The subtitle of this blog is “Adventures in Collecting Beatles Music” and so we often get people inquiring about rare (or not-so-rare) pressings that they’ve come across out in the wild.
Like this one earlier this week from a reader named D-Wizz who is based in Brisbane, Australia:
I refer to the attached photos which are both sides of the same record. I note that the font used for each label is different. Side 2 looks like a 1960s style while Side 1 has an early 70s font. I cannot find an example of this on any Beatles related site, so I wonder is it a rarity, a mis-pressing, or something else? Does it make this copy any more valuable?
Thanks for your attention and assistance.
Regards, etc.
We love a challenge like this and delved into doing a little research. This is right at the heart of the adventures in collecting Beatles music! Here’s what we wrote back with:
Thanks for your email, and for sending through actual photos of the labels. This makes identification so much easier!
We’ve consulted the book An Overview of Australian Beatles Records by Jaesen Jones, which is a fantastic resource, plus his comprehensive website I Am The Platypus – The Beatles Australian Records Labelography – also very helpful in identifying Aussie Beatle pressings and variations. For what you need to know you should look at this page for the Sgt. Pepper’s label variations, and this page for further info on Australian label variations generally (click on the “Orange 1-Box” tab at the top).
What you have here is obviously a pressing of Sgt. Pepper’s that came out around October 1978 when EMI Australia was right in the middle of transitioning from one label design to another.
You’ve correctly identified that your Side 2 label is older – and in fact it is. It was the orange Parlophone label in use on Australian pressings of Sgt. Pepper’s from 1969-1978. It is known as the Orange 1-Box Style A, and has the word STEREO written large at the top.
Then, in October 1978, EMI changed that label to what is called the Orange 1-Box Style B. This still has the word STEREO, but now in a much smaller font and set to the right of the spindle hole above the catalogue number. This is your Side 1 label.
We’d guess that when they were pressing your copy it must have been right on the change-over date between the two variations in October 1978. They obviously had some of the older style Side 2 labels left over (Orange 1-Box Style A) and where just using them up. However, for Side 1 they’d obviously started using the new-look Orange 1-Box Style B labels.
(FYI there was a further orange label variation that was introduced from early 1979 called Orange 1-Box Style C that was used up to 1981. This had no mention of the word “Stereo” on it at all).
So, is your copy rare and more valuable? Well, it is interesting!
Jaeson Jones includes in his book a ‘Guide to Rarity’ and, on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is very common, and 10 is very rare), he lists the Sgt. Pepper’s Orange 1-Box Style A as a 5, and the Orange 1-Box Style B as a 3. Both therefore are reasonably common I’m afraid – but at least yours is different and it has a bit of a story behind it! I dunno, maybe we’d rate it as a 6?
“It wasn’t like we were following a trend; we were in the trend.” — PAUL MCCARTNEY
There’s no doubt that clothing is one of the most visible aspects of the development of a culture. A new book that’s just hit the shelves, Fashioning the Beatles – The Looks That Shook the World, is a well-researched and thoughtful exploration on how The Beatles played a leading role in shaping the fashion, attitudes and social change going on around them throughout the 1960s and beyond.
Author Deirdre Kelly wisely begins her book with a brief preliminary section called ‘Dressing for Pepperland’. That’s because during this period the band reached the zenith of their flamboyant style. Designers on Carnaby Street and around the world were influencing, and were in turn being influenced by, The Beatles in something of a symbiotic relationship. They were in their heyday.
We then journey back to the year 1960 and in chronological order, chapter by chapter, visit key fashion moments with quite a detailed examination year-by-year of what the band were wearing through to 1970, and beyond. We learn who was helping, advising, and being commissioned to come up with new looks for them, but also importantly, how The Beatles themselves played a central role in defining their style. Kelly then uncovers how that style in turn influenced whole industries and often swung the pendulum of the fashion world in new directions.
After a stint as “the savage young Beatles” which (in their early Hamburg/Liverpool days) saw the band sporting a tough look (black leather pants and jackets, black shirts, black t-shirts), in 1961 the group underwent a complete makeover. At the suggestion of their new manager, Brian Epstein, the band took on a suited, clean-cut, almost boy-next-door look that was carefully designed to help them break through in the pop world. They weren’t forced into this. It was something the group agreed was the right thing, as they too saw it as a way to achieve their goal of becoming the “toppermost of the poppermost!”. It was a makeover that worked, one where even the footwear they chose was considered. Kelly goes into detail about how the band had input into the evolution of the famous “Beatle Boots” and how this too became part of their defining look, and a fashion icon of the time. Soon manufacturers where knocking off copies and The Beatles were well on their way to becoming major influencers.
