PAUL McCARTNEY – A Life by Peter Ames Carlin
In the days following the Beatles’ break-up in the fall of 1969, Paul McCartney faced a devastating crisis. “I’d outlived my usefulness,” he would remark.
This revelation and others that recount the painful parts of McCartney’s life reveal a vulnerable side to the beloved pop icon in a new biography.
In a meeting on Sept. 20, 1969, after the “Abbey Road” album had been completed, McCartney pitched several new projects to the other Beatles, including small, unannounced shows in the UK and a TV special. John Lennon then announced, “The group is over! I’m leaving!”
The imminent demise of the world’s greatest rock and roll band sent McCartney, only 27 years old, reeling for weeks. With wife Linda and their two children, he retreated to his farm on the west coast of Scotland, where he slummed around drinking whiskey and ingesting drugs. Possibly the most prolific songwriter ever, McCartney lacked the focus and energy to write new songs.
Finally, in December ’69 he moved the family back to London, where he, George Harrison and Ringo Starr did some overdubs to complete the “Let It Be” album. Then he began writing songs for what essentially became a homemade album that jump-started his solo career.
Some of the other painful times in McCartney’s life that the book details are: the death of his mother Mary (cancer) when he was 14; the death of Linda, also a cancer victim, in 1998; his disastrous and brief marriage to Heather Mills; the deaths of Lennon and Harrison, and litigation involving the ex-Beatles. After Linda’s death he entered grief therapy with a psychologist.
The book provides a blow-by-blow account of how the Beatles’ financially troubled Apple Corps sought a savvy lawyer to save it from ruin. John, Ringo and George favored Allen Klein, who ultimately got the job. But Paul fought hard to give the task to his father-in-law’s firm, Eastman & Eastman. Paul never got over that defeat, knowing that Klein was making a 20 percent commission on profits he himself generated. On Nov. 15, 1970, McCartney filed suit demanding that the Beatles be broken up in every conceivable way.
George, Ringo and Yoko Ono sued Paul in the 1980s over his escalated Beatles royalties he negotiated for himself from the EMI record label. The case was resolved when EMI agreed to give the others the same rate. But the bad blood kept Paul from joining the others at the Beatles’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ’88.
Many fans may not know how close McCartney came to marrying in 1961. His teenaged girlfriend, Dorothy Rhone, became pregnant. Paul and Dot were ready to tie the knot in a civil ceremony until “fate intervened” and she miscarried. That derailed the wedding, and the relationship soon ended. Two years later Paul began a lengthy relationship with British actress Jane Asher.
Carlin wrote much about McCartney’s musical collaboration with Lennon. The two hit it off as a writing tandem almost immediately. Beatle manager Brian Epstein and publisher Dick James hatched the idea of forming Northern Songs, a company that would own the Lennon-McCartney compositions.
Paul, according to Carlin, also sought to balance the surliness that Lennon often displayed to the news media and public. John seemed to want to escape the pressures of fame, but Paul craved the attention in the limelight.
A mighty revelation came during the Beatles’ final tour in 1966. While listening to an advance tape of the “Revolver” album, Lennon admitted to McCartney, “Your songs are better than mine.” Carlin assesses, “Such moments warmed Paul’s heart and fired his confidence even further.”
I had hoped for some McCartney reaction to the honor the British government bestowed upon in the Beatles in the form of MBEs in June 1965. But Carlin barely mentions the award. Fortunately, more is said about the Queen’s knighting of Sir Paul in March 1997.
Carlin often turns the book into an album review. In detailing various recording sessions throughout McCartney’s career, the biographer describes songs as if we’ve never heard them, though they are decades old and already well known throughout the world.
Amid the contention that arose among Paul, George and Ringo while they recorded John’s song “Free As A Bird” in 1994, a touching moment in the biography occurs. Carlin writes, “Perhaps no amount of time, nor joyous reunions, nor shared history, could resolve all of the tension crackling in the air between the Beatles.” But as work progressed, the lads revisited their old, friendly ways. “One afternoon the three Beatles all but brought business to a stop by wandering down the hall to the studio canteen … they sat together eating and giggling, just as they might have done between ‘Love Me Do’ takes in 1962.”
Fans may be surprised to read how Paul appeared headed for teachers’ college in Liverpool as he neared high school graduation. But a trip to Hamburg, Germany, as a member of the Beatles in 1960 sent him on the road to a career as a musician.
What Paul’s fans probably won’t want to learn is how he recruited the members of Wings in 1972 and paid each a paltry 70 pounds a week along with the promise of more money after recordings and concerts got funds flowing. It was years before Paul made good on that promise.
McCartney’s life is all in the book, from the courtship of his parents to his relationship with then-girlfriend Nancy Shevell (they were married on Oct. 9, 2011). One fact that pervades his story is that Paul needs music constantly flowing through his life and, as a part of our history, we need Paul’s music in our lives.
