recieved as a gift a copy of his book "Blackbird Singing" published by W. W. Norton and Company. New York, 2001. I have a passion for honest works of art and Paul McCartney authored true nirvana for my generation. He is a saint who pioneered Mass art on global scale. The lyrics and poems in his book sent me back thirty years to a happy childhood with the Fab four blarring tunes over the radio and Hi-fi. Paul has always been my favorite. In his book you'll find songs like; "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", and "When I'm sixty four"-my sentimental favorites. His poems opened a new door for me a budding poet. I read aloud, "Standing Stone" to my reverie. I think I know the true Paul more because of this timeless book. I recommend it to poetry lovers, and old baby boomers like me. This collection of lines is a hit in a life time of successes for Paul.
Rating:
Summary: Painting a room in a colorful way...
Review: Paul McCartney has been my favorite musician for a long time now. His music has filled moments of my life with joy, anticipation, and wonder--al of the good things that we live for. I've had his tunes stuck in my head as I've walked through spring fields after it's been winter for a seemingly endless time. I've listened to his albums while going for drives on sunny mornings and felt the warm sunlight refracted through the windshield on my face.Paul's music is also good for a rainy day when you can smell the wet dirt, or a foggy morning when your imagination starts to wander. Paul's music is wonderful. I always probably would have said that it's his sense of melody and chord structure that I really like. But reading Paul's lyrics naked here, without the clothing of the music, I realize that I also really love the playfulness of the words themselves. This is a great book if you're a Beatles fan or a McCartney fan, because it'll make you come to the songs in a new way. You can see how inventive McCartney really is, not just musically, but also lyrically. He paints with his words in much the same way that he paints with his music: in a colorful way, and when his mind is wandering, there he will go... Great fun for any fan of music or poetry. If you like this book, you should also check out McCartney's recent book of his paintings. That one's really good, too.
Rating:
Summary: Painting a room in a colorful way...
Review: Paul McCartney has been my favorite musician for a long time now. His music has filled moments of my life with joy, anticipation, and wonder--al of the good things that we live for. I've had his tunes stuck in my head as I've walked through spring fields after it's been winter for a seemingly endless time. I've listened to his albums while going for drives on sunny mornings and felt the warm sunlight refracted through the windshield on my face. Paul's music is also good for a rainy day when you can smell the wet dirt, or a foggy morning when your imagination starts to wander. Paul's music is wonderful. I always probably would have said that it's his sense of melody and chord structure that I really like. But reading Paul's lyrics naked here, without the clothing of the music, I realize that I also really love the playfulness of the words themselves. This is a great book if you're a Beatles fan or a McCartney fan, because it'll make you come to the songs in a new way. You can see how inventive McCartney really is, not just musically, but also lyrically. He paints with his words in much the same way that he paints with his music: in a colorful way, and when his mind is wandering, there he will go... Great fun for any fan of music or poetry. If you like this book, you should also check out McCartney's recent book of his paintings. That one's really good, too.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: Paul Mccartney is a genius.... His words are amazing. Buy his book because there's alot of great poetry and lyrics from his songs in it.
Rating:
Summary: finally--the words
Review: Paul McCartney writes the best melodies since Schubert. But I've always liked his words. There are striking little images everywhere--"like being caught in a tape loop in a big dance hall," "long live all of us crazy soldiers who were born under calico skies," "the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun," etc., etc. I'm usually so caught up in the music I don't pay attention to the words. It's nice to have them in front of so I can catch the clever and unique twists McCartney gives to words. He's sort of a combination of Blake, Lewis Carroll, and e. e. cummings. But even after I read his magical, mysterious words, I want to go put on one of his albums so I can hear the music that goes along with them.
Rating:
Summary: Blackbird Singing- An outstanding collection of poems.
Review: Paul McCartney- true he is an Ex-Beatle, but he is also a wonderful poet and songwriter. By reading this book of poems and lyrics he has composed over the years, you will learn what it is really like to think like one of the biggest geniuses in the music business- next to John Lennon of course(who also has sensational books on the market). I would recommend this book to anyone who loves The Beatles, poetry, or both. It is certainly a book no one should live without.
Rating:
Summary: COURAGEOUS SOUL
Review: Sir Paul continues to fascinate by his ethereally intrinsic usage of everyday English language in the attainment of exploring the emotions and varied experiences of all human beings. I only wish he had published this incredible insight many moons ago. Paul was obviously not at the place in his life where he was so radiantly willing to share his profoundly personal develing of his particular valleys and mountains. I felt intrigued and at moments, uncomfortable with being so wonderfully privy to such intimate observations and experiences, but I have been enlightened, inspired, and changed just the same.
I personally chose Paul's volume to grace my Library's shelf (both at the library inwhich I oversee and my own personal library in my home) and am delighted to have it available whenever I am in need of inspiration, both personally and professionally. Paul may have intended this as a work for his own personal artistic endeavour, but I suspect "Blackbird Singing" has become a spiritual tome for numerous other poets and lyricists alike (both of the "closet" and "out-of-the-closet" variety, of which I am the former!). I graciously wish to extend a "thank you" to you Paul for your being an exceedingly courageous soul to have scribed "Blackbird Singing" for posterity's sake. (I admire and envy what you and Linda shared for those three decades. Inspiration, indeed.)
Rating:
Summary: Collection on a blackbird-Sir Paul, the poet.
