Paul Mccartney on The Huffington Post

Paul McCartney Takes Meatless Monday To EU

2009-12-03T10:56:49Z

BRUSSELS — Paul McCartney took his "Meat-Free Mondays" campaign to the European Parliament on Thursday, saying the power to halt global warming lies as much with individuals as with their governments.

McCartney met in Brussels with Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the U.N.'s global climate change panel, and praised the virtue of skipping meat one day a week for the sake of the environment.

Leo W. Gerard: Some Jobs Taxpayers Don't Need to Buy

2009-12-02T21:10:07Z

Can't buy me love
Everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love
No, no, no, no
From the 1964 Lennon/McCartney song, "Can't Buy Me Love"

Maybe you can't buy love, but you can buy a job.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt did it with the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. And the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February created jobs to relieve what is now 10.2 percent unemployment.

Both came at the cost of taxpayer dollars. Now, as labor and business leaders, economists and politicians gather Dec. 3 for President Obama's Jobs Summit, some are calling for a second stimulus. These include Nobel-Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. He says the initial stimulus was too small and insufficiently focused on jobs.

Krugman recommends instituting a reduced version of FDR's Works Progress Administration (WPA), offering public-service employment, the kind that left solid WPA bridges, bus shelters and other monuments that serve citizens to this day across this country. At a cost of $40 billion a year for three years, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates this would create a million jobs. Krugman also endorses the EPI's recommendation of tax credits for employers who add jobs.

A second stimulus is completely reasonable at a time when there are six unemployed Americans for every job opening and when it takes six months on average for an unemployed worker to find a job, the longest since the Great Depression. But the Obama administration already has sent out signals that it doesn't want Jobs Summit solutions to worsen the federal deficit.

Fine. There are ways to create jobs that don't have to be bought. One is to enforce and strengthen trade policy.

Chicken Littles all over this country ran around screaming, "A trade war is coming! A trade war is coming!" in September when President Obama enforced trade law by imposing tariffs on Chinese tires being dumped in this country. That flood of Chinese tires had cost 5,000 American workers their jobs.

The Chicken Littles, always wrong, were mistaken about a trade war. China never engaged in one. And now, Cooper Tire has announced a $10 million expansion of its Findlay plant, creating 100 new jobs, and tire factories across the country have increased hours.

By contrast, a paper company, NewPage, filed a trade case in 2006 seeking protection against Chinese and Indonesian dumping of coated paper, the heavy kind used in brochures and annual reports. The Commerce Department found egregious dumping, but later the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) refused to impose sanctions because it decided the U.S. industry hadn't been injured.

Now, three years later, the United Steelworkers union has joined NewPage and two other paper companies in filing for another trade case regarding coated paper. Perhaps since 7,000 U.S. paper workers have lost their jobs, the ITC will see injury to the American industry.

But here's the thing: Why do American workers and industries have to suffer? Our trade laws should be strong enough to prevent that injury in the first place. And that doesn't cost a dime.

Another obvious way to create good, family-supporting jobs that don't have to be bought is to develop an industrial strategy for this country. The idea of a strategy is to design a way to rebuild manufacturing as a base of the U.S. economy.

America cannot depend on housing or high tech or financial bubbles. These false financial mechanisms have led to nothing but heartache, recession and job loss. A strong economy is based on taking raw materials, adding creativity, energy, and work to construct products - like steel and tires and glass. Those products have real value and can be sold to make real wealth. They are not risky bets on the market like credit default swaps.

We need to place our faith in our own ingenuity and industry as a country, our ability to research and develop creative new products and manufacture them here, at home. For the love of country, that's what we can buy. And should.

Michael Bialas: Robert De Niro Upstages Denver In Kirk Jones' Everybody's Fine

2009-11-30T13:34:14Z

Denver plays a small part in Everybody's Fine, the tearjerking family drama disguised in recent trailers as a feel-good holiday film starring Robert De Niro.

Unfortunately, the Mile High City needed a stand-in. Like almost everything else these days, you can blame it on the economy. The Denver scenes were actually shot in New Haven, Conn.

Writer-director Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine, Nanny McPhee) went to great lengths to shoot his first American film - a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 Stanno tutti bene - that would "show off your country." Saying he stayed in the cheapest hotels he could find, the British native traveled across America, hitting New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City - even Denver and Leadville, Colorado - to do research for the film.

During a post-show Q&A at the 2009 Starz Denver Film Festival on November 19, Jones said he intended to re-create parts of his cross-country journey that was included in the original budget for the film, "and we would have come to Denver."

However, "financial restrictions" forced Jones to abandon most of those grand plans. So Woolsey Hall on the Yale campus served as the fictitious Denver Orchestra Hall, where dad (De Niro) rolls a piece of baggage with a squeaky wheel through the balcony en route to meeting up with one of his sons, played by Sam Rockwell.

It's one of the few false notes in Everybody's Fine (Miramax Films/Radar Pictures), which will be released nationally December 4. De Niro plays widower Frank Goode, who decides to visit each of his four grownup children in different parts of the country (New York, Chicago, Denver and Las Vegas) after all of them are no-shows for a family reunion/picnic. It would have been the first time for them to reconnect since the funeral for his wife, considered the "glue" that kept the family together, was held eight months earlier. So, Frank surmises, "If you don't come to me, I'll go to you."

Hoping to surprise each of his four children along the way during a road trip filled with buses, trains, a truck and a plane (Frank hates to fly), it's well-meaning dad who realizes his seemingly successful and oh-so-attractive brood (Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore?) haven't been telling him anything about their lives. Their excuse? One of his girls offers, "We tell you the good news and spare you the bad."

While the siblings share secrets, lies and coverups with each other (mostly through phone conversations), dear old dad is left trying to figure out things for himself. Father Knows Best this isn't.

With some comedic moments included (De Niro trying to hit a golf ball is a hoot), this primarily is a touching film that will not only tug at your heart strings, but likely rip them out. In its initial screening in Denver, there was much more sobbing than laughing. (De Niro is shown with Beckinsale.)

Yet it avoids many of today's predictable, soap opera-like tricks utilized in American films, including another recent take on family dysfunction, the disappointing Solitary Man, which also was shown at the festival. Someone's cynical idea of an aging male's wet dream, the movie starring Michael Douglas and Mary-Louise Parker failed on many levels despite its stellar cast.

While Jones added three more days of filming after principal shooting was completed, he said he "made the film I wanted to make." The man who got hooked on filmmaking after watching Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso had finished "an American project I could call my own."

If there's anything heavy-handed about Everybody's Fine, it's the fixation with telephone wires as a metaphor. The wires and telephone poles seen throughout Frank's travels serve as a connection to his former blue-collar job in a factory where he coated "a million feet of wire to get (the children) where they are today." The shots, Jones said, allowed him to show the irony that, "Frank helped so many people communicate, but he couldn't communicate with his own family." (Jones, left, visits with De Niro on the set.)

In perhaps his best performance in years, De Niro succeeds in playing the ordinary guy whose mission in life was "to be a good father." With tender loving care, he displays a delicate touch, thankfully distancing himself from the cartoonish Jack Byrnes in the Meet the Parents/Meet the Fockers series. While not playing quite as quirky or isolated - but just as sympathetic - a character, the home-alone softie is on par with Jack Nicholson's Academy Award-nominated portrayal of a disheartened dad left behind in About Schmidt.

"I like to cast against type," Jones told the Denver crowd. Despite all the crazed, eccentric train wrecks of humanity De Niro has played in the past, Jones said he recognized the intense New York actor as "a guy in his early, mid-60s (actually 66) who has five kids. ... I was very respectful and wrote 62 in the script."

After reading the script and initially thinking he might want to wait another six or seven years to play the part, De Niro "completely understood" what the character was all about, Jones said, adding that he "never met anyone so prepared." They hit it off and plan to work together again soon, the director believes.

Beckinsale (Amy), Barrymore (Rosie) and Rockwell (Robert) also fare well in supporting roles, and Melissa Leo makes a bright and shining cameo as a truck driver who is wise beyond her job description. (Barrymore is shown with De Niro.)

Beckinsale's 10-year-old daughter Lily also appears as the younger Amy. In those scenes, Jones uses a technique (the present-day Frank talking to his prepubescent kids) that any family man (or woman) will find identifiable ... while reaching for a hanky.

"The theme of family is about as universal as you can get," Jones said. "I hope people can really relate to the movie."

Although his father doesn't see any similarities, Jones said he relied on his own Big Daddy to provide many of the film's details, including his taste in music. He remembers easy listening singers such as Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra heard throughout the house after dad bought his first stereo. Como's rendition of "Catch a Falling Star" joyfully plays during the opening scene, when Frank tends to his garden and well-manicured lawn while making preparations for the failed reunion.

Adding to Dario Marianelli's score, Jones updates the soundtrack with an original song by Paul McCartney - "(I Want To) Come Home" - that plays over the end credits. Though Jones wasn't born until eight months after the Beatles invaded America, the director still finds the "Cute One" relevant today.

The fact that McCartney, now 67, is a widower (his first wife Linda died in 1998) and a father of grownups made his involvement a no-brainer. Actually, Sir Paul saw an early screening and, "affected by the movie," went to Jones with the idea of writing the song.

"In the back of my mind, I was thinking, 'What if it's awful?' "Jones said, surely aware that he was dealing with one of rock's greatest living songwriters.

Jones realized he was being ridiculous. "I absolutely loved it," he said after hearing McCartney's finished product. "It really seemed to resonate with the film. ... Just perfect for the ending."

That may be true, but if you thought Denver was really Denver, don't get fooled again. In Everybody's Fine, everybody isn't ... what they appear to be. And as emotional and rewarding as the movie is, no one should pretend - especially in a preview clip or a poster - that this is a happy holiday experience.

