Customer Reviews

Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

562 pages of text, 4 pages of Acknowledgements, and an Index.There are 16 pages of b&w and color photographs (from boyhood through his later solo tours) grouped together in the book.

Yes, this is another book about Paul McCartney/THE BEATLES. But what makes this particular book even more interesting, is that the author, Howard Sounes (who has written fine biographies on Bob Dylan and Charles Bukowski), writes about McCartney in conjunction with the era when THE BEATLES were forming and went on to change music forever. Sounes also delves into McCartney's life after THE BEATLES, which, taken altogether, paint a fuller picture of McCartney's life in and out of music, including new information concerning his marriage and subsequent divorce from Heather Mills. For this biography Sounes has interviewed more than 200 people, which is obvious from the details found in this straight forward reading book.

This book is informative and entertaining, not only through Sounes writing, but various comments and anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book. There are chapters devoted to McCartney's boyhood, the forming of THE BEATLES, their time spent in Hamburg, Germany honing their musical skills, coming to America as popular artists, and McCartney's wedding to Linda Eastman. there's also much information on THE BEATLES differences and their subsequent breakup. From that point McCartney goes on to form his band WINGS, which the book goes into in some detail. After that the chapter concerning the reformation of THE BEATLES as a "threesome" is delved into along with the release of the three CD volumes and book ("The Anthology") which took an in depth look at the groups career. Linda McCartney's death is given much weight in the book and how it affected McCartney. From there the book goes into some depth about Heather Mills meeting with McCartney, and their life together through their divorce. For those interested in new details concerning the McCartney's divorce, there's much new information which gives a better picture of just what went on during and after their marriage. The book ends with McCartney, now single, recording and releasing albums under the name Fireman, and his subsequent solo tours back where THE BEATLES came together musically, in Hamburg, Germany.

All through this well researched and written book the effort the author puts into anchoring McCartney to specific times and places really gives this book an interesting slant on everything. The feel for the era is very nicely portrayed and helps give a better picture of McCartney, THE BEATLES, and that long ago era. Taken together this is a very interesting, at times highly informative, and personal look at Paul McCartney's life, both in and out of music. Sounes has written a good book, and his feel for his subject is apparent. If you want to know about McCartney's life past the surface, this would be a good place to start. If you've already read other books about McCartney, this book is still worthwhile for the new information, and the author's way with combining both the man and the times.

It's not that this is a badly written book. It's not that we haven't heard most of this history before (we have). It's more that the author seems to have a distaste for McCartney's songwriting.

Paul could be lazy, particularly on the lyrical end. And his post-73 material is a difficult slog, even for his biggest fans. Having said that, it seems criminal to read page after page dismissing Paul's contribution to music as inferior, especially to Lennon's anger. Some of McCartney's biggest and best loved Beatles' songs even come under attack. The author seems to forget that The Beatles' legacy owes a lot to McCartney's cheerful optimism. In many ways, it's what defines The Beatles.

Beyond that, Paul's work ethic and ambition, without which The Beatles' best work would never have occurred, is endlessly ridiculed. I'm sure Paul is full of himself. I'm sure he could be a real jerk at times. But using this as an excuse to reconsider his place in musical history (and The Beatles) is not only unfair, it's unfortunate. He deserves better.

It is never good, in any genre, for a critic to review a work that is contrary to his natural abilities nor outside the area of his comprehension. That author/subject disconnect is the situation with this work.

The book is annotated professionally, but easily 90% of the material in the book up to the Mills trainwreck/divorce can be found elsewhere, and is sometimes taken from elsewhere. If you are one that sees McCartney no longer as a creative force, but simply a world class performer of (his own) cover tunes, then his personal life isn't of great significance. Paul, post Linda, is a bit of a shadow. Personally, I don't want to know any more about Ms. Mills. I know too much already. So the one strength of this book is not appealing to this reviewer, though in fairness I note it.

As for this book's shortcomings, these are really shortcomings of Mr. Sounces, and are vividly demonstratable. McCartney has unique talents. At one time he used them to dominate and reshape the pop music genre. After that domination, his composing talents still remained vibrant and constructive for a good 20 years. The problem with this book is that Mr. Sounces, at his core, does not like, nor can he appreciate, Mr. McCartney's great talents in general, nor their particular flavor and uniqueness in particular. Sounces denounces (a frequent habit) one of McCartney's post-Beatle songs called "Magneto and Titanium Man" (from the "Venus and Mars" album). He dares the reader to try to listen to that song now, as if it would be painful for anyone to do so. But the facts about Magneto are 1)it is a very pleasant, light pop song that only Paul could write, 2)it is inventive in that it contains "rap" prior to rap even getting its foothold, 3)it contains some endlessly inspired bass playing that is sustainable for multiple listenings (and whose brilliance is obvious over 25 years later) and 4)it contains a uniquely Paul vocal performance where he gives you three - actually four, including the rap -- four different vocal timbres (or styles) IN ONE SONG. These last two bits - bass playing and singing - are things Mr. McCartney does like nobody else in rock. Nobody. If you do not know this you should not be writing a book about McCartney. If you can not see the bass virtuosity and vocal cunning Paul casually throws at you via "Magneto", then you should not be writing about McCartney, because you are tone deaf to his gifts and brilliance.

