I read that “Memory Almost Full” is an anagram for “For my soulmate LLM (Linda Louise McCartney). And lo and behold, it is.

That puts quite a spin on this record, wouldn’t ya say?

Paul is quoted referring to the song, “That Was Me:”

“There were two people in the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, and I was one of them. …One guy who wrote, ‘Yesterday,’ and I was him. One..who wrote..’Let It Be,’ ‘Fool on the Hill,’ ‘Lady Madonna’ –…all of these things would be enough for anyone’s life.”

He really said everything there is to say about realizing you’re an artist and trying to create the best work you’re able to, with what you have and what comes to you. How many of us get to contribute the tiniest fraction of what he had offered the world?

The Shamus took the words right off of my fingertips. There is nothing wrong with this record. Paul’s post-Beatles career has those few standout records (the aforementioned and truly excellent Chaos being the most recent, ) but (except for some of the lyrics as noted by Ned) “Memory Almost Full” is just another in a long line of interchangeable, innocuous, tuneful efforts.

But in this ever-changing world in which we live in - that’s not a bad thing.

I dig it. Tons of McCartney melodies - they’re all over the place. The guy can roll out of bed humming a winner, I swear.

I particularly enjoyed End of the End, actually - very light, very straightforward. He says it comes from a covnersation he had with an old Irish woman years ago, who wished him a happy death.

Vintage Clothes - well, it comes within a clunky arrangement of being one of those easy McCartney classics. Over-produced, too many sounds. I’d love to hear him to that one Yesterday or Let It Be style.

Then you can toss in something like, “you know - Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, The Who are all heavily sampled…”

I loved that Prague has a Beatles’ wall, that the communists used to paint over and over and the students would repaint again and again. One of my teachers in Prague learned English first through the Beatles.

I also love that when I was in China, in a bar listening to a Chinese singer-songwriter-y type, he broke out into “Let it be,” putting an incredible emphasis on “IT.”

I’ll definitely check out any record Neddie extols.

If anyone else has any ammunition, this old rocker could use it.

We must stand together against the know it all tykes!

The guys who first scratched records and ran DJ samples in the Bronx in the early 70s used classic rock a lot.

Did The Beatles have any influence whatsoever on hip hop and rap?

Discuss.

On Paul and Keith Richards, the mullet worked.

Just a thought.

Crank it up!

Yeeees — Owooooo!

My 15-year-old loves the Beatles. She’s learning guitar so she cam play the songs. Her friends love the Beatles. It amazes me.

This is gonna sound pretentious as all hell, but here goes anyway: The Beatles’ story has the arc and scope of classical tragedy. The heroes are undone by a combination of Epstein’s (the Father’s) death and elements of hubris that were present in them at the beginning of the story — the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership that essentially dissolved very early on. Even the personalities assigned to the four (the handsome one, the quiet one, etc.) are literary archetypes. Note how carefully the artificially created Monkees assumed essentially the same four personalities.

I haven’t read it, but I’m told that one of Nick Hornby’s novels riffs on this idea. (Wish I could remember which one.)

I haven’t heard the album but definitely will seek it out. (He’s got a few albums I’ve never even heard.)

Is there anybody else who thinks “Let ‘Em In” is one of the oddest records ever to become a big AM hit?

Dats Da Beeeetles!

Speaking of
The Beetles…

LOL!

This post started a great conversation around the dinner table with Blue Kid last night. So, I thank you for that, Jeddie.

Blue Kid knows how good The Beatles are/were. He loves ‘em. He’s got all the CDs.

And listen, the fact that we’re all still analyzing the Beatles is testament to their work and talent. I mean, we’ve had what, five Beatles posts here in the last week or so?

(OK, we’re old too - so fucking what? Piss off, youngster! Move along little tyke, there’s nothing to see here.)

Looking forward to the record.

Oog, that full-face photo of Sir Paul! The most uncomplimentary lighting possible! What a horror!

I don’t know about the internal workings at The New Yorker, but they seem to have hired a photog who brings out the absolute worst in his subjects. I remember a full-face photo of Dan Rather last year that should have been the casus belli is an antidefamation suit — the most uncomplimentary photo imaginable…

Reminds me of my problem with getting into new music. I need my music to have some history. A solid foundation. A little gravity.

GlueBirl, you have absolutely hit the nub of the biscuit on the head of the apostrophe.

Paul’s problem post-Lennon’s-assassination is that he’s not, you know, dead. He’s actually had to live into middle age. He didn’t get to give us “Working Class Hero” and then be providentially assassinated. Those of us who’ve accompanied him there deeply appreciate the implicit message in something like “Vintage Clothes,” where the idea is, “I’ve seen this before, honestly it bores me, what else can you show me?”

Since our society seems to work according to ever-narrowing cycles of nostalgia, where what’s hip and what’s square appear to be aimed in tighter and tighter centrifugal circles at each others’ fundamental apertures, we who’ve seen these cycles before become less and less impressed with their allure.

Drop out from the madness! Be your own fashion consultant! Wear and hear and watch what you like, and not what some power-mad sociopath thinks you should wear! There is no more revolutionary act.

You owe it to yourself.

But I thoroughly enjoyed the profile in this week’s New Yorker on Macca by John Colapinto. See if you can pick it up - parts of it quite sad really. They only have an abstract up.

What comes across is that happy-go-lucky Paul has been thoroughly touched by ever-human tragedy and is only starting to realize his - his mum, his bass player, John’s mum, John, Linda, George, his rebound marriage. Lots of melancholy.

I mean, I like silly love songs. But, that’s just me. I’m goopy that way.

The time that I thought would last
My ever present past

Don’t really like that first line, cuz I’ve never felt that way. You knowit doesn’t last. But, I do like the line My ever present past.

Reminds me of my problem with getting into new music. I need my music to have some history. A solid foundation. A little gravity.

Anyway, I could keep writing nonsense, but I’ll stop now. I’ll go see if I can download this. Probably, huh?