From Me To You

 

I’ve just finished reading John and Paul, A love Story in Songs, by Ian Leslie.  Even if you are only a casual fan of The Beatles, you owe it to yourself to read this book.  Yes, you will read all the usual anecdotes you probably already know.  But you will also revel in amazing insights into the most important musical force of your lifetime – however old you are.  It’s a beautiful and touching tribute.

Please Listen

 

Listen to the last refrain of Nowhere Man.

 

I will love Paul McCartney ‘til the day I die.

Run Devil Run

I know it was Paul McCartney’s album and all, but:

• Mick Green
• Pete Wingfield
• Ian Paice
• David Gilmour
• And Sir Paul himself

So how come that line-up on Live At The Cavern Club wasn’t labelled a supergroup?

Two Hearts

It's a pity that Paul McCartney and Phil Collins didn't become close friends.  The music would have been fantastic.

Love

With the recent death of George Martin, Rolling Stone inevitably published a list of his Top 10 Albums.

The entry for America’s Hearts, and in particular the hit single Sister Goldenhair, got me thinking that he was really trying keep the Beatles sound alive.  I mean, can’t you hear The Beatles doing that song?

Then again, maybe that’s what they were all doing.  Let Me Roll It could be Paul doing a John song from the White Album.  John's Starting Over could be on Abbey Road.  So could George’s All Those Years Ago.

Not surprising, I guess, that they would all continue to share what they had learned from each other.

Lucky us.

Two Of Us

Not that he hasn’t worked damned hard to overcome it, but Paul McCartney is forever destined to be remembered as John Lennon’s partner.  A little unfair maybe.  After all, he only spent 13 years with John.  And he’s given us a lot of great music and memories over the last 45 years as a solo artist.

Then again, maybe he’s never given up trying to replace John.  Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Elvis Costello, David Gilmour, Dave Grohl, Kanye West …  it’s a pretty impressive list of collaborations.

Or maybe Paul just digs music, is a fan like the rest of us, and understands that at bottom music is a shared experience.

Long Long Long

When we think about longevity, images of wrinkly Rolling Stones or half The Who come to mind.  And that makes sense, especially from a performance standpoint; some acts just keep on trucking.  The Stones, especially, give the air of having some kind of record for surviving the longest.

But if you examine the question from the perspective of recording new music, they haven’t/didn’t last so long – at least in my iTunes library.

Here’s the ranking of the artists who have had the longest careers in terms of their earliest and latest recordings (again, in my iTunes library – yours will differ).

Artist/Band	Earliest Recording	Latest Recording	Number of Years
Ringo Starr	1962	2012	50
Paul McCartney	1962	2007	45
B.B. King	1956	2000	44
Bob Dylan	1962	2006	44
Steve Winwood	1965	2008	43
Eric Clapton	1964	2006	42
George Harrison	1962	2002	40
James Taylor	1968	2007	39
Robert Plant	1969	2007	38
Joe Walsh	1969	2007	38
David Gilmour	1969	2006	37
Mark Knopfler	1978	2015	37
Bruce Springsteen	1973	2009	36
Tom Petty	1976	2010	34
Rolling Stones	1964	1994	30

OK, the Ringo thing is a bit of a fluke.  I finally saw him live in 2012, and was so happy about it that I bought the tee-shirt and the CD.

I don’t buy everything these folks release, but it’s wonderful that they’re still making great music – the ones that are alive anyway.

Speaking of which, I wonder if Hendrix or Lennon …. oh nevermind.

Let Me Roll It

Imagine one of those cheesy TV commercials that sell a product of dubious worth applied to Paul McCartney (whose worth is anything but dubious, just to be clear).

Paul McCartney!  Legendary partner of John Lennon!  Cornerstone of the greatest rock band of all time!  One of the best bass players in the history of music!  Inspired songwriter!  Iconic singer!  Idol to generations!  Excellent pianist!

But Wait!  There’s more!  Paul McCartney was also a gifted guitarist!

Check out these gems from Guitar World’s McCartney’s Top 6 Guitar Solos with The Beatles.

Yep!  Paul had some pretty good chops on the guitar too.  One talented dude.

Let It Be

Message to Sir Paul McCartney:  I’ve read the recent Esquire Interview, and you should just leave it alone, man.

You’re adored.  You’re respected.  But it's not a contest.  It shouldn't be a contest.  The magic was the 4 of you.  You'll all different.  4 amazing individuals who created one special thing.

Since the breakup you’ve been great.  Terrific.  Wonderful.  But you don’t have anything to prove, and you can’t compete against a ghost.

Just let it be, man.  To Hell with what Yoko said or did.  It's not a contest.

The Simplest Things Set Me Off Again

Have a listen to My Brave Face.  What a great, catchy pop tune.

Maybe with a little help from Elvis Costello, but Paul still had it as late as 1989. 

Check that.  Listen to No Other Baby.  He still had it as late as 1999.  Ya, I know he didn’t write the tune, but he still knew how to rock and roll.

No wait!  Listen to Dance Tonight.  Pure joy, in 2007.  And with or without Kanye’s help, the man still has it.

Almost Fab

Speaking of songs that shoulda been recorded by The Beatles, there have been quite a few down through the years that engendered a “that’s a Beatles tune” reaction.  For me, anyway.

Sometimes it’s the melody, sometimes the chords, or the overall feel, or the sound of the singer’s voice.  It can vary.  It happened a lot in 70-71 when I was, like many (most?) people, still ticked about their breakup.

