Paul McCartney. James Paul McCartney How old is Paul McCartney what kind of monster

PAUL MCCARTNEY – KNIGHT OF ROCK MUSIC

This musician needs no detailed introduction. In any country in the world, even people far from music have heard the name Paula McCartney and they know him as one of the leaders legendary group.

His work has been awarded sixteen Grammy Award statuettes, he became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, has repeatedly been included in the Guinness Book of Records, and he is also a talented producer, artist and active activist for animal rights. That's how multifaceted and unique he is - sir.

Liverpool shy guy

Fate decreed that James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, which was one of the flagships of the industrial revolution. The future idol of millions was born in the difficult year of 1942. After the war, the McCartney family, although not in dire need, lived very modestly, which reflected on Paul's upbringing and worldview. Even after becoming a millionaire, he always remained frugal.

The boy took his first musical steps back in elementary school, where he first appeared on stage with musical composition, which later, by his own admission, he could not even remember. Paul said that it was a certain song associated with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Then such a young musician was awarded a prize for his first performance. Floor experienced fear of the public, but big stage even then she attracted him, leaving a mark on the child’s soul.

At 14 years old McCartney with his younger brother he was left without a mother; she died of breast cancer. The father did not allow the children to withdraw and withdraw into themselves with sad thoughts. He surrounded them with care, attention and love, emphasized cultural education, took the boys to concerts and played the home piano with them, because the mother so wanted her children to become outstanding people and speak the language of English aristocrats. Later Floor I often recalled the qualities instilled by my mother. Largely thanks to her efforts, McCartney spoke without a Liverpudlian accent, got along easily with people and had no problems communicating.

Paul McCartney's first guitar

To keep the child occupied even more, the father gave Semi an old trumpet for your birthday. With the permission of McCartney Sr., he exchanged it for the first one in his life acoustic guitar, on which he rearranged the strings to suit his own style, since Paul is left-handed. He began to actively master playing the instrument, copied the stars of that time and tried to play the hits of rock pioneers - Little Richard and. At this time, the young musician began to try to write his own melodies. And then there was his acquaintance with.

It all started when one of my school friends Paula, who sometimes played in Lennon's band called The Quarrymen, invited McCartney to a performance by the group in the hall of one of the churches. The first meeting of the two musicians took place in the summer of 1957. It was this acquaintance that became fateful for both. Having performed several songs in front of members of The Quarrymen, Paul proved in this spontaneous audition that he was worthy of being a member of the ensemble. He remembered these summer holidays for the rest of his life. They got together with John, learned new chords, wrote down their test creations in a notebook, always writing on each page the phrase: “Original Lennon-McCartney composition.” Soon Floor persuaded John to accept his friend George Harrison into the group, and then The Quarrymen acquired a new name - .

As part of the four

Climb to the top musical Olympus The Beatles were by no means so easy young talents from the ensemble went through a difficult path to success. For all the years of existence of this truly unique group, he was a real creative sparkler, he constantly composed new songs, did not allow the group to succumb to star fever, in every possible way urged his comrades to give up idleness, tried to prevent stagnation and creative crisis, which often covers great musicians. Unfortunately, these efforts Paula McCartney It turned out to be not enough, and on New Year's Eve 1971, the musician decided to officially terminate his partnership with The Beatles. Paul filed a lawsuit against his colleagues and the band's manager, believing that the situation simply had no other solution.

Paul and Linda

Thus began his solo career, which continues to this day. He performs compositions from the post-Beatles era and old, time-tested hits of the Fab Four. Creating your own own project became something of an outlet for McCartney. This was a kind of way out of the mental crisis in which he found himself after breaking creative relations with the band members. It must be admitted that in many ways Paul remained hostage to the songs created during the heyday of this ensemble.

Three years earlier, in a London nightclub, he met photographer Linda Eastman. This meeting did not foreshadow any romance - Linda wanted to do several photographs of the four and dreamed of impressing Lennon. Their next meeting took place a year later in New York, where Paul and John were at the presentation of a new record label. Linda, going for a photo shoot, asked McCartney to spend a couple of hours with her 4-year-old daughter. When she returned, she noticed how, in such a short period, her Heather and the world had become closer. famous musician. Linda took some touching photos. Returning to London, Paul received a parcel with a large photo in which the girl hugged him so sincerely. This touched McCartney so much that their relationship began to develop at lightning speed. In March 1969, the lovers walked down the aisle, and soon their first child was born. common daughter- Mary. It is said that Paul and Linda were one of the most devoted and loving couples in show business. They lived on a large farm, walked through their favorite fields holding hands, raised three daughters and one son, and raised horses and sheep. Linda took care of her husband, and he always serenaded her. This went on for thirty years until Linda's death from cancer separated them.

