Adrian Allan

Paul McCartney After The Beatles: A Musical Appreciation Volume Two Adrian Allan

This second volume covers a further fifty songs from Paul McCartney's career after The Beatles. McCartney's work is reviewed in the context of musical trends since 1970. Each song is in the format of a short essay, with regard to tonality, key signature, instrumentation, harmony, modulation and dynamics. The book also includes an examination of McCartney's bass guitar playing both during and after The Beatles; an extended introduction to compositional devices such as secondary dominants, circles of fifths and the Mixolydian mode. For those without a background in music theory, the book includes an extensive index with an explanation of terms and specific examples from songs. The book concludes with two extended essays; one of McCartney's compositional style and the other on McCartney's cultural influence since 1970. There is an extensive interview with Wings' drummer Geoff Britton as well as fan anecdotes. At over 170k words, this is the most thorough study of McCartney's post-Beatles work ever to be printed.