1963 was the year of the now iconic collarless suit – created for the band by UK tailor, Dougie Millings, whom we learn went on to make over 500 outfits for the group. His collarless creation was conceived in a brainstorming session involving Paul McCartney, who’d originally proposed the idea. Their suits were modeled on an original design by Pierre Cardin, but tweaked to make it a distinctively Beatles’ garment. Kelly writes: “It established the Beatles as fashion forerunners”:
It continued what was to become a trend. What a Beatle wore today would soon turn up as the latest hot trend in the shops tomorrow:
However, as with their music, The Beatles never stood still, always pushing the boundaries and never repeating themselves. Once a particular fashion look they’d pioneered started catching on, they’d already moved on.
Fashioning The Beatles is meticulously researched and contains fascinating detail around how the designs they wore came to be. The book also turns up interesting side observations along the way. Take this 1965 photograph taken during the filming of Help!:
In the movie, the band mixed British and US clothing styles. Denim wasn’t yet the ubiquitous fabric it would become and was regarded as something of a novelty. Notice though that George has bleached his jeans, prefiguring the acid wash jean trend that proliferates to this day.
By this mid-decade period and beyond The Beatles largely discard the suits (and boots) and begin to dress to please themselves. In doing so they have a further profound influence on the way young people dress and behave too. What the band wears is an extension of their innate creativity: their personal taste, their natural sense of style – and it was being followed closely by millions.
Tony Palmer (director of the documentary series All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music) says in his Preface to the book that The Beatles didn’t set out to be trendsetters. They were innately stylish young men and by simply wearing what they wanted to wear, became the leading style-makers of their day. Their huge, worldwide fame ensured that whenever they were photographed, filmed, or simply seen out and about in public, people took notice of their sartorial style, and those looks helped influence the culture of the day.
By the mid to late 60s The Beatles were now routinely mixing stage clothes with items from their personal wardrobes, and even (albeit briefly) starting up commercial fashion outlets of their own. Kelly provides great detail and context to these ill-fated forays into the fashion retail world via the Apple Boutique store and Apple Tailoring. And herein lies an Australian connection (and yet another example of The Beatles’ questionable choice in business partners), in the form of one John Crittle, proprietor of a business often frequented by the band called Dandie Fashions. They eventually came to own a 50% stake in the store and re-branded it Apple Tailoring (Civil and Theatrical). They opened a hair salon in the premises too, presided over by Leslie Cavendish (who’d been cutting the hair of Paul, George and John). However it turned out that the brains and style behind the clothing part of the venture was really Crittle’s fashion-savvy wife Andrea, who is perhaps better known as the mother of British prima ballerina, Darcey Bussell. Just how Crittle sullied Apple Tailoring’s reputation is something you’ll need to buy the book to read about. It’s not pretty.
Fast forward to today and the influence and spirit of The Beatles still ricochets around the fashion world. Take for example this 2023 collaboration between fashion house Rabanne and the multinational, mass market clothing retailer, H&M. The look could easily owe its inspiration to 1967 and the famous foursome’s adoption of the militaristic uniforms from their Sgt. Pepper era:
We here at beatlesblogger.com have a mountain of books about The Beatles. Amongst them is just one other book on Beatle fashion, Fab Gear – The Beatles and Fashion by Paolo Hewitt – and it’s long out of print. That is proof that very little has been written about this aspect of the band’s creativity and their huge impact on fashion and culture. It is why Fashioning The Beatles – The Looks That Shook the World is an important piece of scholarship. Deirdre Kelly’s new work is a very welcome addition to the library. Grab a copy while you can.
Very much looking forward to reading and reviewing Kenneth Womack’s latest – an authorised biography of the Beatles’ ever-present minder, Mal Evans.
If you live in the USA the book is published by Harper Collins and is called Living The Beatles Legend – The Untold Story of Mal Evans. It comes with this cover:
If you’re in the UK it is also published by Harper Collins, but has a slightly different title Living The Beatles Legend – On The Road With The Fab Four The Mal Evans Story, and comes in this cover variation:
In Australia it looks like we’ll be getting the UK edition.
