Pulp. Beach reads. Trashy stories. Romance novels. These are all examples of paperback books. Maybe it’s not the cream of the crop, the stuff they put on hardcover. But it’s something. It’s in your hands.
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Well, imagine the people who write those books, put all those words together, think of those characters, scenarios, dialogue and such. Why might they be really? Indeed, what’s their story? Indeed, Paul McCartney and the Beatles were once thinking those same thoughts. In fact, let’s dive into the song in which they made those musings public.
Aunt Lil
Released as a single in 1966, “Paperback Writer” topped the charts in several countries, from the United Kingdom to the United States, Ireland and Australia. Truly, it’s got a sublime melody and a catchy rhythm. It’s a song you find yourself singing almost by accident. But how did McCartney come to write the lyrics?
Well, he can thank his Aunt Lil. “Years ago, my Auntie Lil said to me, ‘Why do you always write songs about love all the time? Can’t you ever write about a horse or the summit conference or something interesting?’” McCartney said in 1966, according to author Nicholas Schaffner in the 1978 book, The Beatles Forever. “So, I thought, ‘All right, Auntie Lil.’”
McCartney, who was the song’s primary writer but who wrote “Paperback Writer” with John Lennon, landed on the subject of a paperback book writer when one day he saw Beatles drummer Ringo Starr backstage at a concert venue reading a book. That’s when he knew what the subject of his next song would be.
Query Letter
Authors know the words: query letter. It’s the note that is sent to publishers alerting them of your book idea. And that’s exactly how McCartney framed the song. It is a musical query letter, asking a publisher to take a look at a manuscript. But the writer is desperate. He or she doesn’t stand behind the book, noting they can make it longer or shorter or change the narrative. Sings McCartney to open the song,
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It’s based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job
So I wanna be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
It’s a dirty story of a dirty man
And his clinging wife doesn’t understand
His son is working for the Daily Mail
It’s a steady job
But he wants to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
The Writing
Inspired by the rhythmic quality of the five-syllable phrase, pa-per-back writ-er, McCartney’s brain started turning. He wrote the basic framework for the tune during an hour-long drive from London to Lennon’s house one afternoon. And then he and Lennon put the finishing touches on the song together.
In a 2007 piece with The New Yorker, McCartney said he started to write the song in 1965 after he read a Daily Mail article about an aspiring author. (Daily Mail is also referenced in the song lyrics.) The author may have been Martin Amis, who would have been a teenager then.
But the Daily Mail was also a paper that John Lennon got frequently. Historians have written that the publication would have easily been at his home, where McCartney drove to that afternoon to see his musical partner. And the newspapers would have been strewn around as the two wrote songs together.
In the end, having been aspiring writers themselves, the desperation and the charm that makes the song work come from its authors just as much as any decent paperback book might a novelist. Sings McCartney,
It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few
I’ll be writing more in a week or two
I could make it longer if you like the style
I can change it ’round
And I wanna be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
If you really like it you can have the rights
It could make a million for you overnight
If you must return it you can send it here
But I need a break
And I wanna be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
Photo by Cummings Archives/Redferns
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