Put up a couple of weeks ago -
Oh this is really great fun.
Macca's new video for "Appreciate" is a very clever bit of science fiction tongue in cheek satire. In it he's seen as a static exhibit (man) in the large cavernous 'Museum Of Man' and is brought to life by a robot (new man) (note, not the other way round as in past sci-fi).
The press release describes it -
Blimey the guy is still dreaming his next material. Yes, we've heard that from him before.
It's a fab entertaining video and a really good song, Good lord listen to that cavernous bass rumble at the beginning and end, and how the chorus jumps out. His cigar box guitar makes an appearance at the end as well.
This is about as good as high production values get. You can definitely turn this one up to get the full impact.
Presented by Microsoft..? I suppose we better get use to music being delivered like that in the 21st century but when it's done this well who's really going to complain.
Who'd have thought that 2013 would be a year when the 60's rockers would find a second wind, or 3rd or 4th depending on how you see their contribution. Either way this year Macca, Bowie, Elton John, Black Sabbath, Roy Harper and the list goes on, released albums that brought some attention if not from a young audience then certainly with the media.
Which ever one first caught the bug to take to the studio "one more time" the virus sure spread fast and one set the rest off in not being left out of the old act. Just like the 60's, when one band rushed to beat the other to the No.1 slot in the album charts. Of course those days are long gone now and their succession of releases landed without a thud onto the web rather than major labels beloved record stores which are virtually all gone.
Nowadays the big labels just pump there old catalogue through to Spotify and hardly anyone earns a nickel from the machine, which Thom Yorke will tell you all about over and over again.
Those who didn't get the bug to release full on albums did a respectable job with a new track or two and went back on the road, which was The Stones route. And don't bet on them not showing up next year to start it up again, again.
The Who also took the Stones way minus the single, and went walk about too promoting their anniversary bumper mega buck box set of the forthcoming 'Tommy' reissue. Which was slightly less ambitiuos given that Townshed hasn't written a new song in years, well maybe he has but he ain't telling. But what has surfaced amongst the reissue is previously unheard material in the form of 20 demos from Townshend’s archive one of which is this.. “Amazing Journey". It's obviously a more raw version than on the original album but from about 3 minutes in you hear the Pete Townshend guitar take off like a large firework and you have to think why the hell haven't we heard that more recently on something new. After all PT if that other lot can do it...
VIA HENNEMUSIC.COM
On June 13th the American satirical late night television program 'The Colbert Report' (with Stephen Colbert) broadcast an hour long show featuring Paul McCartney describing his music career with the Beatles and Wings, finishing up with his band playing live.
For those that saw the Rockshow post a week ago, on the 1972 show of Wings in concert it might have come as a surprise to see just how hard that band did rock back then. Now some 40 years later, many have their doubts as to how the now 71 year old (2 days ago) can keep the music rocking?
Hear this band playing 'Birthday' on the 'Colbert Report' and you'll wonder what all the fuss is about with old rockers visiting their old songs. With it's classic 12 bar sequence it's also a reminder McCartney was as cute as it gets in working a song form from anything that took his attention, whether it be from rock and roll, 1920's music hall, classic ballad or as with 'Birthday', a blues.
So how's that raw rock and roll vocal able to stand up on this belter?
With some recent open air performances, like the Olympic Games opening ceremony, it was showing signs of age but in context it's going to take most singers a song or two to find their voice when pitched cold in an outdoor venue, so judgement based on open air performance is somewhat unfair.
But here in the confines of a TV studio and no doubt plenty of warm up time McCartney shows just how strong the voice still is and defies his age once again (there has to a portrait somewhere in his attic aging drastically).
There's also that familiar Hohner violin bass with it's fat beat era sound, and a style of playing that has become admired by other musicians more and more as the years have gone by. You have to ask why haven't more bass players used a Hohner? Maybe the image of the violin bass in McCartney's mits is so fused in the mind know one can quite face owning one.
Then when it comes to driving a song like 'Birthday' you need a big back-beat, and it doesn't come much bigger than the mighty Abe Laboriel, Jr.
