Days We Left Behind

I love this new Paul McCartney song, Days We Left Behind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n1IhyF6R0U&list=RD2n1IhyF6R0U&start_radio=1

It's my favourite song of his for a long time, and it may even end up being my favourite song of his post-Beatles.

Even though a lot of that music deals in whimsical nostalgia, just like this one, somehow this song has moved me deeply, and feels precise, uncynical and revelatory.

It's funny to think that, in all the time I've been following the charts (let's say 40 years), Macca hasn't had a bona fide solo Top 10 hit single. Although the Bluesky dads got briefly excited about this one when it dropped last Friday, it hasn't cracked the Top 100, so that long streak of relative failure looks safe.

For 20+ years, he was the greatest hit machine in history. I've just watched Man on the Run, the documentary abot Wings, which I'd been warned was a bit flash and annoying to watch, but actually I found very informative and sweet, and it's worth remembering that, through the 70s, though there were lulls, Wings were pretty massive. They had six US Number 1s, Mull of Kintyre was the bestselling UK single ever for a time - he still had the magic touch. In the early 80s, you've got Ebony and Ivory, The Girl is Mine, Say Say Say, Pipes of Peace, and then the Frog Chorus, which was basically the last big hit, so maybe that's why. Maybe he lost his single-buying audience with one fell amphibian swoop.

He's featured on loads of Charity Number 1s since, and there was the collaboration with Kanye West (weird to remember that ...) but there have been some nice songs since then, but nothing that has captured the public. Not that unusual for a 40-odd musician, i suppose, but this is Paul McCartney, and Bowie, Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Queen, Elton John in abundance, they've all had hits since then. Even Dylan - his albums are big news and sell well, whereas there's a regular McCartney album cycle - he'll go on Jools Holland, do some nice press, everyone will be happy to see him again, but no big sales or impact. Of course, he remains a huge live act - that in a way adds to the oddness of it. His musicianship, his voice, his popularity, has held up better than anyone, yet he can't get a wider audience interested in his new music.

Which is a shame with this song, as it's wonderful. 

The lyrics in the bridge

"We met at Forthlin Road

And wrote a secret code

To never be spoken

I stand by what I said

The promise that I made

Will never be broken"

I cannot stop thinking about. Okay, in some ways, it's just some nice little rhyming phrases, but what if we take it at face value? What if him and Lennon really did write a secret code, never to be spoken, which unlocked the secret of pop music? What if they did make promises to each other which McCartney has never revealed and which he holds to this day? It's overwhelming, in a way, yet equally, just a small thing ...