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5.41pm
20 November 2013
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Hi everyboby, some time has passed since my Recording Sessions back in 2013… I’ve got a new book out today on all Amazon platforms. Here some of the links:
PRESS RELEASE:
Paul McCartney : Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989 (L.I.L.Y. Publishing, 542 pages), written by Italian author Luca Perasi and whose second volume is planned for 2024, deals with the first twenty years of Paul McCartney ’s solo career. “This book can be best described as the ‘musical biography’ of the most important song composer ever,” says the author, who in 2021 was appointed as one of the two official Italian translators of Paul McCartney ’s The Lyrics and in 2022 collaborated with MPL on the label copy for The 7” Singles Box.
With a cover design by Tondo Studio (featuring a striking photograph by Clive Arrowsmith, the man who shot the famous Band On The Run sleeve picture) and with the English text and the inner layout curated by Steve Lambley, Volume 1 tells the stories behind Paul McCartney ’s songs released between 1970 and 1989. The book consists of 346 song sheets – including songs written by other composers as well as 50 unreleased tracks – each providing detailed information of musicians and recording dates, including anecdotes, contemporary interviews together with exclusive interviews with key personnel by the author. It’s enriched with over 1,000 footnotes and with dozens of illustrations and photographs. Albums, tours and other events provide a background to the stories behind the songs.
“The phrase ‘Music is ideas’ is taken from the song ‘Talk More Talk’ and aims to provide a guide for the reader on a journey into the astonishing creativity of McCartney, an artist who has elevated the pop song to an art-form,” adds the author. “What are the inspirations that Paul draws on to write his songs? What are his stylistic references? How does he shape his ideas in the recording studio? His post-Beatles catalogue deserves a thorough analysis, using an historical approach. We’re talking about one of the most prolific and successful songwriters ever, and such a comprehensive catalogue of his solo output doesn’t exist. Until now.”
Cheers,
Luca
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Sea Belt, Richard, Rubehttps://twitter.com/LucaPerasi
Italian translator of Paul McCartney's THE LYRICS, collaborator of MPL for The 7" Singles Box
9.34pm
7 November 2022
Offline @backseat
Looks fascinating and right up my alley!
I was reading part of the Prologue on Amazon (they allow potential buyers to “look inside” the books) and you mention the Beatles’ interest in avant-garde & electronic music. Do you know if Paul or any other Beatle was aware of, and perhaps even influenced by, the “Natlab” and its music experimenters Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan?
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RichardNow today I find, you have changed your mind
5.41pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
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Well, my copy was delivered a few hours ago, and first impressions are that it looks an impressive addition to the library.
Obviously can’t say too much yet, as I’m yet to dive in properly, but having @backseat’s previous book, I know it’s well researched and detailed.
My only immediate thoughts are that, though covering 1970 to 1989, it would have been interesting to have a prelude that covered The Family Way and the songs he gave away during The Beatles era. There are some thoughts given on some of these in the prologue but I would have liked to have seen them given the same attention as given to his post-Beatles career.
Also, the absence of the 1974 Mike McCartney McGear album, I think is a major absence, with Paul being so heavily involved in it, with all the music being done by Paul and Wings. It also ignores Denny Laine’s 1977 tribute album to Buddy, Holly Days, which was made with Paul and Linda, and is easy to consider as a Wings side-project. The absence of these two albums seem major omissions from making it a complete picture of Paul’s solo years.
I will give further thoughts when I’ve had the chance to delve deeper.
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Richard, Rube"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
8.14am
20 November 2013
Offline Ron Nasty said
Well, my copy was delivered a few hours ago, and first impressions are that it looks an impressive addition to the library.Obviously can’t say too much yet, as I’m yet to dive in properly, but having @backseat’s previous book, I know it’s well researched and detailed.
My only immediate thoughts are that, though covering 1970 to 1989, it would have been interesting to have a prelude that covered The Family Way and the songs he gave away during The Beatles era. There are some thoughts given on some of these in the prologue but I would have liked to have seen them given the same attention as given to his post-Beatles career.
Also, the absence of the 1974 Mike McCartney McGear album, I think is a major absence, with Paul being so heavily involved in it, with all the music being done by Paul and Wings. It also ignores Denny Laine’s 1977 tribute album to Buddy, Holly Days, which was made with Paul and Linda, and is easy to consider as a Wings side-project. The absence of these two albums seem major omissions from making it a complete picture of Paul’s solo years.
I will give further thoughts when I’ve had the chance to delve deeper.
Hi Ron, thanks for your comments. Just one thing from my side. The series Music Is Ideas will include two volumes dedicated to Paul’s discography and a third one dedicated to all of his collaborations, side projects and other stuff, like the The Family Way , Holly Days and McGear (which, anyway are mentioned in this Vol. 1). The decision to break it down was also based on space reasons, there are already 542 pages and the publisher requested to cut some parts.
