Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr Revisit Their Liverpool Roots on “Home to Us”

In the newest installment of a collaboration spanning six many years, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr staff up for his or her first official duet on “Home to Us,” a bouncy, nostalgic reflection on Liverpool childhoods, tough streets, and the lengthy and winding street from residence, from McCartney’s twentieth solo album, ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane.’

“Home to Us” – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

TOAt dinner within the mid-2010s, Paul McCartney leaned over to his spouse Nancy Shevell and gestured at a seatmate.

In all earnestness, Sir Paul mused, “Me and this guy, we go way back.” “This guy” was Ringo. Nancy took a beat and flatly answered, “No kidding!”

McCartney and Starr’s relationship predates the Beatles, as the 2 met whereas Ringo was drumming for Rory and the Hurricanes within the Liverpool ballroom circuit. Starr changed Pete Best as soon as the band was signed and grew to become acknowledged in 20^th Century legend. For McCartney’s newest mission, nonetheless, he attracts from the properly of Pre-Fab reminisces as he hitchhiked and dreamed with The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Following up on the lead single “Days We Left Behind,” Macca groups with Sir Ringo on the bouncy, rollicking “Home to Us.”

Headlines have touted “Home to Us” as the primary duet between Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. That’s not strictly true; the duo share vocals on Ringo’s “Walk With You,” the Lennon-penned “Grow Old With Me” and the coda to McCartney’s “Beautiful Night.” McCartney has made a facet profession of penning “Ringo Songs,” from Lennon co-writes “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help From My Friends” to Starr’s “Six O’Clock” and “Private Property.” Paul takes a kazoo solo on Ringo’s #1 hit “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful And You’re Mine),” and The Threetles – Paul, George, and Ringo – all seem on “All Those Years Ago” (1981), “Free As a Bird” (1994), “Real Love” (1995), and most not too long ago, “Now And Then” (2023).

Nevertheless, “Home to Us” was written particularly with Ringo in thoughts, and the duo traded verses about their Liverpool childhoods. In the acquainted vein of Starr’s “it wasn’t much, but it was home” sentiment in his solo work, they reminisce:

(Paul)
The place we used to dwell in,
you can say it wasn’t a lot
But it was residence to us
(Ringo)
And you can be forgiven
in the event you thought that it was tough
But it was residence to us

(Paul)
The roses within the yard started to wilt,
and then they turned to mud
(In Unison)
But it was residence to us

The ex-Beatles are buoyed on the bridge by backing vocals from The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde and Texas’ Sharleen Spliteri. Hynde has a long-standing relationship with each McCartney and Starr. She duetted with Ringo on the charming “Don’t Hang Up,” and shaped an in depth friendship with Paul by Linda McCartney within the early ’80s (bonding over their mutual animal rights activism). Hynde and Paul shared the stage on the 1999 Linda McCartney tribute and 2023 Taylor Hawkins tribute live performance.

In culling anecdotes from their previous couple of years of collaborations, there appears to be some slight awkwardness concerning the mechanics of Paul and Ringo instantly working collectively. Ringo had to be persuaded to revisit “Now and Then,” a observe that the Threetles spent in the future on in 1995. The music video for the completed 2023 observe showcases Paul and Ringo recording independently of their residence studios. For “Home to Us,” the observe was hodgepodged from a number of back-and-forth periods with some slight miscommunication. McCartney discusses how the observe started as a drum demo for producer Andrew Watt:

“He sent me back to a version where he just added some lines to the chorus, so I thought, maybe he doesn’t like it,” McCartney recollects. “I rang him and he said he thought I only wanted him to sing one or two lines, and I said I’d love to hear him sing the whole thing. So, we took my first line, Ringo’s second line, and then we had a duet.”

Awkwardness aside, the end result is a charming look at the hard knocks that paved their way to fame.

Ringo hails from The Dingle, an infamously rough-and-tumble sector of Liverpool where he feared being mugged on his walks home. The McCartneys, bouncing between homes as matriarch Mary was stationed as a midwife, fared only slightly better. However, they kept their heads on straight:

We didn’t worry where the
road was going to lead us to
There wasn’t time to make a fuss
’cause that was all we knew
The world around us wasn’t safe,
the place was falling down
But that was my
And it was all I knew
‘Cause it was home to us

Despite swirling that the duo might perform “Home to Us” on the Saturday Night Live stage this weekend, McCartney instead teamed with his regular live band and a few ringers, drummer Chad Smith (Chili Peppers) and backup vocalist Ingrid Michaelson. Sir Paul performed “Days We Left Behind,” “Band On the Run,” and an impromptu “Coming Up” over the end credits; off-air, he was joined by Will Ferrell on cowbell and treated studio 8H to “Drive My Car” and “A Hard Day’s Night.” Lorne Michaels’ 1976 offer for the ex-Beatles to reunite for $3,000 remains unclaimed.

“Home To Us” is streaming now, preceding The Boys of Dungeon Lane on May 29.

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:: stream/purchase Home to Us here ::

:: connect with Paul McCartney here ::

:: connect with Ringo Starr here ::

:: stream/purchase The Boys of Dungeon Lane here ::

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“Home to Us” – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

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 © Aidan Moyer