Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm probably going to start a war here but...if Jim Morrison were still alive would anyone care about the Doors? I can't help but think it was his tragic and young death that made him and The Doors immortal.

Yeah I think so, when he was still alive they had the same amount of respect and had their fanatics even then. I think like with all of those artists that die young like Hendrix, Joplin, Holly, Elvis, etc, their later stuff may not have been as exciting and fresh as their early groundbreaking stuff if they had lived, but I think they all would have still been recognized as having being great and been recognized as being groundbreakers in their prime, much like McCartney is viewed by some today. God forbid but can you imagine how The Beatles would have been viewed if their plane had gone down in 1968?
You know, actually at one time country and western were two different types of music. I believe anyway.

What's the quote...nothing sells like death? A premature death is a sure-fire way to jumpstart album sales? Live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse? Baby needs a new pair of shoes?

If the Beatles had all perished back in 1968, we would have been spared:

1. Octopus's Garden
2. Bagism
3. Sentimental Journey
4. Wild Life
5. endless candlelight vigils (no, actually, we probably would have had them following this theoretical plane crash)
6. Free As A Bird & Real Love

Okay, so we would have missed a lot of misguided fun. Except for #6; shameless. That the world could have done without.

McCartney has no values (except the campaign against landmines - that's an important and noble one, but that comes from his wife).

McCartney has no soul. (plastic soul man, plastic soul).

Mick, I respectfully disagree (wholeheartedly) with your position on Paul. I hope you were just kidding. Maybe this is a joke I didn't get....

try to run....try to hide

BREAK ON THRU TO THE OTHER SIDE!!!

dum dum dum dee dum dum dee dumm dum

etc

My favourite Fab while I was growing up was James Paul. But, as time has gone on, I've grown much less enamoured with Mr. McCartney.

Not that any of us will ever really know, but McCartney has (to me) always come off as a show-off (okay, a lot of it justified), a me-first kinda guy. Even the "official" carefully edited Beatles DVD set can't hide the fact that McCartney likes to talk about himself. Blah, blah, blah.

Harrison and Starr are much more reserved and...and...normal. Okay, so those two weren't the real creative power in the band, but many wonder how the Beatles legacy would have unfolded if Lennon hadn't been murdered; though he was, but of course, highly under Yoko's influence. But hey, what partner isn't under their husband or wife's influence?

I find McCartney almost embarrassing now. Personally, I'd wish he'd STOP touring. Does he need the money? No, but the endless mugging to (and of) the audience, and the pointless encoure of Hey Friggin' Jude debases the Beatles' memory. What does he want to be, The Rolling Stones????

Look at me, I'm Paul McCartney.

There comes a time for all Gods to leave for Valhalla.

Go away now.

Geez Mick Tell that to the Russian's at the Red Square concert.

I like seeing the old stalwarts that probably have forgotten more music than most of these young bands will ever play still out the rocking. I know that at 52 I'm much better than I was when I was 30 and I'm still learning. I agree McCartney will probably never top what he did with The Beatles. But let the people who enjoy seeing him see him. Just because people get older doesn't mean that should go sit in their rocking chair. I hope I'm playing when I'm 85 and I know I'll be better.
You get something when you get older, that something is called depth, most younger people woudn't know what that means although they would think they did. The less you know, the more you think you know and vice versa. The more you know, the more you realize that there is much more out there to learn about music.

I couldn't agree more. At 27 I've already gone through evolutions and I'm excited to know more are coming.

Hey, I can't argue with any of those past sentiments; well put!

(For the record, I am almost 42, so it's not like I'm some spring chicken).

The Russians can have him. Personally, I am weary of McCartney for reasons I've already blabbed on about.

I love the Beatles, but do not worship them. Time, and music, moves on. If we just clung to that which we know, well...there never would have been a Beatles.

No doubt there were people who dumped on them back in 62, 63, 64..."not as good as the real stuff...the original rock and rollers have forgotten more about music than these Fab Four can remember...".

George Harrison thought that his friend's doing The Rutles was a good thing, as the Beatles needed a little air taken out of the myth.

But that does not mean, in any way, that it lessens my love and appreciation for their music.

I love the art, but not necessarily the artist.

...a friend of mine used to say, "if you didn't have a chance to die young, then you'd better be immortal". God knows what he meant...

Nice post Bob (Young).
IMO, if McCartney had never done anything other than play bass, then he would still be world famous as being one of the most creative & solid bass players of our time.

For my buck and a half, I'm in with Mick 100%.

I also agree with Mr. Carey completely and would like to add to what he said:

I wish he'd never done anything except play bass. And sing.

His bass bops and his voice is tops.

The Russians experienced the Beatles as forbidden legends who disbanded before the Wall fell and the Union went with it.

Now that they can have their legends (almost) unencumbered, they'll eat it up until they, too have had their fill.

I try to be selective in my Sir Paul discography, and I also work hard at disconnecting the overbearing, egocentric personality from his music. This, of course, means that to me his Beatles stuff is the most meaningful.

Since the Beatles, he has shown great facility as a commercial jingle writer (with sometimes five or six nuggets per song!). He seems to have the attention span of a gnat, but that is an illusion. It's actually that he has a lot of shallow, poppy ideas and not a whole lot of patience to develop them without going nonlinear on us.

Whoops! Another theme! is how it feels everytime I hear another sixteen bars of a new McCartney "composition".

Hey, I'd still rather listen to McCartney's worst song collection than anything in the top 10 today. I don't hear a lot of "songwriting craft" in Switch by Will Smith, Pretty Ricky, the Black Eyed Peas or Ciara (I'm sorry if that went right over most people's heads.)

Zoom!

Paul, don't hold back now, haha!

The last McCartney album I bought was Ram, his 2nd... when it was new. But actually I have a Russian copy of his rock n roll LP someone gave me.