Happy Friday from Macca!

Was Paul the proto-hipster/indie popster?

Brandish (the site where I found the image above) thinks so.

Excerpt:

Fast forward over forty years and there is a growing number of both critics and fans that rate Ram as the very best post Beatles solo album. Macca had in Ram delivered the template for much of what we now know as indie pop. It is all there; twee pop (Uncle Albert), folky acoustic strumming (Ram On), re-inventing the Beach Boys (Dear Boy), power pop (Too Many People). Music that delights in big melodies and that wears it tweeness as a badge of honour.

But also take a look at this pic. Macca wasn’t only light years ahead in his music,. He also delivered the template for men’s hipster fashion in 2013. Unkempt beard – check, Fair-isle jumper – check, retro camera -check, ironic tea drinking – check.

. . .

I'd add that, even before Ram, Paul was setting the stage for the independent music scene. McCartney, his solo debut, is very much a homespun, DIY affair. Or, expanding the scope of the inquiry, how about "The White Album" as a whole, with its kaleidoscopic variety and fizzy currents of whimsy? There's likely a compelling case to be made that it helped give birth to much of what falls under the rubric of indie pop.

Weekend viewing and reading

Viewing:

- Watch Paul - along with Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Phil Collins, George Martin, and other legends - play a sizable chunk of the Abbey Road medley at a benefit show back in 1997.

- Here's Why Don't We Do It in the Road, a five-minute documentary about the most storied zebra crossing in world history.

- Lastly, another snippet from the behind-the-scenes feature that accompanies the Help! Blu-ray release. Spoiler: The Beatles were naughty potheads in the mid-Sixties.

____________

Reading:

- "1963: The Year the Beatles Found Their Voice"

Excerpt: In 1963, the Beatles were exploding in England. Their debut LP, Please Please Me, came out in March, followed by their megahit single “She Loves You” in August. Their second album, With the Beatles, and another hit single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” followed in the fall. Screaming girls, throngs of fans, bushels of albums being sold—this was when it all started. But the Beatles were also a veritable human jukebox that year. One of their many commitments was to turn up semi-regularly at the BBC, horse around on air, read requests, make fun of each other, make fun of the presenter, and play live versions of whatever people wanted to hear, whether that was their own material or a vast range of covers: Elvis Presley numbers; obscure rhythm-and-blues songs by lost-to-time bands like the Jodimars; Broadway show tunes; Americana; vamps on Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry; rearrangements of girl-group cuts; torch songs. If you wanted to hear what made the Beatles the Beatles, here is where you would want to start.

- More on that same topic here.

Excerpt: Well, I think people like to focus on [Sgt.] Pepper from '67, maybe Rubber Soul from '65 or Revolver from '66. But if you wanted to know what The Beatles liked, what they listened to, what they were trying to become and, in large part, who they already were and who they would be, the '63 BBC recordings would be your one-stop shopping destination. When they tackled ... a crucial rock 'n' roll text like Elvis' "That's All Right, Mama," you can hear that they keep elements of the past — that burnished country tone that Elvis' band excelled at — but they've added a sort of stomping, northern soul element to it. So they're really overhauling the past.

Macca on "The Colbert Report"

Still in catch-up mode and still wondering why Paul decided to add "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" to his live arsenal. It should have stayed dusty and moth-eaten. Beyond that, the performances, as well as the interview, are terrific. (If the video is removed or doesn't work, go here.)

Catching up on Beatles news

A thousand apologies for the lengthy absence from this space. I'll try to resume semi-regular blogging starting now. Below is a news round-up from my time away.

- Paul will appear on The Colbert Report this Wednesday for an hour-long music special. Colbert: "I think this McCartney kid’s got something special and I’m gonna put him on the map!"

- In Memphis for a gig late last month, Macca visited Graceland for the first time and left a memento at Elvis' grave.

- From Rolling Stone's review of the Wings Over America re-issue: "There’s something daft and touching about how McCartney strives for band democracy: Whenever Denny Laine sings lead, you can almost hear the fans stampede for their bathroom weed break. Here's a better, more detailed appraisal. And here are some streaming tracks from the triple album. And video. Ah, the Seventies!

- The news that John felt some shame over his spell as a radical activist is not news at all. It's been well documented for years. The more interesting part of this story deals with John's desire near the end of his life to return to Liverpool. He "wanted to sail into the city on board luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2 as his fans lined the shore."

- Photograph, a collection of pictures that Ringo took on tour and in the studio as a Beatle, is being released in e-book form on June 12th and in (laughably overpriced) physical form next December.

- June 1st was the 46th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's. In her infinite wisdom, The Gray Lady sneered at it.

- It's a staple of "How The Beatles Impacted History" journalism: Yes, The Beatles won the Cold War. I love this detail: "A widely held fantasy that Woodhead (an ex-British spy turned filmmaker who traveled throughout Soviet Russia) heard over and over was that the Beatles landed in the USSR to play an impromptu concert on the wing of their tour airplane on their way to Japan. The Soviet city would change in each telling but people sincerely believed that this undocumented performance happened."

- A guitar played by John and George was recently auctioned off for $408,000.

- Help! is coming to Blu-ray later this month.

Happy Friday from Paul (and Harold)!

(Image source: BBC)

From The Daily Mail:

His band The Beatles are arguably the most famous musical group of all time.

But on Tuesday night, Paul McCartney was more about the grasshoppers as he found his stage invaded by a swarm of the insects during a concert in Goiania, Brazil.

The 70-year-old musician was forced to complete his three-hour performance as clouds of the Esperanca Grilo creatures buzzed around him.

However, animal-lover Macca appeared unfazed by the stage intrusion as he pushed through and delighted the 47,000 crowd with his songs.

Sir Paul even introduced one of the little grasshoppers as Harold during a performance of hit song Hey Jude.

As he sang the track, Sir Paul turned to Harold as he sang the words 'the movement you need is on your shoulder', adding 'it certainly is now'.

Paul's "Out There" playlist

When a Beatles song is played live for the first time, it's no minor event. Last Saturday, at the kickoff to his "Out There" world tour in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Paul debuted not just one but four: "All Together Now," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!," (a curious choice, no?*) "Lovely Rita," and "Your Mother Should Know." Also included on the setlist were "Eight Days a Week," which The Beatles performed live just once back in 1965, and "Another Day" (Paul's solo-years answer to "Eleanor Rigby"), which had been absent from his concert repertoire since 1993. Kudos for the variety, Sir Macca.

*I say this because 1) the lumpy and un-melodic "Kite!" isn't exactly begging for a live treatment; and 2) While Paul occasionally performs material written by other Beatles (in this instance, John), it's usually done explicitly as a tribute, and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

"Eight Days a Week"

Rock Family Trees - The Mersey Sound

To learn about the rapid rise and fall of Liverpool's Merseybeat scene, "the first truly authentic British contribution to pop history," watch the documentary below.

(If the video is removed, go here.)