Beatle biog mixes his personal life and his music
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera • Rating: 3 Stars
“What really intrigues me is the interplay between an artist’s ordinary life…growing up, going to school, winding clocks, eating chocolate…and his artistry,” says Paul McCartney a Life author Peter A Carlin. “How does one inspire or inhibit the other? Where does an ordinary life lift off into a more magical realm? Not many books seem as fixated on this as I am, so I figure, oh hell, better write it myself.”
Paul McCartney a Life traces the origin of Paul McCartney’s life, how he met John Lennon and how they became the Beatles. The book looks at his loves, his life with first wife Linda through to her unfortunate death, and his disastrous second marriage with Heather Mills.
“I always love talking to musicians and the producers/arrangers who work with musicians in their natural element,” says Carlin. “They have very little interest in the media mythology surrounding a famous artist, and focus entirely on the quality of their work, and the experience of working with them.”
Carlin also listened to many, many hours of music and drew on personal experiences such as seeing Wings’ biggest show in 1976 in Seattle. Carlin conducted many interviews, read hundreds of books and looked over tens of thousands of news articles. “I was a fan and had read everything I could find about the guy.” Carlin pored through archives in London, New York and Liverpool.
“Being in Liverpool, getting to know the folks there, was endlessly fascinating,” says Carlin. “Liverpudlians as a whole are witty and warm and sweet. And they know plenty of secret little nooks that contain all kinds of Beatle arcana. And in London I talked my way into the Abbey Road studios and spent a breathtaking few hours being led from one mythical place to the next.”
Carlin has written three previous books: Brave New Bride, a magazine parody, published by Warner Books in 1992, Beyond The Limits, the autobiography of mountaineer Stacy Allison published by Little, Brown in 1993, Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, published by Rodale in 2006.
Paul McCartney a Life is for the music lover and anyone who wants to see how people succeed. This book is inspirational as it provides glimpses into the mind of a great music icon. This revealing portrait is fresh yet sympathetic. His life and art are intertwined.
Peter Ames Carlin was born in Syracuse, New York. He’s currently based in Portland, Oregon.
Paul McCartney: A Life by Peter A Carlin. Hardcover, 384 pages, Publisher: Touchstone, November 3, 2009, Language: English, ISBN: 9781416562092 $26.00
