McCartney, Paul

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Biography

Sir James Paul McCartney , Order of the British Empire|MBE , List of Royal Academy of Music people|Hon RAM , Royal College of Music|FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (band)|Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 Music recording sales certification|gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million Single (music)|singles . With John Lennon , George Harrison , and Ringo Starr , he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated Lennon–McCartney|songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman , and singer-songwriter Denny Laine .

According to the BBC , his Beatles song " Yesterday (song)|Yesterday " has been cover version|covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, " Mull of Kintyre (song)|Mull of Kintyre ", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness . As a musician, songwriter, or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100| Billboard Hot 100 , and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5& nbsp;million RIAA certified units in the United States.

He has composed film scores, classical and electronic music, and released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist. He has taken part in projects to help international charities, and has been an advocate for animal rights , vegetarianism , and music education ; he has been active in campaigns against landmine s and seal hunting , and supported efforts such as Make Poverty History . His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 25,000 songs, including those written by Buddy Holly , as well as the publishing rights to the musicals Guys and Dolls (musical)|Guys and Dolls , A Chorus Line , and Grease (musical)|Grease . He is one of the UK's wealthiest people, with an estimated fortune of pound sterling|£ 475& nbsp;million in 2010. He has been married three times and is the father of five children.

Childhood

McCartney was born in Walton Hospital in Liverpool England, where his mother, Mary (née Mohin), had twelve years earlier, "satisfied her state registry requirements" for nursing, writes Beatles biographer Bob Spitz . His father James, or "Jim" McCartney, was absent at his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer fire fighter during World War II. McCartney has one brother, Mike McGear|Michael , born 7 January 1944, and though they were baptised in their mother's Roman Catholic faith, "religion did not play a part in their upbringing" according to biographer Barry Miles , as McCartney's father was a Protestantism|Protestant turned agnostic .
In 1947 he began attending Stockton Wood Road Primary School, by 1952 Joseph Williams Junior School, where he passed the 11-plus exam in 1953 with three others out of ninety examinees, thus gaining admission to the Liverpool Institute . However, when he took his Advanced Level (UK)|A-level exams at age nineteen, he passed only one subject& nbsp;– Art. In 1954, while taking the bus from his home in the suburb of Speke to the Institute, he met George Harrison , who had also passed the exam, meaning they could both go to a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school, which the majority of pupils attended until they were eligible to work.

In 1955 the McCartneys moved to 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, Merseyside|Allerton , where they lived through 1964. The first member of his family to own a car, his mother rode a bicycle to houses where she worked as a midwife; he describes an early memory her leaving at "about three in the morning" the "streets& nbsp;... thick with snow". On 31 October 1956, when he was fourteen, his mother died of an embolism after a mastectomy operation to stop the spread of her breast cancer. The loss of his mother at fourteen was later a point of relation with John Lennon , whose mother Julia Lennon|Julia also died when he was young, after being struck by a car when he was seventeen.
McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s and encouraged his son to be musical. He kept an upright piano in the front room that he purchased from Brian Epstein|Epstein 's North End Music Stores. His father, Joe McCartney, played an E-flat tuba . Jim McCartney used to point out the bass parts in songs on the radio, and often took his son to local brass band concerts. He gave Paul a nickel-plated trumpet for his fourteenth birthday, but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg (English)|Radio Luxembourg , he traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith (model 17) Steel-string guitar|acoustic guitar , realizing it would be too difficult to sing, "with a trumpet stuck in your mouth." Being left-handed, he found right-handed guitars difficult to play, but when he saw a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert, he realised that Whitman played left-handed with his right-handed guitar strung the opposite way. He then restrung his guitar and after some adjustments, found it easier to play. McCartney wrote his first song (" I Lost My Little Girl ") on the Zenith, and his second song, " When I'm Sixty-Four ", on the piano, which despite his father's advice, he took only a couple of lessons for, preferring instead to learn "by ear." He was heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues music, and has stated that Little Richard was his idol when he was in school. The first song he ever sang "in public", and "on stage" was " Long Tall Sally ", at a Butlins holiday camp talent competition.

Musical career

1957–1960: The Quarrymen

He met Lennon and the Quarrymen at the St. Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton on 6 July 1957, when he was fifteen years old. He joined the group soon after, and formed a close working relationship with Lennon, as the pair became one of the most celebrated Lennon–McCartney|songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. Harrison joined in 1958 as lead guitarist, followed in 1960 by Lennon's art school friend, Stuart Sutcliffe on bass. By May 1960, they had tried several new names, including "Johnny and the Moondogs" and "the Silver Beetles", playing a tour of Scotland under that name with Larry Parnes|Johnny Gentle . They changed the name of the group to "the Beatles" in mid-August 1960 and recruited Pete Best at short notice to become their drummer for an imminent engagement in Hamburg.

