Fab
An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
The living embodiment of The Beatles and a musical juggernaut without parallel, Paul McCartney is the patriarch of pop. Ahead of McCartney’s 80th birthday and Glastonbury headline set, acclaimed author Howard Sounes creates the most accurate and extensive profile of McCartney ever built, leaving no stone unturned, and no shadow unexplored.
He is one of the biggest stars that has ever existed, the only key member left from the unquestioned 'biggest band of all time'. But despite the almost unprecedented press coverage he has received throughout his lifetime, the private personality of Paul McCartney remains a source of intrigue and relative mystery to the public.
Spanning the entirety of McCartney's life from early childhood right up to the present day, FAB delves deep into the life of this remarkable and often surprising man, revealing the often dark reality behind his consistently positive, relaxed public image. For the first time, Sounes will examine in detail the lifestyle of one of the richest men on the planet, the truth behind his much publicized divorce from Heather Mills, as well as his tempestuous relationship with the other Beatles, with startling revelations.
Drawing on countless interviews, legal records and public documents, Howard Sounes' meticulous approach and brilliant powers of research reveal the real Paul McCartney, like you've never known him before.
Reviews
‘The best Beatles book since Revolution in the Head. Thumbs up’ Classic Rock
‘As an exhaustive account of McCartney’s life, FAB is unparalleled.’ Q Magazine
‘The definitive take on an extraordinary career’ Record Collector
‘Intrigues all the way through’ The Times
‘Difficult to put down’ Mojo
About the author
Howard Sounes is the author of several acclaimed non-fiction books including the bestselling Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (2001), an equally well-regarded life of the cult writer Charles Bukowski, as well as the true crime classic Fred & Rose (1995). He lives in London.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The accomplished biographer of Dylan and Bukowski delivers an engaging, set-the-record-straight biography of the benighted Beatles songster without showing much sympathy for his subject. Indeed, Sounes doesn't whitewash McCartney's Liverpudlian working-class upbringing, early promiscuity, or ongoing drug use. He effectively emphasizes how the death of McCartney's mother, when he was just 14, reverberated through his future relationships, as well as the ways in which his father's dance-hall music informed the tunes he favored, sometimes to John Lennon's chagrin. Sounes writes knowledgeably of the Beatles' close relationship with their tortured manager, Brian Epstein, the genius produced by George Martin, and the dismal details of the group's final falling out. Measured admiration is shown for Yoko Ono, a "catalyst for change" who shook up (and probably broke up) the band. Lennon's assassination is covered in a surprisingly cursory manner and Sounes's contempt for Linda McCartney's pursuits arrives undiluted. McCartney's musical accomplishments over the last 20 years are given solid weight and consideration, but McCartney himself comes across by turns arrogant, stingy, and manipulative; though Sounes packs in a lot, there's ultimately nothing so "intimate" that readers can't find elsewhere.