Solo album

Spring 1970 McCartney returned from Scotland, where he was in voluntary seclusion with his family, and brought material for his first solo album. Just a month later the record "McCartney" topped the Billboard charts.

The album opened with the song “The Lovely Linda”. For McCartney creativity and family life have become inseparable. Floor I didn’t even want to go on stage without my beloved wife. And having created a new group, he “reserved” a place as a keyboard player for Linda, who at that time did not know how to play any musical instrument. She was not at a loss and declared that she would sing with her husband, although she had never done this, and would play the piano, although she had never sat down at it in her life. By the way, the idea to give the new group the name “Wings” came to the mind of Linda, who could amazingly juggling the responsibilities of a caring mother of four children, a loving wife, a housewife, and now also a keyboard player. In gratitude for this, he dedicated the incredibly sensual songs “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Calico Skies”, “My Love”, “No More Lonely Nights” and many others to his beloved wife.

New achievements

In 1980, McCartney continued his creative experiments and prepared the album “McCartney II,” in which he recorded all the parts himself. The next new product was released a year later, and then the murder of John Lennon happened, which was a shock for Paul. By that time, their relationship had gradually improved. In memory of John, he recorded the song “All Those Years Ago” with George Harrison, Ringo Starr.

Paul worked very actively, releasing one release after another, for which he deservedly received his musical awards. At the same time, even from the first years of The Beatles' existence, he created many compositions for other musicians. The most famous such “gift” was the song “I Wanna Be Your Man” performed by the outstanding Rolling Stones. One of latest examples McCartney's collaboration with his colleagues is the song "FourFiveSeconds", recorded by singer Rihanna with the participation of Paul and American rapper Kanye West.

Active life position

He also became widely known as a supporter of vegetarianism and an active activist for animal rights. He claims that his position was influenced by the impression produced by seeing the Disney cartoon “Bambi” as a child. In addition, he participates in actions against the spread of genetically modified products, the use of anti-personnel mines, supports the idea of ​​​​banning hunting and organizes many charity concerts.

Another serious hobby of Paul was painting. But his love for this art did not arise immediately. Like his friend John Lennon, McCartney used to think that only people who graduated from the Academy of Arts could paint. The first exhibition of his works was held in 1999, among the paintings of the exhibition were portraits of Andy Warhol, John Lennon and.

Despite his advanced age, Paul McCartney's life is still in full swing; he has not lost his creative energy, continues to create new songs, looks for new forms of expression and never stops his social activities.

DATA

In one of his interviews he said that as a child he was in love with the British Queen. He noted that Elizabeth II was a beauty with an attractive figure. At none of his meetings with the Queen did Sir Paul take the opportunity to tell her about his childhood feelings, although he often mentions this in the press, hoping that she will read it.

He performed at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 and received a symbolic fee of 1 pound for this. Actually Paul with others famous musicians agreed to play at the grand show completely free of charge, but pedantic lawyers demanded that the fee be indicated in the contract. This is how the stars received less than a twentieth of the cost of the cheapest ticket to the opening of the games.

Updated: April 7, 2019 by: Elena

A BILLION is always a mass of doubts and suspicions about the dishonesty of its owner. But not this time. Because none other than Paul McCARTNEY became multi-rich. He is the wealthiest representative of show business, the first musician whose fortune has exceeded $1 billion. He relied only on his talent and efficiency, without resorting to any financial transactions or fraud. You won’t doubt him for a second. His money is honestly earned.

No businessman told the Beatles: "Hold on to your writings. They'll probably go up in value over the years."

ACCORDING to the calculations of the British business publication Business Age, which published a ranking of the 300 richest Britons, McCartney's assets after the release of the latest album of the Fab Four's greatest hits amount to 725 million pounds ($1.06 billion). The estate, an inheritance Paul inherited from his wife Linda, is valued at another $210 million. However, the main part of his fortune is the world master music scene“obtained” on his own and, what is especially valuable, in an absolutely legal, legal way: by selling his music and receiving “author’s” royalties from old hits. Last year alone he earned £175 million from it. Paul is expected to significantly increase his savings this year, benefiting from sales of a new collection of Beatles songs, a compilation of their British and American hits and the quartet's first official website, which recently went online.

