Paul McCartney: A Life [Paperback]

Peter A Carlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 2010

More than a rock star, more than a celebrity, Paul McCartney is a cultural touchstone who helped transform popular music as one half of the legendary Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. In this definitive biography, Peter Ames Carlin examines McCartney’s entire life, casting new light not just on the Beatles era but also on his years with Wings and his thirty-year relationship with his first wife, Linda McCartney. He takes us on a journey through a tumultuous couple of decades in which Paul struck out on his own as a solo artist, reached the top of the charts with a new band, and once again drew hundreds of thousands of screaming fans to his concerts. Carlin presents McCartney as a musical visionary but also as a layered and conflicted figure as haunted by his own legacy—and particularly his relationship with John Lennon—as he was inspired by it. Built on years of research and fresh, revealing interviews with friends, bandmates, and collaborators spanning McCartney’s entire life, Carlin’s lively biography captures the many faces of the living legend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the famous rumors of his death in 1969, Paul is alive and well in Carlin's hagiographic portrait of the creative genius behind the Beatles, the lead man of Wings and the brilliant though sometimes insecure solo artist still filling stadiums. Drawing on recent interviews with friends and McCartney's former band mates from Wings as well as on fresh research on the Liverpool lad, Carlin chronicles McCartney's life from his childhood love of music and his youthful entry into rock and roll with John Lennon in the Quarrymen to his meteoric rise to fame as one of the Beatles, his breakup with the band, his marriage to Linda Eastman and her death, and his recent marriage to and divorce from Heather Mills. Carlin rehearses the well-known story of the Beatles' breakup and Paul's disenchantment with Yoko Ono's role in leading the musical directions of the band. Feeling lost after the band dissolved, McCartney channeled his grief into his music, much as he did when his mother died when he was only 12, though critics both panned and praised his solo records. Since Barry Miles's definitive biography, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now), goes only up to Linda's death in 1998, Carlin's study brings the musician's life to his most recent solo album, Electric Arguments (2008). McCartney emerges from Carlin's admiring biography as a brilliant musician who provided the creative direction for the Beatles, who taught John Lennon how to play the guitar and who continues to create new musical challenges for himself even now, when he's moving past 64. What's missing are interviews with McCartney himself. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

More than half of Carlin’s McCartney biography overlaps the Beatles’ story. Carlin recounts the highs and lows most Beatle fans know, including McCartney’s Liverpool childhood, his mother’s tragic death, meeting John Lennon, the Beatles’ rowdy Hamburg days, the first U.S. tour, the chaotic glory years in the 1960s, and abandoning touring for the security of the recording studio. He chronicles the lawsuits, the personal rivalries, and the various couplings, successful and failed. On beyond the Fab Four days, he discusses McCartney’s solo career up to the 2007 release of his latest album, Memory Almost Full, and examines McCartney’s complicated personal life, including his marriage to Linda Eastman, her subsequent death, and the short, ill-fated marriage to Heather Mills. Written in a conversational style that becomes almost novelistic in tone, Carlin’s book breaks no new ground. Yet Beatles aficionados, especially the completists among them, will want to read it anyhow. --June Sawyers --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (October 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416562109
• ISBN-13: 978-1416562108
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Ames Carlin is a journalist and occasional writer of books, a resident of Portland, Oregon, an occasional modern dancer (no, really) and so much more, or possibly less, depending on your perspective.

He is also the author of PAUL McCARTNEY: A LIFE (Touchstone, November, 2009) and CATCH A WAVE: THE RISE, FALL AND REDEMPTION OF THE BEACH BOYS' BRIAN WILSON (Rodale, 2006).

The journalism career, ongoing since 1985 (approx.) includes many years of free-lancery in Portland (High points including cover stories in the New York Times Magazine and the Los Angeles Times Magazine, plus also co-authorship of BEYOND THE LIMITS (Little, Brown, 1993), the autobiography of mountaineer Stacy Allison. Then came the New York years, serving as a senior writer at People magazine (highlights: profiles of Brian Wilson, Ernest Hemingway and a brief, exciting jaunt to the first-ever rock 'n' roll fantasy camp). Then back to Portland to be The Oregonian newspaper's tv critic (highlights: Many, many trips to the TV Critics Association press tours in and around Los Angeles). These days he serves The O as a roving cultural reporter, a job which changes from day to day according to whim, fact and fancy. Mostly whim.

