The Beatles Blogger

Paul McCartney Says Yoko Ono Wasn't Responsible For Breaking Up The Beatles

2012-10-29T19:52:00.001-06:00

Yoko Ono has long been targeted as a scapegoat to lay blame for the breakup of The Beatles, but Paul McCartney is saying she wasn't the cause.
"She certainly didn't break the group up, the group was breaking up," McCartney says in an interview with David Frost which is airing on Frost's TV show next month.
McCartney admits in the interview that it was hard to have Ono constantly around, but also credits her with much of Lennons success such as writing "Imagine," saying, "I don't think he would have done that without Yoko."
While Frost first interviewed McCartney in 1964, this most recent interview was one of the longest the Beatles great has ever given.
For more, head over to The Guardian.

Paul McCartney, they say it's your 70th birthday

2012-06-18T10:51:00.000-06:00

Today is Sir Paul's Big 70th birthday! Happy Birthday Paul!

The Beatles, Oasis to feature on Olympic Games opening ceremony playlist

2012-06-18T10:43:00.000-06:00

Bands such as The Beatles, Oasis and the Sex Pistols are set to feature on an 86-song playlist which will soundtrack the opening ceremony of this summer’s London Olympic Games, according to The Sun.

The newspaper claims the playlist has been leaked by a ‘music industry source’, but also quotes an Olympic spokesperson who refused to confirm the accuracy of the soundtrack, saying: “There is endless speculation about the content of the show — much is simply guesswork — and we are keeping the rest of the show under wraps.”
If correct, songs such as ‘The Hindu Times‘ and ‘Wonderwall‘ by Oasis, The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude‘ and ‘She Loves You‘, and the Sex Pistols’ classic anti-establishment anthem ‘God Save The Queen‘ will feature along side other eclectic pieces such as ‘Land Of Hope And Glory’, ‘Jerusalem’ and the Dambusters March.
Other bands included for the opening ceremony on July 27th according to the tabloid include Radiohead with ‘Creep‘, The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Jam.

The Beatles’ John Lennon Was a Major Cat Lover

2012-01-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

John Lennon, a cat lover? It seems so. According to Mental Floss, the late Beatles musician had a strong fondness for cats and owned several during his lifetime, beginning during his childhood.
Little Lennon’s first pet was named Elvis, and the cat was actually owned by his mom, Julia. Both Lennon and his mom adored Elvis Presley, which is where they got the cat’s name. As the story goes, the Lennons were a bit shocked with Elvis – who they thought was a male cat – gave birth to a littler of cats in the cupboard.
When Lennon – who also had a liking for dogs – married his first wife, Cynthia, he gave her a dog named Bernard as a gift. Bernard and Sally were supposed to be John’s only two pet dogs. Slowly, the couple began acquiring cat after cat until, eventually, they owned roughly 10 cats! He also owned two cats with his second wife, Yoko Ono.
Lennon, who was always passionate about art, also loved to sketch drawings of cats. Some of his illustrations of cats ended up in his books, to boot. Read more about Lennon’s cat interest, here. Add it to your list of random facts about Beatles players.
---Anne Erickson Gibson.com

Didn't break Beatles: Yoko Ono

2012-01-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ono is in India to host her first art exhibition in the country.

She has always captivated the attention of her fans for being the wife of The Beatles' singer-songwriter John Lennon.
In fact, it is often alleged that Ono was responsible for the break-up of The Beatles.
However, Ono negated such claims and said that she was made a 'scapegoat'.
"I do not know, but they (The Beatles members) did not have anybody to put the blame. I was the easy target...yes, scapegoat..being an Asian is one and being a woman.. the combination you know was pretty disastrous," Ono told NDTV.

The 79-year -old artist said that the presence of John Lennon had helped her to cope up with the situation.
"I had John with me and he was very supportive and protective about me. If John was not there it would have been a difficult situation... and when John passed away, it was then that the real difficulties started to happen," she said.
New Delhi is hosting the first art exhibition of musician and artist Yoko Ono in the Indian soils as she dedicated her show to the women of the country.
The exhibition titled 'Our Beautiful Daughters' opened on Thursday night at Vadehra Art Gallery and will showcase 20 art projects to the people of India.

Her art works including the famous 'The Wish Tree', will be exhibited at different venues including schools, hospitals, consulates, book shops.
Ono told BBC that the exhibition is "dedicated to the women of India".
This is Ono's first visit to India after the death of Lennon.
Earlier, she had visited the country along with her husband.
Ono promised to her Indian fans that she will again comeback to India in future years.
"I will come back," she told reporters.

------Indiablooms.com

Get The Beatles Mono Box Set for only $89.62!

2012-01-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

I Wanted to post this find on the blog.... Amazon has the complete Beatles Mono Boxed Set of 13 cd's for $89.62. This is normally $298.98 so this is a HUGE savings! This is the lowest price on the web right now. Barnes and Noble has it for $149.49 and Deep Discounts has it for $191.15. A great deal! Check out my link below or my Amazon store... Beatles 4 Sale for more info.

Abbey Road to Open its Doors for 80th Anniversary Celebrations

2012-01-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

Abbey Road Studios, recording home of The Beatles, will celebrate its 80th Anniversary by opening its doors to the public.
According to U.K. music trade magazine Music Week, the famed studio has sold tickets for presentations by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, authors of the book Recording the Beatles, in Abbey Road’s Studio Two on March 10.
Because the special event sold out fast, two more sessions have been announced for March 11.
Tickets for the two presentations are available for £75 at SeeTickets.com.
---Andrew Vaughn Gibson.com

Record albums aren’t dead quite yet

2012-01-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

Quick, tell me the top-selling album on vinyl for 2011.

It was The Beatles' "Abbey Road," released in 1969.

That's according to a year-end industry report released last week by Nielsen SoundScan, a company that keeps track of music sales.

That tidbit alone is enough to bring a smile to the face of this baby boomer. Kids buy Beatles records. Isn't that the best news you've heard so far this year?

There's another bright spot for anyone who is bugged, like I am, by the fact that music is now largely purchased not by the album, but by the song.

For the first time since 2004, sales of whole albums -- whether on CD, cassette, vinyl or in digital format -- were up in 2011. It was just a 1.3 percent jump from 2010, the Nielsen report said. Even that shows a flicker of interest in the concept that an artist makes an album, a piece of art in itself, that's intended to hold together from start to finish.

