McCartney Writes Lennon Tribute

Paul McCartney's latest album, New, is being praised for some of the cutting edge sounds thanks to its four producers behind the boards -- all of them young enough to be the former Beatle's sons. One of the album's most bare-boned tracks, "Early Days," deals not only with his pre-fame partnership with John Lennon, but his frustration at Beatles biographers detailing events that either never happened -- or happened in an entirely different way. McCartney explained the situation to NPR.com, saying, "So many times, I will have people tell me what I did when I was younger. There's so much being written (about) the early period, and even pre-Beatles period. And people will say, 'Oh, he did that because that, and that happened because of that.' And I'll be reading and think, 'Well, that didn't happen' and, 'That's not why I did that.' Like anyone's history, you remember what went down better than people who weren't there." "

McCartney went on to explain, "So I started off with this song -- just a nostalgic trip, really. I was remembering John and I in Liverpool as young boys, walking down the street, dressed in black, guitars slung across our backs, trying to get people to listen to our music. Or we'd be in the record shop, listening to new records. All these experiences were in the song. And then I got to the last verse and I thought, 'That's all very well, me telling everyone how all this went down, but there are a lot of people who are going to say, 'Well, no -- I know what really happened.'"

The lyrics to Paul McCartney's new song, "Early Days":

They can't take it from me, if they tried
I lived through does early days
So many times I had to change the pain to laughter
Just to keep from getting crazed

Dressed in black from head to toe
Two guitars across our backs
We would walk the city roads
Seeking someone who would listen to the music
That we were writing down at home

Hair slicked back with Vaseline
Like the pictures on the wall of the local record shop
Hearing noises we where destined to remember
The will, the thrill to never stop

May sweet memories of friends from the past
Always comes to you, when you look for them
And your inspiration long may have last
May it come to you time and time again

Now everybody seems to have there own opinion
On who did this and who did that
But as for me I don't see how the can remember
When they weren't where it was at