Paul McCartney has announced his first solo album in five years, The Boys of Dungeon Lane – which was inspired by a mysterious guitar chord and a cup of tea with Andrew Watt.
Super-producer Watt, who has slowly been adding a who’s who of music royalty to his resumé, has worked with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Ozzy Osbourne over the past few years.
Now, he’s added the legendary Beatle to his list of A-list credits, and it turns out he had a formative influence on his new record's creation.
The Boys of Dungeon Lane promises to be an introspective collection of “rare and revealing memories never-before-shared” by Macca, as well as some newly inspired love songs. It will see McCartney revisit some milestone moments, charting both the story of his life and the foundation of modern popular music.
It’s been dubbed Macca’s most personal record to date – and its origins can be traced back to a mysterious guitar chord he stumbled upon while having a cup of tea with Watt.
According to a press release, The Boys of Dungeon Lane was first discussed five years ago when McCartney and Watt met for an exchange of ideas. Macca was playing the guitar at the time, and was mystified by a new chord shape.
“While playing around on the guitar during the meeting, Paul happened upon a chord that even he – the world’s most successful living songwriter – didn’t recognize,” a blurb for the record says.
“Undeterred and driven by his experimental nature, Paul carried on changing one note, then another, until he had a three-chord sequence – which Watt suggested they should record.”
From that chord came the album’s opening track, As You Lie There, which has yet to receive a release.
A lead single has been shared, though, in the form of Days We Left Behind – a floating acoustic guitar piece that opens with a delicate fingerpicking pattern that channels a Blackbird feel, before blooming into a more fleshed out piano ballad.
“This is very much a memory song for me,” McCartney says of the single. “The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. 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? It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool.
“It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class. 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 record was pieced together over a five-year period in between legs of a global tour and a packed schedule, alternating between Los Angeles and Sussex, England. The result is said to be an eclectic collection that offers everything from Wings-style rock to Beatles-style harmonies and everything in between.
The Boys of Dungeon Lane is available to pre-order now ahead of its arrival on May 29.