On a personal level: A wife and three children; a dog; running (when not injured), cycling (ibid) and swimming (when everything else fails). Piano and guitar. Listens to a lot of music, reads as much as possible, watches the better tv shows. Mostly cable, it seems.

The modern dance thing: A brief, yet explosive career as part of Linda Austin's Boris and Natasha Modern Dance troupe. All untrained (read: unskilled) guys, including, for some reason, prominent politicians, an artist, a bicycling advocate, and PAC. Three performances, all spring 2009, two at Austin's own space in Portland, the third (and last), in front of 3,000 people at Portland's Keller Auditorium, as part of the hugely successful fundraiser for Oregon Ballet Theater. Fellow performers, including principal dancers from the Joffrey, the NYC ballet, the SF ballet, and more, were remarkably patient, kind and non-violent, considering what we were doing to their beloved art, right on the same stage. You can find it on youtube. Search for 'Boris and Natasha on catnip.' It's short, weird and arguably disturbing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HOW MCCARTNEY'S LIFE INFLUENCED HIS MUSIC, November 2, 2009

By 

Stuart Jefferson (San Diego,Ca) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Paul McCartney: A Life (Hardcover)

Hardcover,340 pages of text,not including title page,contents,notes,etc. The paper stock and type face make this an easy to read book. There are eight pages of black and white photographs,which include THE BEATLES in Germany and elsewhere,WINGS,and even a shot of McCartney and Heather Mills showing their mutual affection for each other.

Yes,this is yet another biography of Paul McCartney. However,this book,thanks to author Peter Ames Carlin,takes the reader in a slightly different direction. This author was able to weave and juxtapose McCartney's life,with his human foibles,into his music making to a degree that hasn't been done previously. The author interviewed a number of McCartney's friends,associates,and bandmates,throughout McCartney's (now) long life,and has collected his findings into a crisp,clean,well written book.

Starting with McCartney's early life,which has been written about extensively (yet somewhat academically),we begin to catch a glimmer of how McCartney,the person,came to view both work and music (which eventually became one and the same),and life (especially with his late wife Linda),giving room especially to his later years when he was a "solo" (sans BEATLES) artist. This approach is both very refreshing and makes for rewarding reading. The writing style is crisp and on target. Along the way there are insights into the human side of McCartney and his view of the world,business and music-making. The author's writing style is fresh and invigorating-this isn't just another dull rehash of facts we've all read before. This book gives insight into why McCartney still matters to many listeners today. While there are no real startling observations,the reader will come away with a newer,perhaps better understanding of Paul McCartney the man,and the musician-and how the man and the music are inseparable.

56 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Seriously Disappointing, November 30, 2009

By 

rain cloud (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Paul McCartney: A Life (Hardcover)

There's been so much written about this band I really thought this guy would labor to bring his post beatle career to life. And I certainly thought--because the beatle's recording engineer wrote a great book a couple of years back, Geoff Emerick, "Here, There, and Everywhere"--I certainly thought because of important revelations in that book that this guy would go to some lengths to give McCartney his real due, which is that from Rubber Soul through Mystery Tour he was basically the Beatles arranger/producer and George Martin just dropped in occasionally to see if Paul needed anything.

You see, the thing a lot of people don't really consciously register about the Beatles is that--well,of course they had the fantastic song writing team. The Beatles had two songwriting geniuses, people who say it was just one or the other are ridiculous because if they'd only had one they would have looked much more like the Beach Boys, who had one. The Beatles had two, which is why we're still talking about them.

But they had something else, too. If you'll indulge me a short anecdote to illustrate.

