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Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE (born 18 June
1942) is a British singer, musician, composer, producer and animal
rights activist who first came to prominence as a member of The Beatles.
He is recognized as one of the musical icons of the twentieth century,
and his songs (such as "Hey Jude" and "Let It Be") are frequently ranked
among the best songs in popular music history. He is a Roman Catholic.
* * * *
Early years
He was born at Walton Hospital, located in
northern Liverpool near his teenage home, where his mother had worked as
a nurse, and where his brother, Michael McCartney, was born a year
later. His father, Jim, was a professional trumpet player and gave the
young Paul a vital early grounding in music.
The early death of his mother Mary from
breast cancer when he was fourteen was a formative influence on his life
and created an additional bond between him and John Lennon, whose mother
had also died young.
Paul McCartney claims Irish heritage on
both sides of his family. Paul's great-grandfather, James McCartney, and
possibly also his grandfather, James McCartney II, were born in Ireland.
His mother's father, Owen Mohin, was born in 1880 in Tullynamalrow,
County Monaghan.
Role in the
Beatles
McCartney first rose to fame as a bassist,
pianist, guitarist, singer and songwriter for the Beatles. He was
initially invited to join John Lennon's band The Quarrymen as a
guitarist, but he eventually took over bass guitar duties in the early
1960s, after the group's formative stint at the Star Club in Hamburg,
Germany, replacing original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe.
McCartney formed a close working
relationship with Lennon and they collaborated on many songs, although
they rarely wrote a complete song together. In fact out of all the
Beatles songs written, only 27 were done by both of them. Typically, one
of them 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.
One of McCartney's greatest songs, covered
by a record number of artists, is "Yesterday". McCartney claims he
conceived the melody in a dream, (coupled with the working lyric
"Scrambled Eggs / Have an omelette with some Muenster cheese") and was
not sure for some time that it was original. A popular, but false rumor
states that the second working lyric was "oh my darling you've got
lovely legs."
During the early years of the Beatles'
recording career, McCartney developed rapidly as a musician, singer and
songwriter. 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".
The left-handed McCartney also became
probably the most creative and influential rock bassist of his time,
elevating the electric bass from back-row obscurity to prominence,
inspiring countless players to take up the instrument. 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 1965-67 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
that were 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.
During the years of the Beatles' greatest
popularity, Paul was generally regarded as the best-looking and aroused
most interest in female audiences. Ironically, he was the last to marry
and the only one never to divorce. Towards the end of his relationship
with actress Jane Asher, McCartney met Linda Eastman, an American
photographer. They first met at the June 1, 1967 launch party for Sgt
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the relationship blossomed over the
next two years. He and Linda married at a small civil ceremony at
Marylebone Registry Office in 1969, while he was still a member of the
Beatles. He adopted Linda's daughter, Heather (from her first marriage),
and they went on to have three other children (Mary, Stella, and James)
together. They remained happily married and utterly devoted to each
other until Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998. The couple
reportedly spent less than a week apart during their entire marriage.
In the latter part of the Beatles' reign
over pop-culture, Lennon's interest in the band waned whilst McCartney's
pop ear was never more finely tuned, writing such pop classics as "Hey
Jude", "Let It Be", and "The Long and Winding Road".
It is now generally accepted that McCartney
was the main motivator for much of The Beatles' later work. After they
retired from touring in mid-1966, Lennon and Harrison retreated to
secure country estates in the so-called 'stockbroker belt', well outside
London. But McCartney continued to live in the city, first in a house in
the center of town, 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 International Times launch party at The Roundhouse
(which he attended in disguise). He also avidly delved into the visual
arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealer and gallery owner;
also explored experimental film and regularly attended movie, theatrical
and classical music performances.
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Although he was not the first in the group
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 early
summer 1967 made headlines around the world. In a famous BBC TV
interview broadcast nationally on 19 June 1967, McCartney was again
asked about his LSD use and his answer was impressive for its clarity:
"I was asked a question by a newspaper, and
the decision was whether to tell a lie or tell him the truth. I decided
to tell him the truth ... but I really didn't want to say anything, you
know, because if I had my way I wouldn't have told anyone. I'm not
trying to spread the word about this. But the man from the newspaper is
the man from the mass medium. I'll keep it a personal thing if he does
too you know ... if he keeps it quiet. But he wanted to spread it so
it's his responsibility, you know, for spreading it, not mine."
In spite of his statements then, and later
admission 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.
On the musical side, Paul was the first
Beatle to record an outside project, composing (with George Martin) a
fine score for the 1966 feature film The Family Way, for which he 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.
McCartney devised many of their most
important late Sixties projects including the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band concept, the Magical Mystery Tour film and record, and the
suite of songs that closes the Abbey Road LP.
In 1969, despite obvious signs that the
band was falling apart, he attempted to convince The Beatles to return
to the stage, suggesting the Get Back project, 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 done as a
creative force and that bickering, jealousy and the pressures of being
The Beatles had driven the four musicians apart irrevocably. 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 died and was secretly replaced
in 1966. (An excellent book about the so-called "Paul-Is-Dead" rumor was
published in late 2004 -- Turn Me On, Dead Man: The Beatles And The
"Paul-Is-Dead" Hoax by Andru J. Reeve).