The New York Times has a review headline which neatly sums up exactly what this book is about:
The publisher’s press release has a bit more:
The first full-length biography of Mal Evans, the Beatles’ beloved roadie, assistant, confidant and friend. A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Malcolm ‘Mal’ Evans was an invaluable member of the Beatles’ inner circle. Serving as their long-time roadie, personal assistant and protector, he was a sometime lyricist, occasional performer and regular fixer at the height of the group’s fame and beyond.
But Mal’s dedication to his beloved ‘boys’ and his own desire for stardom took its toll, leading to the dissolution of his marriage and his untimely death in January, 1976.
Until now, Mal’s extraordinary life has remained shrouded in mystery. Drawing on hundreds of exclusive interviews and with full access to Mal’s unpublished archives – including his personal diaries, manuscripts and memorabilia – renowned Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack paints the first complete portrait of this complicated figure at the heart of the Beatles’ story.
Living the Beatles Legend is a fascinating but ultimately tragic tale about life at the edges of superstardom.
If you’re a completist and want to cross check that you have every physical and digital release, or if you’re interested in a smart, informed commentary on every song by Paul McCartney then this book series is for you.
Paul McCartney The Songs He Was Singing Vol. 5 2010 – 2019 is (as its title suggests) the latest installment in a series compiled and written by John Blaney. Blaney, a passionate Beatle fan, brings to his writing the expertise and rigour of a professional historian. After starting out in music retail he trained as a graphic designer and studied History Of Art at Camberwell College Of Arts and at Goldsmith College (both in London) before taking up his present post as the curator of a museum of technology. He’s the author and publisher of no less than twelve books on The Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison.
In The Songs He Was Singing series Blaney has split McCartney’s songwriting and his steady release schedule roughly into ten-year slabs, with Volume 1 covering the period 1967-1979; Volume 2 the 1980’s; Volume 3 the 1990’s; and Volume 4 the Noughties (i.e. the years 2000-2009).
And that brings us to the present book (due out next month) and the years 2010 – 2019. Or, to put it another way, from the re-release of Band OnThe Run – the very first in the Archive Collection series – through to the bloated Egypt Station (Traveller’s Edition).
The way Blaney has structured the content in this series is comprehensive – with just a couple of caveats. For each entry you get US and UK release dates and chart positions, then the name of each song, the personnel who played, and recording locations. If it’s not a re-issue (or, if it’s a previously unreleased bonus track) you get an individual song description and an appraisal by Blaney. Then there’s a concluding “Data” section for each release detailing correctly and succinctly exactly how it was issued i.e. which formats (LP, CD, digital), along with the sometimes complex configurations and extras the release came in. This includes if promo copies were produced and distributed. It is great book for identifying those rarities which may have escaped your attention. A good example of this is the “Tug Of War Data” section where Blaney explains the more obscure extras. Like for example the Barnes and Noble-only 7″ bonus single ‘Ebony and Ivory’/’Rain Clouds’, released exclusively to their customers in a replica picture sleeve; or the fact that there was a very limited Super Deluxe Edition of the Tug Of War box set issued in a red acrylic slipcase with exclusive hand-numbered 8×10 photo prints. It’s detail like this the avid collector sometimes forgets. Then, for each release, there’s a selection of colour photographs of the packaging and labels to help further identify what you have – or what you might be still be seeking out for your own collection.
The album summaries and individual song descriptions which Blaney provides are worth a special mention – especially for their often outspoken honest opinions. It’s clear that while he reveres the McCartney canon, Blaney is no fanboy who treats everything McCartney touches as brilliant art. If there’s something he feels isn’t up to scratch he has no qualms in saying so. Take this example from the Archive Collection edition of McCartney II. Blaney is addressing one of the included bonus tracks, ‘Mr H Atom’/’You Know I’ll Get You Baby’:
“Not so much a song as a chorus in search of a verse, ‘Mr H Atom’ sounds like a demo recorded by an obscure New Wave band fronted by a female singer – Linda McCartney. Another example of McCartney being unable to flesh out his original idea, ‘Mr H Atom’ is little more than an unfinished fragment. If McCartney had the will to finish the song it may have developed into something a little more interesting. As it stands it’s of passing interest but no contender as a lost gem. ‘You Know I’ll Get You Baby’ is, if anything, less interesting. Consisting of the title repeated over a chugging 12-bar, it may possibly be the worst ‘song’ McCartney has allowed to slip out of his archives.”
