Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney - Couverture rigide

Booklist,Top Ten Biographies: 2011, 6/1/11
“This is the first comprehensive, candid, and up-to-date portrait of Sir Paul McCartney.”
 Curled Up with a Good Book, 9/25/11
“Sounes is not afraid to call out McCartney on some of his less than stellar work...Fab is a good book for learning who McCartney was and who he became.” Hudson Valley News, 12/21/11“The Beatles did, indeed, change the course of music forever. Read all about it, fans.”

Portland Book Review, March/April Issue“This book takes readers beyond the success of the Beatles—the pop culture icons and classic musicians—and sheds light upon their life before stardom. The author writes with so much heart he makes readers feel as though they’re walking with Paul McCartney through his life...Fab is an essential piece to add to any Beatles fan collection.”
 Vancouver Columbian, 6/24/12“A well-researched extremely detailed biography...If you’re a fan of ‘the cute Beatle’ and want more than the tidbits you might find in People magazine, this is the biography for you.”

Montreal Gazette, 12/11/10
“One might think Paul McCartney's life has already been examined exhaustively, but the post-Beatles years—and that's a lot of years—have always been given short shrift until now...Sounes is a tenacious researcher.” Kirkus
One of the Best Biographies of 2010. Booklist, 12/20/102010 Adult Editors’ Choice
New York Times, 12/19/10“Expand[s] on the myth for insatiable Beatlemaniacs.”
Washington Times, 12/24/10“[Sounes] writes quite movingly about [Linda McCartney’s] death from cancer.”
WomanAroundTown.com, 12/17/10
“This book...is nearly as fascinating as ‘the cute Beatle’ himself.” Blog on Books, 12/1/10

Metroland, 12/13/10
“Moves smoothly from the familiar coming together and dissolution of the Beatles on to the subsequent bulk of his life as a solo artist, father, husband (including the disastrous second go-round), and knighted man of wealth.” Waterbury Sunday Republican, 12/5/10
“Door-stopper thick...Though the Beatles may be the most written about musical act in world history, Sounes’ giant book reminds us that the existence of the ‘Fab Four’ comprised only a thin slice of McCartney’s life.” Acadiana LifeStyle, December 2010
“Paul’s life, loves and music are fully explored. This is a must for Beatle/McCartney fans.” Winnipeg Free Press (Canada), 12/11/10
“Provid[es] a window into the entirety of the great pop musician's creative and personal journey...Impressive...McCartney's life has been well documented in print, but never with such expanse...In many ways, Fab is as much a recollection of another time as it is a window onto a great artist's accomplishments and, not infrequently, failures.” 

Word, November 2010
“[T]he first major unauthorized biography.... Howard Sounes brings to the task the same solid journalistic values he employed in writing his Dylan biography Down the Highway,which succeeded in unearthing troves of new information through the simple expedient of diligent legwork, hunting down the right people, and asking them the right questions.”

Rolling Stone, 11/11/10
“Few Beatle biographies are as exhaustive as this 634-page epic: Sounes paints an unsparing portrait of McCartney...For fans willing to ponder their hero’s flaws, Fab delivers all you need to know—and a lot more.”

Wall Street Journal, 10/29/10“Provide[s] sound background on Mr. McCartney's working-class roots, the environs of Liverpool, and the bonding of two song-writing youths (Mr. McCartney and John Lennon) who both lost their mothers while still in their teens. The author turns up new details on these early topics.” San Antonio Express-News, 10/24/10“[A] massive, exhaustively researched biography.” New York Journal of Books, 10/26/10

Booklist, July 2010
“Everyone knows who Paul McCartney is. And everyone can imagine how much in demand this biography will be.”

Kirkus, 9/15/10
“[A] solid addition to the ever-expanding library of books about the Beatle named Paul...More than 200 interviews—and no-nonsense attention to detail...The graceful prose and superb storytelling create a riveting narrative.”

Booklist, 10/15/10 (starred review)“Sounes has earned a well-deserved reputation for writing thoroughly researched, intricately detailed biographies. This comprehensive biography of McCartney is no exception. Sounes seems to have spoken to every living person with any connection to the former Beatle...Fab covers all the highlights of McCartney’s life and long career...This is by no means a hagiography. On the contrary, Sounes gives criticism when warranted, remarking on McCartney’s flaws both as a musician and as a man. Indeed, Sounes is often brutally honest, offering a full portrait—warts and all—of one of the most famous men of the modern era. A must for Beatles and McCartney fans...In spite of his persistent mega-fame, this is the first comprehensive, candid, and up-to-date portrait of Sir Paul McCartney, making it a magnet for boomers and serious music lovers.” 

