Paul McCartney (Character)

Paul McCartney

CHARACTER» James Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney is most famous for being the bass guitarist and vocalist from The Beatles.

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 (Game), as himself as an character on screen playing along with the band. He also has songs featured in both rhythm music games Rock Band (Franchise) and Guitar Hero (Franchise).

Guitar Hero World Tour (Game) 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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