Paul McCartney’s book, “Wings: Band on the Run,” is out today.
The book, edited Ted Widmer, is billed as an oral history of the post Beatles break up, how McCartney got on his feet in 1970 with his self titled first album, then the beloved “Ram,” the first Wings album “Wild Life,” and singles hits like “Hi Hi Hi” and “Live and Let Die.”
There’s a lot of stuff about the records. I didn’t realize my late friend Phil Ramone, one of the greatest record producers of all time, helped Paul make the brilliant single, “Another Day,” and a lot of “Ram.” Now it all makes sense.
Paul reminisces about the “war” he and John had when Lennon recorded “How Do You Sleep?” Paul was hurt. Then he wrote “Dear Friend,” which was conciliatory, and eventually the greatest songwriting duo in history mended their broken relationship. They were at John and Yoko’s apartment in the Dakota in 1976 when Lorne Michaels offered them money live on the air at “SNL” to come down to the show. They almost did it, then laughed it off.
McCartney says he convinced John to go back to Yoko after their 18 month split. John was in a relationship with May Pang, who might not be thrilled to hear Paul take credit for blowing up her life.
There’s a long passage of Paul talking about his 1980 arrest in Japan for trying to get a lot of marijuana through customs. He spent nine days in jail. He was booked for a Wings tour but says now he didn’t think the band was rehearsed enough and didn’t want to be there. He thinks he may subconsciously undermined the tour.
I asked Linda about the arrest in 1990, and I remember her telling me how frightened she and the family were. Paul jokes now that he worried he’d be sentenced and his kids would have to grow up in Japan.
Paul gives an unstinting account of his 9 days locked up, the likes of which I can ever recall reading anywhere else. He talks about the food, the bathing, and life behind bars with enormous candor.
Below are some cuts from the book about the Japan incident.
After the Beatles, what could anyone do to keep a music career going? And a successful one. Until “Band on the Run,” Paul was constantly castigated for not living up to his former life. But the tide turned, and what a career! What a catalog post-Beatles! After Wings folded, McCartney hit another stride with great albums like “Flowers in the Dirt” and “Flaming Pie.”
For McCartney fans, the book is gold. It will be followed this winter by a documentary on amazon.com.
