Ian Peel methodically tracks McCartney's experimental music work going back to Revolver and detailing many half-forgotten, odd Wings tracks, B-sides, and side projects. Not just about his avant-garde career but looking at his musical career beyond its pop context. It would have been better had it explored the fascinating dynamic of his simultaneous experimental/avant garde work with his classical composing, which is not given much space. Only other hesitation to five stars is at times it is too laudatory where more critical writing might have been more appreciated. Still, quite an achievement. This book goes very far (Paul McCartney Goes Too Far was the title proposed for a Beatles era experimental Stockhausen/Cage inspired work he never finished) toward giving more appropriate weight to what Paul was up to all those Wings years outside of the pop spotlight.

This is a cute little book for any Beatles fan, assuming you don't take the whole "paul is dead" thing seriously. There is some intresting Beatles history, and the book even talks a little about Charles Manson, which is on the subject of hidden messages.

As far as rating the book goes, I gave it 3 stars for two reasons. First of all, like I said, it's a cute little book. To rate more than 3 stars (for me anyway) a book needs to more than "cute" and more than 208 pages (which includes the bibliography). Second, I feel there should have been a few more pictures in the book. If you are going to talk about pictures on the cover of the Yellow Submarine, show what it is you are talking about.

Other than those two things, it's a good read for an airplane, a long afternoon, or something like that.

I remember being a little boy when my Mom told me all about the "Paul is dead" rumors, and I've always been fascinated by the odd clues in the songs and album art of The Beatles. The book is a brisk read, written in a fun, breezy style, and there's a color insert so you can see pictures of most of the visual clues described in the book.

It seems too coincidental to me that all of these clues were accidents or misinterpretations; I tend to believe that this was a big joke between John and Paul, and that after the Manson killings it was decided to just keep mum about it; After all, it did sell albums...

It was also fun to show my mom clues that she wasn't aware of. And just try to read the book and NOT go running out to buy some Beatles CD's.....

This book was great. I saw my friend reading it in school, and me being a long-time Beatles fan asked her what it was about. When she told me, I was creeped out. I had never heard of the Paul is Dead hoax, and I belived it for a while, but then i bought another book on it while I was waiting to receive this one. The other book put too much disbelif into it. When I got this one, it wasn't as much fun as it could have been because I didnt beleive it as much anymore. I sugest if you want this book to be the best it could on the subject, read it before ant others. Other than the other book distroying most of the fun in it, It was an Awsome Book!!!

After reading other Coleman books I expected to read something new and informative about Paul McCartney. Instead I was spoonfed a repetitive and boring story of the development of the song "Yesterday". Pass on this one - it's definitely not worth the money.

As with all of Ray Coleman's books, this one is accurate and informative, but somewhat irritating in its obvious adoration of McCartney. Still a definitive account of the history of one of the most famous songs of all time. Also, it includes a comprehensive account of how Paul McCartney lost the chance to get the rights to the Lennon/McCartney songs when he was outbid by a former collaborator, Michael Jackson. A must-read for any Beatles fan, for this information if for nothing else.

If you are thinking of buying this book because of Paul McCartney, well, at least the pictures deserve attention. This book lacks information about Paul himself, but it's a very good way of showing (literally!) him and his life, with and without the Beatles.

I like the idea behind this book - the working relationship of McCartney and Lennon would be interesting if it was done well. The many errors in the book and the author's very obvious hatred of McCartney and adoration of Lennon tend to destroy any attempt at objectivity. An example - page 115 - John & Yoko "made love"; page 126 - Paul & Linda "shack up". Things John said are the truth - thing Paul said are lies or attempts to make himself look good. I also find the author's put-downs of Beatles merchandising pretty funny - he seems to have quite a bit of Beatles merchandise (books) himself. It's a shame. This could have been a good book.

So far I had only read Lennon In America by Geoffrey Giuliano - a book that I absolutely hated. It was therefore that I wasn't expecting a lot from this book, but I must say that at least this one is better in style. An entertaining read.
The focus of the book is the relationship between Lennon & McCartney and how they collaborated on songs in (mainly) the early stages. Later on they didn't write together anymore (well hardly), but because of the rivalry that existed between them, each motivated the other to come up with some of the best songs ever written in this world.
George and Ringo hardly feature in the book, which seems a bit strange as the book deals with the career of Lennon / McCartney and The Beatles in a strictly chronological order and of course George and Ringo played a major role in that. To be fair though, in the author's notes Giuliano already announces that the book mentions the works of George and Ringo only in passing, without the amount of detail that is given to Lennon & McCartney.
The book describes how John and Paul met, started playing music in Julia's bathroom, wrote their first songs together, became The Beatles, how they worked in the studio, how their relationship grew from bad to worse and briefly describes their song writing after the Beatles broke up. All of this interspersed with quotes and bits of (mostly well known) interviews.
Right from the start, it is very clear that the author likes Lennon a lot better than McCartney. Lennon is always the genius, McCartney always has other motives in anything he does and is just waiting for a chance to take control of The Beatles.
Lennon's music is innovative and (often) provocative, while McCartney writes songs that are sugar coated and suitable for old age pensioners....
In summary, an entertainingly written book, but not a must have.

