Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney,
MBE (born
June 18 1942) is an
English singer,
instrumentalist and
songwriter, who first came to prominence as a member of
The Beatles.
Recognised as an icon of the
20th century, McCartney is listed in
The Guinness Book Of Records as the most successful composer in
popular music history. He has a record twenty-nine
U.S. #1 singles, twenty of them with
The Beatles, the rest with
Wings and as a solo artist. McCartney has written or co-written over fifty top ten hits, more than any other songwriter, and has been an influential
bassist as well as an accomplished singer,
guitarist,
pianist, and
drummer. With The Beatles, he was one half of the highly successful songwriting team credited as
Lennon/McCartney, along with fellow bandmate
John Lennon. Their compositions for The Beatles remain among the best known songs in rock and pop music. The most notable of The Beatles' songs generally attributed to McCartney alone include "
Can't Buy Me Love", "
Yesterday", "
Hello Goodbye", "
Penny Lane", "
Hey Jude", and "
Let It Be".
Following the break-up of The Beatles on April 10th 1970, McCartney launched a successful solo career (released his first album on April 17th 1970) and formed the band
Wings, scoring 30 top ten singles in the
United Kingdom and
United States. The keyboardist for
Wings was McCartney's first wife,
Linda McCartney. At the time of its release in 1977, the Wings single "
Mull of Kintyre" became the highest selling record in British chart history (and remained so until 1984). McCartney has also worked in the fields of classical music (with works such as
Liverpool Oratorio) and ambient/electronic music (under the pseudonym
The Fireman).
Aside from his musical work, McCartney is a
painter (although until recently he kept his artwork private) and a strong advocate for
animal rights,
landmine action,
vegetarianism, and
music education.
James Paul McCartney was born at
Walton Hospital in northern
Liverpool, where his mother had worked as a nurse, and where his brother,
Michael McCartney (also a performer, whose stage name is
Mike McGear), was born a year later. He was baptised a Catholic, but otherwise raised non-denominationally; his mother was a Roman Catholic and his father was a Protestant. His father, James McCartney, was a self-taught pianist, and dance-band leader who encouraged his son to be musical. The elder McCartney gave his son a
trumpet, which was largely abandoned when he learned it would put a
callus on his upper lip â€" and after he realized that it is impossible to sing and play a trumpet at the same time. Later, when
skiffle music became popular, McCartney swapped the trumpet at
Rushworth and Dreapers (the largest musical instrument suppliers on
Merseyside at the time) for a £15 Zenith
acoustic guitar which he still has. The early death of his mother Mary from
breast cancer, on
October 31 1956 when he was 14, was a formative influence on the boy's life. It later created an additional bond between him and
John Lennon, whose mother
Julia Lennon died on
July 15,
1958 when Lennon was 17. Both McCartney and Lennon found some solace from their grief in each other's music.
Paul McCartney claims Irish heritage on both sides of his family. McCartney's great-grandfather, James McCartney, was born in
Ireland (some sources suggest his grandfather, James McCartney II, was as well). His mother's father, Owen Mohin, was born in 1880 in Tullynamalrow,
County Monaghan, Ireland, and his mother's mother, Mary Theresa Danher, was a
Glaswegian of Irish descent. Accordingly, Paul McCartney has five-eighths Irish ancestry.
Role in The Beatles
Paul McCartney first met
John Lennon at a church fête on
July 6,
1957, and was invited to join Lennon's band
The Quarrymen as a guitarist. McCartney's schoolmate,
George Harrison, joined soon after as a third guitarist, followed by the addition of
Stuart Sutcliffe on bass.
Pete Best joined on drums, rounding out the original lineup of the band. McCartney took over bass guitar duties in the early 1960s, when Lennon and Harrison declined following the departure of Sutcliffe.
Ringo Starr replaced Best as drummer in 1962 to complete The Beatles' final line-up.
Songwriter
McCartney formed a close working relationship with Lennon and they collaborated on many, although only working 'eyeball to eyeball' (as Lennon had called it) in the early years of the band. Out of all The Beatles compositions, it is claimed only 27 were composed by both equally. Typically, one would write most or part of a song and the other would finish it, incorporate it into another song or suggest useful changes. Due to an early agreement between the two, all Beatles songs written by either of them are credited to both â€" this came about because John Lennon liked the idea of "Lennon & McCartney", echoing the songwriting credit of
Leiber & Stoller, the songwriters whose names appeared on many of the records they owned from the 1950s. However, all the Lennon-McCartney songs on the
Please Please Me album, as well as the single "
From Me to You" and its B-side "
Thank You Girl", are credited to "McCartney-Lennon".
One of McCartney's most famous songs, covered by over 2,500 artists, is "
Yesterday". McCartney claims the melody came to him in a dream, and was not sure for some time that the melody was original. McCartney once said that the original, provisional lyrics were 'Scrambled eggs / Oh my baby how I love your legs'. He played the melody to many people to see if they recognised it, because he was sure that he had subconsciously 'borrowed' it from somewhere.
