Posts made by Bruce M.

On a semi-related note, has anyone here seen "A Mighty Wind"? It features most of the Spinal Tap gang, directed by Christopher Guest, but this time the target is early sixties folk music, and it's bleeping hysterical.

@yankeefan2 said in McCartney writes first musical, stage version of...:

@bruce-m

Sadly, I think the show will never be produced. You know better than me about the business angle of putting on a Broadway/West End show and I just don't see anybody trying to put it together. In addition, Paul is not getting any younger so time could be running out for him to be involved in possibly finishing up music for this show if they could get backers. The only way I see this music ever being heard is maybe after Paul has passed away his estate tries to package unreleased music by him in a compilation. Damn COVID !!!

You're very likely right. It's possible some producer out there could be interested and get the thing going again, but there are too many variables to know how likely it might be. For example, I don't think I've seen anything saying how close they are to having a finished script. If they're close, and/or if the writer(s) are still around and interested, it might not be hard to get together if someone is willing to put up the money to do it. On the other hand, if it's just a handful of songs and a very rough outline and the original writer has moved on to other things, we're probably screwed.

Bear in mind also that having a major pop star attached to a Broadway musical is no guarantee of success, as Paul Simon can attest.

@njr said in Wishing for an All-Starkey Band show:

@bruce-m That would be great! I don’t like the song What Goes On though. Would rather hear Photograph. (How could you leave that one off?!)

Simple. I like "What Goes On" better!

@yankeefan2 said in McCartney writes first musical, stage version of...:

@bruce-m

See from an article in 2019 below.

"Out of the blue I got an email from Paul asking my thoughts on his first stab at an opening song. He wasn’t sure – but wanted to know what Lee and I thought of it? I played the demo. Lee and I were unanimous. Our hero was a musical theatre writer!”

Paul was in the middle of releasing his number one album ‘Egypt Station’ in September 2018 as well as launching a global tour to support the album release, but in between touring and album commitments Paul found time to work with Lee Hall on more songs. Both here and in New York.

Bill remembers another moment in January of this year the day after he’d watched Everton lose in an FA Cup match at Millwall. He was inconsolable – but Lee rang him from the airport after working with Paul in New York and brought over a further six tracks in demo form. His gloom started to lift…

“They exceeded expectations for both of us. The songs take you somewhere you don’t expect to go. They sound simple – but it’s deceptive. That’s Paul’s genius. I don’t have to tell any lover of music how extraordinary he is – but he constantly takes my breath away. Since we worked together on the The Pitmen Painters Lee has been a special writer and person to me. And it’s a privilege to watch Paul and Lee create so vibrantly together.”

I so want to hear these songs, even if the show never gets produced.

Ringo's obviously been quite comfortable with the All-Starr Band format, in which he's as much emcee as performer, with a lot of time devoted to the various guest stars. But that's meant we don't get much of a selection of Ringo's music in the show -- typically most of the Beatles songs he sang lead on, a couple of hits from his early solo career, and maybe one or two new or newish songs. Though it'll never happen, I'd love an all-Starkey show, something like this:

Back Off Boogaloo
Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go
La Di Da
Missouri Loves Company
What Goes On
Shadows on the Wall
Oh My My
Weight of the World
Free Drinks
Miss Jean
Octopus's Garden
Stop and Smell the Roses
Rewind Forward
Bamboola
Act Naturally
Walk with You (bring on Paul to do harmonies!)
Memphis in Your Mind
No No Song
Goodnight Vienna
Boys
With a Little Help from My Friends

Encores:
Yellow Submarine
It Don't Come Easy

@love2travel said in McCartney writes first musical, stage version of...:

@yankeefan2
So sad to hear the news. Hopefully someone will continue on with it.

That's possible, but probably not likely. Broadway musicals are big, expensive, financially risky undertakings. This may be one of those things we hear nothing more about until Paul has passed on. I wonder if there are demos of the songs? I imagine there must be.

@toris said in What albums do you listen to most?:

@njr said in What albums do you listen to most?:

@toris I still have THREE working VHS players! I have a boatload of stuff I recorded off the TV about the Beatles! (since 1983 until about 2018 I stopped) Some I’ve replaced over the years with professional VHS tapes, then DVDs when they came out (like The Anthology) My friend Jennifer makes DVDs for me of stuff she gets from a friend. Every Christmas I get a nice surprise. She says I don’t have to get her anything, but I’m getting her the new Rolling Stones album that Paul is on. (You think I’M a completist? She is the ultimate completist!) Her mom is getting her the Dolly Parton album that Paul & Ringo are on!

