July 7, 2014
The 1970s were not kind to Sir Paul McCartney. Blamed for the breakup of The Beatles, critically savaged by rock critics for seemingly inconsequential LPs and silly love songs such as "Silly Love Songs," McCartney seemed as lost and obsolete as his fellow ex-Beatles by the decade's end. But accomplished rock journalist Doyle (The Glamour Chase) presents a solid, detailed, and, above all, honest reappraisal of McCartney's work that tells a compulsively readable tale "of a man living outside normal society and, for better or for worse, acting on his own tangential whims, during a chaotic and fascinating period of his life." Using material from numerous interviews with McCartney, as well as the major players in his career, Doyle is not afraid to be critical, such as his opinion for the sometimes mediocre work of Sir Paul's so-called "band" Wings: "McCartney was flanked by yes-men and, as a result, was isolated." But Doyle also makes a strong argument for the validity of much of McCartney's most maligned works, such as "Ram," which he sees as "something of a marvelâ¦the true successor to âAbbey Road,' in its baroque detail and flights of imagination, it was variously funny, daft, touching, and knowing."
June 1, 2014
A close-up study of Paul McCartney's first post-Beatles decade.It's one measure of how messed-up the music business is and of how competitive the former band mates were that John Lennon lamented, in the 1970s, that McCartney had amassed a $25 million fortune, much more than Lennon had. Lennon's pile would quickly grow, though he would not live long enough to enjoy it all, thanks in part to the battery of lawsuits that McCartney fired off to get out of bad deals that the Beatles had signed over the years. By Q magazine contributing editor Doyle's (The Glamour Chase: Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie, 1998) account, McCartney left the Beatles bruised and bleeding-and with a penchant not just for a little of the grass he wrote of in "Get Back," but also for countless bottles of whiskey. His depression cleared and his spirits improved when, holed up on his Scottish farm, he hatched the band that would become Wings, complete with wife Linda as keyboardist and vocalist-even though, as observers were quick to note, she couldn't quite sing or play. Finding plenty of good to write about Linda all the same, Doyle looks behind the chipper, thumbs-up McCartney to find the complex personality beneath the image: He was an extraordinary musician beset by self-doubt, a countercultural hippie who also had a gift for square-jawed business. (His net worth is estimated at more than $1 billion.) Doyle's asides are puzzling at times-the McCartneys were famously vegetarian, but he has them enjoying "hot biscuits and country ham"-but he manages to say something new about a public figure about whom countless thousands of books and articles have been written, and he says it well.McCartney emerges as more admirable than many readers might have imagined-and more human, too. They'll want to give his albums of the '70s a fresh spin as well.
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July 1, 2014
Veteran music journalist Doyle (editor, Q magazine) chronicles a fascinating but little-documented era in rock legend Paul McCartney's long, eclectic, and mostly successful career. Despite the title, the book actually covers the year 1968, when the splintering Beatles were on the verge of an acrimonious, litigious breakup, through 1982, with McCartney reacting to former Beatles partner John Lennon's murder by dismantling his band Wings and retreating from the spotlight. During this period, the world's most famous rock musician rebooted his career, overcoming insecurity and financial trouble and forging a new musical path with the help of wife Linda while struggling to escape the enormous shadow cast by the Beatles. A large portion of the book focuses on "Macca's" relationship with Lennon, sometimes dipping into off-putting sentimentality but mostly sticking to the facts. Doyle draws heavily from his recent interviews with a candidly reflective McCartney while incorporating new and old quotes from a wide array of the musician's friends, neighbors, bandmates, and other insiders. VERDICT This engaging, accessible, and well-written telling of rock and roll's ultimate comeback tale complements Barry Miles's Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (1997), whose story ends where Doyle's begins, and is recommended to both casual and devoted fans.--Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
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