During the early years of The Beatles' recording career, McCartney developed very rapidly as an artist. He was heavily influenced by
Buddy Holly and
Little Richard and Little Richard's trademark high-pitched 'wooo', which he used prominently as a musical punctuation on early songs like "
From Me To You".
Bassist
McCartney became one of the most creative and influential rock bassists of his time, elevating the
electric bass from back-row obscurity to prominence, inspiring many to take up the instrument, including Gene Simmons of KISS. By 1965 McCartney was pressuring the engineers at EMI to get a better bass sound on Beatles recordings, frustrated by the relatively weak sound on their earlier records. His bass-playing and writing during The Beatles' most creative phase in 1965 â€" 67 was heavily influenced by the work of American producer-composer
Brian Wilson, leader of
The Beach Boys, whose classic album
Pet Sounds set new standards for recording and featured bass parts unprecedented in pop music. As a result of hearing Wilson's work, McCartney began to pay increasing attention to both the sound and arrangement of his bass lines, often taking advantage of
Abbey Road's new
multi-track tape decks to re-record more complex parts after the basic tracks had been laid down.
Creative Force
It is now generally accepted that McCartney was the motivator for much of The Beatles' later work. In the later part of The Beatles' career, McCartney wrote such enduring favourites as "
Hey Jude", "
Let It Be", and "
The Long and Winding Road". After the band retired from touring in mid-1966 (after their last concert in CandleStick Park, San Francisco), Lennon, Harrison and Starr retreated to secure country estates in the so-called 'stockbroker belt', well outside of
London. However, McCartney continued to live in the city, first in a house in the centre of town, and then at a larger property in
St John's Wood, a short distance from Abbey Road Studios. He was often seen at major cultural events such as the launch party for the
International Times at
The Roundhouse (which he attended in disguise). He also avidly delved into the visual arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealers and gallery owners, explored experimental film, and regularly attended movie, theatrical and classical music performances.
McCartney was the main creative force for the "mature" middle Beatles period projects including the concept for
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the film and record of
Magical Mystery Tour, and the suite of songs that closes the album
Abbey Road. According to many polls and critics,
Sgt Pepper is widely regarded as the most important rock album of all time.
Outside influences
McCartney was the first Beatle to record an outside project, composing (with
George Martin) a score for the 1966 feature film
The Family Way, starring British actress
Hayley Mills. The
soundtrack was later released as an album, and won the
Ivor Novello Award for Best Instrumental Theme. He also wrote and produced several successful recordings for other artists, and on some of these outside productions he worked under a pseudonym, reflecting his enduring fascination with disguises and aliases.
In May 1967, McCartney met
Linda Eastman, an American photographer, at the launch party for the
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. McCartney and Eastman soon began an affair â€" however, McCartney had been dating actress
Jane Asher for about five years. On Christmas Day, 1967, Asher accepted a marriage proposal from McCartney, despite McCartney's blossoming affair with Eastman. Asher broke off the engagement in July 1968, and the couple split for good in December 1968. McCartney and Eastman married soon thereafter, at a small civil ceremony at
Marylebone Registry Office on March 12, 1969, while he was still a member of The Beatles. He adopted Linda's daughter from her first marriage,
Heather Louise (born in
1962 and now a
pottery designer) and they went on to have three other children together:
Mary Anna (born in
1969, and named after his late mother; she is now a
photographer),
Stella Nina (born in
1971 and now a
fashion designer) and
James Louis (born in
1977, and named after McCartney's late father, who had died in
1976 and Linda's mother Louise who died in
1962 in a plane crash). The McCartneys would remain married and devoted to each other until
Linda McCartney's death from breast cancer in 1998; among The Beatles, McCartney was the last to
marry and the only one whose first marriage didn't end in
divorce. The McCartneys reportedly spent less than a week apart during their entire marriage, interrupted only by Paul's brief incarceration in
Tokyo on drug charges in January 1980. McCartney now has three grandsons:
Mary's two sons Arthur Alistair Donald, (born
3 April 1999) and Elliot Donald (born
1 August 2002) and
Stella's son Miller Alasdhair James Willis (born
25 February 2005). He is reportedly expecting a fourth grandchild in light of
Stella's rumored pregnancy. [
1] [
2]
Although he was the last Beatle to take
LSD, McCartney was the first British pop star to openly admit to using it, and his frank revelation during a newspaper interview in the early summer of
1967 made headlines around the world. In a famous interview, broadcast nationally on
BBC TV on June 19, 1967, McCartney was again asked about his LSD use, and his answer was impressive for its clarity:
In spite of his statements then, and later admissions that he also used
cocaine regularly at that time, McCartney was fortunate to be one of the few leading British pop stars who did not fall foul of the
Drug Squad as did Lennon, Harrison and many other friends including
The Rolling Stones and
Donovan.
