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Jewish World Review Oct. 8, 2010 / 30 Tishrei, 5771 Sir Paul the Insipid By Greg Crosby
He has already been knighted by the Queen of England. Not to be outdone, this past July the U.S. bestowed McCartney with the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Music which included a PBS-televised gala concert at the White House. You might remember his humble and charming remark on accepting the prize at the White House affair when he said, "After the last eight years it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." What a gracious, classy guy. He comes to a country that is honoring him with an award and insults one of its former twice-elected presidents in his acceptance speech. But we're not through worshiping Sir Paul yet. Now he has been chosen by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as one of the five recipients of their annual Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the Kennedy Center, which will also be taped and broadcast on PBS sometime around the Christmas holidays. So is this it, or are there more American honors we can bestow on McCartney? When will he be receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor? How about an honorary Academy Award for his lifetime achievements in the art of motion pictures? How could anyone forget "Help," "Hard Days Night" or "Yellow Submarine?" Three of my all time favorite movie classics. Maybe there is a presidential high-level office he can be appointed to, like maybe becoming the National Endowment of the Arts Czar. We might create a new cabinet post, like the chief of the Department of Homeland Music. Oh, wait a minute, McCartney is a citizen of another country, I forgot. There already is a Secretary of State, but considering McCartney's prior experiences, we might dub him the Secretary of Altered State. I wonder if he still talks with Ravi Shankar? I know what you're saying, "Come on, Greg, you're ignoring his enormous contributions to the world of music! Okay, then, let's go over the tunes. It would be unfair of me to name only the nonsense like "Rocky Raccoon," "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da," "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," and "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" so let's skip those and get right to the big important stuff. The Best of Paul McCartney might include the following: "Hey Jude," "Yesterday," "Let It Be," "Michelle," "Helter Skelter," "Penny Lane," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Maybe I'm Amazed," and "Band on the Run." Which of those would you describe as a song for the ages, in the same league as the best of Gershwin, Porter, or Irving Berlin? Most of the so-called "serious" tunes of McCartney run the gamut from vapid, sappy and uninspired, to meaningless, incomprehensible and shallow. Does anyone know what "Hey Jude" is all about? And does it get any triter than "Michelle, my belle" or any more sophomoric than "Yesterday?" Remember, these are considered his best efforts. I admit there's a place in our world for bubble gum, teenie-bopper music like McCartney's, just don't give out prestigious awards for it. And then we turn to the performance of the man. Be honest. As a singer and pure entertainer would you really put him in the same category as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, or even Elvis Presley? Are his contributions to popular music on an equal par with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw or Benny Goodman? What really has McCartney brought to the party of any consequence either in the writing of music or the performance of it? Excuse me if I don't gush enthusiastic over Paul McCartney, but I just don't think the guy ever had the goods. To bestow serious honors on him is to diminish the talents of the true giants of 20th Century popular music. But that's what happens when the really great people are all gone but the need still exists to find someone to honor so that you can have a gala award show to televise on PBS. "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da, life goes on, Bra! La-La how the life goes on."
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© 2008, Greg Crosby |
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