A new interview by Luca Perasi with the L.I.L.Y. Publishing staff about the release of Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 2) 1990-2012 and the "Music Is Ideas" series.
Q. Here we are again, Luca. It's been almost 2 years since your Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas (Vol. 1) and now Vol. 2 is finally out! Would you like to talk about it and what happened during this time?
A. Thanks Francesca, good to speak. It's always a happy moment when a new book comes out. I kept getting emails from people who liked Music Is Ideas Vol.1 asking for Vol.2. Well, here we are! It's not an easy task, as you can imagine. I had originally intended to end the series with Vol. 2, covering Paul McCartney's songs up to the present day, but then the wealth of material accumulated was so great and rich that it was necessary to conceive of a second part covering the period from 1990 to 2012.
I have also published other books such as Peter Gabriel: The Rhythm Has My Soul. The Stories Behind the Songs, written with journalist and friend Alfredo Marziano, a new series of books called Milestones, and Band on the Run. The Story of a Classic Album was the first. I have recently completed the series The Beatles After The Beatles. The Solo Careers of John, Paul, George and Ringo (in two parts, The Narrative and The Discography), which was published in Italian in 2016. So, a few busy years, weren't they?
At the end of 2022, unfortunately, I went through a rather complicated period: I had to face a serious health problem and soon after I lost my dear father. For months I could hardly walk, and the rehab was hard (and it's still going on). And when I felt like crying because I was grieving for my dad, it was a challenge because I had half of my face blocked. Even eating was difficult. The success of Music Is Ideas Vol. 1 had a positive effect and kept me in the limelight with interviews and promotional stuff. Then I slowly reorganised my professional life. Publishing has always been my passion, and I wanted to go back to it and be independent. The other projects that have come about are a tribute to the memory of my father, who was always in the printing business. Dad, I'm sure you're proud of me.
Q. Thank you for these personal and touching insights. Once again, my condolences to your father and best wishes for a speedy recovery, Luca! Am I right in saying that the structure and layout are the same as in Vol. 1? So that people can find a nice continuity through the series?
A. Absolutely. We also kept the great photo by Clive Arrowsmith for this volume. I still think it's a great piece of work and it gives the book and the series an added sense of "we're making history, not just selling a product". You see, Paul McCartney's work is the most important in the history of rock, just after the Beatles and in the same league as Bob Dylan's.
So, the book series has a continuity in the layout as well. It's a kind of "brand image" for the Music Is Ideas series. Having a photo helps people identify the series in the easiest way. Inside, readers would find another 224 songs (and the counter continues from where it left off with Vol. 2), as well as another 26 (as yet) unreleased tracks. To keep the counter up to date, after Vol. 2 we have 520 official tracks and 76 unreleased songs. In total we have 596 songs.
We've kept the footnotes on the side of the page for better reading and consultation, there's the song index at the end. There are some pictures to enrich the text and make a better presentation. It's available on Amazon in both hardcover and paperback.
Q. Now, let's delve deeper into the content. I know it's always difficult to talk about it without spoiling it, but let's whet the reader's appetite... come on!
A. Oh yeah, let's do it! Well, those other 23 years of Paul McCartney's career are definitely less explored. I've barely scratched the surface with my 2013 Recording Sessions, and this time I've been able to go in depth and tell the stories behind the songs and analyse them.
Firstly, there are 24 exclusive interviews I did in the book. Some were conducted at the time of the Recording Sessions and some of them are included there, but there are some notable additions. There's a fantastic insight into the world and process of the Liverpool Oratorio, also thanks to an interview I did with Carl Davis. There's Julian Mendelsohn and Hamish Stuart, who talk about some very interesting aspects of Off the Ground: the album is known to have a sort of live feel to it, but in fact it was conceived in a very different way!
I enjoyed going into even more detail about the song structures, melodies and harmonies to show the genius of Paul, even on albums like Driving Rain and Memory Almost Full, and I was able to spot some little "melodic debts" that some tracks owe to others... from McCartney himself.
The whole process behind Kisses on the Bottom is revealed for the first time in the book by engineer Brian Montgomery. It's a fascinating and incredibly rich chapter. We have all the recording dates and the process of the sessions. Now we know that Paul DID play an instrument in the studio! Chapters like Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and Flaming Pie have been expanded so much and the archive material will prove to be very rewarding for the reader. And yes, we have also included the three Fireman albums.
Q. That sounds exciting, because Paul McCartney's work has expanded and broadened quite a bit compared to the last 20 years. I mean the experimental stuff, including the musique concrète of the Liverpool Sound Collage, the classical and symphonic music, the almost incessant live performances... to name but a few.
A. One of the most amazing things is to follow the way in which Paul's classical and pop music influence each other. Especially in the years between 1990 and 1992, when McCartney was writing the Liverpool Oratorio with Carl Davis and composing his own songs – many of which would be part of 1993's Off the Ground – he was introducing some pop ideas into the classical work and taking inspiration from the classical language to enrich his pop songs. He wanted to experiment with sounds, but under a pseudonym, that of The Fireman, and he even ventured into the avant-garde. His five pop albums couldn't be more different. If Off the Ground is essentially a band album, Flaming Pie sees Paul as the main performer, playing a lot of instruments; if Chaos and Creation has a melancholy feel, Memory Almost Full is upbeat and positive. Then there's Driving Rain, a very daring album, full of experimentation, recorded in just a few weeks with a trio of musicians Paul had never met before.
Q. Would you like to give us a little "behind the scenes" on the book? People might think it's a one-man-band effort by you, but it's not.
A. Recording Sessions was a one-man band thing. With Music Is Ideas Vol. 1 things changed, and we had six people involved in the making of it. This time we still have a designer who does the layout and cover, Steve Lambley, we have improved the editing and the English lyrics, we have double-checked the extra information like live and alternate versions of the songs with the help of Susan Gagne. And we created an assoctiaon with the website www.the-paulmccartney-project.com. We also wanted to 'modernise' the content, so the book also includes some QR codes to give readers a multimedia experience.
Q. You bring a lot to the table, Luca, we're aware of that! The future will see more McCartney/Beatles related projects, but also some other writers coming in to write about other artists: Elton John comes to mind.
A. Yes, Francesca, lots of exciting new stuff, and we've included some forthcoming titles in the first pages of the Music Is Ideas Vol. 2 book. I think they're well worth discovering, so grab your copy to see what's around the corner and enjoy these new stories behind the songs of Paul McCartney!
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