Paul McCartney biography is a 'Life' less special by James Endrst

Paul McCartney biography is a 'Life' less special

By James Endrst, Special for USA TODAY

Most people see the life of Paul McCartney as two distinct chapters – one with The Beatles and one without.

But Peter Ames Carlin wants us to consider the complete Beatle in Paul McCartney: A Life.

So the former People magazine writer dusts off everything he can find on mop-top "Yesterday" Paul and, with a broad, breathless sweep, carries him into the present – through all the silly love songs as a soloist and with Wings; the Beatles reunion that never happened; the deaths of John Lennon and McCartney's wife of nearly 30 years, Linda; and the meltdown of his marriage to Heather Mills.

The result is a biography that's heavy on research and rehash but light on inspiration, the literary equivalent of a cover band that hits all the right notes but fails to make any real music of its own.

With no direct access to his subject, Carlin draws heavily on the wealth of available sources (including Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles) and then fills in the blanks with quotes from McCartney friends, associates and witnesses such as Beatles manager Tony Bramwell and John Lennon paramour May Pang.

None of it will rock your world.

Central to his "fresh" take on McCartney, now 67, are several familiar themes: Paul was always the "musical director" of the band even if it had been John's group at the start; Paul, not his legendarily edgy songwriting partner, often led the way into groundbreaking territory (on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ); and, finally, Paul was taken out of context when he said he was "quitting The Beatles."

We do feel Paul's pain, especially when it comes to his wife Linda, her battle with breast cancer and her death in 1998.

If there's anything that stands out in Carlin's account of McCartney's life, it's the fact that the so-called "cute" Beatle was often anything but behind the scenes.

In the studio and elsewhere, the controlling McCartney was driven by a sometimes "insane persistence."

Beatles PR man Tony Barrow recalls more than a few of McCartney's darker and duplicitous traits.

"He wanted to be seen as being very generous and benevolent," says Barrow. "The trick is to appear to be giving all, but in fact not giving that much."

That included playing with the affections of Beatles manager Brian Epstein. "He used the fact that Brian was gay to get his own way," Barrow tells Carlin. "He'd come in and put on his bedroom eyes. He'd use his own sex appeal to manipulate Brian into doing what he wanted the band to do."

Anyone can see that the ex-Beatle remains a rock-solid success (even if the critics don't always agree), idolized by millions. But, according to Carlin, McCartney is "a prisoner of his own past, doomed to spend the rest of his life as an increasingly faded version of himself in more glorious times; singing the same old songs the same old way, straining to hear the same otherworldly roar his labors have always attracted."

Which is why even Beatle fanatics can live without this one.

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