Ouch.
Now to a couple of items missing from the book and, to be fair here, what we were sent for review is an early “proof” copy, so there could still be some changes prior to it’s October release. We think the 12 track Paul McCartney Live in Los Angeles should have been included. Yes, it was a free CD given away in 2010 to buyers of the UK newspaper The Mail on Sunday (and also The Irish Mail on Sunday), and it is related to a four-song EP called Amoeba’s Secret officially released on CD and 12″ single by Hear Music in 2007 and 2009 (so it my well have been detailed in a previous volume), but it was the first release of 9 previously unavailable live tracks. Having said all that, Blaney provides at the back of the book a separate section listing all the release dates, record company information, catalogue numbers, etc. Mentioned there briefly is the 2019, 2 x LP, 21 track Amoeba Gig album (also available on CD). But the Mail on Sunday release is different.
There’s also no mention of the 2011 CD re-issue of The Family Way original soundtrack on the Varese Sarabande label. Nor the 2015 vinyl LP of the same title. Again, these may have been dealt with in Volume 1 as the original did come out in 1967.
This volume does give a good amount of space (including some handy photographs) to the12″ EP Hope for the Future from 2015. This contains music McCartney composed for the Bungie online video game Destiny. It even references the very obscure (and rare) secret Record Store Day 12″ ‘Sweet Thrash’ single mix of the song. But it misses an important reference to a 6-LP release called The Music of Destiny Volume Icontaining the Destiny original soundtrack with many McCartney co-compositions, and a piece titled Music of the Spheres which ends with a movement called ‘The Hope’ that includes his ‘Hope For The Future (Main Version)’.
Having said that some items are missing, in all fairness these are minor and there is plenty here that will be a revelation – even to avid collectors. For us there was numerous releases included we hadn’t been aware of at all. For example in 2011 McCartney and his company MPL helped put together a compilation CD and LP of Buddy Holly cover versions. Rave On Buddy Holly has contributions from the likes of Modest Mouse, Florence and the Machine, Patti Smith, Nick Lowe, and Lou Reed. It also contains Paul McCartney singing a strange, rocky, distorted version of ‘It’s So Easy’. We also learn there was a different digital download only version of the same song sung in a more traditional Holly fashion. Of the CD version Blaney writes “…while McCartney delivers a passionate vocal, the backing is more than a little sloppy and sounds for all the world like a first run through…..And quite why [he] felt compelled to burst into an improvised rap before the track returns for a brief reprise is beyond me…..the result is like watching your dad dancing at a wedding: embarrassing.” When a song is great it gets praised in this book, but if it’s lacking then that gets called out as well – which is kind of refreshing.
Overall, this book is a delight to read, dip into, and is a great resource to cross-check your own collection. John Blaney has done a power of work in researching and engagingly critiquing (almost) every release by Paul McCartney between the years 2010 – 2019. Well worth having in your library.
Now all I need to do is track down the four previous volumes!
The podcast, which is called McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, starts on September 20. It promises listeners a fly-on-the-wall opportunity to sit in on recordings of conversations made over many years between Paul McCartney and poet Paul Muldoon as they dissected the people, experiences, and art that inspired his songwriting.
The conversations between the two were a central part of their process in compiling the book The Lyrics: 1965 to the Present, released in hardback in 2021, and just about to be re-published in paperback form – with added chapters.
Over two seasons and 24 episodes the podcast will let us in on how that book came together. We’ll be able to hear what is described as “a combination master class, memoir, and an improvised journey with one of the most beloved figures in popular music”.
Each episode will focus on one song from McCartney’s catalog and will span early Beatles through to his solo work.
You can listen to a promo for the new podcast here:
For more background on how it all came about there’s also an interview in The Verge with Justin Richmond, Executive Producer of the podcast. It’s really interesting. “The idea for the podcast came through McCartney’s production team, from the person in charge of special projects. The sort of system that [McCartney and Muldoon] came up with to write [The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present] is that Muldoon turns up to McCartney’s house, turns on his phone, and records a conversation between the two of them. Eventually, the pandemic happened, lockdown, etc., and some stuff was delivered over Zoom.”