Extras, credits
• Everybody's Fine photos by Abbot Genser/Miramax Film Corp.
• Here's the official trailer for Everybody's Fine:

David Wild: "Bad Moon Rising": My Playlist For All You Suckers Waiting On Line To See The Twilight Saga: New Moon

2009-11-20T16:07:13Z

I will be rushing out to see The Twilight Saga: New Moon, just as soon as I finish seeing every other film ever made first -- and Zombieland twice.

Fortunately, as the father of two sons, absolutely no one is asking me to see New Moon, which I consider my richly deserved spiritual payback for sitting through all of those interminable Pokémon movies - each of which seemed to last as long as Shoah.

And so for those out there waiting in some bloody line, here's my moon-themed playlist for you:

BAD MOON RISING - Creedence Clearwater Revival
EVERYONE'S GONE TO THE MOON - Jonathan King
SONG ABOUT THE MOON - Paul Simon
FLY ME TO THE MOON - Frank Sinatra
C MOON - Paul McCartney
THE MOON'S A HARSH MISTRESS - Jimmy Webb
HERE COMES THE MOON - George Harrison
SHOOT THE MOON - Emitt Rhodes
MOONSHADOW - Cat Stevens
TENNESSEE MOON - Neil Diamond
SONNY GOT CAUGHT IN THE MOONLIGHT - Robbie Robertson
MAN ON THE MOON - REM
WAITING ON THE MOON - Peter Wolf
MOONDANCE - Van Morrison
YOUNG MOON - America
THE WHOLE OF THE MOON - The Waterboys
NEW BLUE MOON - Traveling Wilburys

Okay, all you HuffPost vampires, what songs will send you over the "New Moon"?

Paul McCartney's "Good Evening New York City": Exclusive Video Of "I'm Down" From New DVD

2009-11-16T00:33:18Z

In July of this year, performing for over 100,000 people at New York's Citi Field, Paul McCartney played the inaugural concert in the new stadium, covering many of his biggest hits as well as famous Beatles classics. It was a return to the scene where the Fab Four's 1965 appearance at Shea pioneered the concept of stadium rock concerts, and McCartney's electric performance of the Help b-side "I'm Down," one of the three-day event's major highlights, is featured on his new CD/DVD, Good Evening New York City. Here is an exclusive clip of that performance from the DVD:

"Good Evening New York City" will be released Tuesday, November 17th and is available for purchase now on www.paulmccartney.com.

Mike Ragogna: HuffPost Reviews : Paul McCartney, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and Norah Jones

2009-11-16T00:14:52Z

Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City

Following his simple greeting "Good evening, New York City," Paul launched into his three-date appearance back in July of this year at Citi Field, initiating the Shea Stadium replacement as a major concert venue as well as upgraded sports arena. Commemorating that historic event is this new double disc plus DVD set titled after his salutation, and it rocks through over thirty very well-known tracks, especially emphasizing The Beatles' material, with more than half the album dedicated to the Fab Four's catalog. This is a dream come true for Beatles fans, but what about McCartney and Wings devotees? Smartly, McCartney includes some of the best of his personal repertoire, with high-energy takes on sing-a-longs like "Mrs. Vanderbilt," "Let Me Roll It," and "Flaming Pie" that are as spirited as those on the hits "Jet," "Band On The Run," "My Love," and "Live And Let Die." And on the DVD--no surprise here--Paul owns the stadium, moving about and controlling the audience from whatever vantage point he's momentarily stationed.

Good Evening New York City is a marvelous testament to McCartney's energy, voice (yeah, his chops are in fine form), and relationship with his former band mates. You can't help but get a little misty during Paul's acoustically-strummed ode to his fallen brother, John Lennon, in "Here Today," a song in which, it should be remembered, he tells his friend he loves him. He also melds Lennon's anti-war anthem "Give Peace A Chance" onto "A Day In The Life," creating one of the most satisfying medleys you can think of. And John isn't the only Beatle to whom Paul throws a nod. Though it begins with a disorienting shuffle, Paul's version of George Harrison's "Something" then shifts into a more faithful interpretation that sounds like it was written for the singer. Other warm moments include a take on "The Long And Winding Road," "Blackbird," and "Let It Be," whose gospel organ permeates the new facility as reverently as if it were a game night.

For those who remember, The Beatles performed at Shea Stadium back in 1965, inventing arena-rock during a time when they reinvented pop music for the modern world. These recent concerts may not have been as significant as that historical sixties event, but for so very many people in Citi Field those nights, this was as close to hearing something like The Beatles as they were going to get; for Paul McCartney, it probably was intoxicating reliving some cherished memories of his younger years; and for the rest of us, Good Evening New York City is the only way we will be able to appreciate the magic and music performed at the new structure.

Start Here: "Jet," "Live And Let Die," and "Back In The USSR"

Tracks:

CD 1
1. Drive My Car
2. Jet
3. Only Mama Knows
4. Flaming Pie
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Let Me Roll It
7. Highway
8. The Long And Winding Road
9. My Love
10. Blackbird
11. Here Today
12. Dance Tonight
13. Calico Skies
14. Mrs. Vandebilt
15. Eleanor Rigby
16. Sing The Changes
17. Band On The Run

CD 2
1. Back In The USSR
2. I'm Down
3. Something
4. I've Got A Feeling
5. Paperback Writer
6. A Day In The Life / Give Peace A Chance
7. Let It Be
8. Live And Let Die
9. Hey Jude
10. Day Tripper
11. Lady Madonna
12. I Saw Her Standing There
13. Yesterday
14. Helter Skelter
15. Get Back
16. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End

DVD
1. Intro
2. Drive My Car
3. Jet
4. Only Mama Knows
5. Flaming Pie
6. Got To Get You Into My Life
7. Let Me Roll It
8. Highway
9. The Long And Winding Road
10. My Love
11. Blackbird
12. Here Today
13. Dance Tonight
14. Calico Skies
15. Mrs. Vandebilt
16. Eleanor Rigby
17. Sing The Changes
18. Band On The Run
19. Back In The USSR
20. I'm Down
21. Something
22. I've Got A Feeling
23. Paperback Writer
24. A Day In The Life / Give Peace A Chance
25. Let It Be
26. Live And Let Die
27. Hey Jude
28. Day Tripper
29. Lady Madonna
30. I Saw Her Standing There
31. Yesterday
32. Helter Skelter
33. Get Back
34. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / The End

Paul McCartney - A Life
by Peter Ames Carlin (audiobook)

In the book A Life, author Peter Ames Carlin not only explored Paul McCartney's years as both an immensely talented artist and musical pioneer, but also as a cultural icon, treating his subject matter as respectfully as his biography documenting The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's creative years. Carlin wrote about McCartney's music and life as one, covering high points and achievements as well as conflicts, and spread across Tantor's new ten disc audiobook--read by the British narrator John Lee--there are virtually no details, big or small, Beatles or Wings-related, that doesn't get touched on in some fresh, informative way. The discussions of Paul's early days and his wife Linda's personal challenges may be some of the most touching, especially if you haven't read the book, due to Lee's expert voiceover. With all of the dishy books on pop figures that have been released recently--especially on John Lennon--it's nice to be able to celebrate one's musical hero with as much dignity as Carlin's A Life does.

John Mayer - Battle Studies

The symphony tunes-up, a fat snare with drone and arpeggio synths punch-up the track, and class is in session as John Mayer's Battle Studies begins. On Mayer's fourth full studio album (not counting his trio, eps, or live releases), the artist mostly explores relationships that are all but casualties, as well as conflicts within himself concerning personal direction. In "Heartbreak Warfare"'s chorus, Mayer offers his partner a simple solution: "If you want more love, why don't you say so?" after imaging the couple's toxic interactions with "clouds of sulfur in the air, bombs...droppin' everywhere." He also offers quick POVs like the convention-challenging single "Who Says," in which Mayer says, "Who says I can't get stoned, turn off the lights and the telephone, me in my house alone, who says I can't get stoned?" Fair enough, and his list keeps growing, sometimes with wiseguy wit, always circling back with lines about an old relationship gone wrong, the reason for his herbal cloistering.

Other welcome treats (or threats) along the way are "Assassin," a track that is a little more edgy than what we're used to from Team Mayer. In this little slice of minor key metaphor, he singles-out that certain she-devil while employing moody lyrics and a Peter Gabriel-style angst (complete with repetitive vocal tag) that perfectly portray the culprit's misdeeds (along with Mayer's) as it evokes the eighties. Also among the best is the beautiful potential hit "Half Of My Heart" that features Taylor Swift. She adds a nice touch to a song that sounds like a bridge between Pop's Top Ten, the country charts, and Fleetwood Mac. And the closing track--the twin-guitar'd and echo piano'd "Friends, Lovers Or Nothing"--is loaded with just enough Phil Spector nods (and Lennonisms) to invite a lawyer's cease-and-desist letter (no, not really) as well as a lighter-flicking crowd-sway as it fades into the sunset.

Ultimately, Battle Studies is like a good old-fashioned "theme" album. Song after song, Mayer struggles with his future and personal relationships maturely, his having grown significantly from the days of merely calling out cookie-cutter stereotypes and hypocrisy, or casting bodies as wonderlands. On the other hand, Battle Studies' songwriting revisits the simplicity of his album Room For Squares during which the listener traveled alongside Mayer and his youthful, disjointed journeys. But unlike his previous projects and more in the style of classic singer-songwriter albums of the seventies, Battle Studies stays on target, focusing on the central theme of conflict--with the occasional break for relief--from beginning to end. It's no coincidence that Mayer's modernized cover of the blues-rock standard "Crossroads" is followed by "War Of My Life," a song that declares his need to finally choose what's best for him, meaning "no more suffering, no more pain, never again."

Perhaps that's the purpose of this album, it being a declaration of independence from relationships that suck and life choices that mean nothing. Mayer's always been the smartest egg in the carton, and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that this album is a catharsis for the superstar who's young enough to still be sorting things out. And it's nice that he can multitask since the album also is highly entertaining. As far as Mayer's current trajectory, it seems that with every new album, he just keeps getting better--as an artist, as a songwriter, and as a guitar player. It was just a few years back when, after winning his first industry trophy, he told award-presenter James Taylor and a Grammy audience that he would make them proud. No problem with that last one.

