64 TO 83

Paul McCartney’s ever present past

Mar 27, 2026

“I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else?”

Like billions of people, I love Paul McCartney’s new single, Days We Left Behind. It’s moving, it’s fragile, it has a gorgeous tune and fantastic lyrics: and it’s the latest example of Macca’s ongoing interest in the past – specifically and understandably his own past. But McCartney finds emotion as well as nostalgia in his personal history, and always has done, right from the start.

Here now is a brief playlist of Paul McCartney’s songs about time:

WHEN I’M 64 (1967)

Written in 1956 when McCartney was just 14 but not recorded until Sergeant Pepper, When I’m 64 is witty (with some John Lennon-added details) and charming: and it’s a beautiful song about love in age.

YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW (1967)

Pretty much a shadow of When I’m 64, this is still McCartney – at the height of the psychedelic era – making a play for the importance of the past. He’d write better pastiche songs – Honey Pie, You Gave Me The Answer – but this, like the later Silly Love Songs, is a manifesto.

TREAT HER GENTLY/ LONELY OLD PEOPLE/ CROSSROADS (1974)

Once again Paul returns to age as a theme – and brilliantly segues into the theme from popular soap opera Crossroads, because “one of the big things for lonely old people in England is to watch Crossroads.”

HERE TODAY (1982)

“And if I say I really loved you/ And was glad you came along…”

McCartney processing his feelings about John Lennon in this, one of the most emotional songs he’s ever recorded. Once Paul’s songs were noted for their clever and often meaningless wordplay: Here Today explicitly references past events and is emotively direct.

THAT WAS ME (2007)

“That was me, sweating cobwebs under contract
In the cellar, on TV, that was me

The same me that stands here now…”

From the aptly-named Memory Almost Full album - Paul’s solo best in my far from humble opinion – comes this fantastic romp through Macca’s past as he realises that he’s Paul McCartney, baby.

EARLY DAYS (2013)

Apparently inspired by Beatle historians correcting the record – “Now everybody seems to have their own opinion/ Who did this and who did that/ But as for me I don’t see how they can remember/ When they weren’t where it was at” – this is also, in classic Paul fashion, a snapshot (“Hair slicked back with Vaseline/ Like the pictures on the wall/ Of the local record shop) with a conclusion:

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

EVER PRESENT PAST (2007)

A spiffy rocker, no less, in which Paul appears to feel that the past is getting in the way of his love life. One of my favourite songs, if only for its great guitar and its infectious chorus of “The things I think I did/ When I was a kid.”

SUMMER OF 59 (2005)

A b-side, and a fantastic one. Pure memory set to an Eddie Cochran shuffle.

“In the summer of ‘59/ Dandelions shine up through the pavement/ Council houses, drainpipe trousers/ Ciggy packs and long black jackets, ties are laced/ And it’s all in the name of good taste.”

THE END OF THE END (2007)

This will do for you. A gorgeous song about leaving this world: a celebration of life and humanity: and an astonishing, Moebius strip of a lyric. Should be played at everyone’s funeral.

“On the day that I die I’d like bells to be rung/ And songs that were sung to be hung out like blankets/ That lovers have played on / And laid on while listening to songs that were sung.”

DAYS WE LEFT BEHIND (2026)

In 2026, seventy years since he wrote When I’m 64, Paul McCartney is still making brilliant records. The next album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, will contain many songs about days gone by: but when Paul McCartney writes about the past, he writes about everything.

“Nothing ever stays
Nothing comes to mind
No-one can erase
The days we left behind.”