Although Ringo Starr had briefly quit in
1968 and George had done likewise in 1969 it was Lennon who was the
first to leave and not return in August/September 1969. However, it was
McCartney who finalized the end of the group by announcing it publicly
when he released his own solo album (and legally dissolved the band
after filing a lawsuit to break up their partnership on 31 December
1970).
By this time, Lennon and McCartney's
friendship had been eroded by years of friction and rivalry, and it was
only a short time before Lennon's death that they were reconciled at
least partly.
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Early solo career
As the Beatles broke up in 1970, Paul
immediately launched a solo career with his album McCartney, which
featured him playing all the instruments and singing all vocals apart
from some support from wife Linda McCartney. While many found this
record underwhelming (including Lennon in an interview), it did contain
the superlative "Maybe I'm Amazed", which has remained a centerpiece of
McCartney's concerts ever since. Another successful track was "Every
Night", which was later a hit for singer Phoebe Snow.
McCartney followed this 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, later in 1971, was credited to both Paul and Linda, and
featured back-up from, for the most part, studio musicians. While both
single and album were commercially popular, many detractors viewed them
as largely insubstantial. The album also contained some apparent
negative references towards 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?", to which McCartney responded to with the
pleading "Dear Friend", on Wild Life, the first album released by Wings.
McCartney famously insisted that his wife
should be involved with his music — and later tour in his bands so they
did not have to be apart while he travelled — in spite of her protests
that she was not talented enough. After hearing Linda sing, many
seconded her opinion, but Paul'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 notorious 1990s bootleg concert tape in which her
out-of-tune vocals were deliberately mixed to the fore), Linda became a
valuable member of McCartney's bands and an inspiring musician
throughout the remainder of her life. (This in many ways this paralleled
the role that Yoko Ono played in Lennon's post-Beatles musical life,
just as there would be organizational similarities between Wings and
Lennon's Plastic Ono Band).
Wings
Briefly, after an uneven start and despite
many personnel changes, Wings became one of the most successful 1970s
rock bands, hitting its artistic apex in late 1973 with the Band on the
Run album and its commercial apex in 1976 with a wildly popular world
tour.
Later solo
career
In 1980, as Wings came to an end, McCartney
made international headlines when he was arrested for possession of
marijuana in Japan and he spent nine days in prison there before being
deported. Since that time he has reportedly stopped using all drugs,
although it is generally believed that he used marijuana consistently
throughout the late Sixties and Seventies.
Despite the devastating blow of the murder
of John Lennon later that year, McCartney enjoyed continued success in
the early 1980s. His 1982 album Tug Of War was a major success and in
the same year he scored two huge hits with duet singles—"Ebony and
Ivory", recorded with soul legend Stevie Wonder, and "The Girl Is Mine",
recorded with emerging pop megastar Michael Jackson. Another successful
McCartney-Jackson duet, "Say, Say, Say" was released in 1983. He also
wrote and starred in the 1984 film "Give My Regards To Broad Street".
The film and sountrack featured the US & UK top ten hit "No More Lonely
Nights".
McCartney's friendship with Jackson was
shortlived, however. Not long afterwards, Jackson paid a huge sum to
acquire the Northern Songs catalogue, which included the publishing
rights to most of the Beatles' songs. Although McCartney subsequently
approached Jackson hoping to negotiate an increase in his royalty rate,
he was turned down.
In the mid-1980s, while making a home movie
reminiscing about his days as a schoolboy, McCartney discovered the 1825
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
7th 1996 Her Majesty the Queen officially opened the building.
In the late 1980s McCartney began a
songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello, with the resulting songs
appearing on several albums by both artists. The best known of these is
the 1989 hit "Veronica", from Costello's album Spike.
During 1989-1990 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 tour was a big
success, filling arenas and stadiums at each stop. A similarly-scaled
tour took place in 1993.
In the 1990s McCartney was involved in a
feud with John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Their dispute centred around
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 McCartney had primarily composed.
Yoko Ono was personally 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 himself has stated that no such
agreement ever existed. The two other Beatles agreed that the credits
should remain as they always had been and McCartney withdrew his
request.
McCartney and his wife became outspoken
vegetarians and animal-rights activists. McCartney tells the story of
how their vegeterian instincts were realized 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 1994, McCartney, George Harrison, and
Ringo Starr reunited to release the first of the Beatles' Anthology
albums, consisting of alternative takes and live recordings of Beatles
songs; volumes two and three were released the next year. They also
created two new Beatles songs by layering new music around unfinished
tracks Lennon had made before his death fourteen years earlier.
On March 11, 1997, McCartney was created a
Knight by Queen Elizabeth II, and was subsequently known as Sir Paul
McCartney.
In 1998, McCartney's wife Linda died after
a prolonged bout with breast cancer, the same illness that, only a few
decades before, claimed McCartney's mother.
Run Devil Run, one of his most critically
acclaimed albums to date, was released in 1999. In 1999 was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (he was inducted
with the rest of the Beatles in 1988).
