ES-Say #49 She Came In Through Cavendish Avenue...

     Street Signs That Should Be Framed(Photo: Meredith Evonne)

Last time I took a trip to St. John's Wood in London, I thought I found one of Paul's famous homes. He seems to have many homes and I can't keep track. Not only can't I list them all, but I made the mistake of taking a picture just because a home was next to Abbey Road Studios. As Paul actual local address was several roads away, today, I decided to look for it.

In the 60s, a group of famous fans, called "Apple Scruffs" waited outside Paul's Cavendish address, at times, on a daily basis. In my case, A.S. doesn't stand for "Apple Scruff" ("A Stalker" is more appropriate). All kidding aside, I chickened out. I'm not "A Stalker", but every few months, I remind myself that it cost virtually nothing to travel to London and look for Beatles(and Paul) related places.

I may have mention before that I found a great book to assist in finding all these places- The Beatles' London . Instead of guessing where one of Paul's homes might be, I looked it up in the book. My Plan A, was rather lame- Step 1- Get On The Street. Step 2- Hide My Beatles Badges, Step 3- Walk Past The Home Slowly And Proceed To The End Of The Street, and finally, Step 4- Run Back To The House And Go In For Tea. (Step 4- was only meant to happen if Paul ran outside to yell "Meredith! Where Are You Going?").

In reality, I went with Plan B(even worse, yet actually happened). This "Plan" consisted of taking a quick selfie on the corner with the street sign, which didn't come out. Slowly moving down the road, I crossed over to the other side. This put me on the wrong side of the street, as I was looking to find the number. There was a small problem, the number wasn't visible from the street but simple counting indicated it was between the homes numbered "5" and "9"(it's 7 Cavendish Avenue, if like myself, you had to look up in a book). When I found it, "Papa, I'm Home..." did not get broadcasted on a mega phone.

Yes, folks, I froze. I never crossed over the street to be pressing my nose on the closed wooden gate. I spend about a minute to take two photos of what it looked like 50 feet away, and then continued to mosey down the road. I looked back behind me as a van stopped and parked close to Paul's gate. Needless to point out the man who emerged was NOT Paul McCartney but some man in an orange high vis vest. *cue losing contestant gameshow noise*. It was time to leave as I decided against taking a picture of the closest postbox at the very end of the road and looked to rent a bike.

It seemed to be more easier to walk twenty minutes to Baker Street to return to the London Beatles Store to look for magazines. Appropriately, "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" the song inspired by Apple Scruffs breaking into the home that I spent part of the afternoon passing by, was playing on the store's speakers.

Those were the days, my friend, and they definately did end...

ES-Say #48 Mid-Price McCartney & Beatles On A Budget

                                Just another example of my cheapness...or thriftiness in collecting

Not Saying Anything To Paul McCartney(the blog) may have failed to mention that due to financial considerations, you probably won't believe all the collectables featured here, got here by frugality. This means "free", "practically free" and "these-sellers-should-know-not-to-sell-that to-me-for-so-cheap-but-I'll-keep-quiet." If there is a discount to be had, the blog admin(well, myself...) is all over it.

At least the 1993 Holland remaster of "Speed" allows Joe English to keep his neck(left).

 

 

 

As it was decided about 20 years ago to try and cultivate a personal, low cost, yet satisfying hoard of related McCartney merchandise, nothing has really changed. Paul McCartney is not a backer of this blog and I hate to disappoint any preconceived idea that he might be.(He's not in my address book but the "M" pages are intentionally left blank.)

Moving on, today we are explaining that on occasion to continue not spending respectable sums of money on merchandise, we got lucky at the public library and discount electronics store! At the library, aside from failing to get a Pete Doggett Beatles book, "Conversations With McCartney" by Paul Du Noyer (from this Fall) was available. This book will now not cost me £25 in a bookshop, but £25 in library fines for failing to return it in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe, I'll take up speed reading but it's highly unlikely...This collection of past interviews has had positive reviews, so I hope to have a reaction for you in like two months time.

