As primary evidence, Carlin presents an appropriately unflattering analysis of McCartney’s work after the Beatles broke up in 1970. Despite occasionally great post-Beatles music like the singles “Maybe I’m Amazed,’’ “Live and Let Die,’’ and the albums “Band on the Run’’ and the fabulously retro “Run Devil Run,’’ he observes that McCartney failed to grow beyond the work he did with Lennon.
For this warm, fair book, Carlin interviewed childhood friends, former business associates, and members of various McCartney bands, particularly Wings - but was not, unfortunately, granted interviews with McCartney or Starr. Carlin’s description of the process involved in McCartney’s creation of “Yesterday’’ and of the influence McCartney’s effortless musicality had on the group underscore how much influence he had on the direction of the iconic band.
Personally, McCartney comes across as a bit of an odd-man out, a controlling cheapskate, and a comparatively straight guy, though he sure does love his pot. While the others leapt into experimentation with LSD, McCartney dabbled in it. While the other three were sick of touring even before “Rubber Soul,’’ McCartney never lost his appetite for the stage, a yen that prompted the McCartney-driven movie debacles of “Magical Mystery Tour’’ and “Give My Regards to Broad Street,’’ Carlin suggests.
Nat Weiss, a New York attorney and a friend of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, helped the Beatles promote their company, Apple, in the late ’60s. His take is astute:
“ ‘Neil Aspinall [original Beatles road manager and ultimate Apple manager] used to explain that it was John’s band,’ says Nat Weiss. ‘And at that point (in the mid-’60s) Paul was very conscious of wanting the approbation of John, in anything he did. I think Paul felt John was the cool one, the avant-garde one, the true artist. Paul is basically a very bourgeois, middle-class person. Extremely talented, for sure. But the rebel was John.’ ’’
