Read more with Elke Heidenreich: »Lyrics« by Paul McCartney

Read the video transcript here

Elke Heidenreich, author and reviewer

So, Ms. Heidenreich is apologizing today.

And for this we reach deep into the box of errors and bad taste.

Ms. Heidenreich will now tell you something true about your life:

That must have been the end of the eighties. I was in New York, coincidentally, on the anniversary of John Lennon's death, December 8th. And then I thought, I should go to Central Park, where Yoko Ono set up a small memorial a few years after his death. It's called "Strawberry Fields," about level with Eights Avenue and 72nd Street West. And there is a small, black and white mosaic. In the middle it says "Imagine" and from there you can also see the Dakota building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived and where he was then shot. So I'm going there on December 8th and actually, a lot of fans who like me were all John Lennon fans and not necessarily Beatles fans and they put flowers and there was singing and now it comes:A group came with a banner that said, "Why always John F. Kennedy and John Lennon, why never Richard Nixon and Paul McCartney." And I thought that was funny at the time, but that's not funny. I know that today too. Nobody should be shot, least of all Paul McCartney.

We always underestimated Paul McCartney. We've always been on the side of the intellectual, interesting, slightly quirky John Lennon. And we've always found Paul McCartney cute. Error, error, mea culpa. I beg your pardon, your pardon. You can still do that in old age. Paul and I are both turning 80 now. And you can do a bit of reference, from the Latin "vereri", to pay homage, because I looked at these two incredibly magnificent volumes. Look, this is how it looks from the side. Two volumes, five kilos. And those five pounds changed my life and especially my view of Paul McCartney.

All of his songs from 1956 to today are in here. Out here in his script is the text for "Yesterday". A total of 900 large-format pages with incredibly good texts. And for each text there is also a story of how the song came about. It's sometimes cheerful, sometimes very funny, sometimes sad, sometimes weighty. Once, for example with "Yesterday", the music came to him overnight, but he still had no lyrics to it and he was always singing to himself: "Scrambled eggs, oh my darling, how I love your legs" - like I love yours Legs love, scrambled eggs. Until at some point it occurred to him: "Yesterday, all my trouble seemed so far away", was voted the best song ever of the 20th century by Rolling Stone, the magazine and Ms. Heidenreich. And then McCartney was just 22 years old. Or »Eleanor Rigby«,he found the name on a tombstone of some sort.

It is a splendid reader, also through our own lives. I'll try to show you a little. It's his handwriting, it's photos. I have to try somehow how to turn the pages here. There are pictures, photos, ideas, thoughts. And half a century of music history fans out again before us. We remember all the guys. Of course, a lot is also about the friendship between Jean and Paul. But we're getting to appreciate what a great world-class lyricist and songwriter Paul McCartney was. And we apologize to him and we don't find this banner from back then funny anymore.

The whole thing is arranged chronologically. First volume A to K, second volume L to Z. That means you will find every song, "Yesterday" is then under Ypsilon. And if you look under M, "Martha My Dear," you'll find out that Martha was a dog. 78 euros for one of the most beautiful books of the year. It's actually two books and, as I said, five kilos. And I bow to Paul McCartney after seeing all of this.

And now, because it is Christmas, there is another poem by Thomas Gsella. He was formerly editor-in-chief of Titanic and is now a freelance poet, writing political poetry that rhymes. The latest is: "I pay you rhyme", was published by Antje Kunstmann and I would like to read you a poem from it for Christmas. The unspeakable orange man in America is collecting billions again for his return and for his news channel and wants the next one Election again. And that is actually a terrible idea. And there is a nice poem to go with it, called "Joe Biden": "He may not seem as jolly as Castro was at 300, more like the spirit of Walter Scheel , especially next to Kamala. You may doze off a bit, he may not be a first division club,how does it matter, he lives in being. Joe, really is there, Biden is. And isn't Trump and is a man and doesn't have the devil's name? It doesn't matter if he should, wants, can, he has to save us. Amen.".

And now we say yes and amen to the latest SPIEGEL bestseller list:

An old friend is back in 10th place: After a long absence, Carsten Henn's »Der Buchspazierer« finds its way back into the top ten.

The story of the bookseller Carl, who delivers books on foot at night, is a loving homage to the world of reading and the beauty of books themselves.

In 9th place this week: The slightly spoiled Inspector Kluftinger and his Christmas stories from the Allgäu.

"Tomorrow, Klufti, there will be something" by the author duo Volker Klüpfel and Michael Kobre, is still popular even a few days before Christmas.

From 10th place to 8th again: Actor Edgar Selge's literary debut »Have you finally found us?«.

In his autobiographical novel, Selge takes us back to the sixties.

With classical music, Selge's childish alter ego repeatedly escapes from the bourgeois dining table into the world of fantasy.

Diana Gabaldon's "Swarming of a Thousand Bees" has settled in at number 7 two weeks ago.

In the ninth volume of the Outlander saga, time travelers Claire and Jamie Fraser try to protect their families in the midst of the American Revolutionary War.

Ken Follett goes down one more place: secret services who hunt drug smugglers through the Sahara, as well as the first American president who is also trying to prevent a war.

In “Never.

The last decision. «The world is once again on the brink of abyss.

And the novel that tells it all, this week on the 6th

Since it was first published, Bernhard Schlink's “The Granddaughter” has had a permanent place on this list.

The story of the bookseller Wettner, who searches for clues after the death of his wife and believes that he has come across his granddaughter in the ranks of a ethnic community - again this week, it has risen to fifth place.

It all started with a cold case.

In the process, Carl Mørck stumbles across a 30-year series of murders.

Now the detained investigator wants to finally solve the case.

The corona pandemic makes everything even more difficult, however, in Jussi Adler Olsen's thriller »Sodium Chloride« - this week in 4th place.

The climate crisis concerns us every day.

Perhaps one reason why the climate thriller by Dirk Rossmann and his co-author Ralf Hoppe also remains high on this list.

The "wrath of the octopus" is back on the 3rd

The amalgamation of novel, online game and music playlist is well received by readers - or should it actually be users?

Sebastian Fitzek's »Playlist« is an indispensable part of the upper area of ​​the sales charts - again number 2 this week.

Two things are popular with the public: thrillers and stories about the literature business or books themselves. Nele Neuhaus combines the two and lets Commissioner Pia Sander and her boss Oliver von Bodenstein investigate in the milieu of a Frankfurt publishing house.

This landed her a reading hit.

“In Eternal Friendship”, the old and new number one on the SPIEGEL bestseller list.