I might skim through the "Collecting Vinyl" book as it has some Beatles related information and may someday assist my collecting column for The Macca Report-click here . However, for my own blog/website/whatever that you are reading right now, I gotta explain how I got "Wings At The Speed Of Sound"(1993 remaster) for £5($7.50). I also found a Beatles Tribute CD for 20p ($.35)

After leaving the library, It was pouring with rain, so I ran inside a discount electronics store to dry off and surround myself with other shifty people to browse. Aside from stocking up on some bargain unrelated McCartney films and music(20p here, £1.50 there), I found "Help!" and Paul's "All The Best" CD. When I decided to do a full look at all the various artists CDs, I found the empty case for the Holland 1993 Wings CD and the tribute disc(as mentioned above).

These cases were all empty as you had to then proceed to checkout at the cash registers for a peppy teenager to fill them up with the media in clear plastic cd envelopes. Little did I understand that this process of finding it alphabetically in a pile would take 20 minutes since nothing was actually catalogued alphabetically("yeah, try W for Wings...what? no, I asked for Saw-ah 2 not Ste-wit Lit-tal"). As I started pouring in sweat in my warm jacket indoors, and while speaking through coughing that a horror film wouldn't be found in the family film's section, I had a more urgent inquiry. I needed to know I was getting the correct 1993 disc to match the jewel case so I made the poor(and peppy) teen tell me. Obviously, I was getting impatient and needed to go home and shower.

Back at home, I first started listening to the 1995 Beatles Tribute CD from a uk label called "Hallmark". I got the impression they have produced various artists albums by paying a fee to be allowed to re-record tracks with hired session musicians. The cd takes a soft rock approach to the hits yet vocally tries to sound like John or Paul. Pleasant enough, despite some odd mouth noises on "When I'm Sixty-Four", I'm sure to get a kick out of it.

The 1993 Holland CD for "At The Speed Of Sound" is another gem in my cheapo collection. As the CD is out of print in this edition, unlike the 2014 digapak version, the former contains three bonus tracks (Sally G, Walking In The Park With Eloise, and Bridge On The River Suite). I'm really not aware if the 2014 box set edition contains those three songs, but it's not on my standard 2-CD version. If you want to buy this 1993 version, or any other 1993 "The Paul McCartney Collection" cds , try not to get suckered into to spending loads. You might even want to forget about trying, but I happen to be a big advocate supporting that particular collection of albums, and can't stop....

Tune in next time when you'll read more Brooklyn/Semi-English accented dialog in a complaining tone about having to throw out Linda McCartney frozen dinners, intitled "Wot? my fridge was wide open all day???? gimme a break!"

Bloody heck, maybe you should just stay tuned until I boast about finishing another book...

ES-Say #47 Let It Be- The 60s modernised on The Beatles 1+

                       The Beatles 1(2015)- UK copy not purchased from EMI Austria.

On November 6th, last week, when The Beatles 1+ CD and Videos collection was released, I was on vacation. This meant that while I was living it up in Vienna, my selected version(the CD and one DVD) was at home waiting for me under a heap of four-day-old mail. As I was aware of this on my trip the whole time, I had a slight problem remember which version(of about seven, if you include the vinyl), I bought. Vienna supposedly had a entertainment retail store called "Libro". While unable to find this shop to look for The Beatles release, I ran into EMI Austria Music Store by mistake. Hooray!    

                                                   Upstairs-Jazz, Downstairs-Beatles

The Foot Bomber(see previous ES-Say entries), reluctantly, went in with me as I skipped merrily around the shop. I rush past the new 1+ cardboard display containing the new release, to find every single Paul McCartney Archive Collection standard box sets. As the prices were in Euros, but still expensive, I left the box sets alone. Gazing up to the next wall on my left was a framed 89/90 McCartney tour photo. Instead of asking if the photo was for sale, I cornered a shop assistant to ask how much any mono Beatles CD collection would cost. Five minutes later, I was quoted another expensive price, which led me to conclude Ebay was my only other option. 