“My read on it is that after the stress of getting the book together was relieved, they were sort of realizing that they have hours of Paul McCartney being candid in a really special way. It’s not like this was expertly recorded in the studio. It’s not as if he was sitting down to be Paul McCartney of The Beatles to give an official interview about the band. These [recordings] really have the tenor of someone sitting down with a friend and having a leisurely chat about times past. And McCartney’s “times past” happens to be, for him, The Beatles and Wings and a litany of incredible solo work.”
Season One drops weekly starting September 20. It will feature twelve episodes examining ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Back in the USSR’, ‘Let It Be’, ‘When Winter Comes’, ‘Penny Lane’, ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’, ‘Here Today’, ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’, ‘Jenny Wren’, ‘Too Many People’ and ‘Helter Skelter’.
Season Two will follow with an additional 12 episodes in February, 2024.
(If you don’t want to wait for each weekly episode and need to binge the whole series all at once you can subscribe to Pushkin+ to get access to all of Season One on September 20).
Whichever way you look at it the announcement overnight by Paul McCartney and Penguin Books that the paperback edition of his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present will contain seven additional song commentaries to those in the hardback edition from 2021 is a sneaky marketing ploy to get fans to buy additional copies of content they already own.
Yes, the paperback will have different cover art and will come in one volume (the hardback is split into two separate books), but still, to get McCartney’s thoughts and memories of those seven additional songs we’ll have to fork out yet again…..
The seven new song commentaries will be: ’Bluebird’ ’Day Tripper’ ’English Tea’ ‘Every Night’ ‘Hello, Goodbye’ ’Magical Mystery Tour’ ‘Step Inside Love’
Fans are already reacting to the news – and not in a good way:
“The old bonus track swindle. 😦 I’m sure people who bought the hardback get a free copy.”
“Next up: the expanded hard cover edition with the 7 additions as well as 3 additional additions. This is getting ridiculous.”
“Gotta love marketing. Extra songs for a new book edition, man. I have the hardcover. It’s beautiful. I’m good with what I have…No second bite of the apple from me.”
“I’m waiting for the limited edition cream paper, newspaper, blue paper, green paper, lambskin paper, pink paper, yellow paper, parchment paper, orange paper, purple paper, swirl paper, papyrus paper, 98 bright paper, rolling paper and black paper editions. Each with a unique and previously unreleased song write up! Collect them all!”
The paperback is scheduled for release on 7 November, and preorders are open now in the UK (Penguin) and in the USA (Norton).
Let’s get this straight up front. Luca Perasi’s Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas – The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol.1) 1970-1989 is a big, weighty tome. It is way more book in real life than you might imagine from seeing it pictured on the web. At over 520 pages Music Is Ideas is thick and packed with tons of useful information. Its an obvious labour of love into which he’s poured an enormous amount of thought, hard work and creative effort.
Obviously Music Is Ideas serves as a very handy adjunct to McCartney’s own award-winning, two-volume set The Lyrics (published in 2021) which covers off a selection of just 154 songs from Paul’s earliest boyhood compositions, his Beatle days, some Wings songs, and solo work to the present day. Perasi’s book however extends and amplifies this with it’s aim (eventually in subsequent volumes) to detail absolutely every post-Beatle composition we know of. This first installment – Volume 1 – closely examines 296 released songs, plus a further 50 unreleased works. It should be said too that The Lyrics is a book Luca Perasi knows extremely well. It was he who officially co-authored the translation for the Italian market.
Music Is Ideas is also a natural partner to the terrific Allan Kozin and Adrian Sinclair release published just at the end of last year, The McCartney Legacy – Volume 1 1969-1973. While that work deals more with the day-to-day life of McCartney (and so far only goes up 1973), these two books together will provide the reader, collector, or anyone even vaguely interested in popular music and the process of songwriting with an in-depth examination of the life and work of one of our most important creative artists.
As mentioned, this latest book includes all the songs released by McCartney on album or as singles, plus side projects or songs written or co-written by him between 1970 and 1989. In other words, everything from McCartney to Flowers In The Dirt. That’s a total of 296 entries. This includes songs he didn’t write himself but has recorded (think Choba b CCCP), plus songs composed and recorded during the preparation of particular albums but maybe not released until much later. These are clustered together at appropriate points in the timeline so as not to be missed. In addition there are 50 completely unreleased songs detailed. There is also an index and a bibliography at the end which is always good to see.