Start Here: "Half Of My Heart," "Heartbreak Warfare," "Who Says," "War Of My Life," and ""All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye" (oh, that's half the album, isn't it...)

Tracks:
1. Heartbreak Warfare
2. All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye
3. Half Of My Heart - with guest Taylor Swift
4. Who Says
5. Perfectly Lonely
6. Assassin
7. Crossroads
8. War Of My Life
9. Edge Of Desire
10. Do You Know Me
11. Friends, Lovers Or Nothing

Jason Mraz - Jason Mraz's Beautiful Mess/Live On Earth

This year's bumper crop of live albums has seen some pretty spectacular band re-framings, and in the Era of the Vanishing Compact Disc (poof!), it seems wise that live would be the way to go for most acts wanting to sell albums that don't align themselves with a fading paradigm. And the CD/DVD combo seems to make the most sense in the marketplace, offering two mediums mostly for the price of one.

Jason Mraz' Beautiful Mess/Live On Earth is a magnificent mess o' music, and it's one of the format's best offerings. It sounds like a road trip gone right, with equal measures of casualness and strict arrangements, plus a healthy dose of good intentions driving the bus. Mraz labeled the mission the "Gratitude Café Tour" with part of its profits going to worthy charitable causes, but that's where the seriousness ends.

As seen on the DVD portion (that features more songs than the capacity-jammed CD), the main dude is having mucho fun and is plotzing over his crowd as much as they enjoy him. Like the big kid he is, he vocally horses around with the material whose lyrics are loaded with flashes of new age and fratboy pranksterdom.

This is all good-natured, good-hearted music that visits pop, acoustic, slight hip-hop, reggae, you name it, he's got it. In concert, Mraz sounds better and more believable than on his studio records that are, themselves, also pretty terrific. On all his recordings, he's a master wordsmith, at times utilizing phonics like a first language, and those words seem that much more sincere when he's communicating them live. By the way, for those who wondered if she'd make the gig(s), yes, his co-hitster Colbie Caillat joins Jason Mraz's Flying Circus on "Lucky."

Start Here: "Anything You Want," "Remedy," "Lucky," "Only Human," and "Coyote"

Tracks:

CD:
1. Intro
2. Sunshine Song
3. Traveler/Make It Mine
4. Anything You Want
5. Coyotes
6. Live High
7. Only Human
8. The Remedy
9. The Dynamo Of Volition
10. A Beautiful Mess
11. I'm Yours
12. Lucky - with Colbie Caillat
13. Copchase
14. All Night Long
15. Butterfly
16. The Boy's Gone

DVD:
1. Intro
2. Sunshine Song
3. Traveler / Make It Mine
4. Anything You Want
5. Coyotes
6. Live High
7. Only Human
8. The Remedy
9. The Dynamo Of Volition
10. A Beautiful Mess
11. I'm Yours
12. Lucky - with Colbie Caillat
13. Copchase
14. All Night Long
15. Fall Through Glass
16. Butterfly
17. The Boy's Gone
18. Un Beau Désordre
19. We Sing. We Dance. We Make Videos.

Norah Jones - The Fall

Norah Jones' new album isn't what you'd expect. It's going to be labeled as her "experimental" project due to its more uptempo, guitar-oriented approach, but it's basically a Norah Jones album that's full of silk and melody, if not the same production values. Teaming with all sorts of collaborators such as Joey Waronker, Ryan Adams, Smokey Hormel, James Gadson, Jacquire King, and Marc Ribot, Jones and her "sound" are fishing around for something that sticks, and for the most part, The Fall works as an exhibition of growth, not coherence. The Fall's first single, "Chasing Pirates," is a nice game-changer, but thankfully for her older fans, there also are songs such as "I Wouldn't Need You" that ground the change. And those allured by the sultry are going to bristle at "It's Gonna Be," the album's "rocker." Still, those new guitar textures work very well with her voice, and this Norah Jones seems to no longer be Arif Mardin's jazzy understudy. Ultimately, this is probably the best direction--for now--for the artist and her music.

Start Here: "Chasing Pirates" and "Light As A Feather"

Tracks
1. Chasing Pirates
2. Even Though
3. Light As A Feather
4. Young Blood
5. I Wouldn't Need You
6. Waiting
7. It's Gonna Be
8. You've Ruined Me
9. Back To Manhattan
10. Stuck
11. December
12. Tell Yer Mama
13. Man Of The Hour

LAST MINUTE JOHN MAYER PRESS RELEASE:

The "John Mayer Live From the Beacon Theatre" concert airs LIVE and in HD on Fuse Tuesday, November 17, at 9pm ET! The special concert event is in conjunction with the release of Mayer's new album, "Battle Studies," and will include additional programming including a personal and revealing one-on-one interview with the artist.

Here's a sneak peak into the John Mayer Fuse TV Special with brand
new interviews w/ Mr. Mayer:

"Who Says" Interview Segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTz71g6YGi4
Interview Outtakes and JM Kidding Around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRr7cWkWWWE
Concert Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSL2d8spV-w

And check out how to get your Tweets featured during the Live John Mayer broadcast:

"Who Says: Tweets on TV" - Viewers can be a part of the show by participating in "Who Says: Tweets on TV." The audience is invited to post tweets using #mayeronfuse for the chance to see their thoughts on-air during the two hour live concert.

More information about the live concert broadcast can be found here:
http://fuse.tv/ontv/shows/john-mayer/

"John Mayer Live from the Beacon Theatre" app, widget and event leading up to the special:

Widget: http://www.clearspring.com/widgets/4af110ed7907c6a0
Facebook "Event" Invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171661825826&index=1
John Mayer Concert Facebook App: http://apps.facebook.com/john-mayer-p-fhchfi/

Paul McCartney Announces European Tour

2009-10-22T07:40:43Z

LONDON — Paul McCartney will return to Hamburg, where The Beatles honed their craft, to launch his first European tour in five years.

McCartney announced Thursday he will play the German city on Dec. 2 to kick off the "Good Evening Europe" tour.

Mike Ragogna: Still Awesome After All These Years: An Interview With Producer Phil Ramone

2009-10-16T03:09:11Z

If you've ever read his Friday Huffington Post column Dog Ears Music, you're aware that Phil Ramone is fond of some pretty great records. Every week, he and Danielle Evin suggest albums and tracks from various decades that deserve attention as they happily update music lovers on artists' gems and buried treasures. His weekly advisories immediately proliferate across the internet, no surprise to his admirers and contemporaries since all of his work is backed by an intense knowledge of music and a history of godfathering some of the best recordings ever made.

Over the years, this innovative producer and engineer has been at the board behind many classic records, earning fifteen Grammy awards that began with "Best Engineered Recording" for his skills on the legendary Getz/Gilberto album. He is credited as a technical innovator for introducing optical surround sound, as a pioneer of the compact disc, and for practically reinventing the way '70s singer-songwriters presented the sonic side of their art. To this day, records bearing the brand "Produced by Phil Ramone" are guaranteed to have musical sophistication, impeccable sound, and a recording artist represented in the best possible light.

Mike Ragogna: On the recent compilation you produced, What Love Can Do, artists such as Burt Bacharach, Eric Clapton, Kris Kristofferson, and Brian Wilson participated. The title track was written by Wilson and Bacharach which makes the event pretty newsworthy. What are your thoughts on Brian Wilson?

Phil Ramone: A few years ago, there was a celebration of Brian's work at Radio City, and it had Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, George Martin...that was the re-establishing of Brian. He not only is a great writer, but I think a great producer. I heard the band he was working with, and I thought this was the greatest thing I'd heard in years. Brian was just beginning to perform again.

George Martin and I were brought in to produce the "Jubilee For The Queen," a show at Buckingham Palace that was performed live on the lawn in front of 10,000 people. The place went crazy when Brian performed, and he had a complete resurgence in Europe because of The Beatles and everyone that had given him so much credit for Pet Sounds, etc. I remember Paul McCartney and I driving from London to the South of England. It was an hour-and-a-half drive, and we sat there in the back of his car playing Pet Sounds saying look at how it changed all of our lives.

I've worked with Brian off and on over the last five years. We did a tribute to him at MusiCares, and at their request, he had written out a book of his words and music. It was beautiful--all handwritten and signed by him--and they did it as a live auction to see if it would do anything big. People thought five or ten grand would be a wonderful bid. When it got up to 25-30,000, I thought, "Oh my God!"

The guy's work was not only artistically interesting but beautifully done as well. Brian had been a major point of reference in music in so many people's lives. When we did this record, when the label asked, "Would you talk to him about doing this?" he had just written that song three or four months back with Burt Bacharach. And it was kind of ironic that we had recorded it in the same studio where Brian made his first famous recordings. He's an amazing guy.

MR: You also have been at the heart of a lot of important recordings, producing classic albums by so many significant artists. When you read "Produced by Phil Ramone" on records by Billy Joel, Paul Simon, etc., it's pretty clear that there's something about your "sound" that helped these artists organize and clarify what they were trying to communicate. What was your role with regards to bringing their creativity front and center?

PR: It's a matter of trust. When an artist feels as comfortable as they can be, better things come from it. So that when you do make a remark--like "that's really good" or "that's wonderful"--it has to ring true because, when they get to be famous, they hear a lot of wonderful things, but those aren't the things they tend to listen to. They listen to the criticisms.

MR: But you take on the role of advisor and they obviously respect your guidance.

PR: I think from the beginnings of working with an artist, no matter how many records you make that have done really well, every day is a new day. And for that artist sitting there getting a constructive piece of information--sometimes it comes from a look from both of us, when something just doesn't ring true--I think that's probably the most important role that any producer plays for them. You know, how do you say to someone, "I think you can be better?" It's the way you say it. I started in the musical world by studying music and engineering a lot of projects, and I watched other people work and saw that one remark could turn an artist off, like looking at the clock too tightly. These things become part of the project if you do that.

