Paul McCartney

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.

Unlike some other reviewers, I have never read any Beatles' biography, however, if I were to choose, it would definitely be a "Paul" biography because I have always admired his creativity, stability, and longevity. That being said, I devoured this book and thoroughly enjoyed learning EVERYTHING about Paul's (and the Beatles') early years, how they met, their childhood tragedies, their music, their growing fame, their families, etc. I learned details that I've always wondered about Paul, and it was very satisfying to have a peek into his life.

This book follows Paul from his most early childhood, to his meeting John Lennon, to their crazy years in Hamburg, to their growing fame, to Beatlemania, to the slow breakdown of the Beatles, to his meeting Linda, to their life together, to the formation of Wings, their growing family, their crazy touring, Paul's maturing as an artist, Linda's death, the Heather Mills era, to present day with his new wife, Nancy Shevelle. It is indeed a "long and winding road" and I enjoyed 90% of it. Yes, there were paragraphs of factoid about who played at what concert, etc, etc., but sometimes, I just skim-read that because I don't know those people and it didn't interest me. I guess I have to say that it is the COMPLETE version.

The first three-quarters of the book were quite riveting, but I found that the "Wings" era dragged a bit because of all the name-dropping and changes in musicians, management, etc. It picked up speed with the "Heather" fiasco, and ended gently with Nancy. We finish with an impression of Paul as an admirable figure, not without a few flaws, but still an amazing Dynamo of a man. I recommend the book to anyone who always wanted to know everything about the "cute" Beatle - Paul McCartney