Paul McCartney poses for pictures at a recent book signing in New York City. - REUTERS
LOS ANGELES,(Reuters):
WITH A little help from his friends, Paul McCartney has released what he calls his most 'publicly personal' album, and has just begun a United States tour that will keep him in the public eye through the end of November.
While the former Beatle has been famous for most of his life and given hundreds of interviews, he has usually managed to stick to prepared sound bites, while maintaining a friendly facade complete with wide grin and thumbs aloft.
But in Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol), his 20th studio album since 1970, the year the Fab Four broke up, he broaches such topics as recovering from the death of his first wife, Linda, and finding a new love in second wife, Heather Mills McCartney.
In an interview, McCartney said it took a few years after Linda's death from cancer in 1998 to bring those kinds of emotions out publicly.
A TRIBUTE TO ROCKERS
"It wasn't hard, privately. It's easy to experience it. But, you know, you have to think about how to write this stuff down. It took a little while to find its way into the songs, for the dust to settle. How to make it art."
McCartney's first venture after Linda's death, 1999's Run Devil Run, was anything but the emotion-laden, sad album the public was expecting. A tribute to the rockers of Paul's youth, the album was loaded with tunes by Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry and others.
"It was the only way I could go, really, to make that kind of record. And Linda had always said to me, 'You must do a rock and roll album,' which is what I did."
In Chaos, he sings about personal grief and recovery (Too Much Rain), the support of friends (How Kind of You), his relationship with Heather, an anti-landmine activist (A Certain Softness) and former friendships (Riding to Vanity Fair).
Some fans have speculated the latter track is a pre-emptive strike against former publicist Geoff Baker, who is reported to be writing a 'tell-all' book. Baker denies such a book is in the works.
Critics were generally effusive, with Rolling Stone magazine dubbing it "the freshest-sounding McCartney album in years," while Entertainment Weekly praised his "quiet little hymns." But as the Rolling Stones are finding with their new album, critical acclaim does not convert into retail success for artistes of a certain age. Chaos was down at number 32 on the Billboard's U.S. album charts in its fourth week of release.
