New book PAUL McCARTNEY:RECORDING SESSIONS (1969-2013) is out!

It's out! Available on Amazon Europe marketplaces (UK, France, Spain, Germany).

PRODUCT INFORMATION:

TITLE: Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013). A journey through Paul McCartney's songs after the Beatles. Foreword by Tony Clark.
LANGUAGE: English
AUTHOR: Luca Perasi
PAGES: 440
PRICE: 28 euros
ISBN: 9788890912214
DESCRIPTION: The stories behind all of Paul McCartney’s solo career songs in chronological order of recording, from "McCartney" to "New". Recording dates, studios and “who played what” on each song. Includes 70 exclusive interviews with musicians, arrangers, producers and collaborators who worked with McCartney through the years: Denny Seiwell, Laurence Juber, Richard Niles, Richard Hewson, Alan O'Duffy, Carl Davis, Neil Dorfsman, Carlos Alomar, Jerry Marotta, Steve Holly... and many others!

The book is a song-by-song presentation of 383 songs officially released by Paul in his solo career. This is the complete list of people interviewed for the book:
Carlos Alomar, Kevin Armstrong, Pete Beachill, Stephanie Bennet, Mark Berry, Robin Black, Brian Blood, Carlos Bonell, John Bradbury, Geoffrey Brand, Adrian Brett, Alan Broadbent, John Lang Brown, Ron Carter, David Clayton, John Clayton, Tony Clark, Tony Coe, Jerry Conway, Carl Davis, Chris “Snake” Davis, Richard Davis, Neil Dorfsman, Pedro Eustache, Frank Farrell, Brent and Clare Fischer, Martyn Ford, Greg Hawkes, Gary Herbig, Richard Hewson, Steve Holly, Gordon Hunt, Laurence Juber, David Juritz, Brian Kay, Gary Kettel, James Kippen, John Leach, John Leckie, Steve Lyon, Wil Malone, Jerry Marotta, Dave Mattacks, Dave Matthews, Bazel Meade, Richard Niles, Leo Nocentelli, Dave O’Donnell, Alan O’Duffy, Lance Phillips, David Pogson, George Porter jr., Maurizio Ravalico, David Rhodes, Denny Seiwell, Kenneth Sillito, Marvin Stamm, Mike Stavrou, Stan Sulzmann, Tim Summerhayes, Joby Talbot, Michael Thompson, Fiachra Trench, Mike Vickers, Graham Ward, Stephen Wick, Ernie Winfrey, Bill Wolfer.

Links to purchase:

UK (with export all over the world)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/McCartney-Re...rding+sessions

Germany

http://www.amazon.de/McCartney-Recor...rding+sessions

France

http://www.amazon.fr/McCartney-Recor...rding+sessions

Spain (with export all over the world)

http://www.amazon.es/McCartney-Recor...rding+sessions

DUTCH FANS CAN ALSO GRAB IT THROUGH "MACCAZINE":

http://www.maccazine.nl/now-sale-pau...y-luca-perasi/

:)

Some Q&A will help everyone about the book's contents ans structure. Hope you'll like it!

Q. Could you tell us how the idea of this book was born? And how it developed through the years?
A. Since I discovered The Beatles and McCartney’s music, I was extremely curious about facts related to the recording of the music. I was 13, but I was in search for dates, musicians…things that often are omitted in the sleeve notes! Back in 1999, I started thinking that – unbelievably - McCartney did not have a song-by-song book at the time. I was searching for it desperately, but (almost) nothing! So I thought, “Well, I’m going to write it myself!” So I did. It took so long. The last two years were dedicated mostly to the interviews and to the translation from Italian to English, since the first edition of the book has been published in Italy in February 2012 and it was really appreciated by the public. They often said to me: “Thank you, we missed a book like this.”

Q. How the book is organized? What kind of information we will find in it?
A. The book is a song-by-song one, where all the McCartney's compositions are presented in their order of recording. Each song has recording dates, studios, release information, description, accounts, anecdotes and information - achieved through books, videos, archive interviews or EXCLUSIVE interviews - and last but not least, the list of musicians with their instruments. Each chapter, one year. No strange titles on it: it’s a flow of events.

Q. The real question is: is there something new in the book? Fans are obviously attracted by interesting and NEW information.
A. Yes. Mainly because I interviewed 70 McCartney collaborators: musicians, producers, arrangers, sound engineers. All their memories helped to reconstruct what happened in the studio and add new information to what we knew until now. I tried to obtain from them the best also in terms of new data. My aim was to offer something interesting, and some original research to contribute to the history of Paul McCartney’s recordings.