In terms of the amount of money in his bank accounts, the ex-Beatle left far behind Elton John, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. McCartney's wealth dwarfs the fortunes of other music business giants: Elton John is worth £156 million and Mick Jagger is worth a measly £145 million. The earnings of young pop stars are completely ridiculous: Robbie Williams has 10.8 million, and the Spice Girls have 7-8 million each.

Pence to penny

WHEN The Beatles broke up in 1971, Paul embarked on a solo project and created the group Wings. He happily performed in all the small clubs and traveled around the American provinces. John Lennon, having learned about this, was in a state close to apoplexy: “How?! Haven’t we achieved success so that we can now earn $200,000 for each performance?!” But McCartney never forgot how to enjoy little things.

Linda McCartney once told a correspondent that “if something happens,” she and Paul can always easily agree on how to divide their property. Paul, having learned about this, just smiled. “And how do you imagine this?” he asked. “Linda says: “I’m taking half the fireplace, and you’ll get an old Volkswagen?” How many businessmen can boast of unshakable confidence in “integrity and indivisibility” with their loved ones?

“...WHEN we were young,” Paul admitted in an interview, “all the show business entrepreneurs advised us: “If they take a song, immediately sell the rights to it.” And not one of them said: “Guys, hold on to your essays. Perhaps over the years they will greatly increase in price." Now it’s funny for me to think that “Yesterday” belongs not to me, but to someone else. But I have never regretted selling the copyrights. I wrote a bunch of other songs - and the rights to I am the only one who owns them.

One day I realized that I had so much money that I needed to invest it somewhere. A businessman friend asked me what I would like to do. "Music!" - I answered. Then we created a record company, and I myself began to buy copyrights from musicians. Imagine, I now own the songs of the idol of my youth - Buddy Holly! Who would have thought?!"

In 1979, Paul McCartney entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular rock musician in the world. The total circulation of his records was then 100 million copies. Last year, the British named McCartney the best musician, and in this “title” Paul was ahead of Mozart and Beethoven.

In the summer of 1991, McCartney set a new world record. At the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, 182 thousand people came to his concert. In the mid-90s, Paul began composing serious music for symphony orchestras and prepared several Beatles Anthology albums, which raised the profile of new wave"Beatlemania". In 1997, McCartney received his 81st gold disc for the album Burning Pie. Paul's next project was an album dedicated to the memory of his wife Linda, who died of breast cancer two years ago. All profits from the sale of the disc were used to finance cancer research programs.

Paul often donates large sums ( total amount donations exceeded $900 million) for environmental protection programs, the fight against alcoholism and other humanitarian projects. In fact, Paul met his current passion, one-legged model Heather Mills, when he was going to donate 150 thousand pounds to her foundation for the disabled.

Here are a couple more touches to the portrait of the billionaire. Paul always drives himself and cannot stand being driven around. He considers it pointless to entrust the pleasure of driving a good car to someone else's driver.

McCartney uncompromisingly tramples all ideas about the attributes of life "high suck". It's no use trying to accuse him of lack of taste when Paul is dressed in a tuxedo and white sneakers. No, he knows very well that the suit comes with matching shoes. He just wanted to wear comfortable shoes today. And who will say anything about this...

Non-resident?

BUT Paul also has his own “little tricks”. The tricks to which the elementary pushes him common sense. He is extremely dissatisfied with British tax laws. His expenses for paying the state duty are expressed in an astronomical amount. Because of this, he is forced to record discs abroad. At home, Paul gets 2% of the royalties, while the government gets 98%. The American government gets 30%. "Still, 70% is much better than 2%," says McCartney.

The ex-Beatle's patience was truly fantastic. After all, the problem of taxes haunted McCartney all his life - and all his life Paul meekly paid these taxes. But 20 years ago, the musician swore and swore that he was “British through and through” and that he would never be able to leave his country. However, today everything is different. McCartney is going to marry his beloved Heather and leave for America. As if hiding from the lenses of television cameras...