End of The Beatles
In 1969, despite obvious signs that the band was falling apart, he attempted to convince The Beatles to return to the stage, suggesting the project
Get Back, which evolved into their valedictory film and album
Let It Be. Although McCartney hoped it might revive them, the film made it obvious that the band was nearly done as a creative force and that bickering, jealousy and the pressures of being The Beatles had driven the four musicians apart. It should be noted however that although it was released before Let It Be (because production on Let It Be was held up), late 1969's Abbey Road was actually the last album the Beatles recorded and is seen by many to be a high-note of their career, and a musical redemption after the disorganization of Let It Be. Regardless of the internal strife, the band retained their popularity, and the public's interest in them was only intensified in late 1969 when an
urban legend was started that
McCartney had died and was secretly replaced in 1966 by one William Campbell, or possibly
Billy Shears. It was believed
Brian Epstein had been replaced as well, but the whole conspiracy turned out to be false. This hoax is still a popular topic throughout cyberspace, and has been the subject of no less than five books.
Although Starr had briefly quit in 1968, and Harrison had done likewise (prompting
John Lennon's infamous quote "Fuck 'im. We'll get
Clapton") in 1969, it was Lennon who was the first to leave and not return, between August and September of 1969. McCartney publicly announced the break-up on
April 10,
1970, a week before releasing his first solo album,
McCartney, which featured a press release inside with a self-written interview explaining the end of The Beatles and his hopes about the future. The band was legally dissolved after McCartney filed a lawsuit on
December 31,
1970.
By this time Lennon and McCartney's friendship had been eroded by years of friction and rivalry; they were reconciled to some extent before Lennon's death on
December 8,
1980. There was a jam session that took place in
1974 involving John Lennon and Paul McCartney and it has surfaced on the bootleg
A Toot and a Snore in '74. This is the only known time that the duo ever recorded together after the break up of The Beatles.
Early solo career
As The Beatles broke up in 1970, McCartney launched a solo career with his album
McCartney, on which he played all the instruments and sang all the vocals, except for some backing vocals from his wife
Linda. While some found this record underwhelming (including Lennon, in an interview), it did contain "
Maybe I'm Amazed", which has remained a centrepiece of McCartney's concerts ever since. Another successful track was "
Every Night", which was later a hit for singer
Phoebe Snow. The simplicity of the album later became a touchstone for the lo-fi movement of the 1990s. McCartney chose to release the album close to the planned release date of The Beatles'
Let It Be, contributing to some discord with the other group members.
McCartney followed his debut album in 1971 with the stand-alone single "
Another Day/Oh Woman, Oh Why", the former of which, to some, recalled the observational style of his mid-period Beatles work. The album
Ram, also issued in 1971, was credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney, and featured back-up from, for the most part, studio musicians. While both the single and album were commercially popular, detractors viewed them as largely insubstantial. Time has treated the album kindly, however, and it is now considered one of McCartney's finest post-Beatles works. The album's artwork included a picture of two beetles copulating â€" a possible hint at McCartney's feelings toward his previous group. The album also contained some apparent references to Lennon, notably in the song "Too Many People" ('Too many people preaching practices, don't let 'em tell you what you wanna be'); later that year, Lennon responded with the famously scathing "
How Do You Sleep?" on his album
Imagine; the end of 1971 saw the McCartney song "Dear Friend" appear, on
Wild Life, the first album released by
Wings.
Wild Life amounted to a Wings audition, and its rustic feel made
McCartney sound polished.
McCartney famously insisted that his wife should be involved with his music â€" and later tour in his bands so they did not have to be apart while he travelled â€" in spite of her protests that she was not talented enough. After hearing her sing, many seconded her opinion, but McCartney's move was clearly a deliberate act, intended to help dispel some of the lingering Beatles mystique and prove his assertion that 'anyone can do it'. Despite persistent attacks on her ability - including one infamous and possibly faked 1990s bootleg concert tape in which her out-of-tune vocals were deliberately mixed to the fore - Linda McCartney became a valuable member of her husband's band and an inspiring musician throughout the remainder of her life. (In many ways this paralleled the role that
Yoko Ono played in Lennon's post-Beatles musical life, just as there would be organisational similarities between Wings and Lennon's
Plastic Ono Band).
|
McCartney featured on the cover of Time Magazine; May 31, 1976 |
Wings
Briefly, after an uneven start and despite many personnel changes,
Wings became one of the most successful 1970s rock bands, hitting its cinematic apex in 1973 with one of the best-remembered
Bond theme songs, "
Live and Let Die"; its critical apex at the end of 1973 with the highly acclaimed album
Band on the Run; and its commercial apexes in 1976 with a wildly popular world tour and in 1977 with
one of the best-selling British singles of all time, "
Mull of Kintyre".
While McCartney continued to have a steady stream of hits through the '70s and into the '80s, his critics became increasingly harsh, often calling him a
sell-out. (
Lester Bangs was particularly scathing.)