1960–1970: The Beatles

From August 1960 the Beatles were booked by Allan Williams to perform in Hamburg , and during their extended stays there over the next two years, they performed as the resident group at two of Bruno Koschmider 's clubs, the The Beatles in Hamburg|Indra , then the Kaiserkeller , and upon returns to Liverpool, at the Cavern club . In 1961 Sutcliffe left the band, and McCartney reluctantly became their bass player.; The Beatles recorded their first published music in Hamburg, performing as the backing band for Tony Sheridan on the single " My Bonnie ". The recording would later bring them to the attention of a key figure in their subsequent development and commercial success, Brian Epstein , who became their manager in January 1962. Epstein eventually negotiated a record contract for the group with Parlophone in May of that year. After replacing Best with Ringo Starr in August, they became increasingly popular Beatlemania in the United Kingdom|in the UK during 1963 and The Beatles in the United States|in the US in 1964 , in a frenzied adolation that became known as " Beatlemania ", during which McCartney was dubbed, "the cute Beatle", according to biographer Barry Miles . In 1965 they were each appointed as a Order of the British Empire|Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
After the recording of the Beatles hit " Yesterday (song)|Yesterday " (1965), he contacted the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in Maida Vale London, to ask if they would record an electronic version of the song, but he never followed up. When visiting artist John Dunbar (artist)|John Dunbar 's flat in London, he would bring along tapes he had compiled at then girlfriend Jane Asher 's home, mixes of various songs, musical pieces and comments made by McCartney that Dick James made into a Demo (music)|demo for him. Heavily influenced by American avant-garde musician John Cage , he made tape loops by recording voices, guitars, and bongoes on a Brenell Engineering Ltd.|Brenell Reel-to-reel audio tape recording|tape recorder , and splicing the various loops together. He reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the effects he wanted, some of which were later used on Beatles' recordings, such as " Tomorrow Never Knows " (1966). He referred to the tapes as "electronic symphonies". In 1966 he rented a ground floor and basement flat from Starr at 34 Montagu Square , to be used as a small studio for spoken-word recordings by poets, writers (including William S. Burroughs ) and avant-garde musicians. The Beatles' Apple Records then launched a sub-label, Zapple with Miles as its manager, ostensibly to release recordings of a similar aesthetic, although few releases would ultimately come of the endeavor as Apple and the Beatles slid into business and personal difficulties. After touring almost non-stop for a period of nearly four years, and giving more than 1,400 live performances internationally, the group gave their final commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour.
They continued to work in the recording studio and before The Beatles' breakup|their break-up in 1970, produced what many critics consider to be some of their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver (album)|Revolver (1966), '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (album)|The Beatles (1968) and Abbey Road (1969). Between 1963 and 1970 the group released twenty-two UK singles and twelve studio albums, of which eighteen of the singles and all but one of the LPs were number ones in the UK. The band topped the Billboard Hot 100| Billboard'' Hot 100 twenty times, and recorded fourteen number one albums. McCartney's contributions to the band's hit song's include: " Can't Buy Me Love " (1964), "Yesterday" (1965), Paperback Writer " and " Eleanor Rigby " (1966), " Hello, Goodbye " (1967), " Hey Jude " (1968), " Get Back (1969)", " Let It Be (song)|Let It Be " and " The Long and Winding Road " (1970).For song authorship see, . For release dates, US and UK peak chart positions of the preceding songs see,

In March 1969 he married Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman , whom he first met in May 1967. The couple had their first child together, Mary McCartney|Mary , named after Paul's late mother, in August 1969. In October 1969 a rumour surfaced that Paul is dead|McCartney had died in a car crash, but it was quickly proven false when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family with the caption, "Paul is Still With Us."

1970–1981: Wings

After the Beatles break-up in 1970 McCartney continued his musical career, releasing his first solo album, McCartney (album)|McCartney , in 1970, which contained the stand-out track " Maybe I'm Amazed ", written for Linda. With the exception of some vocal contributions from her, its a "one-man album", with Paul "playing all the instruments" himself, writes Beatles biographer Bill Harry . In 1971 he collaborated with her on a second album, Ram (album)|Ram , a UK number one which included the co-written US number one hit song, " Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey ". Later that year, the pair were joined by The Moody Blues|ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell to form the group Wings (band)|Wings , and release their first album together, Wild Life (Wings album)|Wild Life . In September 1971 the McCartney family added a second child, Stella McCartney|Stella , named in honour of Linda's grandmothers.
In 1973 McCartney wrote Wings' first US number one, " My Love (Paul McCartney & Wings song)|My Love ", included on their second LP, Red Rose Speedway , and his collaboration with Linda and former Beatles' producer George Martin resulted in the James Bond (film series)|James Bond theme song and Wings hit, " Live and Let Die (song)|Live and Let Die ", which was nominated for an Oscar, and earned Martin a grammy for his orchestral arrangement. In 1974 Paul wrote a second US number one for Wings, " Band on the Run (song)|Band on the Run "; the "acclaimed" Band on the Run|album of the same name , Wings' third, was a massive success that became their first platinum album. They followed with the chart topping LPs, Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976). In September 1977 a third child was born to the McCartney's, a son they named James McCartney|James , and in November, the Wings song " Mull of Kintyre (song)|Mull of Kintyre " was fast becoming "the best-selling single in UK history". In 1977 he released Thrillington , an orchestral arrangement of Ram , under the alias Percy "Thrills" Thrillington, with a cover designed by Hipgnosis .
While London Town (Wings album)|London Town (1978) and Back to the Egg (1979) passed with little critical or commercial notice, the later involved McCartney's collaboration with a rock Supergroup (music)|supergroup dubbed, Rockestra Theme|"the Rockestra" , though credited to Wings, that included Pete Townshend , David Gilmour , Gary Brooker , John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones , and John Bonham . Active through 1981, Wings produced seven studio albums, five of which topped the US charts, as well as their Live album|live Triple album|triple LP , Wings over America , one of few live albums ever to achieve the top spot in America. They also recorded six US number one singles including, " Listen to What the Man Said ", " Silly Love Songs , " With a Little Luck ", and " Coming Up (song)|Coming Up ".

1982–1989

In 1980 he released his second solo LP, the self-produced McCartney II , and as with his first, he composed all the music and performed the instrumentation himself. The album contained the hit songs "Coming Up", " Waterfalls (Paul McCartney song)|Waterfalls ", and " Temporary Secretary ". In 1982 he collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the Martin produced number one hit, " Ebony and Ivory ", included on McCartney's Tug of War (Paul McCartney album)|Tug of War LP, and with Michael Jackson on " The Girl Is Mine " from Thriller (album)|Thriller . The following year he worked with Jackson on the US number one, " Say Say Say ", and he earned a UK number one with the title track of his Pipes of Peace|LP release that year, " Pipes of Peace (song)|Pipes of Peace ".
In 1984 he wrote, produced, and starred in the feature film Give My Regards to Broad Street (film)|Give My Regards to Broad Street , a musical which "was savagely panned by the critics" according to Harry; and described by Variety (magazine)|Variety as: "Characterless, bloodless, and pointless." Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "you can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track." Give My Regards to Broad Street|Which faired much better, reaching number one in the UK, and producing the hit single, " No More Lonely Nights ", featuring Gilmour on lead guitar.
He collaborated with Eric Stewart on Press to Play (1986), who co-wrote more than half the songs on the LP, and in 1988, McCartney released ????? ? ???? , a Russia-only title that contained eighteen covers of "oldies" which he recorded over the course of just two days. In 1989 he joined forces with fellow Merseyside rs including Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood to record a new version of " Ferry Cross the Mersey ", originally recorded twenty-five years earlier by Gerry and the Pacemakers, to generate money for the appeal fund of the Hillsborough disaster , which occurred in April that year when ninety-five Liverpool F.C. fans died as a result of their injuries. The recording was a number one hit in the UK. In 1989 he released Flowers in the Dirt , a collaborative effort with Elvis Costello which included musical contributions from Gilmour and Nicky Hopkins .

