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The Unknown Paul McCartney: McCartney and the Avant-garde
 
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The Unknown Paul McCartney: McCartney and the Avant-garde (Paperback)

by Ian Peel (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd; illustrated edition edition (7 Nov 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1903111366
  • ISBN-13: 978-1903111369
  • Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15 x 1.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 578,116 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Book Description
Internationally acclaimed, knighted and immortalised in music's pantheon, Paul McCartney nevertheless remains one of the least fully appreciated of modern icons.

Throughout his career, McCartney has initiated and participated in projects that have taken him very far away from the kind of music associated with his career in The Beatles, in Wings, and as a solo artist. From as far back as the 1960s there have been experimental solo projects, both under his own name and incognito. These include the legendary 'Carnival of Light' sixties freak-out, the Percy Thrillington diversion in the 70s, techno, ambient and chill-out releases as The Fireman, pure noise performance art as well as less-publicised activity, much of which Ian Peel now reveals in depth in print for the first time.

What emerges is a unique, critical insight into an apparently over-familiar public figure - Paul McCartney, avant-garde musician. To quote the title of Chapter 10, it's all "a long way off the Frog Chorus..."

From the Publisher
Undertaking extensive research for this book, Ian Peel interviewed many of McCartney's intimate musical associates from this less-familiar side of his career, including:

Super Furry Animals - on their carrot chewing percussion and electronic sound collage collaborations.

Youth - the three-times BRIT-nominated producer speaks in depth for the first time ever on his two albums of techno ambient and chill-out recorded with McCartney as The Fireman.

Nitin Sawhney - on McCartney's first tentative steps into drum & bass, holed up in Sawhney's London bedsit.

Richard Hewson - breaks a 20-year silence on the Thrillington project and pseudonym.

David Vaughan - the renowned psychedelic artist and organiser of 60s 'happenings' airs his strong views on Carnival of Light, The Beatles' most legendary unreleased track.

Other interviewees include Yoko Ono, bassist Herbie Flowers, Gong's Daevid Allen, Frank Zappa's guitarist Mike Keneally, JJ Jeczalik (Art of Noise) and members of Wings.

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4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Another facet to a well-known talent, 15 Jan 2003
It seems that while conquering the pop charts, first as a member of the Beatles, then with Wings, Paul McCartney has led a bizarre double life. This book reveals how the man who wrote "Hey Jude" and "Silly Love Songs" has also recorded bizarre sound collages, mixed guitar feedback with chainsaws, and become perhaps the only musician of his generation to have an underground ambient/techno/dance hit.

While touching on McCartney's avant-garde musical roots with John Cage and Stockhausen, you are also taken on a journey through the genesis of what we know today as House, Trance, Ambient and other dance sub-genres. With interviews from many of the people who worked with Paul in his experimental recordings, we get a sense of the interest and growth of a style of music that only rarely pokes its collective head into the mainstream.

Indeed, at times the focus seems to drift from McCartney entirely, but it serves to show that his interests in music outside what he's usually known for are deep and far-reaching.

If you think you know Paul McCartney and his music, this book may surprise or even shock you. It helps to fully round out the image of a composer who may yet emerge as one of the seminal figures in 20th century music, even beyond his work with his three buddies. As such, this book needs to be on the shelf of every serious McCartneyphile.

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5.0 out of 5 stars For no one but the McCartneyphile, 6 Feb 2008
By Richard "Alice Collector" (Blackpool England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
An authoritative account of the little known of side of Paul McCartney and a fascinating study of his extra curricular activities which are known of to only the most avid Beatles collector.Its also where a knowledge of other musics comes in handy as names like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen are not really household ones.
Lennon has usually been seen as the avant gardist because of Revolution No 9 and the Zapple records but it would seem McCartney had his own ideas long before.
Not even that many Beatles fans are going to "get it"-and some of this music is not easy to find as the Fireman and the Liverpool Sound Collage are deleted with Twin Freaks only available on CD from Russia!
More available to the masses is Qui est la Soleil-a track on Flowers in the Dirt-to show what the Fireman things sounded like
But really you only have to think of Beatles ideas which were translated by George Martin-himself no stranger to the weird end of music when he cut a single under the name of Ray Cathode the same year as Love me do.
In the field of the avant garde and ambience its McCartney who was able to make it work in ways Lennon could never have done.
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