Whoa.....like...yeah (cough...cough)...NOW we... like.. find out that Paul was 'The Heavy Beatle'?
Posted on 12/16/2008 10:37:20 AM PST by weegee
He's already painted himself as the most avant garde Beatle, now in what seems like another attempt to rewrite history, Sir Paul McCartney claims he was responsible for radicalising their their political views
In a statement that forces us to read Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da as a commentary on American neo-colonialism, Sir Paul has said that it is he who turned the Beatles on to politics, introducing John, Paul and Ringo to the evils of the Vietnam war.
Whereas John Lennon is widely considered the "political one", penning songs like Revolution and Give Peace a Chance, sweet Sir Paul is now presenting an alternative history. In a forthcoming interview with Prospect magazine, McCartney claims to have been the catalyst for the group's anti-war position.
"...someone said to me: 'Bertrand Russell is living not far from here in Chelsea, why don't you go and see him?'" McCartney said. Russell, then in his 90s, was a prominent philosopher and activist. "So I just took a taxi down there and knocked on the door."
"He was fabulous. He told me about the Vietnam war – most of us didn't know about it, it wasn't yet in the papers – and also that it was a very bad war."
That, McCartney explained, was enough. Filled with idealism, conviction and, er, a smattering of current events, "I remember going back to the studio either that evening or the next day and telling the guys, particularly John, about this meeting and saying what a bad war this was...."
While it's John Lennon who has retained the reputation for rabble-rousing, "I politicised the Beatles," McCartney insisted. And now he has passed the "megaphone" to a new generation of political artists, he said. People like Bono...
Somewhere in England, Paul McCartney is squeaking: "Me too!"
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Yeah, but neither would have stooped so low as to actually record, not only one, but two duets with Michael Jackson.
“Who cares? The Beatles suck! I’m not a baby boom weenie so I don’t care.”
Well I am a Baby-boomer, and I was never that impressed with their music either. Although they had a few good songs, they had tons of terrible, annoying songs, and I think Pete Townshend of The Who was a vastly better songwriter than any of the Beatles.
Agreed. My guess is Ringo and George had no party. Rick Wright in pink floyd got the same treatment and Gilmour had no love for Waters either. Dave Davies was not too thrilled with Ray either.
Whoa.....like...yeah (cough...cough)...NOW we... like.. find out that Paul was 'The Heavy Beatle'?
Ringo treated badly? Gimme a break. The other three brought him into the band. He would be a real nowhere man without them. All bands have their troubles but Paul and Ringo are still great friends today.
Yeah I guess he should have stayed home and stuck needles in his arms like John and became a junkie then we could really respect him Huh?
Why don’t any of these old geezer rockers from the ‘60’s know when to just retire & shut up? Who cares what he says?
Agreed. I think George’s tunes were among the best.
I don’t recall making any comments concerning writing credits. You might want to re-direct your response.
Sorry Pete Best treated badly. I heard it was john who was behind stitching Pete Best up.
Pete Townshend a better songwriter than Lennon/McCartney? Even Pete would deny that’s true. In fact when asked the best writers of his era he said dylan and the beatles. You do realize Pete never even wrote one number one song for The WHO don’t you?
WOW so much for free speech HUH?
George’s tunes Such as?
Would it be fair to say that George Harrison had a lot of material written while the Beatles were still officially together that got released early in his solo career? Getting his stuff onto Beatles albums was part of the problem since there's only so many tunes that get picked for album release. It seemed to me that he did have some early solo success -- just not as big as Paul's.
“Actually it was George Harrison”.
Thanks for the correction, while my age-related memory decline gently weeps.
My wife, the ultimate Beatles fan, would be greatly embarassed by my mistake.
I Need You
Taxman
Cheese & Onions
Doubleback Alley
Ray Davies is a better singwriter than Townsend. And as a stand alone songwriter probably the best of the bunch.
Oddly Keef on his own supposedly wrote two of the Stones best - Ruby Tuesday and I think Lady Jane. 19th Nervous Breakdown and maybe one or two more an that is it - the rest of their stuff was largely crap.
Yeah but Paul’s post Beatle stuff was largely crap in a major way. I mean enough to make you cringe.
Badfinger’s stuff was a million times better than Paul’s solo stuff. I mention Badfinger as they were on Apple and some people thought their tunes were Beatle cast off tunes.
P.S. By the way, Dave Clark turned 65 yesterday. He was cuter and a better songwriter than the rest of them!
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