Paul McCartney pays homage to Liverpool on ‘Days We Left Behind’ and confirms new album ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’
Paul McCartney has premiered his new single ‘Days We Left Behind’ on BBC Radio Merseyside and confirmed his new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane.
Despite having the star power to premiere his new single on any radio station in the world, McCartney chose to put the world’s ears on Liverpool.
“Smoky bars, and cheap guitars but nothing built to last, nothing ever stays, nothing comes to mind, no one can erase, the days we left behind,” McCartney delightfully sings on the new track, as he recalls his youth on Merseyside.
He also sings on ‘Days We Left Behind’, “See the boys of dungeon lane, along the Mersey shore, some of them will feel the pain, but some were meant for more, and nothing stays the same, no one needs to cry, nothing can reclaim, the days we left behind.”
After the song premiered, radio host Lisa Marrey said she had got “emotional”, and confessed, “The fact that he’s still releasing new music, and the fact that he wanted us to have it first is just incredible,” host Helen Jones told listeners.
“So this next song is very much a memory song for me,” McCartney then explained in a clip that was aired on the radio station, before adding, “I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind, and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past, but then I think, how can you write about anything else?”
McCartney continued, “It’s a lot of memories of Liverpool for me and that involves a little in the middle about John, Forthlin Road, a street I used to live in, this is where the title of the album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, came from. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke, which is quite working class.”
He added of his childhood, “We didn’t have much at all, but it didn’t matter because all the people were great, and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.”
The Boys of Dungeon Lane is set for release on May 29th via MPL/Capitol Records; it’s McCartney’s first album since McCartney III in 2020.
According to press materials, the recording process, which was overseen by producer Andrew Watt, took place over five years in London and Sussex.
It’s also stated that the album finds McCartney “candid, vulnerable and deeply reflective mood, writing with rare openness about his childhood in post-war Liverpool, the resilience of his parents, and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon long before the world had ever heard of Beatlemania.”
McCartney’s younger brother, Mike, did let slip on social media earlier this week that Macca had a new album, titled The Boys of Dungeon Lane, on the way. He shared a poster of the album art that was spotted by his soon in Liverpool, which he posted on X alongside the caption, “Josh saw this teaser for r kids new album ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ in Liverpool yestas. It was familiar to him as he had designed the Dungeon Lane (Speke) artwork for his Uncle.”
It’s expected that McCartney will preview material from The Boys of Dungeon Lane, including ‘Days We Left Behind’, when he performs two intimate shows at the 1,200-capacity venue, the Fonda Theatre, on March 27th and March 28th.
See the full tracklist and listen to the new single below.
Paul McCartney – The Boys of Dungeon Lane tracklist
- ‘As You Lie There’
- ‘Lost Horizon’
- ‘Days We Left Behind’
- ‘Ripples in a Pond’
- ‘Mountain Top’
- ‘Down South’
- ‘We Two’
- ‘Come Inside’
- ‘Never Know’
- ‘Home to Us’
- ‘Life Can Be Hard’
- ‘First Star of the Night’
- ‘Salesman Saint’
- ‘Momma Gets By’
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