Was I dreaming, or did I just last night listen to Let it Be, by Dolly, with Paul and Ringo on there?... I fluked it, on my You Tube journey.... I love You Tube!.... I've got my Anthology... cost me heaps on VHS. No longer viable. Of course, I replaced it on DVD. I just hope DVDs don't get made obsolete any time soon!... ps. Dolly was good.

It's from Dolly's new album, Rockstar, which has a whole bunch of guest stars besides Paul and Ringo -- Debbie Harry, Steven Tyler, John Fogerty, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett and many more. It's gotten mixed reviews, but at least a couple have been really positive.

@yankeefan2 said in Find My Way played at soundcheck:

@bruce-m

I don't think it is "whining" to wish Paul did some of his excellent songs from his solo albums in concert no matter how long we have been wishing he would do it. I would think most artists would take it as a complement that people wanted to hear their latest music instead of just songs from their famous group.

I am hoping Paul would sing songs from his latest album so he should be able to sing those songs - lol. It is not like I am asking him to sing "Back Seat Of My Car" - ha ha.

Paul couldn't care less what anybody wants to hear unless it is a song from the Beatles or Wings. He should want to tweak his setlist even at 81 to play songs from his latest album. First, it is playing something different which his band and maybe himself might enjoy. Second, he can sing these songs because he recorded them only a couple of years ago with the same quality of voice he has now. Third, "Find My Way" is a quality upbeat song and even if you don't know it, I think you could still enjoy it. Yes, it is wonderful that Paul is alive and making music but isn't the point of making music is getting people to hear it. What better way to do that than to play these newer songs to thousands of people.

On the contrary, his whole philosophy -- stated over and over again in multiple interviews -- is to give the audience what he thinks they want to hear. The problem is that the audience he's talking about isn't us, it's the casual/nostalgia fans who love the Beatles and Band on the Run and wouldn't know Find My Way or Friends to Go from the proverbial hole in the ground. Unfortunately, those folks outnumber us. For whatever reason, Paul seems to have given up using his tours as any sort of serious effort to market his new music.

@gordy-js said in Find My Way played at soundcheck:

Surprised that this wasn’t put in place of Come On To Me when Got Back started! It’s a much better song

While I'm not really a fan of McCartney III, I like Find My Way and wish he would play it and Women And Wives, my other favorite track from the album. I think he plays Come on to Me because it's his closest thing to a radio hit (cracking the top 10 on both the Triple A and Adult Contemporary airplay charts in the U.S.), though for my money it's one of the weakest tracks on Egypt Station.

But ya know what? At 81, Paul's not going to change his set lists because we whine about them. And, sadly, his voice couldn't pull off a lot of the songs I'd most love to hear him play. That's life. At this point, I'm just grateful he and Ringo are still alive and making music.

@john-mackintosh said in What albums do you listen to most?:

Re: What albums do you listen to most?

In recent times, Egypt Station and McCartney III.

Timeless favorites include Band on the Run, Tug of War, Flaming Pie, Chaos. Nice how one is from each decade starting with BOTR for the 70s, Tug of War 80s, etc.

I would rate EgyptStation his best since Chaos.

Any rumors of when the next studio album will emerge?

We know Paul's been recording with Andrew Watt, who produced the new Rolling Stones album. But how close it is to being done, much less released, seems unclear from what I've seen.

Leaving aside the Beatles, what Paul albums do you listen to most? I ask this because, at least for me, "listen to most" doesn't necessarily equal "best." There are albums I admire tremendously but am only in the mood to listen to every once in a while. A non-Paul example is the original cast recording of "Sweeney Todd." It's absolutely stunning, but it's intense and does not work at all as background music, so I pull it out every few years and am blown away.

Among Paul albums, I objectively think Band on the Run is better than Venus and Mars, yet I've always listened to Venus and Mars more. So, the approximate ranking of Paul/Wings albums I've listened to most over the years looks something like:

Top tier (have listened to a gazillion times and really have never stopped): Tug of War, Venus and Mars

2nd tier (listen a lot, but not quite as much as the above and occasionally with long gaps for the older albums): Chaos, Egypt Station (likely to make top tier in a couple years), Flaming Pie, Memory Almost Full, Run Devil Run.

After that there's a whole bunch I listen to occasionally but not all that frequently. And finally...

Bottom tier (almost never listen and wouldn't be too upset if they'd never existed, especially if 1 or 2 favorite tracks could somehow be preserved): McCartney II, Pipes of Peace, Press to Play, Wild Life, McCartney III

What's your list?

