Paul McCartney’s Dungeon Lane isn’t quite what it’s marketed as

THE BOYS OF DUNGEON LANE is alright, not great—par for the course of late-period Paul McCartney solo albums.  Due to Sir Paul’s now-advanced age, Paul-does-no-wrong fans are being extra protective and sticking their collective fingers into pairs of ears worldwide.

DUNGEON LANE was hyped as McCartney taking an album-length look at his childhood/early teen years in Liverpool.  Less than half the album is devoted to this subject matter.  The rest includes standard love songs, two musical numbers apparently created for the now-dormant IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE musical, the okay intended-for-live-performances Come Inside and a thankfully non bombastic closing song Momma Gets By, a distant cousin to Lady Madonna which digs a little deeper lyrically than most of what precedes it.

Andrew Watt, who’s now his generation’s answer to Don Was in the 90s (producer who tries to make heritage acts modern-friendly), produces sympathetically, with nods to Rick Rubin, Jeff Lynne and 60s George Martin—plus recording Paul’s voice to obscure the upper register quaver now unavoidable in his live shows.

Here’s my Spotify playlist of Paul looking back on his youth:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/067gJQ0mMOoErDKld0jFqs?si=l9vcLB5HQNawpzZeU6dgAQ&pi=R2rXk8S_Q9qct

The Beatles and Now And Then

Now And Then may not be John Lennon’s best-ever song, but the new, orchestrated and augmented version has an undeniable poignance with the surviving Beatles in the final act of their solo careers.

At this writing, I haven’t gone on to Facebook and Reddit to experience the reactions of first and second generation Beatles fans, who are often less forward-thinking (usually spouting knee-jerk racism towards Yoko Ono) than the Fab Four were.

Kudos to Giles Martin, with the aid of Peter Jackson’s software, for a crisp, immediate remix of Love Me Do (the version with Ringo on drums).

Happy 80th Birthday Paul McCartney: 28 Favorite Deep Cuts

 Beyond the big hits of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, here's a playlist of lesser-known gems: 1. Junk 2. Tomorrow 3. Dear Boy 4. Back Seat Of My Car 5. Mamumia 6. Mrs. Vanderbilt 7. Bluebird 8. Waterfalls 9. Take It Away 10. Here Today 11. Ballroom Dancing 12. No Values 13. Footprints 14. This One 15. Put It There 16. Calico Skies 17. Little Willow 18. Somedays 19. Only Mama Knows 20. End Of The End 21. Jenny Wren 22. Friends To Go 23. On My Way To Work 24. Early Days 25. Summer of 59 26. Frank Sinatra’s Party 27. Find My Way 28. Winter Bird/When Winter Comes

New REVIEWS AND OTHERWISE episode on McCARTNEY 3 2 1

The summit meeting between Paul McCartney and famed record producer/podcast host Rick Rubin is discussed, with some side detours into upcoming Beatle legacy projects like Peter Jackson’s GET BACK miniseries for Disney+ and Paul’s two-volume collection of song lyrics.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2qHMfHTdsGYcwRoU3Tzzfg?si=h3djX0PdRJuNGhttuw1Krg&dl_branch=1

A FEW WORDS ON THE 2014 GRAMMY AWARDS

Happy 70th Paul McCartney: 20 Essential Album Tracks.

Beyond the big hits of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career, here's a playlist of lesser-known gems: 1. Junk 2. Tomorrow 3. Dear Boy 4. Back Seat Of My Car 5. Mamumia 6. Mrs. Vanderbilt 7. Bluebird 8. Waterfalls 9. Take It Away 10. Here Today 11. Ballroom Dancing 12. No Values 13. Footprints 14. This One 15. Put It There 16. Calico Skies 17. Little Willow 18. Somedays 19. Only Mama Knows 20. End Of The End

Re the second Beatles reunion.

Here's Steve Marinucci's take on the recent Paul-and-Ringo-reunited-onstage happening at David Lynch's NYC benefit for the cause of TM ( a couple of years ago, I attended something similar at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood--consisting of Lynch conversing with Laura Dern--plus a Donovan concert with a surprise appearance by Beach Boy and TM practitioner Mike Love): http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2009m4d5-Lynch-concert-update-And-in-the-end-the-love-you-make?cid=examiner-email

As I alluded to in the header, the only other "Beatles reunion" involving a live audience took place about thirty years ago, when Paul, George and Ringo played at the wedding reception of Eric Clapton and Pattie Boyd Harrison.

Hopefully, the Lynch benefit show will either receive TV broadcast or DVD release for those of us unable to be there on the historic occasion.

[UPDATE 4/7/09: Here's a link to the press release announcing remastered reissues of The Beatles catalog in stereo and mono versions--on 9/9/09, the same date as The Fab Four-themed ROCK BAND game: http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2009m4d7-BREAKING-NEWS-EMI-announces-Beatles-remasters-to-be-released-in-September?cid=examiner-email]

Processing random moments of Grammy ceremony 2009.

1. Mrs. Coldplay (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) introducing Radiohead.
2. (tie) I'd thought I'd never live to see Queen Latifah having to prompt the crowd to applaud Dean Martin getting a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy--much less Stevie Wonder getting visually drowned out by end credits/promos on the telecast.
3. Katy Perry's performance of "I Kissed A Girl"--proving that most other current female stars (ranging from Lily Allen to Estelle to Jennifer Hudson and even to Taylor "I want to be Shania in the worst way" Swift) make up in talent what they may lack in terms of Ms. Perry's gorgeous hollowness and status as the co-savior (along with Coldplay) of EMI.
4. Radiohead's surprisingly effective version of "15 Steps" with accompaniment by some USC Marching Band members.
5. Paul McCartney and Neil Diamond seemingly getting less time--combined--than Kid Rock did.
6. The New Orleans tribute. Definitely a highpoint.
7. The Bo Diddley tribute--which makes me wish John Mayer would do nothing but release instrumental blues-guitar records.
8. The female pop/soul torch being passed from a blurry-eyed Whitney Houston to Jennifer Hudson.
9. The end of any hopes for a Led Zeppelin reunion tour--with deserved Grammys to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for RAISING SAND.
10. As he ages, music legend T Bone Burnett (who produced RAISING SAND) looks more and more like William Randolph Hearst.

Geoff Boucher's stupid LA TIMES article on Paul McCartney at Coachella.

Don't ask me how Geoff Boucher's dumb, condescending "is Paul McCartney hip enough for the Coachella music festival" article made the below-the-fold on the front page of today's print edition of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES.

But, in case you haven't read it, here it is: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/01/paul-mccartney.html#comments

For some balance, here's Ann Powers' take:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/01/if-you-need-pro.html

Two interesting POVs on recent Beatles news.

1. John Lennon recently joined the list of celebrities doing posthumous commercials. Steve Marinucci, who runs the website www.abbeyrd.net, has a take on this development:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner~y2008m12d28-Is-it-live-or-is-it-Lennon

2. Allan Koznin, who has covered The Fab Four in the past (as well as having written a book about them), recently wrote an op-ed piece for THE NEW YORK TIMES on the snail's-pace (or sometimes wrongheaded) business decisions made by Apple Corps--namely the procrastinating on CD remasters/mp3 releases of Beatles albums: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/arts/music/27beat.html?_r=1

My favorite revelation of the Koznin article: Apple passed on a 40th anniversary reissue of THE WHITE ALBUM, but agreed to issue an expensive "White Album" commemorative ballpoint pen instead.