Whichever way you look at it the announcement overnight by Paul McCartney and Penguin Books that the paperback edition of his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present will contain seven additional song commentaries to those in the hardback edition from 2021 is a sneaky marketing ploy to get fans to buy additional copies of content they already own.

Yes, the paperback will have different cover art and will come in one volume (the hardback is split into two separate books), but still, to get McCartney’s thoughts and memories of those seven additional songs we’ll have to fork out yet again…..

The seven new song commentaries will be:
⁠’Bluebird’
⁠’Day Tripper’
⁠’English Tea’
‘⁠Every Night’
‘⁠Hello, Goodbye’
⁠’Magical Mystery Tour’
‘Step Inside Love’

Fans are already reacting to the news – and not in a good way:

“The old bonus track swindle. 😦 I’m sure people who bought the hardback get a free copy.”

“Next up: the expanded hard cover edition with the 7 additions as well as 3 additional additions. This is getting ridiculous.”

“Gotta love marketing. Extra songs for a new book edition, man. I have the hardcover. It’s beautiful. I’m good with what I have…No second bite of the apple from me.”

“I’m waiting for the limited edition cream paper, newspaper, blue paper, green paper, lambskin paper, pink paper, yellow paper, parchment paper, orange paper, purple paper, swirl paper, papyrus paper, 98 bright paper, rolling paper and black paper editions. Each with a unique and previously unreleased song write up! Collect them all!”

The paperback is scheduled for release on 7 November, and preorders are open now in the UK (Penguin) and in the USA (Norton).