Paul McCartney's childhood

The legendary musician of the no less legendary Beatles, Paul McCartney, was born in the hot wartime summer of 1942 in the Walton Clinic in Liverpool. His mother, Mary, worked as a midwife at the same clinic. Both Paul's mother and his father, James, were of Irish descent. Paul was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, but his Catholic mother and Protestant father raised the future musician outside of religion.

Since 1947, Mary began working as an on-call midwife. The work of a midwife, already difficult, was further complicated by the fact that a woman could be called to give birth at any time of the day. However, this was paid accordingly, and so the family could afford to move to a more comfortable area in Everton. Paul's father worked at a weapons factory during the war, and after the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, he got a job at the cotton exchange, where his weekly earnings were 6 pounds. Mary earned more per week, which gave James great anxiety. The family as a whole did not live in poverty, but the McCartneys lived extremely modestly. A television, for example, appeared in the apartment only in 1953.

Artemy Troitsky. A story about Paul McCartney's concert on Red Square

In 1954, Paul's family moved from Everton to Wallasey and from there to Speke. The McCartneys stayed briefly in both Wallasey and Speke, eventually settling in Allerton in 1955, and less than a year later Paul lost his mother to breast cancer. This subsequently became one of the reasons for getting closer to another Beatle member, John Lennon, who also lost his mother, barely reaching adulthood.

At the age of 14, Paul's father gave him a used trumpet, which the teenager swapped with a friend for an acoustic guitar. Since Paul was left-handed, he, like Slim Whitman, placed the strings in reverse order. From that moment, McCartney's passion for music began; it was this passion that helped him survive the shock associated with the death of his mother.

After the death of their mother, three men - their father, Paul and his brother Michael - were left alone. Despite his father's modest earnings - by then he was earning £10 a week - James a large number of He devoted time to the cultural education of his children, took them to concerts and played the piano at home. Resorting to a regime of strict economy, the father, nevertheless, managed to create an atmosphere of comfort for the brothers; poverty did not give rise to any complexes for either Paul or Michael. After the death of their mother, the brothers began to actively earn money; Paul very quickly learned to communicate with people and became a small traveling salesman. Thanks to his father's upbringing, Paul has always been extremely economical and balanced, not losing his head in the world of show business, practically not using drugs and not making mistakes.

"The Quarrymen" by Paul McCartney

McCartney's school friend Ivan Vaughan, who played in John Lennon's band The Quarrymen, once invited Paul to the band's performance in Walton. It was then that McCartney met Lennon for the first time. After the performance, a spontaneous audition took place, as a result of which Paul was accepted into Lennon's group. Soon the guys became fast friends. This friendship was negatively received by the families of teenagers, but Lennon and McCartney began to work together. McCartney soon brought his friend George Harrison into the group, thus forming final composition groups. By 1960, the Quarrymen renamed themselves The Silver Beatles. Subsequently, the name is shortened to the usual “The Beatles” and the ensemble goes on tour to Hamburg.

The early years of The Beatles and Paul McCartney

Paul's father did not want to let his son go to Germany, but Paul's argument that he would earn ten shillings per concert turned out to be decisive - the McCartney family was still experiencing financial difficulties. In Hamburg, McCartney grew up in professional musician. The living conditions and clubs in which the group performed were not very good, but the strict schedule of daily performances became a necessary school for the group. Some time later, the Beatles started a fire in a room at one of the clubs, as a result of which they ended up in a police station, from where they were deported to the UK.

Since December 1960, the group has been performing in Liverpool, gradually gaining popularity. Since April 1961, the Beatles come to Hamburg again, where they begin work on their own material (before that, the musicians played covers).

The growing popularity of Paul McCartney

In 1961, Brian Epstein became the group's manager, who decided to sign the group's contract with the Decca Records label. The Beatles record a demo, but the audition ends in failure and the label refuses to cooperate with the group.

The band's first single, "Love Me Do", was released on October 5, 1962. In the English charts, the record soon reaches 17th place, and a couple of years later in the USA it reaches the top of the charts. At the same time, the group changes its image and dresses in its famous costumes.


In February 1963, the group recorded material for their first album, Please Please Me, in London in one day. Most of the album's songs were co-written by Lennon and McCartney, although several compositions were entirely McCartney's.

