This is really heartless journalism...it's MUCH worse than C.J.



http://www.thisislondon.c..._id=605850

"Respect and admiration: these we had always felt. But the one emotion none of us had experienced for a very long time towards this tireless, smiling and truly great British institution was love. Then came that glorious pop concert in the grounds of Buckingham Palace and ... nothing changed. Well, not if it's Sir Paul McCartney we're talking about.

Maybe it was cosmic payback for that time he and the lads smoked pot in the Palace loos while picking up their MBEs; maybe it goes to show that a continual diet of nut roasts and tofu can seriously damage your charisma; maybe God is a huntsman; maybe we've still never got over the Frog Chorus.

Whatever the reason, the sad fact is that not even a headline appearance at the most goodwill-laden pop concert since Live Aid could salvage McCartney's reputation as the Beatle we have all grown to not love very much. In fact, if anything, it probably helped it plummet still further.

All right, so Macca had some pretty stiff competition from Ozzy Osbourne looking every one of his 1,001 years as a member of the undead, from Ben Elton rehashing his tired old routine and from Brian May looking, as he always does, like an especially poncy Crufts show poodle called something like Beelzebub Fandango III.

But still, when it came to inducing sheer toe-curling embarrassment in his audience of millions, poor double-thumbs-up, wobbly jowled, your-ridiculous-dad-when-he's- trying-to-be-cool-and-failing-really-badly, Macca was in a league of his own. Especially when you consider the inappropriate amount of dye he appeared to drown his hair in before waltzing on stage. At least none of his ageing contemporaries resorted to such vanity.

Of course, the flamboyant billing by his old producer George Martin didn't help. By introducing McCartney as "the most singular talent in the history of all mankind, creator of the universe, divine being etc etc" (I forget the exact wording but it was something pretty similar), Martin not only seemed to forget that it was the Queen's big day, not Macca's, but also raised expectations for the ensuing performance that McCartney couldn't possibly fulfil.


Sure enough, McCartney didn't. No doubt when you've a back catalogue as compendious as his, it's not easy deciding which ones to cram into your 15-minute slot. I was delighted that among the songs he chose were that sweetly elegiac bit from the end of Abbey Road and the simple, charming Blackbird, and that among the ones he didn't choose was that mawkish dirge Yesterday. But I'm not sure many of his audience felt quite so enthusiastic.

He said he couldn't resist that joky couplet from Her Majesty ("Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl/But she doesn't have a lot to say") but it was, like most of his act, a misjudgment of the public mood. Because the musical reference went over most people's heads, all that remained was a vague sense of mild discourtesy, which is probably why no one clapped or cheered.

Blackbird was a better choice, except that he didn't sing it particularly well, his voice presumably exhausted by his recent gigs in America (where, unlike here, he is still adored). On While My Guitar Gently Weeps, he was eclipsed by Eric Clapton; on Hey Jude, he was drowned by the audience.

Perhaps, given the state of his vocals, this last was a mercy except, unfortunately it gave Macca the opportunity to go into Butlins compere mode (inviting first all the girls to sing; then the boys), a horrible trick which never fails to curdle an audience's blood and which surely managed to kill in an instant what little of Macca's credibility remained from his days as a Beatle.

Am I being terribly unfair? Well, yes, probably, but since at least the time of Wings, when studio engineers made those famously cruel tapes in which they isolated Linda's out-of-tune vocals, unfairness and Paul McCartney have gone hand in hand. Almost everything you read and hear indicates that here is a genuinely nice guy, a man of integrity, a lover of nature, and a truly sublime talent. Yet all we can do is mock his naff matiness, scoff at his eco earnestness and blame him for not being John Lennon.

It is Lennon who lies at the root of McCartney's ills. By having had the brilliant career sense to get shot while his musical reputation was intact, and before anyone realised what a sour, nasty hypocrite he was (funding the IRA while calling for world peace; preaching no possessions from his many mansions), Lennon will always be thought of by us as the clever, cool, talented one, leaving McCartney to linger on as the nice, boring and increasingly wrinkly one.

McCartney knows this. Indeed, the chippiness, insecurity and desperation we can all too easily glimpse beneath that carefree veneer may well explain why we feel the way we do. Being a great pop star requires a tremendous amount of self-belief. If McCartney doesn't think he makes the grade, why should we?

Yes, it may be that we have an awful lot of evidence to the contrary, from She's Leaving Home to Eleanor Rigby and beyond. But all that does is to make our relationship with Macca more uneasy still. We'd like to love him; we know, deep down, that he deserves it. Unfortunately, though, he hasn't been shot and it's not his Golden Jubilee.


"By having had the brilliant career sense to get shot while his musical reputation was intact, and before anyone realised what a sour, nasty hypocrite he was.."



I thought this was a particularly low blow...and I wonder if this guy got a bad seat or something...such nastiness!

I have recently been watching a BBC entertainment info show, Liquid Television I think it is called, and I've noticed they are much more critical of celebrities than American shows. Just yesterday I was watching & they were doing a piece on Moby opening a tea shop in NYC. They kept referring to Moby as scrawny. Its that type of thing that you get in American tabloids but seldom on TV.

Whereas the American TV media will refrain from, say, calling anybody "fat" on air for fear of appearing as politically-incorrect to the masses, the British like to think they are much more liberated in their assessment of celebrities than their American counterparts (as well as much more "honest" and unencumbered by arse-kissing protocol)

They will call a celebrity anything ("scrawny" is just the tip of the iceberg), and nobody in the UK will bat an eyelid.

A little off topic but Paul's ticket prices are more out of line then Prince's.

I saw something on tv when they asked him why his prices were so high and he answered, "Do you expect me to play for free?"

It made me laugh because $250 isn't anywhere near free.

I'm reporting this thread to the moderator for being in the wrong forum!

2the9s said:

I am seconding the report to moderator...

Reporting threads to the moderator makes me feel like a tough guy!

:LOL:

2the9s said:

Wah, wah big baby.

I really don't care for Paul's dyed hair myself..I guess that is what happens when a 60 year old male marries a thirty something person.

In all honesty he really did look handsome with that salt and pepper hair..

This thread has been reported.

sag10 said:

This post has been reported too!

2the9s said:

Oh grow up & get some big pants!

Nep2nes said:

yooo,Nep!!! !!!...how iz ya?



btw i didnt read any of that

Mc Cartney did the 'Frog Song' ... unforgiveable.

Everytime that pompous, righteous, overblown relic opens his mouth he throws even more dirt over his previous achievements.

His new material is a joke.

IceNine said:

theC
what is it with everybody reportin threads.what we got rent-a-org-cops up in here???

I wouldn't say ALL of us, dear C.

Im reporting this thread because Neps has not had a thread closed down in the last few days.

theC said:

I think that 2the9s was making a joke... undt I was seconding the motion... you know... for fun and entertainment...

IceNine said:

But I was perfectly serious.

IceNine said:

theC
he was,u know i'm effin witcha
as 4 goldie

Christopher said:

I dont think any1 did...unfortunately.

It's better than "Knock Knock", tho' dont u think?

Antony7 said:

Don't worry..God will wipe away every tear from ur eye...

Hopefully u live by ur signature!

(And I know 4 a fact u didnt read this, btw)

I can't believe no1 was shocked by this mutant-C.J.

The crudeness of that article was uncalled 4, IMO. Abnother case of people living in the past.

Let Paul b his own man...he's given us so much good music, that I don't care if he dyes his hair pink! he has a right 2 charge whatever he wants 2 charge...he's a former Beatle u know!

If u don't want 2 attend, don't attend.

that article seems spot on to me.