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4.34am
17 January 2013
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parlance said
DrBeatle said
Too bad there won’t be any insight on LindaI wrote this in my review earlier, but his chapter on hanging out with Linda in New York is one of my favorites in the book. And I don’t know which edition you have, but the latest one has a beautiful tribute to her.
parlance
I can’t wait for this chapter!
I read the tribute first, I love Linda. 
"Please don't bring your banjo back, I know where it's been.. I wasn't hardly gone a day, when it became the scene.. Banjos! Banjos! All the time, I can't forget that tune.. and if I ever see another banjo, I'm going out and buy a big balloon!"
4.50am
8 November 2012
Offline LongHairedLady said
I read the tribute first, I love Linda.
I love that he referred to himself as her lover.
parlance
8.15pm
10 August 2011
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And another bio:
Author Who Annoyed McCartney Will Write His Biography
By ALLAN KOZINNPhilip Norman, a prolific biographer whose “Shout! The Beatles in Their Generation” is considered by many to be among the most absorbing and comprehensive biographies of the group, and whose “John Lennon: The Life” was widely admired, has been signed by Little, Brown and Company to write a biography of Paul McCartney.
The book, which is due in 2015, is being written with what Mr. Norman described in an e-mail as Mr. McCartney’s “tacit approval.”
“He is not directly co-operating,” Mr. Norman wrote, “but not objecting to my interviewing close friends, colleagues, etc.”
In a way, Mr. McCartney’s consent to the project suggests the extent to which his relationship with Mr. Norman has warmed in recent years. When “Shout!” was published Mr. McCartney disdained it, partly because it advanced some unusual theories, including one in which the death of the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, which was ruled as accidental, was actually the result of a murder plot. Mr. Norman toned down that discussion in subsequent editions of the book.
Mr. McCartney also believed that Mr. Norman treated him as a subsidiary to Lennon, and came to believe that his book set a pattern in which Lennon was portrayed as the superior songwriter and the Beatles’ idea man, rather than an equal collaborator. But when Mr. Norman was working on his Lennon biography – which at first had the approval of Yoko Ono, though she later rescinded it in the belief that Mr. Norman was portraying Lennon unfairly – Mr. McCartney agreed to answer questions by e-mail.
“Yes,” Mr. Norman said in his e-mail, “I was accused of being anti-Paul in ‘Shout!’ and I did afterward feel that I’d been unfair to him. I tried to make amends in the Lennon biography but even so, I didn’t expect to receive this approval (which came very quickly).”
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
8.26pm
3 May 2012
Offline Interesting, I must say, I was surprised too. I hope it’ll be good (probably buy it).
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
9.44pm
16 March 2014
Offline i’m reading fab … almost finished, and i think it’s very enjoyable. howard sounes does not seem to be a great fan of paul’s music, though. but i like how he shows us a real human being … and how many people are afraid to tell paul what they really think, because they’re so intimidated. if i may, i would like to post a short quote which i found very funny and to the point:
To try and create a collaborative atmosphere in Wings, Paul was experimenting with becoming just another member of the group, on a par with Lin, Laine, McCullough and Seiwell. ‘The first session he came into the control room and he said, “Now I don’t want you to think of me as Paul McCartney , I want you to think of me as the bass player in the band,”‘ recalls Glyn Johns, grimacing as he tells the story. ‘Well, you can imagine how long that lasted! The minute I started talking to him like the bass player in the band it was, you know, “Who the bloody hell do you think you’re talking to?”
According to Brown, Paul had a habit of pontificating about matters he didn’t understand. ‘One of the things I personally used to get irritated with is just, if you know him, and you work with him, he is opinionated about everything, including things he knows nothing about.’ And Paul’s lectures were rarely short.
but that’s paul for ya. and it all fits in my picture of him. i don’t like him any less for that, i can even sympathise with it.
i do have the other 2 books as well, but haven’t read them yet. anybody ever read christopher sandford’s book?
hugs jj
"it's a mad world. mad as bedlam, boy." [david copperfield]
8.11am
5 February 2014
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Got Miles’ book today. Cracking the spine after dinner.
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parlance8.59pm
18 April 2013
Offline Choking Smoker said
As far as I know there are currently 3 extensive biographies of Paul McCartney available – Barry Miles: Many years from now, Peter Ames Carlin:Paul McCartney , A life, and Howard Sounes: Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney , the latter two fairly recent I think. Any clues which is best?
Wow, I didn’t know there was a Choking Smoker. I wonder if there’s a Joker too.
"If you're ever in the shit, grab my tit.” —Paul McCartney
3.24pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline I just reviewed Sounes’ book, Fab —> http://rnrchemist.blogspot.com…..-paul.html
Not a perfect book, but damn good and probably the best I’ve read on him as an overall biography of his life. Some things about it annoyed me and there were some inaccuracies, but overall it was quite good.
Anyone here read it? Thoughts?
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
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9.03pm
10 August 2011
Offline Good review. Is the cover picture not awful though? (Is this where the ‘You can’t tell a book by its cover’ comes from?)
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
9.26pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Thanks @DrBeatle. Am looking to get a decent McCartney bio in the near future so this will be high up on my list.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
10.00pm
5 February 2010
Offline If you’re interested in just the 70’s-era McCartney, Tom Doyle’s new(ish) book, “Man on the Run,” is pretty good. It picks up at the point of the Beatles’ break up, and follows McCartney’s journey into (and out of) Wings.
Of the books mentioned in the OP, I think Miles is probably my favorite, just because it has so much material straight from Paul’s mouth. The Sounes book is a serious investment, and I think maybe he bit off more than he should have – but it’s valuable if only because it covers a lot more of the post-Wings era than any other book I can think of off the top of my head. Where else are you going to read about Paul’s process of writing Standing Stone ?
Not a bit like Cagney.
10.36pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Read ‘Man On The Run’ earlier this year, enjoyed it immensely.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
12.07am
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline meanmistermustard said
Thanks @DrBeatle. Am looking to get a decent McCartney bio in the near future so this will be high up on my list.
Let me know how you like it once you’ve read it! It’s not the best bio I’ve read but as far as books go that cover Paul’s ENTIRE life, it’s pretty good. Many Years From Now is great except for whatever reason, Paul stops it in 1970 when the Beatles ended. Of course, the BEST biography, at least of Paul during the Beatles years, is vol. 1 Tune In 
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
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1.35am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Will do but i might not get to the end of it for a few decades. Of the books i was given at/pre christmas only ‘Tune In’ remains (aside from ‘Behind The Locked Door’ which is in progress) and i’m getting a taste for reading it so that might possibly be next maybe perhaps
. I cannot read books when i think i have to (probably goes back to being forced to read books i hated at school) which is why its on the not-read-yet-will do-so-soon-ish list. Same goes for bands, tv programmes, events, life etc -“you must see this!”, er, no i mustn’t so i’m not so 
, now go away!
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
7.08am
5 February 2014
Offline Miles’ book was fairly good. I’d recommend that one as well.
2.59pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline I’ve read Miles’ book many years ago…planning on re-reading it before I review it It is good, but only focuses on the Beatles years/60s, and cuts off at 1970 when the band breaks up, which is a damn shame.
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Von Bontee"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
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