Examples include:

Cheap Trick’s If You Want My Love You Got It

Argent’s Hold Your Head Up

Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, and his Steeler’s Wheel’s Stuck In The Middle With You

America’s Goldenhair – guess that was the George Martin production?

Yes’s Love Will Find A Way

Pretty much everything by Badfinger

Then of course, you had the solo work by the four fabs.  On the stronger songs, you couldn’t help but wish for a better backup band.  Well, I couldn’t anyway.

You Won’t Find A Better Loser

Some people think Bell Bottom Blues is a wonderful song, one of Clapton’s best.  Many people think it’s rubbish.

I happen to be in the former camp, but I kinda get why some people don’t like it too much.  Even though I enjoy it, it can come across somewhat unsettling, like something’s not quite right. 

Well, 40+ years later, I think I’ve finally put my finger on it:  it’s performed by the wrong band.  Instead of Derek and the Dominoes, it should be a Beatles record, with John singing, and Paul doing the harmony.  Clapton is guesting, as is Billy Preston.  George and Ringo make their presence known, tastefully as always.

Can you picture it – I mean hear it?  Nice, eh?

The Fab Archives

Why is it that we seem to get some “new” Hendrix material every few years, but we can’t get access to old Beatles material?

Rolling Stone’s Six Best Out of Print Beatles Releases nicely illustrates that there is some great stuff out there we should have.  Some concert footage, some TV appearances, all the videos the made.  Some of it maybe not so great, but some of it vintage Beatles magic.

I remember watching Around The Beatles when it aired in Canada and it was pure joy from start to finish, so I won’t argue with Rolling Stone’s argument that they should all be brought back.  When I watch Anthology, I certainly wish that their dozens of TV performances could be brought together in a package.  And I’ve heard enough snippets to know the Christmas Album would be a treat.  And, as for The Beatles Video Collection?  There’s just no excuse.

But returning to Anthology, there’s enough of Let It Be captured there to remind how painful it was to watch that movie when it came out in 1970.  I don’t think I could do it again.

But bring the rest of it back, please.  How about a ‘Beatles Best Concert Performances’ DVD?  How about a ‘Beatles on TV’ DVD?  Come on, lawyers, go git ‘er done.

I Stand Alone

Gibson’s 10 Great One-Man-Band Albums reminds us just how freakin’ talented some cats are.  Write the tunes, play all the instruments, produce it, mix it … sheesh!

Prince (we’ll call him Prince today), Dave Grohl, Steve Winwood, John Fogerty, Todd Rundgren – oh, and this English knight called Paul McCartney.  These guys stand as giants, even when performing as members of their respective bands.

Then they go and demonstrate that they might not actually need the help.  Hats off to ‘em, I say.

Rock is full of huge talents whose creative force drove not just the songwriting but the studio production – guys like Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Pete Townshend, for example.  But they don’t stand on their own.  They need the presence of – not to mention the chemistry with – other musicians.

By the way, where is Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions?

Tune In

Going back to the Hunter Davies book, I have read a lot about The Beatles.  A lot.

But this new book, All These Years (Volume 1), by Mark Lewisohn, is nothing short of amazing.  After a lifetime of listening, watching, playing and reading, you’d think you’d get to the point where you know it all.

Wrong.

The plot doesn’t change, of course.  But with 800 pages that only get you to the end of 1962, this book is dense.  Fascinating additional details, wonderful new insights, and more than a few myths exploded.

Can’t wait for the next volume.

Remember I’ll Always Be True

Well, along with a big bunch of other people, I’ll be watching the 50^th anniversary tribute of The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan when it airs this Sunday.  And along with what I suspect will be a healthy majority of ‘em, I’ll have my fingers crossed that it’s not too corny, schmaltzy or over-done.  Unlikely, but it is possible.

But whether I shed tears of nostalgic joy or wince in embarrassment, I’ll tell you this:  aside from being born, The Beatles are the single biggest fact of my life.

I’m not talking about teenybopper infatuation, mindless celebrity idolization, or stalker-like obsession.  The Beatles tapped into something bigger than themselves, something enervating, life giving, transcendent – and it touched millions of us in profound ways.

Friends, teachers, work colleagues – even family – come and go.  Many earned my respect, gratitude and love.  Some influenced my thinking, and who I became.  A few provided excellent role models.  The Beatles did something even bigger: they defined my culture.

I was two months shy of my tenth birthday on February 9, 1964, and a week or so short of sixteen when Paul announced that The Beatles had broken up.  So growing up, they were a dominant news item, the biggest positive, a cosmic force.  The Space Program, Civil Rights, Vietnam, pending nuclear Armageddon  … they were all out there.  But for many of us, these things were only visible and understood through music and pop culture, which was dominated by The Beatles.  They were the lens through which we watched the world.  They were the shoes we would put on so we could walk in it.

Sometimes what The Beatles did was sad.  Sometimes it was embarrassing, even painful.  But mostly they were joyful and they were always magical.  They changed all of us, and their impact is still being felt.

As Bob Wooler wrote in the very first article ever written about The Beatles (in Mersey Beat on August 31, 1961), “I don’t think anything like them will happen again.”

Sweet Jam

Further to that last post on The Charlatans, if you go back to the references you get one awesome jam session:  John, Paul, George, Ringo, Mick, Keef and Stevie Winwood.

Woulda got some sweet sounds out of that supersession!

This Hell I Live In

With apologies to Mssrs. Lennon, McCartney, Winwood, Waters, Gilmour, Springsteen, Johnson and Anonymous …

The five saddest songs ever written are actually all in Les Miserables.