Posted on 11/20/2009 12:16:40 PM PST by a fool in paradise
The two remaining Beatles have teamed up for a duet on Starr's forthcoming solo album, Y Not. It's a band renuion! Sort of ...
Paul McCartney appears on two tracks...
"Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on [new song] Peace Dream," Starr explained. "I played him this other track and Paul said, 'Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans'. And he went to the mic and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better."
The song, Walk With Me, was co-written by Starr and Van Dyke Parks, the 66-year-old arranger who has worked with everyone from the Beach Boys to Joanna Newsom. McCartney's vocals "make it bigger and ... fuller", Starr said. "It makes the song like a conversation between us, and that was Paul's idea to do his part one beat behind me. That's why he's a gen-i-us and an incredible bass player."
McCartney last teamed up with Starr for his 1998 album, Vertical Man, which also featured George Harrison and George Martin. More recently, they appeared together at a transcendental meditation benefit in New York earlier this year. Besides the former Beatle, Y Not's other "gen-i-uses" include Joss Stone, Ben Harper, All Starr bandmate Richard Marx and Ringo's brother-in-law, Joe Walsh
(Ringo)"...suddenly it's another point in your life, and you say, 'I'm going to do this now'. So I'll be producing everything I make from now on. That's the good news. It's a confidence thing, I suppose. And Y Not is really another way of me saying, 'Yes I Can.'" Slogan aside, there is no sign of Barack Obama on Starr's new record.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I think Paul, John, George, and Ringo were all very talented. I think it is pointless to attempt to say one is “better” or more “talented” than other.
I do believe that they were all better musicians when they were together as a band and not as individuals. Paul and John’s competition with each other tempered their creative excesses (most of the time - i.e. revolution number 9). George got the short end of things, but his contribution to the band was definitely a positive influence on their sound.
When they separated, the creative balance they had as a band was gone. I mean if Paul had asked you to play with him on a new album, would you have the guts to tell him there was something musical he was doing that you didn’t like? Probably not. It’s hard to argue with legends to their face.
well you know.........
It Don’t Come Easy
There is a British/Irish word for McCartney without Lennon
- SHITE.
Best individual writer was Ray Davies and Waterloo Sunset is a better song than Denny Lane.
Well, not to be disagreeable, but if you look at quality and quantity of songs written by either John or Paul, you come away with an admiration for the number of quality songs Paul wrote relative to John. All of this writing was done in a very compressed period of time. I agree, that when the two separated, neither wrote much to match their previous output, but I chalk that up to them being exhausted and played out. It was at the end of the bands string that George really started showing up with his own songs. I am convinced he got his songs recorded because John’s production was simultaneously dropping and they needed to fill an album. My feeling is that John was pretty much played out by the White Album and Paul and to a lesser extent George provided the bulk of the new material on the last two albums. My opinion - just saying.
Ray’s music was fun but his work was very uneven. I like the guy, but don’t really feel he is the equal songwriter of either Paul or John. Just sayin.
A bullfrog could have sung that song better then Ringo.
I've been saying that for years. Reunite as the Hootles!
I think I agree with your assessment. John was definitely distracted by a lot of things toward the end. As has been said by many others, the Beatles really quit being a band at least a couple of years before they officially broke up. They were all tired of the whole thing.
I agree that on their later records, George started becoming more notable in his compositions. His first solo album, “All Things Must Pass” was his best, in my opinion. After that, not too much interested me in George’s music. Both Paul and John put out some junky albums in the first few years after their break-up.
Your point about John being exhausted is probably true. Didn’t he kind of drop out of the music scene for few years prior to his release of “Double Fantasy”? It seems like he did. I really liked several of his songs on that album - there was a freshness of style. It was such a tragedy what happened to him. I think he was coming out of much of his “angry-political-stupid” phase.
As to Paul, I loved his writing when he was in the Beatles. His solo albums were all pretty disappointing to me. There are maybe a couple of decent songs per album and even those never seemed to match his earlier output.
I miss those Beatle years in the early sixties - when it all was just fun and exciting. It truly is amazing how they grew musically over their career. Kids today are rediscovering them and still love their sound.
Ok, I’ve gone on too long - thanks for the discussion.
Macca was the most gifted musician of the bunch. If Lennon had his way the Beatles would have stuck to 3 chord rock the whole way through.
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