Something About The Beatles

262: McCartney’s Musicality; Post-Beatles with Luca Perasi

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My guest today has recently completed the first volume of an exhaustive study of Paul’s body of work in Paul McCartney: Music is Ideas 1970 – 1989. Luca Perasi is a Beatles historian who specializes in the group’s bassist, post-split. He was a consultant hired by MPL for the recent 7″ single box set, as well as the Italian translator for Paul’s The Lyrics book.

For our first discussion, we focused on the broad parameters of Paul’s art, pre-Beatles through the first Wings album. Luca’s book discusses every McCartney session and the music it yielded, whether released at the time or not, for a greater context into Paul’s musical development. You can find out more at Luca’s site, and I encourage you to follow him on Twitter (@LucaPerasi ) for daily postings featuring amazing rare photos of Paul at work.

Comments

4 responses to “262: McCartney’s Musicality; Post-Beatles with Luca Perasi”

  1. Susan Rosenfel

    I am enjoying your podcast tremendously. Today’s episode with Luca Perasi was so good. His take of Paul revealed more of the layers of what makes Paul an artist for the ages.
    I have to say here that I do take exception to the shade you throw on McCartney. I was there in real time and it was the perfect coda for Paul after the emotional train wreck he found himself in. Perhaps your analysis is correct that Every Night and Maybe I’m Amazed were responses to John’s success with his early singles output. Personally, I love those sound sketches and as a woman, I have always found this album incredibly sexy.
    Thank you for your wonderful work.
    Best,
    Susan

    Reply
    1. Us

      Hi Susan,

      Thanks for the kind words! I am not sure what part struck you as throwing shade, but I have the utmost respect for all four Beatles. However, this is not so much a fanboy podcast as it is a critical examination of things, so if it seems as though I am throwing shade at times, it’s out of admiration and not contempt!

      Reply
  2. william c

    Interesting, I didn’t hear Robert make any dismissive comments about McCartney’s music at all. Luca Perasi has a very level headed if unbiased reading on McCartney’s songwriting through the years. This is something we often don’t hear from US based Beatle “Fans.

    It is obvious that both Lennon and McCartney needed each other’s presence because their writing evolved together. Same for Harrison who needed the others to be more rigorous with his own material. McCartney was able to produce the most in the 1970s but it often lacked critical support from his previous band mate, John Lennon.

    Lennon and McCartney’s relationship can be interpreted as fraternal twins who tend to feel incomplete without each others presence for too long. Who seek each other out for approval and for balance.

    Lennon also lacked strong writing and production after 1970. The exception being the Imagine LP. Same for Harrison after 1970 and of course, McCartney would have the strongest outputs but they often lacked the consistency.

    Wonderful program. Would be nice to have outside perspectives of Lennon
    and Harrison’s output sans the fanatical “can’t do no wrong” opinions.

    Reply
  3. Cajun Queen

    lol, am I the only McCartney fan that can’t stand Maybe I’m Amazed. ha, probably.

    Reply

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