CAN A BEATLE HAVE WINGS? PAUL McCARTNEY'S SECOND FLIGHT

A 1970-1980 HISTORIOGRAPHY

BOOK SYNOPSIS: Can A Beatle Have Wings?

PLEASE NOTE (The book will be on Amazon and on Luca Perasi’s website L.I.L.Y. Publishing | Books that rock! It will likely be available by Black Friday. Once those links appear, this post will be amended to reflect those links for your convenience)

Synopis

“When the Beatles broke up, someone had to take the blame. On 31 December 1970 Paul McCartney filed a writ in London’s High Court to dissolve the partnership. From then on, he argues, the rock press treated almost everything he made with suspicion.

Can A Beatle Have Wings? Paul McCartney’s Second Flight goes back to the reviews, features and news stories of the 1970s, in Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Time, People and others, and asks how they were written as well as what they said. Andy Nicholes traces a clear double standard. Lennon’s raw Plastic Ono Band was praised for its honesty, while McCartney’s homemade debut and Ram were dismissed as trivial. The book follows Wings from that hostile start, through the turning point of Band on the Run, to the triumphant 1976 Wings Over America tour.

First written as a dissertation at Liverpool Hope University in 2011, the study is now expanded with a 2026 reflection on the critical reappraisal that followed. That includes the Archive Collection reissues and the Wings revival. A new postscript turns to the band’s last two albums, London Town and Back to the Egg, which are still waiting for their turn.”

Andy’s devotion to the musical legacy of Paul McCartney is well-known and admired and respected by many. His attendance at Fests for Beatles Fans and at many significant McCartney concerts and events over the years is breathtaking. He also runs several wonderful podcasts, helping to spread the word about the immense McCartney musical catalog!