MR: Yet there's a schedule you have to keep.

PR: To this day, after all these years, people say, "Are we going to run overtime?" or "Is this going to cost us a lot of money?" and I go, "I don't know, but I know that if it's inspired, it can happen in ten minutes or it can happen in hours." That's the unpredictable. Those artists you mentioned are all people who are known for taking their time to do it well. It gets harder with more success, of course. I remember working with clients who wouldn't spend the extra half-a-day or the extra hour, and sometimes a mix went out and I'd go crazy. Every time I heard it on the radio, I'd keep thinking, "If I only had that extra twenty minutes..."

MR: Well what happens when it's a hit?

PR: I'm happy for the hit, but I know we could have done better.

MR: There are certain sonics, such as the sustained reverb on Paul Simon or Phoebe Snow's cymbals or your rounded guitar ring-offs that add to the song's interpretation. It seems like these nuances in your productions add to an artist's dialog with the listener.

PR: It's funny but I've been working with Paul Simon recently, and I reminded him there was a certain "sizzle" cymbal that could be placed where "air" would be created, where the mind and emotions could feel it. I just know that the atmosphere you create is critical, and space works just as well as a musical note.

MR: It's clear you injected a "grown-up" sound, an elegance or "jazz" into pop music.

PR: Soloists were free to play what they felt, and jazz is all about that. It's free, and rock 'n' roll was supposed to stand for freedom. The creativity of rock 'n' roll soloists was similar to that in the world of jazz.

MR: Another side of your work includes an Anne Murray duets album on which she revisits many of her best-loved hits. Have you previously worked with her?

PR: I met Anne Murray a long, long time ago when I was a young engineer. I'd done a show with her and Engelbert Humperdink in Bermuda, and this was in the day when guys like me would be called to do the insane jobs. Engelbert was doing a song on a Bermuda racer, and nobody told me that I was going to be tied to the mast and record the vocal 90 degrees to the water. Meanwhile, I'm recording him live against the track, and the next day, I'm working with Anne Murray and him in a carriage...you know, it was one of those horse-and-carriage songs. I'm being driven in a golf cart, and, for some reason, my instinct told me this horse was not going to just keep trotting. He suddenly broke into a higher gate, and I told the driver, "Move it, move it, we're gonna get blown over!" Fortunately we went into a ditch and the horse and carriage went right by us. Anne said, "I thought for a moment, you were gone!"

MR: How did this new project come your way?

PR: I hadn't seen her for twenty-some-odd years, and then her manager called me and said, "Anne wants to do a duet album, all women." Well, she and Karen Carpenter had original sounding voices. If you analyze the music, it's all about how quickly the individual voice is recognized when you hear it, and she's got one of those voices. And I heard she was a super-professional. Everyone I ever met from Canada asked, "Have you ever worked with Anne Murray?" and I'd say, "Very little," and they'd say, "Boy, is she efficient." She's on time, she gets to the gig, and if you start wasting time or do too many jokes, you'll know that she wants to get this thing done right. We just hit it off from the first day and we talked about the best way to do it. The key to an artist redoing their own material is similar to what Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, or any of those guys had to do. You have to bring something new to it, like how you share the song, when the harmonies make sense. She was very willing to sing what was needed to make sure the story worked. There wasn't an ego problem, like "I have to sing those lines" or "those are my lines," nothing like that. It was all about the story and Anne letting her guest sing those lines and she'd sing the answer.

MR: How did you work up the arrangements before recording them?

PR: She has a wonderful daughter named Dawn (Langstroth), and I made demos with the two of them so that everyone would know what the arrangement was, what would get changed-up, if things were in different keys.

MR: You've also been working with Nikki Yonofsky?

PR: Oh yeah. I heard her when she was thirteen, recorded her a lot when she was fourteen, and I'm still recording the album. I would suspect it'll be out this year or the beginning of next year. Things just change, you know, from fourteen to fifteen, there's a huge change in a woman, both physically and vocally. The voice has matured. When I first met her then started working with her, she said, "What makes a great artist?" I said, "Some of them are just great singers, like Ella Fitzgerald and folks like that. But the ultimate, if you can do it, is to learn to become a good writer, and then you've got everything you could ever think of." It's a hard road to hoe, but she's doing it, and she'll come out on top. She's being introduced to a lot of good, young writers which is a great development. You couldn't go to a better school to learn to write a song.

MR: Can you talk a little about the Shelby Lynne album you produced that's a tribute to Dusty Springfield?

PR: Yeah, that's one of her more interesting and wonderful records. She's one of everybody's favorite singers, and her love for Dusty is the same thing that I found. I mean, Dusty In Memphis is one of the great albums of the seventies. Shelby's got a lot of those attributes too, and we cut the album in a week. I think every musician that played on it and everybody that was in the building at Capitol Studios where we recorded it would come in and ask if they could just listen for a couple of minutes. It was the talk of the town. She came in one day and said, "Can you believe the label put out a vinyl version of the record? And it became the #2 record in the vinyl world!" I said, "What's the #1 record?" and she said, "The Beatles." Not bad, not bad!

MR: What are your thoughts on vinyl?

PR: Vinyl has its own cult of people now.

MR: And it's being marketed to a younger demo where it's a first go-round with the medium.

PR: My nephews and nieces are all young. The ones that are nine and ten see it in the DJ world. They see the sixteen-year-olds play a lot of hip-hop music on two or three turntables. So, they wanted a vinyl turntable to go right into their iPods. There is a side to it that I like because how the 12" albums work is interesting.

MR: I imagine you develop close personal relationships with the artists you work with, for example, Billy Joel. You guys are pals to this day, right?

PR: Oh yeah, we sure are. We both had birthdays recently, and I said, "Did we ever think any of us would be plus thirty?" We started really young together.

MR: When you worked with him, the story goes that you gained his confidence by insisting that his band be on his record. The Stranger validates that approach and created what became the Billy Joel sound. Did your relationship and his trust in you allow you to be completely honest with him?

PR: I always felt completely open to saying exactly what was on my mind. If he and I were looking across the table after working hours on a song, and the question came up, "Is this bridge bullshit?" in a British accent, I would reply, "I'm afraid so."

MR: How did applying that kind of honesty affect his writing?

PR: I've always said that an audience figures out an artist, they do. The more pretentious they become, the more obvious it is that that's what's hanging out. That's why he couldn't write a bad lyric. It's part of his character to scrutinize his words and his music.

MR: And an additional payoff is that feeling of satisfaction when a project is completed, right?

PR: I always took an album and said, "Okay, we did a good piece of work here. Hopefully, he'll call again."

MR: Alongside your film and music productions, you write a column for The Huffington Post's entertainment page. In your own words, what's the purpose of the column?

PR: Dog Ears is a column that Danielle Evin and I write as a series of recommendations and insights into some great artists' songs from current to past eras. There are many songs that don't get heard, and Dog Ears is meant to evoke interest in them, it's not a column of criticism. It explores music that we both love, and it's like a treasure hunt.

Phil Ramone speaking from the heart to young Road Recovery participants:

Early Paul McCartney Musings Discovered In Liverpool

2009-09-27T07:00:31Z

LONDON — A discovery in a Liverpool library has revealed that Paul McCartney's talent for writing was winning him prizes when he was just 10 – though for an essay about the queen, rather than a hit song.

A British researcher said he found an essay written – in very tidy, curling script – by the future Beatle for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Joan E. Dowlin: Why Is Susan Boyle Still Being Disrespected?

2009-09-25T14:12:47Z

What does Susan Boyle have to do to gain respect? The initial YouTube video of her audition on "Britain's got Talent" has received a record 75 million or so hits, and her debut album (I Dreamed A Dream) is at number one with tens of thousands of copies being ordered three months before its release, more than that for Whitney Houston and the Beatles. She has a fan-based website with thousands of members.

And she is still being disrespected by some newspaper journalists. In his "Dave On Demand" column in the Philadelphia Inquirer,
David Hiltbrand wrote last Saturday: "Mary Hart conducted an interview of Paul McCartney on 'Entertainment Tonight' this week that exemplified the show's ridiculous obsession with the flavor of the week. She asked the pop legend what he thought of flash-in-the-pan Susan Boyle. That's like getting a sit-down with Dame Judi Dench to ask her what she thinks of Gossip Girl's Blake Lively."

Huh? Susan Boyle a "flavor of the week?" A "flash-in-the-pan?" What was Dave thinking? I emailed him disagreeing with his assessment and asked if he had heard the YouTube video of Susan performing "Wild Horses" (from her latest album) on "America's Got Talent" which got rave reviews. He wrote back that he had and that it only reinforced his opinion.

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I wrote back and said that he has no ear for music (I can say that because I am a professional musician) and that Susan's voice is stronger and more beautiful than Paul McCartney's and that she sings better in tune and that someday she will be as big a legend as the Beatles.

He emailed back that time will tell. I'm sure it will, in Susan's favor. Sure, she had a rough time after the instant fame and attention she received from the first YouTube video of her audition on Britain's Got Talent. Who wouldn't with all that pressure, especially if you have lived a relatively isolated life (with no computer even)?

In an earlier article in the Huffington Post, "The Appeal of Susan Boyle," I explained why I believed she touched so many viewers of the video. She showed inspiring grace in forgiving the audience for pre-judging her before hearing her sing. She is a hero to many and a reminder that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Now that the shock of our first encounter with her has worn off and she has experienced a "make-over", what is left is her extraordinary talent and haunting, powerful voice.

I can't help but wonder if Dave's opinion of her singing would be different if he had only heard her voice with no knowledge of her appearance (past or present) or her age or background.

Judging from her moving rendition of "Wild Horses", I believe her first audition was just the beginning and she has a long and successful career ahead of her.

As Dave has said, only time will tell.