Q. Tell us about the sources.
A. Tons of books, magazines, footage, official and unofficial recording, old and new interviews, websites. Everything is quoted in the book: you’ll find 874 footnotes. I believe historical research is sources, and the public has to know

Q. Which kind of public the book is suitable to?
Everyone, I would say. Hard-core fans, because they’ll find very detailed stories about each song and new information. Casual fans, because if they’d like to know something, they don’t have to search everywhere to have a quick information. Musicians, because of the fact many musicians offered their recollection with some technical stuff. And everyone who is simply a fan of music, because the book traces of one most important musical careers in history.

Q. Tells us a story from the book.
Really, there are loads. I would go with MULL OF KINTYRE. As we know, it was recorded in Scotland with members of the Campbeltown Pipe Band. Sound engineer Tim Summerhayes recalled the evening of the recording in a very detailed interview he gave me… They were recording outside with a mobile unit. He said that at a certain point, they noticed that the tapes looked dirty: when they investigated, they noticed they were full of squashed moths! They had to carefully try clean the tapes without damaging them… It’s worth a read!

Now everybody knows what to get me for Christmas.

Originally Posted by beatlebangs1964

Now everybody knows what to get me for Christmas.

:)

Everyone could follow updates and see excerpts of the book content on facebook pages at this address (a website is under construction):
https://www.facebook.com/paulmccartneyrecordingsessions

Something interesting you'll find in the book:

- Info about the different basses used by Paul during the sessions: it was impossible to indicate precisely which bass on which track, but according to pictures, interviews, footage and archival researches I tried to discover which bass McCartney played (Rickenbacker, Hofner, Yamaha, Fender Jazz, double-bass, etc..)
- Paul likes to challenge his musicians and collaborators. You'll see in the book that he often tries to take out the best from them: i.e. when they are classical trained, McCartney treat them like jazz musicians...and he could say something like, 'Well, now show me that you can improvise' You'll find many examples in the book.
- Even though he has recored in the best studios all around the world, Paul likes to rely on some particular places to record his songs, only to get a feeling, more than a technical sophistication (i.e. Lagos, The Lympne Castle, Virgin Island, or the "Mull of Kintyre" recording).

Thank goodness for Amazon and FaceBook! You can order items from foreign markets that are not available in your home country.

Review by Edward Eikelenboom, editor of the great Dutch fanzine MACCAZINE:
"Many books about The Beatles have been published over the years – maybe too many books. But every once in a while an author really delivers the goods. This is the case with Luca Perasi’s new book describing the recording process of songs from Paul McCartney’s solo career, starting with The Lovely Linda from 1969 and ending with the hidden track Scared from his latest album NEW. In 428 pages this Italian author tells the story of 383 McCartney compositions. This is not an easy story to tell, because there is still so much we don’t know. However, Luca did his very best compiling all available information – from interviews, magazines, record releases and many other sources – displaying a lot of admiration for the most successful musician in the world ever! Like this is not enough he also interviewed over 70 people who worked with McCartney during his solo career. This information is especially valuable. The Paul McCartney Recording Sessions book is not only interesting for hard core fans, but also for people who just love this brilliant music and would like to know more about it. Nice detail is the L.I.L.Y Publishing as a tribute to the beloved Linda, a woman strong enough to join a band without having any musical training and who became a very important member of Wings. I cannot say that Luca Perasi’s book is the definite book about McCartney’s solo career as there is still so much to uncover, but it is a brave and successful attempt – written with love and dedication that can only be done by someone who is a real fan indeed. “When you got a job to do, you gotta do it well” – as Paul sings in Live And Let Die. Luca, this is a job well done indeed!" (Edward Eikelenboom)