Eat Sleep Drink Music, 12/9/10
“A proper biography...Given that Sounes manages to tackle both the highs and the lows of McCartney’s career while neither rhapsodizing nor crucifying the man, it’s no surprise that the reviews for Fab have been, well, fab.”

Melbourne Herald Sun (Australia), 1/8/11
“Howard Sounes has done his homework to turn up so much that even Beatles fans might not have known. These 672 pages mostly demand attention, much more so than 671 pages of McCartney's authorised biography...A compelling re-telling of rock's greatest story.”

Charleston Post and Courier, 1/9/11
“This comprehensive text is billed as ‘the first exhaustive biography of Sir Paul,’ and it lives up to that billing. The book is well-researched and finely detailed, with many pages of source documentation provided...The book is stuffed with fascinating anecdotes and previously unpublished incidents...An excellent resource.”

Ellsworth American, 1/13/11“An insightful and human look at the cute (and nice) Beatle from his early life in Liverpool up to the present day.” Midwest Book Review, January 2011
“A 'must’ for any library seeking a definitive representation of the Beatles.” 

Library Journal, 10/15/10“A probing work that examines McCartney’s foibles to a much greater extent than, for example, Barry Miles’s authorized Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now...There is a ton of engrossing, well-documented material here...A worthwhile read for McCartney fans; recommended for all public libraries.” The Independent, 9/24/10“Exceedingly thorough...A good read for those seeking a Pauline perspective on the Beatles plus a look at his solo career.”

Publishers Weekly (web-exclusive), 11/22/10
“An engaging, set-the-record-straight biography...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...Sounes packs in a lot.”

Asbury Park Press, 11/21/10
“[A] comprehensive biography...The book is in two parts—before and after The Beatles. It will not be surprising that the first part is a real page-turner. Even though a lot of that material has been covered before in countless books and articles, Sounes makes the stories interesting.”

Blogcritics.org, 11/25/10
“A must-read for the Beatles or McCartney fan who thinks he has read it all. Billed as the first complete biography of Paul McCartney's life, Sounes' exhaustively researched book more than lives up to that lofty claim...Through it all, Sounes is both thorough and unflinching in his appraisal of both McCartney's music, and of the man himself.”

TheBookWeb.com, 11/18/10
“[A] fascinating and minutely detailed biography...An illuminating portrait of the most successful Beatle, and unlike many other Beatle biographies, Sounes gives as much time to his post-Beatle life as the Beatle era.”


National Post(Canada), 11/1/10“Massive...Full of intriguing snapshots.”
CBC News (Canada), 11/4/10“A compelling biography.”
Record Collector (UK), December 2010“Macca examined in high-def accuracy...Where Sounes scores...is in scything through the wild undergrowth of facts, misinformation and myths to present a level-headed portrait of a musician who, obviously, is still held in fascination by the public...The definitive take on an extraordinary career...Sounes is also admirably responsible in his dissection of the Heather Mills years, sifting through the tabloid salaciousness to outline chains of events with the confident, dispassionate eye of a seasoned and reliable journalist.”

The Onion, 11/11/10“Fab does a credible job of outlining McCartney’s life and habits. So much has been written about The Beatles—and by contrast, so little about McCartney’s far longer (and during the ’70s, nearly as popular) solo career—that Sounes’ equal treatment of the eras is welcome.”
Tucson Citizen, 11/8/10


Stuff.co.nz “Blog on Tracks,” 9/14/10“
A fantastic tome...Sounes adds a lot to the story and his methodical, meticulous research style means that he's actually bringing new things out...Sounes has, through hundreds of interviews, built a book about McCartney that addresses the myth, understands the legend and is balanced; never getting anywhere near the all too common hagiography that is the bane of reading the  modern music biography/ghost-written-autobiography...I found it the perfect balance of entertainment and education/research—and, as such, it'sone of the best biographies I've ever read.”

Blurt Online, 10/18/10
“The portrait painted in Howard Sounes’ Fab is of a man with more to him than meets the eye or ear...Sounes' treatment of Paul is fairly even-handed though. He doesn't shy away from the bad and doesn't overstate the good...There's still a hunger for all things Beatle and Sounes' book has its place.”