1990–2000

In 1990 he released the triple LP, Tripping the Live Fantastic , which contained select performances from The Paul McCartney World Tour . The following year he ventured into orchestral music , when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by him to celebrate its sesquicentennial . He collaborated with Carl Davis to release Liverpool Oratorio ; involving opera singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa , Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White , with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral .
During the 1990s he twice collaborated with Martin Glover|Youth of Killing Joke under the alias The Fireman (music)|the Fireman , and released the electronica albums: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) and Rushes (album)|Rushes (1998). Released in 1993, the rock album Off the Ground was supported by " The New World Tour ", which produced the album, Paul Is Live later that year. Starting in 1994 he took a four-year Recess (break)|hiatus from his solo career to work on Apple Corps|Apple's the Beatles Anthology project with Harrison, Starr and Martin. He recorded a radio series called " Oobu Joobu " in 1995, for the American network Westwood One , which he described as being "wide-screen radio". Also in 1995 Charles, Prince of Wales|Prince Charles awarded him an Honorary Fellow ship of The Royal College of Music , "kind of amazing for somebody who doesn't read a note of music", commented McCartney, and in December 1996 he was informed that he was to be named in the 1997 New Year Honours and Knight Bachelor|knighted for services to music; his ceremony took place in March 1997.
In 1997 he released the rock album Flaming Pie , and the classical work Standing Stone (McCartney)|Standing Stone ; in 1998 Rushes , his second electronica album as the Fireman. Run Devil Run (1999), featuring Ian Paice and Gilmour, was primarily an album of Cover version|covers with three McCartney originals, something he'd "wanted to do for years", having been encouraged to do so by his late wife Linda, who died in April 1998 after losing a seventeen-month long battle with cancer. He contributed a song, "Nova", to a tribute album of Choir|choral music dedicated to her called, A Garland for Linda (2000). He continued his experimentation with orchestral music on Working Classical (1999), and was List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees#Performers|inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame "as a solo artist" in March of the same year. In May 2000 he was awarded a Fellowship by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors , and in August he released the electronica album, Liverpool Sound Collage with Super Furry Animals and Youth, utilising the sound collage and musique concrète techniques that fascinated him in the mid-1960s.

2001–present

In 2001 he released a live album of MTV Unplugged|acoustic-only performances called, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) . Having witnessed the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks from the JFK airport tarmac, he was inspired to take a lead role in organising The Concert for New York City , and his studio album release that year Driving Rain included the song " Freedom (Paul McCartney song)|Freedom ", written for the event as a response to the tragedy. He toured in support of Driving Rain and in 2002 released the double album|double live album Back in the U.S. (released internationally in 2003 as Back in the World . In November 2002, on the first anniversary of Harrison's death, McCartney performed at the Concert for George . He has also participated in the National Football League 's Super Bowl , performing "Freedom" in the pre-game show for Super Bowl XXXVI and headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX .

In 2005 he released the rock album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , and the electronica offering, Twin Freaks ; a collaborative project with Bastard pop|bootleg producer and remixer Freelance Hellraiser , consisting of remixed versions of songs from throughout his solo career. In 2006 he released the classical work Ecce Cor Meum ; the rock album Memory Almost Full followed in 2007, and in 2008, his third Fireman release, Electric Arguments . In 2008 he performed at a concert in Liverpool to celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture . In 2009, more than forty-five years after the Beatles first appeared on American television during The Ed Sullivan Show , he returned to the same New York theater to perform on Late Show with David Letterman . In 2010 he was honoured by Barack Obama with the Gershwin Prize for his contributions to popular music in a live show for the White House with performances by Stevie Wonder, Lang Lang (pianist)|Lang Lang and others. He returned to the White House later that year as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors .

McCartney's enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues. In 2009 he played three sold out concerts at the newly built Citi Field in Queens , New York, constructed to replace Shea Stadium , and he released a double live album culled from those performances called, Good Evening New York City later that year. In 2010 he opened the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , and in 2011 he performed the first concerts at the new Yankee Stadium , and released the classical work, " Ocean's Kingdom ". He has been touring since 2001 with guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray , Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. An upcoming tribute album is expected in June 2012, to coincide with his 70th birthday, featuring recordings of his songs by Kiss (band)|Kiss , Garth Brooks , Billy Joel , Brian Wilson , Willie Nelson , Steve Miller (musician)|Steve Miller , B.B. King and others. Kisses on the Bottom , a collection of standard (music)|standards , was released in February 2012, that same month he was honoured as MusiCares Person of the Year , two days prior to his performance at the 54th Grammy Awards .

Creative outlets

During the 1960s, he delved into the visual arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealers and gallery owners, explored experimental film, and regularly attended movie, theatrical and classical music performances. His first contact with the London avant-garde scene was through artist John Dunbar, who introduced him to the art dealer Robert Fraser (art dealer)|Robert Fraser , who in turn introduced McCartney to an array of writers and artists. He later became involved in the renovation and publicising of the Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London& nbsp;— where Lennon first met Yoko Ono . The Indica Gallery brought McCartney into contact with Barry Miles , whose underground newspaper, the International Times , McCartney helped to start. Miles would become de facto manager of Apple's short-lived Zapple Records label, and he wrote McCartney's official biography, Many Years From Now (1997).
While living at then girlfriend Jane Asher 's parent's house, he took piano lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama , where Beatles' producer Martin had previously attended, where he studied composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen , and Luciano Berio . He later wrote and released several pieces of modern classical music and ambient electronica, as well as writing poetry and painting. He is lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts , an arts school in the building formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute for Boys . The 1837 building, which he attended during his schooldays, had become derelict by the mid-1980s, however, on 7 June 1996, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the redeveloped building.