Or maybe big-box stores were just selling CDs for a song, and attention spans of modern music buyers really aren't any longer than a single track downloaded on iTunes.

At Everett's Bargain CDs, Records & Tapes, which sells used music and movies, Doug Sandhop sees the trends every day. Despite a slight uptick in album sales in 2011, he said listeners continue to shed vinyl albums and old CDs as they fill their electronic devices with music.

Sandhop, 52, works for store owner Gordy Arlin. They see what people buy and sell. The drift is definitely toward getting rid of physical music collections.

"It's CDs, vinyls, DVDs, too. With the streaming, people just get rid of everything," Sandhop said Friday. "People are bringing in their grandparents' records to sell. Downloading and iPods have definitely taken a big chunk out of our business.

"I can imagine there won't always be people who want a hard product," he added.

Sandhop remembers the golden age of the concept album. "Just think of 'Sgt. Pepper,' or even something like 'Nevermind' by Nirvana," he said. For Sandhop, Marvin Gaye's 1971 "What's Going On" is a favorite.

Who still buys at the Everett shop?

"It's people in their 20s and 30s, I would say," Sandhop said. "I still get grandmas and grandpas looking for their Hank Williams and Frank Sinatra," he said, but buyers are mostly young.

And what sells?

"The Beatles are always the most consistent when it comes to collectors," he said.

Elvis Presley, who would have turned 77 Sunday had he lived, may be the King of rock 'n' roll, but Sandhop said "Elvis is getting hard to sell." Presley fans, he said, "are getting older and dying off."

"When I first started collecting in high school, it was kind of cool and you had street cred if you had '50s doo-wop," Sandhop said. "That stuff is hard to sell now. They may remember it, but they're too old to even care about it."

In today's economy, he said it takes a serious collector to want to spend real money -- $100 or more -- on an old album, especially when music is so easily available.

There are exceptions, he said. A copy of The Beatles' "Yesterday and Today" album with the original "butcher" cover is still valuable, he said. That picture shows the Fab Four in white smocks holding headless baby dolls and pieces of meat.

Sandhop is eager to buy any 1950s jazz on the Blue Note label. He's also interested in early Rolling Stones and early Pink Floyd.

Some albums sold so many copies they are essentially worthless. "There was a ton of it," Sandhop said. In that category are Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas & the Papas, "Frampton Comes Alive!" and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours."

Kids who come in the store want old rock. "Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, heavy metal, Led Zeppelin. And Dylan always maintains with that age group," Sandhop said.

"It's mostly boys. I don't know why that is. Baseball cards, comic books, collecting seems to be a guy thing," he said.

Tastes change, but what kids like will inevitably tick off their parents. Hear that, my son No. 2? Turn it down.

"I think about how everyone looked at me cross-eyed because I listened to the Ramones and the Sex Pistols," Sandhop said. Today, the music of those punk bands is venerated by a wide audience. He doubts today's Insane Clown Posse CDs will be collectibles 20 years from now.

"If there's one place there's always a generation gap, it's music," Sandhop said.

Album sales may be up, but at the Everett record store no one is getting rich.

"It's fun, but it's a vow of poverty," Sandhop said. "We're doing what we love to do."

---By Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist

'Yellow Submarine' Book Available For Free

2011-12-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Following the recent first anniversary of The Beatles catalog's worldwide digital exclusivity on the iTunes Store® (www.iTunes.com), an exclusive Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' book that lets readers tap their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to immerse themselves in the legendary film's colorful sights and sounds is available for free download on Apple's iBookstore worldwide starting today. The iBookstore is available via the free iBooks App for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and at www.iTunes.com/iBookstore.

The iBookstore's exclusive 'Yellow Submarine' book takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic, music-filled journey with The Beatles to an underwater dreamland featuring animated illustrations and text from the 2004 book, 14 full-color video clips from the original 1968 film, audio clips of classic Beatles hits and Sir George Martin's original score, original dialogue from the film, "read aloud" functionality to follow along as actor Dean Lennox Kelly narrates, as well as interactive features that let you tap the story's wild array of butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive. A video trailer for the book is available for free streaming starting today at www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles.
The vibrantly illustrated book was designed by Fiona Andreanelli using Heinz Edelmann's original artwork from the film, and its story has been adapted by Charlie Gardner from the film's original screenplay, co-written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Eric Segal.
Inspired by The Beatles' song of the same name, 'Yellow Submarine' dives 80,000 leagues beneath the sea to Pepperland, a musical paradise where Sergeant Pepper's band plays on until the music-hating Blue Meanies invade, sealing the band inside a music-proof bubble and leaving it a silent wasteland. But Old Fred, captain of the Yellow Submarine, escapes to Liverpool and persuades Ringo - with a little help from his friends John, Paul and George - to join him on a magical adventure to return music and love to Pepperland.
Since first launching worldwide on November 16, 2010, The Beatles' exclusive digital releases on iTunes now include the band's 13 legendary remastered studio albums, a special digital edition of the GRAMMY®-winning 'Beatles Stereo Box Set,' the two-volume 'Past Masters' compilation, the classic '1962-1966' ('Red') and '1967-1970' ('Blue') collections, the GRAMMY-winning 'LOVE' album and 'All Together Now,' the feature-length documentary about the making of The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil®, the band's remastered 'Anthology' music collections, and the record-breaking '1' hits collection.
The Beatles have now sold over ten million songs and over 1.8 million albums on the iTunes Store worldwide.
www.TheBeatles.com
SOURCE Apple Corps Ltd.

R.I.P John

2011-12-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 31st anniversary of John Lennon's death. His music, words and influence are still a major part in our world. John will always be an inspiration to his fans. Quoting famously from John's song Imagine....

"You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one."

We miss you John...Rest in Peace

The Beatles Blogger

Houston Beatles fan pays over $485,000 for George Harrison's Aston Martin

2011-12-08T10:01:00.002-07:00

By NBC News

LONDON -- An Aston Martin once owned by George Harrison sold for $485,000 (310,000 pounds) at auction Wednesday, according to NBC News, citing British Press Association reports.

Facundo Arrizabalaga/AFP - Getty Images

An auction staff member polishes an Aston Martin DB5 that belonged to the late Beatle George Harrison. The car fetched over $480,000 at the Coys' True Greats Auciton on Wednesday at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London.

