Paul McCartney’s nod surprised biographer Philip Norman

There’s an intriguing tale behind the latest biography of a Beatle.

Paul McCartney got a rough ride in Philip Norman’s 1981 book Shout! Picture: AFP

Perhaps what the world doesn’t need is another Beatle biography, but when it landed on the SD desk this week one couldn’t help (as a card-carrying Fabs tragic) but cast at least a cursory glance at English author Philip Norman’s weighty (853 pages) new take on the life and times of Paul McCartney.

Paul McCartney: The Biography, which hit stores this week, is the most extensive study so far of the songwriting craftsman, particularly his post-Beatles career, but as Norman points out in the prologue, it came as some surprise to him that McCartney would give his approval to such a tome. In 1981 Norman, a journalist at The Sunday Times in London, published Shout!, a bestselling biography of the Beatles that was considered the definitive telling of their story at the time. Not everyone was happy with it, though, least of all McCartney, who came a poor second to John Lennon, musically and otherwise, in Norman’s version of events. Macca, in his best Scouse accent no doubt, called the book Shite! from then on.

Norman also wrote this poem in The Sunday Times shortly after McCartney released the dreaded Mull of Kintyre in 1977: “Oh deified scouse with unmusical spouse / For the cliches and cloy you unload / To an anodyne tune may they bury you soon / In the middlemost midst of the road.” Ouch.

How to claw your way back into the favour of one of the world’s most successful artists after that? Well, it seems by writing a book about Lennon (John Lennon: The Life, 2008) and asking McCartney to contribute to it, in order to redress the imbalance created by Shout! Even so, when he approached McCartney’s publicist in 2012 with the idea of turning his attention towards him in print, Norman had faint hopes of him agreeing to it. But he did. “It was the biggest surprise of my career,” he says. I suppose, since he was able to get it over the line, I’d better read it.

I mentioned a few weeks ago the inaugural Jackie Orszaczky Music Lecture and Concert, an event that annually will celebrate the music and inspiration of the Hungarian-Australian bass player and composer who died in 2008. A full house at Sydney’s The Basement on Tuesday did just that, with a star-studded cast of players, many of whom, like others in the room, benefited from Orszaczky’s mentorship. His partner, singer Tina Harrod, led the ensemble, which included drummer Hamish Stuart and trombonist James Greening, through a selection of the bassist’s best-known material. The evening was amusingly and informatively supplemented by the lecture itself, delivered with considerable aplomb by musician and broadcaster Lucky Oceans. Nice to see such a worthy event get off to such a good start.

Still in Sydney, the full program was announced this week for the Sydney Film Festival, which runs from June 8-19, and it has what looks to be a weighty music component. This includes the Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Blue, starring Ethan Hawke, the Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light,and a doco, Miss Sharon Jones!, on the American soul diva.

Former Talking Head David Byrne has a film, Contemporary Color, at the film festival. He also has a birthday today, turning 64. Happy birthday to him.