             The outside EMI Austria store window display-November 7th, 2015

After walking away from the sales counter, The Foot Bomber, handed me a 13 Euro copy of 2014's Long Tall Sally EP Record Store Day release. How The Foot remembered that I wasn't able to find it on record store day was news to me(as he is the blog's Lex Luther). Most of the 1+ videos were for region 6, so I didn't consider buying them. Needless to say, I bought "Long Tall Sally"(rerelease, 2014).

   

After arriving back home, the first thing I did was tear open the parcel containing my new Beatles single cd & dvd purchase.  The Beatles 1+ (2015), updated the stand alone CD release of 1 (2000) for the 2nd time(previously done in 2011) and released restored videos of these hits for DVD and Blu-Ray for the first time. Paul McCartney provides some new video commentary, which for me was the highlight on the single DVD. Peace & Love to Ringo Starr for some new intros even when he really didn't have that much to add. 

The reason Paul's cheery commentary for a few videos was welcome, was because of the "issues" I had with the 27 restored videos. First off, the Black & White footage at times had more of a Grey tinted color, regardless if I approved of the live performance used to represent the #1 songs. As all the film deterioration was nearly eliminated, I didn't like it. Fans in the mid-60s watched these first time around on small, basic, often cheap, or rented television sets. That's the way it was and that's how its basically been re-aired over the years- as a poor quality, but authentic image. 

As the reasoning behind "picture restoration" is to improve these Beatles films digitally, it really only works best with color film. Even tweaking color has mixed results. I can only speak as a viewer when without any real technical mumbo jumbo and comment on what looks good or not. Sitting down for 110 mins straight, wearing glasses, and having to digest the various color altering from video to video, is bound to get a mixed reaction.

Yes, some of the Black/white/grey was acceptable, and probably best on "I wanna hold your hand" and "I feel Fine". When it came to improved color "Paperback Writer", "Eight Days A Week," (from Shea Stadium, seemingly ready for a future full restored version), "Hello, goodbye" and "Penny Lane" get my vote. As I was beginning to think "Elenor Rigby"(video from the "yellow Submarine" movie) could have improved with a 2015 remake, the 2000 promo video for "Come Together" killed the idea. "Come Together" (2000 Melon Dezign version) is included here, and it's just awful. I starting swearing while watching it as it could have been a commercial for an Ipod with annoying swirling computer animation of the Fab Four. 

Moving on towards the last ten videos, all the "Apple Films Ltd" or Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed videos were decent and expectedly good. My "issues" were more about editing the later period pieces, for example, the combining of Get Back rooftop performances clips combined into one version. I'd definately enjoy watching these again, sans "All You Need Is Love". This live satellite version, was colorised(in 1995) from the original black and white broadcast. This version was used in The Beatles Anthology. Yet, the film restoration team for this new 1+ release twenty years later, didn't bother to try again to colorise the original 1967 version. It's like watching a colorised 40s film, where you spend the whole time grumbling it should have been left untouched in the original format, because "it's a classic."

The Beatles have reached a classic music status over the decades. If people want to improve the quality of their legacy, all it is facelift- youthful looking on the outside with an underlying layer of old, but actual features, hidden away from public.

Interestingly, there was a promo television program on Wednesday night on ITV in the UK-"The Nation's Favourite Beatles Number One". For an hour and a half, 27 hits were counted down out of order from the 1+ CDs 27 track listing. Short clips of 1+ videos were pepper into the countdown in preview, while other performances not on 1+ of the same songs or random footage, not always in "restoration". Other " nation's favourite" programs have seen CD collections released into retail shops(Elvis, for example). Regardless of The Beatles edition being as top notch as it was, the purpose of airing the show was to get the public's attention to buy 1+ exclusively. It's more likely that off shoots of this promo programming will reach the bootleggers. For now, I have stacked my new copy of 1 on top of my new copy of Falco 3(which I also did buy at EMI Austria Music Shop).

