FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: HaroldBlvd on July 17, 2009, 08:37:23 AM
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I'm going to see him tonight. I'm really looking forward to it.
http://www.tv.com/video/fzpWCxqAuDZwGgob5UHl_kGg4SWa6qCm/Live+On+Letterman+-+Paul+McCartney+Webcast+-+07-15-09?o=cbs (http://www.tv.com/video/fzpWCxqAuDZwGgob5UHl_kGg4SWa6qCm/Live+On+Letterman+-+Paul+McCartney+Webcast+-+07-15-09?o=cbs)
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The Beatles...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CxaC47gmg[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmot7SvBH_M[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKsdqB3S1uI[/youtube]
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Lennon and McCartney on the Tonight Show.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x26lwcPJ04[/youtube]
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I watched him Wednesday night on Letterman. It was awesome. I didn't realize how funny he was and the rooftop performance was great. Up until a year ago, I made the huge mistake of dismissing Macca's solo work as fluff. I was wrong, he had the best post-Beatle output. And it's not even close.
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I watched him Wednesday night on Letterman. It was awesome. I didn't realize how funny he was and the rooftop performance was great. Up until a year ago, I made the huge mistake of dismissing Macca's solo work as fluff. I was wrong, he had the best post-Beatle output. And it's not even close.
Harrison's better.
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I watched him Wednesday night on Letterman. It was awesome. I didn't realize how funny he was and the rooftop performance was great. Up until a year ago, I made the huge mistake of dismissing Macca's solo work as fluff. I was wrong, he had the best post-Beatle output. And it's not even close.
Harrison's better.
I like Harrison too. All Things Must Pass, Living In The Material World, Dark Horse, etc. are all very good to excellent albums.
Hmm. Maybe it is closer than I thought.
I will say that McCartney and Harrison>Lennon
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I don't know about that, Dave. If you look at the body of solo work, McCartney kinda crushes Harrison. And I say that as someone who considers ALL THINGS MUST PASS to be the rarest of all things - the overstuffed two/three-disc set that is pretty much perfect. But McCartney is responsible for some truly amazing solo albums. George kinda ran out of gas after ALL THINGS in a lot of ways - LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD has decent stuff on it, and DARK HORSE is brilliant, but after that Harrison was in a perennial cooldown.
I like George Harrison as a person like no other; he's a true inspiration to me in so many ways. But at a point he lost the desire to make music. Paul kinda never lost that - even when he's been crummy (which is often) he kept plugging, and plenty of good stuff happened over the years. Maybe it's because I have been showing up to WFMU nearly every week for almost ten years now that I relate to the guy who is building something brick by brick, week by week. That's probably why despite my problems with his actions Neil Young gets my eternal respect for his unwillingness to take his eyes off the prize, even this far in.
Tom.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76O6tuJPe3w[/youtube]
You're all crazy.
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One of the things I appreciate the most about Paul McCartney is that he makes the music that he wants to. And while there have been some clunkers along the way, most of McCartney's solo work has ranged from pretty good to outstanding. For every "Silly Love Songs," you get a song like "Too Many People" or "Tug of War." The good far outweighs the bad. It's the same with Neil Young. He does what he wants. Not unlike McCartney, Neil's released some subpar material over the years. But that can be forgiven because he's released so much quality material throughout his career and also because he's willing to take risks. Neil could have had a successful career by just making one iteration of Harvest after another. Instead, he made challenging albums like Tonight's The Night and Trans.
With regards to George Harrison-I don't think he necessarily lost interest in making music, I think that other things in his life became more important to him, mainly his religion (and his love of cars). He'll always have my abiding respect, though.
Ultimately, both of them are/were great and people will be enjoying their songs for generations to come.
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Paul McCartney Live At Citi Field July 17, 2009
Paul McCartney played his first show at Citi Field in Queens NY tonight.
The show was amazing and we are damned lucky that Sir Paul decided to grace us once again with a tour.
He started the show with Dirve My Car and followed that with Blackbird from the White Album. He dedicated My Love to Linda.
Although the first part of the concert was sprinkled with some new stuff that I didn't know, The Macca delivered the goods big time.