Punk rock musicians singled out McCartney in particular as irrelevant and boring; when
Johnny Rotten learned that
Elvis Presley had just died, he remarked in a
Rolling Stone interview that it was unfortunate it wasn't McCartney instead.) In response, McCartney had many positive things to say about the punks.
Solo again: 1980s
Turmoil
The 1980s started on an ominous note for McCartney. On January 16, 1980, McCartney and Wings came to
Tokyo for a series of 11 concerts in Japan. While going through customs at
Narita Airport, officials found 7.7 ounces (218.3 g) of marijuana in McCartney's luggage. He was arrested and taken to a Tokyo corrections facility while the Japanese government decided what to do. McCartney had been denied a visa to Japan in 1975 because he had been convicted twice in Europe for possession of marijuana, so it was surprising that he brought some to Tokyo. While Japan customarily deported foreigners who brought small amounts of marijuana into the country, some public figures called for a jury trial of McCartney for drug smuggling â€" if convicted, he would have faced up to seven years in prison. The other members of Wings cancelled the tour and left Japan. After nine days in jail, McCartney was released without charge and deported; he was told that he would not be welcome again in Japan for quite some time to come.
[ ]After they left Japan, McCartney put Wings on hiatus. While he thought about what he should do next, he released
McCartney II in May 1980.
McCartney II had been recorded during the summer of 1979, between the release of Wings'
Back to the Egg and the start of their tour. The album was an intriguing update of the recording approach he used ten years earlier for his eponymous debut, playing every instrument himself, with an emphasis on synthesisers this time instead of acoustic guitars. "
Coming Up" was the only single from this album; a live version of "
Coming Up" hit #1 in the U.S.
Death of former bandmate, John Lennon
Wings resumed activity in the fall of 1980 and had recorded several tracks for a new album, but everything stopped when McCartney woke up on the morning of December 9th to hear that
John Lennon had been murdered in
New York City the night before. Lennon's death caused an outpouring of grief around the world and a media frenzy around the surviving members of The Beatles. As can be seen on film (ABC News), on the evening of December 9th, when McCartney was outside on an Oxford street recording studio, he was surrounded by dozens of reporters and questioned. He claimed to have spent part of his day in the studio listening to some material because he "just didn't want to sit at home" and remarked about Lennon's death "I was very shocked, this is terrible news." He then appeared to momentarily be at a loss for words and dryly sighed "It's a drag, isn't it?" and fled any further questioning
(YouTube video of McCartney's comments). When publicized, his last "drag" remark managed to outrage some. In an interview published in
Rolling Stone's 20th anniversary issue, McCartney insisted he had intended no disrespect whatsoever and simply could not say more, given the shock and sadness he felt over Lennon's murder.
McCartney/Jackson
Wings simply dissolved rather than break up, in 1981. McCartney set about recording his next album with Beatles producer
George Martin, who has produced off and on for McCartney since. The first result, 1982's
Tug of War, was a major success. "
Ebony and Ivory", recorded with soul legend
Stevie Wonder, was a big hit, and the album also included his moving eulogy to Lennon, "Here Today".
Also in 1982, McCartney scored two huge hits with duet singles: and "
The Girl is Mine", recorded with emerging pop megastar
Michael Jackson. Another successful McCartney-Jackson duet, "
Say Say Say" was released in 1983 from the
Pipes of Peace album. The title song made the top of the charts in the
United Kingdom. He then wrote and starred in the 1984 film
Give My Regards to Broad Street, which included a role for
Tracey Ullman. The film and soundtrack featured the U.S. and UK top ten hit "
No More Lonely Nights". The film, however, did not do well at the box office or with critics.
McCartney's friendship with Jackson was short-lived. Not long afterward, Jackson paid a huge sum to acquire the
Northern Songs catalogue, which included the publishing rights to most of The Beatles' songs. For many years, McCartney has been openly bitter about this; when he appeared on
NBC's
Later in the late '80s,
Bob Costas asked McCartney how much he was annoyed to hear Beatles songs used in commercials. McCartney's succinct reply: "A lot." Nonetheless, in recent years McCartney has made it clear that he does not wish to have the catalogue back. According to Contact Music [
3], McCartney said, "I do get some cash from the publishing already. And in a few years more of the rights will automatically be reverting to me. The only annoying thing is when I tour America, I have to pay to play some of my own songs."
In the mid-1980s, while making a home movie reminiscing about his days as a schoolboy, McCartney discovered that the 1837 building which had once been his old school was
derelict. He purchased it, and pursued a dream he had always had of helping his home town of
Liverpool in some way. January 1996 saw the dedication of the
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, of which Paul is the lead patron. On
June 7,
1996, Her Majesty,
Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the building.