Regarding: "Read, Many Years From Now (Barry Miles), at least his book is intelligently researched and uses Paul McCartney as his main source of information." For ought I know "Many Years From Now" may be a perfectly fine book in its way, but anyone of discernment who's read a McCartney interview (or, say, the "McCartney" album press release, in which McCartney explains that he, McCartney, has quit the Beatles) knows that a book that "uses Paul McCartney as [its] main source of information" will be of doubtful veracity. In any case, "The Two of Us" is engagingly written, intelligent, and reasonably fair, I think, to all parties--probably the most readable Beatles book I've yet encountered. It doesn't contain much new information, but let's face it, how much new information is there possibly to be had? (I also like George Martin's "All You Need Is [?] Ears".)

Suggestion.....if you are a McCartney or Beatles fan, do not buy this book. Had I not loved Paul and his music beforehand, I would hate him after reading this book. Chet Flippo is a Flippo. He trashes Paul completely, showing only his worst sides. Lots of it isn't true.

Writers and journalists who have obvious scorn for their subject can't be objective. One again, another baised "McCartney hater" succumbs. Paul is tossed off as a lightweight and blamed for the Beatles breakup. Other than some interesting 60's passages, this is pretty much a waste of time.

I found this book to be a very interesting account of Paul's life, while he was a Beatle, and later as a Wing. Having never read a book previously about Paul, I found it quite fascinating, though hard core fans may find that it does trash Paul and Linda to some extent. All in all, though, I did enjoy it and would recommend it.

I bought this book and was excited about being able to take it right home and play along to the Beatles recordings on my guitar. I opened up to "I Saw Her Standing There" and put on my Please Please Me CD and to my surprise and dismay the book was in a different musical key than the CD, way off! I'm assuming they did that to make the songs easier to play on piano, but it wasn't what I wanted. Disappointed I took the book back and then ordered The Complete Beatles Scores from Amazon. I've been much happier with that book.

I did read another book by this particular author and although I found it thoroughly amusing I just thought he wrote it for entertainment. There were obviously not enough people that had said actual good things and it just seems like her rounded up people that really disliked Paul McCartney and I know that everyone isn't angelic but he didn't just bend the halo, I thought it was pretty low the way he basically stripped her of her integrity with a full on attack.

For a book that is as rotten as Mr. Giuliano's. Um, if you hate McCartney,and his late wife Linda(god rest her soul)so much then why'd you write a book about them?

It sufferes from the biases of several people who have been associated with the McCartneys(Denny and ...JoJo Laine.Linda comes off as being a it-rhymes-with-witch at times. But then again, JoJo Laine has a lot to gain(it rhymes!)by expressing her(negative)opinion of the McCartneys. She claims that they were drug users. Interesting given the story in the book about JoJo selling spare tickets she stole to get drug money, Tsk tsk. Giuliano also drags out Paul's former stepmother and stepsister who lost out on the McCartney millions once Paul's father died and that Paul didn't help them out

Giuliano also manages to get in digs at Yoko Ono(granted, she isn't high on Beatles' fans lists of favorite people)but he stoops pretty low just the same.If you've read any of his books you know that Mr.Giuliano wishes that he were some sort of music insider,which he obviously isn't(read any of his other books on the Beatles-of which there are many)for proof of this.And more than that, it's just BORING!!and there's stuff in there that I'd read a zillion times before, in other, better, Beatle bios.The one good thing about this book is that there are some great pictures in it.Otherwise,it'd be a waste of your money.

Paul Mc Cartney was a Beatle , perhaps you know this already . The Beatle stories in this book are fun to read . The losers in Mc Cartney's life also get an opportunity to have a go at him . Most of these were related to the awful Wings business . Mr Guiliano takes Wings seriously . This is amusing . Furthermore he suggests that the writing partnership of Mc Cartney and Denny Laine will be better appreciated in the future . Is this a joke ? I believe this songwriting team's most acclaimed moment was Mull Of Kintyre . Am I alone in despising this simple ditty ? There are many other instances of the author crawling . He refers to several minor personalities as gifted , talented etc . This is a little irritating . The book does , however , detail rather admirably the darker side of Mc Cartney's business life . It appears he is a rather shrewd , selfish and greedy individual . Who knows ? Most of the people associated with him are either hangers on or wannabes . I enjoyed finding a mistake in the text ! Wow ! When Mc Cartney played PAPERBACK WRITER live in recent years , it was not the first time it had been performed live by a Beatle as it was included in the 1966 concerts in Tokyo , so there . A very interesting book , but not that difficult to put down as it gets bogged down in irrelevancies ....like Jojo .