Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now

Habe dieses Buch meinem Papa geschenkt und er schwärmt ununterbrochen wie gut dieses Buch ist und das er es kaum zur Seite legen kann. 👍🏽👍🏽

Excellente biographie, très captivante à lire, avec beaucoup de citations directes de Paul. Ce livre permet de mieux évaluer l'apport de Paul aux Beatles, plus important que ce que l'on croit. Il raconte aussi la relation féconde de Paul et de John, leur façon de composer... C'est l'histoire des Fab Four qui se lit à travers ce livre (et au-delà l'histoire du foisonnement créatif et artistique des années soixante) écrit par quelqu'un qui connaissait Paul (et les autres) depuis le tout début. Une lecture indispensable pour qui aime les Beatles.

Some writers have criticised what they see as Paul's self-serving revisionism of the Beatles post-Lennon. Others sympathise with Paul's defensiveness as a natural reaction against the sanctification of Lennon. I began this book open-minded but alert for signs that it was an apologia for Paul written by a partisan insider. It is full of extensive quotes from Paul, said to be taken from interviews, and I wondered to what extent these might be polished and selected to serve the writer's/subject's agenda. I finished it feeling that I had read a sympathetic portrait but one containing a lot of truth. Outside of a physics textbook (maybe not even there), nobody ever wrote anything that didn't have an agenda, so Miles has a point of view of course, His perspective is that of someone who knew both Paul and John, but who found more of an affinity for the former because of background, character and circumstance. Miles clearly can understand things better from Paul's point of view than from John's and occasionally Miles' underlying distaste for some of the coarser, more ungenerous sides of John's own flawed character does show through. But generally he does not allow this to obtrude and there is a certain amount of what might be called "evidence against interest" from Paul, especially in the later chapters, self-justification being balanced by admissions of failings and regrets that help give the whole the ring of truth. Paul's comments on song-writing credits that occur throughout are always interesting. Of course the truth is in many cases impossible to know, and probably impossible even to define - both co-writers themselves have often been confused and contradictory in their recollections, and collaborators who often worked so closely can honourably have different perspectives on the same facts. I had the impression in the early chapters that there may have been a tendency to slightly guild the lily in Paul's favour, but I found this impression corrected later on when Paul gave attributions to John that I did not expect. On the whole there is (I think) a lot of fairly objective reportage here including much indispensable background on Paul's connections with Indica and the so-callad avant garde London scene of the 60s. There is a great deal that you will not find anywhere else. I don't think it would possible to have a balanced view of what The Beatles (and specifically Lennon-McCartney) were and achieved without this book. Unmissable read.

I love this book!

Un libro pieno di aneddoti, in cui Paul si racconta facendoci conoscere particolari inediti della sua vita e dei suoi "compagni di viaggio" fino al 1970. Poi il suo racconto diventa ancora più bello quando comincia la sua nuova vita senza i Beatles, per finire con la commovente lettera scritta a Linda dopo la sua morte. Scritto in inglese , ma comprensibilissimo se si conosce un pò la lingua.