Painting

In 1966 he met art gallery-owner Robert Fraser, whose flat was visited by many well-known artists, some of which McCartney met, including; Andy Warhol , Claes Oldenburg , Peter Blake (artist)|Peter Blake , and Richard Hamilton (artist)|Richard Hamilton , and it was at Fraser's flat where McCartney first learned about art appreciation. He later started buying paintings by Magritte , using his painting of an apple for the Apple Records logo, and McCartney now owns one of Magritte's easels and a pair of his spectacles.
McCartney's love of painting surfaced after watching artist Willem de Kooning paint, in Kooning's Long Island studio. He took up painting in 1983, and in 1999, he exhibited his paintings (featuring McCartney's portraits of John Lennon , Andy Warhol , and David Bowie ) for the first time in Siegen , Germany, and included photographs by Linda McCartney|Linda . He chose the gallery because Wolfgang Suttner (local events organiser) was genuinely interested in his art, and the positive reaction led to McCartney showing his work in UK galleries. The first UK exhibition of his work was opened in Bristol , England with more than 50 paintings on display. McCartney had previously believed that "only people that had been to art school were allowed to paint"& nbsp;– as Lennon had.

In October 2000, Ono and McCartney presented art exhibitions in New York and London. McCartney said, "I've been offered an exhibition of my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool where John and I used to spend many a pleasant afternoon. So I'm really excited about it. I didn't tell anybody I painted for 15 years but now I'm out of the closet." McCartney designed a series of six postage stamps issued by the Isle of Man Post in 2002, and according to BBC News, he is the first major rock star in the world to do so.

Writing and poetry

When he was young, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books, and his father was interested in crosswords and invited he and his brother Michael to solve them with him, so as to increase their "word power", says McCartney. He was later inspired& nbsp;– in his school years& nbsp;– by Alan Durband , an English literature teacher at the Liverpool Institute. Durband was a co-founder and fund-raiser at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where Willy Russell also worked, and introduced McCartney to Chaucer|Geoffrey Chaucer's works.
In 2001 he published 'Blackbird Singing', a volume of poems and lyrics to his songs for which he gave readings in Liverpool and New York City. In the foreword of the book, he explains: "When I was a teenager& nbsp;... I had an overwhelming desire to have a poem published in the school magazine. I wrote something deep and meaningful——which was promptly rejected——and I suppose I have been trying to get my own back ever since." Years later, he wrote a poem about the death of his childhood friend, Ivan Vaughan . In 2005 he collaborated with author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar to write, High in the Clouds|High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail , which The Guardian labeled an "anti-capitalist children's book".

Film

He was interested in animated film s as a child, and in 1981 he asked Geoff Dunbar to direct a short animated film called Rupert and the Frog Song . McCartney was the writer and producer and he also added some of the character voices. In 1992 he worked with Dunbar on an animated film about the work of French artist Honoré Daumier , which won both of them a BAFTA award. In 2004 they worked together on the animated short film, Tropic Island Hum . In 1995 he made a guest appearance in the " Lisa the Vegetarian " episode of The Simpsons , and directed a short documentary about the Grateful Dead .
In May 2000 he released Wingspan: Hits and History|Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait , a retrospective documentary that features behind-the-scenes film and photographs that he and Linda took of their family and bands. Interspersed throughout the eighty-eight minute film is an interview by Mary McCartney with her father. Mary was the baby photographed inside McCartney's jacket on the back cover of his first solo album, McCartney , and was one of the producers of the documentary.

Lifestyle

Drugs

His introduction to drugs started in Hamburg Germany when the Beatles would play for long hours and were often using Preludin to maintain energy, sometimes supplied by friend Astrid Kirchherr . According to McCartney, he would usually take only one, but Lennon would often take four or five by the end of a night. He remembers getting "very high" and "giggling uncontrollably" when the Beatles were introduced to marijuana by Bob Dylan in a New York hotel room in 1964. His use of which soon after became habitual, and according to biographer Barry Miles , any future Beatles' lyrics containing the words "high", or "grass" were written specifically as a reference to cannabis , as was the phrase "another kind of mind" in " Got to Get You into My Life ". During the filming of Help& #33; (film)|Help! , he claims he occasionally smoked a Joint (cannabis)|spliff in the car on the way to the studio during filming, which often made him forget his lines. Director Dick Lester says that he overheard "two beautiful women" trying to cajole McCartney into using heroin , but he refused. He was introduced to cocaine by art dealer Robert Fraser, and it was readily available during the recording of ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . McCartney admits that he used the drug for about a year but stopped because of his dislike of the unpleasant melancholy he felt after the drug wore off.

While initially reluctant to try Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD , he eventually did so in the fall of 1966 with friend Tara Browne . He took his second " Psychedelic experience|acid trip " with Lennon on 21 March 1967 after a Sgt. Pepper studio session. He later became the first Beatle to discuss the drug publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society." His attitude about cannabis was made public in 1967, when he added his name to a 24 July advertisement in The Times which called for its legalisation, the release of all prisoners imprisoned because of possession, and research into marijuana's medical uses. The advertisement was produced by a group called Soma and was signed by sixty-five people, including Members of Parliament, the Beatles, Epstein, Ronald David Laing|RD Laing , Francis Crick , and Graham Greene .
Though never arrested by Norman Pilcher 's Drug Squad, as Lennon, Harrison, and Mick Jagger had been, in 1972 Swedish police fined him for cannabis possession, and soon after Scottish police found plants growing on his farm. He was again arrested for marijuana possession in 1975, and in January 1980, when Wings flew to Tokyo for an eleven concert tour of Japan, as McCartney was going through customs, officials found approximately 8& nbsp;ounces (218.3& nbsp;g) of cannabis in his luggage, and he was arrested and taken to a local jail while the Japanese government decided what to do. After ten days, he was released without charge and deported. He was again arrested for possession of marijuana in 1984 and in 1997, he spoke out in support of decriminalisation, stating "People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong." In 2004 he stated: "I don't actually smoke the stuff these days", and "It's something I've kind of grown out of." Though he added: "To me, it's a huge compliment that a bunch of kids think I might be up to smoke a bit of dope with them." He also admitted to smoking heroin once, and using LSD and cocaine occasionally but said his drug use was "never excessive".

