Early Life
Paul McCartney was born June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, England. McCartney was exposed to music since his youth through his father who played trumpet and piano. Paul's father encouraged his son to become musician just like him and took him to various concerts to expose him to different musical styles. His father was happy to buy him a guitar and would sit at the piano and play chords excitedly telling Paul to work them out on his guitar. Paul played the guitar all the time (including on the toilet) and was able to work out songs just by hearing them on the radio. Paul, when he first began playing guitar had trouble shaping the chords with his left hand until, seeing a left handed guitar player on a magazine, went to have his guitar restrung so it was upside down with the pick guard uselessly about the stings.
Meeting the Band
Paul McCartney met fellow Beatle John Lennon at the age of 15 while still part of the Quarrymen. During this time Lennon and McCartney became close friends and began working on songs together. In need of a guitarist McCartney asked his friend George Harrison, who he had met while attending the Liverpool Institute.
In Videogames
Paul McCartney features in The Beatles Rock Band, as himself as an character on screen playing along with the band. He also has songs featured in both rhythm music games Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
Guitar Hero World Tour features the song 'Band On The Run' as an on disc song by his band, Wings. A Wings track pack of three is also avaliable for download on Guitar Hero, which features Wings songs Junior Farm, Jet and Hi Hi Hi.
The Rock Band platform also allows players to download selected tracks from his solo live album, 'Live in New York City'. The songs featured in the pack are Jet, Band On The Run and Sing the Changes.
The Fab Four
After changing the Quarrymen to the Beatles and replacing Pete Best as drummer with Ringo Starr, the famous Beatles lineup was created. The Beatles like many young British groups during the time were heavily influenced by American musicians such as Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley. Some of their earliest hits were covers of rock and roll songs like Roll Over Beethoven, originally written by Chuck Berry.
During McCartney's time with the Beatles he and John Lennon wrote some of the most famous songs in music that are still to this day considered classics. McCartney was responsible for such greats as Blackbird, Yesterday, Let It Be, and I Saw Her Standing There. Although the Lennon-McCartney songwriting combination lead to many of the greatest songs ever written, tension began to separate the two as the Beatles pushed farther and farther into their career.
Creative and personal differences began to spring up within the band that eventually lead to the band's break up in 1970 after the release of their final album, Let It Be.
On His Own
After leaving the Beatles Paul McCartney began a successful solo career that still continues to this day. During his time away from the Beatles McCartney worked with his wife Linda on his second solo studio album Ram which was released in 1970 and also played with the band Wings for a period of time.
His album Ram included a song titled Too Many people which was a song written about John Lennon and began a songwriting feud between the two. In response Lennon wrote his song How Do You Sleep? which includes lyrics such as 'Those freaks was right when they said you was dead' and 'The only thing you've done was Yesterday'. The two were on bad terms for a long time after that, but did eventually reconcile before the death of John Lennon in 1980.
Wings
In 1971 Paul McCartney along with his wife Linda formed a new group that consisted of guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Danny Seiwell. The group would become extremely popular in the UK having a total of 12 top ten hits.
The group would change members often in its 10-year lifespan. The only members that remained from its inception until its disbandment were Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine.
In 1981 it was announced that Denny Laine had left the group and that that the band had formally disbanded. McCartney has stated that all of the group's members parted on "friendly terms".
The Never Ending Tour
To this day Paul McCartney continues to tour around the world, as well as write and record albums. His latest album, Memory Almost Full was released in 2007 and was nominated for four Grammy awards including Best Pop Vocal Performance. It has been rumored that Paul McCartney with former Beatle Ringo Starr and Bob Dylan will be working on an album together, though no news has surfaced recently about this.
Discography
The Beatles
Album | Year |
---|
Please Please Me | 1963 |
With The Beatles | 1963 |
A Hard Day's Night | 1964 |
Beatles For Sale | 1964 |
Help! | 1965 |
Rubber Soul | 1965 |
Revolver | 1966 |
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 1967 |
The Beatles (White Album) | 1968 |
Yellow Submarine | 1969 |
Abbey Road | 1969 |
Let It Be | 1970 |
Solo Albums
Album | Year |
---|
McCartney | 1970 |
Ram | 1971 |
McCartney II | 1980 |
Tug of War | 1982 |
Pipe of Peace | 1983 |
Give My Regards to Broad Street | 1984 |
Press to Play | 1986 |
Flowers in the Dirt | 1989 |
Off the Ground | 1993 |
Flaming Pie | 1997 |
Run Devil Run | 1999 |
Driving Rain | 2001 |
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard | 2005 |
Memory Almost Full | 2007 |
Wings
Album | Year |
---|
Wild Life | 1971 |
Red Rose Speedway | 1973 |
Band on the Run | 1973 |
Venus and Mars | 1975 |
Wings at the Speed of Sound | 1976 |
London Town | 1978 |
Back to the Egg | 1979 |
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