From Beatles classics like Paper Back Writer and Day Tripper to Wings goodies like Band on the Run and Live and Let Die complete with a fireworks show. In between he did Back In The USSR, Get Back, Helter Skelter, A Day In the Life, Let Me Roll It, and many many more.
Paul is a first class showman and he looked like he was having a real good time.
At one point he was talking about what it was like playing at Shea Stadium in 1965.
He said they played through the ballpark's sound system and they couldn't hear a thing except for girls screaming. At that point the girls all started screaming.
Touching moments came when he dedicated his rendition of Something to George Harrison, which he played on George's ukulele. He commented that George played a mean ukulele.
Paul paid tribute to John Lennon with a rendition of Give Peace a chance.
Billy Joel came out during the encore and did I Saw Her Standing There with Paul.
Paul looked and sounded in great form. What a great show!
Here are some shots from the show...
(http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428473400_560743400_2155074_740142_n.jpg)
(http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428498400_560743400_2155078_3854246_n.jpg)
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(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428508400_560743400_2155080_5835618_n.jpg)
(http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428553400_560743400_2155089_385791_n.jpg)
(http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428558400_560743400_2155090_3532314_n.jpg)
(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428593400_560743400_2155096_2543351_n.jpg)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428618400_560743400_2155101_8041699_n.jpg)
(http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428638400_560743400_2155105_5995574_n.jpg)
(http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428688400_560743400_2155114_4279143_n.jpg)
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428693400_560743400_2155115_7621181_n.jpg)
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428698400_560743400_2155116_3268421_n.jpg)
(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428718400_560743400_2155120_2865096_n.jpg)
(http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428728400_560743400_2155122_4081070_n.jpg)
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428733400_560743400_2155123_3601296_n.jpg)
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428738400_560743400_2155124_5809303_n.jpg)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428743400_560743400_2155125_6606575_n.jpg)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428788400_560743400_2155133_7489068_n.jpg)
(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428803400_560743400_2155136_593486_n.jpg)
This is when he played Dance Tonight from Memory Almost Full. This song came out in 2007 and it is as fine a McCartney song as any.
(http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428818400_560743400_2155139_7547775_n.jpg)
(http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428843400_560743400_2155144_5416123_n.jpg)
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428863400_560743400_2155148_6401151_n.jpg)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428868400_560743400_2155149_2715937_n.jpg)
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428908400_560743400_2155156_1692697_n.jpg)
(http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs137.snc1/5852_117428948400_560743400_2155162_3800076_n.jpg)
(http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs157.snc1/5852_117428438400_560743400_2155069_6374021_n.jpg)
The view when my new Nikon L100 was zoomed all the way out. I bought this camera with 15X zoom with this concert in mind. I am very pleased with the results considering how far from the stage I was.
Here's an example of the camera's video capabilities. The zoom in video mode isn't all that great but not bad considering. Watch it while you can before they make me take it down.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTA9dXfj-GQ[/youtube]
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Many Harrison songs inspire me in a way that McCartney songs never have. That's not a rip on Paul, I love him too, and have everything he released in the 70s and 80s, and a good bit of the stuff since then. But Harrison starts about a mile ahead of McCartney if only for "Beware of Darkness", a song that, despite my having heard it probably 500 times, still gives me "that feeling" when I hear it. And then there's Dark Horse (the song), All Things Must Pass (the song), Bangla Desh, this stuff just gets me every time I hear it. Geez, Wah Wah and What is Life!
It's possible that this stuff affects me so strongly because I was learning to play the guitar as I was learning it, and George used the most amazing chord structures, things that most people would never be able to match a listenable melody to, lots of switching from major to minor chords, and then his lyrics had a sort of mystery to them that, for me, Paul just couldn't match. I do understand the argument in favor of persistence, and I have loved a lot of McCartney's last 20 years (I even think Run Devil Run is really overlooked,) but Harrison wins out in the end for me. But hey, I like Yes, so what do I know?
