Happy Birthday, Sir Paul!

Born: June 18, 1942

Also, on this date in 1990, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Best of Both Worlds" aired!

Birthday Milestones

I think the only reason I understood the references on this past week's SNL was because it could've aired when I was a teen in the 80s!  Martin Short and Paul McCartney....

I've also joked with my students recently about another joke I saw online....that if any of them live to be 100 and get interviewed by their local paper, they MUST make up some INSANE thing they attribute their longevity to...."I woke up every day at 4:30 and mewed like a cat for 20 minutes!" or "Once I turned 50, I ate 3 pinecones a day!".  It was a fun conversation!

Music Monday: 6/18/12

Yesterday, my daughter and I were talking about blogs and wondering if either of us could blog with any regularity over the summer.  The added wrinkle would be to have "theme" days.

Today will be the first Music Monday.  Nothing major, just happy birthday to Paul McCartney!  Without a doubt, McCartney has produced more music that has brought me more pleasure than anyone else.  While I sort of miss the days where I had to hunt down bootlegs to find "new" nuggets, I really enjoy having all of his stuff at my fingertips!

Since quite a few blogs I follow either have theme days, theme posts or are just neat glimpses into their lives...I thought I would spotlight them here as my inspiration! Click their banners to visit!

Kate's Ink: Dust and Probability

The Armchair Squid

Bob Mitchell in the 21st Century

smacky and bucky

30 Songs in 30 Days: Day 19 – A song from your favorite album

Your FAVORITE album!?!?  Good gravy, how do you decide?  No matter what I pick I will be leaving SOMETHING out.  There are the albums I first discovered as a boy....the ones that helped get me through high school....the ones that helped get me through DARK times...the ones that lift me up and inspire me...


I guess I will go with the first album that was MINE...sure, I picked it up because McCartney was on it, but it came out when I was away from home for the first time at college.  I had heard of Elvis, but he wasn't really on my radar.  By the time the album came out, I was several months removed from my brain surgery but was struggling.  This eclectic album helped me a lot.


Enjoy!


Veronica by Elvis Costello










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The "30 Songs in 30 Days" challenge, inspired by the tumblr list. Our 30 Songs roster:

The Armchair Squid

Marc Whitman's Blog
Haley says "Hello" To You

30 Songs in 30 Days: Day 15 – A song that describes you

I can't say this song describes ME per se, but it allows me to repeat a rather cool story I had heard recently.

When I first discovered "Magneto and Titanium Man" by Paul McCartney and Wings, my mind was blown. How could the two greatest things (at the time) in my life come together in such an incredible fashion?

Recently my favorite Friday destination (Comic Book Legends Revealed) shared the story.

"COMIC LEGEND: Jack Kirby had a special meeting with Paul McCartney in 1975.

STATUS: True

In case you were unfamiliar with the tune, on Paul McCartney’s 1975 Wings’ album, Venus and Mars…

there is a song called “Magneto and Titanium Man.”

It is a cute, fun song where three Marvel villains from the 60s commit a robbery.

Magneto…

Crimson Dynamo…

and Titanium Man…

The inspiration for the song came from the fact that while McCartney on vacation in Jamaica, he had to keep his kids entertained. So he and his wife Linda would buy them a bunch of comic books every Saturday. McCartney had been a comic book fan as a kid and now he found himself interested in these modern comic books (it is probably a bit of a stretch to say that McCartney was a “fan,” though) and they inspired him to write the above song when he got back to recording the album.

Later in 1975, Wings went on an international tour to support the new album. In June 1976, they made their way to California. Gary Sherman, brother to Jack Kirby assistant Steve Sherman (and therefore, friend to the Kirby family) thought that Kirby and McCartney should meet, so he came up with the story that Kirby had a drawing that he wanted to give to McCartney. Eventually, McCartney’s people agreed and Gary then, of course, had to tell Jack that he had to now do a drawing for McCartney!

