In quotes given exclusively to the ECHO, the Beatles icon has spoken about his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which is an ode to his upbringing in Liverpool
Paul McCartney’s album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is out now and is an ode to his upbringing in Liverpool(Image: Mary McCartney 2026)
Sir Paul McCartney still visits Dungeon Lane whenever he returns home to Liverpool. The L24 road has changed a lot from the days of the legendary Beatle’s youth when it was the main access point to Oglet Shore.
The Speke road may no longer lead to the picturesque beauty spot since the perimeter of Liverpool John Lennon Airport was expanded, but this doesn’t mean that Dungeon Lane has lost any of its appeal to Sir Paul. Although now an ordinary looking road, the 83-year-old treasures his formative memories made here, as it has inspired the name of his new album – and he even makes sure to take his family to Dungeon Lane whenever he is showing them around the city.
In quotes given exclusively to the ECHO, Sir Paul said: “I’d been there not that long ago. Sometimes when I go up to Liverpool and I’ve got the kids with me, I’ll do the tour. I’ll drive them around. That’s where we did our first gig.
“And that’s where we used to live there. And that’s where we caught the bus to school.’ So going down Dungeon Lane, I would say ‘And this is Dungeon Lane’.” The changing face of the road makes it an ideal reference point for Sir Paul’s 18th solo album, which was released yesterday, as he wistfully reminisces on a bygone era.
He added: “It’s called The Boys of Dungeon Lane and about half the album is about memories and things I remember and the other half is about other stuff, not all about one thing but a selection of songs I’ve written over the last few years.”
Dungeon Lane in Speke is the inspiration for Sir Paul McCartney’s new album(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The genesis for the album came from a jamming session with producer Andrew Watt six years ago over a cup of tea in Los Angeles. Sir Paul’s creative juices were ignited when he stumbled upon a chord he had never heard before, as he added: “To this day, I actually don’t know what that chord is.
“I’m waiting for someone to tell me, to explain it to me. Random chord, and then I changed one note in the chord and it made a more normal chord. Changed one more, so I had a three chord sequence that we’re messing with.”
This improvised session in Watt’s former studio, located in Charlie Chaplin’s old house, developed into the first single from the album, titled Days We Left Behind. The deeply evocative riff was the perfect framework for Sir Paul to reflect on his youth in post World War II Liverpool, now that he is in the opposite period of his life.
He said: “The second verse starts ‘See the boys of Dungeon Lane along the Mersey Shore’, and Dungeon Lane was a place that led down from where we lived, which was on a housing estate. You say housing estate to Americans they tend to think you’re talking about Downton Abbey. Well, it’s about the opposite, it’s just loads of council houses.
“And then on the edge of it was this road that went down to the beach, the shore, and I used to go down there quite a lot. Took my little bird book – I was really into bird watching. So yeah, I put all of those memories in the song.”
As you’d expect from an album named after a road in Speke, Dungeon Lane isn’t the only reference to his youth in Liverpool. The lyrics are chocked full of nods to the city, including Sir Paul’s childhood home on Forthlin Road, early songwriting sessions with John Lennon and a hitchhiking trip to Wales with George Harrison.
The album also represents a piece of music history, as it contains Sir Paul’s first ever duet with Sir Ringo Starr. The song is named ‘Home To Us’, as the two surviving members of The Beatles powerfully pay tribute to their working class upbringing – and how it prepared them to conquer the world with the Fab Four.
Sir Paul McCartney references each of his Beatles bandmates in his wistful new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane(Image: Michael Ochs Archives)
The message of the track was key to getting Ringo involved as Sir Paul said: “I knew he would identify with the lyrics cause you know the idea of where we grew up was rough – but it was home to us.
“He knew I felt like that, I knew he felt like that. So I thought we could come together on that idea. And we did.” It has been over six decades since The Beatles first album but Sir Paul’s creative genius and love for the city shows no sign of waning.
Just as he did with Penny Lane in 1967, the Beatle has immortalised another Liverpool location with Dungeon Lane. The album may have only been out for 24 hours, but loyal fans have already begun making the pilgrimage to Dungeon Lane.
When the ECHO visited yesterday, we met fans from as far away as California who had travelled to the L24 road to pose for pictures next to its newly famous street sign. Sir Paul is grateful this sign has recently been restored by the council as he said: “When we came to photograph Dungeon Lane for the album the sign had gone! So we had to mock it up.”
The Beatle icon has immortalised another Liverpool location as two tourists from California visited the sign yesterday(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Sir Paul established himself as one of the 20th century’s greatest composers, so it’s no surprise that an album so laden with meaning has been a hit with critics, as Rolling Stone described it as a “late career masterpiece”.
Sir Paul is delighted with the finished product as he reflected on the completed album, but his simple motive for writing songs remains unchanged from his younger days, when he used to wile away the hours bird watching on Dungeon Lane. He said: “It’s nice that, instead of having just random songs, individual songs, it now is an album.
“You feel satisfied to have brought it to that, and what do I hope? I hope people like it, that’s always a plus and if they do I hope it brings them some joy and some emotional moments.” The Boys of Dungeon Lane is out now