The former Beatle ordered the platinum silver DB5, which had a black Connolly leather interior, in 1965.
He packed the car with top-of-the-range extras, including chrome wire wheels with Avon tires, a heated rear windscreen, a radio and Britax safety belts.
Harrison's former wife, model Pattie Boyd, was recently photographed with the car when it was shown at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London.
It was sold to a Beatle and Aston Martin fan from Houston, Texas, who wished to remain anonymous.
The lot was part of auctioneer Coys' True Greats Auction at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster, central London.
Auctioneers said the car had just over 22,000 miles, ran well and showed no sign of "major mechanical maladies."
Chris Routledge, managing director of Coys, said: "There was a battle royal for this car which went for some 50,000 pounds ($78,000) over its estimate."
The sale price does not include a 15 percent buyer's premium.

Paul McCartney: 'I felt sick the first time the Beatles played Wembley'

2011-12-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Paul McCartney has spoken about his history of pre-gig nerves, revealing that he felt like quitting playing live as he was so nervous before The Beatles performed at Wembley Arena.

McCartney is currently in the middle of a European arena tour and also said that he still feels like he has to win some of the crowds over.

Speaking about his record of pre-show nerves, he told the Daily Mirror: "The first time we ever played – pre-Beatles – I screwed up. So I never played lead guitar again. When the Beatles did Wembley (Arena, then known as the Empire Pool) for the first time (in 1963), I felt sick. I thought, 'I’ve got to give this up.'"

McCartney added that even now he encounters crowd members who are "just standing there", but added: "We always manage to get them back in the end."

The singer also spoke a recurring nightmare he still has about where he is performing with The Beatles and people start walking out of his gigs.

He said of this: "I'm with The Beatles and it’s going great, then people start leaving. I turn to the others and go, 'Oh God! 'Long Tall Sally' – that’ll get them back'".

McCartney plays the first of three UK arena shows he has booked for this month tonight (December 5). He appears at London's O2 Arena tonight, at Manchester's Evening News Arena on December 19 and plays a homecoming show in Liverpool at the Echo Arena on December 20.

Check NME.COM tomorrow (December 6) for a full report of tonight's gig at London's O2 Arena.

Secret Beatles Ticket fetches $7,278 Selling on eBay

2011-11-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

Nov 29,2011 - WhatSellsBest.com, a website tracking rare items sold on eBay, is reporting an early Beatles rehearsal ticket recently sold for $7,278. But a secret related to the tickets printing, could keep others (owning the same ticket) from ever discovering it's value.

The Ticket was distributed by CBS for a Beatles rehearsal prior to their second performance on their first trip to America, for The Ed Sullivan Show in Miami, Florida. (Deauville Hotel, February 16, 1964)

The seller's eBay listing states; "This ticket is for their afternoon rehearsal show at 2:30 pm. there were only a few hundred fans (and tickets) for this show and today, the ticket stubs are among the rarest of all beatles concert tickets in existence."

The secret related to the tickets printing is... 'The Beatles' name was never mentioned anywhere on the ticket itself. Only the location, date, and the ticket's specific use for, 'rehearsal only' are mentioned.

Meaning anyone who may have acquired a ticket second-hand, without knowledge of its historical significance, may never discover it was a Beatles ticket, or that it has a potentially high value.

To see more about the Ticket, and other rare Beatles items selling on eBay. Visit: WhatSellsBest.com

Recognized media outlets interested in discussing this press release in detail are encouraged to contact James Massey by email at; james@whatsellsbest.com or, by telephone at 1-206-497-2263.

About WhatSellsBest.com

WhatSellsBest.com is a free website which has integrated with eBay to allow visitors to actively view and track the top selling eBay items (by highest prices bid, or sold) in nearly 200 unique categories. The website also reports on trends and sales of rare (high-value) collectibles being sold worldwide.

For more information contact:

James Massey,
WhatSellsBest.com
james@whatsellsbest.com
1-206-497-2263

-----story from: News-Antiques.com

Rediscovered Beatles Amp Expected to Fetch $100,000

2011-11-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

An amplifier used by George Harrison during the recording of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is expected to fetch between $80,000 and $110,000 when it goes on the auction block next month. As reported by Reuters, the rare Vox UL730 amp and cabinet was only recently discovered to have a Beatles connection, when an engineer repairing the amp noticed that Harrison’s name was etched on the chassis.
Subsequent research confirmed that Harrison indeed had owned the amp, and that he had used it on two of The Beatles’ most important albums. “Very few amps used by The Beatles have come to auction before, and to find one that was used on two such significant albums is truly rare and exciting,” said Stephen Maycock, a consultant to Bonhams, the company conducting the auction. The sale will take place in London December 15.

---russell hall
gibson.com

Sorry for not posting

2011-11-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys, Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I got so busy and totally forgot about my blog!! I do maintain the website and the facebook page daily and for some reason this blog just slips my mind! Hey we all make mistakes :) ....Anyway, Keep reading , follow and comment. I would love to hear from all of you.

