The McCartney Legacy
Volume 2: 1974 - 80
Published on 10. December 2024
Book
Hardback
768 pages
978-0-06-300075-9 (ISBN)
Description
The follow-up to The McCartney Legacy, Volume 1, the most complete work on the life and work of Paul McCartney ever published. Volume 2 continues to paint the portrait of one of the world's greatest musicians, his work post-Beatles, and his life from 1974 to 1980.
This second installment of the groundbreaking multivolume set, THE McCARTNEY LEGACY, VOLUME 2: 1974-80 finds Paul McCartney in the afterglow of Band on the Run, an album that topped the Billboard 200 three times in 1974, and won him his best reviews since his time in the Beatles. But he also faced rebuilding his band Wings, and getting it into shape not only for the studio work that would follow his most successful album to date, but also to tour Britain, Europe and Australia before conquering the USA with the groundbreaking Wings Over America tour. This intensely creative time in McCartney's life saw him writing and recording four studio albums with Wings (Venus and Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound, London Town and Back to the Egg), the biggest selling British single of the 1970s, 'Mull of Kintyre,' and a solo album packed with electronic experimentalism, McCartney II. During a period of diverse musical evolution, McCartney melded his own melody-driven approach with in-vogue styles like disco, punk and new wave.
Away from Wings, McCartney dabbled in music publishing, science fiction writing, semi-autobiographical filmmaking, animation, viral marketing, journalist boycotting, and smuggling cannabis past authority figures with mixed success. McGear, an album Paul co-wrote with his brother, Mike, tops a long list of lesser known projects and collaborations - some of which never saw the light of day - that kept McCartney busy between hit records.
For the second half of this decade, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr remained ever present in McCartney's life. Collaborations were mooted, and multi-million dollar offers for one-off reunion concerts were plentiful, but the scars of the Beatles' bitter separation, and their complex, hard to untangle business ties complicated their private and public relationships.
THE McCARTNEY LEGACY series is the first truly comprehensive biography, and the most finely detailed exploration of McCartney's creative life beyond the Beatles, ever undertaken. As well as thousands of never-before-seen documents, this volume is informed by hundreds of interviews, including exclusive collaborations with all four surviving members of Wings - Geoff Britton, Joe English, Steve Holley and Laurence Juber - plus countless other including producers, musicians, recording engineers, designers and architects who worked with McCartney between 1974-80.
This second installment of the groundbreaking multivolume set, THE McCARTNEY LEGACY, VOLUME 2: 1974-80 finds Paul McCartney in the afterglow of Band on the Run, an album that topped the Billboard 200 three times in 1974, and won him his best reviews since his time in the Beatles. But he also faced rebuilding his band Wings, and getting it into shape not only for the studio work that would follow his most successful album to date, but also to tour Britain, Europe and Australia before conquering the USA with the groundbreaking Wings Over America tour. This intensely creative time in McCartney's life saw him writing and recording four studio albums with Wings (Venus and Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound, London Town and Back to the Egg), the biggest selling British single of the 1970s, 'Mull of Kintyre,' and a solo album packed with electronic experimentalism, McCartney II. During a period of diverse musical evolution, McCartney melded his own melody-driven approach with in-vogue styles like disco, punk and new wave.
Away from Wings, McCartney dabbled in music publishing, science fiction writing, semi-autobiographical filmmaking, animation, viral marketing, journalist boycotting, and smuggling cannabis past authority figures with mixed success. McGear, an album Paul co-wrote with his brother, Mike, tops a long list of lesser known projects and collaborations - some of which never saw the light of day - that kept McCartney busy between hit records.
For the second half of this decade, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr remained ever present in McCartney's life. Collaborations were mooted, and multi-million dollar offers for one-off reunion concerts were plentiful, but the scars of the Beatles' bitter separation, and their complex, hard to untangle business ties complicated their private and public relationships.
THE McCARTNEY LEGACY series is the first truly comprehensive biography, and the most finely detailed exploration of McCartney's creative life beyond the Beatles, ever undertaken. As well as thousands of never-before-seen documents, this volume is informed by hundreds of interviews, including exclusive collaborations with all four surviving members of Wings - Geoff Britton, Joe English, Steve Holley and Laurence Juber - plus countless other including producers, musicians, recording engineers, designers and architects who worked with McCartney between 1974-80.
