The Talent Contest

The Final Chapter of The Memoirs of Billy Shears

The Talent Contest includes the lyrics to 28 previously unpublished songs that you will enjoy as poetry about love, money, the death of Paul, a subterranean reptilian, and more. These songs support and extend the book content, and are also part of a worldwide contest.

Using the lyrics of one or more of the 28 songs in this chapter, you can write, record, and enter your own music into the talent contest. The best entries will win a recording contract to include those winning recordings on an upcoming Billy Shears CD. Winners will be introduced in the CD booklet, and will receive royalties on the CD and on MP3 downloads.

September 9, 2018 (nine years from the 09-09-09 release of the Memoirs of Billy Shears) ends the first round of entries.  Scroll down for the Talent Contest details at the right.

When the book was first published, on 09-09-09, it included the song, "To the Hills of Heather Mills." This song will NOT appear on the Billy Shears CD, or on any McCartney release.

"To the Hills of Heather Mills"

It takes a mountain that must be climbed
To teach us who we each can be
A little mud splashed in one's eye
Sometimes is what it takes to see.
It takes a woman as whole as her
To complete a broken man like me
And when each hill's a joy to climb
It heals a broken man like me

So to the hills with Heather Mills
Come what will
She's my woman, I'm her man
She doesn't care if I'm Paul or Bill
Come what will
She loves me for the man I am

You are the flower of my mountains
You're the secret of my fields
Let me breathe your fragrant wonder
Buried in your golden hills
You satisfy my every hunger
I know all the thrills of Mills
In the flowers of our mountains
Is where I feel the thrills of Mills

So to the hills of Heather Mills
Come what will
She's my woman, I'm her man
She doesn't care if I'm Paul or Bill
Come what will
She loves me for the man I am

The following song replaces "To the Hills of Heather Mills" in this Talent Contest.

"Couldn't Happen Any Other Way,"

Eventually, we reach the point of ecstasy.
We start out slow and grow to be
aligned with more intensity.
So teasingly, I touch your places just to see
you scream for more of that from me
until relief eventually.

Naturally, life plays out as it's meant to be.
There's no point in wishing more for me.
To love what is is all we need.
Eventually, we find a place where there's no need
to second guess what's here for me.
It all unfolded naturally.

The old day would grow dim
before the new one would begin.
And though I know you miss him,
it's now a brighter day,
and it couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.

And teasingly, you fill my soul with energy
that's only made for you and me
to blast through levels boundlessly.
I flow through you.  You flow through me.
And feel the pulse of life set free,
rejuvenating pleasingly.

Creatively, with tracks on tracks revealing me
I layer meaning, sounds, and sing
that I am he, though he's not me.
I take him where he needs to be
and give him credit endlessly
transcending all creatively.

The old day would grow dim
before the new one would begin.
And though you think you miss him,
it's now a brighter day,
and it couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.

Inevitably, the light prevails, and we all see
what had been hidden secretly—
the darkest plots for pain and greed.
But globally, in full entirety,
emerging from the old 3-D,
is that new world that inevitably is bound to be.

And then, in all serenity,
we grow to what we're meant to be
without threats from insanity,
we children of the world are free.
The birthing of awareness brings
the pains, then freedom with new wings.

The old day would grow dim
before the new one would begin.
And though you say you miss him,
it's now a brighter day,
and it couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.

I say, the old day's growing dim
before the new one can begin.
And though maybe you miss him,
it's now a brighter day,
and it couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.
It couldn't happen any other way.

Here are two more samples from among the 28 contest songs:

"Flies and Bees to Emily"

She said that when she died
a fly was buzzing in her ear.
She didn't know quite what it said.
It wasn't very clear.
Friends, relations, neighbors,
loved ones, everyone stood still.
But no one heard the whispering
or buzzing in her ear.

Her words went on without her
and told the world about her.
The poetry of Emily
is read in books by you and me.
So now maybe we know her;
but where is she? Where is she?

For me it was quite different.
A yellow light turned red.
An unexpected accident
Poor boy has lost his head.
Strangers gathered ‘round the car.
The woman screamed and cried.
Two bobbies and a paramedic
Took me for a ride.

His words go on without him
to tell the world about him.
The songs I sing as Paul who died
reveal the love we could not hide.
So now maybe you know him;
but where is he? Where is he?

Our manager paid handsomely
and threatened to do harm
If they did not deliver me
straight to this berry farm.
That's when I heard the flies swarming
Or maybe they were bees.
It doesn't really matter here
in fields of strawberries.

 
"Land Mines"
[NOTE: The Vietnamese name “Thuy” is pronounced “Twee.”]

It was on Thuy's seventh birthday.
She was running in the field
And the birds were singing peacefully
‘til she stepped in hate concealed.
And although she lived to tell about
that day she lost her legs,
Twelve years later you still see her
in the village where she begs.

Wars may come, and wars may go,
but the landmines stay forever.
Since World War II,
they're as good as new
when you step too near the lever.

There are fifty million landmines
hidden just below the ground.
Each day fifty people step on them
and hear that awful sound.
When the battling is over
and the nations become friends,
we think casualties are counted,
but the killing never ends.

Wars may come, and wars may go,
but the landmines stay forever.
Since World War II,
they're as good as new
when you step too near the lever.

It was on Thuy's seventh birthday.
She was running in the field
And the birds were singing peacefully
‘til she stepped in hate concealed.
There are millions more just like her
to be badly maimed or slain.
They are powerless to fight it.
Only we can stop such pain.

Wars may come, and wars may go,
but the landmines stay forever.
Since World War II,
they're as good as new
when you step too near the lever.
Yes, wars still come, and then they go,
but the landmines stay forever.
Since World War II,
they're as good as new
when you step too near the lever.