I'm considering moving to Vienna until 1+ is forgotten for the next Apple release on the horizon... 

ES-Say #47, coincidentally, has color problems, the red sections are not for emphasis but inability to alter a setting. Remember, you are always welcome to join the "Not Saying Anything To Paul McCartney" Update Group On Facebook , containing up-to-date news, views, and cutie pie photos(occasionally) of young Beatle Paul!  

ES-Say #46 The Other Half-Book Review-Fab By Howard Sounes

Ziggy Stardust's classic facial expression can best mirror what this book might do to a reader- Freeze them permanently that way!

Today, A month after reviewing the first half of Howard Sounes "Fab- An Intimate Life Of Paul McCartney" HERE on the blog, I reached "The End". Aside from high fiving "The Foot" (our blog's photo bomber who dislikes Sir Paul), because I actually completed an entire book(explanation in the 1st half), I felt liberated. Yes, liberated, because I no longer have to subject myself to another book by Sounes. That's right, I didn't like Fab and I'm not sure if I can pick up ANY book for a while now.

Digesting what I read, Sounes will declare that this was a fair account. He is a journalist and has written books from Bob Dylan to Amy Winehouse. First off, I like journalists and respect the work they do. However, one of the 2010's book's aim to be "comprehensive" biography with many interviews and footnoted sources, does this with an undercurrent of the author's opinion.

The first half was bearable, the second half was tiresome, mostly because the author would present his timeline of Paul's life in the last three decades peppered with his own conclusions. For example, Sounes uses heavy adjectives that are either unnecessary or blunt. "Almost stone deaf" is used to describe George Martin in the 00's. McCartney, during the same period, "his skin hanging down like the jowls of an old dog". Also, some of the incidents might have an interviewee speaking negatively, but the author will usually agree with the summary rather than question the opinion. It is clearly a lot of "too little too late" when it comes to the support material of the decent person McCartney is. I was stuck reading a moaning complain account of Paul's problematic start funding with LIPA and his diminishing involvement with his classical music releases. The fact that Paul has been revealed to assisted family and friends loyally with financial help and continues to be a  philanthropist is lost because of the overall tone of the book. I can't really believe the positive angles in the book with the hammering of the negativity or judgemental tone of the majority of the book.

One thing that really threw me over the edge as a writer and reader, was the one-paragraph personal declaration within the middle of a chapter to explain how Sounes, himself, was turned on to McCartney live performance during the "Paul McCartney World Tour" in 1989. Sounes could have put this information in a prologue, epilogue, or  on the jacket cover. But, no. He had to chop up the book with his own adoration. The nightmare didn't end there...

Relationships. As Paul was still dating Nancy Shevell when the book was published, his now wife was basically painted as the girlfriend, who may have a shady mob connection. That's just great, but that "wtf" moment aside, two relationships explored need to be noted. I'm not talking about Linda McCartney or John Lennon because nothing really that deep is uncovered that isn't widely known. Surprisingly, the McCartney children are all described in the book as one dimensional(Stella is like dad, Mary works for dad, James has near-death experiences, and Beatrice wants her ice cream). The exception is adopted daughter Heather, whom we get to hear about candidly and as a tragic figure. It maybe because she is the oldest child who spent time with The Beatles during the dragged out break up. However, I think we might be able to guess she's not in the public eye without having to be spoon fed all details that has possibly(not fact) led to a hermit adulthood.

The other Heather. Heather Mills, the second wife, gets all the gold digger attention she deserves with extensive details leading to, and what all journalists had access to: a public account of the divorce settlement. It's all in this book, but after that debacle, how should the expose styled account led to the end of the novel? That's right, a quickie "Paul is so loved by all, so good live, "and in the end, the love you take" familiar nod.

Classic Rock magazine was quoted on the front cover as saying Fab is "The Best Beatles Book Since Revolution In The Head". I disagree, the best book since "Revolution In The Head" by Ian Macdonald is "You Never Give Me Your Money" by Peter Doggett. Sure, I only read like 30 pages of that book, but I liked the fact that every Beatle is shown equally warts and all. If I got one summarized impression of Paul McCartney in Sounes book, it would be "Dustbin Lid".