Link:
http://www.maccazine.nl/now-sale-pau...y-luca-perasi/

Review by Joshua Lapin Bertone

https://www.facebook.com/WingsHallof...67039926665686

If someone wanted to learn how the Beatles recorded “Strawberry Fields Forever”, it wouldn’t take them long to find out. There are tons of books out there which detail every step of the song’s birth from John’s composition of it to the even...tual recording of it at EMI Studios. Beatle scholars have no difficulty finding out every tidbit about the recording sessions. Unfortunately, one wouldn’t have the same luck if they wanted to learn about how Wings “Little Lamb Dragonfly” was recorded. There are limited resources out there for those who wish to learn about recordings sessions the Fab Four did after they split up.
Luca Perasi saw the void and filled it. His book “Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013)” covers just what its title implies. The book begins with the secret 1969 recordings for the “McCartney” album and ends with entries on “New”. While the “Eight Arms To Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium” covers similar ground, that book is almost fifteen years old and new information is always coming to life. “Recording Sessions” even corrects some material which was incorrect in “Eight Arms”.
Each song gets its own entry. The entry details where and when the song was recorded, who played what instruments on it and other miscellaneous details. Luca interviewed many musicians, engineers and other industry professionals to get the story straight. In doing so he’s brought never before heard stories onto these pages. He even had Monique Seiwell (wife of Wings first drummer Denny Seiwell) consult her diary to get some recording dates and locations correctly. That’s what I call following up on leads! Tony Clark, an engineer whose name should be familiar to McCartney fans, also helped consult on the book and gives a great introduction.
This isn’t a complete look at Paul’s recording career. In order to make the book’s mission statement more obtainable, only McCartney penned compositions are covered. This means that non-McCartney written songs such as Wings “Medicine Jar” (written by Jimmy McCulloch) and various cover songs aren’t represented. While their absence is notable, the wealth of information on the rest of the catalogue is more than enough to make up for it. When you’re being served a five course meal, you don’t complain that there isn’t enough bread. I’ve seen some reviews bemoan the book’s lack of pictures, but I didn’t read the book for photos. I wanted a book that would tell me the story of Paul’s post Beatle recording career, and this more than delivered.
I consider myself a McCartney scholar, and I’ve read many books on his recording career. There were many times in this book that I found myself learning new pieces of information. There were some surprises and lots of interesting stories. I was very impressed with the amount of research Luca took in putting this together. This book is a must have for any Paul McCartney fans and belongs on the shelf right next to Madinger and Easter’s “Eight Arms To Hold You” and Lewisohn’s “Complete Beatles Recording Sessions”.

Does anyone know if this book includes songs he's written for other people, ie. 'Six O'Clock' for Ringo?

Review by Chaz Lipp, The Morton Report:

http://www.themortonreport.com/books...y-luca-perasi/

"Essential reading for any serious Paul McCartney fan, Luca Perasi’s Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013) covers everything from the McCartney album (released in 1970) right through New (released in 2013). Perasi takes us from song to song, conveying tons of detailed information. The goal was to focus on factual information rather than critical analysis. While some of the author’s opinion-based commentary slips in, he makes a genuine effort to make this a reference guide above all else. Each song includes a listing of musicians involved, as well as where and when each tune was recorded.

It’s made clear in the introduction, the scope of the book is limited to songs written by McCartney that appeared on a release credited to Paul McCartney, Wings, or The Fireman (the latter being McCartney’s experimental collaboration with producer Martin Glover, aka Youth). Any song written by someone other than McCartney is not covered (though his many co-writes with various songwriters, including Denny Laine, Eric Stewart, and Elvis Costello, are included—with the exception of re-recorded Lennon/McCartney songs). As a result, much of the content of Give My Regards to Broadstreet (1984), Run Devil Run (1999), and Kisses on the Bottom (2012) is only given a brief mention.

Examining nearly 400 individual songs is ambitious enough, but what makes Recording Sessions of particular interest are quotes taken from some 70 original, exclusive interviews the author conducted with McCartney collaborators and session players. Some of these are ,prominent participants, such as engineer Tony Clark (who contributed a foreword in the form of a poem) and former Wings members Laurence Juber, Denny Seiwell, and Steve Holley. Others are far more obscure, such as Bill Wolfer, the keyboardist who plays on the Michael Jackson collaboration “Say, Say, Say,” or Stan Sulzmann, saxophonist on the U.K.-only single “Once Upon a Long Ago.”

In other words, Perasi dug deep to unearth new stories that even the hardest of hardcore McCartney fans have not likely heard. It’s a goldmine of anecdotes that all contribute to a further understanding and appreciation of McCartney’s solo career, especially the less-often discussed obscurities. Fascinating accounts emerge, such as how McCartney so admired Clare Fischer’s work with Prince that he hired Fischer to score the orchestration for the Flowers in the Dirt ballad “Distractions” (the late Fischer’s son, Brent, was interviewed by Persasi). This may sound like minutiae, and to casual fans many of the stories may be considered insignificant. But for those who crave every detail they can get their hands on, Perasi’s research yields plenty.

