Having fun jamming with the greatest band of all time, the Fab Four! Enjoy this new take on their classic love IF I FELL from their 3rd studio album "A Hard Days Night" released on July 10, 1964.

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#sixties

I was 12 years old when the Beatles came to the US in 1964, a perfect age to become a Beatlemaniac.  In reading teen magazines prior to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, my favorite was George.  But that changed the night of February 9, 1964, when glued to the TV set as were 73 million other people, I fell under Paul McCartney’s spell.  For the rest of the 60’s, I read anything and everything written about him and the other Beatles.  True Beatlemania had set in.

 

But over the years, I can’t say that I’ve read all that has been written and actually this is the first biography that I’ve read about Paul.  So I can’t compare it to other biographies about him and I can’t really say whether there’s new information contained in it or not.  A lot of it was old to me but a lot of it I didn’t know before reading this book.  What drew me to this particular book was that I had read that the author, Philip Norman, was quite against Paul in his 1980’s book “Shout”, saying that “John Lennon was three quarters of the Beatles” but has since then changed his opinion of Paul and wanted to set the record straight.

 

In this book, the author had tacit approval from Paul, meaning that, while Paul wasn’t actually cooperating in the writing of the book, he wasn’t interfering either and that opened doors to Mr. Norman.  At the end of the book, the author says that he uncovered a different McCartney than the world thought they knew, a man who was a perfectionist and a workaholic.  But that’s the McCartney I’ve come to “know” over the years.  How else could he have accomplished what he has?  So I didn’t actually discover a “new” Paul but rather the book confirmed what I already thought about him.

 

This is a very comprehensive biography, starting off with the births and upbringings of his parents and ending in present day.  The author is a very good storyteller and I found the book to be readable and entertaining.  I gulped when I first saw the 849-page figure on my e-reader but there are many photos (many of which I’ve never seen) and the book just flew by.  The author also does a fine job detailing the history behind many of Paul and John’s songs and the meaning of the lyrics, which I found to be very interesting.  All in all, it seems to be an honest portrayal of my fav Beatle and I enjoyed reading it.

 

This book was given to me by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I must state, right at the beginning, that I am an unabashed Beatles and Wings fan.  This is the music with which I grew up, and there was a time in my life when I devoured every word that was written about either band, and Paul McCartney in particular.  I thought I knew everything there was to know.

Except that I didn't ... and this book proves it.

McCartney speaks quite frankly to Scottish journalist Tom Doyle in this book, as do many of his former bandmates and friends.  He opens up about his nervous breakdown and constant battles with depression, largely crediting the late Linda McCartney for helping him get through those dark and difficult times.  There is a lot of discussion about his music, of course, and how the (largely  press-manufactured) battles between McCartney and John Lennon affected his work ... but there is also a lot to learn about his decision to get out of the proverbial rat race and live on a farm in Scotland, and how the isolation had a healing effect on him as well.

McCartney is both jocular and more than a little foul-mouthed (as one might expect from a fellow who grew up in a rough town like Liverpool), and is likewise pretty frank about how he sees some of the mistakes he made over the years. 

Some of the things that surprised me the most were learning about how lean the post-Beatles years really were, with so much of the band's money tied of in litigation.  McCartney lived in a house with dirt floors, for example.  Wings sideman Denny Laine, the former lead singer for the Moody Blues, was homeless and sleeping on a mattress in his manager's office when McCartney asked him to come to Scotland to work on a project.  No one was rolling in the proverbial dough, and yet the creative impulse was still flowing strong.

This is the kind of book that I recommend not only for Beatles fans, but for those who tend to think of the recording industry as being way more glamorous than it really is.  I feel like I gained a great deal of insight into McCartney via this book ... as well as an understanding that it is really only the tip of the iceberg.

This is a great interview, which will be treasured by true Beatles' fans.  Interesting, funny, entertaining, insightful, irreverent, and more.  I loved it.

Get Back To Where I've Never Gone.
I've read about the Beatles and I've read about Lennon, but I'd never read about McCartney, and I supposed it was about time. You see, because of bios and whatnot that I've read about Lennon, my boyhood idolization of him lost its shine. As a consequence, Paul's star rose subconsciously in my mind, and I knew that wasn't fair. It was time to level the playing field and Peter Ames Carlin's book steamrolled it.

I Should've Let It Be.
Paul McCartney has the reputation of an attention-grabbing, soulless popstar. Sure, the people say, he's written some catchy tunes, but Lennon's the one who pumped heart and soul into the lyrics. I knew the reputations (and I also knew to take some of that with a grain of salt), but what I didn't expect was the level of Paul's desire for fame: Paul to manager Brian Epstein, "If we all make it, that's fine. But if we don't, I'm going to be a star, aren't I Brian?" That sort of bare selfishness coming from a boy talking about his best mates makes it hard to stomach McCartney's attempts to portray the Beatles as all-for-one, four musketeers, blood-brothers for life. Everything's cool! Everything's groovy! We're all in this together! It wasn't and they weren't.

Take A Sad Song And Make It Sadder.
Death, tragedy, yes yes, the man's had it all and it's quite sad, but what really saddened me was Wings-errorera McCartney's attachment to the Beatles and Lennon. On the one hand it feels like puppy-dog, younger brother devotion to big dog/older brother figure John. On the other hand it stinks like a desperate man grasping to put it all back together, like a drunkard who's just realized his damaged marriage is all he's got.

I'm Happy Just To Read Of You
Icky, yes, this book makes me feel icky about Paul McCartney, but Carlin takes his digs at all four members as well as many in their entourage. But no, it's not all bad. I doubt I would've finished the book if it had been a cover to cover slam-fest of the man and all around him. The book just shows him worts and all. It's even-handed, almost journalistic. I hesitate to say it's completely unbiased, because Carlin clearly loves the music. He spends a great deal of time going over almost each song, especially during the Beatle years. Readers will find many pages worth of in-studio stories, as well as what they were thinking and going through while writing chart-toppers and life-alterers, those many three minute moments that have gone straight to the hearts of so many listeners. This isn't "my" music, I was born in '72, but The Beatles and post-Beatles songs were played heavily on the radio in my youth. I remember being about 4 years old sitting on an old area rug in the living room picking at the rubber matting underneath it through the foot-worn holes and thinking the lyrics to the song playing in the background, Band On The Run were actually "band on the rug," as in rubberband, the stuff I was plucking at. Oddly specific song, I thought. Regardless of my confusion (I've got it sorted now, thank you), the Beatles have played a major role in the soundtrack of my life, and I love them for it, even after reading this.

Come Together Ratings: 4.3
I'm struggling with the rating on this one. It was just about 5-star-enjoyable and it gave me everything I'd want out of a Paul McCartney bio, but still, I came away from the reading with a bad taste in my mouth. It's no fault of the author. Blame it on the doe-eyed manchild on the cover.