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Summary: McCartney's Beatles
Review: You're not going to find a better book that points out Paul's contributions to the Beatles. Paul's cooperation and reflections are the bulk of the book. Between passages of history, McCartney adds long quotes about his memories and experiences of specific events. He disagrees with the public record on some pretty interesting things. First, he doesn't believe the popularly held idea that the death of Brian Epstein was anything but an accident. Second, he says that the Beatles were never angry at the Maharishi. They didn't consider him a fraud as popularly reported. They had just learned everything they needed to learn from him and they wanted to get back to real life. Paul says he still meditates using the mantra taught to him by the Mararishi. John's song Sexy Sadie was indeed about some disillusionment with the spiritual leader, but the feelings weren't lasting. Third, the collaboration between John and Paul lasted into the later years of the Beatles when most people assumed that they were writing their songs solo and tacking on the other's name. Paul talks about John's help with Hey Jude and his own contribution to the Ballad of John and Yoko. Fourth, Paul is very fair with everyone. He doesn't blame Yoko for breaking up the Beatles. He thinks that Yoko probably saved the H addicted John's life and thus extended the life of the Beatles. He surprisingly doesn't blame Yoko for his conflicted relationship with John after the breakup. People can argue on whether McCartney's vision is the reality or what he wants to portray. Either way, you won't get a complete picture of the Beatles without reading this book.
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Summary: Where is my review?
Review: Resolved: Paul McCartney is a great songwriter.
Resolved: Paul McCartney is very concerned about his legacy.
Resolved: These are the only two reasons why this book exists. Many Years From Now is a decent read, and much better than most of the other Beatle bios out there. From what I've read about Sir Paul, I gather he's a pretty nice person & has a keen social conscience. Unlike John & George, Paul (to me, anyway) seems to possess a high degree of healthy skepticism. I definitely empathize and agree with his vegetarianism and his views on animal rights. Basically, when it comes to evaluating billionaire pop-icons, McCartney is downright likable. Unfortunately, it seems that the sole purpose of this book was to propagandize for him. Many Years From Now is marred by a defensive tone that develops from nearly the beginning. The writing of Barry Miles is sycophantic in the extreme, and his descriptions of London's art scene are fairly long-winded. The author's main thesis seems to consist of the following: Paul is not merely a cutesy jingle-writer, he is an artist & the main catalyst of the Beatles. John was an insufferable junkie, and he was mighty lucky to have Paul around so he could swipe Paul's avant-garde ideas. George and Ringo are, at best, worthy of only slight mention & passing interest. The main thrust of Many Years From Now is to establish McCartney as the arty, cerebral Beatle, not "the cute one." The main snag to this assumption is that it's McCartney, more than anyone, who has contributed to his own cutesy image. It's very telling that inconvenient accessories that sustain this are not included, such as a mention of Paul's sugary solo work. As a previous reviewer has stated: Paul may have very well introduced Lennon to the avant-garde, but John actually did something with it! Frankly, outside of a couple of his songs on the white album, I can't recall any McCartney tunes that were remotely avant-garde. Of course, that's not to slight Paul's songs. Some of his Beatle songs are the best ever, period. But it is misleading for Miles to imply that Paul's songs are the Beatles' most cutting edge recordings. Simply put, John Lennon took the most risks with his songs and had the most successes. No doubt, history will judge accordingly. Paul is actually much fairer in his assessment of the other Beatles than Miles is. McCartney acknowledges his sometimes dictatorial behavior and naive pushiness, and there comes a point where one wishes that Paul had written this book. Paul is seemingly very frank about his feelings for his former partner, and it is these recollections that are the best part of the book. Another of the book's successes is the telling of the romance between Paul and Linda. Talk about two people made for each other! The story of Paul & Linda's jaunts around New York are particularly touching. This is by no means a bad book. But, you'll want to keep a pinch or four of salt.
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Summary: If you like Paul McCartney, you NEED to get this!
Review: While Barry Miles' biography of Paul McCartney has its shortcomings, it's overall a very enjoyable read. This could almost be called a half-autobiography, as Paul is thoroughly quoted rather often (the McCartney/Miles ratio is comparable to the Harrison/Taylor ratio of George's autobiography). In fact, take Miles' words away and you'd still have a pretty good, albeit shorter, book. That's not to say that Miles himself isn't entertaining. He's a great writer (though at times he may overintellectualize things) and, unlike some other Beatles "insiders," he doesn't play up the fact that he was a friend of Paul's during the sixties. Miles even discusses himself in the third person, making him appear no more important than anyone else. The outstanding thing about this biography that I noticed is that, unlike some other bios that I've read which are supposedly about a single member of the Beatles, Miles avoids talking about everything the BEATLES did during the sixties and focuses nearly exclusively on PAUL. Instead of saying, "the Beatles did such-and-such," it's more like, "when such-and-such happened, Paul did or said this..." However, as more people come into Paul's life throughout the book, it occasionally veers off into a short biography of nearly each of them. This can be slightly annoying, depending on the individual.
The first chapter cover's Paul's childhood and is surprisingly entertaining, with plenty of funny (and occasionally gross) stories. The next few discuss the Beatles' rise to fame, though the focus stays on Paul, telling of the places where he was living and what he did in his spare time away from the other Beatles. The chapter "Avant-Garde London" isn't as bad as everyone says it is, but I'll agree that it's probably the weakest section of the book. Importantly, however, Miles finally supports the fact that Paul was involved in the avant-garde long before John, back when John reportedly said that "avant-garde" is french for "cr*p." The subsequent chapters, covering probably the most interesting period of the Beatles' career, are so unique, as told from Paul's point of view. There is lots of indispensible information in these chapters, discussed nowhere else in such detail, ranging from the making of the famous album covers to Paul's meeting Linda to the breakup of the band and the following court cases to his relationship with John after the breakup and, ultimately, John's murder. The section where Paul talks about the day after John's death moved me to tears, just imagining how Paul must have felt that day.
I would have given this book 5 stars, but the fact that there is hardly any mention of Wings or the rest of Paul's pop career is unfortunate (there's just one paragraph), as Miles could have written the definitive Paul McCartney biography if he'd paid less attention to the minorest of details and devoted the space he'd have saved to Paul's post-Beatles music. Instead, all there is is a 20-page Afterword, cramming together Paul's family life, Wings, world tours, relationships with old friends, painting, his classical albums, and knighthood. However, despite this vast omission, "Many Years From Now" is still one of the most worthwhile Beatle-related books I've read. If you REALLY want to know Paul McCartney, this book is it.
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