Beatles Bonanza! Fab Four Sell Over 2 Million Albums In 5 Days

2009-09-23T07:45:14Z

LOS ANGELES — Nearly 40 years after breaking up, The Beatles are still breaking records for album sales.

EMI Group PLC says consumers in North America, Japan and the U.K. bought more than 2.25 million copies of the Fab Four's re-mastered albums in the first five days after their Sept. 9 release.

Gov. Paterson Tried To Boot Paul McCartney's Lover From MTA Board

2009-09-17T15:00:13Z

Gov. Paterson tried to boot Paul McCartney's girlfriend from the MTA board, The Post has learned -- because she apparently favors globetrotting with her Beatle beau over taking care of business.

The rift between Paterson and trucking heiress Nancy Shevell was revealed after she cast a surprise dissenting vote yesterday to incoming MTA chief Jay Walder's salary package.

Tamara Conniff: Why We Are Subjected to Beatlemania, Again

2009-09-13T12:02:32Z

I love the Beatles, don't get me wrong. I worship and adore. Paul McCartney in concert is a religious experience. But I'm over it. I'm over Beatlemania. I want it to stop. Why? Why now? Ah, a little thing called sound recording copyright.

In 2012, the Beatles first recorded single, "Love Me Do," will enter the public domain. Originally released in 1962, under the UK copyright law a sound recording no longer belongs to the artist who recorded it after 50 years. Some big name artists and record company advocacy groups lobbied to get an extension to mirror the United States 95-year term. In April of this year, the European Union approved an extension from 50 to 70 years, however, the U.K. and member states have balked at it and the proposal has gotten lost in the political shuffle.

So of course the Beatles, and more specifically their label group EMI, want to exploit the recordings as much as they can before it becomes public property and can be used free of charge.

It begs a larger question, what is the use of copyright in today's world?

Consumer advocates are against copyright extension because they feel it stifles creativity, stunts innovation and punishes public use of art. If Ringo Starr can continue to profit from recordings made 50 years ago, he'll never record a new song ever again! The entire point of copyright protection is to create and profit for only a set period of time and then let the public enjoy it for free. Of note is that once recordings enter the public domain, artists can also use their recordings for free and not have to pay or license them from the record companies.

Back in the day, record companies used the sales and profits of back catalog to fund and develop new artists. Today, most labels are loosing money hand over fist because consumers don't want to spend $15 on round, little disks.

Back catalog is the saving grace for the embattled music industry to boost their profit margins -- between the Beatles and Michael Jackson, EMI and Sony, respectively, are having relatively good years.

However, the copyright of a song is valid for the life of the author plus 70 years. Ironically, the Beatles don't even own their songs, Michael Jackson's estate does (Jackson purchased the Beatles catalog in 1985 out from under Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono). Poor Jackson is raking in money all over the place. People are even taking bets on who will be the largest selling act of 2009 -- Jackson or the Beatles. It's beyond bizarre.

So now we are stuck with Beatlemania. A last ditch effort to make as much money off of the Beatles' sound recordings as humanly possible. We are even stuck with the game "The Beatles: Rock Band." According to published reports, the Beatles' remastered catalog and the game could generate approximately $1.6 billion, which is more that the gross domestic product of some countries.

John Lennon, George Harrison and Michael Jackson must be looking down on us quoting Shakespeare (whose works are in the public domain) and saying, "What fools these mortals be."

Shawn Amos: Roll Up for the Magical Beatles Marketing Tour

2009-09-08T15:05:25Z

9-9-09 marks the start of Beatlemania 2009. The Fab Four has been reduced to the Fab Two but they are determined to make sure the mystery tour lasts another 40 years.

The entire remastered Beatles catalogue (available at 7-Eleven, Starbucks, and Whole Foods), a dedicated Rock Band game, and boatloads of merchandise all land in stores. Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis and Disney have announced plans to remake the group's '68 animated movie Yellow Submarine just in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. It's a marketing orgy years in the making and gives new meaning to the word Revolver. The Beatles keep coming back.

See GetBack's Beatles Gallery

In reality, the never-ending Beatles marketing campaign hasn't stopped since Paul McCartney filed for his Beatles divorce in 1970. The band's company, Apple Corps, has been the keeper of the band's name, music, image and legacy. Unfortunately, Apple Corps doesn't call all of the shots. Nearly all of the songs written by Lennon/McCartney are controlled by the music publishing company Sony/ATV (co-owned by the Michael Jackson Family Trust) and The Beatles' former label, EMI, shares ownership of the recordings. Each has a say - and a stake in Beatles, Inc.

Surprisingly, this three-way marriage has managed to protect the Beatles' brand with largely good taste. In fact, The Beatles have arguably guarded their legacy with the highest standards of any musical act in history (action figures and bobble head dolls aside). However, there have been some notable missteps and questionable alliances from both the band and the individual members. As we prepare for the 2009 Beatles British Invasion, I offer you a look at some other Beatles-sanctioned marketing and nostalgia foisted upon a blindly adoring fan base.

"REVOLUTION" NIKE COMMERCIAL

The first Beatles sacrilege was committed in 1987 when Nike used "Revolution" to advertise their Nike Air shoes. The Beatles label, EMI apparently licensed the recording without permission from Apple Corps. The Beatles sued Nike, the label, and the ad firm for $15 million. A statement from their attorney said, "The Beatles position is that they don't sing jingles to peddle sneakers, beer, pantyhose, or anything else. Their position is that they wrote and recorded these songs as artists and not as pitchmen for any product." Guess they forgot about the song they licensed to a Ford car commercial two years earlier.

EMI countered by saying that Yoko Ono, an Apple partner, agreed to the song's use. Nike dropped the ads less than a year later and Ono - who's cool with her husband peddling sneakers - let Nike use John Lennon's solo recording "Instant Karma" in 1992.

ANTHOLOGY

In 1995, The surviving Beatles launched their first united full-scale marketing blitz. The DVD, TV, coffee table book, and album release marked the first public reuniting of the surviving Beatles since their break up - nearly 15 years after Lennon's murder and seven years after McCartney snubbed George and Ringo at The Beatles 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Initially called The Long and Winding Road, the mammoth career survey was overseen by the band's former road manager, the late Neil Aspinall (who went on to helm Apple Corps until 2007).

The centerpiece of the three-volume CD series contained demos and outtakes previously only available to bootleggers. And the centerpiece of the entire campaign was a "new" Beatles single, "Free as a Bird." The song began as a 1977 John Lennon cassette demo given to McCartney by Yoko as her opportunity to "bring them back together." It was completed by the remaining Beatles during a 1994 receding session at McCartney's home studio. Unfortunately, longtime producer George Martin was replaced with ELO founder and Traveling Wilbury Jeff Lynne. While the songs was better than nothing, it was nearly impossible to meet expectations for the first Beatles single in 25 years. Not surprisingly, reviews were mixed at best.

RINGO'S PIZZA HUT AD

While The Beatles were prepping a real reunion for the Anthology project, Ringo pretended to reunite that great fake Beatles band, the Monkees, for a Pizza Hut commercial. While the idea is pop culture genius, I'm not sure what's worse: seeing the Monkees crowd around Ringo's classic Ludwig drum set or seeing him recite the lines, "time to eat our pizza...crust first." God knows, Ringo doesn't earn much in publishing royalties but it's still a pretty disheartening sight.

LOVE THEATRICAL PRODUCTION & ALBUM

George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté began discussing a staged version of Beatles' songs in 2000. It took three years of legal wrangling to finally get all parties to agree. Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001 and wasn't able to see the show's 2006 premiere (attended by the surviving members along with Lennon and Harrison's wives).

Beatles producer George Martin and his son, Giles created a giant Beatles mash-up for the show and accompanying album. The show and album received near unanimous praise from critics and fans alike. Two years after the show's opening, the 2008 "American Idol" finalists tried to sell themselves as a Fab Four with a contrived and offbase media stunt involving their attendance at a Love performance. A smart way to remind viewers that The Beatles were waiting for their business in Vegas but a bummer for David Archuleta and The Beatles to be mentioned in the same breath.

BEATLES TRIBUTE BANDS AND SHOWS

And in the end, are the Beatles tribute bands and shows that keep the flame alive more than any officially sanctioned re-release or Vegas show. From the late '70s "Beatlemania" Broadway musical (shut down by Apple Corps in a 1983 lawsuit) to the global army of tribute bands, they are the best marketing campaign Apple Corp could have. A search of the Yahoo! directory alone results in 34 Beatles tribute bands, including the Fab Faux which features Will Lee from "The Late Show with David Letterman." The band is dedicated to playing note-for-note reproductions of The Beatles recordings. They do the one thing, no amount of officially sanctioned Beatles merchandise can do... bring The Beatles music back to life.

Shawn Amos: Every Band is a Beatles Band

2009-09-08T14:37:15Z

It was forty years ago today, The Beatles decided not to play. From their '61 Cavern Club debut to their last rooftop concert eight years later, The Beatles gave every serious artist in their wake the songbook and sound for their career. It's the musical trough from which nearly every musician drinks. The list of artists who have made a career copping The Beatles sound and songwriting is endless: Elliott Smith, Lenny Kravitz, ELO, Aimee Mann, XTC, and on and on.

See GetBack's Beatles Gallery

Something less discussed, though, is the career roadmap The Beatles left behind since their 1970 breakup. Generations of pop and rock groups follow the same career arc as Liverpool's favorite sons. It's an unwritten law for any band. It's inescapable.

The Four Phases of the Beatles Career Arc:

1. The cute, costumed boy band phase

2. The overworked, overexposed but still-smiling phase

3. The serious artist phase (usually accompanied by beards)

4. The "can't stand each other-don't speak to me in the same room" phase

There are of course, countless variations of this arc. Some bands' careers are too short to travel through all four phases. Other groups may begin their career in the middle or end of the arc. Regardless, every pop or rock band - whether they know it or not - is recreating a Beatles phase.