Goo Goo G'Joob,
The Beatles Blogger

Paul McCartney weds in nostalgia-filled ceremony

2011-10-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

LONDON — A hint of autumnal Beatlemania was in the air today as Paul McCartney, for the second time in his improbable life, climbed the steps of venerable Old Marylebone Town Hall to take himself a bride.
True, thousands of heartbroken female fans crowded the columned building in 1969 when he married Linda Eastman, and only a few hundred showed up today as he wed another American, Nancy Shevell, at the very same registry office.
But the feeling this time was not regret at the loss of a bachelor heartthrob. Instead there was joy that McCartney, regarded as a national treasure and revered the world over, seemed happy again.
The 69-year-old former Beatle appeared proud, content and eager to share his joy with the crowd, raising his bride's hand in triumph as he walked down the steps after they became man and wife in a simple civil ceremony attended by close family and friends, including drummer Ringo Starr and Barbara Walters, a second cousin of the bride.
"I feel absolutely wonderful," McCartney told fans as he arrived at his home after the ceremony. He was expected to sing a new song he had composed for his bride at the reception.
Gone was the memory of McCartney's terribly unhappy marriage to Heather Mills, which ended in 2008 in an ugly public divorce. Remembered was his marriage to Eastman, a serene union that lasted nearly three decades until her life was cut short by breast cancer, leaving McCartney alone and adrift despite his fame and wealth.
The ceremony this afternoon was everything his wedding to Mills was not: simple, understated, almost matter of fact. By contrast, McCartney and Mills married in an over-the-top lavish spectacle at a remote Irish castle that was disrupted several times by news helicopters flying overhead, hoping for a glimpse of the A-list guests.
This time, the smiles seemed genuine.
The affection — and rose petals and confetti — showered on McCartney and his bride captured his particular place in British life.
Long gone are the days when the Beatles divided Britain between young and old, or between hippies and straights. The band is revered as part of a glorious musical and cultural era when Britain seemed a more confident place. There was no controversy whatsoever when McCartney received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Today Sir Paul — or Macca, as he's usually known — is celebrated as a musical legend who is still composing and releasing CDs, even if they no longer routinely shoot to No. 1 on the charts. His forays into opera, ballet, painting and poetry have not been critical successes, but none of these have tarnished his reputation.
Shevell, 51, appeared radiant and composed in an elegant, ivory gown cut just above the knee. She wore a white flower in her long dark hair, and only light makeup and lipstick.
The dress was designed by McCartney's daughter, Stella, a star in the fashion world who also helped concoct the three-course vegetarian feast served to guests at the reception at McCartney's home in St. John's Wood, a property he bought in 1965, when the Beatles were topping the charts with metronomic regularity.
McCartney, who has long admitted to tinting his hair to keep out the gray, looked youthful in a well-cut blue suit and pale blue, skinny tie.
The couple married on what would have been band mate John Lennon's 71st birthday. Some guests speculated that Lennon would have been among the guests had he lived, with the rift between them having healed.
The wedding party included Beatrice, McCartney's young daughter with Mills, who had been expected to serve as flower girl.
McCartney is credited for having survived a number of tragedies — the 1980 murder of one-time songwriting partner Lennon, the loss of his beloved first wife Linda, the 2001 death of guitarist George Harrison and the public breakdown of his marriage to Mills — with his upbeat nature intact.
Mills, a much younger model who had lost part of her leg when she was hit by a motorcycle, tried to battle McCartney in the court of public opinion during their divorce. She accused him of cruelty and sought a gargantuan $250 million settlement.
But her charges against McCartney didn't stick. Few if any fans turned against him, and the divorce court judge ruled against her, calling her demands exorbitant and unfair.
The very public spat opened McCartney's vast fortune to unprecedented public scrutiny. Long rumored to be pop's first billionaire, he was found to have assets worth about $800 million, including works by Picasso and Renoir and luxury real estate in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
His wealth reflects in part his incredible global popularity — in recent years he has filled stadiums from Rio to Russia, producing tens of millions of dollar of revenue with each tour.
Shevell, who is independently wealthy and quite successful in her own right, is not seen by the British public as being interested in McCartney's fortune.
The couple met four years ago in the Hamptons, a seaside playground for the rich and famous on the eastern tip of Long Island in New York.
Some reports say that Walters played matchmaker, inviting McCartney to a dinner she knew her second cousin Shevell would attend.
Walters said she cried during the ceremony, which she called "beautiful and wonderful."
Shevell, who was married for more than 20 years to attorney Bruce Blakeman and serves on the board of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is also a vice president of a lucrative New Jersey-based trucking company owned by her father.
She has stayed out of the public eye since taking up with McCartney, refraining from commenting on her relationship with the man once known as "the cute one" in the world's most popular band.
She has a few things in common with Eastman: like McCartney's first wife, she is American and affluent.
Unlike Eastman, who performed with McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, Shevell is not expected to join her husband onstage on his extended world tours.
She joins a pantheon of "Beatle wives" — each band member married more than once, and many of the unions were troubled.
Lennon abruptly left his first wife for Yoko Ono, and Cynthia Lennon has complained in print about his abusive treatment of her and his neglect of their son, Julian.
His relationship with Ono was punctuated with occasional breakups, but is often portrayed as a happy marriage, and since his death she has curated his works and burnished his legend.
Starr's first marriage also ended in divorce, but he has had a long, stable union with his second wife, the actress Barbara Bach, who joined him at Sunday's ceremony.
The two even went through a recovery program together when Starr decided to confront his alcoholism.
Harrison's first marriage — to the model Pattie Boyd — ended in divorce when she left him for guitarist Eric Clapton. He had a long happy marriage to Olivia Harrison, who plays an important role in the recently released Martin Scorsese film about Harrison.
If the mood today is any indication, the man responsible for classics like "Penny Lane" and the angst-ridden "Eleanor Rigby" may find pleasure and contentment in the years ahead. That's certainly what his fans are hoping.
---freep.com

Yoko Ono opens up about life, as late hubby Lennon's artwork comes to Princeton this weekend

2011-09-15T09:31:00.001-06:00

Yoko Ono has become iconic in her own right. From dance clubs to the lounge chairs of Baby Boomers, her name is known in every country of the world.

I spoke with the legendary 78-year-old proponent of peace and love just prior to the opening of an exhibit of her late husband John Lennon’s art work in Princeton.

Each day, she goes about her business of sharing her philosophies and John Lennon’s messages. Talking with her is like meeting your best friend’s best friend for the first time: only briefly unfamiliar.

In Yoko Ono’s office in New York City, callers on hold listen to her singing from a cut on her own album. Her voice is small but imperative with lessons she wants to offer. It is at once recognizably a musically educated voice.

She is candid and completely honest. There’s never a hint of superiority, of elitism or boredom, although she has been asked the same questions, a million times over. She doesn’t pander, pontificate or condescend.

“You can ask me anything you want, it’s okay. I’ll give you my thoughts and ideas on it,” she says. She offers a candor uncommon for an interview of a local mayor, much less a superstar celebrity. Yoko Ono is gracious and welcoming when meeting strangers. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and in conversation, her intelligence and logic are revealed.

For Lennon fans: Controversy and “Gimme Some Truth”

More than 30 years after his assassination, fans and pop culture aficionados are still trying to peel away the layers of news stories, half-truths and unknowns to see what happened in the lives of The Beatles, Yoko Ono and John Lennon.

