Days We Left Behind

“Days We Left Behind” is a track from the album “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane“, released in 2026. It was released as the album’s lead single on March 26, 2026, the same day the album was officially announced.

A nostalgic reflection on Paul McCartney’s youth, “Days We Left Behind” recalls his early friendships with George Harrison and John Lennon. One of the song’s lines, “the boys of Dungeon Lane,” provided the title for the album.

Dungeon Lane was a road in Speke, a district of Liverpool where Paul and George lived during their teenage years. Located not far from 20 Forthlin Road, it led towards the banks of the River Mersey. Paul often visited the area carrying his copy of “The Observer’s Book of Birds”, watching the local birdlife.

Speke could be a rough neighbourhood, and Paul later recalled being robbed of his watch there by two boys. These youths became the inspiration for “the boys of Dungeon Lane” mentioned in the song, a phrase that ultimately gave the album its title.

This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else? It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool.  It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there.  I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class.  We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.

Paul McCartney – From Paul McCartney | News | Paul Announces New Album – ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’, March 26, 2026

I had this little song which was memories, “I was looking back at white and black, reminders of my past.” So I was putting this song together, we started working on it, and I was playing on the piano, and I did a riff, it was a throw-away for me. But Andrew sort of said “oh, wait a minute, that’s good, you know”. So he put that in, and we built it up. And it’s a very gentle little track, which is the first single of the album. It’s about Liverpool, about my memories in Liverpool. It’s about the boys of Dungeon Lane, it’s where the title comes from. Dungeon Lane was a place near where I used to live, in Speke, a district of Liverpool, where me and George lived. That’s how I met George. I used to get to the school bus and we both went to the same school. So I would get the bus here, and the next stop, George would get on. So sometimes we sat next to each other. That’s how we got to know each other. And we just talked about guitars, rock and roll… It was just coming in, you forget that, there was a time where it was just arriving, you know. So that area was called Speke, and leading down from all the counsel houses, there was a lane called Dungeon Lane that took you down to the short, the Mersey shore. That’s basically where I was drawing from, for the lyrics of the tune, which is called “Days We Left Behind.”

Paul McCartney – From the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session, April 16, 2026

So, then the next song is one you probably heard, which is “Days We Left Behind.” Yeah, and this was a lot of memories of Liverpool for me, but also any days we left behind. The thing is, everyone’s got days you left behind, you know, whether it’s your school or an old mate or anything. So, I started it with a little piano thing and… which we transferred to guitar a bit later on. So then it was story about memories, various little bits and pieces that I remembered from my childhood. It kind of, in a way, kind of wrote itself because, you know, you just had a memory and you stuck it in the song. But I like this one and, well, I like them all. It has memories of John in the middle there: “We wrote at Forthlin Road,” so that’s lovely, you know, to go back to those things. And it’s a little bit emotional, obviously, especially, you know, you’re talking about John or George or Ringo, but those two guys…

Because this is where we worked, this is where we sort of did everything, you know, you’re lucky if you get songs like that, they kind of just spill out and you don’t quite know how you wrote them, you know? I was wondering whether I should put in Forthlin Road, whether it was a little bit sus, you know, But Andrew said, no, no, that’s great, you know, like stories and all of that. So he was helpful with that kind of advice. Yeah, so there it is. That’s me and John in Forthlin Road writing “a secret code to never be spoken.” So, yeah, so a lot of nice little memories. And this is called “Days We Left Behind.”

Paul McCartney – From Exclusive Commentary Edition Digital Album – Recorded during the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session at Abbey Road, May 5, 2026

With that one, I started off with a little piano riff that’s at the beginning — we played it on guitar in the end, but it was just this little piano riff, and I thought, “That’s nice. That’s an intro. Good notes.” And then I got into this idea of looking back — photos — and it kind of should have been “looking back at black and white,” but I switched it to “white and black,” and that fell into place. I thought, “Well, that’s nice.” So I was now committed to “reminders of my past.”

So that’s great. Then you go, okay, what am I thinking of? Smoky bars, cheap guitars… My first guitar was a Rosetti Lucky 7 that I bought in Liverpool. And when I got it to Hamburg, it broke — it was so crappy that it just broke. So anyway, cheap guitars. And then, “see the boys of Dungeon Lane” — that was me going back to this place where we lived. Me and George lived in this area called Speke, and that’s where I met George. So there are lots of lovely memories about these places, and the Dungeon Lane thing — as I say, I used to go down there. I had a bird book. There’s a thing in England called the Observer’s Book of Birds — it’s a little handbook, you stick it in your pocket. So I would go around and see, “Oh, that bird, it nests in places like this.” And so I would do that down Dungeon Lane.

And I was walking along one day and these two kind of big Liverpool scallies said, “What you doing? What you looking at?” And we had a little encounter. He said, “Give us that watch.” I halfheartedly tried to resist, but they were big and there were two of them. So yeah, I ended up giving them. […] Unfortunately for them, I knew them. I knew where one of them lived. So I kind of went to the cops and said “I got my watch…” — they nicked him and I got my watch back. […] So when I say “the boys of Dungeon Lane,” I’m thinking of those two boys. Whereas then it splits out and spreads — “see the boys of Dungeon Lane,” well, it could be anyone from that area. And then the next line is, “some of them will feel the pain, but some were meant for more.” The guys who nicked my watch — I hope they feel the pain. And I hope we were meant for more.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Zane Lowe, May 2026

McCartney also talked about going down to the Mersey shore. “I was a big bird watcher,” he said, drawing a laugh as the audience assumed he meant girl watcher, using the British slang. “No,” McCartney said, indicated he really meant the winged variety.  

From Billboard, April 17, 2026 – From the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session, April 16, 2026

This was a lot of memories of Liverpool for me, but also any days we’ve left behind. Everyone’s got them – school, old mates. [The song, he added, seemed to write itself] It has memories of John in the middle, that’s lovely to go back to. Someone said: ‘What’s the secret code?’ I’m not telling! [laugh] You make a lot of stuff up when you write songs.

Paul McCartney – From The Guardian, May 5, 2026 – From the “Boys of Dungeon Lane” listening session in London, May 5, 2026

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“Days We Left Behind” has been played in 1 concerts.

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