Comment by JPGR&B SUBS:
The author talks about the book
(Source: IDD Publishing)
Why did you write this book?
Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career in the 1970s has been well chronicled: most notably in
The McCartney Legacy series by Kozinn and Sinclair. Less covered has been Macca’s musical renaissance in the 2000s, when, at a time of personal challenges, he released some of his strongest and most innovative works:
Rushes (1999);
Run Devil Run (1999);
Driving Rain (2001);
Twin Freaks (2005);
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005);
Memory Almost Full (2007); and
Electric Arguments (2008).
How did you research and write this book?
This work has been sourced from newspaper and music magazine articles, interviews from the period, the 2008 court judgement from Paul’s divorce settlement and secondary sources including biographies, setlists, McCartney focused websites and fanzines, including the Netherlands-based Maccazine.
What new things did you learn about Paul from writing this book?
The sheer wide range of Paul's musical, artistic, literary, social and leisure interests and how is always exploring new avenues - except many changes in his setlists! As Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone magazine in 2007: “I’m in awe of McCartney … He can do it all. And he’s never let up.” I did not expect to discover Paul and I share a love of dinghy sailing: my dinghy is named Wanderlust while Paul sails a Sunfish dinghy named Linda. What I found striking in that Paul's career path choices are driven by serendipity and inter-connections between friends and acquaintances. For example, Paul came to know Ian Dury during the final months of his life through their shared friendship with the artists Peter Blake and Humphrey Ocean. But at times, when Paul sensed a big change was needed, he had the courage to do so: taking up the commission for
Ecce Cor Meum; the
Twin Freaks and the
Fireman projects; turning to Nigel Godrich in 2003-05 to produce
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard; and changing management and leaving EMI in 2007 for the Starbucks-backed Hear Music in 2007.