Paul McCartney: Five Classic Reflections on Liverpool - from 'Penny Lane' to The Boys Of Dungeon Lane

‘Penny Lane’ (1967)

Part of a double a-side single with the John Lennon-penned ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (itself about the Salvation Army children’s home in Liverpool), this was a character-driven tribute to a real landmark, a street and roundabout in the south Liverpool suburb of Mossley Hill, where a young Paul McCartney and Lennon used to change buses. Fun fact: the original lyrics to ‘In My Life, by Lennon, had a reference to Penny Lane.

‘In Liverpool’ (2004)

Released on DVD alongside Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, his classical collaboration with composer Carl Davis, ‘In Liverpool’ is an acoustic guitar-driven meditation on his early life in the city, with lyrics about local preachers, one-eyed dogs, and “Soft Sid, the harmless village fool”.

‘Days We Left Behind’ (2026)

“This is very much a memory song for me,” says McCartney. “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.”

‘Home To Us’ (2026)

McCartney’s first ever duet with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr, ‘Home To Us’ is another highlight from The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, which sees the duo reflecting on growing up on Merseyside: “You could be forgiven for thinking it was rough, but it was home to us...”

"It's about our early days," McCartney recently told Paul Mescal, as part of a special interview. "Even though where we lived wasn't great – I was from council houses – we had a great time, because everyone's having to find a way through it. Ringo had real bad peritonitis. He's been struggling his whole life. So he's not had it easy."

‘Salesman Saint’ (2026)

The new album’s penultimate track sees Macca reflecting on his parents’ life on the edges of post-war Liverpool, “working every God-given minute, to make enough to pay the rent”. A brass-filled, old timey melody forms the backdrop for some of McCartney’s most poignant and personal lyrics:

“The only entertainment a piano and a radio /Hot tea and cigarettes was enough to keep them on the go / Another generation yearning to be free / Learning how to keep it together and raise a family.”

"It's pretty much just fact," he told Paul Mescal. "My father was a cotton salesman, and my mother was a nurse, midwife, but in the song she becomes a saint – which is kind of how I thought of her. It just occurred to me that it would be good to put down some stuff about them, carrying on through whatever they had to put up with. Hot tea and cigarettes..."

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is out now – and you can listen here.