Activism

Paul and Linda became outspoken animal rights activists after their vegetarians|vegetarianism was realised when Paul happened to notice through a window, lambs in a field, as they ate a meal of lamb. He has also credited the 1942 Disney film Bambi & nbsp;– in which the young deer's mother is shot by a hunter& nbsp;– as the original inspiration for him to take an interest in animal rights. In his first interview after Linda's death, he promised to continue working for animal rights. In 1999 he spent £3,000,000 to ensure Linda McCartney Foods remained free of Genetic engineering|genetically engineered ingredients.

Following his marriage to Mills, he joined her in a campaign against landmine s, becoming patrons of Adopt-A-Minefield . In 2003 he played a personal concert for the wife of a wealthy banker and donated his one million dollar fee to the charity. He also wore an anti-landmines t-shirt during the Back in the World tour. In 2006 the McCartneys travelled to Prince Edward Island to bring international attention to the seal hunt , this would be their final public appearance together. Their arrival sparked attention in Newfoundland and Labrador where the hunt is of economic significance. The couple also debated with Newfoundland's Premier Danny Williams (politician)|Danny Williams on the CNN show Larry King Live . They further stated that the fishermen should quit hunting seals and begin a seal watching business. McCartney has also criticised China's fur trade and supports the Make Poverty History campaign.

He has been involved with several charity recordings and performances, such as the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea , Ferry Aid , Band Aid (band)|Band Aid , Live Aid , and the recording of " Ferry Cross the Mersey " (1989) following the Hillsborough disaster . In 2004 he donated a song to an album to aid the "US Campaign for Myanmar|Burma ", in support of Burmese Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi , and in 2008 he donated a song to Aid Still Required|Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami.

In 2009, he wrote to the 14th Dalai Lama 14th Dalai Lama|Tenzin Gyatso , and asked him why he wasn't a vegetarian, McCartney explains: "He wrote back very kindly, saying, my doctors tell me that I must eat meat. And I wrote back again, saying, you know, I don't think that's right. So we had a little correspondence I think now he's vegetarian most of the time. I think he's now being told& nbsp;... that he can get his protein somewhere else. It's a little old-fashioned to think that he can only get it from meat It just doesn't seem right – the Dalai Lama, on the one hand, saying, 'Hey guys, don't harm sentient beings& nbsp;... Oh, and by the way, I'm having a steak.'"

Football

He attended the 1968 FA Cup Final played by West Bromwich Albion against the Everton F.C.|Everton Football Club , and after the match, shared cigarettes and whisky with other fans. Though he has publicly professed support for Everton, he has also shown support for Liverpool F.C. , as in 1968 when he was photographed wearing their Rosette (decoration)|rosette . The ex-Liverpool footballer, Albert Stubbins , was shown on the Sgt. Pepper cover, and the video for his song " Pipes of Peace " (1983) recreated Christmas 1915 Football Game|the 1915 Christmas football game played between German and British troops during World War I . At the end of "Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)" the crowd chants "Paul McCartney!" until McCartney takes over and changes it to " Kenny Dalglish !", referring to then Liverpool and Scotland striker. At the same concert, Gordon Smith (footballer born December 1954)|Gordon Smith , former association football|football player for the Rangers F.C.|Rangers and Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.|Brighton & Hove Albion , met the McCartneys, and later accepted an invitation to visit their home in East Sussex in 1980. Smith later said that McCartney was "thrilled I knew Kenny Dalglish"

He attended the 1986 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Everton, and performed at the Liverpool F.C. Anfield stadium in 2008, as a part of Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year. Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters sang with McCartney on "Band on the Run", and played drums on " Back in the U.S.S.R. ". Ono and Olivia Harrison attended the concert, along with Ken Dodd , and the former Liverpool F.C. football manager Rafael Benítez . In 2008 he ended speculation about his allegiance when he said: "Here's the deal: my father was born in Everton, my family are officially Evertonians, so if it comes down to a derby match or an FA Cup final between the two, I would have to support Everton. But after a concert at Wembley Arena I got a bit of a friendship with Kenny Dalglish, who had been to the gig and I thought 'You know what? I am just going to support them both because it's all Liverpool."

Meditation

On 24 August 1967, McCartney met the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the The London Hilton on Park Lane|London Hilton , and later went to Bangor, Wales|Bangor , in North Wales, to attend a weekend 'initiation' conference, at which time he and the other Beatles learned Transcendental Meditation (TM). "The whole meditation experience was very good and I still use the mantra& nbsp;... I find it soothing and I can imagine that the more you were to get into it, the more interesting it would get." The time McCartney later spent The Beatles in Rishikesh|in India at the Maharishi's ashram was highly productive, as nearly all of the songs that would later be recorded for The Beatles (album)|The White Album and Abbey Road were composed there. Although he was told never to repeat the mantra to anyone else, he admitted he told Linda, and said he meditated a lot while he was in jail in Japan. In 2009 McCartney and Starr headlined a benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall , raising three million dollars for the David Lynch Foundation to fund instruction in Transcendental Meditation for at-risk youth.

Personal relationships

Dot Rhone

His first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dot Rhone, whom he met at the The Casbah Coffee Club|Casbah club in 1959. According to Beatles biographer Bob Spitz, Rhone feels McCartney had a "compulsion" to control situations, chosing clothes and make-up for Rhone, encouraging her to grow her hair out like Brigitte Bardot 's, and at least once insisting she have it re-styled, to disappointing effect. When he first went to Hamburg with the Beatles, he wrote to Rhone regularly, and she accompanied Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when they played there again in 1962. The couple had a two-and-a-half-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone's miscarriage, when according to Spitz, McCartney now "free of obligation", ended the engagement.

Jane Asher

He first met the British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963, when a photographer asked them to pose together at a Beatles performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The two began a relationship and he took up residence with Asher at her parents' house at 57 Wimpole Street London, where he lived for nearly three years before the couple moved to McCartney's own house in St. John's Wood . He wrote several songs while at the Ashers', including "Yesterday" and several inspired by Asher, among them " And I Love Her ", " You Won't See Me ", and " I'm Looking Through You ". They had a five-year relationship, and planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement after she discovered he had become involved with another woman, Francie Schwartz .