Most importantly, there is no fifth phase of the The Beatles arc. This is also known as the fifth ring of musical hell where the band becomes a sad caricature of its former self. The Beatles were lucky enough to implode before they reached that phase. Any band who stays together longer than The Beatles runs the risk of hitting this phase. Once they do, it automatically renders all of their previous work worthless. It's always best for a band to go their separate ways after Beatles Phase Four.

Of course, this current onslaught of Beatles hype could potentially place the Fab Four in the center of the dreaded fifth ring of musical hell. My bet is they avoid it, but the jury is still out. Meanwhile, let me take you down to some of my favorite Beatles Phase bands. Nothing is real…

BEATLES PHASE ONE BANDS
Notable members: Duran Duran, Backstreet Boys, Bay City Rollers
This is the most copied of the phases because it seems so easy to reproduce. Get four (or five) cute guys, dress them up in matching outfits, and watch the girls scream. These bands either come together on their own or are assembled by some questionable impresario. Regardless, Phase One Beatle Bands must have a strong-willed manager who is dedicated to their complete pop culture domination. The Beatles had Brian Epstein.

BEATLES PHASE TWO BANDS
Notable members: Barenaked Ladies (circa Stunt), The Go-Go's (circa Vacation), U2 (circa Joshua Tree)

These are bands that had the successful follow-up album and are now officially an industry - no longer a phenomena. Phase One Beatle Bands lucky enough to graduate into Phase Two Beatle Bands find themselves on the road endlessly, performing a continual stream of TV shows, and repeating the same sound bytes to magazine after magazine. Through it all, they are determinedly cheery. These are not sullen bands. There is no bad behavior (Nirvana and Oasis are the inverse of a Beatles Phase Two band - openly miserable). Phase Two Beatle Bands are just short of being politicians. They are polite, sign all the autographs, pose for all the pictures, and kiss the babies.

BEATLES PHASE THREE BANDS
Notable members: Fleet Foxes, The Band (entire career), Led Zeppelin
Phase Three is the rebellion phase. The band is starting to resent the demands of the music biz machine. They want to unleash the true artistry that lies within them. It is at this juncture that the band releases a double album or a ten-minute single. Interviews are less frequent (or shunned altogether), drug use may begin (or become more open), and most importantly, a beard is grown. As mentioned earlier, many bands make the decision to start their careers at Beatles Phase Three in order to get instant cred.

BEATLES PHASE FOUR BANDS
Notable members: Eagles (entire career), The Police (entire career), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours period)

By Phase Four the cracks are showing. The pressure is becoming too much. The band begins to communicate with each other through handlers. Girlfriends or wives begin showing up at rehearsals. There is talk of solo records, the occasional fistfight, and a session player is invited to help break the tension. The lucky bands make their best record during this period and then break up. The unfortunate ones phone it in for another 20 years because they can't make money doing anything else.

Tony Sachs: Naysaying the Naysayers: The Beatles' CDs by the Numbers

2009-09-08T13:09:22Z

This isn't for those music fans who pre-ordered the newly remastered Beatles CDs the instant they were offered. It's not for the people who have double-checked their stereos to make sure they're properly wired to capture every nuance of newly-tweaked sound. And it's certainly not for the folks who, when they heard that the Fabs' catalog was going to be reissued in both stereo and mono, didn't think twice about buying both boxes.

No, this is for that small but stubborn minority of naysayers who rolled their eyes when they heard that the Beatles' recorded legacy was being given a state-of-the-art sonic overhaul for the first time in more than two decades. "Ripoff artists," they snorted. "They keep repackaging the same music over and over again."

Well, you know what, naysayers? You're wrong.

Let's look at it by the numbers. In the CD era, EMI has released 14 Beatles albums, not counting the straight CD reissues of the original British LPs in 1987. Of the fourteen, five consist partly or entirely of previously unreleased music (Live At The BBC, Anthology 1, 2, 3, and Let It Be... Naked). Two are collections of singles and rarities that weren't included on the British albums (Past Masters Vols. 1 & 2). Three are well-thought out, fairly comprehensive greatest hits collections (the CD versions of the classic "red" and "blue" LPs, which were originally released in 1973, and 1).

Which leaves a grand total of four questionable Beatles releases over more than a quarter century. These include:

The Capitol Albums Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, featuring the American mixes, sequencing and artwork of the early Beatles' LPs in both stereo and mono, which American fans had been requesting for years;

Yellow Submarine Songtrack, which jettisoned the incidental music from the 1968 film in favor of more Beatles songs;

and Love, the inessential but interesting 2006 mash-up collection with absolutely stellar remixing and remastering.

And not a skimpy, ten-song compilation in the batch. By comparison, in the '90s alone, RCA released over 50 Elvis CDs, a good chunk of 'em short collections of random hits, and Frank Sinatra's various labels put out over 30 "new" collections of his -- some essential, many pointless. The Rolling Stones' 1971 album Sticky Fingers has, by my count, been issued on CD a half dozen times with assorted packaging and remastering variations since the mid '80s.

And let's not forget that unlike Elvis, Ol' Blue Eyes, the Stones and too many other artists to count, the Beatles have never committed the cardinal sin of baiting a greatest hits CD with one or two unreleased tracks to get all the die-hard fans to buy it. In fact, they've only put out one single-disc greatest hits CD, the aptly-titled 1, which not coincidentally has become one of the biggest selling albums of the decade. But do they get any credit for keeping their oeuvre down to manageable levels and not exploiting their audience? Not hardly.

So why do the Beatles get such a bad rap for supposedly abusing their legacy? Maybe it's because, when they put out a "new" record, it's handled with enough care, as far as production, packaging and promotion are concerned, so that it inevitably sells well. Take, for instance, the seemingly pointless Yellow Submarine Songtrack, released in 1999. On closer inspection, it had a lot going for it. Not only did it expand an album that was originally six songs and a side of George Martin's orchestral music into a tasty 15-track collection, but it also was remixed and remastered so that it had the best sound of any Beatles CD to date. And as a result, it made the Top 20 of Billboard's album chart. The Who (to randomly name another classic British rock band), on the other hand, have had more greatest hits albums come out than you can shake a Rickenbacker at, so when they put out a "new" compilation, it's hardly earth-shattering news.

To be fair, I agree with the many fans who are grumbling that the Beatles' CDs have room for both the stereo and mono mixes on one disc, and are questioning both the band and EMI for putting the mono discs in a separate, limited-edition, mucho-expensive box. But let's be honest -- unless you're a hardcore Beatlefreak, do you really care about stereo vs. mono mixes? I mean, nobody's putting a gun to your head to make you buy 'em both. And given EMI's stellar track record in handling the their biggest cash cow, I'm willing to let this one slide.

So hopefully, when you're reading about Wednesday's Beatle-CD-mania, you'll remember this little math lesson -- and give a last listen to your crappy-sounding first generation Fab Four discs -- before you go around poo-poohing the news.

Sal Nunziato: Compact Reviews Of This Week's Compact Discs, For Those Who Still Care: #2

2009-09-07T17:43:58Z

HEY HEY, WE'RE THE BEATLES

As you may or may not know, the big music news this week, and quite possibly the biggest news in the compact disc world since the release of The Beatles catalogue back in 1987, is the reissue and remastering of Debbie Harry's 1981 solo release "Koo Koo."

I KID! A fine album in its own right, but that's not the big news at ALL, my lovelies. It is in fact, the long-awaited release of The Beatles' catalogue, with breath-taking sound quality and slightly whelming packaging. These classic must-haves are available in both the no longer available Mono Box set, the currently sold out Stereo set, and the easily attainable individual releases. All the details can be found HERE.

Now, for the rest of today's specials.

MARTIN BELMONT- GUEST LIST

Legendary Ducks' Deluxe and Rumour guitarist Martin Belmont, releases his first solo album in 15 years, this time joined by some of his most frequent collaborators. Carlene Carter, Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack, and Graham Parker all help out on this hopefully listenable outing.

JACKIE DESHANNON REISSUES

Collectors' Choice reissues some odd records by one our greatest living, singer-songwriters, Miss Jackie DeShannon. The 1963 debut, known to her fans as "The Folk Album" and arranged by Jack Nitzsche, gets a first time release, while 1967's "Me About You" and 1970's "To Be Free" get doubled-up on one CD, with an additional bonus track. For the classic material, see "What The Worlds Needs Now...The Definitive Jackie DeShannon."

THE FEELIES REISSUES

One of the seminal bands of college radio gets two of its classics reissued sweetly by Bar/None records. The Feelies' "Crazy Rhythms" and "Good Earth" each come with codes for downloadable bonus tracks. Hopefully, those bonus tracks will also be songs by The Feelies.

JANIS IAN- THE ESSENTIAL

2 CD, 31 track set from "Society's Child," which includes many rarities, but ridiculously NOT the 1981 pop single "Under The Covers." OK, it only reached #71 on the Billboard pop charts, but what is 4 extra minutes of space on a 2 CD anthology? And I LOVE that song. Boo hiss, Sony/Legacy.

SONDRE LERCHE- HEARTBEAT RADIO

Norwegian singer-songwriter has always had enough good material on each of his releases to draw my attention, but not enough to keep me interested for too long. Although, his music was the best part of the film "Dan In Real Life," that Steve Carell movie with the painfully unnecessary asspain Dane Cook in a supporting role. I'm pretty sure "Heartbeat Radio" will not be groundbreaking, but then again...maybe it will be. The kid's got talent.

PHISH- JOY

Phish phans phrejoice! Phshit! Ok, phsorry. (I can't phstop!) I'll phocus. New phrecord produced by the phlegendary Steve Lillywhite. (What's phwrong with me?)

HARVEY SCALES & THE SEVEN SOUNDS- LOVE-ITIS

Collection of rare soul singles from the "Milwaukee Godfather Of Soul." SIGN ME UP! (You know you want a CD by the "Milwaukee Godfather Of Soul," and the man responsible for "Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady," not to mention the definitive version of "Love-Itis.")

