Tuesday, November 25, 2008

LOOSE BLADES 2

This article by Macca rivals Ringo's video. With its liberal smattering of anachronistic '60s language like groovy, far out, out there etc, and the fact that The Guardian's subeditors have chosen to leave in the typos, it's tempting to wonder if Chris Morris is the real author. McCartney's PR people have for a few months now been trying to seed this notion of his being 'the most experimental Beatle' and whether it's to push his dodgy new album, or just to bolster his galactic ego in the wake of Heather Mills, I'm not sure.

Some choice extracts below, but do read the whole thing for the full effect.

When it comes to music, enthusiasm is what drives me.
Enthusiasm enthuses you, you mean?

We grew up as a couple of kids in Liverpool and I think we were both as earnest and experimental as each other.

I fail to see the connections; in fact, this is such a nonsensical sentence that it must be an example of the influence of Burroughs' word cut-ups which McCartney later refers to.

...whereas John was in the countryside in Weybridge and married so he was a little bit more pipe and slippers!
In the context of his shoddy self-aggrandisement, this is a pathetically cheap shot by McCartney.

I was out in the clubs and Wigmore Hall, catching people like Cornelius Cardew. I was into Stockhausen and stuff.
Bullshit.

In fact, the whole project was quite like improvisational theatre, which I've never been involved in.
Reading McCartney's article is just like extraterrestrial travel, which I've never experienced.

And that idea of losing your bearings, as long as it's not in deepest Africa, is something I like.
Further commentary unnecessary.

15 comments:

morelikespace said...

interesting how lennon still so obviously fills mccartney with feelings of inadequacy even from beyond the grave...

Resse P. Dubin said...

McCartney is a snooze, as is anything he has to say at this point. They could have all been as experimental as anyone, but without George Martin it would have added up to naught.

But, he is more modernday power electronics than the others because he has had sexual relations with an amputee.

SenzuriChampion said...

Oh come off it.

SenzuriChampion said...

it's like high school again

Kai said...

Right, he comes across as quite a jerk in this article.

That said, I find some of his solo work (particularly McCartney II) to be quite a bit experimental indeed, though probably not in a way that people coming from a "real" avantgarde background might accept.

Getting old is obviously quite hard for McCartney and though I will most likely not be listening to his new one, I can see where he's coming from and for me there's nothing all too offensive about it. I couldn't care less if he's ever been into "Stockhausen and stuff". Maybe it's true, maybe not. Why bother.

LJP said...

And that idea of losing your bearings, as long as it's not in deepest Africa, is something I like.

**projectile vomiting**

He must be referring to the time he spent in Uganda in '72 or '73... ;)

Rob said...

Did this shithead mc cartney even hear unfinished music vol 1&2? THAT's experimental! the most experimental he's ever been is "uncle albert" or whatever the fuck that song is called.

sm88 said...

McCartney saw AMM play and walked out on the performance. He can't go back now and pretend like he was some great appreciator of experimental music.

Ea-M. said...

To some adding a bit of garlic to an otherwise known recipe seems experimental.
Why destroy their fun?

quttinirpaaq said...

Any 'experimental' Beatles moments are directly attributable to Martin and Emerick. John or Paul would give some vague command like "make it sound like congestive heart failure" and a team of white coated engineers would scurry off to make it happen. I'm sure they just asked their team of scientist to assemble something suitably weird while they knocked off to screw groupies. And Yoko STILL gets blamed for it!

Richo said...

Thought it was well documented Martin introduced the Mop(e) Tops to the likes of Stockhausen and Burroughs, etc.? Whatever, let's hear a little credit towards Harrison's 1969 album, 'Electronic Sound', which, self-indulgent as it may be, serves up two lengthy pieces of electronic mulch sounding not far removed from what one might expect of a monkey with a Moog. Whether that's a good or a bad thing remains for you to decide.

SenzuriChampion said...

McCartney said some more dumb shit the other day, I'm pretty anxious to hear you whine about it.

clom said...

More comfy, vague, unverifiable revisionism from Fab Macca.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/15/paulmccartney-thebeatles

Warning: Contains gratuitious reference to Bono accepting "Man of Peace" award which some viewers may find offensive.

Odile Lee said...

He obviously did not experiment with learning proper grammar, either.( Im crap at it, so calling kettle blackest black ;)

I thought he emerged from the womb in pipe and slippers??

Experimental? Yeah took some drugs and wanted about with adding whistle sounds only dogs can hear ( and those on acid, I may add. Odd that.)

I just LOVE comfy middle class stuffed shirts ( and you can be middle class in ANY class ) withering on about how far they went being "different."(Like a book I saw, reminds me of this, woman and two teen sons lived a WHOLE 6 months without comps/iphones etc.- Oh yeah lady? I lived TEN years, its called fucking poverty, wake up and wonder why everyone is yelling "off with their heads!"

He may be excused for being a old fart, but this in no way rescinds that he too, will be first on the block, when IM Queen and re-intro the gibbet.( Along with Tracey Emin- Don't make me sick into my own scorn!)
(( Uh, better go take ADHD meds now. Frothing at the mouth in un related screeds. Sorry.))

Odile Lee said...

"I sourced it from people like Burroughs .."

He could be transfused with the Old Man's very blood, possessed by his undead spirit, eaten his brains in a frittata, been sewed to him as a experimental siamese twin experiment- but naught the twain shall ever meet. Who does he think he's impressing here, really.Really????

"pushing the boundaries a little bit ."

In his pram,pushed by nanny.
eeewwww, just eeewwww.

"I ended up finding words - I'd been reading poetry books – kept singing all these things at the track and eventually a song came out of it."

I recall Andrew Eldritch saying that was he found most distasteful about the spin offs from Sisters. Rubbishy poetry stolen, and used ( rather like a a foolish schoolboy's earnest copybook attempts at writing "real" love letters.