Each entry deals with the story behind the song in detail: its inspiration, the demos that were recorded, as well as the studio recordings themselves. How were they made? Where was each song recorded? Are there alternative versions? And on which album or albums does the work appear?
As you read it becomes clear that Perasi tries to cover off five main aspects for each entry. He begins with an analysis of the songwriting technique employed by McCartney for the particular work – in other words how the song came into being in the first place, and by which means.
A second analysis is around the genre utilized. Paul McCartney’s vast catalogue ranges across experimental and rock’n’roll, to traditional music hall and classical. Over the years he’s dabbled in reggae, blues, folk, country, disco, children’s music and new wave, a huge array of influences – sometimes following but also often leading the way with avant-garde and electronic sounds. So, what are the influences? These are mentioned in each entry.
The third examination in each entry is how Paul worked in the studio to get the recording down. The Beatle years were a steep learning curve for him of discovering just what could be achieved in the studio and how to use the studio as an instrument in itself. So, what were the processes for each recording? These are touched on in each entry in the book.
Fourthly comes an accounting of the instrumentation used on each track. McCartney is well-known as a master of many instruments – not the least of which is his own voice. There is an in-depth look in each entry at who played what, and how. Specific attention is paid to the many vocal influences and techniques employed too. What is the style at play in any given song?
Lastly there’s consideration paid to the lyrics. What is the song about? How has it been written? What is McCartney’s main theme? Perasi breaks down each of the songs in an effort to understand and appreciate the poetry (and sometimes call out the doggerel!) for each entry.
Let’s take one example to illustrate for you what a typical entry might involve. A prime candidate is that quintessential McCartney song from the 1970s – ‘Silly Love Songs’.
This is entry 126 (on page 233) of Music is Ideas. Composition is credited to Paul and Linda. We learn in the first instance that the basic track was put down at Abbey Road Studios on January 16, 1976 with just guide vocals and piano from Paul and drums by Joe English being recorded. Overdubs were added during February. The engineer was Peter Henderson. A faster tempo version that is quite different appears on Give My Regards to Broad Street in 1984, there’s a live version on Wings Over America (1976), and its also appeared on the compilation albums Wings Greatest (1978), All The Best! (1987), Wingspan (2001), Pure McCartney (2016), and as a single in the The 7″ Singles Box (2022). Oh, and a demo alternate version appears on the 2014 release Wings At The Speed of Sound – Archive Collection. This demo is important as it clearly shows – which Perasi expands upon in his entry – that ‘Silly Love Songs’ was already a completely well-defined song. All the different melodies characteristic of the final version are in place. We also learn that, according to an unofficial source, McCartney had second thoughts about the initial arrangement and that a reggae version was tried out but put aside!
Then follows an in depth examination. ‘Silly Love Songs’, Parasi writes, is “…a prime example of McCartney’s polyphonic art, here using a contrapuntal technique, piling three different melodies on top of each other over the same chord pattern. The song….masterfully alternates between verses, chorus, bridge and instrumental breaks, while concentrating on a bass line that is technically simple but full of invention and which binds the whole track together….”
There’s then an explanation of how the song was arranged and how the horn and string arrangements (by Tony Dorsey) were added. Another interesting sidelight for me was that ‘Sha La La’, a hit for soul singer Al Green in 1974, was probably an inspiration: “The link between the two is clear in many respects, such as the horn and string arrangements as well as the melodic and jagged bass line.” True.
The single was a huge hit around the world, reaching number 1 on the Billboard charts in the US, and was also number 1 in Canada and in Ireland. In the UK it peaked at number 2. (Incidentally, it only got to number 20 here in Australia!)
And so similar information is provided for each of the 296 song entries. There’s also a mix of shorter and longer entries for the 50 unreleased tracks, making this book is a great companion as you listen to your Paul McCartney collection.
It all adds up to an intriguing mix of information that truly demonstrates that music is indeed about ideas, and that the prolific PaulMcCartney is never short of them.
Music Is Ideas – The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol.1) 1970-1989 is guaranteed to inform, stimulate, and lead to further exploration of the music.
We appear to be in something of an avalanche of Beatle books at the moment with lots of titles either out now, about to be released, or in the longer-term pipeline.