1 A LIVERPOOL FAMILY
AT THE START OF THE ROAD
 
 
‘They may not look much,’ Paul would say in adult life of his Liverpool family, having been virtually everywhere and seen virtually everything there is to see in this world. ‘They’re just very ordinary people, but by God they’ve got something – common sense, in the truest sense of the word. I’ve met lots of people, [but] I have never met anyone as interesting, or as fascinating, or as wise, as my Liverpool family.’
 
Liverpool is not only the city in which Paul McCartney was born; it is the place in which he is rooted, the wellspring of the Beatles’ music and everything he has done since that fabulous group disbanded. Originally a small inlet or ‘pool’ on the River Mersey, near its confluence with the Irish Sea, 210 miles north of London, Liverpool was founded in 1207, coming to significance in the seventeenth century as a slave trade port, because Liverpool faces the Americas. After the abolition of slavery, the city continued to thrive due to other, diverse forms of trade, with magnificent new docks constructed along its riverine waterfront, and ocean liners steaming daily to and from the United States. As money poured into Liverpool, its citizens erected a mini-Manhattan by the docks, featuring the Royal Liver Building, an exuberant skyscraper topped by outlandish copper birds that have become emblematic of this confident, slightly eccentric city.
 
For the best part of three hundred years men and women flocked to Liverpool for work, mostly on and around the docks. Liverpool is and has always been a predominantly white, working-class city, its people made up of and descended in large part from the working poor of surrounding Lancashire, plus Irish, Scots and Welsh incomers. Their regional accents combined in an urban melting pot to create Scouse, the distinctive Liverpool voice, with its singular, rather harsh pronunciation and its own witty argot, Scousers typically living hugger-mugger in the city’s narrow terrace streets built from the local rosy-red sandstone and brick.
 
Red is the colour of Liverpool – the red of its buildings, its left-wing politics and Liverpool Football Club. As the city has a colour, its citizens have a distinct character: they are friendly, jokey and inquisitive, hugely proud of their city and thin-skinned when it is criticised, as it has been throughout Paul’s life. For Liverpool’s boom years were over before Paul was born, the population reaching a peak of 900,000 in 1931, since when Liverpool has faded, its people, Paul included, leaving to find work elsewhere as their ancestors once came to Merseyside seeking employment, the abandoned city becoming tatty and tired, with mounting social problems.
 
Paul’s maternal grandfather, Owen Mohin, was a farmer’s son from County Monaghan, south of what is now the border with Northern Ireland, and it’s likely there was Irish blood on the paternal side of the family, too. McCartney is a Scottish name, but four centuries ago many Scots McCartneys settled in Ireland, returning to mainland Britain during the Potato Famine of the mid-1800s. Paul’s paternal ancestors were probably among those who recrossed the Irish Sea at this time in search of food and work. Great-grandfather James McCartney was also most likely born in Ireland, but came to Liverpool to work as a housepainter, making his home with wife Elizabeth in Everton, a workingclass suburb of the city. Their son, Joseph, born in 1866, Paul’s paternal grandfather, worked in the tobacco trade, tobacco being one of the city’s major imports. He married a local girl named Florence Clegg and had ten children, the fifth of whom was Paul’s dad.
 
Aside from Paul’s parents, his extended Liverpool family, his relatives – what Paul would call ‘the relies’ – have played a significant and ongoing part in his life, so it is worth becoming acquainted with his aunts and uncles. John McCartney was Joe and Flo McCartney’s firstborn, known as Jack. Paul’s Uncle Jack was a big strong man, gassed in the First World War, with the result that after he came home – to work as a rent collector for Liverpool Corporation – he spoke in a small, husky voice. You had to lean in close to hear what Jack was saying, and often he was telling a joke. The McCartneys were wits and raconteurs, deriving endless fun from gags, word games and general silliness, all of which became apparent, for better or worse, when Paul turned to song writing. McCartney family whimsy is in ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ and ‘Rocky Raccoon’, also ‘Rupert and the Frog Song’.
 