Linda Eastman

Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman was a music fan who once commented: "All my teen years were spent with an ear to the radio", and who would at times be truant from school to instead see artists such as: Fabian (entertainer)|Fabian , Bobby Darin , and Chuck Berry . She was a popular photographer with groups such as: the Jimi Hendrix Experience , the Grateful Dead , the Doors , and the Beatles, whom she first met at Shea Stadium in 1966, about which she commented: "It was John who interested me at the start. He was my Beatle hero. But when I met him the facination faded fast and I found it was Paul I liked." The pair first properly met in 1967 at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club, during her UK assignment to take photographs of rock musicians in London, Paul remembers: "The night Linda and I met, I spotted her across a crowded club, and although I would normally have been nervous chatting her up, I realised I had to& nbsp;... Pushiness worked for me that night!" Linda said this about their meeting: "I was quite shameless really. I was with somebody else & nbsp;... and I saw Paul at the other side of the room. He looked so beautiful that I made up my mind I would have to pick him up." The pair were married in 1969; he describes their relationship: "We had a lot of fun together& nbsp;... just the nature of how we are, our favourite thing really is to just hang, to have fun. And Linda's very big on just following the moment." He also added, "We were crazy. We had a big argument the night before we got married and it was nearly called off& nbsp;... miraculous that we made it. But we did."
They collaborated musically after the break-up of the Beatles, and later formed Wings together in 1971, a commercially successful band that was active through 1981. They were both vegetarian and supported the animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals|PETA . They had four children& nbsp;– Linda's daughter Heather McCartney|Heather (legally adopted by Paul), Mary McCartney|Mary , Stella McCartney|Stella and James McCartney|James & nbsp;– and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998. After her death, Paul stated in Daily Mail|The Daily Mail : "I got a counsellor because I knew that I would need some help. He was great, particularly in helping me get rid of my guilt perfect all the time& nbsp;... a real bugger. But then I thought, hang on a minute. We're just human. That was the beautiful thing about our marriage. We were just a boyfriend and girlfriend having babies."

Heather Mills

In 2002 he married Heather Mills , a former model and anti- land mine|landmines campaigner. In 2003, the couple had a child, Beatrice Milly, the first name in honour of Heather's late mother, the second for one of Paul's aunts. They separated in April 2006 and were divorced in March 2008. In 2004 he commented on media animosity toward his partners, "They didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher", "I married a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that."

Nancy Shevell

McCartney married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall, London on 9 October 2011. The wedding was a "low-key affair" attended by a group of around 30 family and friends. The couple had been dating since November 2007.
A breast cancer survivor, she is a member of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)|New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as vice president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which owns New England Motor Freight .

Contact with former Beatles

John Lennon

Despite a strained relationship with John Lennon|Lennon , they briefly became close again in 1974, and A Toot and a Snore in '74|played music together on two occasions, the only times since the Beatles break-up in 1970. In later years however, the two grew apart again. McCartney would often phone him, but was never sure what sort of reception he would get, as during one call when he was told, "You're all pizza and fairytales!" McCartney reasoned that he could not phone and talk only about business, so they often talked about cats, baking bread, or babies. According to May Pang , during Lennon's "Lost Weekend" they planned to visit McCartney in New Orleans, where he was recording the Venus and Mars album, but Lennon went back to Ono the day before the planned visit after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon's smoking habit.

On 24 April 1976, Lennon and McCartney were watching an episode of Saturday Night Live together, during which Lorne Michaels made a $3,000 cash offer for the Beatles to reunite, and while they seriously considered going to the SNL studio, they decided it was "too late" and according to Lennon, this was the last time he and McCartney ever spent time together. This event was fictionalised in the 2000 television film Two of Us (2000 television)|Two of Us . His last telephone call to Lennon, just days before Lennon and Ono released Double Fantasy , was friendly, he said this about the phone call: " a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out. But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn't have any kind of blow-up."

;Reaction to Lennon's murder

On the morning of 9 December 1980, he awoke to the news that Lennon had been Death of John Lennon|murdered the previous night, his death creating a Media circus|media frenzy around the surviving members of the band. During the evening of 9 December, as he was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio, he was surrounded by reporters and asked for his reaction to Lennon's death. He was later criticised for what appeared, when published, to be a superficial response: "It's a drag". He later explained, "When John was killed somebody stuck a microphone at me and said: 'What do you think about it? ' I said, 'It's a dra-a-ag' and meant it with every inch of melancholy I could muster. When you put that in print it says, 'McCartney in London today when asked for a comment on his dead friend said, "It's a drag."' It seemed a very flippant comment to make." He describes his first exchange with Ono after the murder, and his last conversation with Lennon:

I talked to Yoko the day after he was killed and the first thing she said was, "John was really fond of you." The last telephone conversation I had with him we were still the best of mates. He was always a very warm guy, John. His bluff was all on the surface. He used to take his glasses down, those granny glasses, and say, "It's only me." They were like a wall, you know? A shield. Those are the moments I treasure.sfn|Harry|2002|p=505

In 1983, he said: "I would not have been as typically human and standoffish as I was if I knew John was going to die. I would have made more of an effort to try and get behind his "mask" and have a better relationship with him." He said that he went home that night and watched the news on television& nbsp;– while sitting with his children& nbsp;– crying most of the evening. In 1997, he admitted the ex-Beatles were nervous at the time that they might be the "next" one murdered. In 2002 he told Mojo magazine that Lennon was his greatest "hero". In June 1981, six months after the murder, McCartney sang backup on Harrison's tribute to their ex-bandmate, " All Those Years Ago ", which also featured Starr on drums. In 1982 McCartney released " Here Today (Paul McCartney song)|Here Today ", a song written as a tribute to Lennon.

George Harrison

In 1977 Harrison had this to say about working with McCartney: "There were a lot of tracks though where I played bass& nbsp;... because what Paul would do, if he's written a song, he'd learn all the parts for Paul and then come in the studio and say, 'Do this.' He'd never give you the opportunity to come out with something. Paul would always help along when you'd done his ten songs—then when he got 'round to doing one of my songs, he would help. It was silly. It was very selfish, actually."