Laboriel has been holding that drum stool firmly in place with McCartney since The Concert for New York City in 2001 and has played on every tour the band has played since, and also provided a substantial backing vocal while beating the daylights out of a song.
You want rock steady power? Abe Laboriel Jnr is as good as it gets.
All together this is as tight and punchy live band as you'll hear.
This month has seen the release of Paul McCartney and Wings 'Rockshow'. As Dangerous Minds' Richard Metzger said "it rocks like a motherfucker." He's right.
Thing is it's pretty common these days for McCartney to have his fare share of critics and gawd help us there's barely a year goes by when some monster event doesn't have the presence of the 20th century's most prolific and successful songwriter. 'Rockshow' is different though. It comes at a time in his life when after having been in the most successful band of all time he then has to start all over again. No reform The Beatles scenario from now on. This is a highly successful pop musician who needs to keep working. He's still a relatively young man when he has to claw his way out of The Beatles ever present shadow and begin to build a new band with new musicians.
Few ever manage it and most perpetuate a future playing on a merry go round of a back catalogue.
By the time 'Rockshow' is performed in 1976 Wings have become a force of their own. The singles and albums have been sold and the band has toured continuously since 71. In what has been described as at their zenith 'Rockshow' catches a moment in their world. At a time when arena rock was in it's infancy, it was pre MTV production, no high definition camera's but you do get the chance to see a rock show of the highest caliber. Some have said they saw all the hot tickets of the day, Zeppelin, Who etc etc and the Wings performances outstripped them all.
Rockshow came out on Betamax and laserdisc in the early 1980s, but it has not been available (legally) for over 30 years. The clip below is the encore of the performance. A band that is in a close stage setting despite them being on an arena stage, knows exactly how to work the song, playing at their peak with one of the best rock vocalists there's ever been. It is more than a rock video. It is history.
And then McCartney aside, this is what became of all that band.
Denny Laine
Denny has faded away from the music business since the mid-80's. It's currently said he is working on an autobiography but no news on publishing. His web site is a strange place of a few chosen song lyrics and accompanying videos, but most surprising of all and somewhat telling is his website store where you would expect the albums and merch to be housed, instead there is the singular sale of his late 1950's Gretsch guitar he played with Wings (it was also once owned by Pete Townshend). You could hardly expect the man who wrote one of the most mesmerising songs of the 1960's Moody Blues 'Go Now' and some might say guilty of co-writing McCartney's 'Mull Of Kintyre' along with many other songs in the era, to actually need the finance. So not the sort of thing you'd pass on without a very good reason, but even so Denny... don't do it!
Jimmy McCulloch
He'd been a prodigy of The Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin at the age of 11 and rose to fame in the 1960's with Thunderclap Newman, and into the 70's with Stone the Crows and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers before joining Wings.
Like others gone before a prolific talent in youth becomes a burden. Jimmy became a tortured soul by the age of 26. In 1979 he died of heart failure caused by a heroin overdose at his flat in Maida Vale, North West London.
McCartney's telling quote at the time of leaving the band - "Jimmy has been playing some great guitar recently and it's a pity he is leaving, but problems have been building up for quite a while..."
Joe English
"Like an animal behind a kit" someone once described the New Yorker. You watch him through Rockshow and there's no doubt he was one of the finest with backing vocals to match. He gave the band up at the same time Jimmy McCulloch left but for an entirely different reason. He was just plain homesick.
Joe has been unable to play drums professionally since the late 1990s, due to chronic ankle health issues.
What a loss.
Linda McCartney
Anyone who married a Beatle was in for a very rough ride once they took part in the music making. Just ask Yoko. For Linda it was no different, she never stood a chance with many fans and critics. When you see earlier videos of her with the band there's a self conscious movement, looks and glances to the camera that can only come from someone completely out of their comfort zone and probably feels an imposter amongst these highly talented and experienced musicians. Who the hell wouldn't with no musical experience prior to Wings. To her credit after several albums and touring by the time they come to Rockshow you can see a change that comes from practice and experience. The vocal backing and keyboard is tight and well organised. After the band she eventually found her cause. It would just be mean to criticise the effort she made in contributing alongside her husband. She died of cancer in 1998.
Here is the encore and the lesser known McCartney song 'Soily'