'The Old Paul Was No Longer the New Paul'

"Even if Paul McCartney had permanently hung up his instruments after the dissolution of the Beatles, he'd still be regarded as one of the best songwriters in rock history. Watch him in the invaluable eight-hour documentary Get Back, and you'll see a meticulous 26-year-old leader who's constantly writing, revising, rearranging, and pushing his bandmates (no slouches themselves) to elevate a song from merely perfect to immortal. So what else is there to do after reinventing pop music forever before even turning 30?"

"They'd traded Swinging '60s London for sleepy '70s Scotland, yet the rest of the world thought Paul was simply dead. In reality, he was working on his new life. His next decade would bring on an ambitious new band, constant trips around the world, and ten albums that would grow to be, among later generations, as beloved as his previous band's records."

Paul McCartney retreated to a desolate Scottish sheep farm with his new wife Linda and their newborn after the Beatles' breakup. A bizarre 'Paul is dead' rumor spread worldwide during that period, despite his active new life. He formed the ambitious band Wings and spent the next decade recording ten albums, touring globally, and building a separate musical legacy. That era included headline-grabbing controversies and a detention in Tokyo's Narcotics Detention Center, and it concluded with another musical breakup. McCartney continued his solo career afterward, and his musical story has extended through later generations.

Read at Vulture