Paul McCartney
A Life
By Peter Ames Carlin
I bought
this book when it was published in 2009 but I didn’t get around to reading it
until five years later. I don’t know what got in the way. I had consumed
several Beatles books from Bob Spitz’s biblical volume to the Love You Make by
Derek Taylor, Phillip Norman’s Shout and Hunter Davies 2nd revised
edition of The Beatles. I was decided to explore Carlin’s book to get a deeper
understanding of why my favorite Beatle was becoming less intriguing to me especially
with the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison. I began listening to their
back catalog of music and was intrigued by their individual accomplishments
outside the Beatles canon and began to sour on McCartney’s silly love songs
preferring Lennon’s Avant Garde edginess and Harrison’s spiritual sensuality.
Carlin
begins his historical account with an overview of McCartney’s home life with
loving parents and life-long friendship with Ivan Vaughn. Paul lost his mother
when he was fourteen year old and he carried that loss for the rest of his life.
The pain would be revisited again and again leaving McCartney scarred, staring
into the abyss and losing his way by sheltering his emotions, unable to give a
voice to his sorrow.
McCartney
was the most beautiful Beatle but he was more than a pretty face. Carlin paints
an honest portrait of the man and the musician, warts and all. It gives the
narrative a sense of balance. He takes the reader for a ride through
Beatlemania through the eyes and ears of McCartney offered through first-hand
accounts from a cast of characters including lovers, musicians, managers,
various thieves as well as McCartney himself.
The early
stages of Beatlemania in 1963 and the later disaffection in 1969/70 are covered
convincingly. The Decca Audition was unconvincing for George Martin. He felt
that his young charges were not quite ready and that their songs were
unprofessional, yet he saw something in the lads that was compelling, their
humor and goof natured ribbing. So Martin plunged ahead and helped seal the
Beatles fate.
Carlin is
able to give nuance to the changes McCartney was experiencing as he became an
adult. His first serious adult romance was with Jane Asher. He moved into the
Asher home and learned about bourgeois values. Ultimately he proved to be an
unfaithful lover and went on to a series of relationships. Women were drawn to
his charm and incredible good looks. At this point of his life he was simply
beautiful. He hid several long lasting affairs with a series of beautiful women
including Peggy Lipton, Maggie McGivern and Francie Schwartz, his insecurity
reached mammoth proportions.
The 1967
glory of Sergeant Peppers is a powerful testament to the genius of the
Lennon/McCartney collaboration. They were the principal writers of the Beatles
catalog, one fed the other and the inspiration could be a nod and a wink. It
was a concept album in only a loosest form and the songs were linked not by a
prominent theme but on a fundamental assumption that Lennon asserted in
Strawberry Fields Forever, nothing is real. It was in this mindset that John
and Paul created an enduring masterpiece, A Day in the Life.
By 1968, the
cracks began to appear as each member of the band was growing into adulthood.
Carlin was able to untangle the layers of growth as well as the ongoing ennui
resulted from their self-imposed insularity. The world was not safe for them. The
Beatles fan base was massive yet there was always a threat from the silly
bourgeoisie, the authorities and the deranged. They were public figures,
perhaps the most endeared group of musicians since Frank Sinatra. They were
seekers and they tried acid, marijuana as well as transcendental meditation but
the Maharishi proved to be only too human, Lennon named him sexy Sadie. The
White album was created during the retreat and it revealed the growth of the
Beatles. Paul was wild and free and desperately unhappy. All of Paul’s affairs
ended in 1968 when Linda Eastman entered his life. He finally found a balance
in a love relationship. They married on March 12, and never looked back.
The Get Back
sessions began on January 2nd 1969 with cameras filming everything.
Tensions ran high as McCartney took on a self-anointed leadership role as the
other Beatles seethed. At various times each of the individual Beatles left the
sessions only to return. It was a fractious situation that did not provide a
good vibe for creative ideas to be exchanged. They launched into jams that
recalled their early catalog such as Every Little Thing and Strawberry Fields
Forever. Despite the discord the final product was incredible – Get Back, Let
it Be, Long & Winding Road, Two of Us, Don’t Let Me Down and I’ve Got a
Feeling. The atmosphere was so smacked out and angry that the tapes gathered
dust for several months until Phil Spector got the nod to work on the tapes.
The result was mixed as Spector’s wall of sound buried the nuance of many of
the songs.
Abbey Road
became the phoenix rising from the ashes. The four Beatles were all onboard and
the results were astonishing, a testament to their incredible craft. Harrison
wrote two of the best songs on the album. Something and Here Comes the Sun. The
youngest Beatle became a major player on the disc. McCartney was big brother to
his protégé though Harrison didn’t welcome McCartney’s largesse with open arms.
Carlin
eloquently writes about the losses in McCartney’s life starting with his mother
Mary followed by the deaths of John Lennon, George Harrison, childhood chum
Ivan Vaughn and Linda. Linda’s diagnosis
came in the same week that Free as Bird was released (from the Beatles
anthology). It also coincided with the Anniversary of John Lennon’s death. The
was a loving marriage that would teeter on the brink, often due to Paul’s
demands yet it sustained itself for 29 years until Linda’s death in April 17th
1998. Upon Linda’s death Paul
released a statement, “The world is a better place because of her; I love you
Linda. Paul XXX XXX.
Carlin
reported that in June 2007 Paul helped dedicate a monument to John. Yoko
accepted the honor for her late husband. She referred to Paul as a magnificent
man and all the surviving Beatles and their kin as family. She concluded “The
Beatles family is a very very strong family.”
Carlin was
able to give us all a glimpse of the real Paul McCartney, warts and all. He was
a great songwriter, a philanthropist and an egomaniac. He was loved by many and
loathed by some. He reached the zenith of a creative spark as a Beatle though
he diluted his image as a solo artist, he is only human. Now he faces old age
as a seventy-two year old man who dies his hair brown and keeps himself
manicured for the press. He is a wonder and a blustery cad. In his
collaboration with The Fireman, Paul helped create Electric Arguments. It is an
incredible musical statement, Paul sings…
Listen to me…can you hear me
Feel the choir, feel the thunder
Everywhere a sense of childlike
wonder!
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