There are lots of McCartney biographies out there. This one is detailed, but it is certainly in the bottom half in terms of quality. And because it is written by a man who can not appreciate McCartney's truly unique gifts, it is a book that should never ever be first on your list. Anyone giving this book as a gift does Mr. McCartney in particular, and rock music history in general, a disservice. Better would be to gift "Venus and Mars" and point out to the benefactor "sometime checkout 'Magneto and Titanium Man' - it's amazing." Because it is, even after all this time.

I purchased this book because it promised to tell Paul's life after the Beatles and up until his marriage with Heather. I understand it is his book, but if you are going to try and sell me a biography, I expect it to be objective and I don't expect you to show me how much you dislike the subject of your book. I really regret expending money on this, the writing was nothing out of this world and Mr. Sounes constant opinion added to every aspect of Paul's life makes it look as an article written for any given tabloid instead of an scholar book about one of the most influential men in history.

"Fab" is a rather mean-spirited 634-page slog through Paul McCartney's personal life that sheds no light on him as a musician. The book's subtitle, "An intimate life of," apparently indicates Sounes' interest in detailing McCartney's life apart from his music. But music is central to who he is, and without a better account of it, "Fab" reads like the world's longest research paper. There's an endless succession of "Then this happened, then this, and X said Y, but Z said . . . " Sounes deserves some credit for thoroughness, but the pedestrian writing and Sounes'evident disdain for his subject make this book extremely disappointing.

If you're interested in McCartney's music, here are some books that describe and analyze it:

* Tony Bacon and Gareth Morgan, "Paul McCartney: Playing the Great Beatles Basslines"
* Vincent P. Benitez, "The Words and Music of Paul McCartney"
* Howard Elson, "Paul McCartney, Songwriter"

Benitez and Elson are justly critical of some of McCartney's work (Bacon and Morgan only discuss songs they think are great). All three of these books evince an enjoyment of his best music and an ability to illuminate it that Sounes' book does not. And John Blaney's "Lennon and McCartney: Together Alone" is a sensitive, far-ranging analysis of both men's solo work.

How can Sounes say virtually nothing about McCartney's bass playing? It's like writing a biography of Jimi Hendrix without discussing the way he plays guitar, or the life of Janis Joplin without describing how she sings. There's also very little mention of his singing, and the analysis of his songs is shallow.

Sounes seems fundamentally out of sync with McCartney's personality and music. There's no question that Sounes is on target when he dismisses some of McCartney's weaker solo material (I'd chew off my own arm to avoid ever hearing "The Girl Is Mine" or anything from "Pipes of Peace" again). But saying "Maybe I'm Amazed" is no classic? Asserting that "Ram" is "not and never was in the same class as 1970s classic albums" because it lacks "musical and/or intellectual weight"? Only if you disregard the music and don't pay enough attention to the lyrics. Sounes seems to like moderately a handful of McCartney's solo songs, and to dislike actively the rest. He's got a right to his opinion, of course, but I really wish that someone writing a tome about McCartney's life appreciated his best music more.

I think Sounes' dislike of so much of McCartney's music stems from two things: Sounes is much more focused on lyrics than on sound, and he approaches every song with the same level of seriousness. McCartney is more like Brian Wilson than like Bob Dylan, the subject of Sounes' previous biography. For Wilson and McCartney, the music -- the sound, the harmony -- is paramount. Lyrics are important, but they're far from everything, and Sounes writes as if the lyrics are the songs. In addition, the tone and seriousness of McCartney's songs ranges widely, but Sounes writes as if every song should have the weight of "Eleanor Rigby." I laughed out loud when Sounes said "Hi, Hi, Hi" shouldn't have been released because it's so clearly about sex and drugs. Where does this guy think the term "rock and roll" came from?

I was left wondering what motivated Sounes to write "Fab." The closest he comes to talking about this is on pages 420-21, where he describes going to his first McCartney concert, in 1990, and becoming "a convert to Paul McCartney as a live performer." More analysis of McCartney as a performer, and less retailing of seemingly every remark anyone's ever made about him, would make this book vastly more interesting.