Reviews / Votes
"Do we need another book about Paul McCartney? Yes.... The McCartney Legacy Volume 2 makes a convincing case not only for another Beatles book, but for one about its arguably best songwriter." - Washington Post"Bust-ups with John Lennon, bad reviews and Linda's killer vichyssoise: this biography is so detailed it reads like McCartney's family calendar.... While the authors' intention is to come as close as possible to McCartney's everyday life, meticulously pulling together contemporary interviews and eyewitness accounts to achieve verite perfection - here they eat country ham and okra while recording in Nashville, here they take the kids to see the Ringling Brothers circus - it's inevitable that the grander narrative arcs push through." - The Times (UK)
"Kaleidoscopic account of the musician's post-Beatles career. Drawing on meticulous research, the authors... dive deep into Wings' catalog and paint a detailed portrait of McCartney as a perfectionistic whose star power belied a surprising vulnerability to criticism.... McCartney fans couldn't ask for a more comprehensive and colourful treatment of this period in his life." - Publishers Weekly
"However much you think you know about 1970s-era McCartney, you're guaranteed to learn something new in Volume 2. In short, for anyone interested in McCartney's work, these books are essential (and clear your shelves for the future volumes)." - Goldmine
"For Paul McCartney fans who have more than a passing interest in his period with Wings, The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2: 1974-1980 is nothing short of a dream publication. Along with the first volume, it's a truly astounding achievement and I devoured its 700+ pages in a matter of days and was hungry for more by the end. The best book(s) you'll ever read about Paul McCartney. Bring on Volume 3." - Super Deluxe Edition
"This exhaustive chronological narrative patiently probes McCartney's always conflicted and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to lead Wings as a putative democracy.... Macca is a bewildering mixture of the driven and the insecure throughout, as he struggles to escape the endless public obsession with his previous band. The other Beatles remain a constant presence in his life, whether he's jamming in LA with John and Stevie Wonder on an addled night in 1974, or fending off a vitriolic George when the Guinness Book Of Records declares Paul 'the most successful composer of all time,' late in 1979." - Mojo
"This 715-page tome covers six years and chronicles McCartney's life on an almost day-to-day basis. That's because McCartney does something virtually every day. He works. Constantly. Songs pour out of him like water out of a tap, although it can take forever to record them to his satisfaction. The hundreds of sessions are described in exacting detail. He's not short of ideas, either." - Classic Rock
"The Beatles' music is no stranger to heavyweight academic study, but there haven't been many tomes as forensically detailed as this delve into Paul McCartney's post-Fabs back pages.... Hundreds of interviews help the authors pull off a well-executed balancing act, combining prescient critical appraisal and playful trivia." - Record Collector
"It's hard to sympathise with a man who fronted two bands, nabbed two Oscar nominations and performed a triumphant tour of America before he was 35, but the Paul McCartney that emerges from The McCartney Legacy Volume 2 is actually a man who counted almost as many nerves as he did dollars... throughout this book, the bassist's insecurities can be witnessed in a manner that makes him more fallible and human than most biographies are willing to paint him as." - Maccazine
"There are so many well-honed details brought to bear in Volume 2 that you really begin to feel as if you're inside the day-to-day story that you thought you already knew so well. Then there are the dozens of pointers to unreleased material that will undoubtedly drive you to your keyboard to hunt down the rarities that they bring to life.... Kozinn and Sinclair have earned another two Macca thumbs up...way up." - The Tracking Angle
"Biography and recording details are combined to wonderful effect, but the focus is only on McCartney's post-Beatles career, solo and with his group Wings.... This second volume is every bit as good as the first, taking the reader through McCartney struggling to keep his very talented Wings Mark II members on the straight and narrow, even as they strayed many times.... I could go on and on with the wealth of valuable information and compelling drama that's in the book, but you should find this out yourself. Both volumes are extremely highly recommended." - The Suburban
"The amount of detail is staggering, even by Beatleologist terms." - Houston Press
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Illustrations
b&w photos throughout
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 200 mm
Thickness: 64 mm
Weight
1140 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-06-300075-9 (9780063000759)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2024
HarperCollins
€23.83
Available for download
E-Book
12/2022
HarperCollins
€19.99
Available for download
Persons
Allan Kozinn was a music critic and culture reporter for the New York Times from 1977 to 2014, where he wrote principally about classical music. In that capacity, he interviewed Paul McCartney several times, and saw him perform in a great variety of configurations and venues-from singing with a hand mic at the Lonestar Roadhouse, playing rock oldies at the Cavern, in Liverpool, and performing in small halls like the Ed Sullivan Theater and the Highline Ballroom, to full-scale concerts at Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium. He currently contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and other publications. He has taught courses at the Juilliard School and New York University (including a course on the Beatles at the latter), and has written seven books, among them The Beatles-From the Cavern to the Rooftop (1995), Got That Something! How The Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' Changed Everything (2013), The New York Times Essential Guide-Classical Music (2004).
The principal researcher for the McCartney Legacy series, Adrian Sinclair studied film at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and served a traineeship with ITV in Yorkshire, England, where he learned his craft as a documentary film editor. He's worked for almost every major broadcaster in the world, including the BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4, National Geographic, Discovery and MTV. As well as receiving recognition for his work from the Royal Television Society in England, Adrian's 2010 documentary Stealing Shakespeare (BBC/Smithsonian) was Emmy shortlisted for Best Documentary.
The principal researcher for the McCartney Legacy series, Adrian Sinclair studied film at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and served a traineeship with ITV in Yorkshire, England, where he learned his craft as a documentary film editor. He's worked for almost every major broadcaster in the world, including the BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4, National Geographic, Discovery and MTV. As well as receiving recognition for his work from the Royal Television Society in England, Adrian's 2010 documentary Stealing Shakespeare (BBC/Smithsonian) was Emmy shortlisted for Best Documentary.