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Column: Our Guru Emeritus
What’s the Buzz: Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Memory Almost Full
(Hear Music, 2007)
When you share significant responsibility for having created one of the wonders of the world—in this case the Beatles‘ body of work, their songs and recordings—it’s hard to assume the proper degree of modesty when presenting yourself to the public, as on a new album of solo songs and recordings. Yet, Memory Almost Full, Paul McCartney’s new solo album, is a triumph of unassuming modesty at the same time that it succeeds in laying a claim to its author/performer’s central role in creating the most remarkable body of work in modern music.
The cleverness at points in the lyrical and melodic echoes in Memory Almost Full are so Beatleish that we recognize their antecedents as McCartneyish, thus giving him his due as coauthor of the original masterwork. Nice work. “I do, I do, I do…” “A big eye, big idea!” Well done! The echoes are smart, to use a Britishism, and leave us no doubt that the man who’s charming us so effortlessly is indeed the survivor of that collective that had such ability to charm us then, back then, at the end of the end. And how smart that wherever we are in the world, we had to drag ourselves to the nearest Starbuck’s to get our copy, perhaps taking it out with a cup of coffee and a sweet roll, helplesssly aware that the man knows what we’re doing. He does the same himself. Similarly, the album is full of intimacies, moments that reveal the person-ness of the man who’s singing and writing, and of ourself who’s listening. A good idea. Rich entertainment. It seems we have an everpresent past as well. And, of course, ours is also the Beatles’.
Patti Smith’s Twelve Main Highways
Twelve
Patti Smith
(Columbia Records, 2007)
Patti Smith was born to record this album of cover songs. Rock ‘n’ roll will never be the same; and, well, that’s as it should be. But, with this record, the medium of reinvention has itself been reinvented. This is a remarkable achievement. Way to go, Patti!
“Have you ever been experienced? Well, I have.” It suddenly becomes very significant that the man who wrote and recorded these words was, well, a man. Could have been a woman, right? Yes, but. Male and female change places, change partners, again and again on the seminal album Are You Experienced. It’s seminal not for that reason alone—but most of all for the ways it powerfully redefines rock ‘n’ roll and our relationship with it.
Live at Massey, 1971
Neil Young
Live at Massey Hall, 1971
(Reprise, 2007)
This is an excellent gift for any Neil Young fan and for any music lover whether an acknowledged Neil fan or not.
At the end of 1970, and for the first few weeks of 1971, Young went on a solo acoustic tour, playing and singing new songs from his recent album After the Gold Rush, and his forthcoming album Harvest, and from the last album by his group Buffalo Springfield, and from his two-year-old “solo” electric album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Recordings from this tour can also be heard on several beloved Neil Young bootleg albums, including Young Man’s Fancy, which is reviewed in an essay included in my book Neil Young: Love to Burn. (”What a record! The sound of the voice and guitar/piano is extraordinary—as is so often the case on Neil’s albums, but this is unlike anything you’ve ever heard, there’s a certain resonance, it’s magic…”)
The Fog Of Personal War
Sean Lennon
Friendly Fire
Capitol Records, 2007
At one of his late April shows in southern California, I met Sean Lennon, son of John and Yoko. He was doing a show at the Belly-Up, a music club not far from where I live in northern San Diego County, California. Knowing him to be an outspoken fan of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, I brought him a copy of my book on Brian and the Boys’ music. I wanted to meet Sean, not just because of our shared appreciation for the Beach Boys’ maestro, but because one of the more memorable events of my life was attending his parents’ “Bed-In for Peace” in Montreal in 1969 and, resultantly, singing with them and other visitors on John’s new record, Give Peace a Chance, which they were in the process of recording with everyone in sight (under the moniker the Plastic Ono Band). Notably, on this occasion, Tommy Smothers, who then had a television show with his brother…and my traveling companion, LSD guru Timothy Leary.
Bruce Springsteen: Magic
by: Paul Williams
Magic
(Sony Records, 2007)
The title of this album would be immodest, since it is indeed a magical accomplishment, achieved mostly through skillful songwriting and band leading, were it not that, in a pop music/rock ‘n’ roll tradition that goes back more than 50 years now, it is named after one of the tracks included on the album. The track is explicitly about magic as a performance in front of a live audience (such as sawing a volunteer in half): “Trust none of what you hear and less of what you see,” he sings, and “you” is clearly the audience, the listeners. “This is what will be,” he repeats, claiming (immodestly?) a certain power as a creator. It is a very good album, demonstrating on a recording some of the power the man has as a live performer. This power can indeed be referred to as “magic,” though the tricks (of language and of music-making) are self-evident.
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by: Paul Williams
published: October 31, 2007
in column: Our Guru Emeritus
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