4/5
Live And Let It Snow...
"Simply...having...a wonderful Christmas time." That's what we all wish we could be doing right now, but instead locked down in quarantine we are just standing in our "living" rooms. Staring at four walls like a Willie Nelson hello, or through the frosted glass out to the snow outside. Wishing we could play like kids with a fever. Coronavirus has crucified the calender, but this is the time of year to stay safe at home with the one you hold dear. After all four wise men once said, 'All You Need Is Love'. You can get by with a little help from these friends. Two dearly departed may be like the stars; above, but one of the greats and the guy who isn't even the best drummer in the Fab Four (we're playing Ringo...you're as much a legend as the rest of your band on the run) are still here. Mac is back. You can imagine Sir Paul McCartney standing at the rooftop of his apartment like we all are now. Just watching the world go by. A rooftop reunion reminiscent of Apple Studios in London's Savile Row. Where tailor made for a surprise The Beatles put on one last open air live concert before they let it be. Or it could be Liverpool. Because this legend has never forgot where he's come from. Like another local lad here in Japan ("from Liverpool to Tokyo, what a way to go" like John and Yoko Ono and seeing their 'Double Fantasy' again) a train ride from the big city in Yokohama, the same time it took him to get to the Lime Street station from his seaside Southport hometown. Or the Cavern of car pooling with James Corden. Paul looks to his left. "By George where is he?" He looks to his right. His right hand man. "Have you seen my good friend John" like Marvin? He looks to the wings. He looks straight ahead, down below were crowds on their lunch gathered during the middle of just another day in 1969. "Where is everyone?"
Macca, Maggie and Mando. This big Friday sees the release of the best young artist of our generation, Maggie Rogers' 'Notes From The Archive'. A retrospect of her salad days, 2011-2016 recordings before she hit it big like the Pharrell peak of 'Alaska'. Taking it back but also heading forwards in light speed because this is the way, we also have the concluding episode of Star Wars' out of this world successful series 'The Mandalorian' for Disney + and all you Baby Yoda fans. And Denzel Washington hopping August Wilson's staged 'Fences' again with an Oscar winning Viola Davis for the late, great Chadwick Boseman playing it one last time. But the real conclusion comes with, 'McCartney III', where the Godfather of rock and roll jets to the end of his epic trilogy. Mac's solo act has always been critic as criminals, cruelly underrated. Just like his beautiful ballad of 'My Love' and heart. The same can be said for this trilogy and concluding album. Par exemple. There's nothing in his career (including The Beatles), or music right now that sounds like his inspired 'Long Tailed Winter Bird' into as Macca flies from his last stop at the epic 'Egypt Station'. Right as we find ourselves like him, coming out this terrible year with the fresh 'Find My Way'. "You never used to be/Afraid of days like these/But now you're overwhelmed/By your anxieties" he sings in solidarity to a coronavirus crippled planet in a pandemic, fighting for our lives and souls as we've lost so many. Marching in movements like 'Black Lives Matter' whilst blue powers that be are still choking us by the collar. He continues his barefooted 'Abbey Road' zebra crossing walk on 'Pretty Boys' and the warning to 'Women and Wives' in this year of a locked down, quarantined war zone that may even be our own homes. "Hear me, women and wives/Hear me, husbands and lovers/What we do with our lives/Seems to matter to others/Some of them may follow/Roads that we run down/Chasing tomorrow." It's a chorus we should all chorally respond to and sing along like a 'Hey Jude', "na, na-na-na, na." Right now paying heed like we did to any Lennon and McCartney songwriting partnership lyrical lament that told us things like "all we need is...(do you really need me to remind you?). A duo so dynamic, everyone from Sinatra and Martin, to De Niro and Pacino, or even Shaq and the late, great Kobe were compared to them.
Time to roll the dice again on its black balled knife edge. 'Lavatory Lil' could Cavern Club find its way on the 'Rubber Soul' treadmarks of any old record from Paul's big three in the Fab Four. But it's the eight minute wonder of a 'Deep Deep Feeling' that really take us higher than a 'Yellow Submarine' trip acid hit. And deeper and darker too. As the living colours like Mr. Mustard are replaced with lyrics that resonate with bite like, "You know that deep, deep feeling/When you love someone so much, you feel your heart's gonna burst/The feeling goes from best to worst/You feel your heart is gonna burst/Here in my heart, I feel a deep devotion/It almost hurts, it's such a deep emotion." He laments on a track that in the sitar studios, George Harrison would really think is something. Then slipping into 'Slidin'' like familiar footwear this Beatle rocks like a Rolling Stone or the cover he shared with the 'Folklore' of Taylor Swift before she 'Evermore' surprised us with another album out of the blue and woods again. Then the man who has been interviewed recently from everyone from super Beastie Boy, Chili Pepper and Cash producer, Rick Rubin to amazing actor and marvellous musician too, Idris Elba for the BBC spins some of his own folky tales for 'The Kiss Of Venus'. All before he 'Seizes The Day' for another Beatlemania classic of "Yankee toes and Eskimos" and more simple trademark and traditional messages that hold your hand as Mother Mary sings to me as he tells us in this show that, "it's still alright to be nice" in a world of woe gone trumped up and fake tan or sour orange bad. Taking us 'Deep Down' on some orchestrated organ that will have us tapping our feet in church as we count our blessings and sins like the tipping point of a balancing scale. Don't lose your footing this year, because this man's worn through these type of shoes. Giving Ed Sullivan, hordes of screaming teenagers and America hope after they lost JFK. Now a living legend like Dylan still working on his songbook like Springsteen or a 'Letter To You' is the only boss we need as we fire the apprentice. Reprising the 'Winter Bird' for the classic closer of this trilogy 'When Winter Comes' like a game of thrones. In what would have been the year of his dear John's 80th, this man keep it 100 and hits his biggest solo percentage. Sounding as much as a Beatle as he does his own artist. As familiar as some songs do stranger. 'McCartney III' is an offer you can't refuse. Now Macca looks over his shoulder, behind his back to see the man whose still got his. The little drummer boy. Merry Christmas. "Ding, dong, ding dong". "The moon is right. The spirits up. We're here tonight". And believe me, "that's enough". Have a wonderful one. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Long Tailed Winter Bird', 'Deep Deep Feeling', 'Seize The Day'.
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