At the end of the book Sounes says he wasn't looking to find fault with McCartney, but to study him under a microscope. Yet he consistently inclines toward a negative view of McCartney when the facts would support more than one opinion. One of the grating aspects of "Fab" is Sounes' use of familiar nicknames for the people he's writing about -- Linda McCartney is "Lin," Ringo Starr is "Ritchie," etc. This kind of faux intimacy is especially nauseating when it's paired with the snarkiness that much of Sounes' writing displays.

"Fab" is a case study in what happens when a biographer writes about someone he or she just doesn't connect with -- far from getting an objective look at the subject, you get a profound lack of insight.

What a shocker that so many people gave this book so much more credit than it's due!

When you hear a Paul McCartney song, you think of him as a man of many voices; the Beatle with the most potential...the one who demonstrated the hardest work ethic for the group; a man who plays countless instruments; one of the best rock bass players of our time; a writer and a composer of music; and/or a living Beatle who we want to know more about, as fans.

From the title of this book, and what I thought to be above average favorable reviews, I decided to buy this book yielding over 600 pages and I read every single word with the exception of the Notes and the Index in the back of the book.

I am an avid reader of true stories/biographies, etc. I am not apt to Review a book which I did not like, and I must say I don't think I've written a Review giving it only two stars, but I have to this time for other Beatle Fans, and for Paul McCartney. (No, I am not a love-sick teen of the sixties, but I do know when someone is trying to destroy another person's reputation by writing about them in a consistant critical form, chapter after chapter.)
The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS are at the end of the book. The author states as part of a sentence, "I did not have an agenda to find fault with Sir Paul..." And he continues to tell us that he tried to tell the epic story of his life as fairly and as truthfully as he found his facts from studying Paul "as an entomologist might put another kind of beetle under the microscope."
Look, I have problems with the entire book as it was written in a critical way. I found the author looking for petty views of this man he was writing about. For instance, in the research that he did, it appears that he probed to get a tense angle on Paul, no matter what the setting, who the person interviewed, whatever a situation 'looked like', without knowing for certain. In a nutshell? This author tries to show us that Paul McCartney is a difficult person, and no matter what, he wound up each situation with that conclusion, as a
Beatle, then as a post Beatle.

I wish the author would have pointed out how successful Paul's 30 year marriage was to Linda. Though the author did a lot of coverage of her, again, he was was quite critical of her as a person and as a singer (which everyone probably does agree that Linda was in the Wings Band for Paul's confidence and could not sing.) The author plugged at her, yet never touched on the subject of how the couple handled her battle with cancer....you know...all the intimate stuff which he had on so many other lovers...yet not upon their cancer ride.

If you are not an avid reader, you might find this book too long for you. I read it all but sputtered to my husband for the three weeks of reading it that I was so disappointed in this author's style of writing...his demeanor of writing about P.M. throughout the entire book, but I was bound and determined to finish it, due to my devotion to reading the book in it's entirety, before I decided to add it to my personal home library or to sell it at my summer yard sale.

And if the Beatle's truths be told, as a band or post Beatles, you can get that information from their Anthology interviews.

Paul McCartney is the most influentual and most successful entertainer, songwriter, singer, musician and writing partner with John Lennon. History (has) will hold this proof in it's pudding! PEACE

Much has been written about Macca and this is one of the few volumes that I truly enjoyed (Hunter Davis' being my absolute fave). There are lots of good pictures--and this one is more about the latest stages of our Man ahd His Music--his brief life with Heather Mills and his wonderful touring that we've all been able to enjoy. So many authors focus on the early days--give us the now, and it's here.

Sounes is a journalist with some credibilty, having written a well-receive Bob Dylan bio, Down the Highway. Here, he gives us James Paul McCartney, from childhood through the Beatles and on into Wings and the present day (or 2009). There are no interviews with Sir Paul, who remains a bit of a cipher throughout because of his own reticence to speak about his personal life, but there is plenty of public record about the Beatle, and lots of other people who have gone on record over the years. This is a chatty biography, gossipy at its heart, but factual even in its telling of salacious details of Paul's personal entanglements.

Sounes is not a credentialed music critic, but that doesn't stop him from expounding on Paul's songwriting abilities, giving some credit, where it is certainly due (come on, he's Paul McCartney!), but too often dismissive of Paul's facile lyrics and 'pop' craftsmanship, especially when measured against the more serious, rocking output of John Lennon. Paul's post-Beatle songs, with Wings and alone, get the harshest criticisms, but Sounes is no more kind to George Harrison and especially mean-spirited to Ringo Starr, who is relegated to the status of a novelty act. Sheesh. The fractious relationships between Paul and his former bandmates are scoured for unpleasant details, including Paul's perhaps never-ending dislike for Yoko Ono. I'm not even a great fan of McCartney, but I grew tired of the nearly constant putdowns.