In late 2001, he learned that George Harrison|Harrison was losing his battle with cancer, and upon his death on 29 November 2001, McCartney issued a statement outside his home in St. John's Wood, calling him "a lovely guy and a very brave man who had a wonderful sense of humour", "We grew up together and we just had so many beautiful times together& nbsp;– that's what I am going to remember. I'll always love him, he's my baby brother." Harrison spent his last days in a Hollywood Hills mansion that was once leased by McCartney. On the first anniversary of his death, McCartney played Harrison's " Something " on a ukulele at the Concert for George . He also performed " For You Blue " and " All Things Must Pass (song)|All Things Must Pass ", as well as playing the piano on Eric Clapton 's rendition of " While My Guitar Gently Weeps ".

Ringo Starr

Though Ringo Starr|Starr once described McCartney as "pleasantly insincere", the two generally enjoy each other's company, and at least once vacationed together in Greece , including stops in Athens and on the list of islands of Greece|islands Corfu and Rhodes . Starr recalls: "We couldn't understand a word of the songs the hotel band were playing, so on the last night Paul and I did a few rockers like " What'd I Say ." There was at times discord between them as well, particularly during Beatles' sessions for "The White Album", as Apple's Peter Brown (music industry)|Peter Brown recalls, "It was a poorly kept secret among Beatle intimates that after Ringo left the studio Paul would often dub in the drum tracks himself& nbsp;... would pretend not to notice". In August 1968 the two got into an argument over McCartney's critique of Starr's drum part for "Back In The USSR", which led to Starr temporarily leaving the band. He returned in September to find McCartney had placed bouquets of flowers on his drum kit. Starr comments on working with McCartney: "Paul is the greatest bass player in the world. But he is also very determined& nbsp;... get his own way& nbsp;... musical disagreements inevitably arose from time to time."

Recognition and achievements

He has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million albums, 100 million singles, and a writer's credit on forty-three songs that have sold over one million copies each. According to Guinness, he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK singles chart history, and has written or co-written "188 charted records, of which 129 are different songs. Of these records, 91 reached the Top 10 and 33 made it to No.1. In total, the songs have spent 1,662 weeks on the chart (up to the beginning of 2007)." In 1986 he received acclaim from the Guinness Book of Records Hall of Fame, "as the most successful musician of all-time."
In the US, as a musician, songwriter, or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100| Billboard Hot 100 ; including twenty with the Beatles and nine solo, one as a co-writer on Elton John's cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and one as a co-writer of " A World Without Love ", a number one single for Peter and Gordon . As of 2012, he has sold 15.5& nbsp;million RIAA certified units in the United States.

Although Elvis Presley has achieved the most UK number-ones as a solo artist with eighteen, McCartney has been involved in more number-ones in the UK than any other artist under a variety of credits, totaling twenty-four singles: including seventeen with the Beatles, one solo, and one each with Wings, Stevie Wonder, Let It Be (Ferry Aid song)|Ferry Aid , Band Aid (band)|Band Aid , Band Aid 20 and one with "The Christians et all". He is the only artist to reach the UK number one as a Solo (music)|soloist ("Pipes of Peace"), duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Wonder), Trio (music)|trio ("Mull of Kintyre", Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", the Beatles), quintet ("Get Back", the Beatles with Billy Preston ), and as part of a musical ensemble for charity (Ferry Aid).
His song "Yesterday" is thought to be the most covered in history with more than 2,200 recorded versions, and according to the BBC, "The track is the only one by a UK writer to have been aired more than seven million times on American TV and radio and is third in the all-time list& nbsp;... is the most played song by a British writer this century in the US." His 1968 Beatles composition, "Hey Jude", is also a career highlight. It achieved the highest sales in the UK that year, and topped the US charts for nine weeks, longer than any other Beatles' single. It was also the longest single ever released by the band, and at seven minutes fifteen seconds was the longest of any number one to that point. Its been covered by several notable artists, including Presley, Bing Crosby , Count Basie , and Wilson Pickett . It is the best-selling Beatles' single of all-time, with sales of over five million copies achieved soon after its release.

He played for the largest stadium audience in history when 184,000 people paid to see him perform at Estádio do Maracanã|Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 21 April 1990, that year the minor planet 4148 McCartney|4148 , was named "McCartney" in his honour. In July 2005 he was involved with the fastest-released single in history, when his performance of " Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)|Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band " with U2 at Live 8 was released only 45 minutes after it was performed.Live 8 (DVD) Various Artists, 7 November 2005, Cat. No: ANGELDVD5 The single reached number six on the Billboard charts, just hours after the single's release, and hit number one on numerous online download charts across the world.

On 18 June 2006, McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday, a milestone that was the subject of a tune he wrote at the age of sixteen, which would later become the Beatles' song " When I'm Sixty-Four ". Paul Vallely noted in The Independent :
In 2008 he received a The BRIT Awards|BRIT award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, as well as an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University . In 2012 he became the last of the The Beatles|"Fab Four" to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Business

McCartney is one of the UK's wealthiest people, with an estimated fortune of pound sterling|£ 475& nbsp;million in 2010. In addition to an interest in Apple Corps , his MPL Communications owns a significant Music publisher (popular music)|music publishing catalogue, with access to over 25,000 copyrights. He earned £40& nbsp;million in 2003, making him Britain's highest media earner. This rose to £48.5& nbsp;million by 2005. MPL Communications is an umbrella company for his business interests, which owns a wide range of copyrights, as well as the publishing rights to the musicals Guys and Dolls (musical)|Guys and Dolls , A Chorus Line , and Grease (musical)|Grease .
In 2006 the Trademark|Trademarks Registry reported that MPL Communications|MPL had started a process to secure the protections associated with registering the name "Paul McCartney" as a trademark. The 2005 films, Brokeback Mountain and Good Night, and Good Luck , feature MPL Communications|MPL copyrights. In April 2009 it was revealed that McCartney, in common with other wealthy musicians, had seen a significant decline in his net worth over the preceding year. It was estimated that his fortune had fallen by some £60m, from £238m to £175m. The losses were attributed to the ongoing Global financial crisis of 2008-2009|global recession , and the resultant decline in value of property and stock market holdings.

