US Library Of Congress To Honor Paul McCartney

Filed under: Beatles, Paul McCartney

The U.S. Library of Congress is awarding Paul McCartney its third Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Librarian of Congress James Billington announced the prize Monday. An all-star tribute concert is planned for early 2010, though the library has not announced who will perform.

The 67-year-old former Beatle recently completed a five-week summer tour of the United States, including a stop in the Washington area.

Billington says it is hard to think of another performer and composer who has had a more transformative effect than McCartney.

Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon previously won the Gershwin prize. The library houses the manuscripts of the songwriting duo George and Ira Gershwin.

Permalink / No Comments (RSS) / Forward This Post » / Print

Robbie Joins Take That On Stage

Filed under: Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams has joined his former Take That bandmates on stage at the Children in Need charity concert, but there was no reunion performance.

Take That opened the show at London’s Royal Albert Hall before Gary Barlow introduced “old friend” Williams, who then performed solo material.

However, Williams and Barlow were later back on stage singing alongside the show’s other artists during its finale.

Sir Paul McCartney and Dame Shirley Bassey were among other performers.

Permalink / No Comments (RSS) / Forward This Post » / Print

Yellow Submarine Remake – Please Don’t Do It!

Filed under: Beatles, Disney, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

Moviemaker Robert Zemeckis wants surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to play themselves in his planned remake of the Fab Four’s animated classic Yellow Submarine.

Zemeckis and Disney bosses have brokered a deal that would allow them to rework the 1968 film and create a performance-capture 3-D digital production.

And Zemeckis – the man behind The Polar Express and Jim Carrey’s new animated version of A Christmas Carol – wants to get the Beatles involved.

He tells MTV, “We haven’t gotten the word yet on the two surviving Beatles, whether they’re interested in doing it or not.”

Please don’t make a mess of a classic movie from a classic band. Please. This is sacrilegious.

Permalink / No Comments (RSS) / Forward This Post » / Print

McCartney Is America’s Most Beloved Beatle

Filed under: Paul McCartney, The Beatles

Sir Paul McCartney has been voted America’s most beloved Beatle.

More than 30 per cent of those surveyed for a new Zogby International poll chose McCartney as their favorite Fab Four member.

Over 4,800 American adults were asked for their votes.

Sixteen per cent opted for John Lennon, who was shot dead in 1980, while the other deceased band member, George Harrison, was third with 10 per cent. Ringo Starr was last.

John Zogby, CEO of Zogby International, says, “Americans over 30 and those over 65 love Paul. It must be the crazy love songs and Yesterday. Interestingly, John is the main answer for people who never go to church.”

And they needed a poll to tell you this?

Permalink / No Comments (RSS) / Forward This Post » / Print

McCartney: “Beatles Took Too Many Drugs”

Filed under: Beatles, Paul McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney still can’t believe he and his fellow BEATLES survived the swinging sixties – because they took so many drugs and often couldn’t even think straight.

The Yesterday singer admits the Fab Four overused narcotics during their heyday and often fell asleep recording musical masterpieces they composed while high.

In an exclusive interview with U.S. news show Entertainment Tonight, he says,

“(We were) overdoing substances and really getting crazy, as we all were… (We’d be) falling asleep – the kinda thing when you can hardly get your head off the pillow. You go, ‘Woah, I’d better get my head off this pillow.’”

But one drug-induced state inspired McCartney to write Beatles classic Let It Be. He adds,

“I had a dream, where my mother, who had been dead, by then, 10 years came to me in the dream and was very sort of helpful and very calming, and it was lovely just to see her… and she said, ‘Don’t worry about it… Let it be.’ “I went, ‘OK’, and I felt so good… and I woke up and wrote Let It Be. I thought, ‘That’s a good idea for a song.’”

Big shocker here, thought this has been common knowledge for 40 years now?

Permalink / No Comments (RSS) / Forward This Post » / Print