I would rank them Harrison/McCartney/Ringo (for 35 years of lovable amiability and fun before he went out of his way to look like a dick; he could have hired a personal assistant to just send stuff back unsigned without doing it with a faux press conference/Lennon (who just comes off in retrospective to me as pedantic and narcissistic)
Want me to rank the members of Yes? Number 1: CHRIS SQUIRE
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Great pics, HaroldBlvd.
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I would rank them Harrison/McCartney/Ringo (for 35 years of lovable amiability and fun before he went out of his way to look like a dick; he could have hired a personal assistant to just send stuff back unsigned without doing it with a faux press conference/Lennon (who just comes off in retrospective to me as pedantic and narcissistic)
I'm more or less with you Dave on the ranking, though Harrison and McCartney switch places at #1 & #2 depending on what day of the week you ask me.
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I saw Paul McCartney tonight and it was just the greatest. We had awesome seats - sitting one row from Bruce Beck! - and the weather was just perfect, and this show met and exceeded every expectation and hope I had for it. The guy is a living legend and he doesn't need to push this hard, but he did and it was awesome.
Tom.
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It was breathtaking. Just to be in the same place as McCartney was a thrill in itself. But then I realized that I was watching one of the best songwriters ever, it was almost unreal. Long live the Macca.
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It sounds like this concert was the most exciting thing to happen at Citi Field all year.
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I just had a thought. What would a union of Morrisey and McCartney yield? I think it could be something good.
I wonder if Paul knows of Morrisey? Could they get on or would they just bicker over how a song should go together.
Just a thought.
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I was at the show on Saturday night -- my third time seeing Paul -- and it was awesome. (4 songs from Band on the Run!) He also started to cry during "Here Today," which was pretty amazing to see, and for a second made me forget I was surrounded by 50,000+ people.
I have to say that as much as I love George and the Wilburys, I think Paul had the best solo career. Even if you want to just judge the first 10 years after the Beatles broke up, McCartney, Ram and Band on the Run are all just killer, brilliant works. I don't think Lennon came close to those 3 records; All Things Must Pass is obviously up there with Paul's best from that era, though like Tom, I think George ran out of gas a little after that.
And then there's late 90s to today. With the exception of Driving Rain, which I think stinks, Paul's been on a tear. Flaming Pie, Run Devil Run, Chaos and Creation, Memory Almost Full, Electric Arguments -- great albums!
It's so strange because I'm 28 and always loved Paul's solo work -- partially because I was raised in a house where Paul solo was played basically every day -- and up until pretty recently, it seemed like EVERYONE hated Paul. I'd meet Beatles fans my age, and I'd end up in a conversation like this:
"Who's your favorite Beatle?"
"Paul."
"Really? His solo stuff sucks."
"Well, have you heard McCartney?"
"No."
"Band on the Run?"
"No."
"Ram?"
"No."
"Have you heard any of it?"
"Not really. Lennon's stuff is amazing though."
"Really? How many of his albums do you have?"
"None."
Anyways, nice to see Paul getting his due.
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Don't forget McCartney II. That's probably my favorite record of his.
And I defy anyone to find an album cover that is a better summation of the material therein:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/de/PaulMcCartneyalbum_-_McCartneyII.jpg)
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Hey TRG,
That's right, McCartney II! Have you heard Electric Arguments? I kind of look at that album as McCartney III. "Sing the Changes" -- man, what an amazing song.
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I've wanted to hear Electric Arguments for awhile. I haven't had a chance to hear it yet, though. But I will be checking it out eventually.
Everyone talks about Ram and Band On The Run. And while they are both excellent albums, I think McCartney II gets unfairly overlooked. IMO, it's a masterpiece. I don't think that there is a song on that album, that is less than great.
But what the hell do I know? This is a person who thinks that Trans is one of the two or three best albums Neil Young ever recorded.
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McCartney II is underrated but seems to be getting it's due these days. One album of his that I think is very overrated is Flowers in the Dirt. I've seen it rated higher than albums like Tug of War and London Town which I consider much better. Most McCartney albums have at least 3-4 great songs on it but the only song I consider great on Flowers is Put It There which is like two minutes long.
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McCartney II was my favorite album as a kid.
I am putting out an open call to anyone who has a ton of McCartney bootlegs. I want to fill out some gaps. If you've got them and want to help out The Kid, give me the hookup!
