Paul is dead
Monday, 26 March 2007
I really like Paul McCartney’s music. I don’t love it. I don’t own much of it. But I really do like it a lot and I turn up the radio when it appears.
I love John Lennon’s music. There is a lot of it I dislike but on the whole I really admire his catalog and I own a lot of it. I prefer to listen to it alone. Someone talking during one of his songs is a mood bursting irritant.
It’s 2007. John’s been dead for 26 years. All I’ve seen of Paul in that time has been some peripheral vegetarian boosterism and a timid, passive aggressive sort of defensiveness about his occasional arrest for pot.
I can’t help but wonder what we might have seen of John in the 9,604 days since Mark David Chapman took him away. What else might have been said and who might have been ready to listen–
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV /
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free /
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see /
A working class hero is something to be… “Working Class Hero,” John Lennon
Discussion
Comments
Re: Paul is dead
I think I wore the needle out when I got that record many years ago.
What prompted this post?
The two most imaginative, creative members of the band are dead.
Well, well, well. Oh well.
By jody on 26 March 2007 · 03:54
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Re: Paul is dead
I was just thinking about influential popular culture voices against the “war” and I could not think of a single convincing one. And I started to wonder why that was so and I realized it wasn’t always.
Now I’m just making myself sad. Well, at least I know the person who made the hamster dance web page will go to Hell. That cheers me up a little.
By A is A on 26 March 2007 · 10:33
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> influential popular culture voices against the “war”
Justin Timberlake, ya loser!
Seriously though, Neil Young comes to mind.
By jody on 26 March 2007 · 11:35
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If a few of the younger superstars like Timberlake would be very vocal about it I’d count them. Staging love-ins, doing the talk-shows and talking about it instead of their new ______s. Activism requires actual activity. Kind of mumbling, “Yeah, war sucks,” now and then is nothing. The vocal celebs like Sarandon and Depp flub the message by basing Bush and Co instead of the warlike behavior that all the serious Democratic candidates have promised to perpetuate and all but a handful voted for from the jump.
I liked Neil Young dearly but I consider him something of an uber-has-been who is so busy fading away he doesn’t realize how burned out he’s become. Ho-ho. I blame him for ruining Pearl Jam. A band with 500 or so albums and approximately 15 songs you can listen to, and most of them were on Ten.
By A is A on 26 March 2007 · 14:43
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Re: Paul is dead
To be fair, Paul has not been completely mute on the subject of war, as in this snippet from his 1997 Calico Skies:
Long live all of us crazy soldiers Who were born under calico skies May we never be called to handle All the weapons of war we despise
but this admittedly feels like a halfhearted diversion in the context of a larger love song. Maybe he thinks the public would only accuse him of trying to follow in the shadow of his former band mate, and so he's relegated himself to the world of landmines and baby seal clubbing.
As for today, Arlo Guthrie comes to mind as a pretty vocal demonstrator. He just had - or might still be in the midst of - his Alice's Restauraunt revival tour.
By Joseph on 27 March 2007 · 16:49
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Re: Paul is dead
I really dig Arlo. One of the few acts from back in the day I’ve seen live (a story sort of about it)… I doubt 10% of Americans even know who he is though. :( Or his dad.
And I do like Paul. I just miss John and really do wonder.
By A is A on 27 March 2007 · 17:51
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