In May 1963, after a concert in London, Paul McCartney met seventeen-year-old actress Jane Asher. A romance begins between them that lasts more than five years. Jane had a huge influence on the formation of McCartney's cultural tastes and on his work. It was Escher who aroused the musician’s interest in classical music and provoked the Beatles’ transition from pop rock to art rock. Paul dedicated the songs “We Can Work It Out” and “Here, There and Everywhere” to Jane.

Beatlemania

The song after which The Beatles were talked about as stars was “She Loves You.” This composition topped the English chart for two months. In November 1963, the group performed a concert, which was broadcast on television. In total, the program was watched by more than 26 million viewers. The concert had a huge resonance, called “Beatlemania” by journalists from the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The group's second album was released just in time, in the wake of the emerging Beatlemania. The album "With The Beatles" became a British hit. The group gives concerts in Paris, and in January 1964 flies to the States engulfed in Beatlemania. Having performed a concert on the Ed Sullivan Show, broadcast on television, the Beatles conquered America - the program was watched by more than 73 million television viewers.

In the summer of 1965, the group was awarded the Order of the British Empire. The same year, the album “Help!” was released, the central composition of which was the song “Yesterday”, recorded by McCartney without the participation of the rest of the group. Two months later, the single “Yesterday” reached the top of the American charts. In December 1965, the album “Rubber Soul” was released, marking a new stage in the team’s work.

Avant-garde

In 1965, during the stock market troubles of Northern Songs, the Beatles' publishers, all members of the group invested in property in Surrey, leaving only McCartney in the capital. Having abandoned rural life, Paul quickly became a regular at jazz clubs, art galleries and other cultural sites London. Peter Asher, Jane's brother, introduced the musician to prominent representatives of London bohemians John Dunbar and Barry Miles. These people began to form Paul McCartney's new musical preferences.

Thanks to Barry Miles, Paul became interested in experimental jazz and symphonic music, Dunbar enlightened Paul in the areas modern poetry and literature, in particular, introduced the musician to the features of psychedelic culture. Jane soon introduced Paul to experimental director Michelangelo Antonioni and London underground leader Robert Fraser. At Fraser's house, Paul meets Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton, Allen Ginsberg. The latter had strong influence on Paul’s poetic work, as a result of which the Beatles’ songs radically changed their semantic content. In the theatrical and literary circles of those years, Paul had great authority and wrote music for plays.

Paul rents an apartment in Montagu Square, equips it as a studio and, in collaboration with sound engineer Ian Sommerville, begins experimenting with music. Ian introduces Paul to his ex-boyfriend William Burroughs, who becomes a frequent visitor to McCartney's studio apartment. The ideas of the American beatnik interested Paul, and he turned the apartment into a kind of artistic laboratory, where, together with Burroughs, he created sound effects that later became the basis for the sound of The Beatles records in the second half of the sixties. Most of the sound experiments associated with Lennon were actually created by Paul McCartney in collaboration with Burroughs and Sommerville.

Paul McCartney sang with Nirvana

Beatles breakup

In 1968, the Beatles released the White Album. The record was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest selling music album XX century. Paul McCartney is the author of the idea to place the record in a white sleeve without any inscriptions. Almost all of Paul's songs from this album have become rock classics. The song "Helter Skelter" became the first hard rock composition in the history of music.

In January 1969, during the filming of the film “Let It Be,” disagreements began in the group due to Paul’s absolute dominance in all areas of the group’s activities. John Lennon stated that they creative duet with McCartney has exhausted itself. On the last day of February 1969, relations in the group became tense, and the group actually ceased to exist. In a similar atmosphere, the Beatles completed work on the Abbey Road album, essentially last album group (the album “Let It Be”, released in 1970, was mixed from material recorded in parallel with the “White Album”). On December 31, 1969, McCartney began legal proceedings to end the existence of the Beatles.

Paul McCartney's solo career

After breaking up with John Lennon and the Beatles, Paul McCartney became depressed and... for a long time spent as a hermit in the west of Scotland. There McCartney first became addicted to drugs and began to abuse alcohol. After the end of the depression, McCartney released his first solo album, which stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks and went double platinum. The press, however, responded negatively to the album (as well as to the next record), and Lennon called both discs “garbage.”