Thanks.
Tom.
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Where does Red Rose Speedway fit in the rankings?
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Where does Red Rose Speedway fit in the rankings?
I really like Red Rose Speedway and I think it has yet to get its due, even among McCartney fans. It's a strange album - for people who aren't really familiar with post-Beatles McCartney, there's an equal measure of the melodic talent you'd expect and unexpected weirdness running throughout - and kind of a piece with Wild Life, which came before it. I wouldn't recommend it first to anybody, but it has "Big Barn Bed" and the Red Rose Speedway medley, which are great and the kind of thing that only McCartney would have tried to put out. The biggest downside is that it also has "My Love", my least favorite thing he did in the '70s. And then there's "Loup (1st Indian On The Moon)" which is definitely odd and sort of a precursor to something like McCartney II, when he had a better feel for it.
Overall, I think everything in the McCartney-Ram-Wild Life-Red Rose Speedway-Band On The Run-Venus and Mars run is worth it, and then jump ahead to Back To The Egg (which finally seems to be getting some recognition), McCartney II and Tug of War. The rest of the '80s into the '90s could probably be safely skipped to jump right to Flaming Pie. After that, I'd agree with dlobro above that Driving Rain is a skip.
If someone was looking for a place to start, Ram and Band on the Run would probably be the ideal to get both sides of the do-it-yourself and arena Paul. Ram takes you down the (rewarding!) weird path towards Red Rose Speedway and McCartney II, Band on the Run takes you to the equally all out likes of Venus and Mars and Back To The Egg. If anybody does try some of these out based on people's recommendations here, I'd love to read their takes on them.
Re: solo Lennon, I'm obviously a McCartney guy, but Lennon had his share of material that's gotten kind of overlooked in favor of a few hits. I'd recommend Walls & Bridges and some of the songs on Mind Games to get a sense of where Lennon and McCartney were musically closest in the '70s. Songs like "Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)" and "Out the Blue" never get the play they should and compare favorably to McCartney's solo style.
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Hey Wes,
Good post -- I think Red Rose Speedway is a very good album, especially for some great studio trickery. I think the reason it's not held in such high regard by McCartney fans is because you can tell Paul was still working out his solo sound and hadn't quite gotten there. What I mean is, you can plot a course in terms of style/sound evolution from McCartney to Ram to Band on the Run. McCartney is pure homespun, lo-fi charm; Ram took it a step further with more elaborate arrangements and instrumentation; Band on the Run was the perfect mix of the sing-around-the-campfire quality of McCartney and Ram amplified with a solid rock/band sound and more grandiose songs. I think you can hear him trying to reach that on Red Rose Speedway, but it's just not as finely tuned as he'd later accomplish with BOTR. Either way, I do think the medley on RRS is great and it's an album I return to often.
Re: Lennon solo, I don't mean to write it off. It's so weird because every album that critics seem to hate by him, I really like! Walls and Bridges is actually fun. I think that's his best album. I suppose Plastic Ono Band is good, but it's so self-indulgent and narcissistic, it's almost a chore to get through. That said, "Isolation" is pretty amazing, as is "Love." Imagine is obviously a great album.
Tom and anyone else interested: you probably have these, but I have a couple of great lo-fi Flowers in the Dirt demos with Elvis Costello; Paul's demo of "Wings of a Nightingale," which he wrote for the Everly Bros.; Paul's rare cover of "Maybe Baby," produced by Jeff Lynne; and the finished version of the awesome "A Love For You" from The In-Laws soundtrack.
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It sounds like this concert was the most exciting thing to happen at Citi Field all year.
I'd rather have seen that there than about eight Mets games I've been to. One of the many dangers of a ticket plan.
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McCartney II is underrated but seems to be getting it's due these days. One album of his that I think is very overrated is Flowers in the Dirt. I've seen it rated higher than albums like Tug of War and London Town which I consider much better. Most McCartney albums have at least 3-4 great songs on it but the only song I consider great on Flowers is Put It There which is like two minutes long.
Oh, come on, you really don't like My Brave Face? I also like We Got Married and Figure of Eight.