Millions of Beatles fans worldwide bought into the assertion that “Yoko broke up the Beatles.” She was vilified and derided as a gold-digging negative power on John Lennon’s life. “How could he leave his wife and marry her? What could he see in her? She’s even older than him!”

Lennon was quite defensive of his relationship with Ono, whom he publically worshipped.
While exercising her strong sense of self, she was often referred to as the “Dragon Lady.” At the time, female confidence and independence were more suppressed than valued.

Private facts and public opinion were seriously misaligned. Yoko Ono was born into luxury in Tokyo, the fair child of a wealthy Japanese banking family in 1933. She seems to have inherited her great-grandfather Zenijiro Yasuda’s business acumen. He founded Yasuda Bank. Her father was a banker and classical pianist. She remains a wealthy woman.

While John Lennon’s popular songs spoke easily to the hearts of people everywhere, his fans could not understand or accept Yoko Ono’s avant garde art or performances. Early in their coupling, John went back to his roots, expressing himself as the artist he had always been.

“His whole sensibility was that of an artist,” she explained. “Everything that he did came from that spirit.”

John and Yoko met at a preview for her art show in London in November of 1966. She shared the magic of that night with a glow in her voice. “John was working on an album in Abbey Road (studio), 3 Abbey Road. My gallery was at 6 Mission Square. You know, 3 stands for music and 6 stands for love.” The number 9 became a recurring numerological theme throughout their relationship.

Her focus now is to honor John by promoting his legacy and outlook on the world. “My main work,” she explains, “my mission, is to continue the work very effectively. This takes time, but time is very elastic, actually.”

She introduces John’s message of peace and love to his long-time fans and new discoverers. In Japan, she created a John Lennon museum that houses personal mementos and memorializes public memories. She and John spent happy times there away from the harsh public eye. They had a vacation home in the mountains.

All of his solo albums have been remastered and re-released as part of her efforts.

“This is my main work, not my only thing, of course. My own art? Not very much now. His is most important, of course.”

“I work carefully. I have good people working for me. In the beginning I felt, um, not very successful. It was really an uphill climb. Now there is an incredible demand (for Lennon’s work.)
In her own right: In March 2011, a remix of her song, “Move on Fast” hit the US Billboard Dance Chart at Number One. It was her eighth number one on the dance charts since 2000. She told Rolling Stone: “At first I was prejudiced against the idea. I had the pride of a rocker. People can get very elitist very quickly, and that’s how I was.” Her music has been remixed and covered by the Pet Shop Boys and Basement Jaxx.

Yoko Ono on Art

“Art is another language, an international language. Art does not need to control people. It is not created by controlling people. Art is something to share, to inspire; (it is) for us to like it.“

“We, as humans, create institutions, that’s what we do. Some artworks have been made into icons and they are not considered very good. Art as a language is an exchange. In this way, art is an institution.

“Art has a very close connection with the peace industry. Think about beauty and life. You feel the epitome of the peace industry.

“If we could be so big in the peace industry that only one in the war industry is left, then there would be peace. Many are scared of peace. What if it is boring? We spend our energy fighting. We should work in the peace industry. A florist is an example. There are many.

“Life is fantastically beautiful. As humans, we are lucky to have this thing, imagination. What we imagine, we can become.”

About herself

Ono has been called a sexy septuagenarian. Still dressing in low cut tops and fetching outfits, she celebrates life at 78.

“I have very busy days. I have very good people working for me. I stay very busy working. I like working everyday. I take on many things; art, music and I bike a lot. I imagine out there.

By KATHY WINGARD

Sir Paul McCartney to wed Nancy Shevell this weekend

2011-09-15T09:26:00.000-06:00

Sir Paul McCartney’s wedding will reportedly tie the knot with his American heiress girlfriend Nancy Shevell at his estate in UK. The couple flew in to the UK from New York last week and have been finalising what is expected to be a small family ceremony. And Macca, 69, is

reportedly determined to avoid the circus that surrounded his doomed marriage to Heather Mills in 2002 in a huge 17th century Irish castle.

“They will be marrying imminently,” the Mirror quoted a source as saying.
“They are very excited and almost everything is in place. Friends and family have been put on standby.”
New York-born Nancy, 51, had told pals the wedding was set to go ahead in Britain “after Labor Day”, the annual American bank holiday on the first Monday in September.
Boxes of champagne flutes and stacks of chairs have arrived at the music legend’s 933-acre estate.
“Nancy would have liked to get married in New York, but she knew an English wedding would make Paul happy,” the source said.
“In the end they decided to marry in the UK and have a party for all their American friends at their home in the Hamptons later. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple so besotted with each other,” the source added.
The couple will return to the US for the opening night of the rocker’s debut ballet, Ocean’s Kingdom, but could return for the wedding as early as next month.
They have already selected their rings from the famed Neil Lane jewellers in Los Angeles, according to reports.
This will be McCartney’s third marriage.
---hindustsntimes.com

Author uncovers John Lennon's letters

2011-08-31T09:30:00.000-06:00

More than 250 letters and cards sent by John Lennon to his family and friends are to be published for the first time.

Author Hunter Davies, who wrote the only official biography of The Beatles in the 1960s, is trying to track down every missive written by the singer.

"I've found a lot of letters that nobody's ever seen," he said.
Davies, whose book comes out next year, said it was the first time Lennon's widow Yoko Ono had given permission for his private letters to be published.
The author said there were "no dramatic revelations" but that the letters gave an insight into Lennon's life and his humour.
"You see him as a tortured soul," he said. "You see him being funny, you see him showing off, you see him depressed, you see him in different stages."
Davies has tracked down some correspondence through auction houses that have sold Lennon memorabilia over the years.
Relatives, members of the Beatles inner circle, memorabilia dealers and collectors have also given access to letters.
"His first reaction to any emotion, whether it was fury or amazement or hatred, was not really to go to the piano or the guitar," the author said of Lennon.
"He was just as likely to pick up a pen and write it. And he wrote such amusing letters.

