I haven't watched the interviews yet but probably will tomorrow night. I'd imagine Ringo will be talking about his tour and maybe they'll even talk about the Beatles. You can watch both parts online at this website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/ Look down the page just a little and you'll see them. With the exception of a very brief commercial at the beginning there are no interruptions as the show is a PBS show. BTW Mr. Smiley is a very good, thoughtful interviewer. Enjoy!
Posts made by KenMac
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Ringos two part interview with Tavis Smiley
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RE: Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre - Oct. 17, 2015 - ARCHIVE
John Mackintosh:
This brings back great memories of my trip across "da boarder" in 2010. It was worth it---Mull of Kintyre after loving that song since it came out. Great place for a concert. Wish I could go again but better stay put, save the money. For those going, I recommend staying at the Westin Harbour Castle that has a wonderful view of Lake Erie and is less than a 10 minutes walk from the ACC. Also, I seem to recall a number of us met at the Loose Moose--They were playing Macca music the whole time we were there so with Side Two of Band on the Run played on the radio, that is a great town to see Macca. As for Mull, wonderful! Wonder if he will use the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band again? Have fun, everyone!
John, just a correction here. Buffalo is on the shores of Lake Erie whereas Toronto is on the shores of Lake Ontario. I'm also wondering, am I the only one actually from Toronto who (might be, depending on the ticket prices) going to the concert? I'm sure we must have other Torontonians on the forum.
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RE: Happy Birthday Paul
Happy 73rd birthday Paul and for goodness sake, PLEASE take good care of your voice. We want you to continue singing for many years to come. Have a great one!
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RE: End of an era - A personal perspective
Here's a link to some really good anecdotes by a person named Daniel Kellison. He started off being a talent co-ordinator for the "Late Night with David Letterman" show then moved with Dave to CBS and the "Late Show". It's a bit of a read but worth it to peruse his anecdotes about Sammy Davis Jr., Drew Barrymore, Julia Child, Sean Connery, Julia Roberts, Madonna, Peter O'Toole and our own Sir Paul. I especially like the "elevator" anecdote about Paul and some special friends that came out of the elevator with him. Just a word of warning, there is some profane language used in the article. http://grantland.com/features/my-letterman-years/
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RE: End of an era - A personal perspective
HaileyMcComet:
I've never paid much attention to him, but I like it when people have passion for something. My opinion is, don't worry about how long a post is. Just say what you have to say.
Thanks Hailey, I've added two more videos from James Corden and Conan O'Brien. I probably should have mentioned that May 20th was his last show. I'll miss him.
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End of an era - A personal perspective
Normally I'm not the type who makes long posts but when I'm passionate about a topic, I tend to get a little on the "word"-y side. I hope you'll read this post and check out at least some of the links I've provided. The first time I saw David Letterman on T.V. wasn't on the Late Show, Late Night or even his short lived morning show but it was when he was guest hosting for the late, great, Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show back in 1979. I'll be honest, at first I wasn't all that taken with him. He seemed like a bit of a smart aleck to me but then when I watched another show later on, I started to realize how funny he actually was and I started to get a sense of what he was about. Dave was the type who mocked the phoniness of show business and did it in a pointed and very humourous way. On the other hand he was equally at home interviewing the biggest celebrities as much as he was with regular people from the audience. When he got his morning show, called "The David Letterman Show", back in 1980 I just had to tune in. All the qualities he exhibited from his Tonight Show guest hosting gigs were there, the intelligence, irreverence and humour along with new comedy pieces. There were two pieces that started on that show that made their way into Late Night and the Late Show, Stupid Pet Tricks and Small Town News. Unfortunately even though critics liked the show, the ratings weren't good for his show. It started off being a 90 minute show then it was later taken down to 60 minutes but even that couldn't save it. Even though it later won two Emmy awards, the morning show lasted 4 months and was cancelled in October of 1980. At this time I didn't know that NBC was still paying him on a weekly basis and were actively trying to find a new show for him. I was disappointed when that show ended but two months after the show was cancelled John Lennon was shot and that weighed heavily on me for awhile. Then in February of 1982, Late Night started up with Dave and his new bandleader Paul Shaffer. The first person you saw on the very first show was the late Calvert DeForest (a.k.a. Larry "Bud" Melman) basically warning you that what you were about to see was