Exclusive Interview with Musicians Yvonne Lyon and Boo Hewerdine
Things Found In Books is an album inspired by the forgotten scraps that staff at Culzean Castle’s second-hand bookshop recovered.
Things Found In Books is an album inspired by the forgotten scraps that staff at Culzean Castle’s second-hand bookshop recovered as they leafed through the stock, then pinned to a noticeboard. Singer songwriters Yvonne Lyon and Boo Hewerdine were enchanted by these photos, notes and postcards – the glimpses they gave into other lives and memories stirred up from their own. Ahead of their visit to Wigtown Book Festival we asked them each to tell us about one of the songs.
Yvonne Lyon: Salvador Dali and Me
When I saw the postcard of Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of The Cross on the noticeboard I felt a deep connection with the image and had to write the song.
I suppose the song is ‘tryptic’ in form. Firstly, I was transported back to being a child and spending time with my grandma in the West End of Glasgow. We would get the number 59 bus to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and be the first to arrive. That was my first encounter with the painting and it filled me with wonder.
As a rather “misplaced” music student at Glasgow University I remember sitting under that painting regularly and pondering life. On one occasion I had to submit a 12 tone composition for my course (I hated 12 tone composition!) and, on finishing at 2am, I called it Swans Reflecting Elephants as it was full of retrograde themes and it was the poster on my wall in my student bedroom!
Then, later I would take my Dad to the gallery to hear the famous organ recital at 1pm. We would visit the Dali too. Dad wasn’t into visual art but he was a wonderful musician in bands in the 60s and as a church organist later in life. It was poignant for us because he had suffered a stroke and was no longer able to play. He also had a deep faith.
The song is about mystery and memory, the cosmos and the tiny detail of the mundane, faith and myth and transcendence…whatever that really means!
Boo Hewardine: Paul McCartney In 1970
In one book someone had left a picture of the recently ex-Beatle scruffy on his Mull of Kintyre farm. Underneath was written Paul McCartney in 1970. I started to wonder who and why? I pictured a couple, perhaps contemporaries, starting a new phase of their lives like Paul. “I had a Bedford van I borrowed from my Dad we went Anglesey in June”. There’s a couple of Easter eggs in the song. Musically I wanted the bridge to be as Lennonesque as possible. That thing he’d do, a one note melody that the chords wove around And in the last verse, “the sky a shade of Kodak blue”. Linda was an Eastman - her family owned Kodak.
In a song you have to balance information with brevity to some extent. So, you want every line to pack a punch. The challenge is to make the words sing as well as to resonate poetically. I tried to tell a big story as economically as possible. All the way through the writing process I could picture the couple. And though they were old now they are still the same pair who headed off on an adventure that still continues. All through history there have been talismanic figures that people use as emotional bellwethers. To have saved a picture of somebody who keeps finding new melodies to sing is pretty sweet. My imagined couple no doubt went to watch him recently. Not in the spirit of nostalgia but of parallel journey. A living keepsake.
Lyrics: Paul McCartney in 1970
When the world was new
We were young too
Me and you
I had a Bedford van
I borrowed from my dad
We went to Anglesey in June
The fairy moon
Me and you
And all we’ll ever be is fiction and mythology
If we are on our own
I know it’s obvious but take a look at us
Not meant to be alone
And when I go to sleep
I let it all rewind
The sky a shade of Kodak blue
And all that’s true
Is me and you
Me and you
You can purchase tickets for Yvonne Lyon and Boo Hewerdine's performance can be purchased online.
The PDF of the 2025 Wigtown Book Festival programme can be downloaded here, or book your tickets online.