There was a son after Jack who died in infancy; then came Edith (Edie) who married ship steward Will Stapleton, the black sheep of the family; another daughter died in infancy; after which Paul’s father, James, was born on 7 July 1902, known to all as Jim. He was followed by three girls: Florence (Flo), Annie and Jane, the latter known as Gin or Ginny, after her middle name Virginia. Ginny, who married carpenter Harry Harris, was Paul’s favourite relative outside his immediate family and close to her younger sister, Mildred (Milly), after whom came the youngest, Joe, known as Our Bloody Joe, a plumber who married Joan, who outlived them all. Looking back, Joan recalls a family that was ‘very clannish’, amiable, witty people who liked company. In appearance the men were slim, smartly dressed and moderately handsome. Paul’s dad possessed delicate eyebrows which arched quizzically over kindly eyes, giving him the enquiring, innocent expression Paul has inherited. The women were of a more robust build, and in many ways the dominant personalities. None more so than the redoubtable Auntie Gin, whom Paul name-checks in his 1976 song ‘Let ’em In’. ‘Ginny was up for anything. She was a wonderful mad character,’ says Mike Robbins, who married into the family, becoming Paul’s Uncle Mike (though he was actually a cousin). ‘It’s a helluva family. Full of fun.’
 
Music played a large part in family life. Granddad Joe played in brass bands and encouraged his children to take up music. Birthdays, Christmas and New Year were all excuses for family parties, which involved everybody having a drink and a singsong around the piano, purchased from North End Music Stores (NEMS), owned by the Epstein family, and it was Jim McCartney’s fingers on the keys. He taught himself piano by ear (presumably his left, being deaf in his right). He also played trumpet, ‘until his teeth gave out’, as Paul always says. Jim became semi-professional during the First World War, forming a dance band, the Masked Melody Makers, later Jim Mac’s Band, in which his older brother Jack played trombone. Other relatives joined the merriment, giving enthusiastic recitals of ‘You’ve Gone’ and ‘Stairway to Paradise’ at Merseyside dance halls. Jim made up tunes as well, though he was too modest to call himself a songwriter. There were other links to show business. Younger brother Joe Mac sang in a barber-shop choir and Jack had a friend at the Pavilion Theatre who would let the brothers backstage to watch artists such as Max Wall and Tommy Trinder perform. As a young man Jim worked in the theatre briefly, selling programmes and operating lights, while a little later on Ann McCartney’s daughter Bett took as her husband the aforementioned Mike Robbins, a small-time variety artiste whose every other sentence was a gag (‘Variety was dying, and my act was helping to kill it’). There was a whiff of greasepaint about this family.
 
Jim’s day job was humdrum and poorly paid. He was a salesman with the cotton merchants A. Hannay & Co., working out of an impressive mercantile building on Old Hall Street. One of Jim’s colleagues was a clerk named Albert Kendall, who married Jim’s sister Milly, becoming Paul’s Uncle Albert (part of the inspiration for another of Paul’s Seventies’ hits, ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’). It was perhaps because Jim was having such a grand old time with his band and his extended family that he waited until he was almost forty before he married, by which time Britain was again at war. It was Jim’s luck to have been too young to serve in the First World War, and now he was fortunate to be too old for the Second. He lost his job with Hannay’s, though, working instead in an aircraft factory during the day and fire-watching at night. Liverpool’s docks were a prime German target during the early part of the war, with incendiary shells falling almost nightly. It was during this desperate time, with the Luftwaffe overhead and Adolf Hitler’s armies apparently poised to invade from France, that Jim McCartney met his bride-to-be, Paul’s mother Mary.
 
Mary Mohin was the daughter of Irishman Owen Mohin, who’d left the old country to work in Glasgow, then moving south to Liverpool, where he married Mary Danher and had four children: a daughter named Agnes who died in childhood, boys Wilfred and Bill, the latter known as Bombhead, and Paul’s mother, Mary, born in the Liverpool suburb of Fazakerley on 29 September 1909. Mary’s mother died when she was ten. Dad went back to Ireland to take a new bride, Rose, whom he brought to Liverpool, having two more children before dying himself in 1933, having drunk and gambled away most of his money. Mary and Rose didn’t get on and Mary left home when still young to train as a nurse, lodging with Harry and Ginny Harris in West Derby. One day Ginny took Mary to meet her widowed mother Florence at her Corporation-owned (‘corpy’) home in Scargreen Avenue, Norris Green, whereby Mary met Gin’s bachelor brother Jim. When the air-raid warning sounded, Jim and M...