In 1997 he 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 his pop
songs redone for string quartet or orchestra.
McCartney is also a very talented visual
artist. For more than seventeen years Paul McCartney 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, like
much of his life, has been a very private endeavor. In April 1999 he
exhibited his work for the first time in Siegen, Germany, where it met
with critical acclaim, which led to his decision to share the work in
galleries across the UK. He is also a big fan of animation, having
released Tropic Island Hum, a CD compilation of various animation music
that he has done over the years.
McCartney then decided to give another
genre a try, and in 2001 he published Blackbird Singing, a volume of
poetry. Some of these were lyrics to past songs, while some were
strictly poems. He gave readings of these works in Liverpool and New
York; the selections were both serious (Here Today, about John Lennon)
and humourous (Maxwell's Silver Hammer).
On 20 October 2001 McCartney took a lead
role in organising the Concert for New York City, a celebration of the
strength, 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, 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", which
advocates taking forceful measures against terrorism.
In June 2002 McCartney married Heather
Mills, a former model and anti-landmines campaigner, in a highly
elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan,
Ireland. Under her influence, he has campaigned against landmines
himself, and donated substantial sums to the cause. In early 2003, for
example, he held a personal concert for the wife of banker Ralph
Whitworth and donated one million dollars to Adopt-a-Landmine. Mills and
McCartney had their first child, Beatrice Millie, on October 28, 2003.
[Added by PSP: Mills & McCartney filed for divorce in May 2006.]
McCartney continues to release pop albums
(Run Devil Run, Wingspan, Flaming Pie, Driving Rain), as well as
campaign for the groups Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals, among others. Paul and Linda had three children: Mary (named
after Paul's late mother), Stella, and James (after Paul's late father).
He also adopted Heather, Linda's daughter from her previous marriage.
James (born 1977) can be heard playing guitar in McCartney's latest
albums. Mary is the baby inside McCartney's jacket in the back cover
photograph of his first solo album. Heather is a designer, and can be
seen as a young girl in the Let it be film. Stella McCartney is an
award-winning fashion designer and animal rights activist.
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.
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", and featured interesting stage design, fireworks,
and fan-held placards.
McCartney, currently 63, says he hopes to
keep playing even after he is 64, a reference to the Beatles song, "When
I'm Sixty-Four".
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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 perfectly
reflecting the 20 years after Live Aid), then returning almost ten hours
later to close the show with "Get Back", "Drive My Car", "Helter Skelter",
"The Long and Winding Road", and an ensemble rendition of the refrain
from "Hey Jude".
McCartney's new album, titled Chaos and
Creation in the Backyard, is due to be released on 13th September 2005,
coinciding with his U.S. tour. Long time Radiohead collaborator Nigel
Godrich, suggested to McCartney by producer George Martin, is producing
the album, recorded in London and Los Angeles in the past two years.
According to McCartney's official website, the 13-track album is "a mix
of up-tempo piano driven McCartney instant classics such as 'Fine Line'
and 'Promise To You Girl' and more introspective darker tracks such as
'At The Mercy', 'Too Much Rain' and 'Riding To Vanity Fair'." There's
also 'Jenny Wren', which Paul describes as "daughter of Blackbird", as
well as 'Follow Me,' which McCartney debuted at The Glastonbury
Festival, while on his '04 Summer European Tour.
McCartney was to use a backing band in the
studio but later decided to play almost all the instruments himself,
including drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, block flute, harmonium and
flugelhorn.
Paul McCartney will release a children's
book in October 2005. The book is called High in the Clouds: An Urban
Furry Tail and 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 is to
be released with a first print of 500,000 copies.
[Added by PSP: In August 2006, McCartney
and Heather Mills filed for divorce. It was supposed to be
amicable. However, it quickly got nasty with Heather accusing Paul
of physical and verbal abuse.]
Pseudonyms
Over the years McCartney has released work
under a number of alter egos which are less commercial and often more
experimental than the material released under his own name. In 1967 he
produced the song "Urban Spaceman" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, but
McCartney was credited as "Apollo C. Vermouth".
In 1977 he released an orchestral version
of the Ram album under the name Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington. In the
1990's 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 1960's. 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 which
inspired The Ramones to name their band.
* * * *
Achievements and world records
-
Appears in the Guinness
Book of Records several times.
-
"Yesterday" listed as the
most covered song in history with over 3000 existing versions
-
The most successful
popular-music composer and recording artist ever with sales of 100
million singles and 60 gold discs
-
The largest stadium
audience in history when 184,000 paid to see him perform at Maracană
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
-
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" Ferry Aid). He was also a member of charity
ensemble Band Aid which had a UK number one with Do They Know It's
Christmas?
-
"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 Chile's Order of Merit 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 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.
-
Is the richest rockstar
in the world, with a personal fortune of Ł762 million in 2004.
-
Was the only Beatle to
achieve any qualifications from secondary school, doing particularly
well in art.
-
Made an honorary
detective by NY Police.
-
The only Beatle to ever
have been nominated for an Academy Award in his own right.
-
Inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 (as a solo artist).
-
Now a knight of the
British Empire
* *
* *
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