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Distributed for Reaktion Books

Off the Ground

Paul McCartney in the 1990s

Distributed for Reaktion Books

Off the Ground

Paul McCartney in the 1990s

A sympathetic but clear-eyed exploration of Paul McCartney’s work in the 1990s, arguably his most important since the rise of the Beatles.
 
Paul McCartney’s 1990s was an era like no other, perhaps even the most significant decade of his entire career after the 1960s. Following a shakier 1980s, the decade would see McCartney reemerge with greater energy, momentum, and self-belief. JR Moores’s sympathetic but not uncritical new book explores McCartney’s ’90s, with its impressive studio and live albums, colossal tours, unexpected side-projects and imaginative collaborations, forays into classical composition, some new Beatles numbers, and a whole lot more besides. Moores reveals how McCartney’s reputation began to be perceived more generously by the public, and he argues that Macca’s output and activities in the ’90s would uncover more about the person behind them than in any other decade.

320 pages | 23 halftones | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2024

Biography and Letters

Music: General Music


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Reviews

“[Off the Ground] assesses a decade when McCartney toured extensively, becoming ‘cool again’ as the Britpop movement took hold.”

Yorkshire Post

"Moores has the keys to understanding McCartney—he conveys with ease his music's joy, spontaneity, willingness to mess about and that special melodic knack that no one else in the world has access to. Off the Ground is a wonderful, engrossing book, full of entertaining digressions, that carefully puts McCartney's ’90s work in context with Britpop (and the Dadrock that followed) as well as his own legacy. The best, and most enjoyable, book on McCartney I've ever read."

Bob Stanley, musician, journalist and author of "Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop" and "Bee Gees: Children of the World"

"Moores contaminates you with obsession. He is a quite brilliant fascinator, and whatever he has been obsessed with will soon obsess you too. I had barely listened to McCartney's work of the ‘90s until I picked this book up—now I can't leave it alone."

Robin Ince, comedian, writer and broadcaster

"Moores is one of my very favourite writers plying this tawdry trade today. Every time he publishes something—a review, a column, a four-word tweet—I race to read it. This whole book on Paul McCartney's 1990s (though, of course, it is about so much more) is a treat beyond treats. Very funny, clever, intrepid, audacious and many more adjectives besides. A joy to read, as his work always is."

Jude Rogers, journalist, broadcaster and author of "The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives"

Table of Contents

Introduction: Looking For Changes
1. The Backstory: McCartney Before The 1990s
2. Off The Ground And Back On The Road
3. Britpop And Beyond
4. The Beatles Anthology
5. Flaming Pie
6. Behind Every Great Man
7. The Experimental Ones
8. Run, McCartney, Run!
References
Index

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