After my post August 11, 2012, I feel I should clarify my opinion of Paul McCartney after disparaging his new song, My Valentine (2012). To briefly discuss that new song before proceeding with my primary mission here, My Valentine (hear it, see the video at http://youtu.be/f4dzzv81X9w) is not McCartney creating music, so much as McCartney falling back on music theory (in the absence of inspiration) in order to insert a stealth composition in among his covers of old traditional and pop songs by other artists on his Kisses on the Bottom album. Rolling Stone commented on his work on that album that “like his former song writing partner [John Lennon], McCartney is better transforming influences than mirroring them.”
As a musician, I admit it is entertaining to demonstrate one’s ability to mimic a style, as Weird Al Yankovic and Frank Zappa did so humorously. As an aside, I find it incredible that no one but me seems to realize that Frank Zappa was ingeniously lampooning Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple) in his 1973 recording, Fifty-Fifty, which appeared on his Over-Nite Sensation album. That song is worth hearing, apart from the humor, for Jean-Luc Ponty’s violin simulation of Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar work, as well as Zappa’s insane vocal emulating Gillan’s annoying alternating falsetto scream/normal voice (fifty-fifty of each, grin)---you can hear it at http://youtu.be/25ThICK0Fbw.
However, Paul McCartney is probably the best songwriter and player (I’m not even going to qualify that by genre) who has ever lived, judging by the number and quality of his best compositions (e.g., his 1965 song Yesterday, the most frequently covered song in history) to inspire, evoke emotion, and just plain entertain. I personally feel that McCartney’s 1966 Paperback Writer may be the best single rock and roll song I have ever heard---his bass on that song evokes images of a jukebox rumbling in a crowded juke joint. 32 Billboard number one songs, 60 gold discs and over 100 million albums and a career that has spanned over 50 years? I don’t believe anyone has ever done that (or will ever do that again, for various reasons).
So, if I don’t like My Valentine, it is not because I don’t respect Paul McCartney. It is rather that I expect nothing but excellence from him.
As a musician, I admit it is entertaining to demonstrate one’s ability to mimic a style, as Weird Al Yankovic and Frank Zappa did so humorously. As an aside, I find it incredible that no one but me seems to realize that Frank Zappa was ingeniously lampooning Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple) in his 1973 recording, Fifty-Fifty, which appeared on his Over-Nite Sensation album. That song is worth hearing, apart from the humor, for Jean-Luc Ponty’s violin simulation of Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar work, as well as Zappa’s insane vocal emulating Gillan’s annoying alternating falsetto scream/normal voice (fifty-fifty of each, grin)---you can hear it at http://youtu.be/25ThICK0Fbw.
However, Paul McCartney is probably the best songwriter and player (I’m not even going to qualify that by genre) who has ever lived, judging by the number and quality of his best compositions (e.g., his 1965 song Yesterday, the most frequently covered song in history) to inspire, evoke emotion, and just plain entertain. I personally feel that McCartney’s 1966 Paperback Writer may be the best single rock and roll song I have ever heard---his bass on that song evokes images of a jukebox rumbling in a crowded juke joint. 32 Billboard number one songs, 60 gold discs and over 100 million albums and a career that has spanned over 50 years? I don’t believe anyone has ever done that (or will ever do that again, for various reasons).
So, if I don’t like My Valentine, it is not because I don’t respect Paul McCartney. It is rather that I expect nothing but excellence from him.
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