For nearly 50 years, biographer Robert Caro has been working on his massive, sprawling, set of books on the life of former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. Now 89 years old, Caro is reportedly wrapping up the fifth and final volume for publication.

Authors Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair are younger but may need a similar timeline to complete their current quest to put in print every single detail about the life and music of Paul McCartney—and specifically his post-Beatles years—in a similarly expansive fashion.

2022 saw the debut of their 700+ page first volume of The McCartney Legacy. Now just two years later comes the even longer The McCartney Legacy: Volume 2: 1974-80 (768 pp., $35, Dey Street Books). That means it covers the studio albums Venus & Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound, London Town and Back to the Egg, as well as the live Wings Over America and the recently released One Hand Clapping live retrospective sessions.

Make no mistake: This book is not for the casual fan of Paul McCartney’s work with Wings or a solo artist. The amount of detail is staggering even by Beatleologist terms.

We know that when the McCartney family’s airplane touched down in Nashville on June 6, 1974, Paul was wearing a “green, sleeveless jacket and brightly colored shirt.” We know on the Fourth of July weekend in 1975, they saw both Jaws and Nashville in the movie theater.

The “Wings over America” plane was a BAC 111 model. And the Scottish architectural firm hired to build a studio in one month where Wings would record “Mull of Kintyre” (still the highest selling, non-charity British single in history), was Weir, Ferguson, Martin, Ltd. And that sculpture on the cover of Wings Greatest that was carried to the top of a snowy Swiss mountain by helicopter to be photographed? Semiramis by Demétre Chiparus.

While the first volume got perhaps a bit too in the weeds about specific recording dates, instruments, and takes, this one thankfully trims that down a bit for more biography about Macca’s movements.

So, while we get everything you need to know about the Venus and Mars recording sessions, there’s also lot of color and commentary. Like when Paul and Linda tried to blend into a raucous New Orleans Mardi Gras street celebration by wearing clown costumes (they were soon found out and had to high tail it back inside their building).

The Wings’ tours get attention, including the one that spawned triple disc Wings Over America live record and accompanying Rockshow film/video. Kozinn and Sinclair note that Wings played Houston’s Summit on May 4, 1976, to a sold out 16,000 strong audience.

Two photos are included and the book quotes Dale Adamson of the Houston Chronicle’s review: “McCartney proved quickly that he hardly needed the rest of the Fab Four to dazzle an audience his own way…The keynote of the show was its variety—a full two-and-a-quarter-hours of invigorating and refreshing music.”

Had McCartney read that, he would have certainly been pleased in both addressing “The Beatles question” and promoting the idea (not actually true) that Wings was a true democratic decision-making band and not just McCartney and a backing group. Though Wings members Denny Laine, Geoff Britton, Jimmy McCulloch, Joe English, Laurence Juber, and Steve Holley get plenty of pages about their contributions (and sometimes foibles).

Including then-contemporary interviews and record/concert reviews helps put the story in the terms of the times rather than the long lens of history.

The book ends with Paul McCartney’s 1980 drug bust at a Japanese airport for trying to smuggle marijuana in his suitcase into the country…which normally carries a seven-year prison term. Will Paul get out? History knows, but this book ends with “to be continued”…for Volume III.

This review originally appeared at HoustonPress.com