McCartney is not the horror in Sounes book and he's not the authorised "Many Years From Now" Barry Miles' autobiographical account. He's somewhere in the middle.

I'm sure I'd have a chance to read a more rounded view of a part of Paul's past, hopefully from Doggett, whose book I can also get from the library. Fortunately, Fab, is past due back at the library and I want to pay the 15 cents and wave it good riddance.     

I'm free!    

ES-Say #45 McCartney in 1986- Cultivating The Phil Collins Look

                 
The mid-1980's seemed to spawn this one look for men that was a bit puzzling-oversized suit pieces with a mullet. Many celebrities opted for this look(ie. Bill Murray), but it seemed to suit Phil Collins to a T, (as you can see above). When Collins was storming the charts as a solo artist in 1985, his stature of being pudgy, short and balding was somehow flattering combined with his ill fitting clothing. Picture Collins, Think Frumpy!

It's unlikely that anyone wants to think of Paul McCartney as "Frumpy", but when he stepped out on stage for the Prince's Trust 10th Anniversary concert, "Frumpy" is the best way to describe what he looked like.

I believe there are three songs that were preformed that night in June of 1986- "I Saw Her Standing There", "Long Tall Sally", and "Get Back". The vinyl copy I have of the single, is missing "Get Back" but I am not complaining.

After watching and listening on YouTube "I Saw Her Standing There", I was not impressed. Yes, Paul had stopped officially touring for several years by this point, but he was a staple at many one-off charity events. Most remembered, unfairly, at Live Aid for his microphone malfunctions during the all-star finale. It was a bad situation during Live Aid, which through his professionalism was able to work around. Prince's Trust, just sounds and seemed like a "bad situation". "I Saw Her Standing There" is not helped by their all-star backing band(including Phil Collins on drums, I assume). Overall, it is a prickly performance with much cheers due to the important charity and proof that musical quality was least important. I'm not going to excuse it with an "that was the 80s" shrug, due to many people whom have mixed feeling about McCartney's 80s career and tend to block it out. (This performance could be one of the reasons.)

Considering I am very tolerant and appreciative of the majority of Paul's 1980s output-albums, appearances, crappy-yet-lovable motion pictures- The Prince's Trust Performance is not something to recommend. I can only imagine that "Get Back" and "Long Tall Sally" were so MOR(middle of the road) that I refuse to ruin the classic image I have of these songs. The middle-aged looking Paul is solidified with this appearance as well as his adopting the "Frumpy Phil" get up. Sadily, this poor choice continued, yet thankfully, disappeared after 1986.

Yet, Paul decided to continue looking his age during the time "Press To Play"(1986) was released in late summer. "Press" is a wonderful video, but I see that his style of tucked in, puffed out trousers and shirt combo prevailed(noooo!). Also, as seen on the "Only Love Remains" single, Phil Collins was probably recording his parts in the studio for "Press To Play" around this time too.

        More proof from my 45s collection that I am not making this look up...

When I said I didn't want to continue to see the "Frumpy" look and act during the rest of Prince's Trust(despite owning the full show LP), I know that some people could argue "It's never going to be as good as the original- accept that!" I fully accept it, but I don't have to expose myself to this, knowing that Paul redeemed this one appearance on many occasions since. But, I have watched something I cannot "unwatch", a tired and dull live version of a classic song. I'm very happy living in the "60s" with "Get Back" and "Long Tall Sally" being perfect.

"Long Tall Frumpy Paul" can definately stay back in 1986...Frumpy Short Phil Collins? Man, we missed you, welcome back! (Please Note: This blog entry was to point out a faux pas in Paul's solo career about 30 years ago, donate to any of those worthy causes like "The Prince's Trust" which managed to last longer than his unflattering trendy 80s look.Princes-Trust.org.uk