McCartney's career hit some bumps in the mid-1980s. Following the commercial failure of the film
Give My Regards to Broad Street, McCartney would follow up with 1986's
Press to Play. While the reviews were positive, this would become McCartney's weakest-selling album to date. Realising he needed to re-evaluate things, in the late 1980s, McCartney began a songwriting partnership with
Elvis Costello. The resulting songs would appear on several albums by both artists. The best known of these are the 1989 hit "Veronica", from Costello's album
Spike, and "My Brave Face", a modest hit from McCartney's album
Flowers in the Dirt.
During 1989 â€" 1990 McCartney staged a major, year-long world tour, in which for the first time he included a substantial number of Beatles songs in the set list. "The Paul McCartney World Tour" was a huge success, filling arenas and stadiums at each stop, and was documented by the album
Tripping the Live Fantastic. Costello had also gotten McCartney to unearth his iconic
Höfner violin-shaped bass guitar from Beatles days; besides being used on records again, it became a familiar sight on stage â€" a visual link to the past.
1990s
Following the release of the album
Off the Ground, the similarly-scaled New World Tour took place in 1993. The live album capturing this tour,
Paul Is Live, parodied the famous "
Paul Is Dead" conspiracy of the late '60s in both the title and cover art, the latter of which showed McCartney walking across the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing on his own, wearing shoes â€" once again showing his willingness to acknowledge his Beatles past. (The dog with him is a descendant of Martha, his pet
sheepdog from The Beatles years, and the inspiration for the song "Martha, My Dear" from The Beatles'
White Album.)
McCartney and his wife became outspoken
vegetarians and animal-rights activists. McCartney says their vegetarian instincts were realised when they happened to see lambs frolicking in a field as they ate a meal of lamb. In 1991, Linda introduced her own line of vegetarian meals to the general market. After Linda's death in 1998, Paul pledged to continue her line of food and keep it free from
genetically modified organisms.
In 1991, McCartney made his first complete foray into classical music, collaborating with
Carl Davis to compose the quasi-autobiographical
Liverpool Oratorio. This was received well in general, although many commented that the music lacked the complexity normally associated with the genre.
Liverpool Oratorio had its North American premiere in
Carnegie Hall in
New York on
18 November 1991 with Davis conducting and both McCartneys in attendance.
In 1995, the three remaining Beatles â€" McCartney,
George Harrison and
Ringo Starr â€" finally reunited to release the first of three albums entitled
The Beatles Anthology, consisting of alternative takes and live recordings of Beatles songs; the second and third volumes were released in 1996. They also created two new Beatles songs, "Free As A Bird" (1995) and "Real Love" (1996) by layering new music on unfinished tracks Lennon had made before his death fifteen years earlier.
In the late 1990s, McCartney was involved in a feud with
John Lennon's widow,
Yoko Ono. Their dispute centred on the writing credits for a number of Beatles songs. He had wanted to change the credits from the traditional
Lennon/McCartney to 'Paul McCartney and John Lennon' for songs that McCartney had primarily composed. Ono was offended by this move, which she felt broke an agreement that the two had made while Lennon was still alive to credit songs as a team. However, McCartney has stated, to the contrary, that he and Lennon agreed the credits could be inverted, if so desired, in future endeavours. The two other Beatles agreed that the credits should remain as they always had been, and McCartney withdrew his request.
On
11 March 1997, McCartney was knighted (
Knight Bachelor) by
Queen Elizabeth II.
On
17 April 1998, McCartney's wife Linda died after a prolonged bout with breast cancer, the same illness that had claimed McCartney's mother decades before.
Run Devil Run was released in 1999 to positive reviews. In the same year, he was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (having already been inducted with the rest of The Beatles in 1988).
In 1997 he had made his second venture into classical music with
Standing Stone, a work that received a mixed response. In 1999 he released
Working Classical, a collection of shorter pieces and pop songs redone for
string quartet or
orchestra.
McCartney is also a visual artist. For more than 17 years, he has been a committed
painter, finding in his work on canvas both a respite from the world and another outlet for his drive to create. His painting has generally been a private endeavour. In April 1999, however, he exhibited his work for the first time in Siegen, Germany, where it met with acclaim, leading to his decision to share the work in galleries across the UK.
He is also a fan of animation, having released
Tropic Island Hum, a DVD compilation of various short animationed films he has made over the years.
2000s
In
2000, McCartney published
A Garland for Linda, a classical tribute album for
Linda with collaborations of composers.
|
DVD cover of Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait (2001) |
In
2001, McCartney released
Wingspan: Hits and History, an updated best-hits collection of music from his band
Wings, accompanied by a
DVD,
Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait, a visual history of the band released later in the year.
Also in 2001 McCartney published
Blackbird Singing, a volume of poems, some of which were lyrics to his songs, and gave readings at
Liverpool and
New York, the selections being serious ("Here Today", about John Lennon) and humourous ("
Maxwell's Silver Hammer"). In the same year, he contributed to an album titled
Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy Of Sun Records, which included a version of the
Elvis Presley hit "
That's All Right (Mama)" recorded with Presley musicians
Scotty Moore and
D.J. Fontana.
