Paul McCartney

All posts tagged Paul McCartney

James Paul McCartney TV Special – Forty Years Ago Today (1973)

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on July 1, 2013
Posted in: Monday Music Matinee, Rock History. Tagged: . 1 Comment

James Paul McCartney

Today’s Monday Music Matinee #14 is a Paul McCartney TV special from Forty Years Ago (1973). As captured in Wikipedia the show was broken up into 11 parts….

Part 1
The program opens with a live performance by Wings in front of an audience of television screens.
Song: “Big Barn Bed”

Part 2
An acoustic medley of songs is performed by McCartney during a photographic session with his wife Linda as the photographer.
Songs: “Blackbird”, “Bluebird”, “Michelle”, “Heart of the Country”

Part 3
A short music video style performance set in an outdoor location of McCartney’s version of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.
Songs: “Mary Had a Little Lamb”

Part 4
A television studio performance with Wings and orchestra in front of a live audience.
Songs: “Little Woman Love”, “C Moon”, “My Love”

Part 5
Another music video segment, this time for “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, however the “Admiral Halsey” section was not included in the final broadcast version.
Songs: “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”

Part 6
A short voice-over from Mcartney introduces the next segment set in the Clelsea Reach public house near Liverpool. This features members of Paul’s family and Wings in a pub singalong
Songs: “April Showers”, “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag”, “You Are My Sunshine”

Part 7
A Busby Berkeley style musical number, featuring dancers dressed in half-man/half-woman costumes.
Songs: “Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance”

Part 8
A music video segment were Paul introduces “Live And Let Die”, the title theme from the 1973 James Bond movie.
Songs: “Live and Let Die”

Part 9
Beatles Medley: a filmed segment with street passers-by singing various Beatles songs (off key) to comedic effect.
Songs: “When I’m 64”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “She Loves You”, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, “Yesterday”, “Yellow Submarine”

Part 10
Another live studio performance with Wings.
Songs: “The Mess”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Long Tall Sally” (US broadcast only; the UK and other European market replaced this with “Hi, Hi, Hi”)

Part 11
A live acoustic performance of “Yesterday”. Credits roll over the performance.
Songs: “Yesterday”.

The critics hated it saying it was over the top and silly. And I say…..well let’s have Paul say it in his own words……

You’d think that people would have had enought of silly love songs.
But I look around me and I see it isn’t so.
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.
And what’s wrong with that?

Two’fer Tuesday – Mary Had A Little Lamb/Working Class Hero

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on February 19, 2013
Posted in: Protest Songs, Response Songs, Rock History, Two'fer Tuesday. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Coming Soon

I have been promising to produce a series on American Protest Music for months and I am just about ready to roll it out.  What better way to get us in the mood than to cover a couple of post-Beatles protest songs from Paul McCartney and John Lennon for our Two’fer Tuesday post this week.

First up is a strange little protest song from Paul McCartney and Wings called Mary Had A Little Lamb.

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Nope….I’m not kidding, Paul released this little ditty in 1972 as a protest against the BBC (the cover for the single is shown above).  Let’s listen and then I will give you the rest of the story…..

You might be asking how Mary Had A Little Lamb became a protest song?  Well, Wing’s previous single, another protest song called Give Ireland Back To the Irish, was banned from the BBC.  Paul wrote and released Mary Had A Little Lamb in protest of the banning of Give Ireland Back To the Irish.  His thought process was that he would write a silly little song, one that the BBC couldn’t possibly ban, that everyone would know was making fun of the BBC ban of Give Ireland Back To The Irish.  Response to the song was mixed but I personally think that it was a brilliant move!  Believe it or not, the song rose to #9 on the singles charts.  As a bonus, let’s listen to Give Ireland Back To The Irish……

John’s song, Working Class Hero, was much more serious, as usual!  Working Class Hero was written as a protest of the inequalities of modern social classes and the ways that society works to make people not think about/protest these inequalities (Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see).  As I noted, this was not a silly little ditty…..let’s listen….

I personally think this was John’s most powerful song in his post-Beatles solo career.  We will revisit it’s message as part of the upcoming American Protest Music series.

As always, let me know what you think!

Favorite Holiday Songs #s 18 and 19 – John and Paul

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on December 8, 2012
Posted in: Holiday Songs. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

I missed yesterdays’ post….sorry.  Dealing with some family and work issues.