Paul's personal relationships are probably the most fun - his youthful cad behavior and promiscuity, his long relationship with and engagement to Jane Asher, the very successful union with the 'Lovely Linda,' with whom he enjoyed a supportive and strong marriage and partnership in raising a family he obviously loves deeply, and the disaster that was his second marriage to the lying, greedy, self-aggrandizing Heather Mills. The divorce that fascinated the public is documented publicly anyway, and Sounes delivers up the juiciest details.

The book ends with Paul as we know him now, touring successfully as the standard bearer of The Beatles legacy, enjoying his knighthood, wealth, and children, and keeping company with the pleasant and pretty private American divorcee Nancy Shevell. That's where we'll leave him.

I personally think this is the only book besides Many Years From Now and perhaps Salewicz's book if you can still find it, that is worthwhile. This and the already mentioned Many Years From Now, are the only two McCartney books that anyone really needs. The rest in my opinion, are either pointless, badly written, misguided, sloppily researched, and/or insubstantial. What Sounes has done is something that no other McCartney author has been able to do. He has created a rich, detailed, character study that neither villifies or canonizes. This is such a well rounded, nuanced account, I couldn't put it down. I can't say that for other Paul books, which have too many factual errors and play up to the myths and urban legends, perpetuating them instead of debunking them. Any author who has done his homework should create a work that presents the facts of a person's character, instead of the myths. And that is precisely what Sounes has done with this informative, exhaustingly detailed, entertaining, biography. Speaking of legends and parables, I was impressed that the "stingy" myth was finally put out of it's misery. Sounes expounds on Paul's generous ways with his loved ones, which doesn't simply include his kids, but his entire Liverpool family (many of whom are ungrateful and greedy), and old friends like Howie Casey and Horst Fascher, plus his penchant for gifts of expensive jewelry for wives and girlfriends, and a Rolls Royce for his father in law. Other myths are debunked as well, and various aspects of McCartney's personality that have been willfully misrepresented, are put into perspective. Sounes is so intuitive and he understands his subject very well. The end result is a balanced, human portrayal, where McCartney seems to jump off the page, with all of the facets of his personality revealed.

I gave this book four stars because although it was enjoyable and much better than other bios, it is not without it's major flaws. Like other reviewers, I found Sounes to be opinionated regarding Paul's solo work and even some of his best Beatles compositions like Here There and Everywhere. He has odd taste, lauding songs that I personally thought were not so great, while dismissing some of his best work. And he goes out of his way to disparage any song of Paul's that happenes to be about relationships, disregarding them as "silly love songs". This gets ridiculous after a while and quite uncalled for. Like other biographers before him, he seems to have no musical credentials so his opinions of McCartney's music are meaningless, and almost misguided. For someone who seems to have such strong opinions on the man's musical output, I found it strange that nowhere in this book is McCartney's bass playing mentioned. Does Sounes even hear it on the records? Does he realize what kind of musician McCartney is? One wouldn't think so, since he never mentions it at all. He also doesn't seem to understand McCartney's gift for melody, because he fails to go into much detail about this either. To Sounes, good music means good lyrics. And to Sounes, lyrics are only good if they talk about universal topics. If the lyrics are about love, there is a good chance Sounes will trash the song, even if it has a beautiful melody and a great arrangement. He doesn't seem to hear the arrangement or the melody. He only hears the lyrics as if he was listening to a poem rather than a piece of music. If a critique of McCartney's work is going to have any merit at all, it should focus on his gift for melody and arrangement, as well as a discussion of how he has improved as a musician throughout his career.....no small feat since he started at such a high point to begin with.

The other major flaw is Sounes glossing over, of Paul's deep bond with and love...which sometimes seems to border on obsession... for John Lennon. Like the music, Sounes dismisses all of this, as if it doesn't exist. For someone who seems so intuitive on his subject, this attitude is really obtuse. He willfully disregards songs that are plainly about Lennon, deciding that they must be about Jane Asher, Linda, or "just anybody". Likewise for someone who has done such exhaustive research, I find it hard to believe that he never came across the many accounts of Paul's unrelenting love for his song writing partner, most of which come from the musician's own mouth. Likewise in such an otherwise detailed, multifaceted book, he refused to discuss the many examples of Paul's hearbreak over John's exit from his life. One has to wonder why. In any case regardless of these major flaws, this book is well worth the time of any fan of McCartney. I learned a lot of interesting things.

This book is actually pretty informative and well written (sometimes you can't put it down).
In fact, it could have been a GREAT bio, if only the author would have been more objective and had kept his opinion on Mccartney's music to himself.
Really, nobody buy this book to hear Howard Sounes opinion's on Paul's music.

The moment he called "Here There and Everywhere" a weak song, I knew the guy knows nothing about music, and if I was going to keep reading the book, his opinion HAS to be ignored.

Apart from that, the book is good. A lot of good info on relevant topics and interviews from people close to Paul Mccartney.
A great read for any McCartney fan.