This is by Luca Perasi, whose previous work on McCartney was the highly-regarded Recording Sessions (1969-2013). Luca was also one of the two official Italian translators of the singer’s own book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, and last year he collaborated with MPL on the label details for McCartney’s epic The 7” Singles Box release. So, he knows his stuff. Keep an eye out for our review of his new book Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas here soon.
Another one we’ve been informed about but haven’t seen as yet is The Beatles On The Charts. This is by Michael Ventrella who has combed through nearly 60 years of Billboard to compile a list of every song and album that made an appearance in that fabled magazine’s music charts. The end result is an intriguing look at the band’s influence, including their solo efforts. Ventrella assigns points to the positions of each song and album in order to create a list ranging from the least successful to the most successful. Each entry includes a picture of the album cover or single sleeve, along with an analysis of the song or album. It looks like it’d make a great reference book to have in the library:
Looking ahead to June 13 there is 1964: Eyes of the Storm – Photographs and Reflections by Paul McCartney. This features a selection of Paul McCartney’s own photographs and memories from six of the key cities visited by The Beatles across the year 1964. It captures the craziness of the band’s intense life on the road as they steadily rose to fame, with many never-before-seen portraits and snapshots of John, George and Ringo.
As with McCartney’s 2021 book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, a special, extremely limited boxed and cloth-bound edition (175 copies worldwide) of 1964: Eyes of the Storm has been made available as part of an effort to support independent booksellers. You’ll have to be fast and have deep pockets to secure one of these. Check out your local independent store to see if they scored a copy and how they intend to sell it:
In October comes Bruce Spizer’s latest installment in his Beatles Album Series and it is now available for pre-order. The book, the seventh to be published in the series, covers the albums Please Please Me and With The Beatles, as well as their associated singles and the American albums Introducing The Beatles and Meet The Beatles!
And finally worth noting, for release later in the year (November 14 to be precise), is the much-anticipated book by respected author Kenneth Womack on the life and times of famous Beatle roadie, friend, fixer, confidante, and sometimes co-composer, Mal Evans.
This one will be worth the wait as it is an authorised biography, with Womack being given access by the Evans estate to Mal’s diaries and the treasure trove of his vast, never before seen archive including hundreds of drawings and photographs, memorabilia and ephemera from inside the Beatle camp. Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans is published by Harper Collins’ Dey Street Books. Pre-orders for are currently available on Amazon here. Tantalizingly, it will be followed in 2024 with a fully illustrated version. Cannot wait for that one.
Of course if you’re interested in Beatles books generally you must listen to The Beatles Books Podcast. It’s available on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Podbean, or wherever you get good podcasts. Host Joe Wisbey regularly chats to a wide variety of Beatle authors and writers and it is always interesting and informative as he seeks to discover what inspired them to add their particular entry into the 1000’s of books about The Beatles out there. Check it out.
That cover is a harbinger of what is contained inside.
Let’s get straight to the point – this is one of the best studies of Paul McCartney and his solo music you are going to find. Epic and essential, full stop.
The McCartney Legacy by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair is the first installment of what will become a multi-volume set. As its subtitle suggests, Volume 1 captures the life of McCartney in the years 1969-1973. That’s immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which he had to recreate himself as both a person and a performer. In musical terms, this first volume takes us from the LP McCartney through to Band On The Run.
This book is a seriously in-depth and revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal life. The thought and research that has gone into it is immediately evident. But it’s not scholarly and cold in tone (as some highly researched books can be). It’s actually a real page-turner! Kozinn and Sinclair write in a conversational and descriptive style that belies the hundreds of interviews, extensive ground-up research, and the thousands of never-before-seen documents they’ve trawled to give us a very approachable and personal story. They are very good storytellers and it is almost guaranteed that every couple of pages you will learn something you didn’t know about Paul McCartney and his music.
Kozinn and Sinclair initially set out to do a book about McCartney’s solo time in the studio, detailing recording dates, personnel, etc. – a bit like Mark Lewisohn’s 1988 book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, but looking at Paul’s solo career. However, following a couple of interviews with former Wings drummer Denny Seiwell and the discovery of a treasure trove of additional information that he had, the pair decided to change tack and broaden the scope of their book considerably.