scary. At the time they weren't showing it on the Buffalo station which was closer to Toronto and had a better signal so for the first few months I caught it on the Rochester station which sometimes would get poor reception. I finally had a VCR at the time so I thought to myself that I'd better tape this show in case they cancel his show again, but I needn't have worried. For the next 11 years a variety of comedians, actors, authors, musicians and even regular people appeared on the show along with some very funny skits featuring the aforementioned Mr. Melman, Chris Elliot and other cast and crew members along with some crazy stunts that are too numerous to mention. I'm sure people here have their favourites. To say this show was very influential to comedians would be an understatement. Comedians like Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and many others wouldn't have had a career without Daves innovations. As Johnny Carson was winding down the Tonight Show we viewers thought that Dave was a shoe in for the job and like many people I was disappointed when Dave didn't get it as it seemed like such a given. In interviews he'd always say that he didn't want Johnnys job but he later said he was just saying that to be polite. Johnny wanted Dave to be his successor but NBC wanted Jay Leno. In 1993 Dave moved to CBS and started the Late show. Once again the first person we saw on screen was Calvert DeForest as his face was revealed behind the famous eye logo and yelling out, "THIS is CBS!" Of course I can go on and on about the interviews, comedy segments, Top 10 lists and other things that happened over the course of the show but I'm already getting kind of wordy. What I'll do instead is post some links to websites that have things to say about Dave, the show and the staff. Here's a nice piece that was posted by a fellow late night host who was greatly influenced by Dave, Conan O'Brien:
Jimmy Kimmels emotional tribute: Seth Meyers shot by shot re-creation of the original Late Night with David Letterman opening credits: There's no video from the new host of the Late Late Show yet, James Corden, but if something shows up, I'll edit the post and include it. Edit: Here's James Cordens tribute: And finally A nice tribute from Conan O'Brien, who told his viewers to switch over to Daves show: There are two quotes that come to mind right now, "All good things must come to an end." "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." (From Joni Mitchells song "Big Yellow Taxi") And so in the words of David Letterman himself, "Good Night and drive safely." -
RE: Favorite lyrics from the album?
There are lots of good lyrics on the album but the one I like (right now anyway) is also from Everybody Out There and it's my current signature.
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RE: The Pets Thread
It's nice to see everybodys pets. I have three cats and I tend to blather on too much about them so I'll keep this short. Here are their photos. This is my Maine Coon, Samson. He's 6 years old and I got him in January of 2010: Here's my Himalayan, Sassy. She's the oldest at 15 and I got her in March of 2010: Here's my other Maine Coon, Cleo. She's the youngest at 5 and I got her in November of 2012:
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RE: Paul's New Album-- "New"-- CONFIRMED
I just wanted to say while I was over at the supermarket today and waiting in line, what song do you think I heard? Yep, "New". The funny thing was, you know the part where Paul sings "Woo, ooh ooh"? Well a lady behind me starting doing that as well! I'd say that Paul has a hit here.
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RE: NEW PAUL & NIRVANA SONG
Michelley:
Great collaboration. Here's what Spin Magazine wrote about it (and called Paul's set and the new "Sirvana" song the No. 1 and No. 2 most memorable things about the 12/12/12 show:
1. Paul McCartney plays "Helter Skelter," a couple of Wings songs and "Blackbird" before pausing to explain what we all know is coming: "So I showed up like you do, ready to jam, and in the middle of it, these guys kept saying, 'Well, we haven't played together for years.' So you know, the penny finally dropped and I finally understood that I was in the middle of a Nirvana reunion." 2. So he brought in not just Dave Grohl, not only Krist Novoselic, but Pat Smear too, and Sirvana ripped through their one and only (as far as we know) original song which is called "Cut Me Some Slack" (by the way) even though Macca kept howling (awesomely) while holding his own in shredding duels with Novoselic amidst the fantastic pummel laid down by Grohl and Smear on drums and bass, of course. As predicted, the song was indeed heavy. It fr-eaking slayed, in fact, and once it was played, nothing else mattered.
Yeah I saw the video earlier today and it's definitely a rocking song and Paul sounds very good. Incidentally I probably would have called them "NirMacca".
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RE: Paul McCartney - YouTube Videos
zemargla:
KenMac:
zemargla:
One of my favourite "St. Pepper" versions on YouTube. Does anyone know what guitar Paul is playing?
-Yes that's an Ernie Ball/Music Man Albert Lee model. http://www.music-man.com/instruments/guitars/albert-lee.html
Thank you!
You're welcome zemargla.
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RE: Paul McCartney - YouTube Videos
zemargla:
One of my favourite "St. Pepper" versions on YouTube. Does anyone know what guitar Paul is playing?
