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Paul McCartney : Many Years From Now

Paul McCartney : Many Years From Now

List Price: $18.00
Your Price: $12.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Honest and Entertaining
Review: Paul McCartney displays another side of himself in this forthright and honest biography. Excellent reading!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting reading
Review: I really enjoyed the book and had a hard time putting it down through the first 3/4. As the book went on the facts became less and less accurate. Especially in reference to the beginning of his relationship with Linda and how and when they met.. I still have magazine articles and books I've kept from the 60's that were written when these facts actually took place. A obvious error to any worthwhile Beatle or Paul McCartney fan. But with regards to the detail regarding the music and how it was written, it's definitely worth reading.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fine read
Review: While I am aware of the various factual erros in the book, they are more than made up for by the level of detail that Miles and Paul himself go into about just how every Beatles song was crafted. There are some, too, who say that Paul is whining in the book or trying to take credit for doing as much if not more than John. Pshaw, I say! There is no way that Paul will ever be able to totally crawl out from under John's shadow but Many Years From Now is an excellent first step!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Book I would want to read again
Review: I must say I disagree with alot of the people who say this book was bad or Paul was crying like a baby. This book told me alot of information about the early, later, and present life of Paul McCartney. My dad has told and showed me alot of things and compared to this, my dad was still a student learning this stuff. This book also had a lot of pictures that I enjoied and I give a "thumbs up" to Barry Miles.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing and factually frustrating.
Review: McCartney comes across like a baby whining about how they didn't get as much credit and attention as they deserve for their achievements. He is an acknowledged musical genius loved by millions and worth as much. What more does he want? Barry Miles was horrendous with his factual errors and in the world of Beatle fans, who know EVERYTHING about their beloved group, this is the ultimate sin. I was looking forward to understanding how Lennon/McCartney truly created their music. Instead I got Paul winking at me, reminding all that he was basically responsible for every innovation the Beatles came up with. Overall this is not a book worth having.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An interesting read
Review: Through Barry Miles Paul seems to have finally told his side of the Beatle story. I found it very interesting and well written (despite above mentioned errors) although it did drag in a few places, especially where Paul seems to be trying awful hard to project himself as having been more "with it" and avant garde than John Lennon. The major disappointment of the book is that there is very little information on Paul after the break up of the Beatles - virtually nothing about Wings or his solo period after that.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: "Many Years From Now" this won't be reread!
Review: "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now" should really be titled "Total Chaos" or "Store In A Cool Dark Place." There were quite a few factual errors that die-hard fans caught. For instance, the song "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" was NOT sung by Ringo. Another song, "Money" was NOT written by Lennon/McCartney. Along with snags like these was the remark on pg. 158 regarding Walter Shenson, the producer of "A Hard Day's Night." In this book it's stated that Mr. Shenson "cleverly recognized" [sic] that the Beatles would be famous. In fact, in the video, "The Making of A Hard Day's Night" (released 1994) Mr. Shenson admits he DIDN'T know that the band would have lasting notoriety, as far as a "pop group" was concerned. Facts like these should have been checked thoroughly.

Rating: 0 stars
Summary: Excerpt from the book
Review: The following is an excerpt from the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles Published by Henry Holt and Company,

Sgt. Pepper

"Paul, with Mal Evans, had a relaxing safari in Kenya, visiting the Ambosali Park at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, and staying at the exclusive Treetops Hotel, where the rooms are built up among the branches of ancient trees. Their final night in Africa was spent at a YMCA in Nairobi before returning to London on 19 November 1966. It was on the flight back that Paul came up with the idea for Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It was a long plane journey but rather than sleep Paul stayed awake writing and playing with ideas. The freedom he had experienced while driving through France in disguise at the beginning of the holiday had given him the idea of creating a new identity for the Beatles: by not being the Fab Four they could try something new, experiments and show the fans that they had grown up.

PAUL: We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that *** four little mop-top boys approach. We were not boys, we were men. It was all gone, all that boy shit, all that screaming, we didn't want any more, plus, we'd now got turned on to pot and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers. There was now more to it; not only had John and I been writing, George had been writing, we'd been in films, John had written books, so it was natural that we should become artists.

Then suddenly on the plane I got this idea. I thought, Let's not be ourselves. Let's develop alter egos so we're not having to project an image which we know. It would be much more free. What would really be interesting would be to actually take on the personas of this different band. We could say, 'How would somebody else sing this? He might approach it a bit more sarcastically, perhaps.' So I had this idea of giving the Beatles alter egos simply to get a different approach; then when John came up to the microphone or I did, it wouldn't be John or Paul singing, it would be the members of this band. It would be a freeing element. I thought we can run this philosophy through the whole album: with this alter-ego band, it won't be us making all that sound., it won't be the Beatles, it'll be this other band, so we'll be able to lose our identities in this."

To read the full excerpt, check out the following URL:

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: More than "Pizza and Fairy tales"
Review: Yes, Paul was always the "cute" Beatle--but this book reveals a great deal more about his character. For the most part-the book is very interesting-but some of the stories about Indica and the London art scene etcetera, are overdone. Pauls personal insights and remembrances about the various Beatle songs are great. I was one of those who thought Georges "Wah-Wah" and Johns, "How do you sleep at night" were pretty good jabs at Paul-but after reading this book, both songs seem pretty unfair. The author is undoubtably somewhat biased in Pauls favor--but the book is rich with information I never knew-such as John actually thinking he was Jesus during his heroin days. The laundry is soiled-but no filthy dirt! Paul seems quite candid and honest in his self examination. A great read for anyone who is a fan of the Beatles! As with most books concerning the Beatles, Pete Best appears as barely more than a footnote-which is one area I wish this book had covered more. Also, I've never read an explanation as to why James became Paul--with all the information in this book-it would have been nice to know.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Lennonista will hate it, but it's fair to John
Review: There is a certain segment of John Lennon fans who choose to deify Lennon and find any reason to despise Paul McCartney. They seem to forget that Paul has lived under many years of John having lied outright about Paul's contributions, and the Lennon brigade have repeated those lies. If Paul is defensive and insecure (and he is), he at least sees John through the eyes of love in this book, which is something John didn't always do in return.

It's flawed and stilted, but the subject has rarely been treated fairly in other books, so one can understand if he's a bit self-protective.


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