A letter to Lennon's first wife Cynthia was auctioned at Christie's in 2006

"When he wrote a letter or a postcard to somebody, he saw it as a challenge to write a unique piece for them and to amuse them and respond to their humour."
Mr Davies was speaking at the annual Beatles Convention in Liverpool, part of International Beatle Week, which drew fans from around the world for tribute bands, talks, tours and a memorabilia fair.
The speakers also included Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird, who wrote the story of their family in her memoir Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon.
She said she had to set the record straight after being confronted by inaccuracies in accounts by Beatles experts.
"When I die I will know that I didn't let my mother's name be sullied and do nothing about it," she told the BBC.
"I was exasperated for a long, long time, and then I thought, you've got to do something with that energy. So I decided to write."
The event also saw John Lennon's original band return to the high school where they founded the group that would become The Beatles.
On Saturday, The Quarrymen performed in the school hall at Quarry Bank School, now called Calderstones School, where they played with Lennon as teenagers in the 1950s.
Banjo player Rod Davis - who was replaced by Paul McCartney in the band - said: "It was great fun.
"The school hall looks even better than I remember it 50-odd years ago. We actually played on that stage for a couple of school dances. So it was pretty authentic really."

--By Ian Youngs Entertainment reporter, BBC News

McCartney & Turpentine? 10 Things You Might Not Know About Sir Paul

2011-08-16T09:52:00.000-06:00

Few lives have been as thoroughly documented as the life of Paul McCartney. Biographies – both of The Beatles and Sir Paul – number in the hundreds, many filled with minute details about the public and private life of the former Beatle. Still, we managed to unearth a few interesting tidbits that may have eluded all but the most avid fans. Feel free to chime in, in the comments section, with interesting McCartney facts we might have missed.
10. The artist who showed him the option to play guitar left-handed was… Slim Whitman.
McCartney’s father bought him a trumpet for McCartney’s 14^th birthday, but the young lad had his dad exchange it for a cheap acoustic. The future Beatle struggled mightily with the instrument until he happened upon a photograph of Slim Whitman, the country yodeler who played guitar lefty-style. McCartney flipped his guitar, modified the string setup, and soon wrote his first song, a ditty titled “I Lost My Little Girl.”
9. Long before the edict came down from Brian Epstein, McCartney himself insisted that he and Lennon be nattily attired.
In the very first show McCartney did with The Quarrymen, he outfitted the band in matching shirts and string ties. Furthermore, to set himself and Lennon apart from the others, he came up with the idea that the two frontmen should wear matching cream-colored blazers. All of 15 at the time, McCartney muffed his first turn in the spotlight when he botched his featured guitar solo on the Arthur Smith tune, “Guitar Boogie.”
8. “Yesterday” is the most recorded song in history. But nipping at its heels is a song by… Tony Orlando and Dawn.
According to Guinness World Records, more than 1,600 different cover versions of “Yesterday” have been recorded to date. The popular standard, “Stardust,” ranks second, with more than 1,500 recorded versions. Incredibly, however, the 1973 Tony Orlando and Dawn hit, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” rates nearly as high, with well over 1,000 recorded versions out there, somewhere.
7. It was he who salvaged The Beatles’ legendary summit with Elvis Presley.
While in Los Angeles in 1965, The Beatles went to Elvis’s house in Bel Air to meet The King for the first time. According to McCartney biographer Peter Ames, Lennon irritated Presley with talk of Vietnam and by flirting with Elvis’s wife, Priscilla. McCartney saved the day with the words, “Can we play some music?” An impromptu jam ensued (with Elvis on bass) wherein the group played a clutch of Presley hits.
6. The only instance in which McCartney has utilized a string quartet, other than on “Yesterday,” was on a tribute song he wrote for John Lennon.
String sections have been employed on lots of McCartney’s songs, of course, both with the Beatles and post-Beatles. But with the exception of “Yesterday,” the only time McCartney enlisted a string quartet was on “Here Today,” the moving remembrance of John Lennon he wrote for his 1982 Tug of War album. Tug of War also marked McCartney’s reunion with George Martin, who produced the disc.
5. One of the first bands he tried to sign to Apple Records was… Chicago.
During a trip to Los Angeles in the spring of 1968, when McCartney was trying to get the newly launched Apple Corps off the ground, he went to the Whisky a Go Go to take in a B.B. King show. An upstart group called Chicago Transit Authority happened to be on the bill as well. Impressed, McCartney tried to recruit them as an Apple band, but alas, the group were already in talks with Columbia Records.
4. His favorite band at the dawn of 1965 was… The Who.
Released in January 1965, The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” impressed McCartney to the point that he proclaimed The Who his favorite band. Coming at a time when groups like Herman’s Hermits and Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders were dominating the charts, McCartney’s proclamation was remarkably prescient. Throughout that year, The Who would assail the singles charts with soon-to-be classics like “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere” and “My Generation.”
3. Before they became Wings, McCartney’s post-Beatles band nearly became… a paint thinner.
In August 1971, when he was trying to get his post-Beatles band off the ground, McCartney was having a terrible time coming up with a name for the nascent group. Among the top name-candidates floated were The Dazzlers and, for reasons unknown, Turpentine. Alas, while praying for his wife, Linda, as she was giving birth to their daughter, the image of “wings” kept springing to mind.
2. He began reversing The Beatles’ “Lennon-McCartney” songwriting designation as early as 1976.
Although The Beatles first album, Please Please Me, featured songs credited to “McCartney-Lennon,” McCartney famously acceded to pressure to henceforth adopt the designation, “Lennon-McCartney.” But when Wings released their live triple-album, Wings Over America, in 1976, McCartney elected to designate the five featured Beatles songs as “McCartney-Lennon” compositions. He continued the practice on other post-Beatles albums.
1. His 1980 hit, “Coming Up,” was a prime factor in John Lennon’s decision to get back into music.
This charming ditty, from McCartney’s homespun 1980 album, McCartney II, was first heard by Lennon as he was traveling with his assistant, Fred Seaman. The next morning, Lennon confessed to Seaman that he couldn’t get the song’s distinctive riff out of his head. Seaman later said the track stirred the muse in Lennon. “If Paul was writing decent music,” Seaman wrote, in his memoir, “John felt compelled to take up the challenge.”
---gibson.com

First Beatles Club In Cuba Opens

2011-08-12T09:21:00.002-06:00

Beatlemania has made its way to Havana, Cuba with the opening of the country's own version of the Yellow Submarine Club.

