Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney [Paperback]

562 pages of text, 4 pages of Acknowledgements, and an Index.There are 16 pages of b&w and color photographs (from boyhood through his later solo tours) grouped together in the book.

Yes, this is another book about Paul McCartney/THE BEATLES. But what makes this particular book even more interesting, is that the author, Howard Sounes (who has written fine biographies on Bob Dylan and Charles Bukowski), writes about McCartney in conjunction with the era when THE BEATLES were forming and went on to change music forever. Sounes also delves into McCartney's life after THE BEATLES, which, taken altogether, paint a fuller picture of McCartney's life in and out of music, including new information concerning his marriage and subsequent divorce from Heather Mills. For this biography Sounes has interviewed more than 200 people, which is obvious from the details found in this straight forward reading book.

This book is informative and entertaining, not only through Sounes writing, but various comments and anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book. There are chapters devoted to McCartney's boyhood, the forming of THE BEATLES, their time spent in Hamburg, Germany honing their musical skills, coming to America as popular artists, and McCartney's wedding to Linda Eastman. there's also much information on THE BEATLES differences and their subsequent breakup. From that point McCartney goes on to form his band WINGS, which the book goes into in some detail. After that the chapter concerning the reformation of THE BEATLES as a "threesome" is delved into along with the release of the three CD volumes and book ("The Anthology") which took an in depth look at the groups career. Linda McCartney's death is given much weight in the book and how it affected McCartney. From there the book goes into some depth about Heather Mills meeting with McCartney, and their life together through their divorce. For those interested in new details concerning the McCartney's divorce, there's much new information which gives a better picture of just what went on during and after their marriage. The book ends with McCartney, now single, recording and releasing albums under the name Fireman, and his subsequent solo tours back where THE BEATLES came together musically, in Hamburg, Germany.

All through this well researched and written book the effort the author puts into anchoring McCartney to specific times and places really gives this book an interesting slant on everything. The feel for the era is very nicely portrayed and helps give a better picture of McCartney, THE BEATLES, and that long ago era. Taken together this is a very interesting, at times highly informative, and personal look at Paul McCartney's life, both in and out of music. Sounes has written a good book, and his feel for his subject is apparent. If you want to know about McCartney's life past the surface, this would be a good place to start. If you've already read other books about McCartney, this book is still worthwhile for the new information, and the author's way with combining both the man and the times.

It's not that this is a badly written book. It's not that we haven't heard most of this history before (we have). It's more that the author seems to have a distaste for McCartney's songwriting.

Paul could be lazy, particularly on the lyrical end. And his post-73 material is a difficult slog, even for his biggest fans. Having said that, it seems criminal to read page after page dismissing Paul's contribution to music as inferior, especially to Lennon's anger. Some of McCartney's biggest and best loved Beatles' songs even come under attack. The author seems to forget that The Beatles' legacy owes a lot to McCartney's cheerful optimism. In many ways, it's what defines The Beatles.

Beyond that, Paul's work ethic and ambition, without which The Beatles' best work would never have occurred, is endlessly ridiculed. I'm sure Paul is full of himself. I'm sure he could be a real jerk at times. But using this as an excuse to reconsider his place in musical history (and The Beatles) is not only unfair, it's unfortunate. He deserves better.

It is never good, in any genre, for a critic to review a work that is contrary to his natural abilities nor outside the area of his comprehension. That author/subject disconnect is the situation with this work.

The book is annotated professionally, but easily 90% of the material in the book up to the Mills trainwreck/divorce can be found elsewhere, and is sometimes taken from elsewhere. If you are one that sees McCartney no longer as a creative force, but simply a world class performer of (his own) cover tunes, then his personal life isn't of great significance. Paul, post Linda, is a bit of a shadow. Personally, I don't want to know any more about Ms. Mills. I know too much already. So the one strength of this book is not appealing to this reviewer, though in fairness I note it.

As for this book's shortcomings, these are really shortcomings of Mr. Sounces, and are vividly demonstratable. McCartney has unique talents. At one time he used them to dominate and reshape the pop music genre. After that domination, his composing talents still remained vibrant and constructive for a good 20 years. The problem with this book is that Mr. Sounces, at his core, does not like, nor can he appreciate, Mr. McCartney's great talents in general, nor their particular flavor and uniqueness in particular. Sounces denounces (a frequent habit) one of McCartney's post-Beatle songs called "Magneto and Titanium Man" (from the "Venus and Mars" album). He dares the reader to try to listen to that song now, as if it would be painful for anyone to do so. But the facts about Magneto are 1)it is a very pleasant, light pop song that only Paul could write, 2)it is inventive in that it contains "rap" prior to rap even getting its foothold, 3)it contains some endlessly inspired bass playing that is sustainable for multiple listenings (and whose brilliance is obvious over 25 years later) and 4)it contains a uniquely Paul vocal performance where he gives you three - actually four, including the rap -- four different vocal timbres (or styles) IN ONE SONG. These last two bits - bass playing and singing - are things Mr. McCartney does like nobody else in rock. Nobody. If you do not know this you should not be writing a book about McCartney. If you can not see the bass virtuosity and vocal cunning Paul casually throws at you via "Magneto", then you should not be writing about McCartney, because you are tone deaf to his gifts and brilliance.

There are lots of McCartney biographies out there. This one is detailed, but it is certainly in the bottom half in terms of quality. And because it is written by a man who can not appreciate McCartney's truly unique gifts, it is a book that should never ever be first on your list. Anyone giving this book as a gift does Mr. McCartney in particular, and rock music history in general, a disservice. Better would be to gift "Venus and Mars" and point out to the benefactor "sometime checkout 'Magneto and Titanium Man' - it's amazing." Because it is, even after all this time.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 48 reviews  4.0 out of 5 stars