What is it with these left-wing entertainers that have to insult people while they accept their dubious awards? Why can’t these lefties just graciously accept an award and go about their business without going out of their way to let the world know about their politics? But once again, this time with Paul McCartney, we have an entertainer forcing his politics on the world in an inappropriate manner.

While accepting the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, McCartney decided that the celebratory air of the event was a good time make to fun of George W. Bush and pump up the Obammessiah.

“After the last eight years,” the former Beatle joked, “it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.”

This from a guy whose entire songwriting career is well known to be as deep as a thimble philosophically speaking. And this is not to even mention that this is from a guy whose country voted Neville Chamberlain into office once upon a time!

Let’s face facts, here. Paul McCartney was the bubblegum, the popcorn, the fluff of the Beatles. For depth one has to look to John Lennon’s dark cynicism or George Harrison’s more thoughtful musings on life and religion. Even after the Beatles both Lennon and Harrison took their themes and memes more seriously than Mr. Paul “Silly Love Songs” McCartney ever did. (more…)

Time out from all things politics. Instead, let’s turn our attention to “all things Beatles trivia” for this short essay/game.

I went on Amazon yesterday to purchase The Beatles Stereo Box Set and was informed it was still on back order. Borders noted that the set will be available on a limited basis in October on a “first-come, first-served” basis. The Mono version, which sells for $30 more than the Stereo version, is also on back order. So the Beatles obviously remain popular.

One topic I have always found interesting is the distinction between Lennon’s songs and McCartney’s songs. Of the 200 plus songs the Beatles wrote, perhaps about 30 had some form of  collaboration between the two, with maybe 20 being jointly written completely. Yet, I have always found this distinction very misleading. Their influence on each other was so deep that their individual songs really were effectively collaborations. Besides the obvious difference in sound between, say, Wings and McCartney written Beatles songs, I have constructed a “Beatles” trivia quiz below to demonstrate this point.  I assert that we think we can tell the difference because most of us know the songs well. But in reality, they were highly influenced by the other and are more similar than we sometimes realize. (more…)