On
20 October 2001, McCartney took a lead role in organising
The Concert for New York City, a celebration of the resilience and pride of New York and America in response to the
September 11 terrorist attacks. The concert was held at
Madison Square Garden and featured performances by
The Who, the
Backstreet Boys,
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards,
David Bowie,
Billy Joel,
Destiny's Child,
Eric Clapton,
Adam Sandler,
Bon Jovi,
Elton John,
James Taylor and many more. McCartney was the final performer, and debuted his song "Freedom", written in response to the attacks.
McCartney continues to release pop albums (such as 1997's
Flaming Pie, 2001's
Driving Rain, and 2005's
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard), as well as campaign for the groups
Greenpeace and
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, among others.
McCartney suffered another great loss when his longtime friend and ex-Beatles' lead guitarist
George Harrison succumbed to cancer on
29 November 2001; McCartney had told
Entertainment Tonight,
Access Hollywood,
Today and
Extra about George being the "baby brother" in The Beatles. Just before his death, Harrison spent his last days with Paul at McCartney's home (though many believed that he died at a friend's house in which Harrison had lived). On
November 29,
2002, on the first anniversary of Harrison's death, McCartney,
Ringo Starr,
Eric Clapton,
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,
Jeff Lynne,
Billy Preston,
Joe Brown,
Jools Holland,
Sam Brown,
Olivia Harrison,
Dhani Harrison, among many others attended the
Concert For George at the
Royal Albert Hall in
London, whose profits went to Harrison's charity, the Material World Charitable Foundation.
On June 11 2002, McCartney married
Heather Mills, a former model and anti-
landmines campaigner, in a highly elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie in Glaslough,
County Monaghan, in the
Republic of Ireland. He has joined with her to campaign against landmines, and he has donated substantial sums to the cause; for example, in 2003, he held a personal concert for the wife of banker
Ralph Whitworth and donated one million dollars to
Adopt-A-Minefield. Paul and Heather's child, Beatrice Milly, was born on 28 October 2003.
Of Paul and Linda's children,
James can be heard playing guitar on McCartney's albums
Flaming Pie and
Driving Rain;
Mary is the baby inside McCartney's jacket in the back cover photograph of his first solo album,
McCartney and was one of the producers of the documentary
Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait; Heather (Linda's daughter from her first marriage, whom Paul adopted) is a
potter, and can be seen as a young girl in the film
Let It Be; and
Stella is a famous, award-winning
fashion designer and animal rights activist. Paul's nephew, Josh McCartney, is the drummer of the Wirral band The Famous Last Words.
In 2002, McCartney launched another major American tour, garnering strong notices for an energetic and tight supporting band, and an evocative and varied show that appealed to fans of all generations. This leg became the top-grossing U.S. tour of the year, taking in over $126 million. The tour has subsequently continued around the rest of the world in 2003 and 2004. His backing band, formed for the 2002 tour and continuing with the same musicians to this day, includes
Rusty Anderson (guitar/vocals),
Brian Ray (guitar/bass/vocals),
Paul 'Wix' Wickens (keyboards, guitar, accordion, vocals), and
Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums, vocals).
|
Ticket for McCartney's "Back in the World" tour, Arnhem, Netherlands (2003) |
McCartney performed during the pre-game ceremonies at the
NFL's
Super Bowl XXXVI on
3 February 2002, and was the halftime performer at
Super Bowl XXXIX on
6 February 2005. Unlike in many previous years, he was the 'only' performer in the entire halftime show. His set consisted of "
Drive My Car", "
Get Back", "
Live And Let Die" and "
Hey Jude". It featured an interesting stage design, fireworks, and fan-held placards.
Earlier in 2003, McCartney went to Russia to play a concert at
Red Square. During the concert,
Russian President Vladimir Putin entered the audience. It was during McCartney's emotionally charged
Hey Jude, that he called out Putin to sing along by saying 'Come on Mr. Putin!' At the same time, the men who were with Putin (believed to be security) were standing and singing along.
In June 2004, McCartney headlined the
Glastonbury Festival - his first ever appearance at a British
music festival.
McCartney and festival organiser
Michael Eavis picked up the
NME Award on behalf of the Festival which won 'Best Live Event' in the 2005 awards.
[New Musical Express, NME.com 17 February 2005]McCartney performed at the
main Live 8 concert on
2 July 2005, playing "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with
U2 to open the
Hyde Park event (the song choice reflecting the 20 years after
Live Aid), then returning almost ten hours later to close the show with "
Get Back", "
Drive My Car" (sharing the vocals with
George Michael), "
Helter Skelter", "
The Long And Winding Road", and an ensemble rendition of the refrain from "
Hey Jude". Some controversy erupted when
Ringo Starr criticised McCartney for not asking him to play with him at Live 8
In August 2005 it was announced that McCartney was the new spokesperson for
Fidelity Investments. The company started a campaign called "This Is Paul", in which television commercials aired highlighting his many accomplishments and proclaiming his new relationship with Fidelity [
4]. The mutual fund giant also supported his US tour that year, and released a compilation for Fidelity employees and clients entitled
Never Stop Doing What You Love.