Kirby being his typical awesomeness, he whipped up a great drawing of Magneto, Paul, Linda and the band in less than an hour.

Paul thanked Kirby for the drawing and thanked him for helping to entertain his kids during the vacation. He gave Jack, Gary and Jack’s daughter Lisa tickets to the show that night.

At the concert, McCartney introduced Kirby, “In the audience tonight we have the creator of Magneto and lots of other comic characters, and I’d like to dedicate this song to Jack Kirby” and then played “Magneto and Titanium Man.”

What’s awesome is that the Jack Kirby Museum actually has the drawing AND photographs of the meeting!

Here, courtesy of Rand Hoppe’s blog, is the actual drawing…

And here, courtesy of Rand Hoppe’s blog (via Lisa Kirby) is a photograph of Paul and Linda with Kirby….

Go the Kirby Museum here to see two more photographs!

Thanks to Steve Sherman for the scoop on the meeting (which he relayed in Jack Kirby Collector #8) and thanks to Rand Hoppe and the Kirby Museum (and Lisa Kirby) for the drawing and photos. I was planning on doing this bit for a couple of months now, but I should note that commenter mrclam suggested I do it a few weeks ago.

And thanks, of course, to Gary Sherman, who passed away a couple of years ago, for making the whole thing possible!"

Enjoy!

Magneto and Titanium Man by Wings

30 Songs in 30 Days: Day 01 – Your favorite song

Wow.  Nothing like starting off with a toughie.  How do you pick one?  One of my students asked me what my favorite movie was and I replied that things like that change as you get older...it is harder to have absolutes.  I have a favorite comedy, a favorite action film, and so on.  She looked at me like I was nuts and then proclaimed "Grown Ups" to be the best movie of all time.

Anyway, I might have to put "Band On The Run" by Paul McCartney as my favorite song.  There is something to it that I have always liked.  I grew up a Beatles fan, but gravitated towards Paul's solo stuff.  I am fairly confident he will show up again on the list.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Paul McCartney Solo Songs (Wings Included)

As a life long Beatles and Paul McCartney fan, I have really been enjoying the SiriusXM station devoted to his solo work. Here is a list of ten of my favorite McCartney songs. Like most of my lists, there really is no order to this.

Here are what I consider to be among Paul McCartney's best:

10. Fine Line - This song is from McCartney's last album "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard." A good song all around.

9. Here Today - An homage to John Lennon, it ended up on "Tug Of War", the album he released after Lennon's murder.

8. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five - It's tempting to choose "Band On The Run" from the same album. But this one edges out for me just based on the piano work and sense of urgency that pervades this entire album. The story of this album's recording in Nigeria is legendary and just helped push McCartney that much further.

7. My Brave Face - This was a single from his 1989 album, Flowers in the Dirt. Written by McCartney with Elvis Costello, their collaboration resulted in some of McCartney's strongest solo work ever. While Elvis doesn't sing on this one (like some of their other songs) his sense of wordplay is evident in the final product.

6. Too Many People - This song is one of several songs from the four Beatles after the band broke up where the band members attacked one another. It is peppy sounding with such a vicious bite.

5. Coming Up - I always hear echoes of "Got To Get you Into My Life" in the live version of this song. Just infectious and fun.

4. Put It There - Also from "Flowers In The Dirt", it describes the sort of relationship I hope to have with my children as they grow up.

3. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey - Even if it wasn't in one of my favorite MST3K episodes this one would make my list. This fun song continues a technique that the Beatles used in "A Day In The Life" and "St. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band." It is multi-layered and it tells several silly stories. A reviewer once wrote "The shear number of changes in the lyrics and music, all woven together skillfully, make it a marvel."

2. Live and Let Die - Has any other movie theme ever evoked that movie as effectively as this song? It just screams James Bond.

1. Mull of Kintyre - Written in tribute of the same named Scottish peninsula, it became the first single to sell two million copies in Great Britain. While Nan and I hate these sort of distinctions, it remains the best-selling completely non-charity single in the United Kingdom.