McCartney at 80 and Questions about Retirement

 

Sir Paul McCartney celebrated his 80^th birthday last weekend, and this coming weekend he will be appearing at Glastonbury; the oldest performer ever to do so.

Good for him…

… or is it?

Now, as most of my friends and blog readers will be well aware, I am a bit of a fan. Certainly, I am a big fan of the Beatles and there is no doubt that McCartney’s amazing musicality, creativity, experimentalism (often overlooked), and sheer energy played an enormous part in the Beatles’ success, output, and progress.

I have been watching Peter Jackson’s superb ‘Get Back’ film documenting the prolonged and protracted ‘Let it Be’ sessions, and I am finding it fascinating for the insight it gives into the relationships between the four Beatles (by this time sometimes strained, but equally also often fun and affectionate) and the insight into the ways in which their songs were created and developed.

While I might instinctively be more aligned with John Lennon’s music, I recognise McCartney for the genius he was and is, and the ‘Get Back’ film has reinforced that view.

John Lennon also recognised McCartney’s great ability. In spite of his well known criticisms of some of McCartney’s songs (such as ‘When I’m Sixty Four’ and ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ dismissed as ‘granny music’… and I tend to agree with Lennon on this) he also said ‘Paul was one of the most innovative bass players ever. And half the stuff that is going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period. He is an egomaniac about everything else about himself, but his bass playing he was always a bit coy about.’

Well, I find that interesting in all kinds of ways!

There are some lazy and inaccurate assessment’s made by people, such as the oft-stated idea that Lennon represented the rawer, rockier side of the Beatles while McCartney was more the soft, gentle balladeer. But that does not stand up to scrutiny when you consider the likes of McCartney’s ‘I saw her Standing There’, or ‘Why don’t we do it in the Road’ or ‘Helter Skelter’ and so on and on. (And not to mention the several ‘gentler’ and deeply sensitive Lennon compositions.)

Another popular misapprehension is that Paul was fine when he worked with Lennon in the Beatles, but since then he has descended into pop kitsch (or however the supposed critic would describe his post-Beatles’ output). And I will readily admit that he has produced some pretty mind-numbing nonsense whether as a solo artist or with Wings. But albums such as ‘Band on the Run’ or singles such as ‘Coming Up’ and ‘Live and Let Die’ are great (at least, in my opinion).

And then there is his most recent release ‘McCartney III’.

I confess, I did not begin listening to it with much positive expectation (I too seem to be infected with the prejudice). But it is absolutely great! I am not sure that I might not even suggest that it represents his best post-Beatles piece of work…

…except…

…his voice…

It has gone.

It has long gone, to be honest.

With my wife, my son, my daughter, and my brother, and many thousand others, I went to see the great man playing at Hampden Park some years ago. What a concert it was! It was the nearest I will ever get to attending a ‘Beatles’ Concert’. The music was great, the playing superb… although I could have done without his cheesy ‘showmanship’ and schmaltzy comments in between songs. However, it was his voice that struck me. It was not what it was… not by a long shot… and it is not getting better as the years pass.

Well, that’s no surprise. The man’s now 80!

So, why does he not just gracefully retire? Why did he not gracefully retire 20 years ago? He obviously does not need the money, or the recognition, or the sense of achievement.

And as I ponder that question, I am also asking the very same question of myself.

Did I not retire just a few weeks ago? Then why am I wondering about being a locum somewhere, or looking at possible roles in the wider life of the church, or checking out certain wee part-time jobs in the church??

I do not need the money (nice as it would be!) nor the recognition (I don’t think).

So, what is it?

Perhaps it is no more complicated than that it is difficult to give up those things that you enjoy, things that you find fulfilling, things that feed your soul, things that you have always done.

And what will you do if you stop doing these? Is it a question of role, or even identity?

Perhaps that is Paul McCartney’s problem.

Perhaps it is mine too.

Perhaps it is an issue for many people.

But perhaps too there is a time to recognise that we may no longer be able to do what we once did, and nor should we. Those days are past.

Is it time for Paul and me to celebrate the past and ‘Let it Be’, and to step out on a new part of the ‘Long and Winding Road’.

Time to recognise that whatever we contributed in the past, we may no longer have what it takes to do the same in the present or the future, accept that, and find what we can do and find fulfilling and meaningful?

I am just pondering… no decisions… yet.

‘Prog Rock’, Progressive Rock and the Tyranny of Terminology

 

 

The picture above – as prog rock aficionados will recognise – includes images from some of the most iconic ‘prog rock’ album covers… not that all the bands represented would necessarily thank you for the ‘prog’ label! Read on…

 

‘Progressive rock is anything that doesn’t sound like regular rock. Regular rock is everything that sounds like itself’ (Frank Zappa)

 

‘Whither progressive music? I would much prefer to let that old fashioned terminology fall back into the swamp of its indulgent insignificance’ (Peter Banks original guitarist of Yes)

 

‘[Prog is] a prison. If you walk on stage and you’re playing music, fine. But if you’re walking on stage and you’re playing progressive rock: death.’; (Robert Fripp King Crimson)

 

‘Trying to copy or ossify a particular musical style or vocabulary from … any … particular era is by definition not ‘progressive’ at all, but profoundly regressive…’ (Simon Barrow ‘Solid Mental Grace’)

 

 

Of all my posts on music, this (which may be – for the moment at least – my penultimate on this theme) will likely connect with the fewest people. It will almost certainly appeal – or even make sense to – only a very niche group.