After this, Paul created the group “Wings”, with which he performed until 1980. The group, which was created by the ambitious Paul in the hope of “outdoing” the Beatles, was received by the public rather restrainedly. In 1974, for the first time since the Beatles broke up, McCartney and Lennon played on the same stage, performing “Midnight Special.” In 1977, the single "Mull of Kintyre" became a commercial peak solo career Paul McCartney. In the UK, the record broke absolutely all records, including the Beatles' records. The single topped the British chart for nine weeks and sold 2.5 million copies in England. At the same time, McCartney became the highest paid musician on the planet.

December 1979 was marked by Paul McCartney's charity concerts in support of the people of Kampuchea, who were suffering from drought. The concerts were organized at the personal request of UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim.

Wings break up after John Lennon's death

By the end of the seventies, the relationship between McCartney and Lennon had generally become more acceptable, although it remained rather strained. They called each other periodically, but often quarreled during telephone conversations, usually due to Lennon's temper.

In August 1980, in a conversation between the musicians, the idea of ​​reuniting, if not the Beatles, then at least the McCartney-Lennon duo, was floating around. But the meeting, which could have radically changed the destinies of the two legendary musicians, never took place.

The last telephone conversation between the former friends took place in September 1980. Paul and John did not quarrel; the conversation was calm and relatively friendly.

On the day of Lennon's murder, McCartney was working on his song "Rainclouds". The news of John's death shook him to the core. During an interview that day, when asked by a reporter, “What do you think of John’s death?” Paul could only answer: “It’s so sad.”

After Lennon's death, Wings did not last long. Paul disbanded the band on April 27, 1981.

Conflict with Michael Jackson

The album released after the dissolution of McCartney's group, Tug of War, was released in 1982 and became the best record in McCartney's solo career. Paul dedicated the composition “Here Today” to the memory of John Lennon.

In 1983, Paul collaborated with Michael Jackson. While working on songs together, Paul gives Michael a lot of show business advice, including this careless point: “Buy the rights to someone’s songs.” Two years later, Michael Jackson, using this advice, bought the copyrights to the Beatles' songs for $47.5 million. Paul called this act a betrayal and broke off relations with Jackson. Commenting on this act of Michael, Paul said: “It’s not very nice to go on tour knowing that you have to pay someone to perform your own songs.”

Paul McCartney now

Subsequently, McCartney's work caused mixed reactions from the public and music critics. Albums that spent months at the top of the charts alternated with flops, each of which was called by the press “the worst of McCartney’s career.”

Sir Paul McCartney's wedding

In 1997, the album “Flaming Pie” was nominated for a Grammy, and Paul himself received a knighthood as Sir “for his contribution to the development of music.” In 1999, McCartney (as a solo artist) was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2001, McCartney composed the soundtrack for the film Vanilla Sky. A year later, as part of the “Back In The World” world tour, the musician visited Russia for the first time and performed a concert on Red Square. Until now, this concert is the only concert of a Western rock star on the central square of Moscow (all other concerts announced as concerts on Red Square were held on Vasilievsky Spusk).

On June 20, 2004, Paul performed at Palace Square St. Petersburg. It was estimated that this was the three thousandth concert of McCartney's career. In June 2008, a free McCartney concert took place at Kiev's Independence Square, attracting more than 250 thousand people.

During his solo career, Paul McCartney became widely known as an animal rights activist and promoter of vegetarianism.

In August 2012, McCartney defended the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, posting on the official website an appeal to the band members, which included, among other things, the words: “I really hope that the Russian authorities will respect the principle of freedom of speech for all citizens of your country.” countries and will not punish you for your protest.” The reaction to this letter from Vladimir Putin, who is on friendly terms with Paul McCartney, is unknown.