In about 1982 I was lying alone in my apartment in the dark listening to a radio interview with Nelson Riddle, the music arranger who was a legend in the music business--he worked with nat king cole, with Frank Sinatra (for crying out loud), etc. At the end of the interview they asked him if there were any MUSIC ARRANGING GENIUSES working in the music business at that moment. He had a one-word answer: "Wings."

My point is that not only did the fabs have the writing team, they had a genius arranger/producer in paul McCartney. I remember arguing this years ago to a professional songwriter from Nashville and he interrupted me to say, "You're arguing the obvious--no one in the music business would deny that--"

I expected this point to be made and illustrated in this book but it wasn't. Just the same old crap: "Paul didn't pay the musicians enough. He argued with John. Linda had a baby." I expected more. This has all been done and done and done.

He did mention Lennon's "Come Together" was just a chuck berry style rocker until paul got hold of it, slowed it way down, invented the bass lick, invented the "shoom" sound on the mic, invented the drum part and wrote the electric piano solo which he then taught to Lennon. Listen, there were a LOT of songs lennon brought in that went like that. Geoff Emerick said McCartney regularly had a huge impact on Lennon songs but rarely did it work the other way around. Next time you listen to a lennon song like "Sexy Sadie" or "Cry Baby" from the White Album ask yourself how much those un-be-lievable arrangements contribute. Those are truly great songs but just listen to the artistry of those freaking arrangements--how the different instruments compliment each other like a little symphony, how they work together to express unified musical ideas. Then listen to Band on the Run and then listen to any solo lennon album and tell me who you think took that Beatle sound with them when they went their separate ways.

I also really appreciated him pointing out something I'd known quite a while--that McCartney basically taught john and george how to play guitar, he even had to teach lennon how to tune one.

I was also fascinated that mcCartney even as almost a child would not just play you a song but "give a performance" and when he played for boy scouts at camp, even if it was an audience of two hundred, it didn't phase him.

As a songwriter he was not really any better than Lennon but in every other category he dwarfed everyone around him. He was in many ways the heart and soul of the Beatles. I've long said his big mistake was that if he wanted to be the pretty one he damn sure shouldn't have been the most talented one. That's really what so many people had against him back in that era, he couldn't be the main one cause he was so obviously the pretty boy. Well, he was the main one. Maybe not fair but true.

The bottom line is if you've read more than one other book about Mr. McCartney you are probably going to find this a fairly entertaining rehash. The definitive book about him waits to be written. (Actually the one by Geoff Emerick was far superior to this because he had so much new to add and I appreciate it).

Lastly, I just read this book sitting on a plane and couldn't believe he gave a song-by-song description of the album Abbey Road. Is there anyone above the age of twelve in North America who hasn't heard Abbey Road? Do we really need to read a description of something even my seventeen year old daughter knows backwards and forwards? This sounds bitchy but it really struck me as almost filler. Tell me something I DON'T know, please. Thankyou for your attention.

P.S. I've been a fan of theirs since the first downbeat on ed sullivan and I NEVER liked paul more than john or john more than paul--i was always a total fan of both and totally in awe of their band. I even loved george and ringo.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The soul of wit, November 20, 2009

By 

LukeandNoah4ever - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paul McCartney: A Life (Hardcover)

This little masterwork is a great introduction to and portrait of "the cute Beatle". In the book, the image of McCartney veers between hardworking genius driven by a desire for fame and fortune and slacking bon vivant given to superficial efforts and some fairly predictable human weaknesses. The ample notes section at the back reveals that Carlin has done his homework. As someone who has read a fair share of Beatles' history, I found the book tells old tales well, mines some new territory (particularly in the area of Paul's business sense), and does real justice to the Paul vs. John debate. While clearly somewhat enamored of his subject, Carlin isn't afraid to call McCartney for slip ups on or off the stage. Best of all, Carlin has built off his previous success with the Brian Wilson biography by writing with great style about music. The specific chords, lyrics and riffs you've heard your whole life are put instantly into context under Carlin's hand. The descriptions of various concerts and studio sessions give you a real sense of being there.