Review: Sir Paul McCartney as musician, songwriter, actor, producer, knight, yes. How about poet as opposed to songwriter? Most definitely, as his school teacher turned him on to Shakespeare and Chaucer. And as "Blackbird" is one of my favourite Beatles songs, I thought it appropriate a title for this collection of poetry and even songs by the Beatles, Wings, and his solo material. However, I also learned in the intro that he was inspired by a message he was giving to a black women during the civil rights movement. The song was transformed from literal to symbol, so the words changed from "Black women living in Little Rock" to "Blackbird singing in the dead of night." The book is divided into nine thematic sections: 1. Playing at Home
2. Yesterday
3. Friends And Enemies
4. The Business
5. The World Tonight
6. All The Lonely People
7. Standing Stone
8. Home To Love
9. Nova Sections 3 and especially 6, taken from a lyric in "Eleanor Rigby," hit home to me. Some of Nova has odes to Linda and shows how devoted a couple they were and the devastation he felt at her passing, such as "Lost" and "She Is..." However, some poems show McCartney as social critic on the issues of nuclear war, pollution, the legal system, and public safety. In "Jerk of All Jerks", written from the point of view of the title people, he writes "I'm the man that disposes/of nuclear waste/There's no need to worry/it's perfectly safe." And he imparts great wisdom in describing the follies of going for the top is written in the refrain of "Chasing The Cherry": "And say, are you chasing the cherry?/The merry-go-round of the roses/If so, you must know/that the down side/is to sink like a ferry." And reading "Looking For Changes", on the horrors of animal experimentation really got my dander up because Sir Paul told it like it was. And some of his poems are whimsical and amusing. In "Trouble Is", he writes "Rabbit running in circles/chasing his tail/because it looks like candy floss/Trouble is--rabbits don't eat candy floss." The punchline to this poem is funny.
Where the songs are placed in a poetry format, some of them reveal themselves when read rather than being listened to. "Yesterday" for example, is one, as is "Here Today" from the Tug Of War album (1982), dedicated to John Lennon. And "The Song We Were Singing" from Flaming Pie shows Sir Paul commenting on how we all fall back to our usual selves after undergoing something deep: "Take a sip, see the world through a glass/and speculate about the cosmic solution/to the sound, blue guitars/caught up in a philosophical discussion." But alas, "we always come back to the song we were singing." Compilation of this book was done by 60's activist/anti-war/counter culture poet Adrian Mitchell under Linda McCartney's guidance. There is also an index, and for the songs, there is a listing telling which album it's from. Helpful, that. And this book, not only reminds people that McCartney is a great songwriter but reveals his inner personality as well.
Rating:
Summary: Collection on a blackbird-Sir Paul, the poet.
Review: Sir Paul McCartney as musician, songwriter, actor, producer, knight, yes. How about poet as opposed to songwriter? Most definitely, as his school teacher turned him on to Shakespeare and Chaucer. And as "Blackbird" is one of my favourite Beatles songs, I thought it appropriate a title for this collection of poetry and even songs by the Beatles, Wings, and his solo material. However, I also learned in the intro that he was inspired by a message he was giving to a black women during the civil rights movement. The song was transformed from literal to symbol, so the words changed from "Black women living in Little Rock" to "Blackbird singing in the dead of night." The book is divided into nine thematic sections: 1. Playing at Home
2. Yesterday
3. Friends And Enemies
4. The Business
5. The World Tonight
6. All The Lonely People
7. Standing Stone
8. Home To Love
9. Nova Sections 3 and especially 6, taken from a lyric in "Eleanor Rigby," hit home to me. Some of Nova has odes to Linda and shows how devoted a couple they were and the devastation he felt at her passing, such as "Lost" and "She Is..." However, some poems show McCartney as social critic on the issues of nuclear war, pollution, the legal system, and public safety. In "Jerk of All Jerks", written from the point of view of the title people, he writes "I'm the man that disposes/of nuclear waste/There's no need to worry/it's perfectly safe." And he imparts great wisdom in describing the follies of going for the top is written in the refrain of "Chasing The Cherry": "And say, are you chasing the cherry?/The merry-go-round of the roses/If so, you must know/that the down side/is to sink like a ferry." And reading "Looking For Changes", on the horrors of animal experimentation really got my dander up because Sir Paul told it like it was. And some of his poems are whimsical and amusing. In "Trouble Is", he writes "Rabbit running in circles/chasing his tail/because it looks like candy floss/Trouble is--rabbits don't eat candy floss." The punchline to this poem is funny.
Where the songs are placed in a poetry format, some of them reveal themselves when read rather than being listened to. "Yesterday" for example, is one, as is "Here Today" from the Tug Of War album (1982), dedicated to John Lennon. And "The Song We Were Singing" from Flaming Pie shows Sir Paul commenting on how we all fall back to our usual selves after undergoing something deep: "Take a sip, see the world through a glass/and speculate about the cosmic solution/to the sound, blue guitars/caught up in a philosophical discussion." But alas, "we always come back to the song we were singing." Compilation of this book was done by 60's activist/anti-war/counter culture poet Adrian Mitchell under Linda McCartney's guidance. There is also an index, and for the songs, there is a listing telling which album it's from. Helpful, that. And this book, not only reminds people that McCartney is a great songwriter but reveals his inner personality as well.
Rating:
Summary: Paul's words insight emotions.
Review: Sir Paul McCartney continues to ignite feelings by placing ink on the pages of time. His words are simple, even commonplace, yet they paint the pictures of his life and touch the souls of so many of us. These words will stand the test of time and for anyone who has been amased by his contributions to music, these poems are the music of his heart, you won't be disappointed.
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