THE STONE ROSES- 20TH ANNIVERSARY

I admit, this record left me cold when it was released. I also admit, I don't know what I was thinking. This 1989 benchmark for Brit-Pop now gets a massive upgrade, with 2 CDs of additional material. It will also be available in a very limited, 1000 pressing edition, that will feature $85 worth of gold foil and a picture of John Squire's lawn. But the affordable 3 CD set will feature a remaster of the album proper, a disc of b-sides, remixes and extras, and a CD of lost demos.

YO LA TENGO- POPULAR SONGS

Another band that leaves me cold, Yo La Tengo, deserves a lot more than I could offer. So, let me just say, this is their 16th release, and I know many of you will be very happy. I respect these guys. I just don't enjoy what I hear.

For more of the same, stop by BURNING WOOD.

And please, BUY YOUR MUSIC!

David Wild: A Dream Goes On Forever: A Playlist for Senator Ted Kennedy

2009-08-26T11:22:19Z

Senator Ted Kennedy loved to sing. And so it seems only fitting to make a playlist in memory of this singular American icon who did so much for so long to help so many. May he rest in peace, and may all the men and woman elected to be our leaders in Congress actually honor his memory by fulfilling Senator Kennedy's longstanding dream of true health care reform in this country that he loved even more than he loved singing.

"A Dream Goes On Forever" -- Todd Rundgren

"Working On A Dream" -- Bruce Springsteen

"Someday We'll All Be Free" -- Donny Hathaway

"Teddy Boy" -- Paul McCartney

"Changing Of The Guard" -- Bob Dylan

"I Dreamed A Dream" -- Neil Diamond

"I Hope" -- Dixie Chicks

"Abraham, Martin And John" -- Dion

"Get Up, Stand Up" -- Bob Marley & The Wailers

"Don't Dream It's Over" -- Crowded House

"The Boxer" - Simon & Garfunkel

"(I've Got) Dreams To Remember" -- Toots Hibbert

"A Ray Of Hope" -- The Rascals

Those are my songs for Senator Ted today. Please share yours as you see fit.

Dr. Nicholas Perricone: 10 Dirty Little Secrets About Body Fat

2009-08-12T12:03:22Z

There are many reasons to embrace Paul McCartney's suggestions for "No Meat Mondays/Giving up meat one-day a week." In fact, unless you are eating 100% grass-fed meat, I recommend cutting back on overall meat intake. This is not just environmentally sound; it is sound from a health/longevity viewpoint. Grain-fed meat lacks CLA, which influences body fat and lean muscle, and the omega 3 fatty acids, which are as close to a health, beauty, longevity and weight loss magic bullet that we can get. It is also high in pro-inflammatory saturated fat. Consuming a lot of these saturated fats leads to the accumulation of visceral fat.

The Truth About Body Fat

This past decade has seen a turn around in the way scientists regard white adipose tissue - better known as body fat--perhaps two of the most dreaded words of our generation. There are many theories as to why so many people are afflicted with excess body fat today, when twenty or thirty years ago this was not the case. Instead of feeling guilty and depressed, we need a basic understanding about the danger of excess body fat and be vigilant in our food choices.

In future blogs I will explain the role of today's food purveyors and their role in both creating and exacerbating the problem, because in the 1950's and earlier, excess body fat and obesity were the exception and not the rule. In many ways, it is not your fault. We have been designed to be Strasbourg geese on purpose, with devastating effects on our heath and our health care system.

Dirty Secret # 1

There are two types of fat: Sub-cutaneous (under the skin) and visceral (found in the abdomen and surrounding vital organs). Visceral fat is of greatest concern because it surrounds vital organs and is metabolized by the liver, which turns it into blood cholesterol. Consuming large amounts of saturated fat and/or performing little physical activity results in high stores of visceral fat.

Dirty Secret # 2

We now know that body fat is not just an inert deposit of fat cells, stored as the result of overeating. These areas of fat storage are actually an active endocrine organ.

Dirty Secret # 3

Body fat produces hormones, as does our pancreas, thyroid, parathyroid, adrenals, pineal, pituitary and testes/ovaries, the organs that comprise the endocrine system. These secreted hormones, known as adipokines, can contribute to systemic, low-grade, chronic inflammation

Dirty Secret # 4

Body fat, as a group of cells, communicates with other organ systems such as the brain, the liver, the bone marrow, skeletal muscle, the adrenal cortex, the sympathetic nervous system and the complete immune system.

Dirty Secret # 5

This agglomeration of fat cells, now an active endocrine organ, has the unique distinction of being the only endocrine organ to send pro-inflammatory and destructive signals to all organ systems, creating a spectrum of problems in every organ system, from bone growth to sexual reproduction.

Dirty Secret # 6

Body fat directly impacts appetite, energy expenditure, and our immune system.

Dirty Secret # 7

Body fat itself controls how much body fat is going to be stored, and the greater amount of fat we have stored, the greater its negative influence on the entire body; an extremely destructive, inflammatory influence.

Dirty Secret # 8

A large storage of body fat can be so overwhelming to the system that the fat cells have to secrete hormone-like substances to increase blood vessel growth necessary to feed the accumulation of fat.

Dirty Secret # 9

Blood vessel growth cannot keep up with the rapidly growing mass of fat cells, which then begin to become oxygen-starved. These oxygen starved cells start releasing inflammatory chemicals to further trigger blood vessel growth.

Dirty Secret # 10

When we are obese there is a constant exchange of fat for muscle.

The Alpha and Omega

The truth about body fat reads like a frightening 1950s pulp science fiction story, like Steve McQueen's memorable debut film The Blob. But in fact, the title to this real-life horror tale is The Perricone Weight Loss Diet (Ballantine Books 2006)--and although there is plenty of science, there is no fiction about it.

This is why it is critical to take a powerful anti-inflammatory approach to dieting. It is the inflammatory chemicals, such as NfkB, that block the effects of insulin -- whether it is to metabolize blood sugar or to nourish muscles with amino acids.

Excess insulin and high blood sugar put a lock on body fat, ensuring that that fat is going nowhere. Avoid pro-inflammatory sugary, starchy foods and beverages, body fat's greatest allies. The high omega-3 content found in wild salmon, anchovies, sardines and other cold water fish, along with fish oil capsules, will help eliminate this toxic fat. Their essential fatty acids have tremendous anti-inflammatory properties and are key in sensitizing our cells to insulin. Omega-3 EFAs also inhibit the production of the enzyme fatty acid synthase, which plays a role in the storage of calories as body fat.

Alpha lipoic acid, a powerful anti-inflammatory nutrient accelerates the removal of glucose from the blood stream, improves insulin function and decreases insulin resistance, making it another critical strategy in the fight against body fat.

Chromium is also critical in controlling and reducing body fat. It effectively lowers blood sugar and insulin levels--the key to the anti-inflammatory weight loss diet. Chromium helps decrease inflammation, thereby unlocking the enzymes that aid in fat metabolization, while normalizing blood lipids such as triglycerides and cholesterol, increasing levels of the 'good' HDL cholesterol and lowering total cholesterol and triglycerides, making it cardio-protective.

The general population of the United States is deficient in chromium--and low levels of chromium are associated with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Studies have also been published noting that increased consumption of sugar depletes our body stores of chromium, placing us at further risk for hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinaemia (too much blood sugar, too much insulin).

As an active researcher, I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Paul McCartney Dedicates Beatles' 'Michelle' To The First Lady

2009-08-03T09:38:54Z

Music superstar Paul McCartney is rocking out at FedEx Field Saturday night and, since he's near the White House, Sir Paul gave a special tribute to first lady Michelle Obama: Before playing the Beatles classic, "Michelle", McCartney told the packed audience that he was dedicating it to the first lady.

Mike Ragogna: HuffPost Premiere : Zero 7's "Medicine Man"

2009-07-23T01:23:46Z

It's been three years since former Tea Boys-turned-Mix Mavens Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns released their last Zero 7 collaboration, The Garden, a project that was Grammy-nominated as 2006's Best Electronic/Dance Album (shut out by Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor). But the duo's commercial hiatus will be over on September 8th when their new Atlantic studio album, Yeah Ghost--touting guest talents such as soul/jazz artist Eska Mtungwazi, folk singer/songwriter Martha Tilston, and electronic hip-hop performer Rowdy Superstar--will become available at your finest music emporium (or iTunes, Amazon, all that). Though the track "Everything Up (Zizou)" was unveiled by Stereogum a few days ago, your friendly neighborhood Huffington Post today is premiering an audio clip of Yeah Ghost's first single, "Medicine Man" (no, not a remake of the 1969 Buchanan Brothers hit) with remixes of "Everything Up (Zizou)" by Joker & Ginz, Gold Panda, and Mock & Toof dropping in the next few weeks. For further Zero 7 excitement, the Yeah Ghost track list follows. Tell a friend.

Yeah Ghost:
1. Count Me Out
2. Mr. McGee
3. Swing
4. Everything Up (Zizou)
5. Pop Art Blue
6. Medicine Man
7. Ghost sYMbOL
8. Sleeper
9. Solastalgia
10. The Road
11. All Of Us

MPL's Creative License

Come this September 9th (and about two weeks prior), you won't be able to pick up anything that bears newsprint on and offline without it containing some major feature on The Beatles' re-mastered/re-released catalog, as well as their video game, The Beatles: Rock Band. But there is other significant news happening over at Paul McCartney's label/publisher/entertainment company, MPL Communications. On the licensing end, creative developer Nancy Jeffries and new media manager Dan Sokol have been involved with retooling both the website and MPL's approach to publishing/master assets promotion. "Dan worked on a redevelopment of the site two years ago, and it became very user friendly for people to search our catalog," says Jeffries. "But what's got us even more excited is that over the last year, we've developed what we're calling a 'pre-cleared' section, where we control both the master and the publishing, or we have independent artists participate with us who also own and control their own properties. So people can come to our website with a credit card and do one-stop shopping for licensing masters."