Today’s post is a “twofer” to get us caught up.

So…..the question that has been asked for years applies to this post.  Do you like John or Paul better?

In this case I have to say I prefer John!

For your special surprise gift today….some Beatles Christmas silliness from December 1967.  Enjoy……

RIP John and George!

Album Of The Week #4

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on May 28, 2012
Posted in: Album Of The Week. Tagged: . Leave a comment

You got a small introduction to the Ram album yesterday with our discussion of Too Many People as it related to the on-going feud between Paul McCartney and John Lennon.  Today, we feature Ram as our album of the week.  I mentioned yesterday that Too Many People was my second favorite song from the album…let’s listen to my favorite.

OK….I know this is a silly little ditty but what can I say.  I liked it in 1971 and I still like it today, no apologies on my part.

In general, Ram was not initially very well received by the critics (or by the other Beatles who all seemed to chime in with disparaging remarks) but opinions seem to have changed over time.  As noted on Paul’s website: “Despite an initially lukewarm Rolling Stone review, it was later hailed by them as one of his best solo albums.  As I have said many times in the past, who really cares what the critics think…all that really matters is whether you like it or not.  So…here is the entire album.  Take a listen and let me know what you think.

By the way, if you are lucky enough to have some spare change laying around you might want to checkout a deluxe book edition of Ram that was released this month with 4 CDs, a DVD, and a book.  In the US it goes for around $90 (US) so I don’t think I will be getting it.  If any of you buy it, let the rest of us know what you think.

Response Songs #3 – McCartney vs Lennon

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on May 27, 2012
Posted in: Response Songs. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Paul and Linda McCartney released Ram in 1971 during the height of the litigations that were on-going as a result of the Beatles break up.

There was no, doubt, a lot of  bad blood especially between Paul and John.  Paul has admitted to taking a couple of shots at John in Too Many People from the Ram album.  The specific lyrics in question are as follows:

“You Took Your Lucky Break And Broke It In Two”

“Too Many People Preaching Practices”

The meaning of the first line clearly refers to the breakup of the Beatles, while the second line refers to what Paul perceived as John’s overly preachy activism (think of John and Yoko’s Bed In for Peace).  It’s my second favorite song from Ram so let’s take a listen.

In New York John was recording his Imagine album and the lyrics to Too Many People did not go unnoticed.  When Imagine was released it featured responses in two forms.  First, a post card was included in the album with a picture of John holding onto a pig by it’s ears which was clearly mocking the cover of Ram which featured Paul holding onto the horns of a Ram.

The second response was in the form of the scathing lyrics to How Do You Sleep which were clearly aimed at Paul.

“So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother’s eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
You live with straights who tell you you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since you’re gone you’re just another day
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?”

Even after forty years I am still shocked by the bitterness of these lyrics and the personal nature of the attack on Paul.  Let’s listen to the song.

If there was any doubt that the Beatles were really over, this song pretty much sealed the deal.  Just thinking about it today makes me sad all over again.

Stay tuned tomorrow…we will further explore Ram as our Album of the week.

I Got You Covered #2

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on March 8, 2012
Posted in: I Got You Covered. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

The Original (Paul McCartney)

 

The Cover (The Faces)

With no disrespect to Paul McCartney, I love the Faces 1972 cover of his first solo record.  The cover serves to reminds us of: what a powerhouse the Faces were as a band; what a great musician/singer Ronnie Lane was; and what a tragedy it is that we lost him way too early to MS.  Of course Rod’s performance is great as usual.

Speaking of losing Ronnie to MS, you might not be aware that Rod, Ronnie Word, and Jimmy Page paid his medical bills for years. Rod and Ronnie Wood also donated all of their Faces royalties to Ronnie once he got sick.  Musician’s take care of their own and we all have to respect that.  As always let me know that you think.

Who The Fuck Is Paul McCartney

Posted by thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard on February 24, 2012
Posted in: Rock History. Tagged: . 1 Comment

After posting the Beatles rendition of Blackbird I am worried that many of you may be wondering who the fuck is the guy singing the song.  This worry was triggered by the Twitter reaction to Paul McCartney’s appearance on the Grammy’s.  Thanks to the History Channel for putting this video together to answer the question, Who the fuck is Paul McCartney?

http://www.funnyordie.com/embed/8fefc46f1b