 

But, in all honesty, I am blogging more for me than for anyone else!

 

Most folks who have any awareness of ‘prog rock’ at all (whether as fans or detractors) are well aware that it has a reputation for being self-indulgent, too clever for its own good, overblown, elitist, and well past its sell by date. And its fans are seen as predominantly men, usually of a certain age, stuck in a nostalgic longing for the 1970s.

 

The thing is, I think this is a fair criticism of some (possibly, many) aspects of what is generally termed progressive rock. And I think it is a fair criticism of some of us (and to some extent I include myself) who are or were fans of the genre. There is a tendency towards nostalgia, to be stuck in the past, and looking for our favourite bands to replicate the high points of the 1970s rather than be truly progressive.

 

Ah, the irony… the ‘regressiveness’ of progressive rock!

 

If you want to read more about this I would thoroughly recommend Simon Barrow’s book on listening to the music of Yes, the excellent ‘Solid Mental Grace’, and particularly the chapter ‘Yes after Progressive Rock’, in which he explores some of these matters.

 

Now, as I freely admit, I am not at all free from that tendency to prog rock nostalgia, and in wanting to locate, and even ‘fix’ some aspects of my musical experience back in the era when prog was in its pomp. But, much of that has to do with the stage of life I was going through back then, and the fresh musical discoveries I myself was making (to which I refer in other posts).

 

But, in mitigation, I would say that I have become (I hope) somewhat less snobbish about music in recent years and have come to appreciate the ‘pop’ music I had so readily dismissed when I discovered ‘rock’ and – more significantly – recently I have even heard Country music that I enjoyed, and I had long disparaged that genre! Moreover, I have delved much more into jazz and folk and classical too, although much of that is thanks to progressive rock, ironically!

 

I am a huge fan of Yes, and I do think that their 1970s output was genuinely progressive, no album more so than ‘Close to the Edge’. Their music then pushed the boundaries and explored new territory. Has their material since then (great as much of it is) done so to the same extent? I don’t really think so. Some it may be ‘prog’ (as in it belongs in that presumed genre) but it is not really ‘progressive’.

 

On the other hand, I think that there is more evidence of continual progress in the likes of King Crimson (and in much of Robert Fripp’s additional work) as also in Porcupine Tree; both bands that have sought to eschew the ‘prog rock’ categorisation.

 

But, in the end of the day, I think that the most genuinely progressive band of all time (and they largely preceded the emergence of that genre, and yet were part of its genesis) was the Beatles. In seven short years of recording, look at how they progressed as they absorbed and explored various musical genres.

 

But, enough of lazy categorisation! Here’s to musical progress whatever we call it, and here’s to good music generally.

 

Now, where’s my favourite Country and Western album…?

 

 

West Side Story and Progressive Rock

 

I promised a return to my music based posts on my blog, and here we go! Not that I may not return to this curious journey that is retirement, but I think I need to process and consider that a bit more (still trying to wrestle with being retired from work on the one hand, and yet remaining ‘called’ to Ministry and ordained to a ministry of Word and Sacrament… hmmm…).

 

Anyway, back to music as I say, and in particular this marvellous musical to which I have referred before.

 

As I think I may have said, I was no stranger to American musicals as a child. My parents both sang and acted in amateur musicals in Glasgow, and there were various records of musicals in our house. To this day I can (and sometimes do… to the irritation of my family) sing many songs from the great musicals; South Pacific, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls and so on.

 

But there was always something different, greater, unique about West Side Story. The story, the choreography, and – of course – the music.

 

A few evenings ago we watched the new film version on TV. This has been produced by Stephen Spielberg, and – while I admire his work very much – I was slightly uncertain, as the 1961 film is so much part of my life and I have seen it so very many times.

 

But I was hugely impressed! Loved it. I will certainly watch it again, and probably again.

 

However, my first reaction when it ended was to decide to go back to the 1961 film and watch that again.

 

Interesting!. There was something about that earlier version which had a passion and warmth that I am not sure is there in the 2021 version. But I’m not sure…

 

That said, having watched / listened to both versions, the music really struck me afresh.

 

There is no doubt that it sits firmly in the tradition and genre of the musical. And yet, it does so while drawing so very much on so many other traditions; jazz, Latin, symphonic, operatic, and comedy songs etc.

 

But it most certainly not jazz nor yet Latin nor yet opera. It is most certainly a musical, and sits in that genre. Yet so many different styles and genres are represented in it.

 

And that made me think about Progressive Rock at its best. No, not the overblown excesses with which part of the Prog Rock scene has been associated (which can be as far from genuinely ‘progressive;’ as could be). But the best examples (which, in embryonic form, can be found in the late 1960s pre-Prog work of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Traffic, early Pink Floyd, the Nice and so forth). Progressive Rock was unmistakably and undeniably ‘rock’ music. But it drew not simply on the rock and roll and blues roots that typified and gave birth to that genre, but also classical music, jazz, folk, vaudeville,  and so forth.

 

King Crimson’s albums ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’ or ‘Lark’s Tongues in Aspic’, Yes’s ‘Close to the Edge’ and so forth are good examples of this at its best.

 

No, there is not point or significance in all of this. Just a musing… and I may muse more on progressive rock another time!

 

But it is that sense of music being firmly within a certain genre while drawing so freely on other genres that intrigued me.

 

I doubt it will much interest anyone else!

 

Ah well, must re-watch West Side Story…now, which version???