Paul McCartney's Biography

Pre-Fame

Paul probably had the best upbringing of all of the Beatles. Although he was not from as wealthy a family as John, Paul's family did not suffer terribly financially and more importantly, his family did not suffer extreme pain and dysfunction. Paul's family consisted of his father, James Paul Sr., his mother, Mary, and his younger brother, Micheal. Like any family there was bickering but there was a bond of love that held them together.

Paul's father, Jim, worked hard to get food on the table for his children, but he often could not make ends meet. Therefore, Paul's mother, Mary, helped out by being a mid wife. Both Paul's father and grandfather were musicians and his father was in a jazz band. When Paul was young his father bought a piano from North End Music Stores run by future manager Brian Epstein's father. Paul enjoyed playing music a lot, and he wanted to pursue more of it and made it known to his family. Paul got his wish when his father bought him a trumpet for his birthday. Paul had a few problems with the trumpet however, first, it would cause his lip to callous up, and secondly he could not sing with a trumpet in his mouth. He therefore traded the trumpet in for an acoustic guitar. He ran into a problem here as well as he had many problems fingering the chords. It was then he figured that because he is left handed he had to change the strings around and play upside down. From this moment on Paul blossomed on guitar and he had a much easier time than future band mates John Lennon (who played banjo chords) and George Harrison (who played until his fingers bled).

Music also proved to be a savior for Paul in his time of grief as a teenager. Like John Lennon Paul also had to deal with the death of his mother at an early age. Mary McCartney died of breast cancer on October 31, 1956. Paul has often been criticized for his reaction to his mother's death, and John's death for his lack of sympathy. When Paul heard his mother died the first thing he said was "What are we going to do without her money?". Although it sounds insensitive, as a teenage boy one can imagine how difficult it can be to deal with the death of your mother. Likewise after hearing of John's death Paul made the seemingly unfeeling comment that "It's a drag" that John died. After the death of his mother Paul immersed himself in music and would rarely be seen without his guitar. From this he learned many chords, songs, and how to tune a guitar, a skill that impressed John tremendously. In school Paul was a good student, unlike John. Teachers found him to be a bright, gifted student and he was awarded for his accomplishments. However, once he was brought into the Quarry Men his grades began to decline and he, along with George dropped out of grammar school. Paul was introduced to the Quarry Men on July 6, 1957 at the Woolton Village Fete and he was introduced to John through a mutual friend Ivan Vaughn. After the Quarry Men's performance Paul saw John backstage and impressed John a lot. First of all, Paul showed John to use all the strings and to properly chord, as John had been playing banjo chords. Secondly, Paul tuned John's guitar, a feat John was very impressed by. Paul also performed Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" and wrote down the chords and lyrics to the song for John. John then asked Paul to join the group soon after and he was a Quarry Man.

Paul added a lot to the Quarry Men. He was their third guitarist and also a lead vocalist with John and he and John had an amazing harmony together. Paul also pushed for them to be more serious about the group and clean up their image. They got a number of gigs with Paul in the group and John and Paul began their competitive relationships writing songs. Paul was the first to write his own song, and John was extremely impressed by this and not to be outdone, he wrote a song as well. As each wrote and improved the other tried to improve on that, as well as each helped eachother out and helped to balance each others personality. Paul would often write soppy, banal songs with great melody and John would fix a few words in it. Likewise, John could write very depressing songs and Paul would give an uplift to them. Paul also introduced them to the third member of the Beatles George. He met George on a bus and finally convinced John to have him try out where he was accepted. The Quarry Men eventually became the Beatles with the line up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best. With this line up they ventured to Hamburg, Germany. There the Beatles grew tremendously. Paul did become dissatisfied with one thing in Hamburg, Stu's bass playing. Paul was often very cruel to Stu and was very open about the fact that he wanted to be the bass player. Like later in life, Paul played all the instruments in Hamburg. He became a very good bass player there, and also learned to be a competent drummer. Eventually Stu left the group to be with is girlfriend and he gave his bass to Paul, who again had to reverse the strings. Paul was always self conscious about playing upside down and when he saved enough money he bought his well known Hofner violin shaped bass. When he and the Beatles returned to Liverpool they eventually worked up a following, especially at the Cavern Club. It was rumoured that Paul was jealous of Pete as Pete was supposedly the best looking Beatle. However, this rumour was unfounded and Pete was kicked out because he was incompetent and had a unpleasant personality. At the Cavern the Beatles met their manager Brian Epstein. Brian pushed for the Beatles to clean up their image and Paul also pushed hard for this and got his way. Although they agreed a lot about what to do with the Beatles, Brian and Paul never got along very well. Brian was probably threatened by Paul as Paul could see all the blunders he was making financially and point it out to him. During the try out for George Martin, Paul was the one who most impressed Martin with his voice and the Beatles first singles were Paul songs, "Love Me Do/ PS I Love You". Paul was shy at first about singing and John often sang lead. In fact John sang the "Love Me D"o part of the chorus until George Martin said that John should play the harmonica there and Paul should sing it. With the next single, "Please Please Me", Paul sang back up and the single was a huge hit and established the Beatles as a hit group. From then on they blossomed tremendously especially John and Paul's songwriting.

The Beatles in the early days with Pete Best. They are dressed in suits as Brian and Paul wanted.