UK, Liverpool

Sir James Paul McCartney, a genius, author of half the best songs of the last century, was born on June 18, 1942 in Liverpool. When Paul was thirteen, his family moved from the working-class area of ​​Enfield to the more presentable Ollerton - and it was there that fifteen-year-old McCartney, who attended a concert by the little-known band The Quarrymen, met John Lennon, who a week later invited the boy to join his group...
Paul's relationship with music was like a whirlwind romance: a year before the fateful meeting, he begged his father to give him a guitar (it was then that he “realized that he was left-handed”); in every sense this year has passed under the sign guitar neck, which Paul could conjure endlessly. It is not surprising that by the end of 1958, the creative baggage of the Lennon-McCartney duo was measured in dozens of songs (it was then, among others, that Love Me Do was written). It's funny, but until 1961, Paul, like John, played rhythm guitar - and only with the departure of Stuart Sutcliffe did he completely switch to bass.
Then there were The Beatles, but this is a completely special story that requires hundreds of pages and epithets and definitions that do not exist in the human language. Let's leave this difficult work to more courageous people, noting only that McCartney's desire for independence manifested itself even before the black spring of the seventies: in '66 he wrote music for the film The Family Way, and in November '69 he made rough sketches of the McCartney album.
Also in 1969, he married American journalist Linda Eastman. Their relationship immediately went beyond ordinary ideas about marriage (and how could it have been otherwise!): first, Linda helped her husband with McCartney (vocal parts), then, in ’71, she recorded an excellent record with him, Ram, and joined the lineup (in as keyboardist and vocalist) of another great group of Paul - Wings. The first Wings album, Wild Life, was more than moderately received by critics, but this did not bother fans: the Wings tour in the early seventies was one of the brightest moments in Sir Paul’s biography. Wings existed until the spring of 1981, recording a dozen albums - each more beautiful than the other. This was not a “backing band”, as McCartney himself repeatedly emphasized: “Wings” were a unique living organism, equally comfortable both in the studio and in open areas.
Over the next fifteen years, McCartney released a dozen and a half albums (the press winced, the fans were delighted). In the nineties, he turned to classical music: in 1991, the “Liverpool Oratorio” was published, written for the 150th anniversary of the Royal Philharmonic Society of Liverpool; in '95 - the piano piece A Leaf; The musician recorded another classic disc, Standing Stone, in 1997.
On April 17, 1998, Linda dies in Tuscon, Arizona. The most difficult test for any person, especially for Paul, whose mother died from the same disease in 1956. McCartney answered all questions from journalists like this: “This is the end”... And yet this was just another beginning. In 1998, he was nominated for a Grammy, and Queen Elizabeth II knighted the musician. In '99, McCartney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, Ohio). At the same time, Paul released a collection in an orchestral arrangement (Paul McCartney’s Working Classical); the dedication album ends with the minute-long piece The Lovely Linda, first heard on McCartney's 1970 disc, one of the most poignant and airy ballads ever composed by a musician.
The next three solo records - Run Devil Run (1999), Driving Rain (2001) and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005) - became a kind of musical rethinking of the last four decades and naturally led Sir Paul to the deliberately minimalist, very traditional classic Ecce Cor Meum (2006) - correspondence dialogue between the great composer of the present and greatest composers of the past. This disc became the fourth (and, by all accounts, the best) full-fledged part of the classic series.
Released in June 2007 new job McCartney's album Memory Almost Full, which was released by the artist's new label Hear Music. It includes songs recorded between 2003 and 2007 in five different studios - including the inevitable Abbey Road...

Discography
McCartney (1970)
Ram (1971)
Wild Life (1971)
Red Rose Speedway (1973)
Band on the Run (1973)
Venus and Mars (1975)
Wings at the Speed ​​of Sound (1976)
Wings over America (1976)
London Town (1978)
Wings Greatest (1978)
Back to the Egg (1979)
McCartney II (1980)
Tug of War (1982)
Pipes of Peace (1983)
Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)
Press to Play (1986)
All the Best! (1987)
“Back in the USSR” (1991)
Flowers in the Dirt (1989)
Tripping the Live Fantastic (1990)
Tripping the Live Fantastic: Highlights! (1990)
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) (1991)
Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio (1991)
Off the Ground (1993)
Paul is Live (1993)
Flaming Pie (1997)
Paul McCartney's Standing Stone (1997)
Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition (1999)
Run Devil Run (1999)
Paul McCartney's Working Classical (1999)
Liverpool Sound Collage (2000)
Wingspan: Hits and History (2001)
Driving Rain (2001)
Back in the U.S. (2002)
Back in the World (2003)
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005)
Ecce Cor Meum (2006)
Memory Almost Full (2007)

Genre: Rock
Subgenres: Pop rock, classical

Links
Official website of Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney on Wikipedia
Paul McCartney on MySpace
Paul McCartney discography on Wikipedia
Official forum for the album Memory Almost Full
Album Memory Almost Full on Wikipedia
Hear Music Official Website
Paul McCartney video on YouTube
Russian fan site of The Beatles