This book is Mark Lewisohn’s fault. Almost ten years ago he published Tune In, the first volume of what is planned as a three-volume history of the Beatles. In nearly 1,000 pages, the author reached only the very beginning of the group’s recording career.
And it was widely judged a triumph. I certainly thought it so. It worked as a readable book on an exceptional band and a social history. So it isn’t entirely surprising that it has attracted imitators. And The McCartney Legacy is an example.
If Lewisohn was right — and he surely was — that the Beatles merit the same careful historical study as given, say, by Robert Caro to Lyndon Johnson, then a similarly detailed study of the rest