In this context, the term "licensing" means that if you have a film, television series, commercial, video game, etc. and you would like to exploit a musical piece within it, normally, you need to negotiate a price and define its use with the copyright owner. So MPL is offering, through easy navigation and payment on its site, the ability to instantly "rent" much of their catalog, one large enough to include songs written by Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Harold Arlen, Frank Loesser, Jerry Herman, and Meredith Willson, plus pop standards such as "Witchcraft" and "Autumn Leaves"; most labels and publishers merely offer a "browse" feature on their sites to sample assets for consideration with price negotiation occurring separately. By removing the "salesperson" from the mix, MPL effectively closes the deal by cutting to the chase electronically, although obviously, depending on the uniqueness of a project and its needs, a human touch still is necessary.

Though this process is innovative and probably where the future of licensing is headed, perhaps the more fascinating element of MPL's new licensing approach comes in its partnering with new talent. Jeffries explains, "Instead of signing writers to the publishing company, we invite indie artists and people that we like who control their masters and publishing to come on our site. On a non-exclusive basis, we offer their material for licensing, and we take a percentage. It's like Pump Audio only with a serious filter." With a solid A&R background from working for major labels such as A&M, Elektra and Virgin, as well as managing Bob Marley Music for years, part of Jeffries' job is to play tastemaker and decide which submitted recordings/songs get posted. "For me, it's a lot of fun to do," she admits. "Dan (Sokol) is a musician as well as the site developer, and with Krisstina Hawks, we all do the talent scouting." On the process in general, she adds. "It's a means for us, in a very cost effective, modern way, to interact with the new music community."

While a couple of MPL's latest, high profile placements are Paul McCartney's "Dance Tonight" from his Memory Almost Full album (playing in the July 19th episode of Entourage), and a new composition, "I Want To Come Home" (debuting in Robert De Niro's upcoming film, Everybody's Fine), there is an equal amount of pitching and support for their affiliated artists' material. Among those contributors are well-known names like Edie Brickell, whose latest project, The Heavy Circles, teams her with stepson Harper Simon, Paul's kid from "St. Judy's Comet" and a previous marriage; another is blues guitarist Sonny Landreth, whose records feature the likes of Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton. And in the lesser known but with great potential category is Phillip Glass devotee Trevor Gureckis, guitarist Pokey La Farge, singer-songwriter Abby Payne, and The Maxes, a local NYC husband and wife team. MPL even has a few of these artists update some of their company's classics, adding new blood to some of those older copyrights. "One of the best things about this is we don't have to be signing 'hits,'" Jeffries points out. "Since we're looking for things for syncs, we can be crazy creative." And it's pretty obvious that the entertainment business in general needs "crazy creative" approaches like these and more to flourish during the music industry's current period of transition.

To listen to some of MPL's catalog (featuring a track by The Fireman, Willie Nelson singing "Autumn Leaves," and Ruth Brown on "Sentimental Journey"), click on the player below:

And here's a link to the site:
http://www.mplcommunications.com/topspin.html

Martin Lewis: A World Without Gord: A Salute to Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon

2009-07-19T21:43:23Z

The world is a quieter, sadder place for the recent passing of Gordon Waller -- one half (with Peter Asher) of the beloved Peter & Gordon duo. With a delicious blend of pop, folk and melodic rock, Peter & Gordon were immensely popular in the 1960s and again in recent years following their reunion, with Gordon Waller's rich baritone an essential ingredient of their sweet harmony singing.

I got to know Gordon quite well over the past 20 years. He was quite the card -- though alas he didn't take proper care of his health. He was by turns gregariously funny and morose. He often saw the gloomy side of life -- but he commented on it with sardonic humor and self-deprecating wit. A rock 'n' roll Eeyore.

Today my email box has a plethora of notes from his contemporaries who had appreciated his talent and enjoyed his humor. Pete Townshend, Graham Nash, Spencer Davis, Andrew Loog Oldham. Eric Idle. All saddened by the news. I think Gordon would have been surprised at the extent and breadth of the affection for him.

A lot of that appreciation though had been on display at their last major concert -- a show at the Santa Monica Pier in L.A. last August where they performed in front of over 17,000 fans including many Hollywood celebrities. The high point of the concert for me came amidst the cascade of hits written for them by pals such as Paul McCartney and Del Shannon. For a brief interlude they gave a break to their superb backing band and the two old friends sang the classic folk lament "Five Hundred Miles" accompanying themselves just on their Gibson acoustics.

Suddenly they were joined on stage by an old admirer -- Joan Baez. They had acknowledged her presence in the audience of course -- but had not wanted to impose on her beyond that. But drawn by the beauty of their performance, Baez had darted backstage during the song and surprised them by gliding on to the stage behind them and joining them on the final choruses. Those three voices blended together like mulled wine and wafted through the midsummer's night air, enchanting the vast crowd in front of the pier and drifting like a mistral out to the Pacific beyond...

Peter Asher was a schoolmate of Gordon from the late 1950s and their friendship and shared love of music led to their partnership. Peter's poignant tribute to his lifelong friend expresses that affection more eloquently than words from anyone else.

Peter & Gordon famously got a kick-start to their recording career in 1964. At the time, Paul McCartney was romantically attached to Peter's sister, Jane and was living in the Asher family home in central London with Peter, Jane and the Asher parents. It certainly didn't hurt to have a prolific tunesmith living in the house. And over the first couple of years of Peter & Gordon's career, Paul provided four classic songs -- not recorded by the Beatles -- for his pals.

Gordon once told me a funny story. It was late 1963 and Paul had just played him and Peter "World Without Love" in the basement of the Asher house. He offered it to them as a possible first single for their newly-struck record deal with EMI. Then Paul started belting out another brand-new song on the piano a little ditty called "I Want To Hold Your Hand". "Hang on a moment Paul -- I think we'd rather have that one" sez Gordon. "Not on your nelly!" sez Paul (or words to that effect!)

Paul's affection for Gordon was expressed to his biographer Barry Miles in 1996. "Gordon was a lot of fun -- he was slightly less academic than Peter. It was he who persuaded Peter to jump school to do lunchtime sessions."

I got to see Paul's affection for both of his pals close-up. A few weeks before their first full reunion concert in March 2006 which I was due to emcee, I ran into Paul backstage at the Grammys. I teased Paul that his performance income as a songwriter was going to swell that year. He looked at me quizzically and I broke the news to him that his old chums Peter & Gordon were reuniting and would therefore be performing all four of the compositions he'd written for them throughout the next few months! Huge smile from Paul and genuine pleasure at hearing that his pals were about to perform together again after a nearly 40 year break.

The day of the performance I received an email with a message from Paul to read to the audience:

"What the world needs now is Peter & Gordon to sing their songs and remind us all of the fab years they are from. I'm very glad to hear that they have got together after these many moons and are going to help to make a World Without Love into a love-filled planet." -- Paul McCartney

Amen to that.

It will be sadder to stay in A World Without Gord...

Peter Asher (left) and Gordon Waller (right) listen as the author reads the message he had received from Paul McCartney saluting the duo on the occasion of their first full reunion concert. New York - March 2006

Other Tributes To Gordon Waller

• The Guardian/Observer (UK)
• Hollywood Reporter
• Daily Mail (UK)
• CBC (Canada)
• Beatles News
• Examiner.com
• Daily Mirror (UK)
• Contact Music
• Dayton Daily News
• Des Moines Register
• Undercover (Australia)
• PR-Inside
• Music Week

Paul McCartney Plays Citi Field, Dedicates Song To Linda (VIDEO)

2009-07-18T09:01:31Z

(AP Text, YouTube videos)

NEW YORK - Sir Paul McCartney knighted another New York Mets ballpark Friday night, playing the first concert ever at Citi Field.

"Long time since I've been here," the former Beatle told the crowd, then paused to take it all in.

Citi Field is the successor to Shea Stadium, where the Beatles played a historic concert in 1965 that's regarded as the precursor to the stadium rock concert.

Patty Parker attended Friday night's show and remembers the 1965 show well.

"I was three rows from the top. I was 10 years old," she said. "He captured that same tune; I'm so blown away."

Several times on Friday, McCartney alluded to that magical night 44 years ago. But he was also made it clear that it was less than perfect at times, saying: "The first time we played here, we couldn't hear a thing because of all the girls screaming and the stadium sound system."

Friday's two-and-a-half-hour show went more smoothly, highlighted by fireworks on and off the stage for "Live and Let Die" near the show's end.

McCartney played more than 30 songs, covering the Beatles, Wings and his solo catalog. When he introduced "I'm Down," he said it was also played at the Shea Stadium concert.

The crowd rocked most of the night, which was also filled with heartfelt dedications. The most poignant went to McCartney's late wife before an emotional version of "My Love."

"We'd like to do a song dedicated to Linda," McCartney said. "She was a New York girl."

He also played the Beatles classics "Hey Jude," Let It Be" and "Back in the USSR."

When he performed "A Day in the Life," McCartney swapped out John Lennon's part at the end with a version of Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance," asking the crowd to join in.

For the encore, McCartney brought out Billy Joel for "I Saw Her Standing There." Last year, McCartney joined Joel on stage for the last concert at Shea Stadium.

WATCH. SGT PEPPER:

Baby You Can Drive My Car:

Live and Let Die:

Helter Skelter:

Daytripper;

Hey Jude;

Follow HuffPo Entertainment On Twitter!

Paul McCartney At Ed Sullivan Theater (VIDEO)

2009-07-15T16:00:00Z

Paul McCartney made his historic return to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York on Wednesday afternoon to tape an episode of "Late Show With David Letterman."

In this clip, he plays "Get Back" on the roof of the theater.

WATCH:

Paul McCartney Returning To Ed Sullivan Theater

2009-07-13T07:56:15Z

NEW YORK — Paul McCartney is going back to the Ed Sullivan Theater.

The former Beatle will appear on David Letterman's "Late Show" on Wednesday.