Perasi also draws from a wide variety of previously published interviews, always meticulously citing his sources (including, I’m proud to say, The Morton Report—my own interview with former Wings drummer Denny Seiwell is quoted a couple times). Whether culled from previously existing writings or from his personal research, Perasi organizes the information very clearly throughout the book. The basic layout takes us from year to year, with a numbered heading for each song (indexed in the back of the book for quick reference; there’s also a short bio for every person mentioned throughout). Where appropriate, Perasi also fills in the blanks by including general info about tours, live recordings, and side projects in order to provide some continuity to McCartney’s full recording career.

Perasi sought to present the McCartney songbook in strict order of recording date, with detailed credits listing who played which instrument on every song. Without having the kind of official, all-access pass that Mark Lewisohn had to the Beatles archive for The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, some of these dates and credits remain a mystery. But Perasi did the best he could, compiling the most comprehensive annotations to date. It should also be noted that this English translation (from Perasi’s native Italian) is not without some oddities in syntax. But generally speaking, it is always clear what the author is trying to communicate. While the translation could’ve probably been smoother in places, it shouldn’t be seen as a deal-breaker for anyone interested.

Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013) is an important work for anyone with a deep interest in the solo career of Paul McCartney. It is currently available for purchase on Amazon U.K. Follow author Luca Perasi on Twitter."

I hadn't heard about this book -- it sounds like an absolute treasure! I'm currently reading Mark Lewisohn's "Tune In," but I definitely plan to purchase this one and read it as soon as I can!



Cheers!

Piper

Originally Posted by johnnymain

Does anyone know if this book includes songs he's written for other people, ie. 'Six O'Clock' for Ringo?

Hi Johnnymain, songs included are all McCartney written or co-written and officially released by Paul as a solo artist, with Wings or under pseudonym (Fireman or Thrillington). Total 383 songs with their own entry. All the most important unreleased stuff is also featured in the book (e.g. Rupert The Bear sessions, Cold Cuts, the double Red Rose Speedway), as well as live concerts (with setlists).

For anyone interested, there's an interview with me featured on the BEATLE BUG RADIO SHOW, here (scroll down the page):

http://wdar.ie/the-beatle-bug-podcasts/

Luca

Originally Posted by backseat

Hi Johnnymain, songs included are all McCartney written or co-written and officially released by Paul as a solo artist, with Wings or under pseudonym (Fireman or Thrillington). Total 383 songs with their own entry. All the most important unreleased stuff is also featured in the book (e.g. Rupert The Bear sessions, Cold Cuts, the double Red Rose Speedway), as well as live concerts (with setlists).

Thanks. I'm considering buying it now that I know all Paul's songs are included as well as set lists from his gigs over the years.

Kind of gone off the boil with this book as it's retailing on Amazon at £23 (or another copy is avaioable for an eye watering £1000!).

Quite a lot to shell out for a book.

Originally Posted by johnnymain

Kind of gone off the boil with this book as it's retailing on Amazon at £23 (or another copy is avaioable for an eye watering £1000!).

Quite a lot to shell out for a book.

.

The current price is 22,37 with free shipping in the UK (shipping is directly from the Amazon warehouse). Unfortunately there's another seller who's putting these fake prices everywhere (999 pounds) as a way to do his commercial. Don't look at this (and I'm going to do a claim). Surely the book won't be disappointing, if you're searching for a track-by-track one and if you're looking for some new information.

Originally Posted by backseat

.

The current price is 22,37 with free shipping in the UK (shipping is directly from the Amazon warehouse).... Surely the book won't be disappointing, if you're searching for a track-by-track one and if you're looking for some new information.

That's what I said above but I'm not sure how much 'new' information is actually in the book to make it worth the £23. If it was £10 -£15, that'd be fine but it's substantially more than that.

(By new, I mean stories or details not included in any previous books of which I have a lot!).

I guess I'll have to go away and think about it.

Originally Posted by johnnymain

That's what I said above but I'm not sure how much 'new' information is actually in the book to make it worth the £23. If it was £10 -£15, that'd be fine but it's substantially more than that.

(By new, I mean stories or details not included in any previous books of which I have a lot!).

I guess I'll have to go away and think about it.

I see your point. The new information come mainly from the 70 interviews I've done with musicians, arrangers, producers, engineers. It's a totally different book to, let's say, Doyle's MAN ON THE RUN, which I enjoyed but - to my knowledge at least - says little which I didn't know before.
Take a look at the reviews and think about it.

Cheers :)

Luca

The book is finally available in the US on Amazon.com

Steve Marinucci news (scroll down the page):

http://www.examiner.com/article/beat...usic-macca-tix

... just ordered a copy...

... and, if I don't like it, it's YOU that I'll be demanding e refund from ! LOL

no pictures except the cover few song are missing