Paul McCartney’s next album, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, brings the former Beatle back to his childhood streets — and into a first. Previewed for the press at Abbey Road on May 5, the Andrew Watt‑produced record features “Home To Us,” the first time McCartney and Ringo Starr have sung a true duet despite working together since the Beatles formed in 1962.
McCartney said the duet grew organically from the song’s subject: a recollection of the tough, formative neighborhoods around Liverpool. “In writing the song I’m talking about where we came from,” he told assembled journalists, recalling how Starr was “from the Dingle” and that it could be “well hard.” McCartney explained he sent the song to Starr, who initially added only a few lines; a quick phone call led to McCartney and Starr trading lines in full and producing a two‑voice performance the pair had never attempted before.
The track’s arrangement includes female backing vocals from Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri, both friends, McCartney said, adding a communal texture to the nostalgic centerpiece. “Home To Us” takes its title from a line in another album track, “Days We Left Behind,” which flags the River Mersey and the childhood games and secrets that surface repeatedly across the record — including a playful reference to a “secret code” McCartney once shared with John Lennon. “I stand by what I said,” he sings on one passage, reflecting on promises and memory.
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Other songs revealed at the Abbey Road preview extend the autobiographical bent. “Salesman Saint” looks to McCartney’s parents and their wartime work — his father as a fireman fighting wartime blazes and his mother as a nurse and midwife — while “Down South” nods to the early days of the Beatles and “As You Lie There” explores an unrequited school‑yard crush on a girl named Jasmine. McCartney punctuated the recollections with wry anecdotes: he admitted missing a later‑life encounter with Jasmine because he happened to be “indisposed” on the toilet.
The Watt collaboration links McCartney to a broader pop moment: the preview coincided with a Rolling Stones press gathering in New York promoting Foreign Tongues, another Andrew Watt production that includes a contribution from McCartney recorded during the Hackney Diamonds sessions in 2023. The Stones currently have no touring dates scheduled, while Starr is due to resume live work — his All Starr Band launches a new leg on May 28 in Temecula, California.
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The Boys Of Dungeon Lane positions McCartney as a revisitor of place and friendship, blending old partnerships with new production choices. Beyond the novelty of sharing lead vocals with Starr, the sessions at Abbey Road underscore how McCartney continues to mine personal history for songwriting fuel while collaborating with contemporaries who span his career. Exact release plans for the album were not disclosed at the preview.
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