The following people thank backseat for this post:
Richard, Ahhh Girl, Rube, Ron Nastyhttps://twitter.com/LucaPerasi
Italian translator of Paul McCartney's THE LYRICS, collaborator of MPL for The 7" Singles Box
2.10pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline That’s good to hear, @backseat — I’d read the mention of the second 1990-2023 volume in the introduction, and am happy to hear you’re planning a third to sweep up the leftovers.
I have to sadly say, through a combination of typos and/or dodgy translation, the text is awkward, and I find myself rereading sentences to correct the mistakes in them, and on a regular basis — I’m just over a hundred pages in (just finished the Wild Life chapter), and have found at least a couple of dozen sentences that I’ve had to correct in my head.
Three examples of those I have found:
The first line of the Introduction is either a typo or dodgy translation. It reads:
Is it still possible, after over fifty years, talk about McCartney’s career and accompany it with the expression “post-Beatles”?
when it should read:
Is it still possible, after over fifty years, to talk about McCartney’s career and accompany it with the expression “post-Beatles”?
The next, from the entry on Maybe I’m Amazed , appears to be a clumsy translation, with a paragraph beginning:
Of the assistants who witnessed that session at E.M.I. was Alan Parsons, who would work with Paul until 1973, when his engineering career would take off thanks to his work on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
before going on to quote him, but which, to my mind at least, should be:
Among the assistants who witnessed that session at E.M.I. was Alan Parsons, who would work with Paul until 1973, when his engineering career would take off thanks to his work on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
The next is a typo from the opening overview of RAM, where guitarist Dave Spinozza is quoted as saying:
…they had told me me they wanted me for four while weeks…
should obviously be:
…they had told me me they wanted me for four whole weeks…
There are, unfortunately, many other examples I could have used; however — and this is the important bit — once you accept that there are shortcomings in the text, whether caused by typos or translation, the book is, so far, a fantastic insight to Paul’s career, with me discovering many things I didn’t know.
An eight or nine out of ten, which would have been a nine or ten without the errors.
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Rube"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
6.24pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline I’m pretty sure the first book is the same with the translation issue. It is far less frustrating than reading that John was the drummer, photos are wrongly dated or ‘The Beatles’ album saw the creation of ADT which are the kind of idiotic mistakes most books come out with however. Even Apple messed up details in the PJ ‘Get Back ‘ intro.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
9.11pm
20 November 2013
Offline Ron Nasty said
That’s good to hear, @backseat — I’d read the mention of the second 1990-2023 volume in the introduction, and am happy to hear you’re planning a third to sweep up the leftovers.I have to sadly say, through a combination of typos and/or dodgy translation, the text is awkward, and I find myself rereading sentences to correct the mistakes in them, and on a regular basis — I’m just over a hundred pages in (just finished the Wild Life chapter), and have found at least a couple of dozen sentences that I’ve had to correct in my head.
Three examples of those I have found:
The first line of the Introduction is either a typo or dodgy translation. It reads:
Is it still possible, after over fifty years, talk about McCartney’s career and accompany it with the expression “post-Beatles”?
when it should read:
Is it still possible, after over fifty years, to talk about McCartney’s career and accompany it with the expression “post-Beatles”?
The next, from the entry on Maybe I’m Amazed , appears to be a clumsy translation, with a paragraph beginning:
Of the assistants who witnessed that session at E.M.I. was Alan Parsons, who would work with Paul until 1973, when his engineering career would take off thanks to his work on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
before going on to quote him, but which, to my mind at least, should be:
Among the assistants who witnessed that session at E.M.I. was Alan Parsons, who would work with Paul until 1973, when his engineering career would take off thanks to his work on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.
The next is a typo from the opening overview of RAM, where guitarist Dave Spinozza is quoted as saying:
…they had told me me they wanted me for four while weeks…
should obviously be:
…they had told me me they wanted me for four whole weeks…
There are, unfortunately, many other examples I could have used; however — and this is the important bit — once you accept that there are shortcomings in the text, whether caused by typos or translation, the book is, so far, a fantastic insight to Paul’s career, with me discovering many things I didn’t know.
An eight or nine out of ten, which would have been a nine or ten without the errors.
Hi Ron, thanks again for the feedback. For this book, we did not go for a “translation”, because there was a mother tongue editor that went through the whole text, that was already presented in English (a sort of “rough version”). Steve is a very fine writer (check his The Band Begins to Play book) so I’m confident his text is ok. Typos still can happen but if you have examples of wrong sentences, please can you send me these by writing here:
https://www.mccartney-musicisi…..it/contact
I’m glad you are enjoying the book and finding interesting things. For typos and other stuff, any help is welcome, and we’ll improve it asap.
Luca
https://twitter.com/LucaPerasi
Italian translator of Paul McCartney's THE LYRICS, collaborator of MPL for The 7" Singles Box