Once you read this book you’ll have a renewed insight into the music McCartney created across this period. In fact with the clever connections the authors make and the stories they tell you’ll never be able to hear some songs in the same light again. Take for example ‘Another Day’. In late 1970 and early 1971 the song was being recorded and worked on as part of the preparations for the album Ram. But Paul, knowing that in February 1971 he had coming up a key court date in the messy ‘divorce’ proceedings that were under way with his former band mates, wanted a new single to be out and played on the radio to coincide with his and Linda’s court appearance. He settled on that single being ‘Another Day’ to send a subtle message that nothing could faze him. Despite his life and business dealings being publicly picked over, for him this was just another day: “It’s just another day, du-du-du-du-du, it’s just another daaaaaay!”
Alongside the copious information on every page there are many illustrative photographs and memorabilia scattered throughout as well, as are frequent breakout boxes containing the aforementioned dates detailing his recording sessions.
If this truly is the first of a multi-volume set, let’s hope that subsequent volumes arrive much faster than Lewisohn’s 2013 biography of The Beatles. Ten years later we are still waiting for Volume 2 of his epic…..
Kozinn and Sinclair however say they’re well under way with preparations for The McCartney Legacy Volume 2. It should be in stores in late 2024. It will cover the years 1974 – 1980. We can’t wait to read the next installment!
Volume 1 is getting rave reviews. The only criticism of it we’ve seen so far is that the font used is a bit small and spindly to read! (FYI it looks like a slight variation of a font called Brandon Text Light).
You can read a generous extract of The McCartney Legacy here to see if you like what you see.
If audio books are more your thing, here’s an extract from the Introduction, read by Simon Vance, to further whet your appetite:
The McCartney Legacy Volume 1 is published by Dey Street books (an imprint of Harper Collins).
It’s available in hardcover, paperback, e-book and, as mentioned, an audio book and audio CD:
The McCartney Legacy Volume 1 1969-73 is highly recommended.
Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami.
Six cities pivotal in the success of The Beatles as their music and their fame burst into the world, changing a generation forever.
The year: 1964.
Captured on film by one of those at the very centre of the storm: Paul McCartney.
In 2020, a treasure trove of nearly a thousand photographs taken by McCartney on a 35mm SLR camera was re-discovered in his archive. It was realised that his photographs form a unique view of the months towards the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964 as Beatlemania erupted in the UK and, after the band’s first visit to the USA, four young men became the most famous people on the planet. These photographs serve as a personal record of this explosive time when The Beatles were inside looking out – right inside the eye of the storm.
Now comes a new photographic exhibition and a book, 1964: Eyes of the Storm – Photographs and Reflections by Paul McCartney. They present his photographs and memories from six cities, capturing these intense months with many never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo.
In his Foreword to the book, and in the \introductions to each of the city portfolios, McCartney remembers: ‘what else can you call it – pandemonium’, and conveys his impressions of what Britain and America were like for him and his band mates in 1964 – the moment when the culture changed and the Sixties really began.
‘Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time. This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel, culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back.
Here was my own record of our first huge trip, a photographic journal of The Beatles in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where John and I had been ordinary hitchhikers just over two years before), and then what we regarded as the big time, our first visit as a group to America’ – Paul McCartney
1964: Eyes of the Storm Photography Book Includes:
Six city portfolios – Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami – featuring 275 of McCartney’s own photographs – and his candid reflections on them
A Foreword by Paul McCartney
Beatleland, an Introduction by Harvard historian and New Yorker essayist Jill Lepore
A Preface by Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, and Another Lens, an essay by Senior Curator Rosie Broadley
The book, to be released on 13 June, is accompanied by a major exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery from 28 June – 1 October, 2023.
The Gallery will display, for the first time, a selection of the extraordinary archive of rediscovered and never-before-seen photographs taken by Paul.
Like the book, the exhibition provides a uniquely personal perspective on what it was like to be a ‘Beatle’ at the start of ‘Beatlemania’ – from gigs in Liverpool and London, to performing on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York to an unparalleled television audience of 73 million people. At a time when so many camera lenses were on the band, these photographs share a fresh insight into their experiences, their fans, and the early 1960s, all through eyes of Paul McCartney. Find out more and get tickets here.
P.S. If you’re wondering about the cool music used in the YouTube promo video above it’s the McCartney track ‘222’, released as a bonus track on the special edition version of “Memory Almost Full“. The song was written for his youngest child, his daughter Beatrice, when she was aged 2. See The McCartney Project for more detail.
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