WE thought we had Paul McCartney pegged, pigeonholed and pensioned off, but the 55-year-old former Beatle is back to rewrite history and force us all to rethink his role in the most successful pop group of all time.
He's also making us reassess his solo career, long presumed to be in decline, but now apparently in a resurgent state.
"Macca" is back, not that he ever went away in the first place, and when he made a personal appearance to launch HMV's new superstore in London last Wednesday, there was a sense that McCartney had come full circle, returning to the shop where the Beatles cut their first record deal, and reliving the fan fervour which he might have taken for granted back in the 1960s.
About 2,000 people crammed into the Oxford Street store to catch a glimpse of the former Beatle, who signed autographs and unveiled a six-foot statue of Nipper the dog, the famous mutt from the HMV logo. McCartney's visit was a thank you to the company which took the Beatles in when they were just nippers themselves: "It's one of the places where they launched the first Beatle records, so I had to come back, didn't I?" said McCartney.
Some fans had travelled from as far away as Japan to catch a glimpse of the singer, and many went away disappointed because they didn't get a chance to meet their hero.
This is turning out to be a very good year for James Paul McCartney: he's rekindled his creative fire with the album, Flaming Pie; he's renewed his acquaintance with Queen Elizabeth by collecting a knighthood; and he's just staged the successful premiere of Standing Stone, the "symphonic poem" which took him four years to compose.
More than a quarter of a century after the Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney is still a force in popular music, and retirement does not seem likely on this side of the millennium.
It would be easy to attribute Sir Paul's revived fortunes to the recent Beatles Anthology series which copper-fastened the Liverpool band's towering status, and sold a few million more Beatles records in the process. If that were true the careers of George Harrison and Ringo Starr would also be on the up. But all we heard from George this year was a much-publicised gripe about Oasis, while Ringo seems content to simply play drums and co-write a track on McCartney's album.
Meanwhile, McCartney is famously friendly with Noel Gallagher, ever since they collaborated on a track for the Help charity album; he's done high-profile television interviews with Chris Evans and Clive Anderson; he's even had a private visit with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at No 10; and a new biography by Barry Miles, entitled Many Years From Now, is doing good business at the bookshops, not least because it offers some interesting new perspectives on the Beatles story.
Popular myth has it that McCartney was the cheeky chappie of the Beatles, the smiley bass player who didn't think too deeply, while Lennon was the musical adventurer who introduced avant-garde sounds and arty concepts to the Fab Four. But the new biography of McCartney, published last month, claims to set the record straight, detailing McCartney's early dabblings in experimental music, and giving Paul the credit for instigating the startling orchestral crescendo which cuts through A Day In The Life.
It may be just musical revisionism on McCartney's part, a retort to the critics who have consistently panned his solo work, or it may be an attempt to realign the balance of power within the Lennon-McCartney song-writing partnership which was thrown off kilter by the murder of Lennon and his subsequent iconisation.
One thing is undisputed: 17 years after Lennon's death, McCartney's life is still inextricably linked with his late friend's towering spirit, and he acknowledges it in the biography:
"Let me say first off, before you read this book, that I loved John," he tells biographer Barry Miles, "lest it be seen that I'm trying to do my own kind of revisionism, I'd like to register the fact that John was great, he was absolutely wonderful and I did love him. I was very happy to work with him and I'm still a fan to this day. So this is merely my opinion. I'm not trying to take anything away from him. All I'm saying is that I have my side of the affair as well, hence this book."
Later Paul concludes: "The truth of the matter is, John and I were kind of equal." Although the biography delves deeply into the unique relationship between Paul and John, and gives excellent insights into life as a Beatle, it doesn't cover the period after the pair parted company. Lennon and McCartney may have been equal in Beatledom, but McCartney became the most successful solo ex-Beatle, forming one of the biggest bands of the 1970s, Wings, with his wife Linda.
Wings scored numerous Top Ten hits, including Band On The Run, Let 'Em In and Mull Of Kintyre, which was the biggest-selling single in UK history until it was displaced by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? in 1984.
Almost from the onset of McCartney's solo career the critics had their knives out for him, and albums like Wild Life, Venus And Mars and London Town were mercilessly slated in the music press. Lennon's solo output, on the other hand, was greeted with fawning reverence, even though Lennon was also guilty of writing some banal tunes of his own.
Things got worse in the 1980s: duets with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, movie projects like Give My Regards To Broad Street, and a brace of trite Christmas singles were laughed off the pages of serious rock publications.
McCartney may not have the support of the critics, although the recent album, Flaming Pie, has received grudging approval in some quarters, but he still has the firm support of his public. When he staged his Standing Stone symphony in London earlier this week, he received a standing ovation, and cries of "We love you, Paul!" echoed the days of Beatlemania.
The fans love him because he remains untouched and undamaged by his gargantuan fame. There's an air of the ordinary bloke about McCartney, typified by the popular image of him with thumbs aloft and a grin on his boyish face. His 27-year marriage to Linda is stable and mutually supportive, and his children have grown up well adjusted and talented. (This same week, his 25-year-old daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, became the toast of Paris when she unveiled her new collection for Chloe.)
Beyond all the flaming pies and standing stones, however, Paul McCartney is the publicly appointed keeper of the Beatles eternal flame. He has become the living embodiment of Beatleness, encompassing the clown-like quality of Ringo, the musical virtuosity of George, and lately the depth and integrity of John.
As the surviving half of one of the greatest song-writing partnerships in popular music history, it's only fitting that we should now address him as "Sir Paul".