The club in honor of the Beatles—whose music was outlawed by dictator Fidel Castro for years-has been opened by the Cultural Ministry, who charge $2.50 for entry, as part of a push to revitalize nightlife in the country's capital. The club features the band's music, Beatles-inspired memorabilia and posters on the walls, and waiters in black vests.
A report in Britain's Daily Mail newspaper noted that "queues formed outside the club to hear the house band play hits including 'Dear Prudence' and 'Let it Be.' And as the music plays, there are guitars and Beatles lyrics on the walls of the bright yellow and blue interior."
A Cuban fan of the club told the Havana Journal: "You don't understand. This music, it used to be banned."
The legalization of the Beatles' music came after Castro attended a concert by the Manic Street Preachers.

by RTT Staff Writer
rttnews.com

John Lennon art on show at new Scottish Beatles festival

2011-08-12T09:20:00.000-06:00

HE SAW himself as the Statue of Liberty, and doodled a human foot and balloon faces blowing in the breeze. These remarkable sketches by John Lennon are to be shown for the first time in Scotland this weekend at a new festival dedicated to The Beatles.

• John & Yoko

The 60 pieces of art, owned by Lennon's widow Yoko Ono, will be on display at the Queen's Hotel in Dundee as part of the first annual Scottish Beatles Weekend.

The festival, organised by Ross Nicoll from the Dundee Beatles tribute band Revolver, will see hundreds of Beatles enthusiasts arrive in the city to take part in a host of activities.

In addition to The Art of John Lennon exhibition, some of the best Beatles acts in Europe will perform in venues around the city over three days. Some 54 musicians in total will travel from France, Holland and Dublin, as well as Liverpool and Glasgow, to take part in the Dundee event.

Mr Nicoll said: "To have the actual artwork of John Lennon himself, four of which have never been on display before, is a real honour and a privilege for our first year.

"We were overjoyed to hear that Yoko Ono had given her blessing for them to come to Dundee and are extremely grateful to her and Jonathan Poole for his work in bringing the exhibition here."

The sketches, on loan from Cheltenham's Compton Casey Gallery, include some never shown before in the UK and include intimate and humorous images of Lennon, Ono and their son Sean.

Mr Poole, who also shows the work of Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood, sought the blessing of Ms Ono to bring the work of her husband to Scotland for the first time.

The exhibition opens this evening and will run all weekend in tandem with an exhibition of the work of Beatles photographer Michael Peto, whose work was gifted to the archive of Dundee University after his death.

The rarely seen photos were taken in 1965, during the period in which the band filmed Help, and show the Fab Four relaxing at home and with their then manager Brian Epstein.

Mr Nicoll, a lifelong Beatles fan who has been playing their music since he was eight years old, first came up with the idea of an annual Scottish Beatles event last October during the flight back from a Beatles convention in Belgium.

Speaking in advance of the weekend's final preparations, he said, "The support we have had so far is incredible.
"We have fourteen of the best Beatles bands from both home and abroad performing over the course of the weekend as well as some real coups in our film, theatre and exhibition section."

For the full programme and ticket information visit: www.scottishbeatlesweekend.com/programme

-----Stephen McGinty
news.scotsman.com

Theatre renamed after Beatles manager Brian Epstein

2011-07-28T09:06:00.000-06:00

A revamped Liverpool theatre has been renamed in honour of the former Beatles manager Brian Epstein.

Liverpool City Council is looking for new owners for the Epstein Theatre - formerly the Neptune Theatre - after a £1m refurbishment.
"It is a fantastic opportunity to say thank you to one of our greatest sons," said Councillor Joe Anderson, leader of Liverpool City Council.
The Grade II listed building was closed for safety reasons in 2005.
The city council met £750,000 of the £1m cost of revamping the theatre, with £250,000 coming from the theatre's landlord, Hanover Estate Management Ltd.
Restoring it has been a personal dream for Mr Anderson, who said: "We want it to be a theatre not just for entertainment but for use by the community.
''I'm delighted Brian's family accepted our request to rename this venue the Epstein Theatre."
He added: "It has been brought back to life."

Epstein died at the height of the Beatles' success

An Epstein family spokesman said: "It's a wonderful homage to Brian.
"He loved the theatre and knew this one well.
"Just above Crane's Music Shop and only a few minutes walk from N.E.M.S (North End Music Stores) - the family business in Great Charlotte Street - Brian, along with his brother Clive and parents Queenie and Harry, would often catch a performance."
The Neptune Theatre opened in 1913 as Crane's Music Hall and was taken over by the council in 1967, the year of Epstein's death.
He took an accidental overdose of sleeping pills at the height of the Beatles' success. He was 32 years old.

----bbcnews.com

Sir Paul McCartney to perform at London Olympics

2011-07-28T09:04:00.002-06:00

Former Beatle Paul McCartney will perform at the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympics, Olympics officials said.
McCartney told Olympic organizers he is "up" for performing at the opening ceremony next July 27 but details of the performance are yet to be ironed out, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The Rolling Stones reportedly declined an offer to perform and Led Zeppelin was staying away after singer Robert Plant reportedly said he wasn't interested.
Billions worldwide will watch the opening ceremony and a music industry source reportedly told the Daily Mirror the hope was to have all of Britain's classic rockers perform at the opening ceremony.
"The hope was to have the cream of British music all in the lineup, but it now looks like Macca [McCartney] will be joined by some younger stars on stage," the source told the Daily Mirror. "But of all the people you would want, McCartney is No 1. He is the ultimate showman and guaranteed to get the Olympics off to a great start."
Plans to have McCartney, 69, joined by Ringo Starr, the only other surviving member of the Beatles, were stymied because the former Beatles drummer will be touring the United States at the time.
Getting McCartney's commitment to perform reportedly calmed the nerves of Olympics organizers faced with matching Beijing's opening ceremony four years ago.
The Beijing opening ceremony featured choreographed performances from some 15,000 performers and cost more than $100 million.

Paul McCartney: Busting a few myths

2011-07-22T10:58:00.000-06:00

Paul McCartney isn’t one to undermine his fans’ expectations. With tickets as pricey as $250 plus service fees for his concerts July 31 and Aug. 1 at Wrigley Field, he is certain to deliver plenty of vintage Beatles and Wings-era hits.