McCartney's album
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was released in September 2005, coinciding with the start of another successful U.S. tour. Longtime
Radiohead collaborator
Nigel Godrich, suggested to McCartney by
George Martin, produced the album, recorded in London and Los Angeles over the prior two years. McCartney was to use his concert backing band in the studio but later, at the suggestion of Godrich, decided to play almost all the instruments himself, including drums, guitar, bass, keyboards,
block flute,
harmonium, and
flugelhorn. The album included both up-tempo and introspective numbers, and included "Follow Me", which McCartney had debuted at Glastonbury. "Fine Line" was released as the first single on
August 29 2005, with "Jenny Wren" selected as the follow-up. The album reached #10 in the UK charts and #6 in the US, and also achieved success in other countries' pop charts, such as France (#2) and Italy (#3). The album was nominated for three
Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.
He released a children's book in October 2005, called
High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail, which tells the story of a frog and a squirrel who save the lives of other animals. McCartney teamed up with veteran children's book author
Philip Ardagh and animator
Geoff Dunbar. The picture book was released with a first print of 500,000 copies.
McCartney joined
Jay-Z and
Linkin Park onstage at the
2006 Grammy Awards in a performance of his Beatles' classic "
Yesterday" to commemorate the recent passing of
Coretta Scott King, while also performing "Fine Line" and "
Helter Skelter" on his own. McCartney later noted that it was the first time he had performed at the Grammys and that 'I finally passed the audition', a clear reference to a statement made by
John Lennon at the end of The Beatles' famous rooftop concert.In March 2006, McCartney finished composing a 'modern classical' musical work named "
Ecce Cor Meum". It was later recorded at Abbey Road Studios with some well known musicians, including the Academy of St Martins in the Fields and the boys of
King's College Choir and
Magdalen College, Oxford. In the same month, McCartney and his wife Heather travelled to
Prince Edward Island to bring international attention to the
seal hunt which they believe is inhumane. Their arrival on the floes sparked much attention in
Newfoundland and Labrador where the hunt is of cultural and economic significance. The couple debated with Newfoundland's Premier
Danny Williams on the
CNN show
Larry King Live. The couple stated that the fishermen should quit hunting seals and begin seal watching business. Reaction was mixed. Some criticised that McCartney should quit his music job as it is an unnecessary luxurious activity.
On
18 June 2006, Sir Paul celebrated his long-awaited and much-publicized sixty-fourth birthday, bringing his own life full circle to The Beatles' song "
When I'm Sixty-Four", which McCartney composed in his youth, in honour of his father Jim. According to the BBC news, on this day, McCartney 'says his children .. urged him to disappear for the day to avoid a flurry of press attention.'
Divorce
On
17 May 2006, McCartney and his wife Heather announced they are to separate, citing constant media attention as detrimental to a harmonious relationship.
Later, On
29 July 2006, British newspapers announced that Sir Paul had filed for divorce from Heather. McCartney blamed his estranged wife for the split, saying her behavior was unreasonable and argumentative. Media speculation is rife over the amount that McCartney will have to give his wife, with sums between £50 million and as high as £400 million being mentioned,
although Heather has claimed that she is not interested in any money as settlement.
Over the years, McCartney has released work under a number of alter egos. This has generally been for more experimental and less commercial material. In 1967, he produced the song "I'm The Urban Spaceman" by the
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but McCartney was credited as 'Apollo C. Vermouth' due to contract restrictions (He was not allowed to have his name credited on a rival record label). The band returned the favor with a track entitled
Mr. Apollo, a song about an impossibly perfect body builder.
In 1977, he released an orchestral version of the
Ram album under the name Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington. In the 1990s he collaborated with
Youth of
Killing Joke under the name The Fireman and released two
ambient albums,
Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest in 1994 and
Rushes in 1998. In 2000 he released an album,
Liverpool Sound Collage, with
Super Furry Animals and
Youth utilising the collage and
musique concrete techniques which fascinated him in the mid-1960s. Most recently in 2005 he has worked on a project with
bootleg producer and
remixer Freelance Hellraiser, under the name 'Twin Freaks'.
Prior to the success of The Beatles, McCartney would sometimes use the stage name Paul Ramon(e), a name that inspired
The Ramones to name their band. 'Paul Ramone' was McCartney's credited name as guest performer (drums and backing vocals) on
The Steve Miller Band song "My Dark Hour".
For a detailed discography, see: Paul McCartney discographySee also: The Beatles discography* The release of
Rubber Soul in 1965 fueled Brian Wilson's drive to experiment with the Beach Boys'
Pet Sounds, which in turn influenced McCartney's attention to the detail and method of recording.
