He is one of the most famous, most wealthy people on the planet, and yet he remains little-known and understood as a personality. At long last, Paul McCartney is the subject of a major, deeply researched, psychologically acute biography. It tells a story that will illuminate and surprise.
The publication finds McCartney - who turns 70 in 2012 - revitalized as a performer (touring with a set of mostly Beatles songs) and a man buffeted by profound changes in recent years: the death of his first wife, Linda; the death of George Harrison; a second marriage, to Heather Mills, and its spectacular failure, the fall-out from which is still crashing around him. PART ONE: WITH THE BEATLES
1 / A LIVERPOOL FAMILY
2 / JOHN
3 / HAMBURG
4 / LONDON
5 / THE MANIA
6 / AMERICA
7 / YESTERDAY
8 / FIRST FINALE
9 / LINDA
10 / HELLO, GOODBYE
11 / PAUL TAKES CHARGE
12 / WEIRD VIBES
13 / WEDDING BELLS
14 / CREATIVE DIFFERENCES
PART TWO: AFTER THE BEATLES
15 / 'HE'S NOT A BEATLE ANY MORE!'
16 / THE NEW BAND
17 / IN THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY
18 / THE GOOD LIFE
19 / GO TO JAIL
20 / INTO THE EIGHTIES
21 / TRIVIAL PURSUITS
22 / THE NEXT BEST THING
23 / MUSIC IS MUSIC
24 / A THREE-QUARTERS REUNION
25 / PASSING THROUGH THE DREAM OF LOVE
26 / RUN DEVIL RUN
27 / THAT DIFFICULT SECOND MARRIAGE
28 / WHEN PAUL WAS SIXTY-FOUR
29 / THE EVER-PRESENT PAST
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SOURCE NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
PICTURE CREDITS
"The most comprehensive and detailed retelling to date of the much-told McCartney saga."
- The Globe and Mail
"Fab will never be labeled as blind hero worship... Sounes [is] a zealous researcher ... determined both to inform and entertain."
- National Post
"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, in Fab."
- The Gazette HOWARD SOUNES is the bestselling author of meticulously researched and revelatory books of biography, history and true crime, published in the UK, USA, and in translation around the world, including Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life and Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan. He has written widely about popular music and the arts, but his background is as a news journalist, in London, UK, where he was born and lives. He was working as a newspaper reporter in 1994 when he broke the story of the British serial murderers Fred and Rosemary West, going on to write his first bestseller, Fred & Rose, which has sold nearly 300,000 copies. 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 e