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Even though it sort of sounds unfinished at times, I would like to point out how great Back to the Egg is; with the crazy little snippets of songs, it's like Abbey Road fever all over again.
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Figure of Eight is pretty good. I forgot about that one. I don't like My Brave Face but I have a feeling I'd like the whole album a lot more if it weren't for the awful production.
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McCartney II is underrated but seems to be getting it's due these days.
Yeah, I have to confess I only know the Wings uber-hits from when I was growing up. I think I was busy wearing the groove off of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
And Tom called it on the "Check my Machine" last night - when it was playing, I was thinking who is this, this is awesome, so when he back announced I thought "what?"
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Another McCartney II convert. ;D
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(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/729/picture1vfq.png)
I'm not the only one who sees a staring contest, right?
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(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/729/picture1vfq.png)
I'm not the only one who sees a staring contest, right?
Yeah, and he ain't blinking, is he? I'm going to have to take this up a few pegs because the nose picking gambit isn't cutting it.
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I could never pick a favorite Beatle, because you need all 4 of them. I'm not being facetious, I really don't have a favorite. I love the Beatles: the band.
But I think McCartney is the most skilled/talented songwriter and hands down has had the best post Beatles solo career, even if we're only comparing up to '80.. post 80 it has to be a run off with him and Harrison, and after I recently went back and checked a bunch of george stuff again, I say with no reservation that there's just no comparison. George did a lot of great tunes, I like to leave it at that and not even compare. I figure, what's the point in it? John is another subject entirely-in many ways I feel he couldn't get out of his own way. In the last few years I've come around to John, and have a newfound appreciation for his talent - a talent that I think is actually often obscured by nothing other than his own insecurities and neuroses. but that's a discussion for another day!
I know I sound like a sycophant but I STILL think, some really bad 80's production values/trite lyrics aside, McCartney's worst dreck s still better than a lot of people's best effort when it comes to writing a great melody. Deconstruct even the cruddiest of the crud (ebony and ivory, natch), and you usually will come up with an enduring melody or a hook that most people, even accomplished songwriters, couldn't match on their best day. I still stand by that. There are some bad RECORDS for my taste, but musically speaking, I really don't think any of his songs are particularly BAD, even then they're not my cup o' tea. Can every one of someone's songs be brilliant? Can every song speak to you in the same way? Th bar is set so high for this guy, he's too good for his own good sometimes.
I don't like every thing he did, but he hits way more than he misses, and even the misses carry some sort of redeeming value.
The shows at CitiField were really perfect-- great band that only keeps getting better and is an excellent fit with him, in great voice, playing was inspired. And all this in a venue that I thought would have been way too big to really enjoy it after seeing him at somewhat smaller indoor venues lke MSG several times in 05. But he hit it out of the park! Or kept in IN the park... maybe that's actually more approriate!
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tom would you (or anyone) enjoy the following:
(http://imgur.com/EFYRW.jpg)
Oobu Joobu was a radio show created by Paul McCartney in 1995 and described by McCartney as "wide-screen radio".[1] The program aired on the American radio network Westwood One and its name was inspired by a BBC production of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Cocu. Because the show's material included demos, rehearsals, live performances, and unreleased recordings of Paul McCartney and The Beatles, many of the programs have been bootlegged.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oobu_Joobu
those volumes are on a torrent site called demonoid and i have 1&2 downcoded to 320kbps mp3 if you'd like them
EDIT: i uploaded vol. 1&2 anyway so here you go if you want it
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N81KD83A
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My lady-friend surprised me with tickets to see Paul at Fenway Park on Thursday. Best Birthday Gift Ever.
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I was there! Where were you?
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I was there! Where were you?
I was in the wooden Grandstands down the first base line. It was a personal top five concert, and my first ever stadium show. I hope you enjoyed your trip to Boston, and the concert in the epicenter of Boston sports mutant-dom!
I'm grateful I answered my girlfriend's out of the blue question "Who do you like better, The Beatles or The Beach Boys?" correctly last month. If I had said the Beach Boys, she (not aware of their history or the current Beach Boys lineup) would have got tickets to see Mike Love's band at the South Shore Music Circus instead.