* He turned 64 on June 18, 2006. This adds new meaning to the song "When I'm Sixty-Four", written by Paul when he was only sixteen years old, and released on the famous "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
* Appears in the
Guinness Book of Records several times.
** "Yesterday" listed as the most covered song in history with over 3000 versions recorded
** The most successful popular-music composer and recording artist ever with sales of 100 million singles and 60 gold discs.
** Honoured by Guinness in 1979 with a unique
rhodium disc, recognising this achievement
** The largest stadium audience in history when 184,000 paid to see him perform at
Maracanã Stadium in
Rio de Janeiro in April 1990
** The fastest ticket sales in history, which took place in 1993 when 20,000 tickets for 2 shows in
Sydney,
Australia sold out in eight minutes
** Was involved with the fastest-released single in history; on
July 2,
2005 his performance of "
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with
U2 at
Live 8 was released 45 minutes after the performance took place. (The single reached #6 on the Billboard charts just hours after the single release, and hit #1 on numerous online download charts across the world.)
* The only artist to have UK number one singles as a soloist ("Pipes of Peace"), and part of a duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with
Stevie Wonder), trio ("
Mull of Kintyre" with Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", among many others, with The Beatles), quintet ("Get Back", The Beatles with Billy Preston) and sextet ("Let It Be" with
Ferry Aid). He was also a member of charity ensembles
Band Aid and
Band Aid 20, both of which had a UK number ones with "Do They Know It's Christmas?".
* Has a record twenty-nine US number one singles, twenty of them with The Beatles, and the rest from Wings and his output as a solo artist.
* "Yesterday" was confirmed as world's most popular song with over 6,000,000 airplays in the
USA alone.
* Received an honorary
Doctorate of Music from the
University of Sussex.
* The first rock musician ever to receive the
Order of Merit of Chile for "services to music, peace, and human understanding."
* First recipient of the Swedish
Polar Music Prize ("Nobel Prize for music").
* 1998 Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award. From
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), according to another website.
* Between his work with The Beatles and as a solo artist and leader of Wings, McCartney has written or co-written more than 50 Top Ten singles. When combined with The Beatles' 49 Top 40 U.S. singles, Paul McCartney is the most successful pop-music composer ever and the second greatest hitmaker, behind
Elvis Presley.
* Among the properties he owns are Peasmarsh Farm, East Sussex; High Park Farm, near Campbelltown on the Mull of Kintyre; a ranch in Arizona; a house in Cavendish Avenue in St John's Wood; Wycliffe Hall, Co Durham; a house in Beverly Hills; and a house in Hove, Sussex.
* Was the only Beatle to achieve any qualifications at secondary school, doing particularly well in Art.
* Was made an honorary detective by the
New York City Police Department.
* Is the only Beatle to ever have been nominated for an
Academy Award in his own right, for the title songs to the movies
Vanilla Sky and
Live and Let Die.
* In 1997 he was knighted (
Knight Bachelor) for his services to music. He dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and to the people of Liverpool. Aides commented that he won't be calling himself "Sir Paul"; "He's always been a modest chap and he won't be getting us all bowing and scraping," one aide said. (Harrison joked at the time that he and Starr were "already calling him 'His Lordship'".)
* Inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (as a solo artist).
* Has never been able to read
musical notation; instead, writes and plays by ear.
* Paul and
Linda McCartney were featured on an episode of
The Simpsons entitled "
Lisa the Vegetarian" in which they spoke to
Lisa about
vegetarianism on the roof of
Apu's shop. In this episode, McCartney claims that when
Maybe I'm Amazed is played backwards, it reveals a recipe for a "really cracking" vegetarian soup. In the episode's closing credits, the song
Maybe I'm Amazed plays, and a voice is heard speaking backwards. When played backwards, it is Paul McCartney's voice saying:
**
"One medium onion, chopped; two tablespoons of vegetable oil; one clove of garlic, crushed; one cup of carrots, chopped; two sticks of celery, chopped; half a cup of lentils; one bay leaf; one tablespoon of freshly-chopped parsely; salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste; two and a quarter cups of vegetable stock or water. Oh, and by the way, I'm alive."
* An average
football fan, he supports
Everton F.C.*
Best selling music artists*
British honours system*
Hit single*
List of best-selling singles*
Vegetarianism*
Paul Is Dead*
"McCartneys call for China boycott", BBC News. (streaming video)
* Spitz, Bob.
The Beatles: The Biography, Little, Brown, and Company: New York, 2005.
*
attacks China over fur"*
Paul McCartney Official site*
Paul McCartney Animation site*
Official UK/US Discography*
Paul McCartney Albums*
The Art of Paul McCartney - Exhibition 2002*
Paul McCartney lyrics*
Macca Central, important non-official Paul McCartney fansitezh-yue:ä¿ç¾…麥å¡å°¼
