I can't find it for the life of me -- this new search function is bringin' me down -- but there was a thread a while back about songs that people thought sounded "McCartneyesque," and so I saved the lot of them because I thought, as a working producer, that if I ever got the chance to work with Paul, I would propose a double-album called Is It Me?

Disc 1 would consist of Paul and several Paul soundalike vocalists (and I'm not talking Paul plus every tribute act ever, I mean "name" people like Andy Partridge ["I'd Like That" is a good example] and others who have been described as sounding close to Paul) performing original material written by Paul, both classic and new, same production style, same everything, and you have to guess whether or not it's Paul on lead. Think The Art of McCartney, but with the added fun of a guessing game.

Disc 2 would consist solely of Paul, but it would be he and his band recording their own arrangements of songs that were classically tagged as "McCartneyesque." If you were ever confused about whether or not it was a Paul tune, it'd be on there so now you weren't wrong! And for my potential track list, I filched a lot of ideas from that thread. I'll toss a few in here when I can find the list.

Guys, I've been hearing rumors about a legends package tour -- McCartney and Best! "The Best of McCartney" is the joke billing they've been kicking around the office. Won't it be great to see them together again?

Oh jeez, this is easy: Jim Steinman. Classically trained, started in theater (with a sensational rock opera he wrote and starred in at uni called Dream Engine, which stunned Joe Papp, founder of the NY Shakespeare Festival), transitioned into rock/pop and became the defining legend of "piano rock" and the "power ballad," and composer/producer of such hits as: [list] [*] Bat Out of Hell (wrote every song on this legendary Meat Loaf album, including "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad"; the album went on to sell 44 million copies) [*] Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell (wrote and produced this album, including "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)," for Meat in 1993; the album went on to sell 26 million copies) [*] "Total Eclipse of the Heart" [*] "Making Love (Out of Nothing at All)" [*] Falling Into You (a Celine Dion album, which Jim produced and for which he wrote "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (winner of the 1997 BMI Song of the Year Award); this album won a Grammy for Album of the Year) [/list:u] His music has appeared in films such as Footloose, Streets of Fire, The Shadow and Mask of Zorro. He also transitioned back into theater in the 90s, and worked on projects such as Whistle Down the Wind (wrote the lyrics to Andrew Lloyd Webber's music), Tanz der Vampire (music; now in its 16th year selling out in Europe), Bat Out of Hell: The Musical (being readied currently for production; wrote the script, music and lyrics), and Nutcracked (lyrics, set to a heavy metal version of the Tchaikovsky score). Oh, wait, I forgot to mention he plays piano too. Examples:

No one's trying to change your mind, I agree. But I ask you, Jen... ...are you a lonely man in the middle of something that he doesn't really understand?

Miss Patti Russo! Covers and Side Gigs

Top 5, last to first: 5. Danny Miranda 4. Kasim Sulton 3. John Entwistle 2. Jack Bruce 1. Paul McCartney

My favorite guitarist, hands down, is Pat Thrall. Don't know who he is? Let me enlighten you as to some of his credits... [list] [*] Sly & Robbie [*] Jack Bruce [*] Little Steven [*] Steve Winwood [*] Automatic Man (their work voted one of the Best 20 Albums of All Time by the Los Angeles Times, 1991) [*] The Pat Travers Band (three albums and the hit single "Boom, Boom (Out Go The Lights)") [*] Tina Turner (Foreign Affair, including the signature riff on "The Best") [*] Meat Loaf [*] Asia (Asia - Live in Moscow) [*] Curtis Stigers (Curtis Stigers) [*] Hughes/Thrall (with ex-Deep Purple bass player and singer Glenn Hughes) [/list:u]

He doesn't get a lot of credit (he's mainly a studio guy, and the bulk of his live career has been with one artist), but John "The Hammer" Miceli is amazing.

Well, let me explain it this way: The song is "Maybe I'm Amazed." Not "Maybe Paul's Amazed" or "Maybe He's Amazed," but "Maybe I'm Amazed." It's an intensely personal song from Paul to Linda expressing his amazement at the depth of her love for him. But it's not Paul-specific. The song's narrator is a person, period, expressing amazement. Now, the way Paul wrote it, the narrator is a man, to be specific, "a lonely man who's in the middle of something that he doesn't really understand," and maybe his lover is "the only woman that could ever help [him]... understand." But the sentiment is not strictly limited to men. I've heard many women be incredibly amazed at the depth of a man's love for them. I've also known many women who would be uncomfortable or offended if someone referred to them (in song or otherwise) as a man. Two or three little words don't change the main thrust of the song: the narrator's disbelief and amazement at the love pouring out of the person supporting them. It's a tribute to that love. Whether it's coming from a man or coming from a woman, it's the same story no matter the pronoun. She's not hurting the song by doing it. She's not hurting Paul either; it's not like she's Madonna changing a handful of words in a song and demanding co-author credit and copyright (but that's a gripe for another thread :wink. It's just a different spin, a different perspective. So, what would you rather hear from a woman singing the song? That she's a lonely man in the middle of something that she doesn't really understand? Or would you rather she personalize it and offer the woman's perspective? I say, if a woman's singing it, she's "a lonely woman in the middle of something that she doesn't really understand." (Personally, though, I'd go for a rewrite that stuck more closely to the melody, as with the Gadget White Band's cover for the Coming Up compilation: "Maybe I'm amazed / Maybe I'm lonely and I'm in the middle of something / That I don't really understand / Maybe I'm amazed / And you're the only one who could ever help me...") Just my tuppence.

kapoo:

juuuust like a willow tree breath of spring you see and yo girl you don't know what you do to me! ya make me sweat and forget who I am sweet sweet, sweet sweet, yeah!

"Surprise, Surprise" right? He wrote that one about May Pang. Good try, though.