McCartney in stadium-pleasing mode remains formidable, a brilliant musician with an excellent band anchored by drummer Abe Laboriel. But he’s also a rare ‘60s icon: one who still is making vital albums.One of the frustrating aspects of the modern, over-priced stadium show is that it often precludes risk-taking by veteran performers. In many cases, there’s a good reason for that: Their recent material is drab if not embarrassing. McCartney’s a different story, however. Those who wrote him off in the ‘80s and ‘90s need to take another look. Those who loved the bold experimentation of his Beatles work have some catching up to do.

With McCartney set to hit town for his first shows here since 2005, it’s time to bust some long-standing myths about him and examine the relatively underappreciated corners of his music, including some of the stuff he won’t play at Wrigley.

Myth No. 1: John was the edgy one

John Lennon was the edgy rocker, McCartney the lightweight balladeer. That’s bunk.

Sure, Lennon battered down the doors of perception in Beatles songs such as “Strawberry Fields,” “I Am the Walrus” and “Rain,” and confronted reality with jarring directness in solo tracks such as “Cold Turkey,” “Mother” and “God.” But he also wrote some gloriously sentimental tunes about how “love is all you need,” and later, once he left the Beatles, allowed himself to get positively mushy about his newfound domesticity.

McCartney was more likely to dispense group hugs – rare was the ‘60s rocker who empathized with the older generation in songs such as “She’s Leaving Home.” His very English tributes to dancehall music (“When I’m 64”) or his sheepdog (“Martha My Dear”) are about as un-rock ‘n’ roll as you can get. But McCartney balanced these moments with more than his share of experimentation, daring and, yes, Lennon-like intensity.

"Helter Skelter,” in many ways a forerunner of heavy metal, was McCartney unhinged – the throat-shredding vocal, the distortion-saturated attack, the clenched-teeth tension in the studio relieved only by drummer Ringo Starr blurting “I got blisters on me fingers!” as the song crashes to a close.

McCartney helped invent progressive rock, too, by conceptualizing and then stitching together (along with producer George Martin) the song fragments that make up Side 2 of the 1969 masterpiece “Abbey Road.”

The gonzo guitar solo in George Harrison’s “Taxman”? McCartney.

That ferocious soul shouter on “I’m Down” – the screams, the demented laugh, the increasingly hysterical outro? McCartney again, giving Little Richard and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins their due.

But above all, McCartney was a studio-as-instrument chemist of the first order. It was McCartney who gave Lennon’s “Tomorrow Never Knows” its mind-blowing atmosphere by creating and altering sound-effect tape loops at his home. He was the Beatle paying closest attention to the experimental fringe of classical and electronic music at the time, lapping up Stockhausen and Cage alongside the Shirelles and Motown as influences. One of the finest examples of McCartney’s ability to bend space, time and minds, the 14-minute collage "Carnival of Light," remains locked in the Beatles vaults.

After the Beatles broke up, the amiable gentleman of pastoral leisure could still get downright weird amid bouts of schmaltz and indifference; his solo work shows far greater range than Lennon’s, from the whimsical yet dazzling inscrutability of “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” to his ahead-of-their-time electronic albums as the Fireman with the producer Youth.

Myth No. 2: Paul's just the bass player

Sure, and Mozart was just a hack piano player from Salzburg. The bass may be an unsung instrument, but it’s the bedrock of rock ‘n’ roll and soul. What’s more, McCartney reinvented its role in the Beatles, not just laying down a foundation for the song but often playing a strong counterpoint to the lead vocal. One of the reasons the Beatles’ songs sound so rich is the depth of composition, the melodic and harmonic layers – and McCartney’s ability to straddle rhythm and melody on bass was critical.

His flair was already apparent on the band’s earliest hits; on “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1964), the bass is on equal footing with the guitars, and it’s like a song in itself on “Michelle” (1965). By the time of “Paperback Writer” (1966), McCartney is the lead instrumentalist, ushering in each verse like Britain’s answer to Motown’s James Jamerson. He’s nearly in subterranean funk territory with the deep tones of “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” (1967) and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” (1968), and stomps likeGodzilla through “Rain” (1966) and “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey” (1968).

His knack for adapting his approach to whatever the song and the times demanded was key to the Beatles’ wide-ranging catalog, and it’s evident in his post-Beatles recordings as well. Denigrate “Silly Love Songs” (1976) all you want, but that bass line will pull you on the dancefloor everytime. He’s a soul-man extraordinaire on the slow-burn “Let Me Roll It” (1973) and a machine-gunning rocker on “Soily” (1976). He navigates “Lonely Road” (2001) with a thrilling authority; listen closely and you can his amplifier buzzing.

Myth No. 3: His music’s gone downhill ever since Wings broke up

After some strong albums with his band Wings in the ‘70s, McCartney put things on cruise control during much of the ‘80s and ‘90s. In that sense, his career followed the arch of many ‘60s greats whose music nose-dived, never to regain its potency. But McCartney rediscovered his mojo in recent years, joining a handful of artists – Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Paul Simon and Neil Young come immediately to mind – whose late-career work blows past nostalgia.

On “Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard” (2005), McCartney revisited the one-man-band approach he took on his 1970 solo debut and its 1980 follow-up, “McCartney II,” and trumped them both. It’s an album of small, intimate chamber-pop songs, with McCartney playing everything from drums to a flugelhorn. McCartney probably hasn’t heard the word “no” much the last few decades, but in this case producer Nigel Godrich deserves credit for not letting the bassist slide. Cool details abound: piano and strings melting into a dream-like bridge on "Fine Line"; the way two recurring notes on a toy glockenspiel become a beacon on "Riding to Vanity Fair"; the acoustic reverie “Jenny Wren,” with its wordless vocal and mournful duduk melody.

“Memory Almost Full” (2007) is even better, an unusually personal album by McCartney standards. He touches on mortality and his recent divorce without melodrama, and "Nod Your Head" and "Only Mama Knows" rock as hard as anything he’s done. In "The End of the End," he imagines his own wake, and manages to pull it off with grace, humility and humor.

His third Fireman collaboration with Youth, “Electric Arguments” (2008), is the best of all, an accomplished combination of melody and experimental mirth.

It’s the first Fireman album with vocals, and McCartney role-plays to the hilt: a mischievous elf, a growling blues patriarch, even a hint of Bono-esque bombast. "Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight" blows open the album like the son of “Helter Skelter,” and ends with McCartney barking like a dog. No, this is not your cuddly ‘60s icon coasting gracefully on his past accomplishments.
----chicagotribune.com