Paul McCartney: boy in a band to man on the run…
Much of what the average rock aficionado knows about the break up of the Beatles comes from either Jann Wenner’s interviews with John Lennon or from casual attention during those years to news reports about the legal hassles the Fabs endured while extricating themselves from their partnership in Apple. Like any break up, personal or professional, (and this was both the severing of an indescribably successful musical collaboration and the splintering of friends who’d been almost inseparable since childhood), the Beatles’ demise was messy and hurtful for all involved.
Tom Doyle’s superb book Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970’s fell into my hands as a birthday present from my beloved sister a few days ago and I dropped my usual reading to devour it, both because I wanted to make sure my sister knew I appreciated her thoughtfulness and because I will read anything written with something approaching competence about The Beatles generally and Paul McCartney specifically. Hell, I even read the incompetent stuff.
This book is as good as any I’ve ever read on these subjects. Kudos to Tom Doyle and to my sister Janis.
Doyle is a good journalist as well as a good writer (the two are not necessarily as connected as we’d like to think), and Man on the Run is full of both thoughtfully gathered information and well turned phrases.The book begins in late 1969-early 1970 as The Beatles are going their separate ways. The focus is on Paul, of course, and Doyle does a very fine job both documenting and clarifying the extent of Paul’s oft misrepresented “breakdown” after leaving the group.
By: Jim Booth
Source: Scholars and Rogues