@jimmix said in Paul McCartney Says He Used AI to Produce a “Final” Beatles Song:

The Beatles Make More Hot 100 History as ‘Now and Then’ Debuts in Top 10

This is about what I expected. It will probably drop next week as -- like all geezer acts -- the song's biggest appeal is to old fans, who all rushed out and bought/streamed it it like crazy the first week. But hey, they set a record and I'm good with that.

ICYMI, "Now and Then" is the official no. 1 song in the UK. Billboard's U.S. chart doesn't come out till n ext week.

The world isn't always one or the other, black or white. It's entirely possible John wrote this thinking of Yoko, but at some point also thought, "Some of this could be about Paul, too." Since the thing was an unfinished work in progress, he may never have talked about it in detail to anyone. But I think there's little doubt Paul took some of the lines as being at least partly about him.

@oobu24 said in Setlists:

@yankeefan2 I've seen that show before & it was fantastic. He sure was in good voice.

Yes, if I recall right, PBS aired it in the U.S. It was great.

@toris said in Paul McCartney Says He Used AI to Produce a “Final” Beatles Song:

@bruce-m said in Paul McCartney Says He Used AI to Produce a “Final” Beatles Song:

Something I haven't seen remarked on (though maybe I've just missed it): The cassette with John's demo of "Now and Then" was in an envelope he'd marked, "For Paul." We'll never know what John was thinking when he wrote the sone, but it certainly could certainly be taken as a message to Paul. Given that it was written at a time when they were getting along better after a few difficult years, that intuitively makes sense.

Now imagine you're Paul McCartney. After being traumatized by your close friend's death and having written a song, "Here Today," that was in essence a deeply personal letter to John, a dozen years later you hear John's voice from beyond the grave singing astonishingly similar sentiments, apparently addressed to you. I don't know about you, but if I were Paul I think I'd have cried for a week.

No wonder he was so determined to get this out into the world.

I also thought the song might have been written for Paul, cos of the handwritten envelope "For Paul". And the lyrics fit beautifully well with that sentiment. I have read elsewhere that it was a song for Yoko, but I don't think the critics know. I'd like to think it was for Paul. It does make sense. John tucked the demo away, didn't revisit it for Double Fantasy because those songs were for Yoko (and Sean). Not including Now and Then. 'Cos it was not written for Yoko? (Then again, he may have just thought the song didn't fit)

So, it could very well have been written to and for Paul. And it makes the song and lyrics even more beautiful.

It's entirely possible John was thinking of both Paul and Yoko when he wrote it -- he'd gone through rough patches with both of them and then reconciled. We'll never know. But I'd bet everything I own that Paul heard it as a message to him, and it's not unreasonable that he did.

Something I haven't seen remarked on (though maybe I've just missed it): The cassette with John's demo of "Now and Then" was in an envelope he'd marked, "For Paul." We'll never know what John was thinking when he wrote the sone, but it certainly could certainly be taken as a message to Paul. Given that it was written at a time when they were getting along better after a few difficult years, that intuitively makes sense.

Now imagine you're Paul McCartney. After being traumatized by your close friend's death and having written a song, "Here Today," that was in essence a deeply personal letter to John, a dozen years later you hear John's voice from beyond the grave singing astonishingly similar sentiments, apparently addressed to you. I don't know about you, but if I were Paul I think I'd have cried for a week.

No wonder he was so determined to get this out into the world.

@yankeefan2 said in Setlists:

@toris

Paul is fantastic covering 50's rock and his vocals on RDR were fantastic. The Beatles did 50's songs in their shows and Paul has also done them when toured in 1989 and 1993. I personally love 50's rocker like "Long Tall Sally" and that is why I added it to my "dream" set list replacements. Thought it was fantastic that Paul's original songs on RDR fit in so well with the 50's cover songs he did on the album including the title song RDR. Too each their own -lol

I love Paul doing flat-out rock 'n' roll, and his ability to channel Little Richard is wondrous. I don't think he could do justice to most of the songs on "Run Devil Run" now, including the title song, but I would have loved to see a show with those songs in it when he was a bit younger.

Oh, and in its first day, "Now and Then" made its first impression on the rock airplay chart, per Billboard.

The video chokes me up for sure. After a few listens to the song, I've come to understand that this record is a love letter from Paul and Ringo to John and George, and to the whole era of The Beatles. It's John singing, :And if I make it through/It's all because of you ... I miss you," but it's also Paul and Ringo, knowing they too are nearing the end of their lives, saying this to their fallen comrades.