-Yes that's an Ernie Ball/Music Man Albert Lee model. http://www.music-man.com/instruments/guitars/albert-lee.html
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RE: Paul McCartney - YouTube Videos
I'm sure others in the forum may have seen this but it's a first for me. I was checking out YouTube last night and one of their "recommendations" on the front page was this video:
Maybe Paul should get his own cooking show? -
RE: "Underappreciated Genius."
Wow, I see this thread is still going strong. Happy New Year everybody! I was just reading through it and there are a lot of very good comments here. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the Jim Cuddy interview on the CBC website that Wendy2066 was talking about. I guess I'll try a YouTube search.
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RE: "beatle-esque" songs by different bands
beatlesfanrandy:
Billy Joels' album Nylon Curtain sounds like a lost Beatles album, an homage to them. I always thought My Life sounded like a McCartney song.
Thanks for mentioning Billy Joel. A song that he did on his 1980 "Glass Houses" album, as a matter of fact, the last song entitled "Through The Long Night" sounds like it could have been a Lennon/McCartney song, particularly the Paul part of the equation. I could easily imagine Paul singing this song.
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RE: The Official U2 Thread!
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, U2 are going to be the musical guests *all week* on The Late Show with David Letterman. Yes, that's right, all five nights they'll be performing, presumably 5 different songs from their latest album. Then again it may be 4 new songs and one U2 classic. So if you like U2, check out The Late Show all this week.
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RE: "Underappreciated Genius."
manchester man:
How can a man who has been knighted, plus an MBE, has a place in the Guinness Book of records as the most successful songwriter ever, sold countless millions of records, with umpteen homes and riches beyond anyone's wildest dreams, possibly be described as an under-appreciated genius?
I know it sounds kind of silly but there are still a lot of people out there who take Paul and his music for granted. There's no doubt in my mind that Paul truly is a genius when it comes to songwriting but I think Jim Cuddy was saying that overall people tend to overlook Paul. They dismiss some of his songs as lightweight, "The Frog Song", "Silly Love Songs", "Let "Em In", etc. but look at his latest Fireman album. It's getting rave reviews from the critics. I also think that, unfortunately, there are a lot of people who consider Paul a bit of an "oldies" act which of course isn't true. I remember when "Fine LIne" came out I was e-mailing radio stations and practically begging them to play it but radio is *way* too formatted these days. The objective used to be to play good songs on the radio but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. If it was, the radio programmers would be playing loads of Paul McCartney songs instead of the same old stuff. Anyway I kind of went off on a tangent there but I agree it is kind of silly but I'm glad Jim Cuddy did mention Paul. Maybe it'll make people who think of him as a "lightweight" or "oldies" performer see him in a different light, as a person who can write very deep, touching, rocking and ultimately modern music.
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RE: "Underappreciated Genius."
Shawn:
KenMac:
So says Toronto based Canadian songwriter Jim Cuddy of the band "Blue Rodeo". I saw the quote from him in the Toronto Star on Saturday in which he was interviewed and was asked: "Who most influenced you as a musician?" His answer: "Paul McCartney. I still feel that he?s one of the most underappreciated geniuses in music." I know I'm preaching to the choir here but I strongly agree with Jim about that. If it wasn't for Paul (along with John, George and Ringo of course) I never would have become a musician.
Great to hear. Blue Rodeo is a cool band. Thanks for posting that, KenMac.
You're welcome Shawn. Over the past three years or so I've really grown to appreciate Blue Rodeo. They've got a lot of really good songs. I've often read critics in other magazines and newspapers making comparisons of the Jim Cuddy/Greg Keelor songwriting team to that of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. One critic even called them "The Canadian Lennon and McCartney". It's not hard to see why when you hear their music. FWIW regarding all the comments so far, I think over the years people have recognized for the most part how special Pauls songs really are. I agree with Jim Cuddy and others here that he truly is a musical genius but he's *definitely* not underappreciated here.
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"Underappreciated Genius."
So says Toronto based Canadian songwriter Jim Cuddy of the band "Blue Rodeo". I saw the quote from him in the Toronto Star on Saturday in which he was interviewed and was asked: "Who most influenced you as a musician?" His answer: "Paul McCartney. I still feel that he?s one of the most underappreciated geniuses in music." I know I'm preaching to the choir here but I strongly agree with Jim about that. If it wasn't for Paul (along with John, George and Ringo of course) I never would have become a musician.