The long wait is over for “Fab Four” aficionados with this week's publication of The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73. The 720-page tome was written by authors Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair and offers the most detailed and exhaustive analysis of Paul McCartney's initial post-Beatles career — both in the studio and on the road.
Every recording session and stage performance chronicling “Macca's” early solo period is listed and dissected for what is undoubtedly the most in-depth and important look into his early career that has ever been attempted. Nearly every page has new information and never-before-heard stories about the recording of 1970's McCartney, 1971's Ram and his early Wings albums, 1971's Wild Life along with 1973's Red Rose Speedway and Band On The Run. McCartney's first Wings tours are also examined witha fine-tooth comb.
According to the book's official description:
This is an in-depth and revealing exploration of his creative life beyond the Beatles — featuring hundreds of interviews with fellow musicians, tour managers, recording engineers, producers, filmmakers, and more.
The McCartney Legacy gives McCartney’s post-Beatles life and work the kind of in-depth treatment that Mark Lewisohn has given the Beatles, and Philip Norman has given John Lennon. It is the first truly comprehensive biography, and the most finely detailed exploration of McCartney’s creative life beyond the Beatles, ever undertaken.
Paul McCartney's first touring linwup of Wings included his wife Linda on keyboards, guitarists Denny Laine and Henry McCullough, along with Denny Seiwell on drums. McCartney looked back and explained that in short, he needed a band to stay in the game: “Well, I mean, I thought at the time, I thought, 'Well, if I don't form a band, and I don't keep in 'the business,' then after a couple of years I'm gonna find I can't sing and I haven't got that knack in front of an audience.' Y'know, you can lose it dead easy. So, I did it really to kind of keep oiled, like an athlete. Sort of, to keep doing it, in case I ever wanted to get serious again.”
Denny Seiwell, who began drumming for McCartney in late-1970 during the Ram sessions, went on to co-found Wings with him in the summer of 1971. He says that he knew at once that he was performing on music for the ages: “I was so fascinated with these songs though, when Paul started singing them. Playing the drum parts that matched and filling in all the blanks when we got the basic track down and we were putting some overdubs together, y'know? Everything that I did from Ram, right straight through, even through Wild Life, I knew it was timeless music; that this was going to be heard for a long period of time. It wasn't just another record that I was making.”