Northern Songs

Northern Songs was established in 1963 by Dick James to publish the songs of Lennon–McCartney. The Beatles' partnership was replaced in 1968 by a jointly held company, Apple Corps , which continues to control Apple's commercial interests. Northern Songs was purchased by Associated Television (ATV) in 1969, and was sold in 1985 to Michael Jackson . For many years McCartney was unhappy about Jackson's purchase and handling of Northern Songs.
Despite the lack of publishing rights to most of his Beatles' songs, he continues to receive his respective share of the writers' royalties, which together are 33?% of total commercial proceeds in the US and which vary elsewhere around the world between 50 and 55%. Two of the Beatles' earliest songs—" Love Me Do " and " P.S. I Love You (The Beatles song)|P.S. I Love You "—were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before signing with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in the mid 1980s, and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by his company MPL Communications.

Musicianship

As a musician, he was largely self-taught, Musicology|musicologist Ian MacDonald describes McCartney's approach as, "by nature drawn to music's formal aspects yet wholly untutoured& nbsp;... produced technically 'finished' work almost entirely by instinct, his harmonic judgement based mainly on perfect pitch and an acute pair of ears."

Bass guitar

His has been acknowledged by a diverse group of Bassist|bass players including, Sting (musician)|Sting , long-time Dr. Dre bassist Mike Elizondo , and Colin Moulding of XTC . McCartney is known to play using a plectrum , or Guitar pick|pick almost exclusively, but he occasionally plays fingerstyle as well. During his early years with the Beatles he primarily played a Höfner 500/1 bass live and when recording, though in 1965 he began using a Rickenbacker 4001 s for recording, while consistently using Vox (musical equipment)|Vox amplifiers throughout his career.

Beatles biographer Chris Ingham singles out Rubber Soul (1965) as the time when his bass playing, "began to come into its own", particularly on " The Word (song)|The Word ". Authors Tony Bacon and Gareth Morgan agree, calling his "groove" on the track, "a high point in pop bass playing" and "the first proof on a recording of his serious technical ability on the instrument." MacDonald infers the influence of James Brown 's " Papa's Got a Brand New Bag ", and Pickett's " In the Midnight Hour ", American Soul music|soul tracks from which McCartney absorbed elements and drew inspiration as he "delivers his most spontaneous bass-part to date". McCartney confirms the influence of Motown on his playing, in particular that of James Jamerson , whom he described as a "hero", and included with Brian Wilson as his "two biggest influences".
Bacon and Morgan describe his bassline for the Beatles' song " Rain (The Beatles song)|Rain " (1966) as "an astonishing piece of playing& nbsp;... thinking in terms of both rhythm and 'lead bass'& nbsp;... the area of the neck& nbsp;... he correctly perceives will give him clarity for melody without rendering his sound to thin for groove." MacDonald calls it the Beatles "finest A-side and B-side|B-side" , its "clangorously saturated texture resona around McCartney's bass". He describes the bassline as "so inventive that it threatens to overwhelm the track", and he draws attention to the influence of Indian classical style in "exotic melisma s in the bass part".

Acoustic guitar

Examples of his acoustic guitar playing on Beatles tracks include: "Yesterday", " I'm Looking Through You ", " Michelle (song)|Michelle ", " Blackbird (song)|Blackbird ", " I Will (The Beatles song)|I Will ", " Mother Nature's Son " and " Rocky Raccoon ".

Electric guitar

He played Lead guitar|lead electric guitar on several Beatles' recordings, including what MacDonald describes as "a startling guitar solo" on the Harrison composition, " Taxman ", and the "shrieking" guitar on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and " Helter Skelter (song)|Helter Skelter ". He also contributed what MacDonald describes as a "fiercely angular slide guitar solo" on " Drive My Car ", which he played on his Epiphone Casino .

Legacy

In the concert programme for his 1989 world tour, he wrote that while Lennon received all the credit for being the avant-garde Beatle, he had been into it "quite a few years before ever considered it". According to McCartney people also assumed that Lennon was the "hard-edged one", and he was "soft-edged", though he feels they both had elements of each in their personalities. Linda said that Paul had a "hard-edge"& nbsp;– and not just on the surface& nbsp;– which she knew about after all the years she had spent living with him. McCartney seemed to confirm this edge when he commented that he sometimes meditates, which he said is better than "sleeping, eating, or shouting at someone".

Discography

Solo

:: Rock, pop

McCartney (album)|McCartney (1970)

Ram (album)|Ram (1971)
(Paul & Linda McCartney)

McCartney II (1980)

Tug of War (Paul McCartney album)|Tug of War (1982)

Pipes of Peace (1983)

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)

Press to Play (1986)

????? ? ???? (1988)

Flowers in the Dirt (1989)

Off the Ground (1993)

Flaming Pie (1997)

Run Devil Run (1999)

Driving Rain (2001)

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005)

Memory Almost Full (2007)

Kisses on the Bottom (2012)

:: Classical

'' Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio (1991)
(with Carl Davis)

Standing Stone (album)|Standing Stone (1997)

Working Classical (1999)

A Garland for Linda (2000)
(Various Artists)

Ecce Cor Meum (2006)

'' Ocean's Kingdom (2011)

:: Electronica

Thrillington (1977)
( Thrillington|Percy "Thrills" Thrillington )

Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993)
( The Fireman (music)|The Fireman )

Rushes (album)|Rushes (1998)
(The Fireman)

Liverpool Sound Collage (2000)
(re-mix album)

Twin Freaks (2005)
(with The Freelance Hellraiser )

Electric Arguments (2008)
(The Fireman)

Wings, live, and compilations

:: Wings

Wild Life (Wings album)|Wild Life (1971)

Red Rose Speedway (1973)

Band on the Run (1973)

Venus and Mars (1975)

Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976)

London Town (Wings album)|London Town (1978)

Back to the Egg (1979)

:: Live

Wings over America (1976)

Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990)

Tripping the Live Fantastic: Highlights! (1990)

Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) (1991)

Paul Is Live (1993)

Back in the U.S. (2002)

Back in the World (2003)

Good Evening New York City (2009)

:: Compilations

Wings Greatest (1978)

All the Best! (1987)

Wingspan: Hits and History (2001)

Tours

Arms

Citations

Sources

External links

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