CLUB SANDWICH 83

MANY YEARS FROM NOW

Paul has worked with his long-time friend Barry Miles to write a lengthy, detailed account of his formative years. Mark Lewisohn is granted an advance look at the proofs, and chats with the author

            Paul McCartney has never read any of the biographies written about him. Maybe if one was written about you, you'd read it, but Paul is different - for 34 years he's seen articles and books that claim to have the inside scoop on his life, his thoughts, his motivations and his ideals, and he knows that few, if any, have truly captured him. The Beatles and McCartney biographies that sit on the shelf, all but one unauthorised, are, to a greater or lesser extent, dodgy, and riddled with errors and misunder-standings. Why, indeed, should he bother to read them?
            For years, people have asked Paul if he'll write an autobiography. His answer, all along, has been to indicate no... but possibly, one day - or, then again, possibly not and don't hold your breath. In the meantime, a few years back, at the beginning of this decade, it was announced that he was collaborating with Barry Miles on an authorised biography.
            Paul and Miles (the single-word name he has used for so long) have known each other for 32 years, and were especially friendly in the mid to late 1960s, when Miles, heavily involved in the "underground'/'counter-culture" scene in London, introduced Paul to his world of artists, musicians and galleries. Paul, •whose artistic interests have no bounds, quickly became immersed in this London scene and one of its leading benefactors and protagonists, making short art films and so-called avant-garde private recordings, attending and listening to plays, reading left-field books and forming friendships with the gallery owner Robert Fraser and, through him, artists like Peter Blake (Paul asked him to design the Sgt Pepper sleeve) and Richard Hamilton (Paul asked him to design the 'White Album' collage poster).
            The book Paul and Miles planned was going to focus entirely on this particular period, when Paul was at large in London, at the epicentre of a cultural earthquake that embraced music, art, fashion and thought, when all these circles collided in a dazzling display of colour and cosmic consciousness. Paul McCartney - The London Years was going to be its title but it isn't any more: Paul McCartney - Many Years From Now is the name by which the book is being published. This is because the concept was fleshed out during the book's writing: Paul's involvement in the "underground" scene remains at the heart of the text but the story starts out, appropriately, in 1942 in Liverpool and gathers speed in that great city before the Beatles found themselves in London in 1963, at the start of a mesmeric seven year whirl. The book ends in 1970.
            While Barry Miles is clearly the "author" of the book, Paul McCartney has made a huge contribution, with lengthy tracts of first-person reminiscences appearing on most pages. In a sense he too, then, is the author, and the book is a fascinating blend of biographical detail written by Miles and first-hand account written by Paul.
            McCartney followers will need no telling that Many Years From Now is nothing less than Paul's very first written version of his childhood years, his London years, his Beatles years. Right here, this makes it one extremely special book, a book not to be missed. More than this, Many Years From Now is endlessly fascinating, encapsulating a freshness and an intimacy of detail that rewards the reader at every page. The Liverpool sections are especially revealing as Paul dwells upon his family life, school, first romances, rock and roll and early musical endeavours with John and George. But it is with chapter three, 'Up The Smoke', that the book drops into top gear, with the story shifting 200 miles south to London. The account unfolds of a dramatic, heady period in which a group of young, intelligent men and women redefined popular culture and pushed over every barrier that stood in their way and had thwarted their predecessors.
            In addition to all of this, one of the book's greatest strengths is that Paul talks at length about every song from that period - that's every home-grown song performed by the Beatles, a few early unreleased songs, even the songs that Paul wrote but donated to other people to release. Beatles fans will know that John Lennon undertook such an exercise on a couple of occasions, notably in his 1980 interviews with Playboy. But, until now, Paul had refrained from putting his own recollections on the record.
            These song-by-song reminiscences are compelling, providing a great deal of new information about the world's most familiar and best-loved song catalogue. Alone, it makes the purchase price worthwhile but, of course, on top of this, there's the chance to read the Beatles' and his own story from an entirely fresh perspective - Paul's own.
            If you only buy one book about Paul, make it this one.

            Paul McCartney - Many Years From Now will be published in the UK on 2 October by Seeker & Warburg, price £17.99. US publication is by Henry Holt at $27.50.