The TV thread

I thought that was so cool, what they did in that little pub. And Paul sounded as good as ever.

 

At the 6:00 mark Sir Paul almost starts crying because I'm guessing he got a pretty strong "I miss my mum" feeling singing that song in that city.

edit - OK, wiki just told me he was 14 when she passed away. Damn.

 

Ok. Second hit is free too.

 

I wonder how soon it took before social media hit that a Beatle was playing for free down the street in a pub.

If I had been the lady who owned his house, I would have been standing in the front yard going, "OMG Paul McCartney is in my house playing 'When I'm Sixty-Four' on my old upright piano!!!"

 

One thing that blows my mind about McCartney is how he stayed relatively grounded.

Lennon was a genius, but very much in his own head. His songs were mostly about what it was like to be John Lennon or trippy abstract pieces. I don't think he could have possibly written Eleanor Rigby.

I mean, think about that. At the very height of being a Beatle, Paul stepped back and put himself in the mind of a lonely old woman. Even when they did companion pieces about growing up in Liverpool, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane, Lennon's song was very personal while McCartney wrote about all the people he encountered.

 

Based on how many people were suddenly in the street, she either did or she was on the phone doing it.

James Corden will never forget that one, and it will be hard to beat. It was fabulous television.

Paul has gotten old. I'm going to be a mess when he dies.

 

Honestly, I thought he looked a lot fresher than the last concert clip I saw. I thought he looked rejuvenated there.

And yeah, I'm going to be a mess too. He was my Beatle.

 

She's the tour guide for the house. No one lives in it.

 

No Westworld viewers?

 

I was a mess after John. I was seven or eight when the Beatles broke on Ed Sullivan. My mom thought my younger brother and I doing the twist was a hoot, so she bought me the first two U.S. Beatles albums, "Meet the Beatles" and "The Beatles Second Album". These were the touchstones for my love of rock and roll music. Not only did you get Lennon/McCartney, but those records also gave me Motown, Chuck Berry, Little Richard. I flat wore those records out.

When the group broke up, I wasn't exactly a Yoko hater, but I hated it and she got her share of the blame. Then John went through his lost years, heroin, all that shit. When "Double Fantasy" came out, I had mellowed. I was older. It was good work, other than his insistence on Yoko getting every other track. Still, he had straightened out his life, had a kid, raised him to the point that he was ready to get back to music and tour. I was really happy about it, and happy for him. Yoko filled a need in him, and who was I to question that. He was back. I was going to find a way to see him live. I was jazzed.

Then I'm watching Monday Night Football, Steelers in a game with playoff implications, and out of the blue Howard Cosell says "Well, after all, it's only a game", and I'm thinking what a weird thing that was for him to say, and then he announces that it had come over the wire that John had been shot.

It was crushing. The guy was pretty universally beloved, who the hell would shoot John Lennon? It's a mean old world.

When Paul checks out, it won't be a surprise, but it's going to be really tough.

 

I watched it through to the finale. It's a good reminder, though, why there have been so few American series about the French revolution or the Terror that followed it.

 

McCartney-Carden was great entertainment, fun stuff. I wonder how much was set up in advance, i.e., the house and the pub. Doesn't matter. Really enjoyed it.