“We met on Forthlin Road / And wrote a secret code / Never to be spoken.”

Six decades later, Paul McCartney is still writing about John Lennon. Days We Left Behind, the lead single from his new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, contains an intimate reflection on the friendship that became the Beatles.

McCartney announced the album today, his first solo release in six years. At 83, rock’s most successful living songwriter has turned his gaze backward. The title comes from a lane in Speke, the working-class Liverpool neighborhood where he grew up — near the Mersey shoreline where a young McCartney would go birdwatching. The road now borders Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport.

The single finds McCartney in a wistful mood, singing in a “delicate falsetto” that conveys “some of the frailty of age,” according to the BBC. “This is very much a memory song for me,” he said. “I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past — but then I think, how can you write about anything else?”

Early reviews are kind. The Guardian said producer Andrew Watt “appears to have encouraged McCartney to be as McCartney-esque as possible,” noting the track’s “lovely descending piano melody.” The Telegraph compared it to Johnny Cash’s American Recordings — “stripped-back, reflective, twilight-of-life music.”

The album was produced by Andrew Watt, the 35-year-old who has become the go-to producer for rock royalty seeking late-career vitality. The collaboration began in 2021 when, during a casual meeting, McCartney happened upon a chord even he didn’t recognize. Watt suggested they record it. Five years later, here we are.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane arrives May 29. Until then, there is a song about smoky bars, cheap guitars, and a secret code written on Forthlin Road. Some memories never leave.

Sources