It hardly needs saying, but let’s say it anyway: Paul McCartney owes nobody anything. It’s difficult to name anyone else, alive or dead, who has contributed more to collective human happiness. With that in mind, you can’t help rooting for him, willing him on to produce a late-period masterpiece because you know he has it in him. Sadly, while The Boys Of Dungeon Lane certainly has its moments, it is not quite that record.
First single Days We Left Behind boded well. A gentle ode to early times with John Lennon, it suits the torn and frayed side of McCartney’s voice perfectly. There’s also a very moving tribute to his parents’ marriage in the closing Momma Gets By with a simple but beautifully direct chorus of ‘She loves him’ set against swelling strings. Salesman Saint, also about his parents’ lives, has a lot going for it, too, with a lyric about getting on with things, and a horn arrangement that wouldn’t have shamed Glenn Miller. We Two has a pleasing lilt and finds McCartney’s immortal melodic gifts come into focus for that dreamed-of-you-chorus.
