It’s a big Beatles news day — more specifically a big Paul McCartney news day, as some of that news pertains to Wings and Macca’s solo pursuits. But first, the Fab Four.
In 1995, the Beatles released their official documentary series The Beatles Anthology as a multi-night television event, just in time for Thanksgiving in the US. Thirty years later, a remastered version of the docuseries with a new episode is coming to Disney+, once again at the commencement of the holiday season. Now divvied up into nine episode, the series will hit the streaming service three episodes at a time on the nights of Nov. 26, 27, and 28.
Today, a new trailer has arrived, reminding us how much classic footage there is to behold. As someone who doesn’t really remember the glimpses of this series I caught as a kid, I’m looking forward to seeing it with fresh eyes as an adult, even if I doubt they can top the fly-on-the-wall thrills of Get Back. Watch the trailer below.
In other historical/archival/nostalgic endeavors, McCartney — whose current Got Back tour is as delightful as our own Abby Jones asserts — has a new book about his post-Beatles band Wings coming out. Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run was technically assembled by editor Ted Widmer from “over 500,000 words of interviews with McCartney, family and band members, and other key participants.” It’s out now on W.W. Norton in the US, and today Rolling Stone has a new excerpt from the audiobook, read by McCartney himself. It features his impression of Mick Jagger, and you can check it out here.
Lastly, McCartney has contributed a bonus track — “a recording of an empty studio” — to the new vinyl edition of the anti-AI benefit compilation Is This What We Want? You can pre-order that here.
